Our Saudi allies

OPEC announced another production cut designed to keep oil prices above $60/barrel, and apparently, we're expected to thank the Saudis. (Thank you, sir. May I have another?)

“I hope the market appreciates we are working so diligently to bring supply and demand in balance, to have inventories at a reasonable level so that we do not have gyrations,” Ali Al-Naimi, the Saudi oil minister, told reporters at the meeting, held in Abuja, Nigeria.

Also: Through the AP, we have another possible reason for the sudden departure of Turki al-Faisal, "he was not succeeding at building strong ties with the United States." "Many in the royal family concluded that if he stayed longer, things might even get worse."

Later: The Saudis make their pitch to the Americans that they can responsibly support the Sunnis.

A Saudi intelligence official told ABC News that if his government decided, as King Abdullah has threatened, to help the Sunni community defend itself against Shia militias in Iraq, they would start by "cleaning up" the volatile Anbar province of its al Qaeda networks.

"We will clean up Anbar village by village because we don't want them to have a rear base in Iraq to attack Saudi Arabia," says the source, who adds that Saudi intelligence has already laid out extensive networks in Anbar province, where a Sunni insurgency has gained a stronghold.

Later Still: Steve Clemons sees the resignation of Turki al Faisal as part of an internal battle over how to handle Iran. In this version, Bandar and his aide are winning and pushing to join with Cheney for a more militaristic approach to Iran.