Saudi Arabia is the largest exporter of oil in the world, one of only three producers able to sustain production around 10 million barrels per day (b/d) and the only oil producer that can increase production by 2 million b/d rapidly. Accordingly, and in great part based on this ability to flood or starve oil markets, the kingdom has had a strong influence on the price of oil for the past 40 years. It is in this sense that any change in management structure and overall control of the energy industry in Saudi Arabia is not only closely followed, but also affects prices of energy worldwide. Read more
On May 21, AGSIW Non-Resident Fellow Celina Realuyo, author of "Combating Terrorist Financing in the Gulf: Significant Progress but Risks Remain," appeared before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services, Task Force to Investigate Terrorist Financing, to testify as a subject matter expert on terrorist financing and the convergence of illicit networks. The hearing, titled “A Dangerous Nexus: Terrorism, Crime, and Corruption,” examined a broad spectrum of national security threats from illicit actors like ISIL, Hezbollah, the FARC, Venezuela, and Iran and discussed U.S. counterterrorism finance and anti-money laundering endeavors to confront these threats. Realuyo spoke on the critical enablers of terrorism and crime and the importance of “following the money trail” to detect, disrupt, and dismantle illicit networks, particularly in the case of ISIL in Iraq and Syria. She recommended more active interagency and international cooperation to leverage the financial instrument of national power to counter illicit networks.
ISIL’s two suicide bomb attacks against Shiite mosques in eastern Saudi Arabia in the past week are, perhaps, even more disturbing than its recent territorial gains in Iraq and Syria. These attacks are intended to put Saudi Arabia in a no-win situation, and a position in which its responses will inevitably play into the hands of the terrorists.
Obviously the attacks are designed to communicate that ISIL is able to operate effectively on Saudi soil. The terrorist group openly boasts that it has demonstrated this capability in spite of the heightened security at Shiite mosques across the country following the first attack, last Friday, in Al Qudeeh that killed 21 people. Read more
The fall of Ramadi to ISIL was an alarming setback. But it exposed an underlying reality that was being ignored, and seems to have prompted a badly needed new atmosphere of introspection, and greater public frankness, in the Obama administration.
It has focused attention on the shortcomings of the strategy being pursued by the anti-ISIL coalition in both Iraq and Syria, and the need for a serious expansion and rethinking of the policy. Read more
