God granted oil to the Saudis like a river that flowed deep into the desert, as if it came as compensation for thousands of years of living in arid deserts and barren wilderness, until it became the first country in the world in terms of high and rapid production capacity at a low cost.
This advantage placed the Saudis in the club of adults immediately and without hesitation from the superpowers. Indeed, the first meeting that took place between the two leaders who emerged victorious in World War II (Roosevelt and Churchill) was with King Abdulaziz, the leader of the new force coming from the deserts of Arabia.
After decades of securing continuous oil production, the Saudis have become superior and in control of the main production line of the world, and if this line is destined to retreat or undergo a turmoil without the existence of other alternatives, then the entire international economic system will collapse and its inclusion will return to the age of coal and perhaps even earlier.
Long battles between sustainable global development and the policy of economic balance and between securing demand, production and acceptable prices, which Saudi Arabia fought and walked on slippery ropes with great skill without slipping or being accused of incompetence in managing the most important energy in human history.
It seems that the post-petroleum energy world pushes the marginal countries and the political nouveau riche to read the scene differently, believing that when oil disappears or declines, heads will be equal, forgetting that there are other ingredients that can exempt Saudi Arabia from oil and that Saudi Arabia remains, nevertheless, one of the ten major countries in the world. world economy.
The upcoming competition depends on trying to control the most important drivers of money production: international tourism, shipping lines, logistical zones, (transshipment) ports, owning gold, and maximizing the role of sovereign funds and using them as hot money that crosses from economy to economy to achieve financial and political goals.
Saudi Arabia, led by King Salman and his Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was aware of this equation early on, and preempted the open “enemies” and the hidden “enemies”, who thought that the opportunity to overthrow Saudi Arabia had become an opportunity, and that years of the “Great Saudi Arabia” complex could be removed.
The Saudis, who have been involved for nearly a century in successfully leading the Islamic world, managing the international energy economy, partnering with the great powers in the club of adults, leading regional initiatives from the wars of independence in Algeria and Palestine, passing through issues of internal strife in Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Mindanao, and addressing the dangers that invaded space. Arabs, they will never abandon their fateful role that pushed them to the forefront of international events a hundred years ago and continues to this day.
The Saudis are betting on sustainable development, solid and efficient infrastructure spread across all regions of the country, in addition to deep-rooted popular loyalty, experience, political practice and a long spirit, which are the most important features of Al-Masmak Palace and its residents since the founder Abdulaziz until King Salman and his crown prince, Prince Muhammad bin Salman, which are innate qualities that characterize The people of Al-Masmak in particular have it from others, and a skill acquired as an inevitable result of a monarchy that is more than 300 years old.
The quarrels and attempts to obstruct the Saudi project are not only regional wishes, but projects adopted by powers that sometimes disappear and come out into the open at other times. They can be described as a deep project to try to eliminate the kingdom, or at least expose it to grave dangers with which it can be blackmailed.
The symptoms of the syndrome of the emergence of Greater Saudi Arabia, which invaded ambitious people who evaluated themselves greater than their true size and more than they deserve, is a chronic disease endemic to the Arab world since the fifties until today. And also a lot of pain, especially since the Saudi project has massive alternative ingredients that are equal to oil and perhaps more than it, some of which can be discussed below.
First: The two honorable deprivations and the economics of Hajj and Umrah, which no one can compete with or find alternatives to, which is a literal application of the Almighty’s saying “and benefits for them.”
Second: A logistical site in the middle of the East and West, and Saudi Arabia, when activated, will be the most important platform for airlines, navigation, docking, receiving and re-exporting containers.
Third: An educated people – more than 300,000 scholarships at least to international universities – working in all fields and capable of covering more than 80% of the local labor market needs.
Fourth: Rare archaeological and touristic elements, in Al-Ula, Al-Faw, Najran, Neom, Qiddiya, the mountains of Taif, Al-Baha and Asir, in addition to stunning beaches and islands in the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf.
Fifth: Localizing industries, and insisting on local military and civilian content.
Sixth: Growing oil and petrochemical manufacturing.
Seventh: Advanced information technology and infrastructure that reduced costs and manpower within the government and transformed it into a graceful state.
Eighth: A sovereign fund that is growing and turning into a long financial and investment arm, with a bold policy of seizing opportunities, will be a direct substitute for oil income.
Ninth: Maximizing the internal economic impact, producing opportunities, and transforming the country into a huge productive and working workshop.
Tenth: A solid policy that protects the Saudi project and does not allow it to be obstructed. It establishes it as a new “Saudi creed” that says: The economy and maximizing sources of income are an existential priority that cannot be neglected or abandoned.
Saudi Arabia understood very well, and more than two decades ago, that the West could no longer tolerate the presence of Arab and non-Arab countries that produce energy and influence the international track from outside the Western system, and it is in a relentless pursuit to devise new alternatives that it controls, and at that time regret or lamentation over “oil” will not work. spilled.”
Muhammad Al-Saed