Update: Here is more—good riddance to bad rubbish!
I saw this story in my small-city newspaper the other day and it frosted me—‘Saudi withdrawal stuns UN Security Council‘ about how the “Kingdom” turned down a seat at the UN Security Council (good!) because they are p*****-off at Washington for not starting more wars in the Middle East with Syria and with Iran. Who the hell do they think they are?
Are we starting costly wars to protect Saudi Arabia? And, in the wake of those wars, we get the Muslim refugees (the Saudis take none!) who come to America where Saudi Arabia builds them mosques and schools and we pay for their welfare. What do we get out of this deal?
From AFP at Yahoo News (emphasis mine):
UNITED NATIONS (United States) (AFP) – Saudi Arabia angrily rejected a UN Security Council seat Friday, accusing the UN body of “double standards” over the Syria war and other trouble spots in an unprecedented diplomatic broadside.
The Saudi snub sparked disarray at the Security Council. The oil-rich Gulf monarchy had only won the seat on Thursday at a UN General Assembly election.
World peace and security—blah! blah! blah!
But senior UN envoys said they did not expect the Saudi government to reverse the decision, which was announced in an outspoken foreign ministry statement.
“Work mechanisms and double-standards on the Security Council prevent it from carrying out its duties and assuming its responsibilities in keeping world peace,” the ministry said.
Saudi Arabia “has no other option but to turn down Security Council membership until it is reformed and given the means to accomplish its duties and assume its responsiblities in preserving the world’s peace and security.”
The government said “allowing the ruling regime in Syria to kill and burn its people” with chemical weapons is “irrefutable evidence and proof of the inability of the Security Council to carry out its duties and responsibilities.”
Diplomats and analysts said the Saudi gesture was mainly directed at the United States, which first threatened a military strike against Syria then backed down and which has started a dialogue with Riyadh’s arch-foe Iran.
By the way, we have been following the Syrian “refugee crisis” closely and have not seen one word about Saudi Arabia offering to take a single Syrian “refugee” in response to the UN’s call for countries “with the means” to step up and offer third-country resettlement. I have not seen the UN call them out on it either! Shouldn’t Samantha Power be lecturing them on the ‘responsibility to protect?’