‘Embracing Crisis in the Gulf’→

Toby Craig Jones:

In the mid-2000s, most of the Gulf kingdoms were keen to indulge the pretense of reform. They did more talking about reform than reforming -- but even the talk is now passé. Back in vogue today are the police state and the counterrevolutionary tactics that prevailed in the 1970s. Indeed, the Arab uprisings and local unrest seem to have convinced rulers in the Gulf to offer less accommodation and wield more blunt force. It is arguable that, in the Gulf of the twenty-first century, crises are no longer undesirable, but rather have considerable political utility. In fact, given the arc of history -- whereby the redistribution of oil wealth has failed to ensure regime stability or political quietism -- the regional system may have arrived at a moment where political survival actually requires the manufacturing of permanent crisis at home and in the region.

AP Miseported Saudi Official Statement About Gulf Security→

Ten days after Saudi Arabia described the reports on statements by its deputy foreign minister about Gulf security as “fabrication,” the Associated Press issued a correction today saying they have “reported erroneously that Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah said in a speech that Gulf states should quash any Arab Spring-inspired unrest.”

Saudi Government Says Statements About Gulf Security ‘Fabricated’

Saudi Arabia said the statements attributed to its deputy foreign minister that his country cannot tolerate instability in the Gulf are “fabricated,” the state news agency reported Wednesday.

“These are fabricated statements that he did not give to any media outlet in any form,” an unnamed official at the Foreign Ministry told the Saudi Press Agency.

The Associated Press reported Saturday that Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah said during an international security summit held in Bahrain that Gulf Arab states must quash any Arab Spring-inspired unrest. The Saudi Foreign Ministry source said that speech given by Prince Abdulaziz in Manama, which was published by the official Saudi Press Agency, “did not include the fabricated statements attributed to him.”

It is not clear from the AP report if Prince Abdulaziz alleged statements now being denied by the Saudi government were part of his prepared remarks. The text of the remarks he delivered is published on the website of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. In that text, Prince Abdulaziz stated that “tampering with the security and stability of any Arab Gulf state is considered as tampering with the security and stability of all other Gulf Arab states.”

“The security and destiny of the GCC states are one and may not be divided,” he said.