SHAFAQNA – why does a country like Saudi Arabia – with all its financial and military capabilities and with its population of nearly 30 million – insist to have allies and support for both its domestic and foreign policy decisions.
The Bedouin mentality of the king pushed him to have allies, they implicate dozen of countries to participate in it and has guaranteed the support of dozens of countries. Most of those countries were implicated in a war which they were not interested to go to.
I believe that in tne deep sense of the Bedouin king, he knows that he is wrong and in order to prove to his fans and others that he was not mistaken, he insists on gathering the largest number of allies.
The same mechanism happened when he boycotted Qatar.
On a domestic level, the king is keen to receive statements of support for all his decisions from everyone, even from the people who have been subjected to isolation decisions. Hundreds of supporting cables have circulated, the Saudi newspapers publish pages of congratulations and support of the important figures in Saudi Arabia for every decision taken by the king.
Even the ironic dramatic scene of MBS kissing the hand and knee of his cousin MBN was made to convey a message to the king and the people that the king’s decisions didn’t crack the ruling family relationships
By Hussam Sanabani for Shafaqna