The comment comes as a large number of men, women, and children in Saudi Arabia staged a demonstration in the central province of al-Qassim on Sunday to protest against the illegal detention of their relatives in the kingdom.
According to Human Rights Watch, the Saudi regime “routinely represses expression critical of the government.”
On August 13, Swedish Defense Minister Karin Enstrom criticized Saudi Arabia for its human rights violations, describing the kingdom as "an authoritarian regime and an absolute monarchy, where serious human rights crimes are committed."
Since February 2011, protesters have held numerous demonstrations in Saudi Arabia, mainly in Qatif and Awamiyah in the Eastern Province, to call for the release of all political prisoners, freedom of expression and assembly, and an end to widespread discrimination against Shias.
An interview with political analyst, Roula Talj, from Beirut to further discuss the issue.
Q: Miss Talj, based on what Professor Khairallah just said where does that leave us then? If it takes in order to initiate change of course the people are trying to demonstrate inside of the country but they’re facing extreme repression as they protest and as the professor said if it’s going to take some external forces and he mentioned the United States and of course it’s not in the United States’ interest actually to put that kind of pressure on Saudi Arabia. So where do we lie? What’s the answer?
Talj: In my opinion Saudi Arabia’s role when the United States is done with it, we will see the Saudi Arabian regime crumbling just like the number one ally to the US former president Mubarak crumbled and I see this happening very soon especially if Russia and China succeed in finding a political solution to the Syrian crisis not to say uprising because it has been proven that it was a civil war with the help of Saudi Arabia and many regional countries.
So if they are defeated in Syria then we will see right away the outcome of all that has been happening in the last two years in the region being implemented in Saudi Arabia and I do foresee a big change in the Saudi Arabia regime very soon.
Q: Miss Talj first of all if you agree with Professor, I want to expand a little bit on his premise if that is the case. Do you think that the crux of why Saudi Arabia is being so aggressive in their involvement in trying to bring down the Syrian government? Is it because of fear of this spreading, this type of pressure spreading to Saudi Arabia itself, or do you think it’s for other reasons?
Talj: Well, I believe there are two reasons why Saudi Arabia is being so dramatically aggressive with the Syrian events. One, they would like to portray it as a Sunni versus Alawite and Shia whereas Saudi Arabia is endorsing the Sunni and the project of the Ummah which will lead the opposition in Saudi Arabia which is mostly Shia to think twice before taking to the streets in demonstrations against the ruling family.
So this is one and second I believe Saudi Arabia and Qatar are both competing on who is going to do the dirty job of the Americans in the region and they think by doing that they are protecting themselves and they are imposing themselves as amazing partners to the US, and a pillar to the US foreign politics in the Middle East where they are trying to play this role and hoping that this will make them very important to the Americans and will keep the Arab Spring between brackets, away from Saudi soil.
And it seems that Hillary Clinton while visiting with the [Saudi Foreign Minister Prince] Saud al-Faisal asked him what about the Arab Spring in Saudi Arabia? He said in Saudi Arabia we have only two seasons, we don’t have spring, we have either winter or summer.
