Speculation of Saudi Instability Overblown Says Obaid

Nawaf Obaid, senior fellow at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, says that reports of the downfall of the Saudi monarchy as “inevitable” are grossly exaggerated.  The speculation that mass uprising will reach Saudi Arabia is based entirely on casual perusal of Facebook pages calling for protests, he says : “17,000 Facebook fans or ‘protesters’ do not necessarily translate into 17,000 Saudi rioters [...] One cannot forecast events based on a count of virtual fans at a social network. ”  Obaid also argues that the following “nightmare scenario” of the country’s oil infrastructure being crippled thus sending the world into devastating crisis is unlikely as the government has state of the art security systems to protect its overall energy security.  Notions that the Kingdom’s energy security is threatened by the restive Shia in its eastern provinces is a “mistaken impression” based on false reports that the Shia represent the majority in these areas.  Over two million Sunni Saudis and foreign workers have relocated to these areas in search of economic opportunities depriving the Shi’ites of a statistical majority.  Ultimately: “Fears about Saudi stability verge on the irrational [...]The kingdom has long been, and will probably long remain, the most stable and secure provider of energy in the world.”