(contents)
Chapter 3 The grace of Allah – Oil boom (21)
084 1st Oil
shock - Oil as a weapon (1/3)
It was on August 23rd, 1973 that President Sadat of Egypt visited Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and met King Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud secretly. He asked King Faisal to participate in the coming war against Israeli which was planned to deploy on October 6. Sadat requested King Faisal not only to participate in military coalition but also proposed an important strategy to change the character of the war entirely. That was an oil strategy. At that time, petroleum had become an essential energy for the entire world economy. Oil supply has been monopolized by Western oil companies including Seven Sisters. The oil-producing countries that formed OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) were on the stage to show their power.
The mission of Saud
dynasty, who proclaimed the guardian of Islam, was to bring back Palestinian
refugees to their homeland. They also had the mission to regain Jerusalem in
Israel, the third sacred place after Makkah and Madinah in Saudi Arabia. It was
the testament of King Abdulaziz Al Saud, the father of King Faisal and the
founder of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. King Abdulaziz met President Roosevelt
of United States on the board of cruiser Quincy at Great Bitter Lake of Suez
Canal in 1945. They exchanged the view about Middle East after World War II. President
Roosevelt asked King Abdulaziz to mediate between Jewish and Arab people. At
that time Abdulaziz clearly asserted that there is no solution other than
stopping the emigration of Jews to Palestine.
However, as a
miserable result of the subsequent three wars between Israel and Arab countries,
the hope of Palestinian refugees went far away beyond the horizon. King Faisal
was convinced that Saudi Arabia had got a chance to realize his long-standing
wish using the oil as weapon. King Faisal dispatched Dr. Ahmad Zaki Yamani,
then oil minister, to the neighboring oil-producing countries and asked them to
share his idea. Not only the Gulf countries such as Kuwait and the UAE but also
Iraq and Iran and even Libya and Algeria in North Africa had promised to
participate in his oil strategy. When the Ramadan war had broken out and the
oil strategy had been triggered, it proved that this weapon had shown the power
far beyond expectation.
(To be continued ----)
(From an ordinary citizen in the cloud)
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