Word: saudi
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...Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal tells TIME that he is optimistic about this week's Middle East peace conference in Annapolis because of what he calls U.S. determination "to see this through." Continuous U.S. mediation in post-conference negotiations, including pressure on Israel, he says, "can turn things around" and lead to a comprehensive settlement before President Bush's term expires in 13 months...
Then there's the gloomy view. In his 2005 book Twilight in the Desert, energy-industry investment banker Matt Simmons opened up a still raging debate over whether Saudi Arabia, OPEC's top producer, really can pump much more oil than it does now. Since the book appeared, Saudi output has dropped from 9.6 million bbl. a day to 8.6 million, despite rising prices...
...Saudi officials used the occasion of an OPEC summit in Riyadh in mid-November to say they could up production at any time. But that raises the pesky question of why they don't. So far, the answer from OPEC leaders has been that high prices are the fault of speculators and the falling dollar, not low production. They're not just blowing smoke. Lynn Westfall, chief economist of refiner Tesoro Corp., says there's more than enough oil for sale right now. The price pressure, he explains, "is coming from financial participants in futures markets...
...those, including key European and Arab allies, fearful that the stalemate raises the likelihood of military confrontation before President Bush leaves office in January 2008, there was another lifeline - or straw, depending on your perspective - offered by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the weekend. During a visit to Saudi Arabia for an OPEC summit, the usually provocative Iranian President told an interviewer Iran would consider an Arab proposal for offshoring its industrial uranium enrichment in a neutral country such as Switzerland...
...political equation is becoming increasingly complex. Musharraf is currently visiting Saudi Arabia, which has long-standing close ties with Islamabad - and is also the exile home of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whom Musharraf overthrew in 1999. While Benazir Bhutto has returned to demanding that Musharraf resign following the breakdown of the political marriage between them brokered by the U.S., Musharraf may be trying to bring Nawaz Sharif over to his side. A Musharraf pact with Sharif would be even stranger than his short-lived alliance with Bhutto. But regardless of the outcome of the political maneuvering, New Delhi will...