publish time

19/09/2019

publish time

19/09/2019

Ahmed Al-Jarallah Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

THE Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is known for its calm approach to leadership affairs, as it refrains from dealing with issues in a reactive manner.

This is what we derived from the wise leadership in dealing with the terrorist attack on vital oil facilities in the Kingdom; in addition to how Riyadh pragmatically dealt with the incident by considering it a malicious assault which does not only affect the Kingdom’s security, but also the global energy supply. In other words, it is targeting the world.

Undoubtedly, the Kingdom has the ability to strongly retaliate to this aggression as it possesses capabilities for such act.

King Salman stated in the Cabinet meeting yesterday: “I affirm the Kingdom’s ability to deal with the consequence of such cowardly aggression which targeted not only the vital facilities in Saudi Arabia but the global oil supply and stability of the global economy as well.”

This was seconded by Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman when he addressed US President Donald Trump: “The Kingdom has the will and ability to confront and deal with this terrorist aggression.”

Some people in the world saw Saudi’s deliberation on responding to these attacks as a sign of weakness, prompting such people to maliciously fish in murky waters.

These people failed to realize the nature of managing affairs of the Kingdom, which overcame shock from the word ‘go’ and operated on two parallel lines – first is to make the world to shoulder its responsibility in terms of its security and stability, and second is to maintain oil supply.

Perhaps, any other country would have retaliated militarily to such aggression; but the Kingdom initially decided to take it slow, observe, and prevent Iran from achieving its goal. Instead, the Kingdom threw the ball to the international community which received series of positions in this regard.

Such positions include that of Trump who said: “The US knows who is behind the attacks on Saudi’s oil facilities. It is ready to react but it is waiting for Saudi’s fact check and evaluation before deciding how to deal with this matter.” In other words, Washington cannot make a move without Riyadh – the only party with the right to deal with this case.

Meanwhile, today’s world is in direct confrontation with Iran which appears like a lost ship manned by a thousand captains in the midst of a stormy sea; and every captain has his own objective and plan.

Therefore, the latest attack, which seems to be Iran’s suicidal mission, put matters back to square one and foiled all political attempts by Tehran to crack the sanction wall.

This wall was erected by the international community because of Tehran’s malicious activities which crossed the red line while the Revolutionary Guard continues to dominate and manage the game which will intensify tension not only regionally, but internationally.

The global community ought to choose between decisiveness in ending this nightmare and adopting patch up solutions which will become a loss to everything that would have contributed to global peace and safety.

Nonetheless, all that is left to say is: For every Khamenei terror, there is wise Salman who knows when to respond and when to apply the cauterizing solution.

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah

Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times