Saudi Arabia Seeking to join BRICS | “Kingdom is Diversifying from its super dependence on the US” – Expert.

Amidst the growing tension between the US and Saudi Arabia over the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war, the world’s top oil producer has conveyed its interest to join the BRICS Bloc. The move is regarded by Chinese experts as a blow to Washington’s “oil for security” approach to the Gulf.

Last week, President Cyril Ramposa of South Africa during his visit to Riyadh announced that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman expressed the kingdom’s desire to join the BRICS. There are other countries like Turkey, Egypt among others who have expressed their interest to join the grouping, he told the media persons in that country.

The issue of expansion of the bloc of emerging economies will be on the agenda of the BRICS Summit scheduled to take place in South Africa under its presidency in 2023.

South Africa’s local radio station ABC reported on Tuesday, citing South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is also Saudi Arabia’s Prime Minister, “did express Saudi Arabia’s desire to be part of BRICS,” and that Saudi Arabia is “not the only country” interested in joining BRICS.

“The case of Saudi Arabia, however, is both curious and interesting. Saudi Arabia has traditionally been a close ally of the US in West Asia. But in the last few months, the relationship has undergone a roller-coaster ride since when President Biden projected Saudi Arabia as a pariah state during his Presidential campaign due to Prince Salman’s alleged involvement in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post journalist.

“Since becoming US president, Biden changed his stance and visited Saudi Arabia. This visit was intended to lean on Saudi Arabia to increase oil production to ensure low oil prices to damage Russia’s revenues and economy as punishment for its Ukraine invasion. Moreover, Biden wanted to address American voters’ loud cries about the serious rise in gas prices in the US.  American voters blamed the Biden administration and Democrats for causing gas prices rising and doing nothing about it. All this threatened Democrats mid-term elections prospects putting them at serious risk of losing majority in Congress,” said Khaled Fattal, Chairman of the MLi Group and its Chief Survivability, Geopolitical and Geo-Poli-Cyber expert.

Khaled Fattal added, “Many US allies were seriously shocked to see the manner in which the US abandoned its allies in Afghanistan. it is a valid question for them to ask themselves how the US will act when they are under threat. it is highly legitimate for Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman to have asked this of himself.”

“Saudi Arabia Joining BRICS, cooperating with Russia in OPEC+ and making deals with China that are not US dollar based is a strategic diversification for Saudi Arabia.” Fattal concluded


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MLi Group created the terms Poli-Cyber™ and Geo-Poli-Cyber™ (GPC™) in 2012 and 2013 based on the philosophy that if you cannot identify and name the threat, you cannot mitigate that threat.

Geo-Poli-Cyber™ attacks are political, ideological, terrorist, extremist, ‘religious’, and/or geo-politically motivated.

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Geo-Poli-Cyber™ attacks are significantly different from financially motivated cyber-attacks in damage, scale, magnitude as well as in risk mitigation strategies and solutions.

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