Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Hatred, Saudi Arabia, the Middle East and the Political Angle to Falling Oil Prices

David Gardner at FT notes:
Wahhabi Saudi Arabia’s visceral hatred of the Shia – as well as its rivalry with the Persian and Shia Islamic Republic for hegemony in the Gulf and the Levant – should be factored into the oil price equation. Riyadh, sitting on foreign exchange reserves of more than $750bn, can ride out lower oil revenues. Iran, which needs the price to be twice the current level to make ends meet, is hemorrhaging. Already economically hobbled by sanctions, Tehran is by some estimates spending $1.5bn a month supporting its allies in Syria and Iraq.

1 comment:

  1. However while thats great news for the Wahabbi, it aint so wonderful news for the elderly old men of the Saudi monarchy who opened up the Syrian War in an effort to get all the radical hotheads out of the place only increasingly drawn into open conflict instead of very quitely

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