saudi arabia, next on great decisions. (enthusiastic music) - [announcer] great decisions is produced by the foreign policy association in association with thomson reuters. funding for great decisions is provided by pricewaterhousecoopers, llp. (soft arabian music) - [narrator] saudi arabia and the us are at odds culturally and ideologically yet for decades, they have been said to enjoy a special relationship based on shared interests. - on 1945, when the late king abdulaziz, the founder of modern saudi arabia met with the late president franklin roosevelt on an american destroyer called the quincy, there was a very strong strategic relationship that developed between the two countries. - there's lots of areas that we have to work together. we had times, have different views and different priorities and we have different values, we understand that but we share a common commitment to a more peaceful region and i think we can work with saudi arabia in order to accomplish that. - the special relationship about the united stat

system and if saudi arabia belongs to a family then obviously every saudis member of that family i think that we should really step aside from these kinds of epithets that mean absolutely nothing saudi arabia is a huge economy in this part of the g. twenty system it has plenty of allies around the world from doing out at states to south africa to brazil to japan to china you name it everybody would love to have good relations with mohamed bin said man who is going to become king whether people like it or not and there's another big saying that says the dogs bark when the caravan is passing it's just a matter of time everything will eventually take care of itself however the challenge is on him personally. to actually prove to all these naysayers that he is a capable individual he can rule the country he can unite the family he may be he may be making mistakes along the way perhaps as a matter of his youth and his inexperience but this is part of the learning process as i said at the beginning of the show and he will come out of this not because he is an exceptional individuals but becaus

plans of the saudi government as a for the saudi regulations in terms of their readiness and capability we have found is that in almost all cases, our regulations have passed with flying colors. were a few opportunities for improvement, which we actually just rereleased recently, like a rerelease of modified and amended offer of security regulations. with that, we believe our regulations are fully enforced to accept and accommodate and offering a listing as large as saudi aramco. mark: is there anything else you can do to speed up the process? i think, from our standpoint, we are fully ready. the case ins is most privatizations and most flirtations, the filing of an ipo perspective with a regulator is usually the last step in the process. have been in constant discussions with our colleagues in saudi aramco as well as their financial advisors. to clarify questions they have. and we are awaiting a prospectus to be filed soon. mark: how soon do you think that prospectus will be filed? mohammed: i think that is a question that is better responded to by the company and its financial advisor

we heard similar questions within saudi arabia from saudis. the question was, why do people have this caricature of saudi arabia? saudi arabia has been, by choice, a closed place for a long time. and they're changing that, opening up the country to tourists, to the world in a sense. i think that can only help in this regard. because it's true that the caricature you may have in your mind, especially younger saudis, doesn't match with the reality you confront on the streets of riyadh. i think the burden of changing that perception is that -- to the saudis, to be open to the world to het peoplet people come for themselves. >> david, and then over here in the middle. >> thank you. david wineberg, inside defamation league. i wanted to ask about something that really hasn't come up a lot here. which is the issues of human rights and rule of law. in saudi arabia, their national transformation plan has goals, but i was wondering to what extend these choice of issues were raised by the delegation or came up with your officials in saudi arabia or uae o

more handouts for saudi citizens. it seems like whenever they try to instill a little bit of austerity, they start rolling it back. >> that is a huge development of whether you agree with these measures or not, obviously these measures are pro-growth. they show also, they raise questions about the coherence of the policy. about the resolution to actually move ahead with needed but painful measures. this is not the first time we see saudi authorities rollback decisions. last year, it it happened with the government salaries. we saw them switching the dates for the balancing of the budget. with the subsidies. now, there will be questions over, are they going to follow through with these measures to change the composition of the economy and public finances? tracy: what does this say about the links between the saudi royal regime and handouts? and government support? if you look at the saudi press agency, they are reporting king salman said he reinstituted these handouts after prince mohammed came to him and explained to

that is a lot of work considering the size of saudi aramco and what it means for saudi arabia.etween two choice things internationally, or listing internationally or only domestically. >> definitely we will list internationally. -- domestically. we want to list internationally. that is where the consideration is happening. we did a lot of work on the different stock exchanges, london, new york, tokyo, hong kong, and each one has its pros them.ns in terms of the committee is looking at all that information. >> is there a risk this is not a global listing? this was sold as an international listing. >> nothing about listing only in the kingdom or going back on -- the committee is still if i waiting the option of listing in the kingdom and internationally. >> what do you think the committee is looking at? regulation, advantages of negotiating with the stock exchange? >> a lot of the work is done by terms our consultant in of the different stock exchanges and information, but you need to appreciate the information passed to the government committee looking at all of that. there is a

>> where we are going to list saudi aramco is a major contributor to the gdp of saudi rabia. the decision is not like listing n the company. the government committees are looking at listing saudi aramco, different stock exchange decisions, and each need to be evaluated, then ultimately somebody needs to come up with a decision on the pros and cons on each listing venue. that is a lot of work considering the size of saudi aramco and what it means for saudi arabia. >> is this a choice between two things internationally, or listing internationally or only omestically. >> definitely we will list domestically. we want to list internationally. that is where the consideration is happening. e did a lot of work on the different stock exchanges, london, new york, tokyo, hong ong, and each one has its pros and cons in terms of them. the committee is looking at all that information. >> is there a risk this is not a global listing? this was sold as an international listing. >> nothing about listing only in the kingdom or going back on saying -- the committee is still evaluating the option

the saudis are trying to find a face saving way of dumping had the. saudi leadership and the u.a.e. is for that matter are both very opaque and hard to judge what their real intentions are they certainly don't tell you that in their oficial pronouncements but sometimes lack of action lack of even verbal support tell you a lot in a situation where heidi is being totally excluded from the south and his government is holed up in a small area in the presidential palace and other than there has been very lukewarm support from saudi the spokesman even suggested that perhaps had the oil to listen to the man's of the south really i mean this is not something new he should have been listening to them a long time ago the u.a.e. has thrown its military support behind the baby the saudis have not of course is a between m.b.'s and trade in the u.a.e. i doubt that they are working at cross purposes here i think they are talking every day and i think that the saudis are probably going to eventually lead statelet in the south to be formed and hope that they can press the war against the north and e

keep supplying arms to the saudi led coalition the saudis keep pushing for a total victory and some people inside yemen are supporting that idea the u.n. has been flailing about without a good leadership and good skills so as a result i don't think there's any hope of internationally reaching a solution that. that's why i say perhaps the burden should be on the yemenis it is difficult to ignore a foreign powers the regional especially because they have so much rested interest but then peace is never easy and the main thing is to sense of national unity gone and i'm sorry to be able to interrupt you he came. out of time. what do you make of that where does the key to solving. the intractable problem that is yemen lie what's it going to take to get this war to end this as it was described by the un's humanitarian coordinator for yemen as an absurd war. it's very complicated but. the problem is that most of the people or the sides who are involved right now in the many solution or file i'm not aware or do understand yemen in general they have to understand yemen to be to solution the u.n. env

everybody observes saudi, likes saudi.he big elephant in the room with lots of room to grow. people are becoming more optimistic about saudi under diversification. , sayingw the arrests why are japan my electricity bill, my water bill. could we see more of that? >> they are used to getting freebies for a long time, and all of a sudden they are pulled back and you will protest for a while. those are the challenges they will face. the royal family itself with all the benefits they are used to getting, and they were not be getting them in the future as they used to. >> you are sticking around. you still have quite a bit of material to get through. a few other calls when it comes to the rest of the region. here is the focused of our next segment. gulf governments tapping the markets for cash, how they could be raising those amounts, and what kind of yields you can lock in after what has been a stellar 2017. this is bloomberg. ♪ >> we are live on bloomberg tv and radio. let's talk about fixed income, on debttes could embark rai

deadly: saudi -- >> there were saudi risks to royal family members.the attorney general, security says -- risks on thursday alleged people -- that refused to leave a place in riyadh. he added that they will be held at a maximum security prison. said the u.s. is open to discussions with south and north korea at the appropriate time. trump said he would be willing to speak directly with them. operationor folk between the neighbors after upcoming talks. he also credits them for making the talks happen. >> the president called me. we had a great discussion a couple of days ago. i very much hope it works out between the two countries. i would like to see them getting involved in the olympics, and maybe things go from there. 100 percent.hat he thanked me, a lot of people have written that without my rhetoric and tough stance -- it's not just a stance. this is what has to be done if it has to be done. be talkingouldn't about olympics, wouldn't be talking right now. >> the u.s. is holding back to billion dollars in military equipment -- $2 billion in equipmen

car shopping has become a popular holby for wealthy saudi women. you just want to be free with the car you can get your groceries every stuff every shop you don't need to to to wait for somebody to take you to do is small things you know your daily life thing when you go to my office come back to my office to my home you know. i'm free the car dealer says a lot of saudi women have actually already bought cars but until now they've just been for their drivers driving yourself is obviously a lot more fun. yeah that's like. so what do saudi men think about it this is the time for her to die if i do had all the fires there will have. to be i don't. know for soupy and her sisters don't have a regular chauffeur there aren't any public trains or a metro in jeddah so when no funds to go out she has to hire a driver or ask her brother mohsen sunday afternoon drives a popular with middle to upper class women but there's always a male chaperone present. no for wants to get her driver's license primarily for financial reasons. in the business maybe i want to s

he was portrayed by saudi arabia and the u.a.e. as the main opposition figure to the cats are a government. is now accusing both countries of fabricating the g.c.c. crisis in order to seize cats ours wealth he also says mohamed bin sandman and hama been ziad the saudi it will be crowned prince says plotted the entire crisis. i mean this is. and is to them. he said. but. i'm. not. also why not. let him out. to. ship. one. let it's a little while it. would be. well the blockade against qatar is now in its seventh month on may the twenty third katz harz state news agency was hacked it reported statements attributed to the emir but despite the government saying the reports were false saudi and immorality backed media continued to broadcast the false statements on june the fifth the embargo was imposed by saudi arabia the u.a.e. bahamian and egypt air routes were closed forcing qatar airways to make major detours and saudi arabia close qatar's only land border and on june the twenty third the blockading countries issued a list of thirte

there are many dreams from the saudi leadership, many of the saudis and many of our partners and of thearge companies, are individuals. thousands of dreams that will be established in neom and the building of neom. everybody can imagine how the shape of the city, the zone, the infrastructure, the sectors, if you start from scratch, and you deal away and forget about the conventional cities. many things could happen. this what we're trying to create in neom. maria: you can understand some people looking at your ambitious plans and saying, wait a minute, what is this all about? the kingdom of saudi arabia investing in solar? >> we know the demand is not only in energy, many of the other sectors use oil like petrochemical and many other sectors. we believe the demand for energy will increase dramatically in the future, so we don't think it will decrease, the demand for oil. it will increase between 230 to 2040, and it will not immediately collapse after that, so we could look at the conventional source of energy before oil, which is coal. if we look at the index for demand for oil, for coa

that exporting arms to saudi arabia does not enable violence and when the r.a.f. is training these pilots these are saudi war planes they're not it's not britain that's creating the mess and the death destruction of europe this is why there's an america say we don't need gun controls it's not guns that kill people it's the people firing them saying in a kind of exports do not help contribute to deaths well yes if they were put in a box and not used by the saudis they don't contribute to death but do we really believe they are putting them in storage after spending billions on them no the point of the consolidated criterion the point of having a huge humanitarian. basis for how we export arms licenses is we do not want to have an arms export system a bit like the russians do for example where it's just a political decision the point was to make sure we took it out of just the hands of politicians to work out who our friends and who our foes are and to something where you're looking more objectively are these weapons going to be here because it's pretty rich where l

plan to bully cats are in june saudi arabia egypt and the u.a.e. as well as bahrain cut diplomatic and economic ties with qatar david the rush is professor at the national defense university and a former pentagon official joins me now from washington d.c. good to have you with us on the program sir but really this book whether you believe it or not seems to you might say cross the t.'s and dot the i's when it comes to perhaps confirming what we already knew especially when it came to the gulf crisis and the and the impasse between saudi arabia certainly and cattle are. yeah well look the the book it's seems to me i haven't gotten to read the book yet i've read excerpts from it it seems to me that it confirms what everybody in the bubble the washington foreign policy establishment sometimes referred to as the american deep state has already believed about donald trump and quite frankly has felt about him since he announced his candidacy but the nothing that i've heard so far comes as a surprise i mean after the the cutter kerfuffle erupted trump ann

saudi arabia and the u.a.e. of fabricating the gulf crisis in order to seize qatar as wealth say the lebanese army and fanny had been portrayed by saudi arabia and the u.a.e. as the main opposition figure to cast ours leadership. now he accuses muhammad been some and how much been the saudi arabian and i will be crown prince is off hogging the entire crisis in the audiotape of trained by al jazeera he threatened to end his life citing pressure from crown prince abdullah bin i did that he had been living in saudi arabia since the blockade began in june he then moved to the u.a.e. where he accused the government there of detaining him he's now in a kuwait military hospital. i mean this is. and this to them. and. yet. i did. yes. why not. let him. talk well. let's have a little while it. would be commuter. measured on saudi is a professor of sociology at katz our university told me that doha actually has gains from the gulf crisis. basically i mean there's nobody who is more better situated than benignly to talk ab

and the anti-corruption operation appears to be wanting down in saudi arabia the government says it's taken back more than one hundred billion dollars in settlements. but what else is required to tackle corruption in the kingdom i mean it's a pole connect with us he's in the house between his beard it when he when it was great live on air and streaming online through you tube facebook live and at al-jazeera dot com thank you for joining us yemen has been at war for nearly three years now and every day brings a new front in the conflict that has killed thousands and displaced millions of people now secessionist forces in the south say they have taken control of the port city of aden that's where the government of president of the rubble months or hadi has been based since being pushed out a little some by hoofy rebels the reuters news agency says the forces which are backed by the u.s. have confined government leaders to the presidential palace the takeover comes after two days of fighting yemen's government is accusing saudi arabia of ignoring the actions of the u.a.e. link's forces n

and in saudi arabia a big change for two super rich countries where the mole is king but the saudis are creating even more new year cheer with motorists with an unannounced rise in petrol prices a doubling with immediate effect from midnight. one last fill up before gas prices go up now even saudi drivers are concerned about prices gasoline is rising in cost from twenty cents a liter to forty five cents most drivers aren't happy with us on this it is that the increase will affect people whose lives depend on using a car most of the time i work in a medical equipment company and on a normal day i drive between three hundred and four hundred kilometers so it'll affect me strongly and people support the it's not you can see it on your person ok people ignore we do accept opinions but you're just too cheap to cheaper than the other countries we're seeing. low oil prices mean saudi arabia is scrambling for more income the price of a barrel stabilized last year around sixty dollars yet the international monetary fund calculates that saudi arabia needs an oil price of at least seventy dollars

how is that affected by the saudi, u.s. backed saudi bombing of yemen?> the issue with cholera, actually, the numbers are expected to reach one million by the end of this year with or than 2000 people now having died from the disease. the bombing of infrastructure, of water supplies, has had an impact on hospitals, the blockading of medical supplies bringing them into the country, the blockading of water purification into the couountry, the aid agencies have been bringing in supplies for that. that all has an impact on the the choleraelp situation in yemenen. now you're seeining outbreak of more disisease. we're hearing the last few days abouout diphtheria in yemen, whh has not been r reported for decades in the country. this is all because less than 50% of the country's medical facilities are now operating, and those that are operarating r under massive e strain. theyey cannot get the supplies they need. the aid agencies cannnnot bringn the help they need for those kinds of situations. it is not just hunger. it is disease. that is not going to be just r

as for self defense and it is just an aggressive attack on yemen by saudi and that is the reality the conservatives don't want to face up to so they just continue this mantra in the hope that if they say it enough it will come true they do with all things that they know schools funding in the n.h.s. there's no winter crisis they say but we all know that is there it's the same with the arms trade they all pretend that there's no problem because then they'd have to live up to it the only ritual for vice chair of the tory party is be on the show one of the few european politicians who visited yemen and seen some of the carnage unicef has been on this road they've talked about it pulling the film was a safe zone on your committee as well it said saudi arabia is now beginning to allow women to drive because so things are changing in saudi arabia yes but the argument is not that the sound is a bombing we mean in saudi arabia the argument is that bombing the heck out of people in yemen you know kind so what they're doing for people in saudi is neither here nor there when we're talking about

the fact that tom vosa putting his own man on top in saudi arabia the general perception among the saudis if the read the book is that the crown prince is going to be politically beholden to the americans and that ultimately he will definitely have to return the favor of the south to the americans. well i think there is a growing stigma now of mr hammond and sort of have been to support off so we will look at all the possible ramifications of this in the. golf mind at the same time i think that there was a bad investment in the real summit because i think most of the world's nations or the governments thought that have been a good relationship with the powerful man at the white house would give them an umbrella or an extra cover of power but then we study his strategy or would be strategy for example towards our very own though and on the one hand you support him and sort of man by the time he's criticizing the situation in yemen at the same time we saw how he shifted from being on to china to having a good relationship with prison so he this is more of a mood politics and they don't thin

another passage describes a potential change in saudi arabia the president was considering before his trip last spring to the middle east in the days before his departure he was telling people that the saudis were going to finance an entirely new military presence in the kingdom supplanting and even replacing the u.s. command headquarters in qatar fire and fury wasn't supposed to be released until tuesday but the book's publisher moved the date up after attorneys for president trump issued a cease and desist letter threatening legal action in an interview friday morning author michael wolff stood by his book and added this observation the one description that that everyone gave everyone has in common they all say he is like a child's. and what they mean by that is he has and the need for immediate gratification it's all about him the white house is labeling fire and fury tabloid trash president trump wouldn't answer questions about the book friday afternoon but tweeted i never spoke to him for the book full of lies misrepresentations and sources that don't exist still fire and fury is

plan to fully cut it in june saudi arabia egypt the u.a.e. and behind cut diplomatic and economic ties would cut it. but david rush's a professor at national defense university and a former pentagon official and he says he wouldn't be surprised if the trumpet ministration had considered setting up a new base and saudi arabia. the u.s. national security interest is to have a constellation of bases in every country and it's important remember that the headquarters in qatar moved from saudi arabia in two thousand and three so i have argued that it would be in our interest to establish another base in saudi arabia if we can do that in a manner that is consistent with saudi internal security. but that doesn't mean that we have to diminish the others we should have a broad array of bases and quite frankly if you know the m.r. audi's where the saudis want to build a facility you know we should be in a position where we can move because if you have all your eggs in one basket then you're you're hostage to political turmoil or you could have one attac

the kingdom of saudi arabia has been aiding yemen for a long time, both domestically within saudi arabia within the country. the kingdom of saudi arabia has given the central bank $2 billion to support the yemeni currency. this is the second donation. the first one was done in 2014 before the conflict. the important thing to keep in mind is that there -- aid has been diverted due to the iranian-backed houthi militia which has threatened the yemeni people and threatened the rouge and their activities have threatened the kingdom of saudi arabia. >> woodruff: again, i want to say, on the one hand, saudi arabia has been behind this military operation that has led to thousands of deaths. just yesterday there were civilian casualties, children and women are dying, but with the other hand saudi arabia is offering aid. you know, how do you explain the contradiction? >> the kingdom of saudi arabia entered into the conflict by request of the legitimate government and is key to providing relief to the yemeni people and providing their needs. that is primary to the kingdom. simultaneously the kingdo

is that exporting arms to saudi arabia does not enable violence and when the r.a.f. is training these pilots these are the war planes they're not it's not britain that's creating the mess and the death destruction of europe this is like there's an america say we don't need gun controls it's not guns that kill people it's the people firing them saying in a kind of exports do not contribute to deaths well yes if they were put in a box and not used by the saudis they don't contribute to death but do we really believe they are putting them in storage after spending billions on them no the point of the consolidated criterion the point of having a huge humanitarian. the basis for how we export licenses is we do not want to have a knobs export system a bit like the russians do for example where it's just a political decision the point was to make sure we took it out of just the hands of politicians to work out who our friends and who our foes are and to something where you're looking more objectively are these weapons going to be young people because it's pretty rich for a

it's not like saudi arabia. you can't turn it on and turn it off within days or weeks. - [mcnally] many people thought that once it became clear to most people at the end of 2014 that saudi arabia was really going to abdicate the role of swing producer; and you have to remember this is hard for people to accept and believe. but once they did, hopes then shifted to shale oil doing it. shale oil companies are not going to replace opec; and they really couldn't. because remember; shale oil is produced by hundreds of companies who, even if they could agree to cooperate to restrain supply to hold up price, that would be illegal. they would be taken into court. so, it's very different than saudi arabia where the energy minister picks up a phone and gives an order to the state oil company aramco. - [narrator] increased carbon emissions, resulting from the burning of fossil fuels have long term geopolitical repercussions of their own in the form of climate change. - [gerrard] all of those effects will have a crippling e

have confined the government of president hadi to the presidential palace suggesting splits in a saudi led coalition where some of the has the latest. the seat of power for yemen's government is no longer under its control this is the sudden port city of aden where secessionist say they are now in charge fighters from the sudden transitional council have seized areas around the presidential palace and military bases. the prime minister's call to cease fire has not but the government of president. the is based out of saudi arabia and the man he appointed as governor of aden now heads the separatist movement secessionist said given how the made him to change his government and when the deadline expired on sunday thousands of their supporters took to the streets of aden. that. we demand this corrupt gang in the liberated southern areas be expelled our youth have sacrificed for the school these sacrifices cannot go down the drain and see this corrupt gang and power to them we say enough is enough. many people in the south of accuse the government in the north of discrimination since united

crisis that started in june when saudi arabia the u.a.e. and it cut off diplomatic ties and imposed a sea land and embargo. the post from shekau the lebanon early support qatar stands the other west is public ated and politically motivated has. you heard a small clip of that report from ash we're going to play you now the full unedited audio recording. from scott. unless he. and mr them actually. land. here to. tell. us. i. can tell. i don't. like this one and i thought. one of the. two who will. come on the title but i don't. want to let it's a little too well it. could be sometimes. let's talk to my own bashar about the south senior political analyst joining us from london as i said at the top of the show and this is an unexpected turn seven months into this crisis isn't showing us now that shake up although he was presented by saudi arabia as an opposition to the qatari government that they never actually walls i'm not sure why you're saying it's a quest it's unexpected although you and i agree often i must disagree with you are correct

is indebted to saudi banks. they cannot afford to live. what happens. prime minister the case could affect his popularity months before the parliamentary election but the stakes are much higher than. the break some of your comments coming in particularly on the suicide bombing in afghanistan that i really don't understand how anyone could think lighting an ambulance with explosives and detonating it among civilians is a heroic thing to do i don't think you'll get much argument from a lot of people on that and he has said on facebook facebook dot com slash al-jazeera for the live stream afghanistan on its best again presuming this is. irony here after the war is over really they have no choice but to have dialogue with the taliban to keep your thoughts coming through hash tag is a genius group this is the news great if you watching us on facebook live you're about to learn about hip hop music in china which is growing in popularity but authorities are not about that and then later something that is well it's a st

will hear from saudi women about the change and the call for deeper reforms. south korea proposes high level talks with the north now this comes a day after north korean leader kim jong on offered a rare all of france to the south and new threats to the u.s. . plus it could be a make or break year for the german chancellor we look at what's in store for on the macro of twenty eighteen as she tries to form a new government as part of our series this week on the year ahead for a key global player. i'm brian thomas great to have you with us protests people have been on the streets in various parts of iran's since thursday protesting conditions in the country and this is footage provided by iranian state t.v. which claims that protesters are violent and that some have damaged a.t.m.'s buildings and other property and also claim that some protesters tried to take over police stations and military bases on monday iranian state t.v. showed president hassan rouhani meeting with members of parliament to discuss the situation rowhani claim that protests are happening be