"The unjustly spilled blood of this oppressed martyr will no doubt soon show its effect and divine vengeance will befall Saudi politicians.”
That rather ominous quote is from Ayatollah Khamenei who was decidedly upset with Saudi Arabia’s execution of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
While we wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s possible to find a “silver lining” in the San Bernardino massacre, the fact that Tashfeen Malik’s connection to Saudi Arabia has focused the world’s attention on Riyadh’s role in promoting Sunni extremism means the tragedy will at least serve a kind of utilitarian purpose.
Earlier this week, Saudi Arabia released budget numbers which showed that the kingdom ran a deficit in 2015 that amounted to some 15% of GDP.
To be sure, that was far better than feared, but it’s still a disaster and reflects just how much damage Riyadh’s two wars are inflicting on the monarchy’s finances.
We’ve spent quite a bit of time this year documenting Saudi Arabia’s fiscal bloodbath.
In the wake of the kingdom’s move to deliberately suppress crude prices in an effort to preserve market share by bankrupting the US shale complex, Riyadh found itself in a tough spot. Thanks to ZIRP and the wide open capital markets it fosters, US producers were able to stay afloat for longer than the Saudis likely expected.
“For sure it will cause a big delay and it may kill the whole process. Whoever committed this crime is pushing for a military solution, not a political process solution.”
That’s a quote from Hadi al-Bahra, a Syrian opposition leader. The comments come a day after an apparent Russian airstrike killed Zahran Alloush. Alloush, the son of Saudi-based cleric Abdallah Alloush, is (or, more appropriately “was”) the leader of Jaysh al Islam, a powerful Syrian opposition group whose forces number some 10,000.