Dear friends,
Does anybody know what the national TV stations in Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Yemen are showing?
I can only imagine the utter panic in Riyadh, Amman and Sana‘a!
If you can, please let us know!
Thanks,
The Saker
Saker Message:
I know for sure that AJ is not big in Saudi. Qatar and Saudi have hot and cold relationship and the Qatari royal will not do anything to the Saudi (at least not yet). They just started a new station in Jeddah recently. So unless it’s huge I dont see Saudis getting freedom anytime soon.
Jordan is completely different. Apparently they like their king but not the choice of his PM. So they want to be able to choose their own PM, which is fair enough. But I dont know if they are protesting anymore, now that the king fired his PM and installed a new one.
Yemen – this could be next one in line. They already blocked Facebook and Twitter (if i remember correctly). They have a demonstration tomorrow.
My Yemeni grocers are certain that Saleh is next.
@Shashank: They like their king? The hell they do.
Hi Saker, thanks for your good commentary on the Egypt situation. Have been reading your blog now for a long time, and I enjoy it.
So, is this just of the things that happen by chance, or do you think there is a direct cause? Sure, they are are poor and live under a dictator, but that has been the case for 30 years. What made it explode this time? Just the food prices?
What I also understand is that the US has equipped Mubarak with quite a good army. Will that fall into a hands of a newly formed islamic government. Is that army so good, that it will become a direct challenge to Israel’s security (existential threat for some). Has the US provided those means?
@albert: thanks a lot for your support! its good to have you comment here :-)
So, is this just of the things that happen by chance, or do you think there is a direct cause? Sure, they are are poor and live under a dictator, but that has been the case for 30 years. What made it explode this time? Just the food prices?
I am not qualified to answer this question as I am not AT ALL a specialist on Egypt. There are others here who would be far more qualified than me to answer this and, I hope, that they will answer your question.
What I also understand is that the US has equipped Mubarak with quite a good army.
I am not so sure. Lot’s of expensive American gear does not mean ‘good army’. Since this army does not have a mission to defend against Egypt’s only enemy (Israel) suspect that it is actually not very competent at all. A military to be powerful needs to be trained over and over and over and over again and it needs to do that with specific scenarii in mind. From what I know, most of what they did is train to support US operations and Marine landings. I suspect that the Egyptian is a terrific “parade army”, but as a fighting forces it is probably just like the Saudi military: very poorly trained and poorly lead. Its going to take A LOT of time to make the Egyptian into a real fighting force.
Cheers!