World View: Saudi Arabia Continues Its Break with the United States

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• News of the day from Iran
• Saudi Arabia continues its break with the United States
• Prime Minister of Pakistan asks for U.S. help with India

News of the day from Iran

Iranian college girls wearing the hijab

Here are some interesting political stories from Iran:

“Several MPs criticized President Hassan Rouhani’srecent statements in which he said that the country’s treasury isempty. MP Abdolvahid Fiazi said, “Mr. Rouhani’s statements arecontrary to the statements of the Economy Minister. We ask theadministration to convey the reality of the matter to thepeople.”

This is interesting because there’s a political conflict brewing inIran over the economy. Western economic sanctions have badly hurtIran’s economy, and the new president Hassan Rouhani has as much asadmitted it in recent statements. But his political opponents aredispleased with the admission, and would rather pretend that there areno economic problems.

“Justice Minister Hojjat al-Eslam Mostafa PourMohammadi stated, “[The slogan of] ‘Death to America’ is not oneof the necessities of our country, but our country is ananti-Arrogant [anti-Western] country. If there is a need, we willnegotiate, and if it is necessary to agree with the enemy we willeven do so. This is because it is no problem for us to agree withthe enemy for our interests, but we must know that he is theenemy.”

The phrase “Death to America” has become a compulsory patriotic phrasein Iran, ever since the Great Islamic Revolution in 1979 and theIranian hostage crisis in 1980. If you’re not willing to chant “Deathto America!” on any occasion, then you’re not a true revolutionaryIranian. But as the younger generations have grown up, many of themlike America, and think that “Death to America!” is irrelevant. Thishas become an issue between the generations in today’s Iran, which isin a generational Awakening era (like America in the 1960s).

“Earlier this week, Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini’sgranddaughter, Zahra Eshraghi, told Sharq Parsi website that shesought to be a “taboo breaker” in the matter of hijab because shedressed and [does] not agree with it at all.” She added, “If theywant to introduce Islam, they can do this with better clothing andhijab.” Representative of the Supreme Leader to Greater TehranIRGC Hojjat al-Eslam Abdolali Govahi subsequently criticized her,and said, “You are damned wrong. Who are you to do such a thing?If we do not say anything it is due to the dignity of Imam[Khomeini] and the Imam’s family.”

I posted several funny stories during the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad eraabout Iran’s police rounding up women wearing loose hijabs(headscarves) or no hijabs and carting them off to jail, where theyare lectured on proper dress for a young Iranian woman. Now here youhave the granddaughter of Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini, who was theoriginal Supreme Leader in the 1979 revolution, criticizing thearbitrary hijab requirement, and receiving harsh criticism from theolder generation of survivors of the Great Revolution. This isexactly the kind of thing that happened during America’s Awakening erain the 1960s, when girls were wearing miniskirts and hot pants, andwere burning their bras, to harsh criticism from their parents and theWW II survivor generation. Khomeini must be spinning in his grave.AEI Iran Tracker

Saudi Arabia continues its break with the United States

Ever since Saudi Arabia’s surprise rejection, last Friday, of a prizedseat on the United Nations Security Council, Saudi officials have beenlambasting the United Nations for its hypocricy, and President BarackObama in particular for adopting policies inimical to Saudi Arabia.The split really began when the Obama administration threw Egypt’sleader Hosni Mubarak under the bus when the Arab Revolution began in2011. Most recently the Saudis are furious at Obama’s flip-flop andsubsequent decision not to strike the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria,and then the administration’s apparent growing closeness to Saudienemy Iran. In addition, the Obama administration failed tosupport the Saudis during the Bahrain uprising.

Saudi Prince Bandar Bin Sultan al-Saud, 64, was Saudi Arabia’sambassador to the United States from 1983 to 2005. He lost influenceafter that because of loss of confidence from King Abdullah, accordingto reports. But now Bandar is back in the spotlight, leading thechange in policy to move away from the United States, according toreports that quote him as saying that the rejection of the UNSC seatanalyst, “The shift away from the U.S. is a major one.”

However, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday that hehad met with Saudi foreign minister Saud al-Faisal on Monday, andthat: “I have great confidence that the United States and Saudi Arabiawill continue to be the close and important friends and allies that wehave been.”

As I’ve been writing for years, Generational Dynamics predicts that inthe approaching Clash of Civilizations world war, Saudi Arabia,Pakistan and China will be allied against Iran, India and the UnitedStates. Reuters

Prime Minister of Pakistan asks for U.S. help with India

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in a visit to Washingtonon Tuesday, is asking the United States to mediate in thedispute with India over the disputed territories of Kashmirand Jammu:

“With its growing influence in India, the US now hasthe capacity to do more to help the two sides resolve their coredisputes, including Kashmir, and in promoting a culture ofcooperation.”

Kashmir and Jammu was the epicenter of the one of the worst wars ofthe 20th century, the genocidal clash between Muslims and Hindus thatfollowed Partition, the 1947 partitioning of the Indian subcontinentinto Pakistan and India. NDTV (India)

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