It's On: Saudi Arabia Severs Diplomatic Ties With Iran, "Does Not Care" If It Has Angered White House
Earlier today, as Iranian police struggled to disperse protesters gathered outside the Saudi consulate in Mashhad, we said the following about the rapidly deteriorating situation:
If crude needed an excuse to rally, then surely this is it as it now appears that in addition to the fact that Riyadh and Tehran are squaring off in Syria (where Iran is present and the Saudis fight by proxy) and Yemen (where the Saudis are present and the Iranians fight by proxy), the two countries are on the verge of a historic diplomatic crisis which has the potential to stoke sectarian violence across the Muslim world.
Well sure enough, just hours later, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Ahmad Al-Jubeir announced that Riyadh has cut diplomatic ties with Tehran. The Saudis have demanded the Iran mission leave the country within 48 hours.
Jubeir said the attack in Tehran was in line with what he said were earlier Iranian assaults on foreign embassies there and with Iranian policies of destabilizing the region by creating "terrorist cells" in Saudi Arabia.
"The kingdom, in light of these realities, announces the cutting of diplomatic relations with Iran and requests the departure of delegates of diplomatic missions of the embassy and consulate and offices related to it within 48 hours. The ambassador has been summoned to notify them," he said.
Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir
Riyadh also claims Iran did not attempt to stop protesters from storming the consulate.
Here's are the main bullet points:
- SAUDI TO FIGHT TERRORISM IN ALL OF ITS FORMS: AL-JUBEIR
- IRAN HAS SPREAD CHAOS, SECTARIANISM IN REGION, MINISTER SAYS
- AL-JUBEIR COMMENTS BROADCAST ON AL-EKHBARIYA SAUDI STATE TV
- ALL OPTIONS ON TABLE TO PROTECT SAUDIS, FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS
- IRAQ PROMISED TO PROTECT SAUDI DIPLOMATIC MISSIONS: AL-JUBEIR
-
SAUDI ARABIA DETERMINED NOT TO ALLOW IRAN TO UNDERMINE SAUDI SECURITY-FOREIGN MINISTER
Promptly thereafter, Washington responded to Saudi Arabia's decision by calling for leaders throughout the region to take "affirmative steps" to reduce tensions, Reuters reports.
"We're aware of reports that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has ordered the closure of Iranian diplomatic missions in the Kingdom," an Obama administration official said.
"We believe that diplomatic engagement and direct conversations remain essential in working through differences and we will continue to urge leaders across the region to take affirmative steps to calm tensions."
However, at this point the Saudis are beyond caring what Obama thinks, and made that quite clear. As reported previously, here’s the latest out of Riyadh, via Reuters:
- SAUDI ARABIA DOES NOT CARE IF IT HAS ANGERED THE WHITE HOUSE, SOURCE FAMILIAR WITH SAUDI GOVERNMENT'S THINKING SAYS: RTRS
- SAUDI ARABIA'S POSITION TOWARD IRAN IS 'ENOUGH IS ENOUGH,' SOURCE FAMILIAR WITH SAUDI GOVERNMENT'S THINKING SAYS: RTRS
For those who might have missed it, the situation began to unravel on Saturday after Riyadh said it had executed prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr along with 46 other prisoners. Protesters poured into the streets from Bahrain to Pakistan and before the night was done, the Saudi embassy in Tehran was in flames.
All of this comes as Iran is projecting its influence in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, posing a threat to Saudi regional hegemony just as international sanctions on Tehran are set to be lifted.
The comments from Al-Jubeir seem to indicate that Riyadh is set to step up efforts to rein in the so-called "Shiite crescent", possibly by getting more involved in Syria, doubling down on the kingdom's commitment to the fight in Yemen, and, quite possibly, taking a more assertive role in Iraq by using the fight against ISIS as a smokescreen for some manner of intervention.
It's also worth noting how absurd it is for the Saudis to suggest that the Iranians are the ones "spreading chaos and sectarianism" in the region. After all, it wasn't Tehran that just executed a prominent member of another sect and it's not Iran that preaches a dangerous, ultra puritanical interpretation of Islam similar to that which Sunni extremists use to justify the execution of apostates. Further, it wasn't Iran that destabilized Syria by fanning the flames of sectarian discord.
In any event, this an exceptionally serious situation that could well mushroom into a direct conflict between the two countries which are already on opposite sides of multiple regional proxy wars.
(47 votes)
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You admire paid political activists, who do the bidding of their religious police? You really are a dumbed down sheep.
When Iranians actually protested their gov, they were shot down and imprisoned, just like in every other tyranny.
But for MONEY and POWER.
Allah doesn't come into it.
They need time to recruit more blackwater scum
Ins'allah.
Going after the Bushs too, and the Clintons, the Obamas, the Corzines, the Dimons, the Lloyds, the...
opa! I am sure all Persia is heartbroken
Its hard to be condemned by the Nobel prize winner and the chairmen of UN Human Rights Commitee.
Must be Iran´s fault.
Opa is Greek, ya dumb sheite.
Do you have a point here genius? Opa has Korean and German meaning as well, you cock stocker.
I have often wondered why the Persians don't dump Islam and go back to Zoroastrianism. After all, only by slaughtering Persians did Islamic armies install their "peaceful" religion.
Gee i wonder why sunni palestinians dont dump islam and go back to judaism?
LOL!!! It's been "on" for thousands of years with these fuckers... for America it's been since 1971...
No, farther back to 1913 and maybe even 1865.
At any rate, the Republic has been lost.
I concur sir, this has been in the cards with The Demons That Be since the late nineteenth century at least and indeed, "America" ceased to be decades ago.
Anyway, the Saudi monarchy is going down faster than a $2 hooker, what replaces it is the next problem.
Well, even though I need to study up more on the late 1800s, I would argue that some of our greatest national progress was in that period.
NO ONE questioned gold coins for commerce...
I would set the date of the decline of the "Idea of America" about the time of Wilson and the founding of the FED.
Uhhh... I suggest you read a little more carefully about the late 19th century. It pretty much just sucked to not be rich. Labor was treated like cattle. Sorry but that's what lassaize faire capitalism.
Id say correct. Again.
You don't get that much love here. But your views are generally spot on and would have been more in tandem with the commentors in the earlier days of ZH.
Correct me if I am wrong, but in essence you perceive that whole system is a scam, oppressive and without hope of being remedied by the actors and institutions which comprise the system. Like your belief in not voting. Which I concur with although I will interrupt my non-particpation in our masters' electoral voting event for Trump. As a what the fuck. Albeit the odds of a transformation under Trump are less than when buying lottery ticket. Yet marginally above 0 which is what the establishment folks offer
I bet it really sucks for you not to be rich right now. It really sucks that you apparently have not the drive, intellect, and wherewithal to become rich now, never mind 100 years ago...a time you could not possibly know enough about to go around manking such broad, idiotic statements about. I have read about the late 19th century from letters and correspondence from my maternal German ancestors who began coming here in the late 1700's.
They were all middle class and entrepreneurs for the most part, none of them rich. There is not a single word from any of them lamenting wealth or lack thereof. Mostly praise and thanks to their creator and savior for having brought them out of the old country and to this one where they knew they were much better off. They didn't covet thy neighbor's goods as you do. They coveted their blessed luck that brought them to a place where they could provide for their families, worship freely and not worry about being a serf.
My paternal line came from nothing, literally nothing. Grass thatched roof houses in Slovakia infested with vermin where they eked out a subsistence living being farmers and animal tenders. Since they were serfs they owned no land. They were tenant farmers with the majority of their earnings going to the local nobleman. You can bet your ass that when they came here in the early 1900's that they didn't lament not being rich. They were happy to be in a country where they became tailors, inventors, lawyers, farmers...opportunities that would have never occurred in their home country,
So before you go around basically saying nonsense that life sucked for all but the rich in the 19th century it may be helpful to view it and understand it in context from those who lived it...not through the modern view of the world that you hold and the modern world lenses you look back with. I am not rich in money but comfortable, blessed by the good Lord with great family, friends, career and rich in love...the kind of rich one cannot put a price on. I know for a fact my ancestors felt the same.
>>>I would set the date of the decline of the "Idea of America" about the time of Wilson and the founding of the FED.
The USA had something of an opposition party up until 1910 or so; this was the Jefferson-Jackson, farmer-labor, agrarian populist, William Jennings Bryan Democrats. This party was acquired by Wall Street in the run-up to the 2012 elections, and since then, it's been all finance, all empire, all the time.
Yep, and the GOP was once Lincoln's party...
Oligarchs have been global for quite some time now, hence, everything is about to get local, real local.
Welcome back your Fuedal Lords, cause that is where the earth is heading. My tribe and I are prepared.
William Jennings Bryan: last Secretary of State to resign on principle
The decline began when the 'crime of 73' happened; silver was demonitized in an act written by Sherman's brother (while Sherman only destroyed the South; his senator brother wrote an act to demonetize silver and Ulysses Grant signed it thus destroying the rest of the country). Farmers were unable to pay loans with their silver currency and so most lost their farms. The bankers planned the whole thing to take control of 'most of the farms West of the Mississippi and thousands of farms to the East' paraphrasing a letter from one banker to another. The total amount of currency in circulation per capita dropped from 50 dollars per person in 1865, to a total of just 5 measly dollars in 1900. The wage deflation caused bankruptcies. Only gold was good to pay debts. The bankers channelled the public misery into a plan for an 'elastic currency', thus the Fed was born !!! One crime was engineered to lay the way to an even greater crime, an early example of E. Rham's 'don't let any good crisis go to waste' policy.
Thanks for the update re Crime of '73.
For those archivists of the far future, who will be sifting through these pages, my original reference to the end of the Democrats as an opposition party should have read "1912 elections", not 2012.
"The Republic is lost only when too many people stop re-investing in the roots, and feeding & pruning the Tree of the republic." -Kirk
Talking about it is great for awareness, but it must not be a pretext for inaction -- no matter what the 'reason' is. Everybody can contribute in a substantial and meaningful way.
E.g. Leadership (that hopefully has not been started by TPTB), Financial or Material support, Logistics, Project Management, Admin help, IT, Training, Ops, etc.
Some here who always see the glass half empty, have bemoaned the PR skills of the Ranchers. Granted, they're not the best. But...
An active, rather than an passive-aggressive libertarian/ZHer would suggest that the Libertarian party (Ron Paul & Friends) form an Advisory Council, rather than use this event as "fodder" for their web campaigns. Such a Council would provide varying types of constructive advice and organizational support: Legal, Tactical, PR...
DO, don't just Talk.
Well, to help people have some more powerful ears to the ground, I'm working on this:
http://libertarian.tools/content/introducing-quotemine-web-text-analyzer
I have some topic studies on the way. A few pieces are under development, but pretty soon it will be doable to be able to watch the headlines of every major news outlet, to the minute, and be able to catch inconsistencies, news stories breaking sooner than expected, etc.
Yes, we know it's happening already, but now we would b able to *prove* it every time it happens.
Whelp, I guess the Bush family needs some new friends...
Hi-la-ri-ous. Textbook case of harnessing nationalism to prop up a regime that is losing power.
This shit is actually sorta funny if you don't actually think about it.
Just sayin'.
Nice. Two Islamic states wanting to go to war and take the whole world with them. I knew I was rotating and upping preps for a reason.
Thinking of the future. Smart man.
It's a shame The House of Saud and Iran don't have nukes. An exchange between Riyadh and Tehran would go a long way toward eliminating the Shia Sunni problem.
did the S 300's get set up?
No. The delivery just started.
Russia starts delivery of S-300 missile systems to IranJanuary 01, 2016, Friday/ 16:31:27/ TODAY'S ZAMAN / ANKARA
http://www.todayszaman.com/diplomacy_russia-starts-delivery-of-s-300-mis...
Someone's thinking ahead. Our guys are thinking a head, as in having their heads up their asses. Deliberate or not, they make us look like bumbling a-holes to the rest of the world.
Lets frame that comment. Russia has said it was going to, was about to or had started the process of delivery many times. And then failed to follow through. Maybe all they have done is send the spare tires, nothing more. How difficult is it for Russia to load the systems (at least some of them) into air cargo and fly them to Iran. A day? Until it is done it is just Putin making more deceptions.
"Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 news TV channel on Dec. 30 that it had started the shipping of the S-300 missile systems to Iran."
AND WHAT ABOUT POOR SYRIA? Putin has never lived up to the 2007 contract to deliver the S300 or better to Syria.
And so it begins...
Most tension since Lehman I think
Muslim terrorism == USA and Israel
Thats what Muslims I talk to say
USA and Israel = City of London puppets
So will Trump want Saudi oil?
That's a good question
Is there any left?
A good question, and seeing the US pivot to Iran, the answerr is probably not much.
To deny it to others,if not for any other reason.
FU saudi you terrorist bastards, we will take your oil. I will take your mercedes
Let see who blinks first.
I notice the UN "Peacekeepers" are remarkably silent during all this ME destruction and chaos.
UN Peacekepers do whatever the US wants them to do - which is usually nothing.
Those nice boys in the light blue helmets are probably busy polishing their helmets for their UN leader, Bang Dee Ho.
Hey Iran, Bomb saudi oil fields...that should make an interesting start to the week