Ok, I know many of the regulars are not into politics, but for anyone who is, please feel free to give ur thoughts…..

Saudi Arabia, also known as big brother to Kuwait, has been acting weird recently! Everyone knows there’s so much trouble going on internally and that they are reaching a very interesting point in time, a ‘make or break’ sort of thing. This is the time that will probably define who they are and what they will be in the future. So you would expect them to have a presense in the regional scene and try to make as many friends to protect their interests, right?? Well….apparently not! In the past couple of weeks, Saudi has done three things that really make me wonder on what their foreign policy is?

• Withdrawing the Saudi embassador from Tripoli in Libya, and asked the Libyan to withdraw their representative in Saudi! This comes months after a plot to assassinate the crown prince was uncovered by the US, and Libya denies it. Its not the action that bothers me as much as the timing! Why now? This plot was uncovered earlier in the year!
• The Saudi crown prince refused to attend the Gulf Summit in Bahrain after announcing that they are unhappy with the fact that Bahrain signed a defence agreement with the US. Why?? They say this affects the joint treaties that the Gulf nations have together! But every country has the right to do whatever it does if it thinks it helps them, what gives the Saudis the right to butt in? And even if they dont agree, there are more civilized ways than to publicly announce their dissatisfaction, and then not send the crown prince, instead replacing him with a lower official.
• Withdrawing from the Gulf Cup games, where they decided not to participate just a few days before the tournament, without giving any reasonable excuses. Many voices have been saying that it had something to do with disputes between Saudi and Qatar.

I know the third point isnt really as big as the earlier two, but still its another example of weird decisions. I seriously cant make sense of these decisions at a time when they need more allies than ever! What is their broader vision? Any thouhgts?