{"id":265,"date":"2007-03-26T05:16:52","date_gmt":"2007-03-26T10:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=265"},"modified":"2007-03-26T05:16:52","modified_gmt":"2007-03-26T10:16:52","slug":"wither-cheneys-saudis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=265","title":{"rendered":"Wither Cheney&#8217;s Saudis?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><meta http-equiv=\"Content-Language\" content=\"en-us\" \/> <meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=windows-1252\" \/><title>Saudi King Abdullah does not app<\/title>Saudi King Abdullah does not appear to be cooperating with Vice President  Cheney&#8217;s plans for the kingdom.<\/p>\n<p>At least, that is what it looks like to those who track what<em> didn&#8217;t happen<\/em>  last week.<em> <\/em>The Saudi monarch announced that there would be <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alertnet.org\/thenews\/newsdesk\/L22318973.htm\">no changes in  the Saudi cabinet<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Is &#8220;no news&#8221; good news?<\/p>\n<p>Not for Cheney &#038; Co.<\/p>\n<p>In January 2007 there was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.iht.com\/articles\/ap\/2007\/01\/08\/africa\/ME-GEN-Saudi-Arabia-Politics.php\"> considerable speculation<\/a> that a major cabinet shuffle was in the works:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is considering a major Cabinet reshuffle  \tsoon, the first since he ascended to the throne of the oil-rich kingdom,  \tdiplomats and Saudi media said Monday.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>reshuffle may include key posts such as Foreign Minister, which has  \tbeen held by Prince Saud al-Faisal for more than 30 years, and the  \tinfluential Oil Minister<\/strong>, they said&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>Saudis who have intimate knowledge of the discussions regarding the possible  \treshuffle said <strong>al-Faisal<\/strong>, who has had health problems, <strong>might be  \treplaced by Crown Prince Sultan&#8217;s son Prince Bandar<\/strong>, a former ambassador  \tto Washington and current secretary of the National Security Council&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>The news of the reshuffle comes a month after the resignation of Prince  \tTurki al-Faisal as Saudi ambassador to the United States. His resignation,  \tafter just 15 months as ambassador to Washington, sparked <strong>speculations  \tabout a power rift within the royal family<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>If<\/em> Bandar is, as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thewashingtonnote.com\/archives\/001826.php\">has been  suggested<\/a>, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=215\">Cheney&#8217;s  Saudi<\/a>&#8221; then King Abdullah has once again defied the American Vice President.<\/p>\n<p>But the King&#8217;s refusal to name Bandar Foreign Minister might only represent  the tip of the iceberg.\u00c2\u00a0 The re-appointment of the Saudi oil minister, Ali  Naimi, may also represent a significant snub.<\/p>\n<p>Back on April 26, 2003, the <em>Economist<\/em> ran a story (&#8220;Regime change for  OPEC? &#8211; Ali Naimi and the problems facing OPEC&#8221;) that seemed to suggest that  ExxonMobil had been actively pressing for Naimi&#8217;s resignation.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>[W]ithin Saudi Arabia&#8230; well-sourced rumours this week suggested that Mr  \tNaimi is about to be forced out of office&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>So, why might the Saudis even think of firing Mr Naimi, who has been their  \toil minister since 1995? The most plausible explanation is that he has lost  \ta power struggle over the role of foreign investment. For years, a faction  \tled by the foreign minister has been pushing to open up the country&#8217;s  \tnatural gas and power sectors to foreign money. Even though this would  \tcertainly not involve the full privatisation of Saudi oil into foreign  \thands, Mr Naimi saw this proposal as an attack on his beloved Aramco and  \tfought it tooth and nail.<\/p>\n<p>He may have lost this battle soon after Saddam lost his. It seems that Exxon  \tMobil&#8217;s formidable boss, Lee Raymond, who has long had a testy relationship  \twith Mr Naimi, recently complained via back-door channels to the powers in  \tthe House of Saud about the oil minister&#8217;s obstructionism on the gas deals &#8211;  \tsuggesting that investment dollars might flow instead to newly liberated  \tIraq. If the rumours are indeed true, this prospect appears to have worried  \tthe Saudi royals enough for them to move against Mr Naimi.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=56\">I have argued<\/a> that  the Saudi &#8220;foreign investment&#8221; story referenced by the <em>Economist<\/em> may help  explain some of the tension between Cheney and King Abdullah.<\/p>\n<p>Naimi has also presided over the Saudi-backed OPEC oil price hikes of recent  years, even as Cheney&#8217;s Saudis allegedly want to flood the oil market as part of <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=230\">a campaign to undermine  the Iranian regime<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That doesn&#8217;t appear to be in the cards, at least for now.\u00c2\u00a0 Prepare to  pay at the pump.\u00c2\u00a0 Abdullah is King.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saudi King Abdullah does not appSaudi King Abdullah does not appear to be cooperating with Vice President Cheney&#8217;s plans for the kingdom. At least, that is what it looks like to those who track what didn&#8217;t happen last week. The Saudi monarch announced that there would be no changes in the Saudi cabinet. Is &#8220;no [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,10,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}