Mohammad Pervez Bilgrami

Ever since the July 2013 coup in Egypt, it has been crystal clear that the military leader, Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, represents the interests of the Saudi regime and Western powers bent on keeping the Middle East and North Africa destabilized. It was through careful planning that Sisi was planted as Egypt’s army chief to carry out the coup. It was a plot spearheaded by Saudi Arabia but both the Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian public could not understand Saudi schemes. There is plenty of evidence to show that Sisi is part of a foreign project to control Egypt.

Sisi has been a well known figure in Riyadh where he served as a military attache at the Egyptian embassy before being promoted as the director of military intelligence in February 2011 when the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) took power after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. He thus became the youngest member of SCAF.

There are widespread accusations in the Middle East that the Saudi intelligence provided funding and encouraged opposition groups against President Morsi’s government.

Sisi was said to be in contact with the Saudi ruling family. In February 2013 Egyptian defense attache to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Colonel Mohammed Abul Fotouh, met Crown Prince Salman Al Saud and conveyed to him the “greetings” of the then Defense Minister  Sisi. It is widely believed that during this meeting, the Saudi royal family and the Egyptian army sealed the fate of Mohammad Morsi.

Saudi Arabia's backing for the Egyptian coup, which the then Saudi head of intelligence Prince Bandar bin Sultan worked so hard to achieve, was prompt. When Adli Mansour, the former head of Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court, was sworn in as the interim president, Saudi King Abdullah sent him a message, praising the Egyptian army for having saved the country.

Recently the Saudi king honoured Sisi with the highest civilian award the “National Order”. In a quid pro quo, Egypt’s Al Azhar University decided to grant an honorary doctorate to the Saudi king. This is first such award granted by Al Azhar for over two decades.

The battles lines have now been clearly drawn throughout the Arab world. The military coup in Egypt, and the Saudi support for it, represents an attempt to turn the clock back, to halt the wave of democratisation heralded by the toppling of Arab dictators.

It is unlikely to be the final word or battle in what promises to be an epic struggle. The US, Europe and Israel not only support the coup, they also want to weaken the most important Arab country. They will stoop to any level and support any brutality to achieve their goals.

Take for example the killing of Asma Beltagy, daughter of senior Brotherhood leader Dr Beltagy. It was a planned assassination. Similarly, the mass slaughter of protesters and shootings were deliberate.

In late 2010, when Sisi was the deputy head of military intelligence, he was asked by his bosses, who had already decided that he should be the next minister of defense under any administration, to prepare a study on Egypt's political future.

Now the point is how the Saudi regime, whose religious body opposes regime change through coup, could get involved and do exactly the same thing in another country. The Al Saud doctrine of survival calls for creating trouble abroad to save the regime in Riyadh.

Libya is another example where the elected government is fighting the forces led by the renegade general Khalifa Haftar, who has been amply supported by the exact same people who conducted the coup in Egypt. To make matters worse, religious validity for the rebellion is provided by the demented Madkhali cult of Salafi movement. This is another Saudi exploitation of religion for political purposes.

The forces for Arab despotism are also active to undo the democratic change in Tunisia, where a slow counterrevolution is in progress.

Saudi Arabia is and has been the final resting place of the many brutal dictators. We should remember how Idi Amin of Uganda got refuge in Saudi Arabia and later died and buried there in the year 2003.

In the wake of the Arab uprising, ousted dictators, Ben Ali of Tunisia and Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, also took refuge in Saudi Arabia.

Due to Egypt’s pivotal position in the Arab world, the Egyptian military elite, business bosses and diplomatic corps have done deals with Saudi royals, the Pentagon and EU and Israel. A dictatorship in Cairo serves them all.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the most paranoid and oil-rich Arab League members, have emerged as top backers of status-quo in the region, ignoring the desires of populations for freedom and dignity. Ultimately the Arab region will witness the desired democratic change but it may come after much bloodshed and upheavals.

There is an unholy alliance of Salafi extremism, secularists and so-called liberals in the Middle East under the patronage of the United States and Europe.

Suffice it to say that the regional status-quo bloc led by Saudi Arabia and UAE can go to any extent to exterminate their opponents. Their crazy thinking seeks to destroy democratic movements in North Africa, and in their foolhardiness they tried to stir trouble in Turkey during the Gezi events, and now they are aiding the Israeli bosses to crush Palestinian resistance in Gaza.

Writer on twitter* @mpervezbilgrami