Here’s something Americans should certainly keep their eyes on — the potential for unrest in Saudi Arabia, which the United States imports more oil from than any other country outside of North America.
Fox News Channel contributor Charles Krauthammer warned of that potential on Wednesday night’s “Special Report Online,” aired on FoxNews.com, but said that a plot to overthrow the Saudi government could be foiled by the Saudis’ intelligence apparatus.
“The big one is March 11,” Krauthammer said. “There’s a Facebook call in Saudi Arabia for a day of rage all over Saudi Arabia on March 11. Now, the Saudis have really good intelligence. They are tough. They’re ruthless and they’re effective. There isn’t a lot of anti-government activity in Saudi Arabia.”
If it isn’t foiled, though, Krauthammer said such unrest could spell dire consequences for the world economy and would warrant intervention.
“However, in the eastern provinces, which are Shiite – if you get major eruptions on March 11, all hell is breaking loose,” he continued. “Saudi Arabia is the prize. It’s the treasure. I mean, it’s the gold at the end of the rainbow. It’s everything for the world economy. And then you have to think of Western intervention – if something like that happens.”
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“But the potential is still there, based on the proximity of Bahrain to Saudi Arabia with its Shiite and pro-Iranian elements. And if Saudi oil falls under the control of a pro-Iranian regime, it could spell curtains for the world as we know it.”
“And remember, the Shiites in Bahrain, which is sort of a proxy for Saudi Arabia and Iraq, are pro-Iranian,” he said. “There are pro-Iranians among them. If Iran essentially gets proxy control of Saudi oil, the whole world has changed.”
“So I think the one we really — I mean there are humanitarian concerns in Libya that are significant,” he continued. “There are also strategic concerns, but there’s nothing compared to Saudi Arabia and it’ll be interesting. I’m not sure anything will happen on March 11, but if something does, we got a whole new world we’re living in.”