Upset Riyadh refuses UN Security Council seat
Those who had assumed that Saudi Arabia will take its non-permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council, were downright flabbergasted last week after Riyadh took a rare ‘moral’ stand and rejected its hard-won post (countries fall over one another to win this seat) to protest against the international watchdog's effete handling of the Syrian war. Rare is the day when a country like Saudi Arabia, hardly known for its adherence to the universal declaration of human rights or for its contribution to world peace, gets to take the moral high-ground on a global forum. Equally ironical is the fact that Riyadh's note of dissension was not just for the Security Council but aimed at the champion of Western values and its own long-time ally — the United States. Adding to the astonishment is the manner in which the Gulf kingdom chose to express it objections. loud and public display of anger is uncharacteristic of the monarchy which has a low-key style of diplomacy; its prefers to keep its head down at such gatherings and works quietly behind the scenes. So, what triggered this response that took almost every diplomat in New York by surpriseIJ
The answer lies in three major developments that have unravelled in the Saudi neighbourhood: First is the Syrian crisis, which, while continuing to get worse, has now taken a turn that hurts Riyadh's interests. The Alawite regime of President Bashar al-Assad, propped up by Shia Iran, is now in a stronger position than the Saudi-financed, Al Qaeda-infested rebel groups. A US-led foreign military intervention may have changed the equation but the Obama Administration shelved that plan. Instead, it worked with Russia to engineer a face-saving peace deal, thereby, indirectly, strengthening Iran's position in the region. The second and more recent development that has rattled Riyadh is the manner in which Washington seems to have fallen for Tehran's charm offensive led by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. His once-in-four-decades phone call with US President Barack Obama marked the resumption of Western negotiations with Iran on its controversial nuclear programme. The first round of talks, under the P5+1 format in Geneva, which ended on Wednesday with the six world powers accepting the framework proposed by Iran, has clearly irked Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia's third bone of contention with the US is Washington's decision to temporarily halt military aid to Egypt. Though the US did not term the Egyptian Army's ouster of President Mohamed Morsi a “coup” — in that case all aid flow would have to instantly stop — it has used the opportunity to put the military in its place and remind General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and his boys about who pays for their shiny toys. Here too Riyadh found itself on the other side of the fence. It had supported the Egyptian Army and, alongside Israel, lobbied for continued American aid to Egypt.