The price of oil has been in steep decline for about a year now. Saudi Arabia and other major producers have not cut back production to boost prices, preferring to undermine one of the chief reasons for the drop – US production based on fracking. The Saudis are taking a beating though. They cannot balance their state budget with oil below a $100.bbl and we;re about half that now.
The US has had a peacekeeping force of about 500 troops ever since the Camp Davis Accords of the late seventies. Increased ISIL and al Qaeda activity among Sinai bedouins has led to two clashes. The US is sending in a medical team. The deployment is being discussed as a counter-ISIL program.
Saudi Arabia offers build mosques in Germany
Riyadh has offered to reward Germany for taking in refugees by building 200 mosques. The Saudis, however, will not be taking in refugees themselves. While the offer has humanitarian elements, it must be remembered that Saudi-funded mosques will preach the austere Wahhabist version of Islam, which is hostile to the West, oppressive of women, and conducive to jihadism.
Oddly enough, there have been mosques in Berlin since the eighteenth century when Frederick the Great rewarded Muslim soldiers in his army.