Saturday, May 26, 2007

Ahmad Musalli (an expert on Islamist movements from AUB) appeared on AlJazeera to comment on the developments. He believes that Saudi Arabia and the Hariri family (he was less explicit than I am here, but it was clear what he meant) were behind arming and financing the Al-Qa`idah groups in the Middle East (and he lists Fath-Al-Islam as an affiliate of Al-Qa`idah) and that Saudi Arabia changed its strategy after an Saudi-Iranian agreement that sought to diffuse Sunni-Shi`ite tensions in the region. He believed that the Iranian-Saudi agreement changed the status of Fath-Al-Islam (in the eyes of Hariri Inc) from friend to foe.