As they say politics does not have a permanent friend but it actually has a permanent interest. Today’s world politics is unpredictable and getting dirtier than ever. All of a sudden, we frequently witness a political leader or in other words a national leader taking on an other world leader or a whole nation from nowhere and thus, the retaliation and quick response from the targeted nation would create a havoc which can possibly yield massive negative consequences.
We saw the political tensions between Saudi Arabia and Canada in the recent days which resulted in ambassadors from both countries being sent home. Saudi Arabia, a country which was once externally praised for their good manner had suddenly became more violent and hostile towards other nations. It all started with Iran after the kingdom of Saudi Arabia accused Iran of planting their political and religious influence in the middle east, the rift between these two countries was escalated to the point where Saudi Arabia sent tens of thousands of their ground troops to Yemen to fight against the Irani backed Houthi militias who took over most of Yemen. The result of that intervention clearly became mass killings and huge distractions of the Yemeni infrastructure. The Saudi’s dirty politics took an other twist when the newly inaugurated prince of the Saudi Kingdom Mohamed Bin Salman sanctioned the decision to boycott and isolate Qadar for refusing to cut their ties with Iran.
The new Saudi prince became the new sheriff in town who either got his way or showed the high way, it was no different in their recent take on against Canada after Canadian government raised their concerns towards the arrest of a human rights activist in Saudi Arabia. It was just a simple calculated tweet by the Canadians which requested the immediate release of the activist as well as respect and protect the human rights in Saudi Arabia. Similar tweets were sent from the white house as well but Saudi prince Bin Salman took offense only with the Canadian statement and took the extra step by releasing a long heated statement telling Canada to leave Saudi nation alone and it did not stop there as well after they sent the Canadian ambassador home.
Since then, Saudi regime started their usual tactics by pushing other nations to side with them against Canada and also raise the public’s concerns with false accusations. It has since emerged that Saudi backed Bahrain tried to send Canadian ambassador home until they realized that Canada never had any ambassador in Bahrain. It was gross to listen to so called dumb Saudi politicians who blamed all but them selves for their political turmoil.
However, Somalia is one country which fell in the trap of Saudi Arabia after the foreign ministry of Somalia released a bizarre statement showing their solidarity with Saudi Arabia against Canada. The statement lacked composure, conviction and direction. It prompted a negative reaction from the Somali people in all over the globe. There has been a feud between Saudi Arabia and Somali people for many years after Somalis getting dis-satisfactory with the Saudi politics towards them but not the least when the Somali government firmly declined the Saudi request to boycott Qatar last year but hence, every one was caught by surprise with this swift and brutal statement from their ministry of foreign affairs.
Since Somalia took their neutral stance between the Saudi alliance and Qatar, Saudi Arabia had been trying to negatively influence the Somali politics directly or by using other countries to pressurize the poor east African country. But Somali people, known for their spirit and bravery, never surrendered and kept marching on. Saudi Arabia had been deporting all Somali nationals from their country on first sight for many decades and that was their only help to the war torn country.
Therefore, after realizing that Saudi Arabia kept their promise by deporting all Somalis including kids, women and elders, the Somali people kept their heads high and established businesses in east Africa while others headed to the western countries instead of the gulf.
Meanwhile, all Somalis are still surprised what triggered their ministry of foreign affairs to release such disgusting statement. The foreign minister of Somalia is a Canadian citizen him self, so could it be that he has some old grudges against Canadians? Or could he be bribed to come up with such stuff? No one still has an accurate answer for that but nevertheless, the hash tag of #IsupportCanada initiated by Somali public took over the social media which angered Saudi people more. And their reaction was quick as the Saudi government deported again 30,000 (Thirty Thousand) cattle livestock back to Somalia after it was exported for trade. This shows that only a handful of Somalis are left in Saudi Arabia if any as they turned to deporting livestock now.
In conclusion, gone are the days that Saudi Arabia used to impact the Muslim communities and nations including Somalia with their dirty interests, all eyes are open now and minds are swiftly thinking what, why and how? An easy example is how the current Somali government lost millions of supporters for a single statement that backed Saudi Arabia but every one is keeping their fingers crossed if Ahmed Issa Awad- the minister of foreign affairs of Somalia has the balls to apologize to the Somali people and to his Canadian people as well? It remains to be seen!.
Mohamed Yonis
mhassan143@hotmail.com