{"id":27951,"date":"2017-11-14T07:41:46","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T12:41:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=27951"},"modified":"2017-11-14T07:41:46","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T12:41:46","slug":"the-reverse-midas-touch-of-saudi-arabias-crown-prince-is-turning-the-middle-east-to-dust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=27951","title":{"rendered":"The Reverse Midas Touch of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince is Turning the Middle East to Dust"},"content":{"rendered":"
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THE REVERSE MIDAS TOUCH OF SAUDI ARABIA\u2019S CROWN PRINCE IS TURNING THE MIDDLE EAST TO DUST<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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KUDOS TO GERMANY\u2019S<\/u> spooks. Back in December 2015, the German foreign intelligence agency, BND, distributed a one-and-a-half-page memo<\/a> to various media outlets titled: \u201cSaudi Arabia \u2014 Sunni regional power torn between foreign policy paradigm change and domestic policy consolidation.\u201d The document was pretty astonishing, both in its undiplomatic bluntness and remarkable prescience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current cautious diplomatic stance of senior members of the Saudi royal family will be replaced by an impulsive intervention policy,\u201d the memo warned<\/a>, focusing on the role of Mohammed bin Salman, who had been appointed as deputy crown prince and defense minister at the age of 30 earlier that year.<\/p>\n

Both MBS, as he has come to be known, and his elderly father King Salman, the BND analysts wrote, want Saudi Arabia to be seen as \u201cthe leader of the Arab world\u201d with a foreign policy built on \u201ca strong military component.\u201d Yet the memo also pointed out that the consolidation of so much power in a single young prince\u2019s hands \u201charbors a latent risk that in seeking to establish himself in the line of succession in his father\u2019s lifetime, he may overreach,\u201d adding: \u201cRelations with friendly and above all allied countries in the region could be overstretched.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so it has come to pass. In fact, despite being repudiated at the time<\/a> by a German government more concerned about diplomatic and commercial relations with Riyadh, the BND warning turned out to be eerily prophetic.<\/p>\n

Consider recent events in the Gulf. Can you get more \u201cimpulsive\u201d than rounding up 11 fellow princes<\/a>, including one of the world\u2019s richest men<\/a>and the commander of the national guard<\/a>, and holding them at the Ritz Carlton on charges of corruption?<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n

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THE REVERSE MIDAS TOUCH OF SAUDI ARABIA\u2019S CROWN PRINCE IS TURNING THE MIDDLE EAST TO DUST KUDOS TO GERMANY\u2019S spooks. Back in December 2015, the German foreign intelligence agency, BND, distributed a one-and-a-half-page memo to various media outlets titled: \u201cSaudi Arabia \u2014 Sunni regional power torn between foreign policy paradigm change and domestic policy consolidation.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7925,17012,522,11708,701,5567],"class_list":["post-27951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","tag-mbs","tag-mehdi-hasan","tag-middle-east","tag-mohammed-bin-salman","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-the-intercept"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27951"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27952,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27951\/revisions\/27952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}