Notes of a talk given by Michael Kyriazopoulos at our AWL branch meeting in August

Saudi Arabia has been under some scrutiny recently, because some of the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, and there are links to Al-Qaeda. People also want to know why Bush attacked Afghanistan and Iraq, but not Saudi Arabia. Michael Moore’s film ‘Fahrenheit 911’ gives details of the relationship between Bush and the ruling House of Saud, and even John Kerry has criticised the closeness of this relationship.

Saudi Arabia is a country of intense contradiction. It has a very modern oil industry alongside a semi-feudal system of government.

Saudi Arabia was founded in 1925, before which the area was populated with a collection of tribes. Ibm Saud was appointed by Britain to protect its interests. He represented the most backward political forces in Arabia.

In the 1930s, Saudi Arabia became a major oil-producing country. The USA replaced Britain as the dominant force, mainly through the American-Arabian Oil Company (Amoco). Saudi Arabia has huge oil reserves, flat land, and easy export via the sea – so it was able to produce the cheapest oil in the world. The House of Saud became very rich.

The USA nurtured Saudi Arabia as a client state.

In 1973, Saudi Arabia led an oil embargo by Arab countries, which forced prices up fourfold. But despite leading the embargo, it was the first country to concede to the West.

In more recent times, Saudi Arabia has been affected by developments in the Arab world. Nasser’s pan-Arabism was at odds with Saudi Arabia’s Islamism. Islamism gained hegemony, which saw the demise of secular Arab nationalism.

Militant jihadi Islamists now pose an internal threat in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia’s relationship with the West is based on oil and defence contracts. Saudi Arabia’s army has a lot of hardware, but the real power is in the National Guard. The officers serve the ruling Wahabbi sect, and suppress internal dissent.

In 1979, the Mecca rebellion was brutally put down.

Now, there have been no US troops in Saudi Arabia since the Iraq war. Oil prices are high.

There is a growing base for Islamism, because many well-educated men are unemployed. The Islamists have been able to expose the hypocrisy of the House of Saud, which has over 1,000 princes and is immensely rich, but rules over a population which suffers great poverty.

The majority of wage workers in Saudi Arabia are foreign eg. Pakistani.

Recent terrorist attacks highlight the fragility of the situation, and there is the possibility of tensions ‘blowing up’.