Saudis perched on the Faisaliah Tower in Riyadh. The kingdom is aggressively emphasizing the relative stability of monarchies. – By NEIL MacFARQUHAR – Published: May 27, 2011 <\/p>\n
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia \u2014 Saudi Arabia is flexing its financial and diplomatic might across the Middle East in a wide-ranging bid to contain the tide of change, shield other monarchies from popular discontent and avert the overthrow of any more leaders struggling to calm turbulent nations.<\/p>\n
From Egypt, where the Saudis dispensed $4 billion in aid last week to shore up the ruling military council, to Yemen, where it is trying to ease out the president, to the kingdoms of Jordan and Morocco, which it has invited to join a union of Persian Gulf monarchies, Saudi Arabia is scrambling to forestall more radical change and block Iran\u2019s influence.<\/p>\n
The kingdom is aggressively emphasizing the relative stability of monarchies, part of an effort to avert any drastic shift from the authoritarian model, which would generate uncomfortable questions about the pace of political and social change at home.<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia\u2019s proposal to include Jordan and Morocco in the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council \u2014 which authorized the Saudis to send in troops to quell a largely Shiite Muslim rebellion in the Sunni Muslim monarchy of Bahrain \u2014 is intended to create a kind of \u201cClub of Kings.\u201d The idea is to signal to Shiite Iran that the Sunni Arab monarchs will defend their interests, analysts said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re sending a message that monarchies are not where this is happening,\u201d Prince Waleed bin Talal al-Saud, a businessman and high-profile member of the habitually reticent royal family, told the editorial board of The New York Times last week, referring to the unrest. \u201cWe are not trying to get our way by force, but to safeguard our interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
The range of the Saudi intervention is extraordinary as the unrest pushes Riyadh\u2019s hand to forge what some commentators, in Egypt and elsewhere, brand a \u201ccounterrevolution.\u201d Some Saudi and foreign analysts find the term too sweeping for the steps the Saudis have actually taken, though they appear unparalleled in the region and beyond as the kingdom reaches out to ally with non-Arab Muslim states as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am sure that the Saudis do not like this revolutionary wave \u2014 they were really scared,\u201d said Khalid Dakhil, a Saudi political analyst and columnist. \u201cBut they are realistic here.\u201d …more<\/a><\/p>\n