روما بت
ماه بت
پین باهیس
بهترین سایت شرط بندی
بت کارت
یاس بت
یک بت
مگاپاری
اونجا بت
alvinbet.org
بت برو
بت فا
بت فوروارد
وان ایکس بت
1win giriş
بت وینر
بهترین سایت شرط بندی ایرانی
1xbet giriş
وان کیک بت
وین بت
ریتزو بت
1xbet-ir.com.co/
https://www.symbaloo.com/mix/paperiounblocked2?lang=EN https://www.symbaloo.com/mix/agariounblockedschool1?lang=EN https://yohoho-io.app/ https://2.yohoho-io.net/paper.io unblocked https://www.symbaloo.com/mix/yohoho-unblocked-76?lang=EN https://www.symbaloo.com/mix/agariounblockedpvp https://www.symbaloo.com/mix/yohoho?lang=EN
HomeNewsSaudi Prince Dubs Iran, Turkey and Extremist Religious Groups “Triangle of Evil”

Saudi Prince Dubs Iran, Turkey and Extremist Religious Groups “Triangle of Evil”

Published on

Egypt’s al-Shuruq newspaper, which tilts liberal and secular, reports on the press conference in Cairo conducted by neophyte crown prince Muhammad Bin Salman, 32 on Wednesday.

Bin Salman said that the current “Triangle of Evil” [paraphrasing George W. Bush’s speechwriter David Frum] was Iran, Turkey and extremist religious groups. He alleged that the Muslim Brotherhood had exploited democracy, while the Turks a striving to revive the Ottoman Caliphate. He insisted that the Prophet Muhammad had never said anything about a caliphate, or prescribed any particular form of government. [This is true – JC].

He complained that the Ottoman sultans had destroyed the first Saudi state. Moreover, he averred, any enemy of Egypt’s is an enemy of Saudi Arabia’s.

The Egyptian journalists asked him when the Qatar crisis would end. He told them not to bother their heads with it. It might go on a long time, as with the US embargo on Cuba. It is not important, he said. All Qataris [citizen population 300,000], he said, could fit in one street in Cairo, and the Saudi official in charge of monitoring that conflict does not even have a cabinet level rank.

He said that Qatar had been stripped of its foreign policy influence. It still has plenty of domestic wealth, but its foreign agents had been revealed by the boycott imposed by his government.


Read more by Juan Cole


He tried to psychoanalyze the country, suggesting that since Emir Hamad Bin Khalifa made his coup against his father in 1995, little Qatar had had an inferiority complex with regard to the bigger states around it like Saudi Arabia, and had therefore gone on a hunt for foreign influence. They found the Muslim Brotherhood willing clients and installed Brotherhood figures throughout their government at the highest levels [this is not true– JC].

He said almost no American officials cared about Qatar. Maybe one. (Both Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis have called for reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Qatar).

He said that Saudi Arabia has invested $800 billion in the US economy, four times what Qatar has. (I don’t think that statistic is reliable- JC).

He said that Saudi-Egypt relations are excellent and form the linchpin of Middle Eastern politics, and what the two of them say goes in the region.

He also praised the economic progress he said had been achieved by the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and its anti-corruption efforts. (Egypt’s GDP growth has improved slightly, inflation has lowered, and the tourism sector is recovering, but it isn’t creating the 700,000 new jobs every year it needs and any new wealth is not being well distributed). Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have propped up the government with tens of billions of dollars in grants and loans.

Crown Prince Bin Salman admitted that in the past, Saudi Arabia and Egypt had used the Muslim Brotherhood, in hopes of tamping down dissent from devotees of political Islam, but that the policy had backfired. Instead, he said, the Brotherhood had made trouble in schools and other social institutions. After the Iranian Revolution of 1979, he said, the Brotherhood became convinced that it would provide the model for government in the Sunni Muslim world.

He said that Saudi Arabia had issued an arrest warrant for al-Qaeda leader Usamah Bin Laden in the 1990s, but that he was protected by Western interests who saw him as a freedom fighter [because of his role fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan.]

My guess is that MbS has dirt on Western intelligence agencies in this regard, and this remark was intended to intimidate them. The US Congress has allowed Saudi Arabia to be sued over the September 11, 2001, attacks, although there is no evidence that the Saudi Government was involved, and there is ample evidence that Western agencies backed Bin Laden’s hosts and supporters in Afghanistan.

He also said that the Saudi government’s counter-terrorism efforts inside the kingdom had borne great fruit, with extremist sentiments falling from 60% to 10%.

The prince said that the Muslim Brotherhood had ridden on the coattails of the Hanbali school of law but that his government was changing that equation. He said that the Shiites of Saudi Arabia [some 12% of the population] live in security and are employed in all sectors, and that he has many Shiite friends, and that they fight in the Saudi army against the Houthis [Zaydi Shiites in Yemen]. Saudi Shiites, he said, are playing an important role in bringing Saudi Arabia and Iraq closer together.

Top Photo | Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sits during an allegiance pledging ceremony flanked by senior Saudi religious figures in Mecca, Saudi Arabia June 21, 2017. (Bandar Algaloud/Saudi Royal Court)

Juan Ricardo Cole is a public intellectual, prominent blogger and essayist, and the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. He has written, edited, or translated 14 books and has authored 60 journal articles; His weblog on the contemporary Middle East is Informed Comment.

© Informed Comment

The post Saudi Prince Dubs Iran, Turkey and Extremist Religious Groups “Triangle of Evil” appeared first on MintPress News.

Latest articles

Negotiations between Iran and the United States are progressing in Oman; a nuclear Tlatelolco Treaty for the Middle East?, by Alfredo Jalife-Rahme

While Sun Tzu was storming Wall Street [1], on a very special Thursday for the stock market, the United States and Russia were negotiating constructively in Istanbul [2], and the next day, Steve Witkoff (SW), Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East and Russia, held a successful four and a half hour meeting with President Putin and…

Voltaire, International Newsletter N°129

Voltaire Network | 18 April 2025 Our director of publication and editor-in-chief directed French magazines several years ago, and has won journalism awards abroad. He has regularly contributed to some fifteen major dailies and magazines around the world. Voltaire, International Newsletter is available by subscription for €500 a year, is published 42 times a year…

Cascade of petitions from Israeli soldiers and top brass against the war in Gaza

In the space of a week, a cascade of petitions from the military has suddenly demonstrated the realization by Israeli society that the Netanyahu government’s strategy in Gaza would neither bring back the hostages nor defeat Hamas. The Israelis are beginning to become aware of the horrors experienced by the Palestinians, but they are currently…

Then and now: Over 60 years of revolutionary solidarity from Vietnam to Palestine

Workers World Party salutes the 50th anniversary of the stunning victory of the long struggle in Vietnam for national liberation and an end to imperialist occupation. On April 30, 1975, the last U.S. collaborators, contractors and advisers fled Saigon, literally hanging onto the skids of U.S. evacuation helicopters as the victorious National Liberation Front forces…

More like this

Negotiations between Iran and the United States are progressing in Oman; a nuclear Tlatelolco Treaty for the Middle East?, by Alfredo Jalife-Rahme

While Sun Tzu was storming Wall Street [1], on a very special Thursday for the stock market, the United States and Russia were negotiating constructively in Istanbul [2], and the next day, Steve Witkoff (SW), Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East and Russia, held a successful four and a half hour meeting with President Putin and…

Voltaire, International Newsletter N°129

Voltaire Network | 18 April 2025 Our director of publication and editor-in-chief directed French magazines several years ago, and has won journalism awards abroad. He has regularly contributed to some fifteen major dailies and magazines around the world. Voltaire, International Newsletter is available by subscription for €500 a year, is published 42 times a year…

Cascade of petitions from Israeli soldiers and top brass against the war in Gaza

In the space of a week, a cascade of petitions from the military has suddenly demonstrated the realization by Israeli society that the Netanyahu government’s strategy in Gaza would neither bring back the hostages nor defeat Hamas. The Israelis are beginning to become aware of the horrors experienced by the Palestinians, but they are currently…