Saudi Arabia: "Back off Hosni Mubarak", Saudi King Abdullah warns Barack Obama as Saudi oil reserves estimates are cut by 40%

It was disclosed in the The Times of London that in a "testy" telephone call on January 29, Saudi King Abdullah told US President Obama not to humiliate Mr Mubarak and said the Egyptian leader should be allowed to stay on to oversee the transition towards democracy and then to leave with dignity.

King Abdullah threatened to step in with funding for Egypt if the US withdrew its euro1bn(US$1.35bn) a year aid program. "Mubarak and King Abdullah are not just allies, they are close friends, and the king is not about to see his friend cast aside and humiliated," a senior source in the Saudi capital told The Times.

Saudi King Abdullah, who obviously must be getting very worried about the possible rippling effect of the popular uprisings around the area in support of democratic reforms on his own autocratically ruled country, must have had another shock when Wikileaks revealed that Saudi Arabia has got far less oil than its been saying. According to a senior Saudi government oil executive Saudi Arabia's crude oil reserves may have been overstated by as much as 300bn barrels – or nearly 40%.

EU-Digest