If Libya's oil stopped flowing importers would look to Saudi Arabia to make up the shortfall.
ON SEPTEMBER 19th Abdul Hamid al-Fakki, a Sudanese, was executed in Saudi Arabia for the crime of "sorcery".
The perpetrators are widely assumed to be Salafists, adherents of a fundamentalist group influenced by Saudi Arabia that has made strong inroads, particularly among Egypt's poorest classes.
Saudi Arabia has also been concerned by what it sees as Iranian meddling in Yemen in support of the rebellion by the Houthis (a Shiite minority in the north).
The insurgency in Saudi Arabia has been quashed.
THERE is no pleasing oil traders. Or so King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia must think.
"Containment" might work in Iran, but what about Saudi Arabia or Pakistan, which occupy a shadowy world between friends and enemies?
The MV Sirius Star was hijacked on November 15 more than 450 nautical miles off the coast of Kenya as it was en route from Saudi Arabia to the us via the Cape of Good Hope.
Soon Arabia was roasting coffee beans.
Much of the latest electronic guidance is sponsored from Saudi Arabia, and so reflects its conservative mores.
Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco have so far tentatively agreed. Saudi Arabia has refused, saying Israel has had enough concessions.
An opaque dust plume some 100 kilometers (60 miles) in width extends from Saudi Arabia across eastern Kuwait and into Iran, where the dust appears to mingle with clouds.
In one classroom at Aiton Elementary School, the Embassy of Saudi Arabia is hosting a fashion show.
This is true up to a point. Yet it is also true that frustration and resentment in Saudi Arabia are growing-and look set to go on doing so.
Leading this camp are the leaders of Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Then Mr Sharif is gone: whisked away by a motorcade that may include the two bullet-proof cars given to the PML-N by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
Damascus has emerged as the battleground between Iran and its Allies on one side, and Saudi Arabia and its Allies on the other.
But Saudi Arabia, by far the beefiest and most populous of the Gulf states, is a separate case.
Saudi Arabia has yet to open an embassy in Baghdad, which has been taken to mean that it deems Iraq's new Shia-led order to be illegitimate.
Saudi Arabia and the emirates have the soothing balm of oil.
Exports to Saudi Arabia have been rising but have not, so far, included heavy weaponry.
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