What is the most destabilising force in the Middle East? Until the last few years it would be the behaviour of Israel towards the Palestinians. Now I’m not so sure.
Islam has two major branches – Sunni and Shia (the split originates in a dispute over who should lead the religion after the death of the Prophet Mohammed). Saudi Arabia is Sunni (the 90% majority branch) and Iran is Shia. I am not suggesting that there antipathy is just about religion, a significant part of it is geopolitical – governments love to use religion to justify their actions.
It is a far cry from when Mohammed Bin-Salman (MBS) became Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and was seen as a moderniser. Saudi Arabia’s meteoric rise from the 1930s is mainly due to oil and obviously the Western Powers would not have allowed the Al-Saud family to rule the area if they had known how much oil was under the ground. The Al Saud family had ruled parts of Arabia, in and off, since the 18th century, but it was the foundation of the modern Saudi Arabia. In the 1970s, along with its OPEC partners, Saudi Arabia threw off the colonial shackles and started charging more for oil, triggering a recession and an energy crisis in the West.
The money from oil allows the country not to charge citizens tax and create many state funded non-jobs. It has also allowed the sprawling Al-Saud family to live in unimaginable wealth. The devil’s deal the Al-Saud family made was with the exponents of Wahhabism, a very strict form of Islam, which started in the first Saudi state. Religious police patrol the kingdom, though this was only relevant to those without wealth or power. The rich drew their blinds at prayer time safe in the knowledge that they would not be checked on by the religious police. This has meant that Wahhabism has exported its influence due to funding from the Saudi government; Sunni Islam is not the same in each country, as Islam does not have a ruling structure like Christian churches.
Women and LGBTQ+ people had few, if any, rights. Women famously not being allowed to drive, MBS came to power with an agenda to modernise the Kingdom.
This has involved the state sanctioned execution of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi embassy in Turkey. The perpetrators have taken the blame and said that MBS was not involved, but they would wouldn’t they. Khashoggi was a thorn in the side of the state and the best-case scenario is that there was a “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest” scenario like that which caused the death of Thomas a’Becket, at least Henry II paid penance and was whipped by monks as punishment. MBS used his geopolitical power to avoid condemnation from much of the world. Especially the USA.
The invasion of Yemen was to remove a perceived source of Iranian power adjacent to Saudi Arabia. This has led to a protracted Vietnam style war with the Yemeni people devastated by armed conflict and disease. Shamefully this has not stopped Western governments selling Saudi Arabia military equipment for those lovely petrodollars. In the UK the government has breached its own rules about exporting military equipment to be used against civilians and continues to turn a blind eye to its own breaches of law.
MBS’s other aim was to diversify the kingdom’s income sources. Even the huge amounts of oil below the Kingdom will run out eventually. The House of Saud’s compact with their people will end without money, as will their lavish lifestyle. A stake in the state oil company, Aramco, has been sold off. Definitely a case of Caveat Emptor – why would they sell, as the monopoly income is what funds the Kingdom and this will open up scrutiny? Either because there is less oil than thought or outsiders who won shares will not want the Kingdom sanctioned or destabilised.
The new income stream comes from the House of Saud’s control of two out of there of Islam’s holiest cities, Mecca and Medina. There is no historic reason for the House of Saud to be seen as particularly holy, though they use that to reinforce their rulership. All Muslim’s, if they can, must perform Hajj and visit the holy cities at least once in their lifetime.
Mecca is being expensively redeveloped, with five, six and seven star hotels and has been dubbed Meccahattan. It is spectacular and incredibly beautiful, but it is not some grand gesture of benevolence. The income from the annual pilgrimage will be what funds the Kingdom in decades to come when the oil is gone. A tax on the faith of the religion’s followers.
MBS is not the only problem, the House of Saud have repeatedly shown themselves to be venal, self-serving plutocrats, but MBS has taken this to a new level.
This song’s B side is Killing an Arab. The drums on the A side it are pounding and it is much better than the Cure’s more famous material.
The Hanging Garden
Five Miles Out 