ArabianEmpires&Caliphates
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I have no interest discussing the living standards of Indians in this thread (not really relevant when I was talking about the economic size of countries), I am merely saying that they are (very soon) poised to become the third largest economy in the world and that is due to their huge population. Similar to all the other countries in the top 10. There are no countries in the top 10 world economies that have a small population for a reason. Pretty simple.
If KSA had a population of 1.4 billion, we would be the in the top 3 of largest economies in the world. I have no doubt about it.
The Arab world alone (500 million) would be the third largest economy in the world right now, if one country. Add 1000 million (!) more hands and you have a giant potential for economic growth just by simple economic reforms like seen in China. Rest (scientific, infrastructural, economic) development will follow automatically like it did with any other huge country in history.
Maybe in another galaxy. However KSA is literally in another galaxy when it comes to influence compared to Norway. It's not even a contest with all due respect. As I wrote KSA has tremendous political, religious, cultural etc. clout in the Arab world, MENA region and Muslim world. As well as in terms of natural resources and minerals. Basically de facto controlling OPEC.
Where lies Norway's influence exactly?
Anyway to return to the topic of this thread.
Uranium and heavy metals in Phosphate Fertilizers
From book Uranium, Mining and Hydrogeology (pp.193-198)
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226094606_Uranium_and_heavy_metals_in_Phosphate_Fertilizers
Saudis to Prospect for Uranium, Thorium with China – over US Objections
Mar 14, 2019 @ 19:34 DEBKA Weekly
Saudi Arabia is pushing ahead with a geological survey to explore and assess its uranium and thorium resources in the kingdom’s western Hail Province, in the face of US objections. Although this largely agricultural region was always thought to hold small supplies of these substances, Riyadh suddenly perked up of late to its potential after Chinese geologists turned up promising finds.
Hail produces large quantities of dates and fruit and most of the kingdom’s wheat and grain. It has historically derived its wealth as a wayside station on the camel caravan Hajj route to Mecca.
Most of the world’s uranium is found either in northern countries like Canada or Russia or the south in places like South Africa and southern Australia. Jordan is thought to have substantial reserves, up to 65,000 tons of uranium plus the potential to extract 140,000 tonnes from phosphates. Foreign firms have been given mining contracts.
However, DEBKA Weekly’s sources report that Chinese geologists hired by the Saudi government reported that Jordan’s uranium deposits extend south as far as Saudi Arabia’s Hail. Riyadh’s eagerness to co-opt Beijing to the start of its uranium mining project has raised suspicions, especially in Washington, that Saudi Arabia is secretly conducting a nuclear program a lot bigger than suggested by intelligence findings.
The project is going forward as a partnership between the King Abdullah City for Atomic Research and Renewable Energy (KACARE) and China’s National Nuclear Cooperation (CNNC) for the stated aim of “exploring uranium and thorium deposits for peaceful use.”
Last October, the KACARE president Hashim bin Abdullah Yamani said his agency was tasked with “nuclear plans” and proposed to “extract uranium domestically as part of its nuclear program” and a step towards “self-sufficiency in the production of atomic fuel.”
Five months ago, Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman laid the cornerstone for the kingdom’s first nuclear research reactor. This posed a question: Why does the nation with the world’s largest reserves of oil need nuclear reactors for power? It also raised the suspicion that the Saudis wanted a possible infrastructure for manufacturing plutonium from the nuclear fuel produced by this research reactor.
In past negotiations with the Obama administration, the Saudis firmly refused to relinquish their right to enrich uranium for use as nuclear fuel for their power reactors project. The Trump administration, in contrast, is prepared to countenance uranium enrichment in Saudi Arabia under restrictions, despite strong objections in both houses of congress. Antagonism to Saudi Arabia among US lawmakers remains high over the suspicion that the crown prince engineered the death of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year.
Although Riyadh replies that putting nuclear energy to civilian use will free up more of its oil for export, no one doubts that its overriding motivation is in the realm of “security.” The Saudis deeply resent lagging behind Iran’s nuclear efforts and watch with covetous and suspicious eyes the rapid nuclear advances achieved by their ally, the United Arab Emirates. In 2018, the UAE completed the construction of its first civilian nuclear plant. In an agreement with the United States the UAE signed a commitment not to use the reactor for uranium enrichment in return for which it was granted international assistance. The Saudis refuse to undertake this commitment, maintaining that since Iran is allowed to enrich uranium, they too have this right.
Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, on Wednesday, March 13, accused regional powers of “spending their petrodollars on suspicious nuclear projects” that could endanger security in the region and the world. He did not name those powers. Those new threats, Shamkhani said, would force Iran to revise its strategy depending on their nature and geography and the needs of “our country and armed forces.” Last month, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused the United States of hypocrisy for trying to wreck Iran’s nuclear program while seeking to sell nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia, Tehran’s regional rival. The Saudi government has so far, with unusual stubbornness, refused to turn over to Washington any information on the nuclear program it is running out of King Abdullah City, or explain what Chinese engineers and technicians are doing there. Therefore, the decision to prospect for uranium and thorium in the Hail province has widened the differences between Riyadh and Washington on the nuclear issue. In an effort to bridge the gap, the US was last week reported to be “encouraging Saudi Arabia to consider bids by American companies to build nuclear reactors.” Washington hopes that if US companies like Westinghouse win those contracts, the administration will have access to a much clear picture on what is going on inside the Saudi nuclear program.
https://www.debka.com/saudis-to-prospect-for-uranium-thorium-with-china-over-us-objections/
Saudi Arabia's first nuclear reactor nearly finished, sparking fears over safeguards
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...early-finished-sparking-fears-over-safeguards
KACARE launches uranium program to train Saudis
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1464706/saudi-arabia
Saudi Arabia owns 5% of global uranium reserves
https://english.mubasher.info/news/3251245/Saudi-Arabia-owns-5-of-global-uranium-reserves
As Saudi Arabia Builds A Nuclear Reactor, Some Worry About Its Motives
Bomb Watchers Twitching as Looser Rules Weighed for Uranium
Countries encouraged to look at extraction from phosphates, providing potential new pathways to the nuclear material used in reactors and weapons
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...xpand-phosphate-link-to-weapons-proliferation
Wa’ad El-Shamal: The capital of global phosphate
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/article/551114
Wa’ad Al Shamal pivotal in development of KSA’s vast phosphate reserves
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/arti...elopment-of-KSAsvast-phosphate-reserves?rss=1
Saudi crown prince warns it will build nuclear bomb if Tehran does the same
Prince Mohammed bin Salman is pressing the US to allow Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium in return for choosing American nuclear technology
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-iran-nuclear-bomb-threat-mohammed-bin-salman
Saudi missile program expanded with help from China, US intel said to show
Trump administration reportedly withheld information from Congress, raising concern it is tacitly approving move; fears raised Riyadh could be seeking nuclear weapons
https://www.timesofisrael.com/saudi...d-with-help-from-china-us-intel-said-to-show/
Exclusive: US intel shows Saudi Arabia escalated its missile program with help from China
Pakistan
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/05/...udi-arabia-ballistic-missile-china/index.html
Saudi Arabia, China have established ‘comprehensive strategic partnership’
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1534636/saudi-arabia
Saudi Space Agency Begins To Take Shape, Reported $1 Billion Budget In First Year
https://spacewatch.global/2019/04/s...hape-reported-1-billion-budget-in-first-year/
Connect the dots.
Saudi Arabia wants to enrich uranium for nuclear power: Energy minister
REUTERS
September 09, 2019 11:05
- Saudi Arabia has said it wants to tap nuclear technology for peaceful uses
“We are proceeding with it cautiously ... we are experimenting with two nuclear reactors,” Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said at a conference in Abu Dhabi.
Saudi Arabia has said it wants to tap nuclear technology for peaceful uses. But enrichment of uranium is a sensitive step in the nuclear fuel cycle because it can open up the possibility of military uses of the material, the issue at the heart of Western and regional concerns over Iran’s atomic work.
Prince Abdulaziz also told reporters the world’s top oil exporter would keep working with other producers to achieve market balance and that an OPEC-led supply-curbing deal would survive “with the will of everybody.”
He said there would be “no radical” change in the oil policy of Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s de facto leader, which he said was based on strategic considerations such as reserves and energy consumption.
The prince had helped negotiate the deal between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, a group known as OPEC+, to cut global crude supply in order to support prices and balance the market.
He told reporters that the OPEC+ alliance was “staying for the long term” and called on OPEC members to comply with output targets.
“We have always worked in a cohesive, coherent way within OPEC to make sure that producers work and prosper together,” the prince said.
“It would be wrong from my end to pre-empt the rest of the OPEC members,” he said when asked whether there was a need for further oil production cuts to support the market.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1551986/saudi-arabia
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