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War in Saudi Arabia Pt. 2: The Third Way

Russia's endgoals in Saudi Arabia were broader than most people expected. While the idea of an alliance with the nation and having it under their sphere of influence would be an acceptable choice, that was not the ultimate point. Their entire point in assisting the Baathists was to secure a hegemony for them in the petrol global industry. After all, the House of Saud was their biggest competitor in the industry and having a regime change to have a party that would ally with Russia and follow suit on oil demands would be beneficial. However, having the oil merely compromised or the nation too unstable to truly export the oil would be acceptable as well. After all, the Baathists already did their work in disrupting the oil trade. While the machines were damaged, there were already plans to repair them with Russian assistance so it wouldn't be a big deal. Of course, that's if the Baathists could succeed in their uprising and solidify their power. After all, as long as they left the Hejaz region, they did not expect much interference from the Americans to come in for this. After all, American relations with Saudi Arabia has been on the decline in favor for the reformers in Iran and Saudi Arabia was not reforming fast enough to remain in competition. Plus, the underlying tensions on Saudi Arabia's connection with Wahhabism was becoming more noticeable. And while the Baathists did have some support and exploiting a prime opportunity, they were not stupid nor arrogant. They knew very well that working with the Russians could result in betrayal or at least in the Russians not fulfilling their bargain. At the very least, they also knew that they could still potentially provoke the Americans to come in to try and protect the House of Saud.

So they decided to do something unorthodox. Hours into the disruption and battles, the Baathists began speaking to the Americans and Europeans. To the people, but not the government. They try to present themselves as liberators and freedom fighters. They point out the oppression by the House of Saud onto the people of Arabia. They then revealed that they, the House of Saud, were one of the largest sponsors of terrorism in the world. They point out how decades of oil wealth went into spreading an extremist version of the faith throughout the Muslim world and arguably could be considered responsible for most of the issues brought about, including 9/11. The Baathists were smart. They knew accusing the governments of knowing this and letting it get away would be a risky endeavor and instead just aired out the basics of the dirty laundry. This included that the majority of the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. This along with the various human rights issues was done to poison the public against Saudi Arabia. Now, the Baathists did not want American nor European sort or at the least were not seeking it out. They just wanted to be left alone in order for them to resolve their own issues in doing so. While uniting all of Arabia was still a dream, having access to the oil supplies and intelligence network to supplant the Saud's Islamic teaching with the teachings of Baathism would be more than well-enough for them. Defeat and a change in leadership forced them back to basics on what to do. Their alliance with the Russians was a temporary thing and they were well aware it was just done for the Russians' attempts at the oil market. They too saw the purpose though at the least, were smart enough to see oil would likely not last long.

Of course, during the fighting, it was still utter bedlam. The status of the royal family remained largely unknown though it would not be long before the internet would begin reaching out to try and inform people of the news, all during Christmas Day. President McCain would have his Christmas disrupted over such an event and people would soon turn on the TV or face the Internet in the chaos that was happening. Plans were being regarding Saudi Arabia's neighbors to monitor the situation. Even Iran, Saudi Arabia's long time rival and thus the one who would benefit most from this, was not prepared for this and thus responding to the upcoming calls and readiness on the situation. After hours of fighting and mixed newsreports, the news would come around noon that many of the Saudi Royal Family was either KIA or MIA. and that the Baathists had currently taken control of growing parts of the city with equipment likely allocated from their partner, Russia. However, while Riyadh was currently under growing Baathist control, other situations were going on. Uprisings were going on in Qatif with the Shia minority while the various other provinces were either undergoing martial law or the governors were being targeted in assassination attempts or so on. The silver lining was the holy cities of Mecca and Medina being undisturbed and left alone by the Baathists.

Unsurprisingly, the hit to one of the big pillars of oil market caused some large shockwaves across the world, especially given how various nations were still within a Recession. As such, it served as a fresh blow to pre-existing troubles, especially around the holidays. As the year was reaching its end, the heads of states of various nations convened for an emergency meeting on what to do with Saudi Arabia, as the troubles inside rage on. The Saudi forces could likely hold out on their own though the raising tensions and problems could mean a Syria-like problem could arise, especially with troubles going on near the petrol sites. As 2014 would be coming, no one knew what laid ahead.