The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced yesterday that it would extend $3 billion to the Lebanese army to purchase weapons from France. This is no garden variety foreign aid. This is in part Saudi Arabia’s response to Washington’s recent reconsideration of its Syria policy.
The Obama Administration is finally realizing that its allies in Syria are far worse than its enemies. Saudi Arabia, which some estimate has committed tens of billions of dollars to overthrow Assad in Syria, has been furious with the US ever since the Obama Administration failed to attack Syria over a chemical attack that has subsequently been shown to be a false flag provocation.
The Saudis have been the best customers of the US military industrial complex — in exchange for Washington’s ongoing security guarantee for that brutal regime — and the shift to purchase arms from hyper-interventionist François Hollande‘s France is no coincidence. It is meant as a message to the US. Perhaps even a threat.
The Saudi-purchased weapons are a desperate measure to salvage its disastrous regime-change policy in Syria, but it will also seriously destabilize Lebanon — just at a time when Lebanese tensions with Saudi silent partner Israel are on the rise. Further, the weapons will be used by the Lebanese military to act against the Hezbollah who have been assisting Assad in Syria. The effect of continued Saudi meddling will be more pressure on the US to become involved, though Saudi support for extremists from Afghanistan to 9/11 to Syria have been nothing but trouble for the US.
