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A Defense of the U.S.-Saudi Relationship
(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) David Pollock - The U.S. no longer needs Saudi oil for itself. But we still need Saudi Arabia's ten million barrels per day of oil for a stable world economy. Moreover, Saudi petrodollars help finance several key U.S. partners in the region, from Egypt to Jordan to the Palestinian Authority. Iran's oil revenues, by contrast, underwrite our enemies: Assad, Hizbullah, and Hamas. If the House of Saud ever does fall, what would replace it? A friendly democracy is almost certainly not in the cards, and much more likely an ISIS, al-Qaeda, or Iranian puppet regime would develop.