Energy News  
ENERGY TECH
Oman riots increase fears for Saudi Arabia

by Staff Writers
Muscat, Oman (UPI) Mar 1, 2011
The growing unrest in the Persian Gulf state of Oman, an oasis of stability for decades, and violent pro-democracy protests in Bahrain have heightened concerns the upheaval sweeping the Middle East may hit Saudi Arabia and Kuwait as well.

If that happens, the mass unrest that has toppled the U.S.-backed presidents of Egypt and Tunisia and now threatens Libya's regime, could strike at Washington's vital gulf allies at a time when Iran is expanding its power across the region and change the geopolitical complexion of the strategic region.

Oman, whose leader Sultan Qaboos bin Said al-Said has ruled for four decades unchallenged since an insurgency in Dhofar province in the 1970s, holds a strategic position as it shares with Iran control of the oil tanker routes through the Strait of Hormuz.

That's the only gateway to the Persian Gulf and vulnerable to Iranian closure. In the past, the sultanate on the Arabian Peninsula's southeastern tip, has mediated between Iran and the West.

Oman has been swept by popular protests, triggering a tough response from security forces. Several people were reported killed when police fired rubber bullets at rioters in the oil center of Sohar, northwest of the capital Muscat.

The Omani protesters aren't demanding the downfall of Qaboos, who has modernized his country since he ousted his tradition-bound father in a bloodless palace coup in 1970, only more open government and better social conditions.

Qaboos, like some other Middle Eastern leaders faced with the region-wide upheaval, has moved quickly to address the protesters' grievances.

On Saturday he replaced six Cabinet ministers and hiked the minimum wage by 40 percent. The following day he declared 50,000 new job openings in state institutions and is expected to meet protest leaders soon.

But even though there is no discernible dynastic threat in Oman, there is in Bahrain, an island state where street mobs are howling for an end to the 200-year-old rule of the Khalifa family.

Indeed, the turmoil in Bahrain, a key regional financial hub and headquarters of the U.S. 5th Fleet, is widely seen as more profound and far-reaching than the bloodbath under way in oil-rich Libya.

That's because in tiny Bahrain, 70 percent of the 525,000 population are Shiite Muslims who have long been suppressed by the Sunni monarchy.

There are strong suspicions that Shiite Iran, which has claims over Bahrain, engineered the uprising there in which security forces have cracked down heavily and killed several protesters.

If King Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa empowers the Shiites, that will have "very large-scale implications for the region, particularly Saudi Arabia and Kuwait," observed Kamran Bokhari of the global security consultancy Stratfor.

Both Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are Sunni monarchies, key oil producers and U.S. allies with important Shiite minorities.

And both face protest rallies planned for this month that will be a test of their resolve.

"In Kuwait, the royal family and the legislature have been engaged in a tug of war for many years and if the opposition forces within the Bahraini parliament achieve some sort of concessions from the government, that will embolden the Kuwaiti opposition forces to seek the same," Bokhari explained.

Around 30 percent of Kuwait's estimated 1 million citizens are Shiite and the Shiites in Saudi Arabia dominate the oil fields of Eastern Province, powerhouse of the kingdom's economy. Bahrain is linked to Saudi Arabia by a causeway.

The last thing the Saudis need right now is political upheaval. The kingdom faces a potentially touchy royal succession complicated by the advanced age of the country's top leaders.

King Abdallah, Crown Prince Sultan, Interior Minister and Second Deputy Prime Minister Prince Nayef, and Riyadh Gov. Prince Salman are all in their 80s.

Abdallah has just returned to Riyadh after three months in the United States for surgery and Sultan is in failing health. "This couldn't come at a worse time" for the Saudis, Bokhari observed.

The first thing Abdallah did when he returned to Riyadh was to announce a $36 billion social welfare package aimed at stifling protests.

So far, the kingdom has escaped the fury and turmoil that has engulfed North Africa. But rumblings of discontent have emerged since the Tunisian uprising in January that Iran, the kingdom's regional rival, may seek to exploit.







Share This Article With Planet Earth
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit
YahooMyWebYahooMyWeb GoogleGoogle FacebookFacebook



Related Links
Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


ENERGY TECH
Gazprom wins TNK-BP's Siberian field
Moscow (AFP) March 1, 2011
Gazprom won an auction Tuesday for a disputed stake held by BP's Russia venture in a massive Siberian field that the state-owned behemoth hopes to use to expand its energy exports to China. The Anglo-Russian firm TNK-BP said Gazprom paid 22.3 billion rubles ($773 million) for one of the world's largest untapped reserves - about one and a half times the opening price. The Kovykta field i ... read more







ENERGY TECH
Hong Kong tycoon 'set to clinch British power business'

Germany's RWE sees tough years ahead

S.Korea, China firms in Vietnam power deal

Energy sector deals to increase, PwC says

ENERGY TECH
Oman riots increase fears for Saudi Arabia

Gazprom wins TNK-BP's Siberian field

British military planes in dramatic Libyan desert rescue

EU: Gadhafi has lost control over oil, gas

ENERGY TECH
Eon to build fifth U.K. offshore wind farm

GL Garrad Hassan Launches Onshore Wind Resource Mapping For UK

Construction Begins On Dempsey Ridge Wind Project

India's Suzlon wins $1.28 bn wind power deal

ENERGY TECH
EPSRC's Novel Energy Harvesting Grants

Solar Frontier Signs Balticsolar In Northern Germany

SOLON To Construct 15 MW Solar Plant For PG And E

Beverly Hills Goes Solar

ENERGY TECH
Ukraine Cooperates With USA In The Energy Sector

Dominion Virginia Power Unchanged On Potential Nuclear Expansion

Will A New Nuclear Reactor Power The USA Back To Energy Independence

Court challenge for German nuclear extension

ENERGY TECH
Scientists Identify New Implications For Perennial Bioenergy Crops

Brewery Waste Becomes Scientific Fodder For Producing Liquid Biofuels

Overfertilizing Corn Undermines Ethanol

Amyris Technology Performs At Industrial Scale

ENERGY TECH
China Mars probe set for November launch

Shenzhou 8 Mission Could Top Three Weeks

U.S. wary of China space weapons

Slow progress in U.S.-China space efforts

ENERGY TECH
Spotlight On Local Change

Hotspots Of Carbon Confusion In Indonesia Threaten To Warm The World More Quickly

Google backs climate-change weather insurance startup

BASIC nations eye next climate meeting


The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2010 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement