Obama scourges Saudi king over terrorist activities

Media reports from the White House said that US President Barack Obama in his latest meeting with Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz has censured him for Riyadh's massive terrorist activities in the region and its inability to prevent Iran's growing influence in the region.According to the secret files leaked from the White House, the US president has blasted Saudi Arabia for supporting and sponsoring the terrorist groups in the region, specially Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. The reports further said that Obama has also grumbled to the Saudi king about Riyadh's failure in containing Iran's growing clout and influence among the regional countries. The secret reports from inside the White House added that Obama's harsh tone made the Saudi king so wrathful that he accused the US of seeking to find an excuse to pressurize the Arab country. This is while, a well-known British think-tank said in a report in May that the US mistakes in its wars on Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the harsh military approach adopted by the Saudi and Bahraini dictators against peaceful protesters have increased Iran's might and power in the region. The June 2011 analysis written by Shashank Joshi for Chatemhouse noted the ongoing revolutions in the region, and said the current trend of affairs and developments will only serve Iran's interests. It added that the US war on Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the recent Saudi invasion of Bahrain have all failed to materialize the western politicians' premeditated plans and demands. After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the export of revolution was adopted as official policy. In the late 1980s, Tehran encouraged (mainly, but not exclusively, Shiite) resistance against occupiers in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, and elsewhere.Saudi Arabia responded in kind by backing the Taliban in Afghanistan, Sunni militias in revolutionary Lebanon, and extremist parties in Pakistan, to mention but a few. Saudi state institutions disseminated a retrograde and radical interpretation of Islam - its Wahhabi variant - around the world drawing, from the 1970s, on their extraordinary oil wealth. Then, in the five years after 9/11, Iran found not only that two long-standing adversaries - the Taliban in Afghanistan, and Saddam Hussein in Iraq - had been eliminated by the United States, but also that its ally Hezbollah had been emboldened and aggrandized by an urban war with Israel. Iran's regional clout was at a high, the analysis said. The analysis further said that the Saudi invasion, the Bahraini and Saudi rulers' sectarian accusations and crushing violence against peaceful protestors have all made the Bahraini people more receptive to Iran and Iranian-type of democracy, prevailing Iran's might and power in the Arab state.