Wealthy Princes and the Middle East Policy behind It

Last week, the day before Forbes released its annual list of the world’s wealthiest, Saudi billionaire Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal angrily announced that he would cut off all ties with Forbes due to its miscalculation of his wealth by $9.6 billion dollars.

The visibility and high-profile nature of the Saudi royal family’s wealth is inextricably linked to U.S. policies in the Middle East. A glance at the luxurious life of Prince Al-Waleed shows that the U.S. government is pulling strings for it. Whether his fortune is $20 billion dollars or $29.6 billion dollars, Prince Al-Waleed can be considered extremely wealthy. He currently controls two major international investment groups and has become one of the world’s most famous investors. Behind the enormous wealth of Prince Al-Waleed is the extravagant life of the entire royal family of Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is a very special country. In most modern states that still have a monarchy, only a handful of people hold the title of prince. But in Saudi Arabia, the number of prince titles can make one sour. The Saudi royal family refuses to disclose any of its family information to the outside world, which casts a mystery over the actual wealth of the Arab world’s most famous family. Saudi officials have never officially published figures, but the U.S. media has estimated that there currently may be about 5,000 Saudi princes.

The foundations of good American relations with the Middle East are based on good relationships with the Saudi princes. It is well known that Saudi Arabia holds a quarter of the world’s crude oil reserves, making it the world’s number one oil-producing country.

Maintaining good relationships with the Saudi princes is not only helpful in ensuring that the United States receives a stable supply of oil and oil prices; it also helps the U.S. maintain its regional influence. More importantly, the wealth-chasing Saudi princes are unlike Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and even more different from Iran. In the past thirty years, Iraq and Iran have both tried to use their oil supply to enforce their military powers and supremacy in the region — acts that the U.S. has found intolerable. This is not the case for Saudi Arabia.

Kenneth Pollack, who has served as Director for Persian Gulf Affairs at the National Security Council twice during the Clinton administration, has said that Washington has always had a soft spot for Saudi Arabia because Saudi Arabia is interested in money and wealth only. Indeed, rather than let the Saudi princes embark on an “anti-American” route, Osama bin Laden-style, the U.S. might as well allow Saudi Arabia to peacefully seek greater wealth and fortune.