Oil prices up on Saudi journalist drama – The Wall Street Journal
DUBLIN – If you've been following international news at all you'll no doubt have seen the growing diplomatic dispute over the fate of journalist and US resident Jamal Khashoggi. Khashoggi allegedly disappeared after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The Turkish authorities say they have evidence that the Saudi's murdered Khashoggi, while the Saudi's maintain that he left the consulate alive soon after arriving. Saudi, Turkish, and American authorities are converging on Istanbul to investigate the matter. But whatever the outcome, the tensions that have been flaring between Saudi Arabia and the US over the matter have had one definite effect: a jittery oil market. The threat – however remote – of possible US sanctions against Saudi Arabia or of punitive Saudi oil production cuts has been enough to send jittery oil prices higher. After easing of its late-September highs, oil has ticked up again recently in response to the Saudi situation. The world can't afford to lose crucial Saudi oil supplies, but the US cannot permit blatant human rights violations of its residents. Let's hope the mystery is cleared up soon and favourably. – Felicity Duncan
By Spencer Jakab
(The Wall Street Journal) Relax—this isn't 1973. But don't relax too much.
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