People of Saudi Arabia no longer trust Saudi royal family: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Ali al-Ahmed, director of the Institute for [Persian] Gulf Affairs (IGA) in Washington, to discuss Saudi Arabia's budget deficit that swelled considerably in 2015, as plummeting oil prices have taken their toll on the kingdom's revenues.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Now it is interesting to know that when King Salman came to power, he started off by giving these cash prizes and incentives to the people and now we are seeing a complete reversal of those.

Ahmed: Absolutely. In matter of ten months, eleven months, King Salman really destroyed a …of what was working in the country. You know, he invaded Yemen, burnt through hundred billion dollars in eleven months mostly on the war, and bribing [inaudible]…occupy Yemen. He cancelled the scholarship programs started by his brother King Abdullah, he cut government hiring, increased a lot of the taxes on the people and we see now the budget has been reduced. 2016 budget is smaller than 2015 budget with the same deficit percentage. So you are seeing also increase in energy, electricity, water and other services. Other additional taxes will be increased as well on the general population.

Meanwhile, the Saudi monarchy’s corruption is increasing and that is one of the reasons that the government does not have enough money for the budget. Not only the oil prices, but the trillions of dollars that were siphoned from the people, from the country over the past decades have weakened their economy.

Press TV: Well, Mr. al-Ahmed just one thing that is hard to grapple with is that it seems that the Saudi government does not have money for basic public services; however, it seems to have the money to buy millions if not billions dollars worth of weapons from the US to use against the people in Yemen for example.

Ahmed: Yes, absolutely. The money allocated in 2016 to the armed forces and security is ten times more than the money allocated to municipal services. Everybody knows running a state municipal services are the most important services in any country; this is where touches every citizen in that country. Yet, it is the smallest line in the budget in the current 2016 budget. So you will see an increase [in] problems. We saw just two days ago the fire in Jazan hospital that was caused by the lack of fire sprinklers and any safety measures in a hospital. So imagine now such incidents will take place again and again in next year, killing more people [and] safety measures services and social services will suffer in the country. In addition to the taxes [that] increased, we will see inflation due to the electricity and energy prices going up by 66 percent. So we will see an increasing pressure on the population and also on the monarchy itself because people had enough in one year. This king has destroyed a lot [of] the economy and drove the country to the ground.

Press TV: If Saudi Arabia continues this engagement or aggression in Yemen as well as continues to oversupply the oil marketing, keeping the oil prices down, isn’t it risking dissent from its own population?

Ahmed: I think this is going to [inaudible]...and so an indicator in the municipal elections two weeks ago where the most of the population, over 95 percent of the population, boycotted these elections because they do not trust the monarchy and it was really a vote on the legitimacy of the monarchy. What happened today, with the announcement of the budget, is maybe one of the last nails in the coffin of that monarchy because the people now are much more convinced that this monarchy cannot survive and should not be around to rule.  

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