The French Foreign Ministry has requested researchers for five studies on one question: Why has not the Saudi street moved yet?

Nedal Hamadeh

The French Foreign Ministry has requested researchers for five studies on one question: Why has not the Saudi street moved yet?
 
Nowadays, busy circles in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in France are unprecedentedly and actively pursuing the fast moving events in the Arab world, especially in the Middle East.

Paris, stumbling since the beginning of the events and the Arab revolutions, is trying to gingerly work over these days. This is what is shown in dealing with the Syrian affair despite some statements here and there most of which are connected with internal squabbles in the house of the French decision making over what is going on in the Arab world.

It seems that the French have decided to adopt a new policy namely the principle of reading what may happen or to prognosticate events that might be useful and beneficial for the role that France is considering to play in the " the evolving new Arab world, " as it was called by one of the diplomats working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France.

This French stand has induced the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France to request researchers at five different research centers and French universities to put forward five studies about the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia examining one question:" Why have not the Saudi masses moved out till today?" This question was reported by a researcher in the Middle East affairs at one of the French universities, who will participate in finalizing one of those studies which are urgently requested to be ready soon.

The intensified logic of the events in the Arab region has induced the French politicians to question the real reason preventing the Saudi masses from moving out in the streets till now; mainly, first, because of the economic importance of this country, as it is known for all; second, its being the only Arab ally on whom the West depends in annoying Iran, the target of the Western countries and Israel which endeavor to prevent it from completing and developing its nuclear program; third, because of Saudi Arabia's commitment not to incite against Israel and refraining from using oil as a weapon in particular.

Simultaneously, in connection with the Saudi affairs, and contrary to declared statements, major concern prevails in the French political circles about Saudi military intervention in Bahrain, which the French foreign policy stakeholders consider a reckless Saudi measure which will eventually serve the interest of Iran. They also consider such a measure will make Iran conceive of the Saudi Royal family feet sinking in the quicksand of the region, and that Iran is waiting for the opportunity and appropriate time to make Saudi Arabia pay for what it has done, according to an academic French source concerned about the affairs in the region.

The French evaluation for the Saudi error in Bahrain, though it is not public, is not far from that of Iran's, which once described that intervention in Bahrain as a strategic awful error committed by Saudi Arabia. In addition, the conviction of the French says that the Saudi American relations as well as those of the Saudi European ones cannot go on with changes arising in the Arab region in case the Saudi regime remained on its current structure.

France has also disagreement and reproach for Saudi Arabia resulting from the American - British veto on the sale of the French weapons; this makes France "Sarkozy", which relied heavily on Saudi Arabia in the marketing of aircraft Rafale, the French fighter in the Gulf, frustrated by the unlimited dependence and pledge of Saudi officials to everything America says, especially the weapons issue.

"Saudi Arabia will not remain safe from the drastic changes despite its preemptive offensive in Bahrain and its intensive attempts to maintain, Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen." Thus say the majority of the French who have a direct relationship with the files of the Arab region; However, the timing of the movement, how it will spread, and where it is going to start remain the subject of the question. Because all of this could determine the outcome of any change both internally and externally, noting the surge in the transfer of funds from Saudi Arabia to abroad since the crisis in Bahrain, and this surge in money transfers according to French sources, includes dozens of princes in the Saudi royal family.