A Contemporary Saudi Saying: “My Grandfather Rode A Camel, I Drive A Bentley, My Grandson Will Ride A Camel

Saudi Arabia In Arrears To Construction Contractors

Many understood the huge significance of the revitalization of the U.S. oil industry on the world market, especially impacting the financial position of Saudi Arabia. In fact, 2015 data according to the CIA Fact Book has the U.S. and the kingdom almost equal in total year oil production. And of course, the slide in oil prices has required Saudi Arabia to enact austerity measures. As it turns out, the effects have come more quickly and severely than some predicted.

This past Sunday, Arab News reported that the kingdom has just made a Saudi riyal 40-billion (10.5 billion USD) late payment owed to private contractors. And that amount still does not settle the matter. Fahad Al-Hammadi, chief of the National Contractors’ Committee at the Council of Saudi Chambers, said:

The Saudi government is expected to pay up to 80 percent of the total dues to contractors during the remaining few weeks of this year by disbursing another SR100 billion (26.5 Billion USD)[.]

The lag in payments in concert with the penalties against the Saudi Bin Laden Construction Group for the Mecca crane disaster have left tens of thousands of expat workers out of work and stranded in the country. An example is the Mohammad Al Mojil Group (MMG), which has directly appealed to Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that it could not continue operating in the current situation.

MMG has been typical of many companies who felt that the good times would continue to roll and became overextended. Then, the founder, his son, and the chairman were sentenced by the Capital Market Authority (CMA) for fraud and manipulation and suspended the stock over the company’s losses. The end result is that the company had to reduce its workforce from 25,000 to 3,000.

Officially, there is a lot of optimism that the payment plan will work and that construction projects will resume. It was reported that some of the contractors from Germany, Turkey, Spain, and India confirmed that they are being paid their due. Yet construction in Riyadh has been on hold for several months. Construction sites for the planned metro subway system, medical facilities, roads, and highways still sit idle. It’s anyone’s guess if the continued transfer of funds from the public treasury to private contractors will solve the problem, given the vastly reduced oil revenue.

Selected Comments:

I was just telling one of my buddies yesterday that the age of muslim big oil is over and that ultimately these oil kingdoms will collapse, all thanks to the fracking revolution

The collapse and disarray of these muslim rat nations who have held the world hostage for too long. Of course the pansy Europeans can be their main customer and perhaps keep them going for a while.

Outside of oil, what do the Arabs have. Nothing. Egypt imports 80% of it’s food. When Trump turns on the oil spigot, oil prices will further collapse and so will the middle east. It’s by far the best weapon we have. Starve them out.

Yes, but with one proviso:

Starve them out and wall them in. Otherwise the Arab/Muslim hordes will accelerate their diaspora and destroy Europe even sooner than expected.

I anxiously await the day that Saudi Arabia is bankrupt and penniless!

Saudi Arabia is the Greatest Paper Tiger in the history of the World! They have NOTHING but oil reserves and rely upon that wealth for everything. They are the laziest humans on the earth. Their Military is a complete joke: Jordan could defeat them militarily. Except, We guarantee their security and that must stop. I love Fracking! Kill that Saudi Strangle Hold on the Price of Oil! Put those Sheikh’s back in the desert, in a squalid tent, herding goats and camels!

Source

— Saudi Arabia’s Vision for the Future Looks Dim to Jobless Youth

— Saudi Arabia Requests 1 Million Goats From Zambia Monthly

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Moussaoui Calls Saudi Princes Patrons of Al Qaeda. Says 9/11 Was Funded by Saudi Officials

In highly unusual testimony inside the federal supermax prison, a former operative for Al Qaeda has described prominent members of Saudi Arabia’s royal family as major donors to the terrorist network in the late 1990s and claimed that he discussed a plan to shoot down Air Force One with a Stinger missile with a staff member at the Saudi Embassy in Washington.

The allegations from Mr. Moussaoui come at a sensitive time in Saudi-American relations, less than two weeks after the death of the country’s longtime monarch, King Abdullah, and the succession of a half-brother, King Salman.

There has often been tension between Saudi leaders and the Obama administration since the Arab uprisings of 2011 and the efforts to manage the region’s resulting turmoil. Mr. Moussaoui describes meeting in Saudi Arabia with Salman, then a prince, and other Saudi royals while delivering them letters from Osama bin Laden.

There has long been evidence that wealthy Saudis provided support for bin Laden, the son of a Saudi construction magnate, and Al Qaeda before the 2001 attacks. Saudi Arabia had worked closely with the United States to finance Islamic militants fighting the Soviet Army in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and Al Qaeda drew its members from those militant fighters.

He said in the prison deposition that he was directed in 1998 or 1999 by Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan to create a digital database of donors to the group. Among those he said he recalled listing in the database were Prince Turki al-Faisal, then the Saudi intelligence chief; Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, the longtime Saudi ambassador to the United States; Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, a prominent billionaire investor; and many of the country’s leading clerics.

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