Robert Fisk: Saudi-Led Islamic Coalition against Terror a New Hollywood Franchise

British writer and journalist Robert Fisk has described the so-called Saudi-Led “Islamic Coalition against Terror” as a new Hollywood franchise starting from the Saudis’ love for paid-for coalitions.

In an article published by the British “The Independent” newspaper on Wednesday, Fisk said “the Saudis love coalitions. The monarchy had the Americans, the British, the French and sundry other oil importers on their side to drive Saddam’s legions out of Kuwait in 1991.”

 He added that earlier this year, the Saudi military led by the youngest defense minister in the world, Prince Mohamed bin Salman al-Saud, struck Yemen in yet another coalition that included not only Saudi fighter-bombers but jets from Qatar, the Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Sudan.

“But now – with all the drama of a new Hollywood franchise – the Saudis have announced their new multinational military epic against the “disease” of “Islamic terror”, starring more Muslim and would-be Muslim states than ever before assembled since the time of the Prophet. Once more, as in the Yemen adventure (already plagued by humanitarian catastrophe and credible accounts of the slaughter of civilians under Saudi air attacks), Prince Mohamed, aged 31, is leading his country.

The British writer expressed astonishment over the list of the countries participating in the coalition which included countries like Palestine, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Chad and the Comoros with the curious absence an influential state like Indonesia, which has the world’s largest Muslim population.

The British writer went on to say that Pakistan was a strange addition to the coalition because the last time it was asked to fight for the Saudis, in the present disastrous Yemen war, the parliament in Islamabad rejected Saudi Arabia’s request.

“All in all, then, a pretty vast “coalition” – most of whom are saddled with massive international debt and face constant economic collapse. So the real figures behind this extraordinary military force is not how many countries plan to participate, but how many millions – or billions – of dollars Saudi Arabia plans to pay them for their assistance,” Fisk said.

He asked “just which strain of the “terror disease” does young Prince Mohamed intend to destroy? The Isis version – albeit spiritually founded on the same Wahabi purist doctrines which govern the Saudi state? Or the Nusrah version, which is espoused by the very same Qatar which is now part of this weird “coalition”?

“So we know there’s a “coalition”, but who will it fight and how much will it be paid?” the writer inquired.

Hamda Mustafa