Fox Business News: Saudi Arabia’s attorney general is saying that they are starting an Anti-Corruption Push. Sheik in charge is getting rid of the sheiks who used to be in charge. They are holed in at the Ritz Carlton. We do know that Lebanon and tensions with Iran escalating, and Yemen firing missiles. This is the stuff that could make oil prices soar.
Joe Petrowski, Former Gulf Oil CEO, states that it would affect the prices to the upside of Saudi Arabia. They can export 10,000 million barrels per day, which is their exports. It’s not what it was like in the past because of U.S. Shale and our production. Our proven reserves are greater than theirs and our production is actually exceeding theirs.
Long term, there are more geopolitical implications that the U.S. wants Saudi Arabia to get through while weeding the corruption peacefully to make the change from an extraction society to a global economy.
As The Washington Post says: In the Middle East right now, all eyes are on Riyadh. The Saudi capital was the site of a series of events over the weekend that dramatized the ruthless ambition of the kingdom’s new leadership.
First, Saudi officials reported they had intercepted and destroyed a “ballistic missile” northeast of Riyadh fired by Houthi rebels in Yemen, where a Saudi-led intervention has turned into a protracted, ruinous war — and now a full blockade of Yemen, announced late Sunday. Second, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced his resignation while on a visit to Saudi Arabia, a move that surprised many analysts and plunged his country into yet another political crisis. Then, in the late hours of Saturday, Saudi authorities conducted what appears to be a far-reaching purge, detaining more than two dozen royal family members, cabinet ministers and prominent businessmen in a sweep that further consolidates the position of the young crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
Among those caught up in the crackdown is Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, head of the elite Saudi National Guard and a favored son of the late King Abdullah. Also rounded up was Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a flamboyant billionaire with a record of investments in high-profile Western companies and a conspicuous Twitter feud with President Trump. Reports indicate that those detained are being quartered in Riyadh’s posh Ritz-Carlton hotel.
Saudi Arabia is an executive monarchy without a written Constitution or independent government institutions like a Parliament or courts, so accusations of corruption are difficult to evaluate,” wrote David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times. The boundaries between the public funds and the wealth of the royal family are murky at best, and corruption, as other countries would describe it, is believed to be widespread.
Petrowski states that this purge has got to be done in due process, not too far to enhance his power, PRINCE Mohammed bin Salman. Could this come to war? Iran and Saudi Arabia could come to a war. When the Shah opened the door, it became a pressure cooker. This needed to be done and we will see how things work out.
Further on Washington Post states that: On Saturday morning, the official Saudi news agency carried a statement from King Salman announcing the formation of a commission to monitor and investigate corruption — what the official communique deemed the “exploitation by some of the weak souls who have put their own interests above the public interest.” The committee is chaired by the crown prince, who many believe is on the precipice of taking power from his ailing father. The arrests have likely been in the works for more than a year.
In a separate incident that led to feverish speculation among some observers, Prince Mansour bin Muqrin, deputy governor of the Asir region, died in a helicopter crash on Sunday along with a number of other officials. The prince was the son of another former crown prince who was sidelined by King Salman’s ascension.
Some analysts see the crackdown as a clear message both to the country’s rich and powerful and to a wider population yearning for greater reform. “Cynics are calling this a power play but it’s actually a message to the people that an era of elite indulgence is coming to an end,” said Ali Shihabi, the executive director of the Arabia Foundation, a Washington-based think tank with close ties to the kingdom, in a series of tweets. “This is also a move that will have a wide resonance with the masses since elite indulgence has been a sore issue for decades.”
On Saturday morning, the official Saudi news agency carried a statement from King Salman announcing the formation of a commission to monitor and investigate corruption — what the official communique deemed the “exploitation by some of the weak souls who have put their own interests above the public interest.” The committee is chaired by the crown prince, who many believe is on the precipice of taking power from his ailing father. The arrests have likely been in the works for more than a year.