The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 903 Can you still play like this?
A smile appeared on Liu Tao's face.

It was a good sign that Prince Sultan was listening to him.

This shows that Saudi Arabia has not become completely overconfident and lost its mind because of its success in recent years.

What he fears most is that Saudi Arabia is too confident and believes that it can solve all problems by force.

"Your Highness, the Shiites in Yemen currently only have about 10% of their territory, and none of it is by the sea. Instead, it is in the western mountainous area, which is barren but has complex terrain. If force is used, the navy will be useless, and aircraft can only play a limited role. Tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery will be greatly restricted in this terrain." Liu Tao took out a topographic map of Yemen and pointed to the mountainous area.

The Shiites are concentrated in Sana'a, Ibb and Demt in western Yemen. This area is a continuous mountainous area and plateau with poor land and sparse population, but the people here are good at fighting.

The wars in the south and north of Yemen gave this area the opportunity to grow and develop.

If Yemen were unified, the Sunnis would definitely have an absolute dominant position, and it would be difficult for the Shiites to grow and develop.

Liu Tao said: "Your Highness, I suggest that you promote peace talks between the north and south of Yemen, help Yemen improve its economy, actively help Yemen become a member of the Arab League, and help Yemen become a member of the Arab coalition."

Yemen is not yet a member of the Arab League.

Now the headquarters of the Arab League has moved from Cairo, Egypt to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and the Arab coalition forces headquarters is also located in Riyadh.

This is also a reflection of Saudi Arabia's current status.

Liu Tao's strategy is not complicated. It is to have Saudi Arabia join hands with the north and south of Yemen in peace talks to achieve the peaceful reunification of Yemen, and then help Yemen. With more oil and natural gas exports, Yemen's economy will be able to improve rapidly, and many contradictions will disappear, or at least be alleviated.

As long as we return to the framework, it doesn't matter how we quarrel, Saudi Arabia will always be able to gain the upper hand.

Doing so can resolve Saudi Arabia's anxiety and help it improve its status and reputation.

“But won’t this take too long?” Prince Sultan hesitated.

Liu Tao smiled and said, "If we can't achieve success in one year, we will have to wait for five years. If we can't achieve success in five years, we will have to wait for ten years. If we can't achieve success in ten years, we will have to wait for twenty years. Saudi Arabia can pay a maximum of US$10 billion per year, which means US$100 billion in ten years and US$200 billion in twenty years."

"But if you fight a war, I'm afraid the cost will not be less than 100 billion US dollars, and that's if the war goes well. If the war doesn't go well, the cost will be even greater." Liu Tao said: "Yemen is not Saudi Arabia's core interest. Saudi Arabia should put more energy, financial resources and material resources into internal construction."

In Liu Tao's opinion, the situation in Yemen is actually not that bad now. The threat to Saudi Arabia is not acute and can be resolved patiently.

Grind away your worries slowly.

Yemen's oil is far less than that of Saudi Arabia, and its terrain is complex. The entire Yemen starts from the Yemen-Oman border, along the Arabian coast, and turns north to the Yemen-Saudi border at the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. It is a plain area about 2000 kilometers long and 30-60 kilometers wide. This is the essence of Yemen. As for other places, they are either deserts or continuous mountains and plateaus. They are very barren and the output is not enough to feed the population.

This also means that Yemen does not threaten Saudi Arabia's position.

Saudi Arabia has the time and conditions to slowly adjust Yemen.

As for armed intervention and personally taking part, Liu Tao believed that this was the worst option.

Yemen is not the Annan of the past.

Although there are many external forces in Yemen, none of them is willing to invest huge sums of money in Yemen.

Panshan Group is unique in the world in its willingness to help Yemen build roads, bridges, hospitals, schools and ports. China has a very good reputation in the Middle East and Africa, and there is a reason for that. It is the result of years of hard work and sincere efforts to help the development of the Middle East and Africa.

Even in Southeast Asia and South Asia, China is pursuing win-win cooperation and helping neighboring regions develop. This can be seen from the fact that Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and other South Asian countries are all maintaining double-digit high growth rates.

Prince Sultan was stunned. He didn't expect that it could be played like this.

But the more I think about it, the more I think I can do this.

The plains of Yemen and other areas are controlled by Sunnis, accounting for about 90% of the territory of Yemen.

It is far from the time for Saudi Arabia to take action personally.

After settling the matter, the two happily ate beef hotpot.

On March 3, Liu Tao left Beijing and returned to the city.

On the plane, Liu Tao was reading the newspaper.

"Is the Husky crazy?" Liu Tao saw a piece of news in the important section of Renren Daily, which reported that the Turkish army entered the northern territory of Iraq to clear out the Kurdish armed forces.

The Kurds are one of the oldest ethnic groups in West Asia and the fourth largest ethnic group in the Middle East after the Arabs, Turks and Persians, with a total population of over 2000 million. The Kurdish settlement is called Kurdistan, which was originally ruled by the Ottoman Empire. The Kurds believe in Islam, are mostly Sunnis, and speak Kurdish.

The population is roughly composed of 1100 million people in southeastern Turkey, 400 million people in western Persia, 300 million people in northern Iraq, 150 million people in northeastern Syria and a narrow arc area formed by parts of the Caucasus.

The Kurds are the only ethnic group in the world with a large population that has never been granted the right to self-determination.

The Kurdish issue is actually a nationalist issue of a "stateless nation" - the West Asian Kurds demand for autonomy. With its complexity, sharpness and international characteristics, it has long been the second hottest issue in the Middle East after the conflict between Arab countries and Israel.

Almost every year, there is something about the Kurds.

However, it is not easy for the Kurds to establish their own country. Turkey, Iraq and Persia are unlikely to agree to give up part of their territory to the Kurds to establish their own country, not to mention the Caucasus region.

"Sat must be furious. If this happened in the past, the Huskies would probably have fought!" Liu Tao shook his head.

A tiger in dire straits is bullied by dogs, this is exactly what Iraq is like today.

It has been four years since the end of the Gulf War, but Iraq has not yet recovered its military strength, and its economy still has a long way to go.

Even with the help of Panshan Group in recent years, Iraq's daily oil exports are only 30 barrels. The current international crude oil price is US$25 per barrel, which means that Iraq earns US$700 million a day from oil exports, or US$25.55 billion a year.

Not to mention the situation before the Gulf War, even compared with the situation before the Iran-Iraq War, there is a big gap.

It will take Iraq at least five years to restore its oil exports to the level before the Gulf War.

Here, Iraq is now heavily in debt, and only Panshan Group and others are not afraid that Iraq will default on its debts. Other countries would not dare to lend so much money to Iraq.

However, although Panshan Group lent a large amount of money to Iraq, the money was transferred from one hand to the other. In the form of food, building materials, etc., plus engineering construction, in the end, Panshan Group made more money.

(End of this chapter)