# Why is Saudi Arabia supporting the Syrian rebels **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 3, 2013, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-saudi-arabia-supporting-the-syrian-rebels/667929 "2013-09-03T22:09:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-saudi-arabia-supporting-the-syrian-rebels/667929/1 "2013-09-03T22:09:19Z")
What is in it for them? What about the motivation of Qatar being pro-rebel? Is it because the rebels are seen as pushing forward a Sunni friendly government if they win? What about Turkey? I’m under the impression Turkey supports the rebels because of the crimes against humanity by the government in Syria. Is that true, or do they have ulterior motives? ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-saudi-arabia-supporting-the-syrian-rebels/667929/2 "2013-09-03T23:00:15Z")
It is because SA fears Iran (Shia sect), and the corrupt elite that rules SA wants no importation of anything that might upset their apple cart. The SA royal family power rests upon the acceptance of the Wahabi strain of Islam-anything that might upset that would threaten the regime (and that cannot be allowed to happen).Islamic sects survive via fear and repression…and the people at the top in SA like their lavish lifestyles-they will not allow anything to threaten it. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-saudi-arabia-supporting-the-syrian-rebels/667929/3 "2013-09-03T23:09:41Z")
Because Syria is allied to and supported by Iran, their primary regional rival and potential enemy. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-saudi-arabia-supporting-the-syrian-rebels/667929/4 "2013-09-04T00:44:27Z")
Since no easy factual answer is possible, this one is moved to Great Debates from General Questions. **samclem** , moderator ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-saudi-arabia-supporting-the-syrian-rebels/667929/5 "2013-09-04T01:01:25Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > What is in it for them? What about the motivation of Qatar being pro-rebel? Is it because the rebels are seen as pushing forward a Sunni friendly government if they win? > > What about Turkey? I’m under the impression Turkey supports the rebels because of the crimes against humanity by the government in Syria. Is that true, or do they have ulterior motives? All of them are backing the Syrian rebels out of support for the Sunni bretheren in Syria who form most of the rebels against the Alawite-dominated government of Syria. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2013, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-saudi-arabia-supporting-the-syrian-rebels/667929/6 "2013-09-05T23:08:37Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > All of them are backing the Syrian rebels out of support for the Sunni bretheren in Syria who form most of the rebels against the Alawite-dominated government of Syria. Is it safe to say this is mostly a sunni-shi’ite civil war being the reason other muslim countries are taking sides? From what I’ve recently read the alawites are shi’ite (hence the Iranian support) and the rebels are sunni hence the support from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Al Qaeda and probably Turkey (Turkey is mostly sunni). Growing up in the west, where religious wars (protestant vs catholic, etc) are considered ancient history it is still hard to wrap my head around religious wars in the 21st century. Its disappointing, on some level I was hoping nations would care about the human rights or self determination of the people in Syria, but that really doesn’t seem relevant to anyone except for some western nations who are mostly just giving the concept lip service. Its all about religion and geopolitics. I wonder how this will affect the religious civil war in Iraq, or vice versa. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2013, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-saudi-arabia-supporting-the-syrian-rebels/667929/7 "2013-09-05T23:23:24Z")
I’m also recently reading that due to the problems in Iraq and the problems in Iran, the US is becoming pro-sunni to contain a unified shi’ite movement. If so, you’d assume the US would be more pro-rebel in Syria. As it stands, they aren’t doing a lot of that. They are giving humanitarian aid and they are training moderate rebels in Jordan but they aren’t getting really involved like in Libya. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2013, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-saudi-arabia-supporting-the-syrian-rebels/667929/8 "2013-09-05T23:58:25Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Is it safe to say this is mostly a sunni-shi’ite civil war being the reason other muslim countries are taking sides? From what I’ve recently read the alawites are shi’ite (hence the Iranian support) and the rebels are sunni hence the support from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Al Qaeda and probably Turkey (Turkey is mostly sunni). > > Growing up in the west, where religious wars (protestant vs catholic, etc) are considered ancient history it is still hard to wrap my head around religious wars in the 21st century. > > Its disappointing, on some level I was hoping nations would care about the human rights or self determination of the people in Syria, but that really doesn’t seem relevant to anyone except for some western nations who are mostly just giving the concept lip service. Its all about religion and geopolitics. > > I wonder how this will affect the religious civil war in Iraq, or vice versa. Religion is, at least in part, just a proxy. But dont’t forget it wasn’t that long ago that Catholics and Protestants were going at it Northern Ireland. And don’t forget that there a lot of Christians in Syria, and they are mostly allied with the Alawites, since they are still a minority and don’t want to live in a Sunni dominated country. ---
**Author:** ![Inbred\_Mm\_domesticus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/aca169/32.png) [@Inbred\_Mm\_domesticus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inbred_Mm_domesticus)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2013, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-saudi-arabia-supporting-the-syrian-rebels/667929/9 "2013-09-06T00:39:45Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Is it safe to say this is mostly a sunni-shi’ite civil war being the reason other muslim countries are taking sides? From what I’ve recently read the alawites are shi’ite (hence the Iranian support) and the rebels are sunni hence the support from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Al Qaeda and probably Turkey (Turkey is mostly sunni. I don’t know about the other countries but the Turkish govt’s attitude toward Assad soured when he ignored there calls for diplomacy and made his violent intentions clear. The Turkish people are sympathetic to the refugees but do not want to take part in the civil war and their attitude toward refugees has soured overtime. After all, the war has destabilized their border, caused an influx of 400k refugees, and led to the deaths of Turkish citizens from errant fire and a terrorist attack. Also two different sets of fighters whom they view as terrorists are fighting each other right at their border. All this chaos is occuring while their PM is leading the best bid for peace with the PKK inyears and trying to change the constitution to partly consolidate his own and his party’s power for years to come. Their stance is principle, greed, pragmatism, and populism and maybe some think being sunni is their primary reason for their attitude toward Assad. It’s a lot more than sectarianism and Iran though. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2013, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-saudi-arabia-supporting-the-syrian-rebels/667929/10 "2013-09-06T04:25:28Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Is it safe to say this is mostly a sunni-shi’ite civil war being the reason other muslim countries are taking sides? From what I’ve recently read the alawites are shi’ite (hence the Iranian support) and the rebels are sunni hence the support from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Al Qaeda and probably Turkey (Turkey is mostly sunni). > > Growing up in the west, where religious wars (protestant vs catholic, etc) are considered ancient history it is still hard to wrap my head around religious wars in the 21st century. While I wouldn’t say the Sunni/Shia conflict is the sole reason for the sides being taken in the Syrian War, it certainly is a major one sadly-hence why Iraq is allowing Iran into their airspace to ferry weapons to Syria for examle . ☹ > [@](#): > > Its disappointing, on some level I was hoping nations would care about the human rights or self determination of the people in Syria, but that really doesn’t seem relevant to anyone except for some western nations who are mostly just giving the concept lip service. Its all about religion and geopolitics. > > I wonder how this will affect the religious civil war in Iraq, or vice versa. Violence has been getting worse in Iraq since the Syrian Civil War broke out.