17-03-2024, 10:17 AM
The House of Saud, or the Al Saud, is one of the world’s biggest royal families, with 15,000 members, including 7000 princes. Abdulaziz alone had some 45 sons with 10 wives. The throne passes from man to man (generally from brother to brother before father to son). That is, if coups and murder don’t get in the way first.
The United States arrived in the kingdom for oil.
Biden wants a deal that will protect Israel but bring peace to the Palestinian territories, leaving the US free to focus on China and Russia.
Prisoners are still beheaded in town squares and, until recently, morality police would stalk the streets looking for those breaching Islamic law or sharia – women uncovered or music playing, for example. (Saudi King Faisal was murdered in 1975 over a dispute that began with the introduction of television to the kingdom.)
The country only has so much time left to reform its economy before the oil money starts drying up as the world shifts from fossil fuels, says Panikoff, now at the Atlantic Council. It needs more foreign investment (but more local employment). It needs tourism and recreation. He sees virtually all of Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy through the lens of this mammoth task at home, whether it’s building the futuristic city Neom in the desert or wooing the then-Trump administration while courting Chinese investment.
“MBS knows he has to move quick,” Panikoff says.
Few people outside the kingdom had heard of MBS. The boy had grown up in the shadow of successful older half-brothers and cousins – a princely pool of astronauts, billionaire investors, ministers and Oxford fellows.
He hadn’t been educated abroad as they had. He’d stayed in Riyadh, where his father had long served as governor. Even the international intelligence community had barely noticed him. “I don’t think anyone would’ve said, ‘Oh, that’s the guy [to watch]’,” Panikoff says.
“The US will have to give MBS what he wants,” says Magee. “It’s hard to see them pulling this off without Saudi sign-off.”
“MBS knows he has to move quick,” Panikoff says.
It could also change the Middle East.
“The US gives Saudi something it wants, Saudi gives Israel what it wants – the centre of Islam endorsing a peace deal – and Israel accepts a two-state solution,” says Magee. At least, that’s the idea.
Congress is largely controlled by Republicans, who are largely controlled by Donald Trump, and he won’t want Biden closing an historic Middle East peace pact.
MBS himself has said of Washington’s cold shoulder: “I believe other people in the East are going to be super happy.”
Panikoff thinks the West and Saudi Arabia still need each other “whether we like it or not”. ”You can’t isolate a country as important as Saudi Arabia for long,” adds Magee.
https://amp.smh.com.au/world/middle-east...5cbua.html
The United States arrived in the kingdom for oil.
Biden wants a deal that will protect Israel but bring peace to the Palestinian territories, leaving the US free to focus on China and Russia.
Prisoners are still beheaded in town squares and, until recently, morality police would stalk the streets looking for those breaching Islamic law or sharia – women uncovered or music playing, for example. (Saudi King Faisal was murdered in 1975 over a dispute that began with the introduction of television to the kingdom.)
The country only has so much time left to reform its economy before the oil money starts drying up as the world shifts from fossil fuels, says Panikoff, now at the Atlantic Council. It needs more foreign investment (but more local employment). It needs tourism and recreation. He sees virtually all of Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy through the lens of this mammoth task at home, whether it’s building the futuristic city Neom in the desert or wooing the then-Trump administration while courting Chinese investment.
“MBS knows he has to move quick,” Panikoff says.
Few people outside the kingdom had heard of MBS. The boy had grown up in the shadow of successful older half-brothers and cousins – a princely pool of astronauts, billionaire investors, ministers and Oxford fellows.
He hadn’t been educated abroad as they had. He’d stayed in Riyadh, where his father had long served as governor. Even the international intelligence community had barely noticed him. “I don’t think anyone would’ve said, ‘Oh, that’s the guy [to watch]’,” Panikoff says.
“The US will have to give MBS what he wants,” says Magee. “It’s hard to see them pulling this off without Saudi sign-off.”
“MBS knows he has to move quick,” Panikoff says.
It could also change the Middle East.
“The US gives Saudi something it wants, Saudi gives Israel what it wants – the centre of Islam endorsing a peace deal – and Israel accepts a two-state solution,” says Magee. At least, that’s the idea.
Congress is largely controlled by Republicans, who are largely controlled by Donald Trump, and he won’t want Biden closing an historic Middle East peace pact.
MBS himself has said of Washington’s cold shoulder: “I believe other people in the East are going to be super happy.”
Panikoff thinks the West and Saudi Arabia still need each other “whether we like it or not”. ”You can’t isolate a country as important as Saudi Arabia for long,” adds Magee.
https://amp.smh.com.au/world/middle-east...5cbua.html