In March 1938, discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia, independent and unified at that point for only six years, would forever change the Kingdom’s fate, which until that moment had only the income coming from pilgrims traveling to the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah.
The discovery of oil also forged a strategic relationship of the utmost importance between Saudi Arabia and the United States. The concession for the exploration for oil was given by King Abdul Aziz, the founder of the Kingdom, in 1933 to the American oil company Standard Oil of California, which formed a subsidiary called California Arabian Standard Oil Company to develop the concession. It was in the Eastern Province where one of the largest oil fields in the world was discovered, that still produces today. In 1943 the company’s name was changed to Arabian American Oil Company, or Aramco, which eventually was jointly owned by Chevron, Exxon and Texaco.
At first, Aramco made modest payments to the Saudi government, including in the form of gasoline and other refined petroleum products. Finally in 1950, the government imposed taxes on Aramco and ordered that it was entitled to 50 percent of all the oil produced. It was in 1980 that Aramco was finally 100 percent nationalized and renamed Saudi Aramco.
With the resumption of global growth after the Second World War in the 1950s and 1960s, cheap Saudi oil played an important part in the development of the United States. It was only in 1973 with the Yom Kippur War between Israel and Egypt, that Saudi Arabia, led then by King Faisal, decided to flex its muscles, and led the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) boycott of oil exports to the US and western European countries from October 1973 to March 1974. This embargo shocked the West and made the price of the oil barrel shoot up from $3 a barrel before the embargo, to $12 a barrel.
Even through these periods of instability, the agreement between Saudi Arabia and the US, which was that the Saudis would guarantee a supply of oil at stable prices to the world, and in return the US would defend the Kingdom from any external threat, continued firm. But then came the biggest challenge of this relationship with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks against New York and Washington, in which 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked airliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington and a vacant field in Pennsylvania. More than 3,000 Americans died that day. Of the 19 terrorists, 15 were Saudis.
The US Commission on 9/11, in charge of investigating the attacks, concluded in 2004 that they found no link between the attacks and the Saudi government or any senior Saudi official. But this has not stopped a small group of relatives of victims of the 9/11 attacks to insist, no doubt encouraged by their greedy lawyers, that they have the right to sue the Saudi government and Saudi charities for the alleged support of terrorism.
This pressure led the US Senate to approve on May 17 a law that if enacted would allow families of victims of Sept. 11 to sue the Saudi government. The law, called the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, was passed unanimously and now goes to the House of Representatives for review and voting. President Barack Obama has said he will veto the law if it makes it to his desk, as it will expose the US government to similar lawsuits by foreigners. In any event, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York has included an item in the bill that blocks Americans from suing foreign governments if the US government can certify that the offending foreign entity is in talks with it.
As always, all the commotion around this issue allowed the Islamophobic and Saudi-bashers to come forth with their baseless accusations. A deeper study of the issue would show that the Kingdom itself has been the victim of hundreds of terrorist attacks since 2003, first by Al-Qaeda and more recently by Daesh. Many Saudi terrorists have been killed in clashes with security forces, or arrested and put on trial. Saudi courts have condemned hundreds of terrorists to death or jail terms.
The special relationship that has long existed between Saudis and Americans will overcome this serious challenge once again. Most Saudis are ordinary citizens who want to work, get married, have children and lead a calm and peaceful life. It is unfortunate that a minority of Saudis, seduced by the promises of these terrorist groups, tarnish the reputation of an entire nation. Saudi Arabia is not a den of terrorists, and we need to let the whole world know that.
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The writer is a Saudi journalist based in Brazil.
The discovery of oil also forged a strategic relationship of the utmost importance between Saudi Arabia and the United States. The concession for the exploration for oil was given by King Abdul Aziz, the founder of the Kingdom, in 1933 to the American oil company Standard Oil of California, which formed a subsidiary called California Arabian Standard Oil Company to develop the concession. It was in the Eastern Province where one of the largest oil fields in the world was discovered, that still produces today. In 1943 the company’s name was changed to Arabian American Oil Company, or Aramco, which eventually was jointly owned by Chevron, Exxon and Texaco.
At first, Aramco made modest payments to the Saudi government, including in the form of gasoline and other refined petroleum products. Finally in 1950, the government imposed taxes on Aramco and ordered that it was entitled to 50 percent of all the oil produced. It was in 1980 that Aramco was finally 100 percent nationalized and renamed Saudi Aramco.
With the resumption of global growth after the Second World War in the 1950s and 1960s, cheap Saudi oil played an important part in the development of the United States. It was only in 1973 with the Yom Kippur War between Israel and Egypt, that Saudi Arabia, led then by King Faisal, decided to flex its muscles, and led the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) boycott of oil exports to the US and western European countries from October 1973 to March 1974. This embargo shocked the West and made the price of the oil barrel shoot up from $3 a barrel before the embargo, to $12 a barrel.
Even through these periods of instability, the agreement between Saudi Arabia and the US, which was that the Saudis would guarantee a supply of oil at stable prices to the world, and in return the US would defend the Kingdom from any external threat, continued firm. But then came the biggest challenge of this relationship with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks against New York and Washington, in which 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked airliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington and a vacant field in Pennsylvania. More than 3,000 Americans died that day. Of the 19 terrorists, 15 were Saudis.
The US Commission on 9/11, in charge of investigating the attacks, concluded in 2004 that they found no link between the attacks and the Saudi government or any senior Saudi official. But this has not stopped a small group of relatives of victims of the 9/11 attacks to insist, no doubt encouraged by their greedy lawyers, that they have the right to sue the Saudi government and Saudi charities for the alleged support of terrorism.
This pressure led the US Senate to approve on May 17 a law that if enacted would allow families of victims of Sept. 11 to sue the Saudi government. The law, called the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, was passed unanimously and now goes to the House of Representatives for review and voting. President Barack Obama has said he will veto the law if it makes it to his desk, as it will expose the US government to similar lawsuits by foreigners. In any event, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York has included an item in the bill that blocks Americans from suing foreign governments if the US government can certify that the offending foreign entity is in talks with it.
As always, all the commotion around this issue allowed the Islamophobic and Saudi-bashers to come forth with their baseless accusations. A deeper study of the issue would show that the Kingdom itself has been the victim of hundreds of terrorist attacks since 2003, first by Al-Qaeda and more recently by Daesh. Many Saudi terrorists have been killed in clashes with security forces, or arrested and put on trial. Saudi courts have condemned hundreds of terrorists to death or jail terms.
The special relationship that has long existed between Saudis and Americans will overcome this serious challenge once again. Most Saudis are ordinary citizens who want to work, get married, have children and lead a calm and peaceful life. It is unfortunate that a minority of Saudis, seduced by the promises of these terrorist groups, tarnish the reputation of an entire nation. Saudi Arabia is not a den of terrorists, and we need to let the whole world know that.
—
The writer is a Saudi journalist based in Brazil.
