L-R : Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, US President Donald Trump, Saudi King Salman Bin Abdelaziz (or Abdul Aziz) Al Saud, Jordan's King Abdullah II Bin Al Hussein, Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, attend Arab and Muslim leaders summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on May 21, 2017. Balkis Press/ABACA/ABACA/PA Images. All rights reserved.In "Morbid Symptoms", Lebanese academic Gilbert Achcar argues that the Arab uprisings that started in 2011 took the form of a "triangular conflict between one revolutionary pole and two rival counter-revolutionary camps".
As the democratic revolutionary components of the uprisings were unable to effectively organize and take the lead of the opposition, Achcar writes, they were relegated to the margins, while the Gulf-backed Islamist and jihadist organizations took over, dominating the opposition.
Thus, the situation that emerged in many countries was one of a clash between two reactionary camps: the national governments on one side, and the various counterrevolutionary opposition groups on the other, both "equally inimical to the emancipatory aspirations of the "Arab Spring"", which squeezed and marginalized the groups asking for freedom, democracy, and equality.
