December 10 2013 Breaking News Saudi Arabia warns of rift with USA over Iran, Syria - Last days final hour news prophecy update December 2013 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia seems to have few viable options concerning Iran - http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/02/us-iran-deal-saudi-analysis-idUSBRE9B105G20131202 Saudi Arabia is reportedly threatening to scale back its decades-old partnership with Washington over the Obama administration's perceived weakness in dealing with Syrian leader Bashar Assad, and its recent furtive overtures with the Saudis' arch-enemy, Iran. The Obama administration's handling of Syria and Iran has disturbed relations between the U.S. and key Mideast ally Saudi Arabia. "CBS This Morning" senior correspondent and former deputy director of national intelligence John Miller discusses the situation. Articles citing anonymous sources familiar with Saudi policy -- though notably, no articles in major Saudi publications -- have quoted the head of the Kingdom's intelligence services, Prince Bandar bin Sultan al-Saud, as warning of a "major shift" or "scaling back" in the relationship. According to the source cited by the Reuters news agency, the prince told European diplomats "the shift away from the U.S. is a major one... Saudi doesn't want to find itself any longer in a situation where it is dependent." The very real anger and frustration felt in Saudi Arabia over the Obama administration's approach to the Syria conflict and the signs that the White House is trying to ease the three-decade-old row with Iran. Iran is the world's most powerful Shiite Muslim nation, while Saudi Arabia is ruled by and populated predominantly by Sunni Muslims. The two factions of Islam split hundreds of years ago, but the tension between the two has never abated and the war in Syria has become a tangible manifestation of the lingering hatred among hardliners of both sects. Saudi Arabia has been a staunch backer of the largely-Sunni rebel factions fighting to oust Syrian leader Bashar Assad, who is of the Shiite Alawite sect. Iran, however, remains one of Assad's two most valuable allies (behind only Russia), and has sent money, weapons and even military officers to help him maintain his grip on power. President Obama's move to back the Russian proposal to rid Syria of chemical weapons was seen by Saudi Arabia -- and virtually all Syrian opposition groups -- as an easy way for the White House to back down from its threat of air strikes against Assad, which Washington seemed poised to launch following a large-scale sarin gas attack on the outskirts of Damascus in August. Prince Turki, Saudi royal family said the current charade of international control over Bashar's chemical arsenal would be funny if it were not so blatantly perfidious, and designed not only to give Mr. Obama an opportunity to back down (from military strikes), but also to help Assad to butcher his people." The White House has long argued that there are no good options for intervention in Syria, given the prevalence of Islamic extremists among rebel forces, the lack of unity even among the moderate opposition, and the disinterest of the American public in getting involved in any kind of ground operations. President Obama drew an infamous "red line" on the use of chemical weapons, however. That line ended up cornering him into taking some sort of action as it became increasingly clear that the line was crossed in the Aug. 21 attack in the Damascus suburbs. Assad appears to be in a stronger position now than he has in months. On top of things not going their way in Syria, the Saudi ruling family will feel diplomatically slapped in the face by its old ally over the Obama administration's cautious warming to Iran's new, moderate President Hassan Rouhani. As CBS News senior correspondent John Miller explains, the combined affront has become "more than the Saudis could take lying down." They're mad, but we haven't broken up yet," Miller said on "CBS This Morning." "This is about more than the Saudis," he adds. "In Bahrain, where we have the key naval base, they have demanded that Washington recall our ambassador because of our criticism of their tactics to put down an ongoing rebellion has been interpreted as disloyalty. In Turkey, we've been criticized by the president there and they recently purchased missiles from the Chinese" instead of getting them from the U.S. "What we are seeing behind the scenes is that military, intelligence and law enforcement relationships are holding for now because we share the common enemy of al Qaeda," explained Miller. "But there is a real disdain for the State Department and President Obama and U.S. policy. The question is, as that disdain increases -- where Sunni-led nations see a U.S. seeking some diplomatic dialogue with Iran, the dominant Shiite power, will those other relationships hold up?"

• published: 09 Dec 2013
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