Saturday 12 February 2011

ANALYSIS-Gulf rulers shaken by Egypt, but will weather storm | News by Country | Reuters

Gulf Arab rulers, eyeing the fall of a fellow U.S.-ally in Egypt, have lost a longheld sense of invulnerability to popular unrest and will only survive the immediate crisis if they offer concessions to their populations.

From oil behemoth Saudi Arabia to majority-Shi'ite Bahrain and sleepy Oman, Gulf governments may be forced to offer political and economic reforms to prevent unrest from reaching their shores.

But they will also not hesitate to use force to stifle dissent if needed to maintain their hold on power.

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