U.S. officials fear Saudi collapse if new prince fails

Bin Salman also made a poor choice about the Kingdom’s primary source of cash. As economic czar, he backed last year’s decision to keep pumping oil despite plummeting global prices. Saudi Arabia’s revenues have dropped, forcing huge cuts in social services, including the generous subsidies that the Kingdom pays to it citizens. Those subsidies had been increased in 2012 following the Arab Spring as a way of keeping dissent at bay among the country’s burgeoning –and restive -population of young males.

The Kingdom is so strapped that for the first time since the late 1990s, it’s taking on significant sovereign debt. The Saudis tapped the debt market in April to the tune of $10 billion.

Under Bin Salman, the Saudi’s relationship with its chief regional nemesis, Iran, has dramatically worsened, particularly after the Saudis executed a well-known Shiite dissident, Nimr al-Nimr, in January. Bin Salman backed the execution, which angered both the Iranians and Saudi Arabia’s large Shiite minority…

The U.S. fears that if the Saudi military fails and its economy crumbles, the jihadis will take over. “[Bin Salman] has to win,” said one U.S. intelligence source. “It’s that simple.”