What If The Global Oil Crisis Is About To Get Really Serious

 

We're in an oil crisis, with oil and gas supplies from Russia not available because of sanctions related to the war in Ukraine, The Strait of Hormuz, through which oil and gas from the Persian Gulf region must pass, effectively closed (no matter what the propaganda says,) and the conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni Houthis threatening to deny oil shipped from the Saudi's Red Sea oil ports to western markets. The Houthis control the Bab al Mandab strait at the entrance to The Red Sea. 

We have reported on Ukraine's sabotage of Russia's Nordstream pipeline, Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the Houthis before but what if the global it is about to get much, much worse?

We are not talking about another $10 per barrel rise in the cost of crude oil but a genuine global energy emergency, where oil reaches $150 or even $200 a barrel, physical shortages begin shutting down meaningful portions of the global economy, and central banks find themselves confronting an inflationary recession.

Global crude oil consumption is roughly 100 million barrels per day. That oil powers cars, trucks, trains, agricultural equipment, factories, and enormous portions of the world’s air, and marine transport and industrial infrastructure. It also provides the raw materials for plastics, chemicals, packaging, and countless manufactured products. And Natural Gas is the main fuel for electricity generating plant in many of the largest economies.

Under normal circumstances, this gigantic system operates almost invisibly. Oil is pumped out of the ground, loaded onto tankers or moved through pipelines, delivered to refineries, and transformed into the fuels and materials that keep the global economy functioning.

If oil cannot be transported from Saudi Arabia or the Gulf States via The Red Sea or Hormuz to a refinery in Europe or Asia, or if a refinery cannot obtain the particular crude it needs, that supply effectively disappears from the market until the problem is resolved.

The Saudi authorities said they intercepted two missiles targeting Riyadh, a day after they said Houthi strikes on airports in the kingdom killed three people. 
 
Oil prices rose sharply on Thursday (October 8), with Brent crude, the global benchmark, up more than 5 percent as explosions were reported in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Thursday as the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen claimed to have attacked the city’s international airport for the second time this week. 

The targeting of Riyadh has raised pressure on Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto leader, to resolve the escalating conflict as the fighting threatens his plans to turn the country into a business and tourism hub. Riyadh is set to host several international events in the coming weeks, including an annual investment summit hosted by Prince Mohammed that is typically attended by world leaders, billionaires and top global executives.

 

The situation in all major markets os volatile, only yestrday (Wednesday,) oil pricesfell President Trump just issued a new Truth Social Post Thursday just after noon time (eastern), wherein he declared "we will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the Midterm Elections" in November. This is quite bizarre as oil trades are not based on stocks of extracted oil, but contracts to buy oil that will not be extracted for months.

Now should Trump restart his campaign against Iran and the Irainians show the kind of resilience they have to date not only will oil prices soar, supplies will be hit hard. And others may take advantage of the chaos to pursue their own agendas.  Turkey waiting ready and willing to fight Houthis. That brings in NATO. Trump say he will not attack Iran before midterms but that was before the Houthis attack on the Saudi capital. 

 And so the local wars become a regional war and may even escalate beyond that.

There certainly are plenty of signs of significant US escalations in Ukraine, in West Asia, and in Iran, possibly all three concurrently.  There cannot be many additional sanctions or economic warfare tactics left for Trump and NATO to use and those already applied have mostly backfired, with China and Inia having been the main beneficiaries as the sanctions have hit hardest on the nations that applied them.  But mostly the US / NATO plans have not done well.  The Ruble was supposed to be rubble by now and Russia was supposed to be out of men and missiles.  Iran was supposed to be a colony of Israel by now.  Even Palestine is still around. 

It look like being a blesk midwinter for many of us. 

FROM THE ARCHIVE: 

 

 

Just How Close Are We To World War Three
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More Than ISIS, Iraq’s Sunni Insurgency
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Syrian president Bashar Assad could be allowed a free pass to flee his country if it would end the bloodshed, David Cameron said today. The Prime Minister said he would do ‘anything to get that man [Assad] out of the country’ but refused to offer Assad a safe haven in Britain. Mr Cameron is on the second day of ...

Will Egypt Seize Libya For Its Oil

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When Trump's War With Iran Reignites Will The Next Move Be Made By Washington, The Houthis In Yemen Or Putin?

 

America's war with Iran is not over and just about every commentator in mainstream r alternative news expect another large scale American attack just as soon as US President Trump thinks it politically expedient. Most of the speculation is currently that any such attack would only happen in mid to late November – i.e. after the US midterm election.

But why would Trump want to wait when he could use an attack as a tool in the election – to demonstrate decisiveness or whatever other political advantage he might gain from it.

Axios, a favourite news outlet for the White House public relations machine, today released this announcement:

Trump’s top national security aides meet secretly at Camp David on Iran, Yemen

President Trump’s top cabinet members huddled for hours at Camp David on Friday to discuss next steps in the Iran war and the Saudi-Houthi conflict in Yemen, three U.S. officials told Axios.

The highly unusual meeting was not announced by the Trump administration. The last time a similar meeting took place was in June 2025, just days before Israel went to war against Iran.
…
Among the other participants were Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, White House envoy Steve Witkoff, CIA director John Ratcliffe and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.

“Things were decided or at least deeply discussed,” one of the officials said, referring to the crisis in the Middle East.

The meeting appears to have been a genuine strategy discussion rather than a performative exercise. It could signal the beginning of planning a new attack that, before the election, would have to be decisive. There have however been none of military moves we would expect before a large operation. 

The meeting was discussed this morning by Nima Alkhorshid and Professor Marandi, an Iranian political analyst. Although the focus was more on the latest escalation in the conflict between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, the various possibilities as Trump plans his next moves against Iran were analysed. What Iraqi forces will now do was also mentioned. 

The main issue however seems to be Yemen and the real threat Ansarallah poses to the Takfiri Saudi regime. This has a direct bearing on the Iran conflict as the Houthi rebels in Yemen, funded and supplied by Iran, are currently in a position to control marine traffic in and out of The Red Sea via the Bab al Mandab strait. Further disruption of movement through that chokepoint on top of Iran's blockade of The Strait of Hormuz could have a catastrophic effect on the global economy. 

In the latter portion of Suliaman Ahmed’s chat with Davis, Yemen was deeply discussed. Saudi air force attacks are doing nothing to deter/halt Ansarallah advances on the ground that are moving quite rapidly in Yemen’s terrain, which as many are finally noting is very similar to Iran’s near Hormuz. Additional attacks by Yemen/Iran on Emirati oil facilities and Saudi Arabian facilities show there’s much more to this war than control of Hormuz–there must be product to move. Iran’s tactic of denying oil to the West if it is kept from exporting its oil, diesel and petrol (gasoline) is working very well, and Trump and his Gang’s continual spin cannot alter reality. The diesel price crisis within the west is a clear-cut case of Capitalist/BigOil gouging that is only now facing political opposition.

 It appears battlelines are being drawn as the conflict threatens to expand globally. Chinese and likely DPRK (North Korea) and CSTO (former Soviet states,) involvement in the recent changes to the BRICS system for cross border financial transfers as a rival to Swift  is an example. Some reliable insight into the thinking of Russia and China about the effects of this and the Ukraine conflict on the Eastern Mediterranean, West Asia and reconfiguration of governments would be useful too. 

It is difficult to see which way the conflict is going especially as Putin has this week warned NATO that any move against Russia's Baltic enclave, Kaliningrad, would incur serious, possibly nuclear consequences.  One last question being asked: What does Iran plan to do with the millions now volunteering for military duty; will their deployment be defensive, offensive or both?      

 
FROM THE ARCHIVE:   

 

Houthis Warn West Against Supporting Saudi Arabia In Yemen’s Growing War

 

 

For a quarter of a century, the USA been telling us to wait for their war against Iran, and we have been telling them that Iran would win. Here we are and though Iran has not won yet they have successfully resisted US air attacks and lunched a few air strikes of their own that have cost the USA dearly. As conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza and The Persian Gulf drag on could this be the tipping point that sets the world on a path to war?

And as anybody with more than one functioning brain cell would have predicted, Iran has weaponised The Strait Of Hormuz, the narrow sea passage at the entrance to The Persian Gulf through which around 25% of the world's petrochemicals (including oil and liquid petroleum gas must be moved by giant ships, vulnerable to attack by Iranian artillery batteries placed on the high ground of Iran's mountainous coastline overlooking the 20 mile wide strait.

Were that the full extent of the situation we could report that Trump's war on Iraq had ended embarrassingly for him, in stalemate. However over the past couple of weeks a new front has opened in the war as Iran backed Houthi militias have reignited a years old conflict with Saudi Arabia, attacked the east - west oil pipeline through which the Saudis had been diverting oil exports ftom the Gulf coast to the Red Sea.  

The Houthi, officially known as  Ansar Allah are warning western against joining Saudi Arabia in Yemen’s revived civil war, telling The Associated Press on Sunday that the group has assured the Trump administration that it won’t attack U.S. vessels in the Red Sea.

Mohamed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthis’ political bureau, said Washington reached out to the rebels after their rapid advance down Yemen’s western coast to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait earlier this month have then control of the route in and out of Saudi Arabia's Red Sea oil ports, the alternative route through the Suez Canal being unsuitable for the vast tankers which transport oil and gas.

The magnitude of this project is increased by the deteriorating situation for the western economies in Ukraine 

U.S. President Donald Trump last weekend said his administration has “had discussions” with the Houthis, but did not say when. “The Houthis called us, and they don’t want to fight with us,” he said. “They would much prefer not having us involved, and they’re letting most ships go through.” 

Others say the US Government has gone mad. 

The more we learn about the Houthis, the less surprising it becomes that the group should have embarrassed the US Navy in 2024 and 2025 (in a foretaste of the second Iran war, Washington simply gave up firing its expensive missiles at Houthi forces), and fought a large Sunni-Arab coalition to a standstill between 2015 and 2019. Despite intense bombardments, and serious battlefield defeats, the Houthis have retained Sana’a, Yemen’s capital which they conquered in 2014. 

Only the Israelis, who briefly got into a missile exchange with the Houthis in 2025, have managed to deter them: they went after the Houthis’ oil supplies, energy infrastructure, ports, airports, and, perhaps most important, senior personnel. Sure enough, the Houthis stopped firing at Israel. 

Either way, it’s little wonder that the Houthis are now back, seizing land along the Red Sea littoral and the islands of Perim and Greater and Lesser Hanish, thereby putting into jeopardy Saudi Arabia’s capacity to export oil via its east-west pipeline.

Without outside support, Sunni Yemenis would have had no chance on the battlefield against their Shi’ite countrymen. The Houthis have received some support from Hezbollah and Iran — but not nearly on the level that Sunnis have received from foreigners since the Sixties.

 Because of the long lasting conflict with the Saudis, Yemen has been one of the worst humanitarian catastrophies in the first quarter of this century.But the poorest Arabs are about to beat the richest, the nerve centre of Islamist terrorism all the way back to 9/11 and beyond. The Saudi alliance with Turkey and Pakistan has failed its first test, the allegation that Mecca and Medina were about to be bombed has been dismissed out of hand by an Islamic world that would have exploded if anyone had believed it.

Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz, Ansar Allah controls the Bab al-Mandab, and we either make peace with those facts, or we shiver and starve. This is called defeat, a common consequence of either backing the wrong side or interfering in matters that did not concern one. Never again let the trade unions or anyone else be accused of the latter when we involved ourselves in foreign policy. From the petrol pump to the pumping of blood, we pay the price.

 

FROM THE ARCHIVE: 

 

‘We’re Not At War With Russia,’ Germany's Chancellor Scholz tells Warmongering French Ouanqeur Macron
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EU Vows To Retaliate if Nord Stream Gas Pipeline Blasts Were Sabotage - But against whom, the USA?
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[ The Russians Are Coming ] ... [ Ukraine War catalogue ] ... [ Ukraine conflict US led ] ... [ Russia USA proxy war ]

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Prepare For Fuel Shortages And Cost Of Living Rises As Gulf War Spreads To The Red Sea

 

As the conflict between the USA and Iran flares up again arount the Strait of Hormuz, th vital marine passage through which most of the oil and petrolium products of the middle east must pass on the way to world markets, Yemeni  Houthi militias (Ansar Allah,) have seized the strategic Red Sea port city of Mokha from Saudi-backed pro-government forces, military sources and witnesses say.

The Iran - aligned Houthi, who have taken control of most of Yemen's southern coast threatened that they would target vessels from Saudi Arabia, which has relied on the Red Sea for oil exports since the US and Israel's war with Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf  also forced troops of the Saudi backed official government of Yemen to withdraw from Perim island in the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the entrance to The Red Sea, effectively giving the Houthi forces control of the other main passage for Saudi oil.. 

Footage from the seized Bab el-Mandeb coast shows a Houthi fighter at Hisn Murad declaring “We don’t need missiles. We don’t need drones.” He says artillery along the Murad coast and on Perim will stop non-compliant vessels and “cut any and all shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb now,” and that the Houthis will dig in on Perim after seizing it.
This disruption to the two waterways is already affecting the price of oil and petrolum products and having a knock on effect on the prices consumers must pay for almost everything. 
 
Perim splits the strait at its narrowest point into two channels. The main shipping lane runs between Perim and the Djibouti coast, about 25 kilometers wide, and the smaller channel between Perim and the Yemeni mainland is under 3 kilometers. Yemen’s Houthis now hold the mainland shore and the island in the middle, putting both lanes inside the range of ground fire,  

The strait is the southern gateway to a key shipping route that links Asia and Europe via the Red Sea and Suez canal. However the canal cannot accommodate the million ton supertankers which now move the bulk of middle east oil and gas to the industrial and commercial centres of South East Asia, Europe and The Americas.

Ansar Allah controls the most important Mayyun Island in the Middle of Bab el-Mandeb and Dhubab, a small coastal town in the Taiz Governorate of southwestern Yemen, after al-Mocha. Ansar Allah controls approximately 8.1 million barrels per day crossing Bab el-Mandeb, 8% of global LNG trade and 30% of global container traffic, according to the World Bank. 
 
No Israeli or Saudi ships are being allowed through Bab el-Mandeb. 

What makes this latest development more serious is the Houthis display an extremely high degree of organizational cohesion that is very rare in the Muslim world. The Houthis currently control a population of around 20 million in Yemen (the internationally recognised government is in exile in Saudi Arabia,) yet they are able to field an army of several hundred thousand to one million. This army is highly combat-effective. The soldiers are driven by religious conviction or in many cases fanaticism, and willpower 

It has now been confirmed that the crucial 'Hormuz bypass' East-West oil pipeline through which the Saudis had been pumping iol from the fields on the Persian Gulf coast, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates across Saudi Arabia to ports on the Red Sea has been hit by Houthi artillery and is on fire at a point about 80km to 100km from town of Al Mesba'ah.

Amid speculation that the attack is another Houthi strike on Saudi Arabia's oil trade, CNN in a new Friday report cites two US officials who've given confirmation that the pipeline was struck by projectiles on late Thursday. These reports suggested the missiles which damaged the pipeline originated in Iran although unconfirmed reports say the missiles mat have been launched by Tehran backed groups in Iraq. According to the report:

An early analysis found that pump stations, which are located next to the pipeline itself, were hit, one of the US officials said. A satellite image taken Friday appears to show extensive fire damage at one pumping station, and an image of a different pumping station, taken Thursday, showed a small fire sending up plumes of thick, black smoke.

With the pipeline still burning it is impossible to estimate how repairs to the might take. Meanwhile the Strait of Hormuz, though not officially closed is carrying about ten per cent of its usual traffic levels.

 

Picture via Gulf News  

 

FROM THE ARCHIVE: 

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US Embassy Anti-Air Defenses Activated Over Baghdad As Death Toll Rises In Night Of Chaos
Zero Hedge:

The American embassy in Baghdad has reportedly engaged inbound rocket attacks with its air defense system, the C-RAM which protects aerial threats against the Green Zone.
Some reports suggest the streets have finally grown calmer in the early morning hours (local time), but this is after an evening and overnight death toll of at least 15, including unconfirmed reports of police casualties. AFP citing local medical sources also says some 350 protesters were injured. Continue reading >>>

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US Aiding Massive Genocide in Yemen at Behest of Saudi Arabia
Civilians in Yemen are still in the grip of a major humanitarian crisis as Saudi Arabia's war on the impoverished republic continues unabated. Shocking numbers are affected including 7 million civilians facing severe malnutrition, and 19 million out of the country’s 27 million population "in need of some form of aid.

In Escalating War Of Words, Saudi Crown Prince Calls Iran’s Ayatollah “New Hitler Of The Middle East”
Saudi Arabia’s powerful, and controversial, 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as we warned earlier in the year when he was elevated to his currrent status, has in a few months has made more local (and foreign) enemies than most of his predecessors accumulated over a lifetime, appears to have decided he does not need to wait any longer for the final war that will cement the global supremacy of his particularly unpleasant brand of Islamic extremism.

UK Government Accused Of Covering Up Saudi Arabia Funding Of TerrorismA new report commissioned by David Cameron before he resigned as Prime minister has highlighted links between recent terror attacks in the UK and the funding of UK mosques by the extremist Wahhabi regime in Saudi Arabia, which "is heavily involved in exporting an illiberal, bigoted fundamentalist ideology." The report criticises Cameron's successor for "kowtowing" to Saudi Arabia's king by suppressing another government report into the funding of extremism in the UK.

White House Says It Will Fake "Chemical Weapon Attack" In Syria
The White House claims that the Syrian government is preparing "chemical weapon attacks". This is clearly not the case. Syria is winning the war against the country. Any such attack would clearly be to its disadvantage. The White House announcement must thereby be understood as preparation for another U.S. attack on Syria in "retaliation" for an upcoming staged "chemical weapon attack" ...

US Gov’t Proves Loyalty To ISIS And Saudi Arabia Bill To ‘Stop Arming Terrorists’ Gets Only 13 Supporters
In a rare outbreak of common sense, a bill barring the US Federal Government from giving money and weapons to child murdering terrorists like the head amputators, slave dealers and human organ noshers of ISIS and Al Nusra (Barack Obama's beloved 'moderate rebels',) garnered hardly any support from either the Democratic Perpetual War Party, or the Republican War Is Good Business Party.

Saudi Arabia Bids For Islamic Globalisation
soon after the suicide bomb at The Manchester Arena, I felt obliged to defriend someone on facebook, whom I have known online for around ten years. So what did this sweet lady, who writes books on medieval witchcraft and calls herself a pagan, do to piss me off? She showed herself to be a hypocrite by posting a whinge about people reacting with anger and 'hate' to this latest atrocity; "I'm all about compassion, I will not stand by and see Muslims victimised because of this." Oh yeah? And what about the dead and injured victimised by a muslim extremist?

‘Islamophobia’ Is Being Used By Islamists To Suppress Debate
“It is entirely right to call out anti-Muslim hatred”, says Pollard, adding that calling any criticism of Islam hate speech or Islamophobia to silence those who find some aspects of Islam barbaric is an attack on the right of free speech in the way that Jewish extremists will cry 'anti - semitism' whenever anybody utters reasonable criticism of the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians.

Macron Vows to Fight ‘Islamist Separatism’ with New Reforms

French President Emmanuel Macron has declared his government will fight against “Islamist separatism” with reforms including ending residency for foreign imams.

The Islamic Republic Of France
France’s left-wing elite are accused of cowardice for failing to support 16-year-old girl facing death threats after she insulted Islam online, the ruling class have been also accused of cowardice for failing to support a 16-year-old girl who has faced death threats after she allegedly insulted Islam online.

Undercover With The Clerics - Iran's Secret Sex Trade
I caught a few minutes of a BBC2 documentary last night while looking for the news headlines before going to bed. It was about Iraq's secret sex trade and what I was watching was Iraqi clerics talking about how Sharia Law justifies sex with children. One guy told how for the equivalent of £200 he arranged a "pleasure marriage" (a temporary marriage,) between a thirtyish man and a 9 year old girl.

United Nations set to impose global ban on criticism of Islam

We have reported before on The United Nations (UN), a supra - national organisation made up of elitists appointed by other elitists, overreaching its mandate and trying to act as a global government, imposing policies that nobody voted for, formulated by bureaucrats that nobody voted for, for on the sovereign nations of the world.

United Nations set to impose global ban on criticism of Islam

We have reported before on The United Nations (UN), a supra - national organisation made up of elitists appointed by other elitists, overreaching its mandate and trying to act as a global government, imposing policies that nobody voted for, formulated by bureaucrats that nobody voted for, for on the sovereign nations of the world.

Liberal Democrats suspend candidate for failing to support homophobia, rape, wife beating and FGM

UK Government Accused Of Covering Up Saudi Arabia Funding Of TerrorismA new report commissioned by David Cameron before he resigned as Prime minister has highlighted links between recent terror attacks in the UK and the funding of UK mosques by the extremist Wahhabi regime in Saudi Arabia, which "is heavily involved in exporting an illiberal, bigoted fundamentalist ideology." The report criticises Cameron's successor for "kowtowing" to Saudi Arabia's king by suppressing another government report into the funding of extremism in the UK.

British Lawmakers Demand Inquiry Into Saudi / US War Crime In Yemen

Members of the British Parliament from both sides of the house have … Continue reading 

Swedish Man Prosecuted for Assaulting Muslims with Bacon
A Swedish man has been arrested and charged with racism after being accused of eating bacon in proximity to a group of veiled Muslim women. The alleged offence occurred in the Swedish capital of Stockholm last weekend. The Swede, who has not been named by media or the police, is said to have approached the women, on a train while he was eating a bacon sandwich. He is alleged to have dangled the bacon in front of their faces

Top Academic: Muslims Would Not Tolerate Multiculturalism in Islamic Countries
Leading Iranian academic Afshin Ellian has warned that cultural Marxist delusions of “multiculturalism” are a one-way street as left wing activist in the secular Christian nations of the west clamour for appeasement of Islamic extremists. Muslims in Europe oppress historic minorities in their own lands and have no intention of showing “tolerance”

EXPLORE:
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Iran Has Yet To Play Its Strongest Card

 

Tanker escorted by Iranian patrol boat in the Strait of Hormuz (Picture: insurancejournal.com)

A few days days ago the container ship MSC Aries was boarded in the Strait of Hormuz by Iranian forces and forced to anchor off the coast of Iran. The incident  was overshadowed by the Iranian drone and missile attacks on Israel and was hardly mentioned by mainstream media. However as far as the western nations are concerned this incident is potentially far more significant.

If the hijacking of Aries is the first act by the Iranians  in challenging freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz as part of their wider campaign against Israel (and allies) then this means an oil crisis and higher fuel costs for Europe as far more oil, from Saudi Arabia's main ports, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Iraq and Kuwait passes through that narrow waterway than any other shipping route in the world. To make matters worse the navy forces if the USA and NATO are currently occupied in keeping the Bab-el-Mandeb strait open for shipping at the southern end of the Red Sea, as attacks by Houthi rebels based in Yemen are proving more disruptive than anybody expected.

Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz and traditionally disrupts marine traffic at the first hint on any crisis, but as the current crisis is more serious than any we have seen for years the Ayatollahs who rule the authoritarian theocracy have a greater incentive to disrupt or even halt movement of shipping through the waterway. 

Since the Houthis began their drone attacks on shipping in the Southern Red Sea last October, the the Strait of Hormuz has been relatively quiet, suggesting which may mean the Iranians’  are focusing their attention on effort was going into helping the Houthis in Yemen or simply that the Red Sea situation has led to reduced volumes of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

 So the question now is whether or not this new incident was a one-off attack in response to the Israeli strike on the Iranian “consulate” in Syria or the start of a concerted campaign to disrupt shipping in the Strait which, if Iran chooses to play it, will be the trump card that decides the outcome of this game. 

Iran has never had a better opportunity to damage the west economically, escalate the conflict of the Islamic world with Israel and strengthem its own ties with China and Russia. If the Ayatollahs choose to play this ace, international naval resources would be spread even more thinly than they already are, with the situations in The Black Sea and the South China Sea showing no signs of easing and the west's dependence on internet technologies demanding that in a time of global unrest more resources are devoted to policing the underwater cables that carry international traffic and supporting industrial, financial and commercial activity. Iranians are not stupid, they know this. Hopefully, the hijacking of the MV aries was a one-off, not a new front in what is rapidly developing into World War Three.

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US Embassy Anti-Air Defenses Activated Over Baghdad As Death Toll Rises In Night Of Chaos
Zero Hedge:

The American embassy in Baghdad has reportedly engaged inbound rocket attacks with its air defense system, the C-RAM which protects aerial threats against the Green Zone.
Some reports suggest the streets have finally grown calmer in the early morning hours (local time), but this is after an evening and overnight death toll of at least 15, including unconfirmed reports of police casualties. AFP citing local medical sources also says some 350 protesters were injured. Continue reading >>>

Turkey Kills Over 50 Syrian Troops, Russian Warplanes Intervene to Halt OffensiveTurkey Kills Over 50 Syrian Troops, Russian Warplanes Intervene to Halt Offensive
Conflict in Syria’s Idlib Province has escalated during the past week, with Turkish forces attacking the Syrian army and claiming to have killed over 50 soldiers. Russia, the main Syrian ally in the conflict, took the pressure off Assad and sent a clear message to Turkey’s President Erdogan by sending in warplanes to halt to Turkish assault ...

Has Biden's Afghan Surrender Handed The Future To China
5 September: The abrupt and ill - considered withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan ordered by President Joe (Dementia Man) Biden and the susequent return to power of Islamic fundamentalist The Taliban hands control of the vast Afghan litium reserves to China and is a blow to the green agenda of the G7 nations

Iran refuses to release black box data from crashed aircraft fuelling suspicion As we reported late last nigh (Ian has become a nocturnal creature,), the Boeing 737, a different model the 737 MAX which has been involved in two recent air disasters, a variation of the plane which has an excellent safety record, crashed over Tehran just minutes after takeoff, killing all 176 people onboard...

US Bombers Ordered To Indian Ocean Base As Pentagon Denies Iraq Withdrawal As more than 3,000 US troops are readying to deploy to the Middle East this week following the killing of the IRGC's Quds Force General Qasem Soleimani, the Pentagon will additionally send major military hardware in the form of an additional B-52 strike force.

US Bombers Ordered To Indian Ocean Base As Pentagon Denies Iraq Withdrawal As more than 3,000 US troops are readying to deploy to the Middle East this week following the killing of the IRGC's Quds Force General Qasem Soleimani, the Pentagon will additionally send major military hardware in the form of an additional B-52 strike force.

Leaked email: Senior OPCW Official Orders “Delete All Traces” Of Dissent On Douma Gas Attack Narrative
... The official narrative was designed to justify military intervention by US and NATO in Syria’s civil war, but western leaders were dissuaded fro, this course of action by Russia’s Putin and China’s President Xi. Later it was revealed that a minority report actually considered the facts, which pointed to the gas attack on Douma being a false flag attack carried out by forces attached to terrorist group Al Nusra.

US Aiding Massive Genocide in Yemen at Behest of Saudi Arabia
Civilians in Yemen are still in the grip of a major humanitarian crisis as Saudi Arabia's war on the impoverished republic continues unabated. Shocking numbers are affected including 7 million civilians facing severe malnutrition, and 19 million out of the country’s 27 million population "in need of some form of aid.

In Escalating War Of Words, Saudi Crown Prince Calls Iran’s Ayatollah “New Hitler Of The Middle East”
Saudi Arabia’s powerful, and controversial, 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as we warned earlier in the year when he was elevated to his currrent status, has in a few months has made more local (and foreign) enemies than most of his predecessors accumulated over a lifetime, appears to have decided he does not need to wait any longer for the final war that will cement the global supremacy of his particularly unpleasant brand of Islamic extremism.

UK Government Accused Of Covering Up Saudi Arabia Funding Of TerrorismA new report commissioned by David Cameron before he resigned as Prime minister has highlighted links between recent terror attacks in the UK and the funding of UK mosques by the extremist Wahhabi regime in Saudi Arabia, which "is heavily involved in exporting an illiberal, bigoted fundamentalist ideology." The report criticises Cameron's successor for "kowtowing" to Saudi Arabia's king by suppressing another government report into the funding of extremism in the UK.

White House Says It Will Fake "Chemical Weapon Attack" In Syria
The White House claims that the Syrian government is preparing "chemical weapon attacks". This is clearly not the case. Syria is winning the war against the country. Any such attack would clearly be to its disadvantage. The White House announcement must thereby be understood as preparation for another U.S. attack on Syria in "retaliation" for an upcoming staged "chemical weapon attack" ...

US Gov’t Proves Loyalty To ISIS And Saudi Arabia Bill To ‘Stop Arming Terrorists’ Gets Only 13 Supporters
In a rare outbreak of common sense, a bill barring the US Federal Government from giving money and weapons to child murdering terrorists like the head amputators, slave dealers and human organ noshers of ISIS and Al Nusra (Barack Obama's beloved 'moderate rebels',) garnered hardly any support from either the Democratic Perpetual War Party, or the Republican War Is Good Business Party.

Saudi Arabia Bids For Islamic Globalisation
soon after the suicide bomb at The Manchester Arena, I felt obliged to defriend someone on facebook, whom I have known online for around ten years. So what did this sweet lady, who writes books on medieval witchcraft and calls herself a pagan, do to piss me off? She showed herself to be a hypocrite by posting a whinge about people reacting with anger and 'hate' to this latest atrocity; "I'm all about compassion, I will not stand by and see Muslims victimised because of this." Oh yeah? And what about the dead and injured victimised by a muslim extremist?

‘Islamophobia’ Is Being Used By Islamists To Suppress Debate
“It is entirely right to call out anti-Muslim hatred”, says Pollard, adding that calling any criticism of Islam hate speech or Islamophobia to silence those who find some aspects of Islam barbaric is an attack on the right of free speech in the way that Jewish extremists will cry 'anti - semitism' whenever anybody utters reasonable criticism of the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians.

Macron Vows to Fight ‘Islamist Separatism’ with New Reforms

French President Emmanuel Macron has declared his government will fight against “Islamist separatism” with reforms including ending residency for foreign imams.

The Islamic Republic Of France
France’s left-wing elite are accused of cowardice for failing to support 16-year-old girl facing death threats after she insulted Islam online, the ruling class have been also accused of cowardice for failing to support a 16-year-old girl who has faced death threats after she allegedly insulted Islam online.

Undercover With The Clerics - Iran's Secret Sex Trade
I caught a few minutes of a BBC2 documentary last night while looking for the news headlines before going to bed. It was about Iraq's secret sex trade and what I was watching was Iraqi clerics talking about how Sharia Law justifies sex with children. One guy told how for the equivalent of £200 he arranged a "pleasure marriage" (a temporary marriage,) between a thirtyish man and a 9 year old girl.

United Nations set to impose global ban on criticism of Islam

We have reported before on The United Nations (UN), a supra - national organisation made up of elitists appointed by other elitists, overreaching its mandate and trying to act as a global government, imposing policies that nobody voted for, formulated by bureaucrats that nobody voted for, for on the sovereign nations of the world.

United Nations set to impose global ban on criticism of Islam

We have reported before on The United Nations (UN), a supra - national organisation made up of elitists appointed by other elitists, overreaching its mandate and trying to act as a global government, imposing policies that nobody voted for, formulated by bureaucrats that nobody voted for, for on the sovereign nations of the world.

Liberal Democrats suspend candidate for failing to support homophobia, rape, wife beating and FGM

UK Government Accused Of Covering Up Saudi Arabia Funding Of TerrorismA new report commissioned by David Cameron before he resigned as Prime minister has highlighted links between recent terror attacks in the UK and the funding of UK mosques by the extremist Wahhabi regime in Saudi Arabia, which "is heavily involved in exporting an illiberal, bigoted fundamentalist ideology." The report criticises Cameron's successor for "kowtowing" to Saudi Arabia's king by suppressing another government report into the funding of extremism in the UK.

British Lawmakers Demand Inquiry Into Saudi / US War Crime In Yemen

Members of the British Parliament from both sides of the house have … Continue reading 

Swedish Man Prosecuted for Assaulting Muslims with Bacon
A Swedish man has been arrested and charged with racism after being accused of eating bacon in proximity to a group of veiled Muslim women. The alleged offence occurred in the Swedish capital of Stockholm last weekend. The Swede, who has not been named by media or the police, is said to have approached the women, on a train while he was eating a bacon sandwich. He is alleged to have dangled the bacon in front of their faces

Top Academic: Muslims Would Not Tolerate Multiculturalism in Islamic Countries
Leading Iranian academic Afshin Ellian has warned that cultural Marxist delusions of “multiculturalism” are a one-way street as left wing activist in the secular Christian nations of the west clamour for appeasement of Islamic extremists. Muslims in Europe oppress historic minorities in their own lands and have no intention of showing “tolerance”

EXPLORE:
[Daily Stirrer] ... [ Our Page on on Substack ]... [Boggart Aboad] ... [ Ian Thorpe at Quora ] ... [ Greenteeth Home ] ... [ Greenteeth on Minds.com ] ... [ Here Come The Russians ] ... [ Latest Posts ] ... [ Blog Bulletin ]

Yemen's brutal civil war slips into its fourth year

Last month Yemen's civil war slipped into its fourth year. It's a war without obvious good or bad guys: Security Council investigators have documented violations of international humanitarian law by all sides. UN human rights officials nonetheless claim that the "leading cause" of civilian casualties are airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition, which backs Yemen's President Hadi against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and allied supporters of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The coalition's air operations may not be any more indiscriminate or lacking in precaution than Houthi artillery and missile attacks, but are certainly more powerful and widespread.

What is Britain's involvement in a war between Saudi Arabia and Yemen that the UK government itself calls the world's largest humanitarian crisis? Limited, if ministers are to be believed.

Throughout the Yemen conflict, Saudi Arabia has remained by far Britain's leading arms export customer. Half of all UK exports of weapons and military equipment from 2013 to 2017 went to the Kingdom (up from 28% in 2007-11). Most were for the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF), 151 of whose 324 combat aircraft are British-supplied, along with weapons, ground systems, parts and spares.

Faced with inevitable legal and political criticism, the UK government insists that it isn't responsible for - and cannot even necessarily know - how UK-supplied weapons are used after they have been shipped. Last July the High Court agreed (though activists are now applying to appeal that decision).

The reality of the UK's relationship with the Saudi military challenges this 'flog and forget' theory of arms control. Under a sequence of formal agreements between the UK and Saudi governments since 1973, the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) and its contractors supply not only military 'hardware', but also human 'software'. Around 7000 individuals - private employees, British civil servants and seconded Royal Air Force personnel - are present in Saudi Arabia to advise, train, service and manage British-supplied combat aircraft and other military equipment.

Ministers have nonetheless assured Parliament that these support staff are strictly hands-off: "there is no British involvement in the coalition in targeting or weaponizing aircraft to undertake missions [in Yemen]". Likewise they insist that neither UK military personnel nor contractor personnel "are involved in the loading of weapons for operational sorties, nor are they involved in the planning of operational sorties".

Documents and testimonies we've gathered paint a more complicated picture. Over the past eighteen months, with the support of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, Katherine Templar and I have sought to map these British and British-employed personnel in Saudi Arabia, trying to understand their work and their experiences. Though their existence is hardly a secret, their precise numbers and functions have long remained obscure. The UK-Saudi agreements that govern their work are classified 'UK Confidential/RSAF Secret' and are closed from public release until 2027. Even UK ministers say they "do not have full visibility of the prime contractor's manpower footprint in Saudi Arabia, the detail of which forms part of the commercial arrangements underpinning the delivery of much of the contracted support and is therefore sensitive."

We've interviewed technicians, managers and officials from every level of this UK-Saudi 'footprint', backed up by individuals' written CVs and formal job descriptions. If they are no longer physically loading bombs, as ministers insist, they're still required to do almost everything else. A mix of UK company employees and seconded RAF personnel have continued to be responsible for maintaining the weapons systems of all Saudi Tornado IDS fighter-bombers, a backbone of the Yemen air war. They also work as aircraft armourers and weapons supervisors for the UK-supplied Typhoon fighters deployed at the main operating bases for Saudi Yemen operations, and provide deeper-level maintenance for Yemen-deployed combat aircraft.

These roles are underpinned by UK military commitments to Saudi Arabia that have never been disclosed to public or parliament. Our report discloses one of them, from a UK-Saudi agreement named 'Al Yamamah', which details how the UK will supply and support Saudi Arabia's Tornado fighter-bombers. MOD officials have confirmed that this secret 1986 agreement continues in force "as long as the programme lasts", despite more recent accords. (When in 2006 the UK's Guardian newspaper obtained an earlier, less detailed agreement which had been released "by mistake" to the National Archives at Kew, the MOD removed the files overnight, and claimed their release "severely dented [Saudi] confidence in the [UK's] ability to protect sensitive information").

A similar inadvertent indiscretion seems to have been repeated: though the files containing the 'Al Yamamah' agreement remain withheld from public view, a bundle of unrelated Downing Street files, recently placed unnoticed in the National Archives, contains key extracts of the agreement.

As these papers show, the agreement requires that "United Kingdom civilian and military personnel will remain available in Saudi Arabia for preparation, including arming and support, of the [Tornado fighter-bomber] aircraft during an armed conflict" in which Saudi Arabia is involved, though these personnel may not "participate" in the conflict directly. The clause makes no reference to the authorisation or lawfulness of such a conflict.

British diplomats were concerned about the implications of this commitment from the start, lobbying within Whitehall during negotiations for the clause to be removed. "At worst", the Foreign Office's Middle East Department wrote to the MOD's defence sales division, "this [clause] could expose HMG to accusations that they were involved in an undercover role in any number of types of unlawful military adventures; at best, it might threaten to compromise British neutrality in armed conflicts between third States." Papers elsewhere in the National Archives show that the commitment was removed from a draft version of the agreement circulated within Whitehall six weeks before signature. It nonetheless seems to have been re-inserted into the final agreement at the last minute.

It's difficult for the UK government to argue that it cannot know much about how its arms supplies are used, when it is helping the Saudi armed forces to use them. Our research doesn't judge the rights or wrongs of the war in Yemen. But Britain's day-to-day involvement with these weapons systems gives it a duty of precaution to help prevent civilian harm from those weapons. The government also has a duty of care for the thousands of British citizens at work in Saudi Arabia in quasi-military roles, fulfilling UK MOD contracts but as employees of private companies, without some of the legal and physical protections of military personnel or public servants. Most of the individuals we spoke to described their time in Saudi Arabia as amongst the most professionally and financially rewarding experiences of their lives. But we also spoke with whistle-blowers left unprotected under Saudi Labour Law, and even deprived of their British passports while working (a practice which seems now to have ended). We met contractors who described occasional physical jeopardy, from Scud missiles to unexploded ordnance. And we interviewed technicians anxious about the legal ramifications of their work within a foreign military machine at war.

Leaked Documents reveal UK gov't secretly supports Saudi military action against Yemen

Yemenis defiant amid the destruction (Source: www.knownterrorists.com)

Last month the war in Yemen slipped, unremarked by mainstream media, unnoticed by the oh-so-politically-correct talking heads on television, into its fourth year.If the war was simply a falling out between Yemen's Sunni Muslim government supported by Saudi Arabia and the Shia Muslim Houthi rebels, supported by Iran, there would be s strong case for non intervention, given that western interventions elsewhere in the middle east have only tended to make things worse.

Unfortunately there being no FUKUS axis (France, UK, USA,) forces on the ground in Yemen does not mean the western powers are not involved. While Yemen is being pounded on a daily basis by bombs dropped by Saudi warplanes armed with missiles and weapons supplied by the three FUKUS axis powers, Iran's support of the rebels is of a lower level. After three years of Saudi air attacks the rebels are still fighting, but the suffering inflicted on Yemeni civilians is not far from genocidal.

The country has a huge humanitarian crisis with many people now suffering from malnutrition, disruption of water supplies has led to disease epidemics because there is only contaminated water to drink and with many hospitals and medical centres having been deliberately targeted by Saudi airstrikes there is a chronic shortage of medicines.

Mainstream media likes to present wars as being fought between the good guys in white hats and bad guys in black hats:Things are rarely that simple, and certainly not in this case. The Saudi Arabian government is an absolute monarchy that takes as its legal codex the medieval Sharia Law prescribed by the founders of Islam, the fundamentalist Wahhabi Muslim sect of the ruling Saud family exerts great power and the nation's enormous wealth and vast oil reserves grant it immunity from United Nations censure. The nation is also known to have funded Muslim fundamentalist terrorist organisations in the Middle East.

Western leaders say the Saudis are the white hats because of their money and oil and because, when it suits them, they cooperate with NATO, the EU and the USA.
Iran is a theocracy run by Shia religious leaders. It too is under Sharia Law, in much of the nation women and girls are treated as property and punishments are harsh for what can seem to people in the developed nations, relitavely trivial offences. In western media Iran is represented by black hats. In both nations women can be publicly stoned or flogged for disobeying their husbands or fathers and the penalty for adultery is public beheading. Iran too is know to have supported terrorist organisations.

Both sides wear dark grey hats then. But what of the war, is anything being done to mediate between the two sides?

UN Security Council investigators have documented violations of international humanitarian law by all sides with human rights officials claiming the "leading cause" of civilian casualties are airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition, (Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates,) which backs Yemen's President Hadi against the rebels, supporters of the more moderate and secular regime of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Houthi artillery and missile attacks in reponse are morally no different but are delivered with vastly inferior technology and less destructive weapons. The rebel strikes are also less numerous, Iran does not want an all out war with Saudi Arabia and probably cannot match what the Saudis are spending on armaments.

The British involvement in a war the UK government has called the world's largest humanitarian crisis is somewhat greater than government ministers are prepared to admit according to leaked documents.

Throughout the Yemen conflict and long before, Saudi Arabia has been by far the biggest customer of Britain's armaments and military technology industry. Half of all UK exports of weapons and military equipment from 2013 to 2017 went to the Arab kingdom. Most sales were for the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF), 151 of whose 324 combat aircraft are British-supplied, along with weapons, radar and other ground systems, parts and spares.

Faced with legal and political criticism, the UK government denies any responsibility for - and claims it cannot necessarily control or even know - how UK-supplied weapons are used by overseas buyers, Last July the High Court agreed with that view (though activists are now applying to appeal that decision).

The recent revelations about the UK's relationship with the Saudi military challenges this 'flog and forget' theory of arms trade. Under a sequence of binding agreements between the two nations, the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) and its contractors supply not only military 'hardware', but also software and "liveware'' in the form of expert military personnel to train and advise customers armed forces. Around 7000 people - civilian employees, British civil servants and seconded Royal Air Force personnel - are present in Saudi Arabia to advise, train, service and manage British-supplied combat aircraft and other military equipment.

The government has repeatedly assured Parliament that these personnel are strictly hands-off: "there is no British involvement in targeting or weaponizing aircraft to undertake missions in Yemen" one of the leaked documents says. They also insist that neither UK military nor civilian personnel "are involved in the loading of weapons for operational sorties, nor are they involved in the planning of operational sorties".

Over the past eighteen months, investigative reporters working with the support of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, have sought to map these British and British-employed personnel in Saudi Arabia, trying to understand their work and their experiences. The precise numbers and functions have remained obscure, even in liberal, democratic Britain people who reveal such details tend to disappear or become victims of 'bizarre gardening accidents' and such . The UK-Saudi agreements that govern their work are classified 'UK Confidential/RSAF Secret' and are closed from public release until 2027. Even UK ministers say they "do not have full visibility of the prime contractor's manpower footprint in Saudi Arabia.

As these agreements show, the umbrella contract between UK and the Saudis requires that "United Kingdom civilian and military personnel will remain available in Saudi Arabia for preparation, including arming and support, of the [Tornado fighter-bomber] aircraft during an armed conflict" in which Saudi Arabia is involved, though these personnel may not "participate" in the conflict directly. The clause makes no reference to the authorisation by parliament or lawfulness of such a conflict.
British diplomats have always been concerned about the implications of this commitment, and have lobbied both Conservative and Labour governments for the clause to be removed.

"At worst", the Foreign Office's Middle East Department warned the MoD , "this clause could expose HMG (Her Majesty's Government) to accusations that they were involved in an undercover role in unlawful military adventures; at best, it might threaten to compromise British neutrality in armed conflicts between third States." Papers elsewhere in the National Archives show that the commitment was removed from a draft version of the agreement circulated within Whitehall six weeks before signature. It nonetheless seems to have been re-inserted into the final agreement at some stage, thus bypassing they scrutiny of elected representatives.

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