I don't much like SH, but there is much truth in his analysis of the world oil situation.
Saddam Husayn accuses USA of manipulating world oil prices
BBC Monitoring Middle East - Political
Saddam Husayn has accused the USA, in collusion with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, of working to
manipulate the price of oil and negate OPEC's oil-pricing policies. In an article published in an
Iraqi newspaper on 23rd January he attacked Saudi Arabia in particular for becoming a "bridge to
the foreigner" and ignoring the best interests of its own people. He concluded by saying that the
only solution was for the "will of decisionmaking... to be activated and for it to look at the
interests of the people and nation first and foremost". The following is the text of a report by the
Iraqi news agency INA:
Baghdad, 23rd January: His Excellency President Saddam Husayn has said that the United
States, in coordination with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, has been drawing up pricing policies with
the aim of confronting OPEC's policy, particularly with respect to the issue of increasing prices.
In an analysis entitled "In whose interest is the fluctuation in oil prices" published in today's issue
of the newspaper 'Al-Jumhuriyah', his excellency the president says that the Saudi rulers have
caused great catastrophes for and violated the rights of Arabs ever since they started to serve as a
bridge for the foreigner. He notes that any ruler who links his will to the foreigner becomes
unable to see the vital interests of his people when they clash with those of the foreigner.
Following is the text of the analysis written by His Excellency President Saddam Husayn:
"Brothers: God can give and does give to whomever He wants in order to test him. And He can
and does deprive whomever He wants in order to test him too. God has granted some countries in
our nation, including Iraq, natural wealth in several forms, led by oil, which has paved the way
for technical advancement. The bulk of scientific applications are related to oil and oil products.
So it is a good thing for the nation when it takes a firm stand. It can be a bad thing, however,
when the nation uses it to burn its bridges and stain its chastity. The nation's will and
consciousness should be present when the nation has to deal with oil, especially if the covetous
foreigner is involved in it.
"Let us move from general terms and be more specific. We would like to say: The Saudi rulers
have caused great catastrophes for the Arab nation and violated its rights ever since they became a
bridge to the foreigner. They also seriously harmed the people of Najd and Hijaz in the moral and
practical aspects. Here is an example of this. The price per barrel of Arab light oil from 1973-74
until 1975 was around 30 dollars. After 24 years - that is now - it has dropped to less than 9
dollars per barrel, which is a quarter of the price 24 years ago; that is, in 1974 and 1975. Here,
we must take into consideration the factor of inflation in the prices of commodities, goods and
standard services, which have witnessed a great increase compared to the prices in 1975. Why
has this happened? And what does it mean?
"Any ruler who mortgages his will to the foreigner becomes unable to see his people's vital
interests when they clash with the foreigner's interests. The only gain he gets is that he remains in
power, believing that he will remain in power so long as the foreigner is satisfied with him and
that he will certainly be removed from power if the foreigner is angered by any of his actions.
Therefore, the subservient ruler not only loses his will to the foreigner but makes his people lose
their will too when their interests clash with those of the foreigner. By doing this, the ruler
believes he can dismiss the embarrassment such a clash may cause him. Therefore, the Saudi
rulers were not only content to mortgage their oil in terms of production, marketing and prices but
also were deterred from transforming it into oil by-products on a large scale. They were also
deterred from exploration and investments with respect to all the other raw material and natural
resources they have as it would reduce the importance of oil as a revenue-generating source.
We have another example. Though it is well known that gold can be found in large and economic
quantities in Najd and Hijaz, they did not explore it and did not earmark investments to mine and
sell it. If this were to happen, it would give the inhabitants of Hijaz a moral boost and enable them
to confront the imperialist policy of the rulers. This would also enable the people of Najd and
Hijaz to say: If we have so much capabilities and diversified resources, then why should we
submit to the US oil policy?
"By doing this, they act on behalf of the United States and Zionism to weaken any national and
pan-Arab rule. This is because any genuine national and pan-Arab rule will put them face to face
with their people when a comparison of their policies is made. That is one of the reasons why
they insist on antagonizing Iraq and its faithful national and pan-Arab leadership. This also
explains why the Saudi rulers emphasize the need to disarm Iraq of its weapons, although this has
been achieved. The existence of weapons that can establish some kind of balance with the Zionist
entity will negate the saying that the only thing the Arabs, including their rulers, can do is to
submit to the US-Zionist schemes because Israel has an edge over the Arabs.
"There are many other examples. It became possible in the early seventies to greatly increase oil
prices, after some Arabs under pressure from the Arab masses had drawn attention to the possible
use of the nation's oil resources in a national and pan-Arab manner against those who aligned
themselves with the Zionist entity in the 1973 war against the Arabs. However, this did not last
long as the United States reached agreement with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and perhaps others on
specific things, including the establishment of the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose
task was to formulate pricing policies to confront the OPEC policies and abort any attempt to raise
prices by resorting to various means, such as securing a strategic oil reserve that would enable the
United States to carry out its plans of keeping oil prices reasonable. The word reasonable is not a
general term. The term reasonable prices mean they should be reasonable for the United States
only and not for any other party.
"In this way, the United States has started to practically control oil prices in the entire world to a
large extent, and prices were no longer affected by the law of supply and demand. So it became
capable of embroiling the oil-producing countries in a series of crises according to its strategy and
Zionist desire. It resorted to fabricating a fluctuation in prices upwards and downwards at certain
periods whenever it wanted to. In 1986, real oil prices dropped to half the price in 1974 due to an
intentional Saudi policy. The same happened in the subsequent years. Oil revenues became
subject to fluctuation in terms of production and prices. This made any country which relies on oil
revenues unable to draft a stable budget, including a budget for development and progress.
"It made Saudi Arabia and Kuwait - in addition to others - resort to the pretext of increasing
revenues by selling oil in excess of the quantities specified by OPEC. This measure was bound to
increase the quantity of oil which was expected not be sold, and thus would lead to a drop in
prices. This was very clear in the OPEC agreement signed in Jakarta at the end of 1997, when
Saudi Arabia exercised strong pressure on OPEC member states in order to raise the production
ceiling significantly and implicitly approve of the violation of the production ceiling, which has
led to a severe drop in oil prices ever since that time. It has also seriously harmed the interests of
the member states and the Saudi people. So, prices drop when the United States and Zionism
want them to based on their policy. In this way, they increase their oil reserve or fill any
shortages in this reserve. The oil reserve continued to increase until it reached 6 billion barrels at
the end of 1998.
"So prices go up at other times and for short periods of time. This does not allow oil coming from
distant areas, including Arab oil, to reach Western markets. In this case, only oil from the US
reserve, which is basically Arab oil, can reach these markets.
"Thus, the United States makes profits three times at the expense of the Arabs. Beside making
profits by turning oil into oil and petrochemical by-products and selling them at their set prices, it
earns the difference between the real value of oil and the price it imposes for it on its markets as a
result of the substantial revenues earned by the governments of the industrial nations in the form
of taxes on the marketed oil products and the oil companies' profits. These taxes exceed by many
times the prices of the crude oil marketed to it.
"The United States also makes profits when it forces oil prices into planned fluctuations in the
markets. Therefore, it occasionally reaps the difference in price between the state of relative
stability and any increase that it decides in the oil prices for a specific period of time before the
distant oil can reach the Western markets. In addition, this policy causes substantial confusion in
world economic and financial markets. Naturally, the profits will be reaped by the party that plans
and initiates this policy. This shows the volume of harm done to the Arab nation and the people in
Saudi Arabia and Kuwaiti, and even the great harm done to humanity by this unpatriotic policy. It
also shows how deeply the Arab nation and all of humanity are stabbed by the knives of the
United States and Zionism.
"We have no solution to propose as a first step but for the will of decisionmaking in these two
countries to be activated and for it to look at the interests of the people and nation first and
foremost so as to be able to do what should be done towards those people's national, pan-Arab
and human responsibilities."
(Copyright 1999)
_____via IntellX_____
Publication Date: January 23, 1999
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