Saudi's grovel to houthis.

[Jesus Malverde]

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said on Friday that the Houthis are Saudi Arabia’s neighbors.

His comments on Twitter came just hours after positive developments at the UN-brokered peace conference in Kuwait.

UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed had said this week that the Yemeni government and the Houthis were discussing proposals to exchange prisoners before the month of Ramadan in June.

“Whether we disagree or agree with the Houthis, they remain a part of Yemen’s society,” Al-Jubeir tweeted. “Daesh and al-Qaeda, however, are terrorist organizations that should not be allowed to remain either in Yemen or in any other place in the world.”

http://aa.com.tr/en/politics/saudi-fm-houthis-are-part-of-yemeni-society-/571776

Looking for an exit to their disastrous military adventure. It's got to be embarrassing to have spent billions on the best military equipment and get humiliated by khat chewing, flip-flop wearing soldiers armed with AK's and RPG's.

[RiverNoord]

1. Huh - it's quite a shift from 'lets' bomb the shit out of the Houthis' to

'whether we disagree or agree with the Houthis, they remain part of Yemen's society.'

The latter sounds like the result of a minor diplomatic incident, rather then many months of aggressive bombing...

[bemildred]

2. They are a little over-stretched.

Rumors in the Kingdom: What elites are whispering about the increasingly shaky Saudi regime

Oil prices hover at $45/barrel, far below safe levels for the country's treasury. Further turmoil seems inevitable
-- Vijay Prashad, AlterNet

Turmoil inside the Saudi regime seems unstoppable. Veteran oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, was relieved of his duties last weekend. A fixture at the various oil meetings, al-Naimi was considered the voice of Saudi oil. But over the course of the past two years, it was not what al-Naimi did that rattled world oil markets; it is what he did not do. When oil prices began to slip in June of 2014, al-Naimi sat back and continued to allow Saudi oil production at high levels. If al-Naimi slowed down Saudi oil output, it would have allowed prices to go upwards. But he did not. By January of this year, the price of oil had fallen to $30/barrel, down from over $100 since June 2014. Currently, oil is at $45/barrel, still far short of safe levels for the Saudi treasury.

Why did the Saudi regime fire al-Naimi? Is it because the veteran—now age eighty—needed to retire? The answer is in his replacement, Khalid al-Falih, formerly head of Saudi Aramco (the state’s oil company). Born in 1960, al-Falih is closely associated with the Deputy Crown Prince—Mohammed bin Salman (MbS)—who has not only taken charge of the Saudi economy but also of its wars in Yemen and Syria. The replacement of al-Naimi by al-Falih, says an old friend in the Saudi bureaucracy, should be entirely understood as part of the “power grab by the young Deputy Crown Prince.”

Why did MbS turn against al-Naimi, the venerable diplomat for Saudi oil? My friend tells me that MbS was not pleased with al-Naimi’s attempt at a ceasefire in the oil war. At Doha in February, as I had reported, al-Naimi had brought representatives from Qatar, Russia and Venezuela together to stabilize oil prices. Such a rational move imperiled the aggressive foreign policy ambitions of MbS. Saudi Arabia’s regional aims could not be met unless Qatar and Russia felt hampered by low commodity prices. My friend, who has watched al-Naimi work for many decades, worries that rational voices are being pushed aside in the Kingdom. The arrogance of youth—embodied by MbS—is now in charge.

http://www.salon.com/2016/05/13/saudi_arabias_palace_intrigue_partner/

[bemildred]

3. A New Saudi Oil Minister: Tactical Continuation, Strategic Revolution By Jean-François Seznec The ap

The change at the Saudi oil ministry is less about al-Naimi’s attitude toward market share and more likely due to the younger Saudi leadership’s priority to modernize the economy as prescribed in the Vision 2030 plan—an economic transformation plan issued by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in April. Under this plan, industry will provide a bigger share of GDP than petroleum.

A new minister with added responsibility and emphasis on the rationalization of the kingdom’s industrial development gives the sense of urgency needed to rapidly force change. In fact, the change in ministers did correspond with major changes in the structure of the ministries themselves, especially the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, which was transformed into the Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources. The new ministry is also in charge of electricity, renewable energy, and development finance. The specific inclusion of industry reflects the kingdom’s elevated focus on mining, a sector with substantial potential for growth.

The logic behind the revamped ministry is to centralize and accelerate the kingdom’s downstream development. Oil is to be viewed as the base for development and value-added productions, which will provide a larger chunk of the GDP as rapidly as possible, all while creating jobs for Saudis.

Notably, shortly before al-Falih was charged with the new ministry he was made chairman of Ma’aden, the Saudi mining company that has grown into a large player in aluminum and advanced fertilizer production. As minister in charge of oil, natural gas, electricity, development finance, and chairman of Saudi Aramco and Ma’aden, al-Falih now controls the entire production chain.

http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/a-new-saudi-oil-minister-tactical-continuation-strategic-revolution

[bemildred]

4. Jesus!

MbS seems to be a real chump. He is buying the whole Neocon line here. Somebody needs to wise him up about the fate of discarded and disobedient former minions of the US establishment.