U.S. president Barack Hussein Obama arrived in Riyadh on April 20, 2016 amidst crisis between the U.S. and Saudi Arabian governments.
For decades, the sell-out Saudi royal family has been a key puppet of U.S. imperialism in the region.
The growing strength of the people’s resistance in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Afghanistan, Turkey, Yemen, Bahrain and in Saudi Arabia itself as well as the developing power of Iran are the primary causes that are forcing a rethink of relationship throughout the region.
The combination of the intervention of Russian and Chinese power in the region, at the expense of U.S.-led white power, forces the U.S. ruling class to come to terms with its inability to impose its will unchallenged there.
According to an April 20 CNN article, Saudi rulers affirm that “‘a recalibration’ of the U.S.-Saudi relationship was needed amid regional upheaval, dropping oil prices and ongoing strains between the two longtime allies.”
Obama voiced criticism towards countries which are protected by the U.S. military by using the term “free riders,” which was not welcomed by Saudi’s rulers, who also think that “Obama has pivoted so much to Iran.”
U.S. congress threaten to pass law that would allow Saudi rulers to be sued
The same CNN article states, “A bipartisan group of current and former lawmakers are pushing for the release of 28 classified pages from the 9/11 Commission that reportedly include evidence that Saudi officials in the U.S. at the time lent support to some of the 15 Saudis who were among the 19 terrorists who conducted that attack.”
Saudi rulers replied that they would sell $750 billion of U.S. treasury bonds.
The U.S. rulers are also struggling to avoid the dump of U.S. treasury bonds held by China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, etc.
Such a dump will speed up the end of the U.S. financial world hegemony or the declaration of war against U.S. imperialism.
The nuclear accord between the U.S. and Iran has rattled Saudi Arabia’s regime because it is an indication of future warming and rapprochement between Iran and the U.S. government.
The agreement lifts UN sanctions on Iran oil exports.
The Saudi government also resents the Obama administration’s failure to bomb Bashar al Assad out of power.
Despite the denial by the Saudi leaders, many analysts and observers around the world believe that the oil price fall has been engineered by the coalition of U.S. and Saudi rulers.
It is more likely that the Saudi regime and the U.S. imperialists coordinated to push the oil price down to hurt the economies of Iran, Venezuela and Russia. This reality is reflected by the unwillingness of Saudi Arabia to cut oil production.
According to a May 3 article on weforum.org, “At a meeting in Doha, Qatar in April, major oil producers including OPEC members and Russia met as part of efforts to agree to an output freeze, but the talks ended with no deal. Saudi Arabia had called for Iran to be part of the agreement, but Tehran refused to take part.”
The drop in oil price and the expenses brought by direct and indirect Saudi wars in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq are a massive drain on Saudi’s resources.
The war in Yemen is also another area where Iran and Saudi Arabia are fighting for regional power.
Since January 2015, the Houthis rebels, a branch of Yemen Shiites, have been battling the forces of Hadi’s government in Yemen with Saudi governmental support.
To stop a total Houthis success, the Saudi royal air force has submitted impoverished Yemeni people to the most barbaric air bombardment, not unlike Israel’s bombardment of Gaza almost two years ago.
The Saudi regime is determined to ensure that the strategic Bab el Mandeb straight–on the red sea–between Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Djibouti and Somalia––with 22,000 ships passing there every year, will not fall into the hands of Iran’s allies.
U.S. rulers have no control over the causes of the crisis of imperialism.
Obama landed in Riyadh as a diminished representative of a dying white power, and he left the Middle East for England as a diminished representative of white power.
Part of the crisis in the region is the growing relationship between the illegitimate regime of Israel and the sell-out Saudi royal family.
Obama infuriated Brexit (United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union) supporters as he sided with staying Europe
Britain’s declining place in the world is exposed by its frustrating relationship with Europe, particularly with Germany.
Bad habits die hard. Since the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, Brits have been the de facto, uncontested leaders of the white-dominated imperialist world.
This status ended with the triumph of the U.S. and U.S.S.R. as main victors of the second imperialist war to divide the world.
The semi-victories of anti-colonial struggles in India, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria and Malaysia cemented the decline of Britain as world imperialist leader.
To claim a super-power status, Britain has to advocate a special relationship with her former colony, the United States.
Britain was admitted into the EU after a referendum under the conservative govemment in 1976
The first attempt to be admitted was refused by the French president Charles De Gaulle, who also took France out of NATO.
For years, the EU was perceived as a union driven by the German and French rulers. Today, it is no secret, that the EU is led by German capital.
Part of the English ruling class is refusing to be led by German capital.
In England, Obama’s visit helped to crystallize the “stay in Europe” camp and his fidelity to his neocolonial line and practice he has demonstrated since he has been in power in the White House.
During his London stay, Obama said that if the British chose to exit the EU, they will not receive preferential treatment from the U.S. Instead, they would be at “the back of the queue.”
His outspoken position infuriated the Brexit camp’s leaders, notably Boris Johnson, who called Obama a “hypocrite” and added that Obama’s position was anti-British, because his dad was Kenyan.
Boris Johnson is positioning himself as a future candidate to the post of prime minister.
He was basically saying to Obama that this Brexit referendum debate was a matter for white people to discuss.
Johnson knows very well that Obama always speaks to white rulers’ interests, never the interests of African people.
When asked about the removal of Winston Churchill from his office in the White House when he became president of the United States, Obama did not expose Churchill as a genocidaire colonialist like Leopold II, Cecil Rhodes, Andrew Jackson, Napoleon, etc. He, instead, said he loved the guy.
The planned referendum in June 2016 was a bluff that none of the British leaders, conservative or labor, wanted to call.
David Cameron has done it not out of conviction, but out of despair, as he hopes that this referendum “will settle the issue for a generation.”
The reality is that Britain’s economy is dominated by the U.S. and Germany.
Britain is a member of NATO, which means that its military is dominated by the U.S.
The European Union is the main destination of British products. There is no one among the British ruing class who dares to demand a British capitalist independence from the U.S.
They only express frustration with the EU, not with the U.S.
For African people, the question is not to Brexit or to staying.
They are both solutions of the white ruling class for the white ruling class.
We have to renew our struggle for African self-determination. This requires us to develop and popularize the concept of One Africa! One nation!
The African revolution is the future.
Build our own African Nation!
Build our own power over ourselves!
Get the June 2016 issue of The Burning Spear newspaper to read this article and more!
