Saudi Arabia - should we do business with them?

[Oakey]

I've played that game, the electric current keeps increasing, last man standing is the winner.

[BlackLabel]

The driving force behind Saudi policy in Yemen and Syria is promoted to crown prince.

King Salman of Saudi Arabia has ousted his nephew as crown prince and replaced him with his son, Mohammed bin Salman, confirming the 31-year-old as heir and consolidating the kingdom’s move to reassert its influence as a regional power.

[Yipper]

Without Saudi oil, the West would have sunk to near-anarchy long ago. You need oil in this Oil Age. They are one of the West's most valuable trading partners. Saudi Arabia will fade as the Green Age dawns, but they are still mighty important partners for the UK right now.

[Globs]

Yipper said:

Without Saudi oil, the West would have sunk to near-anarchy long ago. You need oil in this Oil Age. They are one of the West's most valuable trading partners. Saudi Arabia will fade as the Green Age dawns, but they are still mighty important partners for the UK right now.

We owned that land though, we didn't need the crime princes at all, should have just kept it as a UK colony, at least the women there would be allowed to drive, leave the house, look out of the window, a lot of people in Yemen would still be alive and Iraq, Libya and Syria would still be intact.

Anyway: Saudi oil is running out, all the easy oil is gone, they're heading for major problems on a karmic scale.
Probably why they want Yemen.

[BlackLabel]

A new tourist hotspot?

Saudi Arabia’s new heir to the throne has announced plans for a beach resort where special laws will allow women to wear bikinis instead of covering up their skin. As part of his drive to modernise the Saudi economy, Prince Mohammed bin Salman has unveiled plans for a luxury Red Sea resort on a stretch of coast line in the country’s northwest. Knowing that foreign visitors are unlikely to come to beaches where women are forced to cover up in an abaya - a robe-like dress - the government said the resort will be “governed by laws on par with international standards”.

[Randy Winkman]

Will it be female only? Either way, perhaps it suggests that money is more important than the principles of religion.

[GT03ROB]

BlackLabel said:

A new tourist hotspot?

Saudi Arabia’s new heir to the throne has announced plans for a beach resort where special laws will allow women to wear bikinis instead of covering up their skin. As part of his drive to modernise the Saudi economy, Prince Mohammed bin Salman has unveiled plans for a luxury Red Sea resort on a stretch of coast line in the country’s northwest. Knowing that foreign visitors are unlikely to come to beaches where women are forced to cover up in an abaya - a robe-like dress - the government said the resort will be “governed by laws on par with international standards”.

So booze & semi naked women! Will be interesting to see. Having been close to where this is proposed its fair to say the diving is excellent far superior to the Egyptian side. Will need a new airport for the tourists though!

[FourWheelDrift]

So Tourist only? No locals because they probably won't be allowed to behave in a modern world manner. So it's basically a prison resort no one in and no one out without a holiday booking. They can't even stand having decadence on the mainland so they are building it on islands offshore. What fun.

[Ginetta G15 Girl]

I wouldn't visit Saudi again if you paid me all the gold in China.

I did go to Saudi several times when I was in the RAF. It was (expletive) horrendous.

Nasty, horrible bloody place, full of nasty ugly sweaty men with stupid bronze age attitudes; total fking hypocrites.

[GT03ROB]

FourWheelDrift said:

So Tourist only? No locals because they probably won't be allowed to behave in a modern world manner. So it's basically a prison resort no one in and no one out without a holiday booking. They can't even stand having decadence on the mainland so they are building it on islands offshore. What fun.

Well they built one on the East coast, it's called Bahrain. So now to keep the west coast happy!

[BlackLabel]

Saudi Arabia government ‘funded dry run' for 9/11, legal documents claim Two Saudi nationals and government employees tested flight deck security on internal flight

article said:

FBI documents, submitted as evidence, claimed that the two Saudi nationals who came to the US, Mohammed al-Qudhaeein and Hamdan al-Shalawi, were in fact members of “the Kingdom's network of agents” in the country. The documents claimed the men trained in Afghanistan with a number of other al-Qaeda operatives that participated in the attacks.

Qudhaeein was allegedly employed at the Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs, and Shalawi was a “longtime employee of the Saudi government” in Washington DC.

In November 1999 they boarded an America West flight to Washington, and tried to access the cockpit several times, asking the flight attendants “technical questions” and making the staff “suspicious”.

[B210bandit]

We should be doing as much business as possible. Just as it is not for any other country to judge Britain's actions, whether that be Brexit or waging wars of aggression, neither should we judge other countries and their actions. Saudi Arabia and the UK have a long history of trade and it is exactly these sorts of partners Britain will need to retain and develop as it forges ahead. If we start questioning trading partners on their human rights records we can kiss trade deals goodbye. It's not the way Britain has ever done business and nor should we start. We're a nuclear power, for goodness sake. Can't exactly lecture others when you possess weapons of mass destruction!

[BlackLabel]

An interesting real-life Game of Thrones going on in Saudi Arabia at the moment.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/07/opinion/saudi-p...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/07/world/middleeas...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/08/opinion/saudi-a...

Meanwhile the crisis in Yemen worsens.


Yemen on brink of 'largest famine the world has seen for many decades with millions of victims', UN warns. Over 20 million people embroiled in humanitarian crisis

[discusdave]

King Salman the 2nd ...in 48 hours..

war is coming to the Lebanon it will be the next front line.

Edited by discusdave on Thursday 9th November 19:55

[spaximus]

discusdave said:

King Salman the 2nd ...in 48 hours..

war is coming to the Lebanon it will be the next front line.

Edited by discusdave on Thursday 9th November 19:55

Time to buy shares in defence companies?

[citizensm1th]

spaximus said:

discusdave said:

King Salman the 2nd ...in 48 hours..

war is coming to the Lebanon it will be the next front line.

Edited by discusdave on Thursday 9th November 19:55

Time to buy shares in defence companies?

priti patel ,saudi,israel ,lebanon something stinks

[BlackLabel]

This is quite a read.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/lebanon-prime-...

Are the Saudis holding the PM of Lebanon against his will?

[Wobbegong]

BlackLabel said:

An interesting real-life Game of Thrones going on in Saudi Arabia at the moment.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/07/opinion/saudi-p...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/07/world/middleeas...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/08/opinion/saudi-a...

Meanwhile the crisis in Yemen worsens.


Yemen on brink of 'largest famine the world has seen for many decades with millions of victims', UN warns. Over 20 million people embroiled in humanitarian crisis

I know a chap in Yemen. He told me last week that the rebels are rarely targeted in the Arab coalition strikes. According to him the rebels live in luxury and steal from the civilians, the civilians are killed by the Arab coalition and government forces. In his town they’ve had no power for a month

[dudleybloke]

BlackLabel said:

This is quite a read.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/lebanon-prime-...

Are the Saudis holding the PM of Lebanon against his will?

Sounds like it.
I saw it first mentioned by a French reporter on Sunday.

[FourWheelDrift]

From another forum I read. Interesting take on what's happening.

said:

My friend from Lebanon gave me his take on this, and it is thus:

Many of the princes and wealthy-Elite of the Middle East threw millions or possibly billions of dollars at erasing Syria from the map so that Qatar could run a pipeline through the territory and almost directly to Europe, bypassing Russia and sidelining Iran. To that end, they supported a bunch of ISIS-affiliated nut jobs who then completely failed to eliminate the government of Syria. The princes and other ultra-wealthies are out billions with nought to show for it. The Saudi king wants heads. The PM of Lebanon (who holds Saudi citizenship for reasons I don’t know) seems to be one of those wealthy heads and was forced to resign, possibly at gunpoint, from within Saudi Arabia. My friend thinks it all could have been some sort of coup attempt, but whatever comes out of it, this is about the money. If it had succeeded, Qatar would not be the current ME punching bag and the PM of Lebanon would likely be counting his extra millions.