The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 772 Saudi Arabia gets what it wants

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

royal palace.

Saudi King Fahd is hosting a banquet to welcome Al's visit.

Many members of the Saudi royal family arrived, and many prominent figures attended the banquet.

King Fahd appeared to be in high spirits.

Although he is 70 years old, he looks like a middle-aged man at this moment, and his spirit is totally unlike that of a 70-year-old man.

He didn't expect that even the warmongering Saddam would one day choose to humble himself.

Thinking back to the past, Saddam was so arrogant that he had a very tough attitude towards several groups of envoys. He even looked down on Saudi Arabia, believing that Saudi Arabia was the sick man of the Middle East, with money but no strong military force.

Now look at Saddam, who is keeping a low profile and is willing to follow Saudi Arabia as the decision-maker in the Middle East.

This was a huge joy for King Fahd.

It made him much happier than making $10 billion.

Saudi Arabia is not short of money. The money it earns from exporting oil every year is enough for the Saudi royal family to live a luxurious life of extravagance.

Saudi Arabia is the largest country in the Middle East, with a land area of ​​225 million square kilometers, more than five times that of Iraq. Saudi Arabia's population is also much larger than that of Iraq.

Saudi Arabia earns more from oil exports every year than Iraq, but its military strength is far inferior to that of Iraq.

In the past, Egypt was the leader in the Arab world, Nasser was the hero of the Arab world, and countless Arabs worshipped Nasser.

However, because of the Fourth Middle East War, Egypt's actions disappointed other Arab countries and its status in the Arab world plummeted. Under such circumstances, Saudi Arabia was unable to take over the position of the decision-maker in the Arab world.

But it is different now. In recent years, Saudi Arabia has vented its anger on other Arab countries, helping Syria, Jordan and other countries win the fifth Middle East war, and vigorously supporting the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and becoming a member of the United Nations. Now it has formed an Arab coalition to help Kuwait restore its independence, and at a critical moment, it has facilitated a ceasefire in the Gulf War, withstanding the huge pressure from the United States and Europe, which has brought Saudi Arabia great prestige.

Saudi Arabia strongly advocated that the Arab coalition forces become the regular force of the Arab League to maintain peace in the Arab world, and other Arab countries responded one after another.

Now Saddam has also surrendered and is willing to be humble, and can now firmly establish himself as the person in charge.

This will be of great help to Saudi Arabia's international status and influence.

Saudi Arabia now has the most powerful navy and air force in the Gulf region, and its army is also quite powerful.

At least looking at the weapons and equipment, it looks like this.

As for combat effectiveness, that is another matter.

"Al, please say hello to Saddam for me. As long as he is willing to maintain peace, Iraq will still be our good Arab brother. We Arabs should unite as one. We are not without enemies. The Persians have always hated us. The Jews are still unwilling to recognize the independence of Palestine. Europeans and Americans are eyeing the Middle East covetously. We should not waste our energy internally!" King Fahd said to Al: "The Arab coalition is willing to accept you!"

"We have always believed in you!" King Fahd always talks about the unity of the Arab world.

You know what, this is absolutely politically correct.

No one can say it is wrong.

Al said with respect: "Your Majesty, I will convey your greetings to our president. We, the Iraqi people, will certainly be grateful for your generosity. We, the Iraqis, will no longer use force against our Arab brothers. We will only point our guns at the Persians and Jews."

Al has been in Saudi Arabia for four days.

We have almost finished talking about what needs to be discussed. This trip to Saudi Arabia went very smoothly and it can be said to have been a good start.

Saudi Arabia agreed to lend money to Iraq, and it was not a small amount.

This will undoubtedly solve Iraq's urgent needs, and with a good start in Saudi Arabia, subsequent visits to Kuwait, Qatar and other countries will probably be fruitful.

Moreover, this time, he made friends with many royal members and big families in Saudi Arabia, which was of great benefit to the development of his family.

King Fahd was very pleased with Al's statement.

Originally, they had discussed and decided to maintain an Arab coalition as a regular force. The strength of the Arab coalition was maintained at 30, including the army, navy, and air force.

Among them, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other countries contributed the largest number of troops.

Now that Iraq is willing to send troops to join the Arab coalition, the strength of the Arab coalition can be increased to 35.

You know, the goal of the Arab coalition is to build a modern army to maintain peace in the Arab world.

Coupled with Saudi Arabia’s voice in the GCC, it can be said that Saudi Arabia’s international voice and influence are now much stronger than they were a decade ago.

It would be great if we could gain such great prestige without having to fight much.

After Al left Riyadh, King Fahd and Prince Sultan took a walk in the gardens.

"Your Majesty, aren't you afraid that Iraq will become strong again and that bastard Saddam will cause trouble again?" Prince Sultan said.

Prince Sultan is now a big shot in Saudi Arabia, a real powerful figure, and is responsible for the construction of the Arab coalition.

The Arab coalition's general headquarters is located in Riyadh, and there will be military bases in each member country for deployment.

King Fahd smiled faintly and said, "It will take at least 2500 years to rebuild Iraq! Iraq will have to spend at least billion US dollars or even more on post-war reconstruction. If Saddam wants to avoid being overthrown and losing power, he certainly can't spend too much money on the military in the next years."

"Twenty years from now, perhaps the Arab League will have truly achieved political, economic and military integration, and everyone will be tied together, so there will be no need to worry at all," said Fahd.

In the Arab world, Egypt and Iraq are the best at fighting, and the soldiers of these two countries are relatively capable in fighting.

As for Saudi Arabia, its own people know its own business.

Since the end of the Gulf War, Saudi soldiers have been unwilling to undergo the "hard" training as before.

Even though Saudi Arabia has invested a lot of energy in this regard, the results are not very good.

In order to better build its army, Saudi Arabia came up with a solution, which is to attract mercenaries with high salaries, pay them high salaries, and arrange jobs for their families.

The excellent performance of the mercenaries has impressed countries such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and they have a particularly good impression of the mercenaries.

They even believed that mercenaries could give them a greater sense of security.

It’s true that this method really allowed them to recruit a group of mercenaries who were willing to work in Saudi Arabia for a long time and serve as instructors.

However, changing the Saudi military will not be achieved in a short period of time.

For example, what made Saudi Arabia very helpless was that not long ago, the navy was very dissatisfied because they felt that the quality of the red wine provided by Saudi Arabia was average and demanded better quality red wine.

See which country's navy can enjoy fine wine on a warship.

(End of this chapter)