Middle East Politics

Announcing from Saudi Arabia that he wants other countries to stop interfering in Lebanese affairs :lol:
 
Bin Talal has been arrested & commander of the royal navy has been fired.
 
I know the stuff about an attempted coup is speculation at this point, but you have to wonder if Kushner's secret trip last week is linked to this. Possible the US government found out this coup was being planned and Trump sent his most trusted confidante to inform the Saudi king.
 
Definitely sounds like something is a foot.

 
My guess is that the ultra conservatives are not fond of the moderates? I’ll be keeping up with this story...
 
A LOT of things going down today. Being Lebanese the Hariri news has surprised me the most. Not sure what's going to happen now.
 
I find it a bit unnerving that Talal had been on Trump's bad side during the campaign and Kushner was just in Saudi last weekend doing something undisclosed.

 
Helicopter just crashed with a prince on it and a few officials.
 
I don't like SA, but unrest there is the last thing that I want to see.
 
Raoul said:
I find it a bit unnerving that Talal had been on Trump's bad side during the campaign and Kushner was just in Saudi last weekend doing something undisclosed.

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He's the ex-Fox New major shareholder, right? (IIRC also behind hte ground 0 mosque)
 
Precaution said:
How many bloody Princes are there?
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Short answer: a lot.

The kingdom has more trivial money worries too. The Al Saud are a royal family like no other: there are thousands of them, descending from the 22 wives Ibn Saud had while technically observing the Sharia requirement of four wives – max – at any one time. He was ‘father to the nation’ in more than a metaphorical sense. In the context of a tribal society, these prudential intermarriages had the benefit of binding together a number of different groups at a time when Ibn Saud was merely the head of a coalition of tribes who founded the modern kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932 after he invaded the Hejaz, with its holy cities, Mecca and Medina. The trouble, presently, is that his descendants all expect their emoluments. The scale of this burden can be gauged from a classified cable sent by Wyche Fowler, then US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, to his government in November 1996, exposed by WikiLeaks, in which he reports that members of the Al Saud family receive stipends ranging from $270,000 a month for more senior princes to $8000 ‘for the lowliest member of the most remote branch of the family’. The system is calibrated by generation, with surviving sons and daughters of Ibn Saud receiving between $200,000 and $270,000, grandchildren around $27,000, great-grandchildren around $13,000 and great-great-grandchildren the minimum $8000 per month. According to the US embassy’s calculations, in 1996 the budget for around sixty surviving sons and daughters, 420 grandchildren, 2900 great-grandchildren and ‘probably only about 2000 great-great-grandchildren at this point’ amounted to more than $2 billion, with the stipends providing ‘a substantial incentive for royals to procreate’ since – in addition to bonuses received on marriage for palace construction – a royal stipend begins at birth. One minor prince, according to a Saudi source, had persuaded a community college in the state of Oregon to enrol him even though he had no intention of attending classes: his principal goal in life was to have more children so he could increase his monthly allowance.
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https://www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n17/malise-ruthven/the-saudi-trillions
 
They built theit citizens up to be hard line extremists and all of a sudden now want to become moderate. This will not end well for anybody and will eventually lead to civil war.
 
The Hariri family are far from being my favourites but there's something dodgy about this. He goes to SA to discuss a grant to the LAF and ends up on Al Arabya reading a script in which he resigns (Unlawful resignation as he has to do it via the president who can reject it) and blames Iran and assasination.
Weird timing as we've been going through a very stable period despite the events surrounding us.
 
berbatrick said:
Iran v Saudi even before Trump or Netanyahu can get their hands on that action.
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Well if Saudi wants to attack Lebanon then Israel will most probably get involved too. Saudi can only use it's air force if they want to attack Lebanon. Except if they send their proxy
 
The Crown Prince whose name escapes me at the moment....
 
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