Saudi Arabia seeks to destabilize Mideast to fulfill US agenda: Academic
Responding to a question about Saudi Arabia’s ultimate goal in the region, Jamal Wakim, a professor at the Lebanese International University in Beirut, said, the Saudi kingdom is attempting to “destabilize the whole region in order to… redraw the whole geopolitical map.”
Wakim also referred to the recent deadly bombing in the Lebanese capital of Beirut and said, “I believe that this explosion in the southern suburb of Beirut, which is the bastion of Hezbollah mainly ... comes as a result of the regional instability, mainly the incidents of Syria, the accusations against Hezbollah... and the vindictive speeches by some clerics and some political parties against Hezbollah.”
More than 20 people died and 200 others were injured in a powerful car bomb explosion that rocked the Zahiyeh suburb, between Bir el-Abed and Rweiss neighborhoods, south of Beirut, on Thursday.
The explosion took place in an area where the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah has a huge following. Some 60 kilograms of TNT were reportedly used in the car bombing.
Lebanese President Michel Sleiman said on Thursday night that the deadly bombing bears the hallmarks of an Israeli attack.
Later, Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah blamed Takfiri groups, which he said have been infiltrated by Israeli and US intelligence agencies, for the car bomb attack.
Wakim noted, “Maybe, some high-ranking Saudi officials - mainly [Bandar] bin Sultan - might be... in this because he has been active lately in supporting the directions in Syria and he was the one supporting or instigating violence in Iraq,” he said.
He emphasized that the incidents in Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Iraq cannot be separated from each other and noted that al-Qaeda is not working alone in the explosions and bombings taking place in the region.
He added that as the most important ally of the US alongside Israel, Saudi Arabia was most active in implementing the American agenda in the region.
Wakim said that al-Qaeda was financed, trained and supported for so long by Saudi Arabia and by the US, saying some operatives of the terrorist group were rehabilitated to work in line with the Saudi agenda, which is not far from that of the US.