By: IBRAHIM Jaafar
US troops are returning to Saudi Arabia for the first time since 2003 as tensions with Iran rise and the kingdom finds itself increasingly isolated in Yemen, King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud announced on Saturday.
The United States is sending American forces, including fighter aircraft, air defense missiles and likely more than 500 troops, to a Saudi air base that became a hub of American air power in the Middle East in the 1990s but was abandoned by Washington after it toppled Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein in 2003.
According to press reports hundreds of American troops are deploying to Prince Sultan Air Base outside Riyadh as tensions spike in the region between Iran and its allies and the Donald Trump administration and Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman’s Saudi Arabia. The deployment of American troops in the kingdom has never been popular with Saudis. It was an early complaint of Osama bin Laden and comes as the Saudis' Arab allies are deserting the crown prince’s war in Yemen.
Senior American defense officials said some U.S. troops and Patriot air defense missile systems have already arrived at Prince Sultan Air Base, south of Riyadh, where the troops have been preparing for the arrival of aircraft later this summer as well as additional troops. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to provide details not publicly announced.
The officials said Saudi Arabia has already agreed to pay some of the costs associated with having U.S. personnel and assets there.
US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt arranged the construction of the first American air base in Saudi Arabia during World War II at Dhahran in the kingdom’s Eastern Province. John F. Kennedy ordered the first deployment of combat aircraft to Dhahran to deter Egyptian air attacks on Saudi Arabia during the civil war in Yemen in the early 1960s. George H. W. Bush sent a half million Americans to defend the kingdom in 1990 in Operation Desert Shield and then to "liberate" Kuwait in Desert Storm.
For the Americans, the air base offered tight security. The Dhahran base was in the middle of an urban area, heavily Shiite; this one is in the desert with a buffer of dozens of miles in every direction.
Bringing the Americans back now underscores how deeply concerned the king is about the regional situation.
Meanwhile the Saudi war in Yemen, the crown prince’s signature policy, is an ever more expensive quagmire. Hundreds of Houthi missiles and drones are hitting Saudi cities like Abha and even Riyadh with technical assistance from Iran and Hezbollah.
By sending American troops back to the air base, the new deployment makes the United States a direct combatant in the Yemen war if Patriot missiles there are used to defend against Houthi attacks.
Of what benefit will this development be for the Muslims? Using Saudi Arabia land as the missile launching zone had affected Muslims before in Afghanistan, Iraq, among others before, its currently harming the Muslims of Yemen, and again, the development will provide the U.S. military with the ability to counter Iran from a distance while not being in range of Iranian missiles. If miscalculated, Saudi Muslims and her land will be affected, the US can withdraw if it so will, causing the divide and rule tactic, with the two countries at war, in order to further bring down Islam/Muslims, while leaving Israel to expand and achieve her greater Israel plan with limited or no obstruction.
The risk of miscalculation and escalating violence is growing. The crown prince may even believe that he can escape from the toxic consequences of his reckless behavior through a bigger crisis, even a regional conflict. We need cooler heads to prevail.