Feb 15, 2014

Saudi Arabia is belatedly taking steps to discourage Saudi citizens from traveling to Syria to join al-Qaeda in the war against Bashar al-Assad’s regime. King Abdullah this month issued a royal decree banning travel abroad to join jihadist movements, and imposing jail terms of up to 20 years for violating the decree.

Estimates of the number of Saudis fighting in Syria range as high as 2,500. Some are hardened veterans of earlier jihads in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Iraq. A few are compatriots of Osama bin Laden. Others traveled to Syria from the kingdom, despite individual travel bans imposed for dissident activities at home. Some traveled directly through major Saudi airports, leading many observers to conclude they were encouraged by the authorities to leave the kingdom and go fight Assad. For over two years, the Saudi government seemed to turn a blind eye to travel by its citizens — even political dissidents — to Syria.

The royal decree has now been endorsed by Crown Prince Salman, the Council of Ministers and some senior Wahhabi clerics. Similar legislation is under review in Kuwait, which has also sent several hundred fighters to Syria and is a major source of private funding for Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s official arm in Syria. Some Saudi sources claim that up to 20% of the Saudis who went to Syria have now come home, and the Saudi press has lauded the government for assisting their return.

Saudi sources cite two reasons for the change in policy. First is pressure from Minister of Interior Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who has led the fight inside the kingdom for the last decade against the al-Qaeda underground there. He is also a major figure in the Saudi campaign against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula based in Yemen, which is a joint Saudi-Yemeni group. Prince Nayef knows the danger of coddling jihadists directly; they almost assassinated him a few years ago. It is likely the Ministry of Interior discovered evidence of plotting by Saudi jihadists in Syria to carry out attacks inside the kingdom similar to those carried out in 2004 to 2006 by Saudis returning from Afghanistan.

The upcoming visit by President Barack Obama to the kingdom in late March is the second factor behind the new policy. King Abdullah will make a major push for a more vigorous American effort to oust Assad when he hosts Obama. The Saudis have been openly disappointed that Obama has not used force to get rid of Assad or provided more assistance to training and arming the Syrian opposition. By taking steps to curb Saudi help to al-Qaeda and Jabhat al-Nusra, the king hopes to disarm American concerns that the kingdom is naively helping terrorists gain a stronghold in Syria. Prince Nayef just visited the White House last week for meetings with national security adviser Susan Rice and assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, Lisa Monaco. The meetings were preparations for the president’s trip. The same issue of foreign fighters traveling to Syria came up in Obama’s meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah in California on Feb. 14. Hundreds of Jordanians have joined Jabhat al-Nusra.