After five years of this crap and we just now jknow what the SAaudis are up to?


WASHINGTON, July 26 — During a high-level meeting in Riyadh in January, Saudi officials confronted a top American envoy with documents that seemed to suggest that Iraq’s prime minister could not be trusted.

One purported to be an early alert from the prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, to the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr warning him to lie low during the coming American troop increase, which was aimed in part at Mr. Sadr’s militia. Another document purported to offer proof that Mr. Maliki was an agent of Iran.


Source

I get the impression none of the leaders in the ME can be trusted.

One senior administration official says he has seen evidence that Saudi Arabia is providing financial support to opponents of Mr. Maliki.

They have known that could be a problem for quite a while now. SA voiced their concerns about being too hard on the Sunni's early in the war.

But if we are so concerned why are we offering the deal from the other trhread in this section?

This seems to suggest that the rift is wide enough to try and downply it.

WASHINGTON: The White House Friday called relations with Saudi Arabia in the US war on terror on "very strong" despite a report saying Washington is deeply frustrated with Riyadh over its role in Iraq. The New York Times reported on Friday that Washington believes the Saudis are trying to undermine the Baghdad government and have failed to stem the flow of volunteers joining the insurgency there.

The report said the Saudis view Iraq's Shiite Premier Nuri al-Maliki as an agent of Iran and appear to have stepped up efforts to weaken his government, providing funding for Sunni groups, the Times wrote, citing senior US officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
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As long as SA holds a drum of oil over our head, our government will continue to kiss their ass.IMO. We don't have anyone in Washington who has the testicular fortitude to stand up to any country in the ME.

Oil nipples feed our foreign policy.