BREMMER: ‘Saudi Arabia is in serious trouble, and they know it’

Monday, January 4, 2016
By Paul Martin

Natasha Bertrand
BusinessInsider.com
Jan. 4, 2015

Saudi Arabia’s growing international isolation and Iran’s rising regional influence have led the kingdom to “double down” on protecting its interests, according to a new analysis of the world’s top 2016 risks by Eurasia Group, the world’s largest political-risk consultancy.

That at least partly explains the kingdom’s decision to sever diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday, after Iranian protesters ransacked and set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran over Saudi Arabia’s execution of prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.

On Monday, Saudi Arabia moved to cut off all commercial ties with Iran, according to Reuters, and bar its citizens from traveling there.

“Saudi Arabia is in serious trouble, and they know it,” Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group, told Business Insider on Sunday.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is “much more challenged on the economic front, more isolated regionally and globally, and beset with succession issues (given the King’s controversial son),” Bremmer said, referring to King Salman’s newly empowered 30-year-old son, Mohammed bin Salman.

He added: “They hate the international attention on them given the growing ISIS concerns and want to make regional tensions an Iran story, which helps them domestically. All of which leads toward escalation.”

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