Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Yemen and Bahrein as the main geopolitical threats to Al Saud stability



In the recent months, riots and protests in neighboring Yemen and Bahrein are becoming more and more threatening to the kingdom of Al Saud clan in Saudi Arabia. And it has one key name: shiite sectarianism against sunni/wahhabi rule power. News are recurrent of riots by houthi minority (shiite religiously leaned) in Yemen against local rule, with almost monthly attacks on Maariv pipeline (Yemens main oil pipeline) trying to diminish and reduce the power of local government, and according to analysts being Yemen home to one of the most prominent Al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), just enough for a powerfull and destroying cocktail that not only aims to topple yemeni rule of Mr Mansour Hadi. On the other hand, shiite majority in Bahrein dont lag behind these riot in Yemen and presumably feel inspired by them or the other way around, triggering almost weekly protests against the rule of Mr Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa. Pearl Square in the capital city of Manama has become the Tahrir of the Persian Gulf, hosting protests, which if reduced and vanished from world media headlines, is still going on, by the shiite population claiming for more political and civil rights and against repression by the conservative sunni monarchy, which needless to say is a strong ally of Al Saud House in Saudi Arabia, and at the same time, holds one of the most important US Navy base in the Persian Gulf for strategic and logistic reason. And if all the previous were not enough as really threatening for Saudi Arabia, there´s the shiite minority settled on the Eastern Province on saudi´s land, where the main oil fields are located, raising the stakes and the chances of bigger problems for saudi royalty to deal with. Just imagine if both flanks at east and west of saudi´s soil are destabilized by shiites angry at both yemeni and bahreini rule together with the restless eastern province: really scary scenario for the holy land of Al Sauds. All this within the greater divide and fault line betwenn shiites and sunnis lead by Iran and Saudi Arabia. And of course oil and gas is at the epicenter of this sectarian conflict.

























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