If Barack Obama is losing Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, he may have another significant problem to deal with. Alwaleed is the second largest shareholder of Newscorp., Fox News Channel’s parent company. During an exchange with Bloomberg’s Erik Schatzker, Alwaleed was quite openly critical of Obama, saying he is “not succeeding”. While this conversation focused on U.S. domestic policies, Alwaleed’s criticism very well may have something to do with foreign policy (more on that after the video).
While he is a very astute businessman, Alwaleed is also a member of the Saudi Royal family. That family is more than just a little perturbed with the Obama administration. In particular, the Saudis have decided to side with Egypt’s al-Sisi while Obama has thrown his lot behind the Muslim Brotherhood in that country. On its face, that sounds crazy and illogical. The fact is that the Saudis enjoy using the Brotherhood to spread Islam as long as the Brotherhood can be kept at arms length. The Mursi regime in Egypt was getting a bit too close for comfort.
Obama seems to side with the Brotherhood almost unilaterally. The one time he pulled back – in Syria – is when the Saudis wanted him to press forward.
Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal
These and other foreign policy decisions made by the Obama administration have likely contributed to Alwaleed’s forthrightness.
In 2008, thanks to what many believe was an unintentionally revealing interview, Percy Sutton seemed to out Alwaleed as being a significant financier of Obama’s success at Harvard. In that interview, Sutton identified Khalid al-Mansour as the middleman between a wealthy Saudi and Obama’s collegiate success. One of the men whom al-Mansour is very close to is Prince Alwaleed. If the claims made by Sutton are true, Alwaleed definitely has an even more personal reason to be angry with Mr. Obama.
Here is that interview: