Stop Saudi support for ISIL terrorists‏

Letter sent to the Guardian on 18 November:

Raphael Behr, in his rush to criticise Jeremey Corbyn, fails to recognise the truth in Corbyn’s analysis of the background cause of the terrorist atrocity in Paris last week (“Jihadism as a result of western policy? Corbyn must do better,” 18 November, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/17/jihadism-western-policy-jeremy-corbyn-isis)

The problem is not ISIS reaction to bombing their Syrian hideouts, but blow-back from an insane support policy of the Saudi Arabian Sunni regime and Sunni- led Qatar by France, the US and UK, all of whom have sold billions of euros, pounds, and dollarsworth of arms to the medievalist Kingdom

In May this year the French news channel France24 published an article on line warning France’s arms sales to the middle east generally- and Saudi Arabia in particular -  could  be at a high “strategic cost.”

It reported that when Qatar agreed to buy 24 French Rafale fighter jets in a euro 6.3 billion contract at the end of April, it represented “yet another major success for France's arms industry,” and were “hailed by Hollande and his government.”

Saudi Arabia has proved a lucrative trading partner for French arms manufacturers, most recently in a deal signed last November that saw the kingdom buy $3 billion-worth  of French weapons and military equipment.

(“Arms sales becoming France's new El Dorado, but at what cost? http://www.france24.com/en/20150503-arms-sales-becoming-france-new-el-dorado-but-what-cost-francois-hollande-saudi-arabia-rafale)

In his closing press conference to the  G20 summit in Antalya in Turkey on Tuesday, President Obama asserted: "Here at the G20, our nations have sent an unmistakable message that we are united against this [ISIS] threat." https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/11/16/press-conference-president-obama-antalya-turkey

 

Not quite all: Saudi Arabia's King Salman was one of the G20 attendees. His country is still heavily supporting ISIS.

A year ago in the Daily Telegraph and on Monday this week in the London Evening Standard General Jonathan Shaw, (who retired as Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff in 2012), argued that Qatar and Saudi Arabia were “primarily responsible for the rise of the extremist Islam that inspires Isil terrorists.”

General Shaw emphasised: "This is a time bomb that, under the guise of education, Wahhabi Salafism is igniting under the world really. And it is funded by Saudi and Qatari money and that must stop.”  

He forcefully added that the British and American air campaign would not "stop the support of people in Qatar and Saudi Arabia for this kind of activity," stressing "It's missing the point”

(Qatar and Saudi Arabia 'have ignited time bomb by funding global spread of radical Islam' Daily Telegraph, 5 Oct 2014; http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/11140860/Qatar-and-Saudi-Arabia-have-ignited-time-bomb-by-funding-global-spread-of-radical-Islam.html)

He is right, as is Corbyn.