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Protests expected in Gulf today

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Protests are expected to take place in a number of cities in Gulf countries today and over the weekend. Friday, a day of mass prayer for Muslims, is a particularly volatile time of the week. Demonstrations have taken place this week in Yemen, Kuwait and Bahrain. However, attention is currently focused on Saudi Arabia, where Shia citizens have declared a ‘day of rage’ to take place today. Saudi police dispersed a protest by Shia citizens in an area close to the border with Bahrain earlier this week. Regime-supporting clerics have issued declarations forbidding participation in the protests and declaring the unrest a Shia phenomenon. The Saudi monarchy has pledged increased financial allocations to help address the acute problems of youth unemployment and a lack of affordable housing for Saudi Arabia’s growing younger generation.

The prospect of unrest in Saudi Arabia is of particular significance to the West because the kingdom produces a quarter of the world’s oil, and any perception of a breakdown in public order there would be likely to lead to a rise in already high global oil prices. Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal yesterday sought to blame ‘foreign intervention’ for the planned protests, and said that ‘any finger’ raised against Saudi Arabia would be ‘cut off’, according to the Saudi-sponsored newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat.