Interesting read. Saudi Arabia declines UN Security Council invite, claiming double standard. Sigh...

Saudi Arabia is a ruined nation, ruled by hypocritical religious rulers from a bygone time. If they really wanted to make a difference they wouldn't cry about being invited and pout, they would do something about it. Oh please.

They're just pissed because Obama told another lie when he said he'd bomb Syria. Here in the USA we're used to it, but I reckon the Saudi's aren't.

Most Islamic terrorists come from Saudi Arabia.

Holding the rotating seat would require them to vote, which would expose the difference between their public proclamations and their less public agendas, and that in turn would expose them to Islamist rhetoric and terrorism.

(10-20-2013 09:35 PM)I45owl Wrote:  Holding the rotating seat would require them to vote, which would expose the difference between their public proclamations and their less public agendas, and that in turn would expose them to Islamist rhetoric and terrorism.

Yep, folks bash the Suadi govt;however, if that govt goes away the world will get a lot worse really really quick.

There are a lot of important points here. Everyone knows that US policy is very fragmented and unreliable for allies like Saudi. The US can't really be relied on to act in its own interests when we elect someone like Obama, much less acting in the interest of Saudi or rebel groups in Syria.

Saudi Arabia and the UN: Why the snub? | The Economist

http://www.economist.com/blogs/pomegrana...bia-and-un Wrote:It is hard to understand how Saudi Arabia can expect to advance its ostensibly reformist agenda by shunning engagement with the very institution it claims to want to change. It is also hard to see how the decision squares with the months of lobbying and careful preparation the Saudis had put into their Security Council bid. At least a dozen junior Saudi diplomats, for instance, spent much of the past year training in New York for the expected widened duties of council membership.

The Kremlinesque opacity of decision-making among the Saudi royal family’s elders adds extra spin to the predictable sandstorm of speculation as to the real reasons for the sudden about-face. In no particular order of likelihood or credibility, here are some of the rumoured explanations:

• King Abdullah, now 89, is known for his occasional bursts of frank impatience. Frustration has been building in the kingdom for months, not to say years, over the perceived unreliability of its main ally for the past seven decades, the United States. But two recent straws have broken the camel’s back. The Obama administration’s sudden rapprochement with Iran—a country the Saudis see as a hostile Shia power and their historical rival—risks unravelling years of patient Saudi efforts at sustaining an anti-Iranian front. And America’s shying away from military action to punish the Assad regime in Syria for its use of chemical weapons against civilians represents a possibly fatal fumble for the anti-regime team that Saudi Arabia strongly backs. Not only did the pro-rebel allies lose a golden opportunity to deliver a death-blow to Mr Assad, as the Saudis see it. American cowardice has legitimised the narrative of al-Qaeda-style radicals, who now threaten to take over the whole of the armed opposition force whose moderate wing the Saudis have assiduously—and expensively—cultivated.

Ted Cruz and others decry sending US support to al Qaeda, but the fact is that a situation like this is a race to the bottom. By not sending arms and money to groups that are less objectionable than ISIS (al Qaeda in Syria and Iraq), we in fact strengthen ISIS itself, as other money and support goes to ISIS in the vacuum. The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria would be preferable to ISIS, but it may be US bumbling that shifts all of the power to them. No matter who comes out on top, they will have a grudge with the US... it would've been far better to have said no to any involvement all the way through this process than to encourage some groups, talk with the rebel government, and then not stand behind anything we've said. We have guaranteed Syria as an enemy for the foreseeable future.

The Saudi Government won't last another 50 years.

The world would be better off if there was no Saudi Arabia.