Egypt and Saudi Arabia Battle the Jihadist Current

• Following the lead of Egypt, Saudi Arabia has decided to join the battle againstjihadists in the Middle East, where movements led by al-Qaeda and Iran strive to topple the ruling Arab regimes. The leading regimes realize that these movements have a common goal: to destroy the prevailing political order and replace it with either a Sunni caliphate based on the strictest interpretation of Islamic law or a state modeled after the Shiite Islamic Republic of Iran.
• Saudi Arabia’s decisions to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group and downgrade diplomatic ties with Qatar to protest its support for the Brotherhood mark an important turning point in the kingdom’s approach to international terrorism.

• To contain negative influences and counter the threat to the regime’s stability stemming from the “Arab Spring,” Saudi Arabia has initiated economic and social reforms. It has also started to take action against the global jihad’s funding sources, primarily wealthy citizens in the kingdom itself, and has further increased intelligence cooperation with the United States.
• Saudi Arabia and the UAE are incensed over Qatar’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood. They are also offended by Qatar’s giving asylum to Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, an influential Egyptian cleric and staunch critic of both the Egyptian and Saudi regimes. Qatar has given Qaradawi free rein on its influential satellite channel Al Jazeera.
• Qatar has also granted asylum to a former Israeli Arab Member of Knesset who is wanted in Israel for subversive activities, ‘Azmi Beshara, and appointed him adviser to the ruling emir and director-general of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (known as the Doha Institute). The Egyptians and the Saudis want Qatar to close Beshara’s Doha Institute for its seditious publications and activities.

Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah, a special analyst for the Middle East at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, was formerly Foreign Policy Advisor to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Deputy Head for Assessment of Israeli Military Intelligence.