Chapter 253: A full circle

When Zhou Ming left the Saudi Arabian palace, it was only 10 o'clock in the evening local time. In other words, Zhou Ming had only been in the Saudi Arabian palace for less than an hour when he received 10 billion US dollars in military funding from Prince Hariri. Although the funds would be transferred to the embassy's account for safekeeping through the Saudi royal family's overseas account for security reasons, the speed at which this kind of money was made was already astonishing.

'Comrade Zhou Ming, before coming to Saudi Arabia, you had already negotiated a deal with the Saudi royal family, didn't you?'

Zhu Xi asked Zhou Ming as they got back in the car. As a senior diplomat stationed in the Middle East, he had a certain understanding of the Saudi character of not regarding money as important, but that was only for things they liked doing things, they can casually throw away money; on the contrary, if they don't like or even hate something, no matter how rich they are, they won't spend a single penny on it.

Because of Zhu Xi felt that Zhou Ming must have communicated with the Saudi royal family beforehand, and that today's visit was just a formality.

However Zhou Ming replied, 'I know what you're thinking, but I'm sorry, I really have never had any form of communication with the Saudi royal family before today. As for communication between the central government and Saudi Arabia, I think as the Minister Counsellor of the embassy, you must know better than I do.'

'Therefore I'm puzzled as to why Prince Hariri would so readily agree to give you so much money. I don't think that as a mature national leader, he would believe in your jihad theory. Besides, the reason the entire Arab world is divided into so many countries and there are still very serious sectarian conflicts is that apart from the interference of Western countries, their own lack of unity is also a very important reason.'

Zhu Xi finds it hard to believe: 'I don't believe that Saudi Arabia considers Iraq to be its own brother, but it seems that there is some reason why he had to pay this sum. Can you tell me why?'

Zhou Ming nodded and said to him, 'I can believe that Minister Zhu Xi knows much better than I do about the way of thinking and regional relations in Saudi Arabia and the entire Arab world. However, I have a grasp of other information that you, Minister Zhu Xi, do not.'

'To Put simply, in Minister Zhu Xi's view, this is just a Gulf War, a sanctions regime imposed by the United States in alliance with other Arab countries against Iraq, the aggressor. In my opinion, it is an oil war dominated by super-consortia, whether it is the invasion of Iraq or the impending attack on Iraq by multinational forces.'

Zhou Ming continued, 'The fundamental purpose of this war is to dismantle the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. The consortium still needs to firmly control the discourse on oil in its own hands, but as the world's largest oil-producing country, he definitely doesn't want to work for someone else for the rest of his life. He wants to take the oil into his own hands and turn it into his own weapon. Therefore, if it is not necessary, Saudi Arabia simply does not want to participate in this war.'

'This can be seen in the attitude of the Saudi support for the US military,' Zhou Ming said, 'Countries around the world military spending on this war are direct payments, the only Saudi Arabia is to provide logistical support, although there is a battlefield opened in the Saudi between Saudi Arabia and Iraq, but more because Saudi Arabia did not want to get involved in the war. However, he did not dare to defy the Americans, so what he did was the only way to go.'

'If if Iraq loses too badly, then the United States will establish absolute authority in the Middle East, and the oil discourse power that Saudi Arabia has struggled to obtain through various means will become a joke. Now that we have thrown an olive branch to them . And we are a country that has sold ballistic missiles to him. At the moment, there is still trust. Coupled with their own local tyrant personality, who doesn't take money as money, I was able to get the money so easily,' said Zhou Ming.

Regarding Zhou Ming's words, Zhu Xi did not refute. In fact, he knows much more about the political situation than Zhou Ming. For example, the Gulf Cooperation Council is something Zhou Ming does not know. Cooperation Council is something that Ming Zhou doesn't know about. This GCC is not just an economic cooperation organisation, it also has a military collective function. Also For this reason, if the Arab world really wants to go to war with Iraq, it should do so in the GCC's name, not just Saudi Arabia's. It would be a last resort.

Thinking about Zhu Xi let out a sigh here and said, 'It is said that war is the continuation of politics, and in countries like the United States, where large corporations control political discourse, it is the corporations' war.'

Speaking of Finally, Zhu Xi shook his head regretfully and said, 'It seems that Comrade Zhou Ming's decision to go to Iraq was not without reason. In comparison, my perspective of the Arab world is too narrow. I actually forgot that this will be a war involving many countries.'

'In is not the case. As Minister Counsellor in Saudi Arabia, you should still study the situation in the Arab world more. I just happened to be right. I'm not a blind cat that can stumble upon a dead mouse every time.'

Zhou Ming said to himself with a self-deprecating laugh, before adding: 'But then again, the Saudi Arabia business is over. Has the embassy helped me prepare for the flight to Iraq? How are the arrangements going over there? Does the Saudi Arabian embassy know?'

Zhu Xi nodded and said, 'It's already been prepared. However, at present, Saudi Arabia has been seriously infiltrated by the US military's intelligence system. In order to avoid problems, the embassy's suggestion is to take a night flight to Iraq via Bahrain, under the guise of business. Since there are many private jets flying at night in Bahrain, this will minimise detection by the US military.'

Zhu Xi continued, 'In addition, we have contacted the Iraqi embassy in advance, and they have already made all the preparations for your arrival, Comrade Zhou Ming. Please be assured.'

Zhou Ming thought that the embassy's work style was still very effective, and he then said, 'I am willing to accept the embassy's arrangements.'

Since Zhou Ming had made his decision, Zhu Xi immediately scolded the microphone in the car, telling the driver in the front cab to drive directly to Bahrain Airport.

And when Zhou Ming's convoy was on its way to Bahrain, while in the royal palace in Saudi Arabia, Prince Hariri, after finishing his meeting with Zhou Ming, did not go to his own palace, but to the king's palace.

Aziz is the current king of the Saudi Arabian kingdom and Hariri's brother. He became the emperor of this desert country ten years ago after succeeding his late father to the throne. Like Hariri, he was also dressed in a snow-white robe, with a turban and a black headband, sitting on a chair made of pure gold. When he saw Hariri enter, Aziz directly asked him, 'Have you seen the Chinese envoys? What exactly did they come to see us about? Did they agree to launch ballistic missiles?'

'I'm I'm sorry my brother king, the Chinese did not mention anything about the launch of ballistic missiles when they arrived. I don't think they intend to launch missiles, they just want to put them on display here with us,' Harry followed by Harry, 'But they did bring some other interesting news: they are going to support Iraq in its war against the Americans.'

Faced with Aziz was visibly heartened by this news. He asked curiously, 'Against the Americans? As far as I know, this time the Americans have brought a lot of very advanced weapons and equipment. How are they going to fight? Do they have even more incredible weapons? Or are they going to use some weapons that are banned by the United Nations?'

'Not at all,' Hariri replied.

This answer left King Aziz standing there, clearly unable to understand what was meant by guerrilla warfare theory. After a long pause, he said, 'You mean the kind of surprise attacks used against the former Soviet Union? But After all, there are many mountains in Afghanistan, but Iraq is all flat land. Will that work?'

Hariri smiled helplessly: 'My King, I'm afraid only Allah can answer that question for you, but from what they just told me, I think they are still very confident.'

'So did they make any demands? I don't believe they would do something so selfless. You know, they're not descended from the Prophet, so there's no reason for them to do that,' Aziz turned to another issue.

'They they need 50 billion for military spending, which I think is too much, but if they can really prove that Arab fighters can hold off the Americans, then even it will be worth it. So I paid 10 billion dollars into the embassy's account first, and the rest when he proves that he can really hold off the American attack,' Hariri said.

Aziz Aziz nodded and said, 'That's right. That oil was supposed to be a gift from God, but those Americans are crazy about plundering it from us. Through our struggle with the American oil companies, we almost managed to regain control of our own oil rights, which is why they started this war. But as descendants of the Prophet, we will never give up, as long as there is a way!'

'Therefore that's why you're doing a great job. If you can prove that you can block the American weapon, then no matter how much money it costs, it's worth it,' Aziz said.

At the same time Meanwhile, in the White House on the other side of the world, it is 2 pm local time. At this time, President Walsh usually takes a nap, but now he is sitting in his study, very restless, unable to sleep.

Suddenly the sound of hurried footsteps came from the diplomatic office, followed by the entrance of his national security advisor Brent. Walsh immediately asked him, 'Is there news about the Chinese?'

Although he felt a little bit like making a fuss about the President's excessive concern about the Chinese, but Brent nodded and replied, 'According to the intelligence officers' analysis of the intercepted Gulf flights at the air force base, intercepted Gulf flight at the air force base, it was found that those people had boarded the plane under false pretenses. Such behavior would be impossible without the support of a national intelligence agency.'

'So what you're saying, Brent, is that it's very likely that the Chinese authorities were also involved, right?' Walsh asked .

Brent replied that it was very likely, and Walsh then asked, 'What about the whereabouts of the Chinese person? Has it still not been found?'

'It is like this. According to the analysis of the intelligence department, the Chinese person you are looking for most likely took another flight to Saudi Arabia,' Brent replied.

Upon hearing this answer, Walthon was confused, because he simply did not understand what Ming Zhou could possibly be doing in Saudi Arabia. It seemed that there was nothing there except oil. Or was he planning to attack the US military stationed there by using Saudi oil?

This idea made Walsh laugh, and he shook his head. Then he said, 'So I guess he was worried that we would intercept his plane and bypass Saudi Arabia, and he ended up going to Iraq instead?'

Brent replied that it was very likely. He then said, 'Then Mr President, I will immediately order the Saudi air force to take off and intercept all flights from Saudi Arabia to Iraq.'

Walsh stopped him and amended the order: 'No, flights from Bahrain to Iraq!'