Saudi Arabia plays key role in US anti-Iranian alliance

international | anti-war / imperialism | other press Monday November 14, 2011 19:27 by pat c

Jean Shaoul outlines the role that Saudi Arabia is playing in the Imperialist war plans against Iran. The lack of democracy in Saudi Arabia has never bothered the US. Full text at link.

Saudi Arabia’s key role in seeking to destabilise the Ba’athist regime of Bashir Assad has become the centrepiece of an attempt by Washington to cobble together an anti-Iranian alliance, aimed more generally at suppressing the Middle Eastern masses.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s leading oil producer and exporter, has the largest known oil reserves in the world. This has brought untold wealth to the Saudi ruling family and its more than 20,000 princes. The House of Saud keeps power by a system of brutal repression that outlaws all public protests, strikes and expressions of dissent, combined with its championing of an extreme version of Sunni Islam, Wahhabism.

The 10 to 15 percent of the population who are Shi’ite are persecuted. This creates deep social tensions, especially as the Shi’ite live mainly in the Eastern Province, where 90 percent of Saudi’s 260 billion barrels of proven oil reserves are found.

The majority of the population have derived little benefit from oil wealth. Unemployment among Saudi men is officially 11.6 percent, but is several times that figure. Large numbers of women are excluded from the labour market. Young people under 30, who make up two thirds of the 26-million-strong population, are badly affected; 40 percent of 20- to 24-year-olds are unemployed. Even well-educated graduates cannot find work, marry or set up a home.