Ever since the first terrorist attack on Shiite houses of worship in Saudi Arabia, it has been clear that a plan has been put in place to target the country’s unity and stability, suggests the columnist Tareq Al Homayed in the pan- Arab daily Asharq Al Awsat on Monday.
The plot was announced following the two terrorist explosions at mosques in Al Qudeeh and Dammam in Saudi Arabia. ISIL issued a statement that shows the extent of its criminal intentions against the kingdom.
ISIL’s statement, he noted, declares the organisation’s plans to target Shiites on the Arabian Peninsula, a plan that brings to mind similar statements made by Al Qaeda in the late 1990s.
“ISIL’s criminal statement could only mean one thing: their plan is to stoke sectarian strife in Saudi Arabia, plunging the country into turmoil in a bid to serve the interests of many parties,” Al Homayed said.
“Caution is called for at every level, especially at this time, when Saudi Arabia is in an open confrontation with criminal systems and militias in the region.”
Cautionary measures should begin with strict monitoring of the media and a clampdown on sectarian speech, he suggested.
Given the kingdom’s past experience fighting Al Qaeda, one can suppose that its population has become more aware and less susceptible to inflammatory hate speech.
For his part, the columnist Jasser Al Jasser wrote in the London-based daily Al Hayat that Saudi Arabia is waging three wars to protect its territories, assert its weight and entrench its role in the region.
The kingdom has engaged in a battle to rescue Yemen and preserve its Arab identity against a vicious attack that almost turned Yemen into a platform to spread mayhem and destruction throughout the whole region.
Saudi Arabia is waging an internal war against terrorism as evil hands attempt to instil fear and spread sedition. The country is also fighting a war on the drugs that are invading its territories and targeting its youth, the writer said.
“Saudi Arabia’s confrontation is an existential one. But the government and the people have proven that they are fully aware of the hidden intentions behind these attacks and have come together to form an impenetrable wall that deters all criminal aggressions,” he noted.
Writing in Al Ittihad, the sister paper of The National, columnist Abdullah Al Otaibi pointed out that this new phase of sectarianism in Saudi Arabia demonstrates a new alliance between Iran and its Shiite affiliates on one side and radical Sunni groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda and ISIL on the other side.
“Al Qaeda has targeted Saudi, but never made any attempts on Iran. ISIL attacked Saudi, but never Iran. ISIL struck an alliance with Iran’s Syrian allies and Bashar Al Assad, and in Iraq, ISIL is avenging Al Qaeda against the Anbar tribes that eradicated the terrorist group in that region,” the writer said.
The sectarian conflict threatens to spread to other Arab countries, especially members of the coalition, he warned.
“But, just as Saudi was able to prevail over fundamentalist terrorism, it shall certainly prevail over sectarian terrorism as well,” the writer concluded.
* Racha Makarem
rmakarem@thenational.ae
