Saudi Arabia and Arab World Crises

Saudi Arabia and Arab World Crises

Our Arab societies posses a great past, majestic glory, prestigious history, substantial victories, virtuous minds, sonventional paths

A civilization whose essence is Islam , whose leader is the greatest of mankind, whose statement is to never look behind ..

The origin of scientists .. the birth place of knowledge .. the destination of Muslims till the judgment day..
A civilization that arose, and subsequently .. the authentic history ..

The dawn of the Arab-Islamic civilization arose in the beginnings of the eighth century AD until the fifteenth century AD, and its distinction in religious, scientific, intellectual, and philosophical fields was between the middle of the ninth century AD and the twelfth century AD in what is known as the Islamic golden age, it was the origin of skillful scholars, eloquent writers, and shrewd pioneers.

But civilizations are like a living organism in its cycle. As all civilizations begin with the stage of formation, then maturity and prosperity, then weakness and extinction. Often the reason behind this refraction is the internal weakness and disintegration, and the abundance of conflicts, oppositions, civil wars, class division, and so on. In these harsh ages, the great importance of countries supporting each other and rising to solve their pressing issues materialize to us. As they are united by one history, religion and language.

Some Arab countries, such as Syria, Sudan, and Palestine, have faced great problems and difficulties, but they have found support from their Arab brothers, who always strive to uphold the word of the Arabs, preserve their unity, and overcome their complications.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the strongest Arab countries internally and externally, which shows its permanent support for the brotherly Arab countries, and follows their footsteps in confronting the enemy, achieving peace, security and stability, and it has had - over the decades - wise opinions regarding the most prominent problems of the Arab world, which we will present below..

1. Viewpoint on the Palestinian issue

Since the beginning of the emergence of the Palestinian problem, which dates back to the eighties of the nineteenth century, starting the Zionist movement that held the first Zion Conference, in which they demanded an independent state for the Jews, and through the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the Balfour Declaration, the Camp David Treaty and the Oslo Peace Agreement. The position of Saudi Arabia throughout all of these historical events remained steadfast and unshakable, as the Palestinian issue is considered an integral part of the existence of every Arab, and the essence of every Islamic entity, which was confirmed by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz when he said: “The Kingdom's position on the issue of Palestine is firm and unwavering throughout its glorious history, and since its founder, King Abdulaziz - May God have mercy on him - until now" .

Saudi Arabia was keen to support the Palestinian economy and strengthen Saudi-Palestinian relations, so it agreed with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2019 to establish a joint economic committee and a Saudi-Palestinian business council. It also made several agreements with Arab countries in order to preserve the security of the region in general, and to restore the rights of the Palestinians in particular, including the King Fahd Project, which was the basis of the Arab Peace Agreement, the King Bin Abdulaziz Initiative, the Hamas Agreement and other pivotal agreements in the history of the Arab -Israeli conflict.

The Palestine issue has always been a priority for Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom has consistently supported the Palestinian cause and has advocated for a two-state solution, with East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. In 2021, Saudi Arabia pledged $25 million in aid to support the Palestinian cause, and in 2017, it hosted a conference to support the Palestinian Authority's budget. Furthermore, in 2018, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reaffirmed Saudi Arabia's commitment to the Palestinian cause during an interview with The Atlantic.

Saudi Arabia considered the Palestinian issue the first issue in the Arab world, as it affects our civilized, Arab and Islamic existence, so it has always been one of the first to support Palestine in various situations and crises.

2. Viewpoint on Egypt's separation from Syria

The unity between Egypt and Syria dates back to the fifties of the last century, specifically in 1958, when the political unity between Egypt and Syria was officially announced, and they constitute together what was known as the United Arab Republic.

This unity was the result of the demands of the Syrian officers, as well as Gamal Abdel Nasser's belief in the power of Arab solidarity in the face of common enemies. As for the separation, it took place in 1961, as a result of the dominance of the Egyptians over the economic life, especially the industrial one in the north, and the imbalance of the work forces, which caused inconvenience to the Syrians , who were proud of their pluralism - the political condition that Abdel Nasser canceled in order to accept unity.

For Saudi Arabia's opinion regarding this separation, the Saudi government was only considering the continuation of security, stability, and peace in both countries, and it dealt with the issue of union or separation as a matter for Egypt and Syria only. When the separation took place, Syria was excluded from the Arab League, and to solve that political crisis, Saudi Arabia held a conference in Jeddah in the presence of Egypt, Jordan and other Arab countries to reach a solution to the political complications in Syria and return it to its Arabic environment. The Saudi Arabia Kingdom confirmed, according to source itself : “The aim of the invitation is to hold a session of talks dealing with the efforts made to reach a political solution to the Syrian problem that preserves Syria's unity, security and stability, and to facilitate the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland, and to secure the arrival of humanitarian aid to the affected areas in Syria.”

Saudi Arabia has been a strong supporter of Arab unity and has been critical of attempts to divide the Arab world. The Kingdom opposed the separation of Egypt and Syria in 1961, and today it continues to support closer ties between the two countries. However, Saudi Arabia recognizes the importance of each country's national sovereignty and the right to self-determination. In 2019, Saudi Arabia's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Adel al-Jubeir, stated that the Kingdom "rejects any attempt to undermine Arab unity and security," and that "the security and stability of Arab countries are interdependent."

3. Viewpoint on the famine in Yemen

The famines faced by sisterly Yemen are considered among the worst and fiercest famines in contemporary history, due to the war that has been in place since 2015, which has led to the destruction of the country's infrastructure and the sources of livelihood of the population in various parts of Yemen, which has led to the cutting off external supplies and the interruption of trade with the outside world in general.

The UNICEF commented: “Yemen is witnessing the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.”. “Save the Children” organization estimated that more than eighty-five thousand children had died of starvation in less than three years, and that millions of pregnant and lactating women and children suffer from acute malnutrition and their lives have been threatened by severe hunger and food insecurity for more than 8 years now. However, Saudi Arabia did not stand idly by, and started to provide aid and donations in solidarity with the Yemeni crisis, and it took the lead in providing relief to Yemen, as the King Salman Center for Humanitarian Aid and Relief made donations amounting to sixty million dollars to the United Nations World Food Program to support the most vulnerable groups and those most at risk of starvation the action that helped to save more than 5 million people who were one step away from starvation.

Since 2018, Saudi Arabia has provided nearly 900 million US dollars in contributions to solve the crisis, of which only about 380 million dollars in 2019 that helped the program expand its operations to reach 13 million people, and therefore, preventing Yemen from falling into the abyss of famine and saving lives and in 2020, the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSRelief) provided food assistance to over 10 million Yemenis. Additionally, Saudi Arabia has supported political efforts to resolve the conflict, including the Stockholm Agreement in 2018.

4. A violent was an end to an old friendship

The friendship arose between Abdel Fattah Al Burhan - the current president of Sudan - and Lieutenant General Muhammad Daglo (Hemedti) - the commander of the Rapid Support Forces - in 2003 in parallel to the beginning of the conflict in the Darfur region. Hemedti formed small armed groups to confront other armed forces, while Al-Burhan was coordinating the army's operations and movements, where - then - the friendship of the two men grew and Hemedti's teams grew with it until it became affiliated with the army but in a nominal way, and it retained its independence and subservience to Hemedti.

The relationship between the two men developed with every war or revolution they fought together in, until a dispute arose between them about the locations of some of the armed forces, and their political and military opinions differed, consequently, hostility and war began between them. They differed in many situations, the most important of which was about who would take over the new unified leadership body, where Al Hemedti insisted to be a civilian leadership - from the people -, and Al-Burhan believed that it should be headed by the commander of the army.

The problems worsened, and the verbal battle between them intensified, as Al-Hamidti stated: “Our message to our brothers in power is to hand over power to the people directly .” . And he added : " From now on , we won't allow the killing of young demonstrators or the arrest of politicians, we have a lot in our hearts and we have kept silent a lot, we do not want to become a reason for what is happening, but we will not budge or go back from the basic principles that unite and do justice to the Sudanese people.". Al-Burhan replied: "We, as soldiers, are interested in integrating the Rapid Support Forces with the army ... otherwise, no one in the agreement will go forward," meaning that they want to integrate the Rapid Support Forces into the army, before delving into the rest of the terms of the agreement between him and al-Hamedti.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has striven to calm the situation between the two parties, and to avoid turning the war of words into a war of arms and a fierce battle, so the Saudi Foreign Minister, Emir Faisal bin Farhan, contacted each commander - Al-Burhan and Al Hamidti - separately, asking them to advance the national interest, the safety of civilians and workers, and to secure relief and safety routes and humanitarian corridors for the arrival of basic aid, and avoiding any reactions that might lead to the outbreak of civil wars between the concerned parties, and Prince Faisal affirmed: “The reason behind The Kingdom's call for calm, is to give priority to the national interest, stop all forms of military escalation, and resort to a political solution that guarantees the return of security and stability to Sudan and its brotherly people.”. It is expected that the Saudi capital (Riyadh) will host both leaders to reach a legal solution that guarantees safety and internal security of the country.

5. The view of the Saudi Arabia on the problem of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

The Renaissance Dam is an Ethiopian dam whose construction began in 2011. It was built on the Blue River and the main purpose of its construction is to generate electricity to compensate for the shortage in the Ethiopian regions. Since construction was announced in March 2011, Ethiopia faced objection from Egypt, fearing that the dam might reduce the amount of water that reaches Egypt, which will consequently affect the needs of the population, irrigation and agriculture, but Ethiopia has shared the designs of the dam with Egypt to study it and reassure it that the dam will not affect the quantities of water, given that Egypt is a downstream country.

And due to the Egyptian fears, the presidents of the three countries - Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia - held the tripartite summit in Khartoum to sign a contract that includes 10 principles to preserve the rights of the three countries. As if the Renaissance Dam will be an advantage to Sudan and Ethiopia as a project to generate electricity, on the other hand it will threaten one of the most important Egyptian resources on which more than 100 million people live on, as filling the dam will cause a loss of between 11-19 billion cubic meters of Egypt's right annually, and as a result, more than two million farmers will lose their main source of income and livelihood, so the dispute revolves around periods and the timeline for filling the dam and how to manage it's activity between the three countries. So, the issue of the Al-Nahda dam has caused contention between Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has stated its support for Egypt and Sudan in their rights to obtain water, and has declared the importance of a solution to the crisis of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in partnership between the League of Arab States and the African Union. Also, Saudi Arabia has called for a peaceful resolution to the conflict and has encouraged dialogue between all parties to reach a mutually beneficial outcome. In 2021, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, met with his Egyptian and Sudanese counterparts to discuss the issue and called for a "win-win solution" that takes into account the interests of all parties.

6.The view of Saudi Arabia in the secession of South Sudan from Sudan

The reason behind the separation of southern Sudan from its north was civil wars that lasted for about sixty years, during which more than four million civilians were displaced, and resources estimated at about $600 billion were wasted. The spark of war began for the first time in 1955 after some Sudanese military rebellion against the regime headed by the late leader Ismail Al-Azhari, the first president after independence from Egypt.

The independence movement was renewed in 1958, and rebel resistance movements were established - including (Niana) again in 1963, and conditions remained between ebbs and flows, revolution and calm, hustle and stillness until 1988 when a peace treaty was signed, which was later breached by leader Omar al-Bashir, and as a result, resistance erupted again until 1990, when Al-Bashir declared war in the south, which lasted for fifteen years - the worst years on the political, economic and social levels, and in 2005 another peace agreement was signed stipulating that a referendum would be held in 2011 to determine the destiny of the country, the referendum that ended with the independence of southern Sudan from its north by a percentage of more than ninety percent of the total number of votes.

As for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Sudanese government has accused it of supporting the rebels of southern Sudan and of sending ships of weapons, guns, and supplies to support the regions of the south, but Saudi Arabia has refuted these accusations and stated that it is supportive of the Sudanese people in all cases, despite the actions of its government, and that those ships were to support and provide basic needs to the Sudanese people after the flood of 1988, and that it supports the Sudanese people in all circumstances.

The relationship between the two countries entered a state of coldness, akin to estrangement, but it recovered in the late nineties, until the American Human Rights Watch issued a report proving that the operation was much larger than mere humanitarian support, but rather they found boxes full of weapons and ammunition belonging to an American company owned by a Saudi prince, which is contrary to the Kingdom's policy in preventing illegal weaponry transfers that had been released in 1966.

Saudi Arabia has supported efforts to maintain peace and stability in both Sudan and South Sudan since their separation in 2011. The Kingdom has been involved in regional efforts to resolve conflicts between the two countries and has provided aid to support their development and economic growth. In 2019, the Kingdom provided $100 million in aid to South Sudan, and in 2020, Saudi Arabia's Minister of State for African Affairs met with South Sudan's President to discuss bilateral relations and support for the country's peace process. Additionally, Saudi Arabia has been involved in regional talks, including the African Union-led efforts in 2019, to resolve conflicts between the two countries.