Massive Fires In Saudi Arabia - Aramco Oil Facilities Hit By Drones

The civil war in Syria had NOTHING to do with the US or the Saudis.. It was brewing for 5 years... and Bashar was either scared of his family or taking a lot of valium.

This interview is a real eye-opener... from December 2011.

[video]

 

Control of Mecca, Medina and over all those Sunnis? Makes no sense to me. They can't even fix Syria.. I mean really.. 6 million Syrians have fled the country.

 

I expect retaliatory action in Iran, not an all out war - though grains of sand eventually make a pile.

Any proper war I expect to be led by KSA and Israel against Iran and Syria and vice versa, backed by the US and Russia respectively.

It would not be pleasant. It may send the world into war, breaking a 75 year relative peace.

But we are a way away from this yet.

 

At the most basic level as to whom supports whom, comes down to money and power, but for the U.S., it's mostly money. Since the early months of the Trump administration, Jared Kushner and Mohammed bin Salman had been having private, informal conversations. They communicate regularly using WhatsApp so there's no worry about pesky US surveillance of their conversations because it's encrypted. Jared Kushner's family needed money for 666 Fifth Ave and got it from Qatar. Jared Kushner has no political experience and those private exchanges have always made him susceptible to Saudi manipulation. It was Jared Kushner who immediately after Khashoggi's murder, was giving Mohammed advice on how to handle the outrages publicly. Kushner has refused to publicly acknowledge the fact that MbS ordered the execution of Khashoggi.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend". The idiom illustrates how a common enemy can be a unifying force for otherwise deferring groups or people.

Who has the most to gain or lose from an alliance with Saudi Arabia and Israel against Iran?

Saudi Arabia is enemy to Iran. The US is providing the Saudis with bombs which are killing civilians in Yemen. Saudi is not at war with Yemen, but rather having a proxy war with Iran in Yemen. Iran is predominantly Shia Muslims and the government is controlled by Shia clerics, while Saudi’s monarchy follows the Wahhabi branch of Islam. The presence of Shia militants in Yemen is perceived as a threat by Saudi. In response, Saudi and its allies (the US) made constant airstrikes towards the militants. In a nut shell, you could say that it's a cold war proxy between Saudi and Iran looking out for their own interests whilst the Yemeni people bear the suffering. Thousands have died and millions are without food. It's a humanitarian crisis. And because the US and Great Britain are selling the Saudis their weapons and bombs, they don't say anything about the bloodshed that the Saudis are causing in the country. That's why most of the world media hardly ever mentions the war. And the UN accepted Saudi Arabia as head of the UN Humans Rights Council.

Iran is a threat to Israel. Israel has nukes. Pakistan is allied with Iran and an enemy to Saudi Arabia, Pakistan has nukes. U.S. is allied with Israel and Saudi Arabia, U.S. has nukes. Both China and Russia would become quickly involved in any war with Iran and both countries have many nukes.

It's evident that trouble in the Middle East would escalate into a world conflict. What a mess this is becoming.

 

The Shia crescent that runs from Iran to Syria is what protects the moderate Sunni's on Russia's southern flanks from being infiltrated by the jihadist terrorists from the Gulf. Russia's pipelines run through these states, so it's a matter of survival for them. The US knows it, otherwise there wouldn't have been CIA agents embedded with them.

Russia fought two devastating wars in Chechnya because of these terrorists. This is also why they became so heavily involved in Syria. Basically everything Washington does is to break up the Russian Federation so it can grab its resources, and everything Russia does is to prevent them from doing it.

 

Pakistan is a clear ally of Saudi Arabia, although it tries to not be entirely under their thumb. Nonetheless, while their relationship with Iran used to be alright, the past decade or so has seen a significant deterioration in relations between Iran and Pakistan. Indeed, Pakistan unfortunately hosts some anti-Iran terrorist groups, which have even resulted in Iran taking military action inside Pakistan to confront them.

I don't think either Russia or China would get involved in any war against Iran. The Chinese, in fact, while having good trade ties with Iran and taking a non-aligned position on issues geopolitically, are ultimately as invested (if not more) in Saudi Arabia than Iran. The Israelis have also tried to woo them in their direction as well, developing closer ties with them. Russia, on the other hand, is still undecided where it wants to be and has lately done more to fight Iran in Syria than be a partner anywhere.

If war erupts, it will involve many nations in the region, although not those you imagine necessarily.

 

This is precisely why the JCPOA was working for all parties.

Escalation happens very quickly. Striking Iran militarily is striking flint against a tinderbox.

 

Almost.. Pakistan is allied with Saudi Arabia not Iran. The Houthis have taken credit for the drone attacks now.

 

I know that China just signed an enormous oil deal with Iran, so I'm not to sure they would take any actions against Iran lightly. As for Russia fighting Iran in Syria, I don't think that's so. They're working with them and Turkey to end the war in Syria. They just want the Iranians to leave, because as long as they are there, Israel will feel threatened and keep on bombing. Russia did tell them to shut up with their threats.

Putin has an obligation to protect his citizens, and millions of them live in Israel - and not all of them are Jews. They settled there with their in laws. I read that 1/3 of the people in Israel speak Russian.

 

I just leave this link.

 

The Saudis don't want war.. Maybe this is the tail wagging the dog.. Either Iran can control the Houthis or they can't.

 

Saudi Arabia dramatically changing its oil exports to ...
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/15/saudi-arabia-dramatically-changing-its-oil-exports-to...
Aug 15, 2019 · Saudi Arabia's crude shipments to China have doubled in the span of a year. During the same period, its oil exports to the U.S. have dropped by nearly two-thirds. The numbers signal a …

 

I know you are very pro-Russian, but the truth about Russia is pretty much what I have said. Russia may have its reasons for what it is doing in Syria, and in meeting with Netanyahu all the time as he plots against Iran with them, but ultimately I don't expect much from the Russians in case of war. As long as they don't do harm, and try not to take anyone's side overtly, that is fine with me.

China will be non-aligned as it does have good trade ties with Iran and, also, because they basically know Iran is on the right side of these issues trying to resist US bullying. They sympathize with that posture by Iran, even if they don't come out openly and say it. But the deals they sign with Iran are mostly to threaten Washington as to where they might go. Otherwise, until now at least, they have never seriously gone through any of the deals they have entered into with Iran on major oil and gas projects. They basically tie up the projects and then don't do anything, waiting to see how things work. On the other hand, they do have deals with the Saudis as well, not just multi-billion dollar deals in the oil and gas field which they actually go through with, but also reports that say they have built a major ballistic missile facility in Saudi Arabia.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019...-technology-china-report-190606054204929.html
Saudi Arabia buying new missile technology from China: Report

 

Saudi's had 2.2 million more barrels of oil in reserve than they reported they had. An independent audit confirmed that the kingdom’s reserves are above 260 billion barrels. Only Venezuela has more in reserve. What better way to quickly raise the price of crude oil than to destroy half the reserve of oil?

I see this as one stone killing the same bird. Iran is being blamed for the missile strikes on Saudi oil reserves, the price of crude jumps up immediately. Last April, OPEC countries threatened to sell it's oil in other currencies other than the petrodollar, which is based on the current U.S. dollar value.

This is just the start of something that could potentially develop into a global economic crash. The stock market is reflecting fear and uncertainty today, the Dow -132

 

That is a very interesting interview. I did not find a reference to the Saudis opposing an invasion of Iraq, but I would not be surprised to learn that they opposed overthrowing Saddam Hussein after it became clear that his military would be forced out of Kuwait.

This stands out:

"Q: After that meeting Brent Scowcroft called you and said he was outraged, what did you say to him?

Cheney: Well, I shared Brent's concern. And it was clear to me that we didn't want to do sort of ground war plan one. That that was unacceptable and that we had to find a way to be more creative in the application of those forces and so we were, we looked at other options. I had work done within the Department by the joint staff to look at something we called the Western Excursion. I mean we experimented with various possibles, some of which we eventually briefed to the President, that looked at the possibility for examples of taking the small force and going out into Western Iraq and occupying the Oman-Baghdad highway cutting that road and occupying some airfields out there for several reasons."
PBS, oral history: richard cheney, Interview with Richard Cheney, Secretary of Defense, November 18, 2015.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/oral/cheney/1.html

I suppose we should assume that his option was rejected as, 1. 'too easy' and 2. too cheap'.

 

Nope... The Saudis have all they can say grace over. They want HAMAS, Hezbollah and the Houthis to cool it and they want the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al Mandab safe and open to shipping.

 

The Bush administration claimed they were protecting KSA from big bad Iraq.. That's how they sold the war. Iraq was broken from two decades of war and sanctions. They were not a threat to KSA.

 

The Saudis don't want a war that will be costly to them, which is why they have been quiet trying to figure out how to respond to what happened and who to show the finger of blame. And knowing that the Saudis don't want to see a war with Iran, Trump simply punted the ball their way and put them in the position to decide! Which doesn't mean the Saudis might not be goaded by pro Israeli figures in deciding the wrong way, with MBS particularly susceptible to making stupid moves, but I think they realize that despite being so vocal against Iran and the JCPOA, when push comes to shove, they aren't prepared to see their kingdom serve as a rich target list for Iran.

 

One more example of Trump being Israel and SA's bitch.

 

Syria has no resources.. What are you talking about?

 

The US does not need Russian resources, and it is not in the interest of the US to break up the Russian Federation. Is it possible that the Washington political class believes it is in our interest to destabilize Russia? Sure.