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This was not a moral judgement, I simply questioned the claim, that Saudi Arabia is the only influential US-ally in the middle east.
by maze-le 10y ago
This was not a moral judgement, I simply questioned the claim, that Saudi Arabia is the only influential US-ally in the middle east.
- knodi123 10y agoyou're right, I was inaccurate about that. But saudi is certainly a valuable ally, right?
- toyg 10y agoInfluentially speaking, they are. Israel has zero influence on neighbours except for threats of nuclear war. The Egyptian government is currently seen as illegitimate pretty much everywhere. Turkey leverages its geopolitical position towards Europe and Russia, but Erdogan has few friends left and might well end up like Mubarak in the long run. For good or bad, the combo of economic and religious power Saudis can swing is pretty unmatched in the region at the moment -- their only counterweight being, potentially, an Iranian state with smart people at the wheel for more than a few token years.