Tariq Alhomayed, Editor of the pro-Saudi, international Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, wrote Sunday that “so long as Iran is taking fatwas into account with regards to its policies, perhaps it would be better if we established a Security Council for fatwas!”
The article, titled “The Security Council for Fatwas,” not only suggests that the pro-Saudi Arab intelligentsia believe the Obama Administration requires a major course correction in its approach to the Iranian threat, it also shows just how terrified the Saudis are of Iran’s nuclear potential.
As unbelievable as it may seem, according to the dismayed Alhomayed, it appears, “based on the recent statement issued by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,” that the Administration actually believes “that there are signals from Tehran that the Iranians are prepared to bring positive ideas to the table regarding their nuclear program,” and those signals are “an Iranian fatwa prohibiting the country from possessing nuclear weapons.”
Alhomayed, the youngest person to be appointed editor of the prestigious publication which the NY Times called “one of the oldest and most influential in the region,” is horrified by the prospect that the Obama Administration may actually be taking seriously the Iranian talk about how the Ayatollahs are prohibiting the manufacturing of nuclear weapons.
Alhomayed warns: “The problem with the Obama administration is that it wants to pursue policies that may be acceptable to the day-dreaming cultural elite, but not to regimes that are full of cunning and deceit, like the Iranian regime, whose primary objectives do not include development, openness, humanitarian values, the well-being of its citizens, or even religious tolerance; rather all that the Iranian regime – and the ideology behind it – cares about is expansion and infiltrating other countries, for sectarian motives.”
Alhomayed concludes: “In reality, the claim that we can rely on a fatwa that prohibits the possession of nuclear weapons, reminds us of the famous Arab proverb: “the thief was asked to swear [his innocence], and he swore [falsely] and said “yes, this is the way out [of the predicament]!” If this fatwa is one of the merits of dialogue with Iran, then by God we are truly facing a disaster in the region!”