To launch drones and other missiles is a serious mistake

I do not know yet who is behind the destructive action taken against the Saudi oil facilities on Saturday. I see many fingers pointing in the direction of Iran. They might be right. We will see. But what I certainly know is that the attacks must be considered acts of war and very serious political mistakes. Whoever took the decision to launch the drones and the missiles must be made to understand that conflict escalation can only bring further destruction and misery to the region. Our condemnation of such decision cannot be ambiguous. It must be as strong as they make them, which does not necessarily mean military retaliation. It means isolation and sanctions.  

Saudi Arabia´s military muscle

Yesterday Saudi Arabia launched the military exercise called Northern Thunder. Most of us, in the West, did not notice it. As we did not realise that military contingents from around twenty states are participating in this major deployment. Among them, there are several African States – Chad, Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Sudan, Tunisia are some of them – as well as Asian countries, including Pakistan and Malaysia. Many of these soldiers had to be brought to Saudi Arabia at a very high cost. It is not cheap to deploy troops. I am sure Saudi Arabia has contributed quite a bit to make the voyages possible.

Beyond the military training, I see a strong political message. And I think it is important to keep that in mind. 

Yemen needs dialogue not bombs

It´s not a great idea to have a coalition of Sunni Arab states deeply involved in war operations inside Yemen. They are fighting the Shia-inspired Houthi rebels, who are seen as promoting Iran´s interests in the vital region that Yemen controls. But they have never engaged any action against the extremists of Al-Qaeda who have been operating in Yemen for a number of years and are a real threat to regional peace and stability.

Yemen is now a chaotic state. It needs all support it can get to bring the different ethnic and religious factions to the dialogue table and also to effectively combat the extremists. These are indeed the couple of priorities that should be in the minds of those who have some kind of influence in the region. 

Again on Israel and its neighbours

Following my post of yesterday about Israel and Iran, I got call this afternoon from a friend who is also very close to Prime Minister Netanyahu. The caller had just arrived from Israel. And I could notice two things: the country´s leadership is very unhappy with the way the Obama team is looking at Iran´s nuclear issue; they can´t understand why people in Washington are so eager to strike a deal with the Iranians; and then, the second point concerns Israel´s believe they will be able to take military action against the nuclear facilities in Iran and get the tacit but firm approval of many in the Middle East, including the Saudis. This is actually encouraging the hard liners in Jerusalem to go for the bombing.

All this adds instability and unpredictability to a region that is already in deep turmoil. It´s not good at all!