The Great Game is on in Saudi Arabia

The funeral this week for Saudi Arabia’s late King Abdulla should be interesting. That’s because the “Great Game” is on again, with the stakes the future of the world’s largest deposits of cheap and readily accessible oil.

For two players in this game, Russia and Iran, the solution to their plunging economic fortunes is obvious: reverse the Saudi-engineered oil glut and low prices. With Iranian-backed insurgents’ take over of neighboring Yemen, the Islamic State threatening another neighbor, Jordan and perhaps Saudi Arabia itself, and Iran’s incipient nuclear bomb, instability seems more likely in the Kingdom than continuity.

That may mean disruptions of supply, a change of policy or even a change of government in Riyadh. One or the other becomes more certain if President Obama continues to be seen as feckless, or worse, submissive to our enemies.