{"id":179536,"date":"2018-11-24T05:30:42","date_gmt":"2018-11-24T05:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=179536"},"modified":"2018-11-26T06:27:33","modified_gmt":"2018-11-26T06:27:33","slug":"to-unlock-the-diplomatic-mysteries-behind-the-murder-of-jamal-khashoggi-take-a-look-at-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=179536","title":{"rendered":"To unlock the diplomatic mysteries behind the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, take a look at Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">Robert Fisk \u2013 The Independent Nov 22, 2018<\/h1>\n<div id=\"attachment_179538\" style=\"width: 550px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Jihadis.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-179538\" class=\"wp-image-179538\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Jihadis.jpg\" alt=\"The Saudis would surely be making a sacrifice for all of us to take on so onerous a burden as the desert imprisonment of the Isis and Nusrah legions inside the kingdom itself. Click to enlarge \" width=\"540\" height=\"405\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Jihadis.jpg 968w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Jihadis-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-179538\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Saudis would surely be making a sacrifice for all of us to take on so onerous a burden as the desert imprisonment of the Isis and Nusrah legions inside the kingdom itself. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The Saudis are going to get away with it. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/mohammed-bin-salman\">Muhammad bin Salman<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, too. They may pay a price \u2013 we\u2019ll travel in that direction later \u2013 but they remain the \u201cvision of light\u201d against <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/Iran\">Iran<\/a>\u2019s \u201cvision of darkness\u201d, in the words of <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/SaudiArabia\">Saudi Arabia<\/a>\u2019s ever more egregious foreign minister.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">We are all, alas, making the same old <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/MiddleEast\">Middle East<\/a> mistake: of thinking that the bad guys will get overthrown or punished for their murders and transgressions and that the good guys (whoever they may be)\u00a0will come out on top.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/jamal-khashoggi\">Jamal Khashoggi<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>was the victim of murder most foul. But in the Middle East\u2019s sectarian civil war, the Sunnis have got to win over the Shiites and the Saudis have got the money, and America\u2019s president \u2013 for whom the epithet \u201cinsane\u201d\u00a0is now as irrelevant as it is obvious \u2013 has managed to quote the Saudis as claiming that Khashoggi was \u201can enemy of the people\u201d and a member of the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/muslim-brotherhood\">Muslim Brotherhood<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. Even if his murder was \u201cterrible\u201d and \u201ca horrible crime\u201d. It could very well be, announced the leader of the free world this week, that bin Salman had knowledge of the murder. \u201cMaybe he did and maybe he didn\u2019t!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The story clip-clops along like an old horse and we all trot along behind this lovable, familiar, furry beast.<\/span><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gRm-FYtAfc0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">There was a kind of tragic inevitability behind Adel al-Jubair\u2019s latest appearance as Saudi foreign minister in Bahrain, a Sunni monarchy with a Shiite majority where the UK has just opened a new naval base beside the headquarters of the US 5th Fleet. Al-Jubair accused the press \u2013 yes us, colleagues of Khashoggi \u2013 of \u201chysterical\u201d coverage of his murder. It was as if he was running the movie backwards to its original claim of innocence:\u00a0when the kingdom stated that it had nothing to do with his butchery, that he had indeed left the Saudi consulate in Istanbul alive, that they had no idea what had happened to him. Hysteria indeed. How dare the media go on about Khashoggi being murdered and chopped into bits and secretly buried.\u00a0Anyway, where was the body?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">If there\u2019s a murder, there\u2019s got to be a body. And so here, briefly, we go back to Istanbul and to the Sultan himself, who doesn\u2019t blame good old King Salman, but who really would like to find the corpse and who might \u2013 here we go again \u2013 have yet another tape of Khashoggi to send to the world\u2019s intelligence services. Be sure our political leaders will not sully their ears by listening to it; Trump called the original recording \u201ca suffering tape\u201d. Canada\u2019s Trudeau chose not to listen to it. But they really should have put their ear to the loudspeaker. Listening to an Arab journalist telling his murderers that he was suffocating would have been a fairly accurate symbol of democracy in the Middle East today.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">But Erdogan must have other plans. And here, I suspect, we should move a little south of the Sublime Porte and gaze over the plains of Idlib, the Syrian province where we were long ago told to expect \u2013 by Trump, the UN, the British, the EU, Amnesty International, Uncle Tom Cobley and his old grey mare \u2013 a bloody, gas-infected invasion by Syrian and Russian forces to finally destroy the Islamist fighters of <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/isis\" data-vars-item-name=\"BL-8646281-\/topic\/isis\" data-vars-event-id=\"c6\">Isis<\/a>,\u00a0<a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/al-nusrah\" data-vars-item-name=\"BL-8646281-\/topic\/al-nusrah\" data-vars-event-id=\"c6\">al-Nusrah<\/a>, <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/Al-Qaeda\" data-vars-item-name=\"BL-8646281-\/topic\/Al-Qaeda\" data-vars-event-id=\"c6\">al-Qaeda<\/a> and their fellow jihadis, along with tens of thousands of civilians. Idlib is the rubbish basket for the enemies of the Syrian regime. Their only escape route is across the Turkish border \u2013 whence they originally came.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">But since the Sultan doesn\u2019t want them back, and since <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/Syria\" data-vars-item-name=\"BL-8646281-\/topic\/Syria\" data-vars-event-id=\"c6\">Syria<\/a> and <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/Russia\" data-vars-item-name=\"BL-8646281-\/topic\/Russia\" data-vars-event-id=\"c6\">Russia<\/a> see no point in another bloodbath when the Syrian war has almost concluded \u2014 though readers may check this conclusion against future events \u2013 the outstanding question remains: where should these assorted Sunni Islamist fighters and their families go?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Since their money and their weapons come from the Sunni Gulf and since their Wahhabi Sunni faith was inspired by the very same creed which governs the Saudi monarchy, what better location for their future welfare than one of Saudi Arabia\u2019s vast sandpits? Could there be a more humane and convenient place for their \u201cre-education\u201d than the ascetic wastes of the Saudi Empty Quarter?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Surely the Saudis, who would according to Trump \u201cgladly withdraw from Yemen\u201d, could accommodate the lot of them, saving the west \u2013 yet again \u2013 from \u201cworld terror\u201d while sparing themselves a second tape from Erdogan and the sudden and most inconvenient discovery of body parts from a victim whose demise may have been known \u2013 or maybe not \u2013 to Muhammad bin Salman.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Maybe he did and maybe he didn\u2019t, as we must now say.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The Russians must surely approve. The Americans, too. The Saudis would surely be making a sacrifice for all of us to take on so onerous a burden as the desert imprisonment of the Isis and Nusrah legions inside the kingdom itself. After all, these legions of crucifiers and executioners \u2013 I\u2019m talking about Isis, of course \u2013 would certainly abide by prison rules when their guards are such experts in publicly chopping off the heads of alleged drug addicts and child murderers with the sword, not to mention the dismemberment of a journalist with a bone saw.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Can we see a deal in the making here? The Yemen war comes to an end (thanks to its arms-selling enablers in the west)\u00a0and the Syrian war reaches its peaceful finale with the blessing of <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/VladimirPutin\" data-vars-item-name=\"BL-8646281-\/topic\/VladimirPutin\" data-vars-event-id=\"c6\">Vladimir Putin<\/a>. Of the $450bn Saudi Arabia has promised to spend on weapons in the US \u2013 let\u2019s have no more talk of a piece of paper \u2013 $110bn will go to Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon \u201cand many other great US defence contractors\u201d. Adel al-Jubair\u2019s \u201cvision of light\u201d \u2013 Saudi Arabia, of course \u2013 can go to war with Iran\u2019s \u201cvision of darkness which seeks to spread sectarianism throughout the region\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Khashoggi may have had a certain vision of darkness as they put the plastic bag over his head in the Saudi consulate last month, but in the Middle East\u00a0the good guys don\u2019t always come out on top. The war with Iran must be fought. The war against the Shiites must be fought. Israel and Netanyahu \u2013 notice how those names have so far eluded us in our woeful tale today? \u2013 will be satisfied with their \u201csecret\u201d\u00a0Saudi alliance against Iran. Boeing and Lockheed Martin will flourish, along with many other great US defence contractors. And the Saudi crown prince \u2013 unlike Khashoggi \u2013 will be assured of a long life and an honourable burial in old age. Preferably in one piece.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/voices\/donald-trump-jamal-khashoggi-murder-saudi-arabia-muhammad-bin-salman-cia-syria-middle-east-wahhabism-a8646281.html\">Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is there a deal in the making here?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=179536"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179541,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179536\/revisions\/179541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=179536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=179536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=179536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}