Saudi Crown Prince: War With Iran Would Bring ‘Total Collapse Of The Global Economy’


While tensions with Iran between the United States and Saudi Arabia remain high, the issue seemingly took a backseat to the controversy over President Donald Trump’s July phone call with the Ukrainian president that sparked an official impeachment inquiry by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

According to The Hill, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reminded the world on Sunday that the situation is still very real and that entering into war with Iran would be a total disaster for the entire world, at least in an economic sense.

In an appearance on CBS’s 60 Minutes, bin Salman explained why stability in the region is crucial to the prosperity of the global economy and raised the question of what could happen if the Middle East destabilized due to conflict with a country as influential as Iran.

“The region represents about 30% of the world’s energy supplies, about 20% of global trade passages, about 4% of the world GDP. Imagine all of these three things stop,” bin Salman said. “This means a total collapse of the global economy, and not just Saudi Arabia or the Middle East countries.”

Saudia Arabia has been at odds with Iran since a drone and cruise missile strike — allegedly carried out by Iran — targeted two of their oil production facilities. The impact was so great that experts estimated that it temporarily disrupted a percentage of the global oil market.

Though Iran has remained firm in denying allegations that it had anything to do with the devastating strike, both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have blamed them for it, causing tensions to rise even further after Iran allegedly took down a U.S. drone earlier in the summer.

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the attack on the Saudi oil sites.

When asked why he thought Iran would target their oil facilities, which have a massive impact on global markets, bin Salman said it wasn’t strategic, rather, that it was “stupid.”

“I believe it’s stupidity,” he said. “There is no strategic goal. Only a fool would attack 5% of global supplies. The only strategic goal is to prove that they are stupid and that is what they did.”

As reported previously by The Inquisitr, earlier this month, Trump approved a U.S. troop and military equipment deployment after Saudi Arabia asked for international assistance to help bolster defensive capabilities against Iran.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said at the time that the U.S. troops and resources would be deployed to Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates in an accelerated manner in an effort to make sure both countries were sufficiently prepared to mount a defense, presumably in a worst-case scenario.

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