Saudi Arabia 'destabilising Arab world', German intelligence warns

[Ichingcarpenter]

Saudi Arabia is at risk of becoming a major destabilising influence in the Arab world, German intelligence has warned.
Internal power struggles and the desire to emerge as the leading Arab power threaten to make the key Western ally a source of instability, according to the BND intelligence service.


“The current cautious diplomatic stance of senior members of the Saudi royal family will be replaced by an impulsive intervention policy,” a BND memo widely distributed to the German press reads.
The memo focuses particularly on the role of Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the 30-year-old son of King Salman who was recently appointed deputy crown prince and defence minister.

The concentration of so much power in Prince Mohammed’s hands “harbours a latent risk that in seeking to establish himself in the line of succession in his father’s lifetime, he may overreach,” the memo notes.


“Relations with friendly and above all allied countries in the region could be overstretched.”


Prince Mohammed is believed to have played a key role in Saudi Arabia’s decision to intervene in the civil war in Yemen earlier this year.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/saudiarabia/12029546/Saudi-Arabia-destabilising-Arab-world-German-intelligence-warns.html

[octoberlib]

1. They're doing plenty of damage to

Europe and America, too.

[Proserpina]

2. becoming?

They've been at it since the foundation of Israel. If not before.

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. 1928 The Secret of the Seven Sisters

On August 28, 1928, in the Scottish highlands, began the secret story of oil.

Three men had an appointment at Achnacarry Castle - a Dutchman, an American and an Englishman.

The Dutchman was Henry Deterding, a man nicknamed the Napoleon of Oil, having exploited a find in Sumatra. He joined forces with a rich ship owner and painted Shell salesman and together the two men founded Royal Dutch Shell.

The American was Walter C. Teagle and he represents the Standard Oil Company, founded by John D. Rockefeller at the age of 31 - the future Exxon. Oil wells, transport, refining and distribution of oil - everything is controlled by Standard oil.

The Englishman, Sir John Cadman, was the director of the Anglo-Persian oil Company, soon to become BP. On the initiative of a young Winston Churchill, the British government had taken a stake in BP and the Royal Navy switched its fuel from coal to oil. With fuel-hungry ships, planes and tanks, oil became "the blood of every battle".


http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/04/201344105231487582.html


The Secret of the Seven Sisters


Documentary series that reveals how a secret pact formed a cartel that controls the world's oil. Throughout the region's modern history, since the discovery of oil, the Seven Sisters have sought to control the balance of power.

They have supported monarchies in Iran and Saudi Arabia, opposed the creation of OPEC, profiting from the Iran-Iraq war, leading to the ultimate destruction of Saddam Hussein and Iraq.

At the end of the 1960s, the Seven Sisters, the major oil companies, controlled 85 percent of the world's oil reserves. Today, they control just 10 percent.

New hunting grounds are therefore required, and the Sisters have turned their gaze towards Africa. With peak oil, wars in the Middle East, and the rise in crude prices, Africa is the oil companies' new battleground.

In the Caucasus, the US and Russia are vying for control of the region. The great oil game is in full swing. Whoever controls the Caucasus and its roads, controls the transport of oil from the Caspian Sea.

Tbilisi, Erevan and Baku - the three capitals of the Caucasus. The oil from Baku in Azerbaijan is a strategic priority for all the major companies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL_IlIlrxhtPONcvyiwujVOSL8d9RkAchV&v=k3ENyHes2pk

[Betty Karlson]

4. Very interesting information. Thanks for posting this. eom

[Proserpina]

5. Yes, it's horrible to think that a century later, nobody has learned a thing

[polly7]

7. +1 nt.

[Whiskeytide]

6. "Key Western Ally" my ass. n/t

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. Reuter's headline and take on this story

German spy agency warns of Saudi shift to 'impulsive' policies

Germany's BND foreign intelligence agency, in an unusual public statement issued on Wednesday, voiced concern that Saudi Arabia was becoming impulsive in its foreign policy as powerful young Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman asserts himself.

The BND also said that with Saudi Arabia - the world's No. 1 oil exporter - losing confidence in the United States as a guarantor of Middle East order, Riyadh appeared ready to take more risks in its regional competition with Iran.

Since King Salman succeeded to power in January, Saudi Arabia has orchestrated a military coalition to intervene in neighboring Yemen to limit Iranian influence, increased support for Syrian rebels and made big changes in the royal succession.

Riyadh has long viewed Iran as aggressive and expansionary and regarded its use of non-state proxies such as Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iraqi Shi'ite militias as aggravating sectarian tensions and destabilizing the region. But under Salman, it has moved more assertively to counter its regional foe.





Read more at Reutershttp://www.reuters.com/article/2015/12/02/us-saudi-germany-warning-idUSKBN0TL1O020151202#LRCJslclLSAlypKT.99