DEARBORN — The Ambassador of the League of Arab States to the U.S., Mohammed Al Hussaini Al Sharif, delivered a lecture on the “Arab Spring” and the role of the League in the Middle East on Monday, Sept. 22, at Henry Ford Community College.

Sharif began his lecture by stressing on the economic, geographic and religious importance of the Arab World.

“The Arab World has 58 percent of the world’s oil reserves and 28 percent of natural gas reserves. It is the center of the world, strategically located between Asia, Africa and Europe. It is also the cradle of three religions–Islam, Christianity and Judaism,” he said. “That’s why we have so much conflict. Conflict reflects the importance and wealth of the region.”

Sharif said the results of the Arab uprisings, which started in Tunisia in 2011, have not been promising.

“I don’t know whether now we can call it an Arab Spring. We have not seen any spring, yet,” he added. “I read that someone called it, in the New York Times, the Arab Decade, and that name makes sense, because with revolutions you need years to get results.”

Sharif explained the forces behind the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya and Syria, which started out peacefully, but transpired into violent civil wars in some countries.

“The revolutions demanded respect for human rights, freedom of speech, transparency and democratization,” he said. “These essential demands were not there.”

He added that the longevity of rulers, social media and, in some cases, armies and foreign intervention, contributed to the uprisings.

“In Egypt and Tunisia, the military did not back the government against the protests, unlike Syria, where the military took the side of the regime, on sectarian bases,” he said. 

Sharif is a veteran Saudi diplomat. He served as Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Turkey, Canada, the United Kingdom and Venezuela, before representing the Arab League as its ambassador to the United States. He attended the American University of Beirut and has a Ph.D. in international politics from the University of Houston.

Sharif said the effects of the Arab Spring have even reached Arab countries, where there were no major protests.

“The Arab Spring was extended to other Arab countries, but in a peaceful way,” he said, explaining that some regimes started reforming preemptively to avoid unrest.

Ambassador Sharif speaks to the crowd at HFCC on Monday.

Algeria held parliamentary elections with international monitors, he said, while in Morocco and Jordan, the monarchs have given more power to the elected government.

He added that Gulf monarchies threw money at infrastructure and raised salaries to please the people.

The ambassador quoted Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, as saying: “If there is a lesson to be learned from the Arab Spring, it is that the winds of change that are now blowing in the Middle East will eventually reach every Arab state. Now is, therefore, an opportune time, particularly for the Arab monarchical regimes, which still enjoy a considerable measure of public goodwill and legitimacy, to begin adopting measures that will bring about greater participation of the citizenry in their countries’ political life.”

Sharif said the Arab League, which was formed in 1943 to increase economic, security and political cooperation between Arab States, has taken unprecedented measures against member states, in light of the Arab Spring.

The League has suspended the membership of Libya and Syria, accusing their respective governments of killing their own civilians. 

The Arab League supported NATO’s military intervention in 2011 against then-Libyan leader Muamar Gaddafi. 

Sharif said the League was divided on a U.S. military strike against Syria, but that, personally, he supported the strike.

“The main reason why the U.S. was reluctant to strike Syria is that Israel does not want Assad gone,” he said.

President Barack Obama held off on a strike against Syria, after agreeing to a Russian plan, which requires Syria to give up its chemical weapons.

Sharif said the plan only benefits Israel, which will be the only country in the region with chemical and nuclear weapons.

The ambassador said the Israeli lobby controls American foreign policy in the Middle East. He added that he admires the efficiency of pro-Israeli think tanks in Washington, which bring speakers from all over the world to promote the Israeli viewpoint. 

He added that Arab uprisings happened to the dislike of Israel, which was allied with the former Egyptian and Tunisian regimes.

“Although Tunisia did not have diplomatic relations with Israel, the Egyptian ambassador in Tel Aviv was also representing Tunisia, we learned recently,” he said. “Israel also loved Gaddafi. Where can they find a crazy person like him to divide the Arabs?”

Sharif pointed to the hypocrisy of American foreign policy, which does not object to Israeli atrocities against the Palestinian people.

“Double standards are a way of life in foreign policy,” he said. “Our problem with the U.S. is its strategic commitment to Israel.” 

He criticized Israel for continuing to build settlements in the West Bank, even after the renewal of peace talks with Palestinians.

Sharif added that the Israeli public opinion is changing from the occupation.

He recalled a former Israeli official as saying, during a lecture: “The biggest threat to the state of Israel is not the Iranian nuclear program, but the vanishing of our values.”

“The peace talks come at a time when Egypt, Syria and Iraq, which were, at a certain point, the backbone of the Palestinian cause, are in turmoil,” Sharif said.

 The ambassador added that Israel and the United States succeeded in distracting Arabs from the Palestinian issue, by convincing them that Iran is the biggest threat to the Middle East.

Although Bahrain witnessed pro-democracy protests with similar slogans to other Arab uprisings since 2011, Sharif did not mention the Gulf nation in the context of the Arab Spring.

When asked about it, he described the situation in strictly sectarian terms.

“The Shi’a community there is not happy. The government is saying Iran is instigating it. Bahrain is very close to Saudi Arabia and home to a huge American military base. Saudis will not allow Iranian intervention in Bahrain,” he said.

Sharif added that Shi’a in Bahrain are represented in the government.

The Arab American News asked Sharif about the transfer of power in Qatar, in which Prince Hamad Bin Jasim Al Thani stepped down for his son, Tamim, and if it had anything to do with the feud between Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

“Not even Qataris know why the prince stepped down,” he said. “Given its size and location, Saudi Arabia is like Qatar’s big brother. Do Qataris accept that fact? That is a different matter.”