no, of course forgetting that the origins of israel also started with the united nations biosolution one a one which is the only legal document that i tested, who that stablish of the state. so is there it is fighting also the body that created it in the 1st place. but the senior people do not intend to relent in their struggle to fight and to continue pushing forward and seeking their right to self determination, including at the international level whether it is still on the ground by continuing to you know, their steadfastness on the ground or whether it is to resort to the national mechanisms which we are entitled to. well, that's where we sign off for now, you've been watching the news. our on our t more programs are right ahead, stay close to use it

with a look forward to talking to you. that technology should work for people. a robot must obey the orders given by human beings, except where such orders a conflict with the 1st law show your identification. we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. at the point, obviously is to place trust rather than fear a job with artificial intelligence. real summoning with most protected own existence with for the

me. hello, i'm manila chan you are tuned into modus operandi. on today's show. the world is shifting towards green energy. popular sentiment seems to be that fossil fuels are bad. so why then is opec more powerful than ever before? going green is cool, but oil is still re orthodoxy. that's why saudi arabia, these the fact the leader of opec is more powerful now than just a year ago. find out why next. all right, let's get into the and low the me, it began around 60 years ago, a group of energy rich, but otherwise, relatively poor countries were just fed up with getting ripped off by wealthier western nations for their main export oil. so they decided to form a coalition that group now known as opec,

the organization of petroleum exporting countries. the original founding 5 members consisted of saudi arabia, iran, iraq, kuwait, and the only non arab state venezuela. now over the last 6 decades, group membership has now grown to 13. the original 5 along now with the u. a. e, libya, nigeria, algeria and gola. gov bohn, congo, and equitorial, guinea. what's more, in 2016, the group has added plus to their alliance opec plus includes 11 cooperating states who are not official numbers, but largely and in effect act as such. and the biggest of the plus group, russia, russia, is the world, 3rd largest producer of petroleum, among other liquids behind only saudi arabia and the united states. now this,

according to the b, p. 's, statistical review of world energy, 2021 report. russia produced some $10800000.00 barrels per day that year, and is classified as an upper middle income economy by the world bank. now according to the opec annual statistical bulletin for 2022, the so called cartel controls, more than 80 percent of the world's proven oil reserves. a staggering 67 percent of that sits in the middle east. and venezuela, to the surprise of many, has about 3 percent more crude than the saudis. so while the ultimate goal of the world claims to be going net 0 at present oil, literally grease as the wheels for the entire world. then opec roiled the west after us president joe biden approached the saudis, about holding off on there 2000000 barrels a day, cut and production. he said,

hold off by one month, presumably until after the us mid term elections. but then the saudis, they just said now and also worth noting their this was done in conjunction with russia who the g 7 is aiming to punish with price caps on russian crude. now russia was considering a 1000000 barrel a day cut, but saudi crown prince m b s, decided. now let's just double that. so is that a signal? the us saudi relationship is souring for more on opec and b, growing power of saudi arabia. we invited someone who has served as an advisor to for not one not to not 3 for us presidents on mideast policy. al bruce, right, dell is a senior fellow at the brookings institute center for middle east policy and director at the institutes intelligence project. bruce, thank you for joining now. many have described opec as a cartel. is this

a fair description of a group of nations who work together effectively? you know, as an oil cooperation council, especially since the term cartel is often associated with gangs and thumbs and illegal activity and things like that. i will leave it to specialists and lawyers to determine whether opec is technically a cartel. it is perceived to be a carter, a particularly in those countries which are the recipients of its oil. and the other thing i would say about this perception. opec is a collection of autocracies. in fact, a good deal of number of them. absolute monarchy is like saudi arabia and united arab emirates, most of its customers are democracies, the united states, europe, india, japan, australia. so there is

a perception that this is a collision between a bunch of autocrats and the democratic forces of the world. and that's not a perception that is in opec's advantage by any means. so whoa, or which country is the, the factor leader of opec. saudi arabia, the leader of opec. and it has been since the creation of the organization, a saw your radio provides at least a quarter, if not a 3rd of all the oil that opec produces. and it's the only country that has the capacity to increase production significantly or decrease production significantly, which gives it the key swivel road swivel rope in opec and goldman sachs commodities. chief jeff curry seems to believe the groups. power

is at an all time high of their, you know, roughly 60 years. can you give us an example of the sheer power of this group? i mean, does it go beyond just shaping markets? can it actually shape global politics? i think as strong as opec is today, it's actually been stronger in the past. that was particularly stronger in the 19 seventy's, 1973 of course, saudi arabia, post the oil embargo that led to shop to quadruple oil prices. the iranian revolution led to a significant curtailment and oil that produced recessions. opec is strong and powerful today, but it's actually been even more powerful when more of the world was dependent upon it for its oil reserve. uses. united states today produces much of its

own oil is not as dependent as it was back in the 1900 seventy's, the overthrown and murdered long time leader of libya. mo, mark adolphe, he played an outsized role in shaping modern day opec methodology. how would you describe his efforts? i mean, was he just sort of like a guy trying to unionize these mostly, or a oil producing states or would it be like something else to dock? he was a true arab nationalist. he believed that the solution to the world was to unify all of the arabs, as they said, from the ocean to the gulf, from morocco to alma. now, his quirky personality often got in the way of his political objectives and he never did successfully unify libya with any other country. but he certainly had a dream unified her world which would dominate opec even more than

the our world dominates it today. let's shift gears a little bit and place them focused on saudi arabia. now the us relies heavily, i would say, even primarily on saudi oil, the u. s. a. saudi arabia, number one, customer, and conversely, the saudis are america's number one customer in the way of military arms. they buy up tens and tens of millions of dollars of hardware from the d. o d, i would say almost every quarter, it seems. how would you characterize the u. s. saudi relationship? is it a symbiotic one? the relationship between saudi arabian, the united states is very on equal, or the united states provide saudi arabia with security, particularly against external foes. without americans support saudi arabia would have been toppled by masters egypt, and the 1950s by saddam hussein. in the 1990 s. it would have been at the mercy of up to soviets. us support has been crucial for the survival of the

kingdom. kingdom provides the united states with some of this oil. but the united states also produces a lot of its own oil as increasingly gone to find new ways of developing oil. and if you look at the future, not the next 10 months, but the next 10 years. as climate change increasingly drives american politics and economics, we're going to be less and less reliant on fossil fuels. that's a good thing, but it also means we won't need the saudis that much anymore. the saudis, on the other hand, don't have an alternative to the united states for secured clearly pollutants. russia is not going to be able to provide security for anybody. it's losing the war in the brain. and the chinese aren't that interested in projecting power around the world and taking on security concerns. neither russia or china is very much interested in taking on the riots,

which is the saudis traditional. so the saudis need america much more than america need saudi arabia can, can you, can you elaborate a bit on the, the brookings white paper that you released on this, this clandestine and saudi israeli relationship. saudi arabian israel have had clandestine intelligence cooperation since the mid 19 sixty's in 1962, there was a qu in yemen in what was then ne, that brought into power a pro soviet pro gyptian republican government, both the israelis and the saudis wanted to support the alternative to royalists. and the 2 of them cooperated in getting arms to the royal. it's literally the israeli air force flew down the red sea over saudi territory and dropped arms to many royalists. levels of this collusion was the

beginning. it has continued ever since then, and it continues to this day has been very successful for both sides. one of the reasons that the israelis one so and leave the famous 6 day war in 1967 is the quagmire. israelis in saudi is created for the egyptians in yemen, was bogging down 70000 egyptian soldiers. the best and brightest of the egyptian army was in the wrong desert. in june 1967 there were in the yemen. they were not in the signer. alright, so the, the term opec plus the plus that actually includes russia. what is russia's position in this cartel? how important a player are there lessons? not formally a member opec, but they are a member of tech plus. and as a very large oil producer, they have considerable weight and current american officials and

both sides of the iowa democratic site and the republican side in congress and government. so that relationship is definitely a symbiotic relationship because you have a small group of people that is a monarchy or the those people who are now in control of the country among the monarchy, who require security and defense against 1st and foremost, their own people. and the united states have provided that security and protection in spite of any denial. these are the stablish facts that the united states stopped the over to throw or the removal of the monarchy from one end of that country, stopping in 19 sixties and continued until now. so it's not only i guess outside

threats but against their own people. and in exchange there, the saudi monarchy has provided a united states government and officials with large contract opened country space and land for us to establish a forward basis and to and the saudi. monica also funded a lot of the american efforts in and the region in the gulf and in the middle east, in general, be it in cash or in giving the united states and bases. so they can cross out those spy or attack countries in the region from yemen to have to iran, to syria, for example. so there are provided place for to train serial numbers, isis linked and others in, you know, and that's in this information,

is new, obviously. but these are facts. so over the past 6 years, so did i be served? the united states, security and economic goals. and the u. s. served the monarchies, survival and power within the country. and in the region, the saudis have considered and seem to have agreed to start taking the chinese you want for oil. now, if this really does happen, do you think this will be really destabilizing to market, specifically here? states. i mean, is this going to, is this going to cause the collapse of the u. s. petro dollar it, i do not think saudi arabia relying and pumped on the warm weather and bring an end to the euro dollar to the dollar. but it will open the gateway to other countries to

stop depending or using the dollar as a currency and international trade. trade between china and russia, for example, would stop using the dollar and people dealing with china who are not who i understand sions, or bullied by the united states, and then as well and other countries. cool. but your name, it was start dealing with china with their own currency. and that is, i think it's out of the united states, sort of a loose cannon policy of sanctioning countries and starving populations around the world. so people will go with the chinese currency and deal with china rather than the united states to avoid your sanctions and to just stop being bullied. so i guess if the saudi government is going to do it,

it will be limited. it will not, it's not, it's not supposed to shake the market. but because this, these kinda market are based on speculations and people inflating, changes, there will be some losses. but i think in general it would be a good. it said good a step for international. it cannot mix because using a single currency as a main trading and their vehicle is not good. it limits the options of many people. so it's important that the international economy uses different currencies and, and it should be an open market. isn't that supposed to be capitalism? ideas to have an open market or free market. so it would be good for the saudis and

for the chinese even, i think from the americans. but if they do it, of course the united states will take this as a huge insult and a cause for, for revenge or steps. however, i think m b s will not do it until he is confident. this will not cause massive reaction. and i think that is explained by his recent sentencing of an american citizen to 16 years. this is the harshest sentence in american hostage it has received ever in the united states. government basically did not react to this sentence and did not try anything to stop this from happening. although they had that information from last year 1111 months ago. yet they did not extend to any efforts or even ask or the saudi to free this.

74 year old man in any of the meetings between secretary blink can or sullivan, or by dealing with the saudi or what the saudis configuration of taking in the chinese you on. does this signify a strengthening of their relationship with china, especially a saudi arabia is also considering application to the bricks block. so the relationship with the chinese have been growing. and now the number one trading partner for saudi arabia is china and be a consumer goods oil energy. and there are many projects and saudi arabia that are being built by chinese companies is supposed to have been american companies. but again, people who feel more comfortable,

even those who are protected by the united states government are finding dealing with the chinese is easier and maybe even cheaper and better for them at the end. so it is very clear as it has been happening for a while. and saudi arabia is expanding its investment in china and along the chinese as well to, to bring a lot of it can on the projects into saudi arabia. but this is not only limited to the economy projects, but also so i get a b, i have purchased and chinese military hardware including service to service missiles. and there are saudi military officers who i'm training in china. so the united states now is not the only source for military hardware, it is still the primary source,

and it will continue to do to, to be so. but the chinese are also now a provider of saudi artists. so we're going to have to leave that right there. my friend ali on that, always good to see you. thank you for sharing your expertise with us this week. so while the saudis leave the opec group, the collective west is also now considering a buyer's cartel of their own in response. check that out. not sure how that's all gonna play out, but we'll have to wait and see. that's going to do it for this weeks. episode of modus operandi the show that dig deep into foreign policy. i'm your host manila chan. thanks for tuning in. we'll see you again next week to figure out a

a look and you live muscles. if you look on the initial develop club not to get a can use to put bother with it or change, but you also still with the done those a what i see the senior bus is the little gear motivation. says this a gun, bob

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