Iran fired cruise missiles in attack on Saudi oil facility: Senior US official

First off - prove your claim that the Houthi's act like the Taliban... and why are you talking about the Taliban when this is an Al Qaeda - Houthi Battle.

Why are you asking me about Sympathy for Terrorists - when you are rooting for Al Qaeda and that Ilk.

Last - the Houthi's - regardless of religious affiliation - are fighting for the People of Yemen. The Saudi's are foreign invaders who are guilty of countless war crimes and crimes against humanity on a massive scale.

 

Most of China's import of Iranian oil has stopped, although reports suggest they secretly buy some oil still. However, that they aren't willing to openly refuse to abide by extraterritorial US sanctions even on something that is totally within their rights legally and internationally, and had to divert most of their oil purchases away from Iran and begin purchasing oil from elsewhere (including Saudi Arabia) should tell you how willing they would be to do anything like some imagine. Not unless the situation with US sanctions and maximum pressure changes dramatically -- and if that happens, Iran wouldn't be interested in China for most of the projects anyway.

As for the Pakistan pipeline, Iran and Pakistan concluded an agreement many years ago (2009) for the sale of Iranian natural gas to Pakistan. Iran had built most of its side of the pipeline when Pakistan claimed it couldn't build its part, citing force majeure caused by US sanctions etc preventing them from being able to find contractors to build the pipeline. Since then, whatever is going on this project, is basically smokes and mirror. Nothing for anyone to hang their hats on at all.

 

So the Sauds declared that all the damage will be fixed within a fortnight.
Iran botched it up yet again.
Iran managed to half the Sauds oil production for two weeks for the cost of being a terrorist outcast.
I'm sure their new BFF, China, which is all for harmony and also buys oil from the Sauds, is not sop happy now.

 

Houthi rebellion against Yemen government began in 2004, under the leadership of Hussein Badreedin al-Houthi.

U.S. Admiral: Iran Keeping Yemeni Rebels Armed with ...
www.thetower.org/5460-u-s-admiral-iran-keeping-yemeni-rebels-armed-with-increasingly...
A United States admiral said that Iran is smuggling increasingly sophisticated weapons to Yemen’s Houthi rebels threatening Saudi Arabia, The New York Times reported Tuesday. According to Vice Adm. Kevin Donegan, who headed the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet which operates in the Middle East, Iran is arming the Houthis with what the Times described as “an increasingly potent arsenal of anti-ship

 

I’m not sure we can believe the Saudi claims either

I hope they can repair the damage quickly

But I wont be surprised if it takes much longer

 

And that means that the truth, which often lies somewhere around the middle, will never be discovered.

I know you're repeating Iranian propaganda, or your beliefs which are much the same, and feel you must defend the government of Iran, not an easy thing. What I care about more is the people of Iran who would suffer the most because of the actions of their fanatical theocracy. They might welcome death as martyrs, though they'd certainly martyr millions of Iranians first, and hope the more sensible Iranians recognize this.

 

You sincerely feel that Iran could decapitate the US? Do many other Iranians feel the same way?

 

Thanks to trump iran will have to try blowing up the world without the benefit of nuclear weapons

 

I worry about cyber attacks on the US

 

And yet Saudi Arabia is the largest spender on defense after the US. Of course it's American arms so they're costly. I read an article that said Trump has to blame Iran, because it would look bad for the American arms industry if the attacks were from Yemen.

Russia immediately jumped in and offered Saudi Arabia some real protection.

​

I'm dancing now so full of glee
to sell you some artillery.
That will protect. They'll never fail
and at a price that is a steal - Jeannette

​

 

We are dealing with children here, not knowing the longer term consequences of their feel good actions of today.

 

Instead of USA you should substitute the different policies of the different administrations, which are not all the same. Are you talking of Obama here? Or Bush? Or Eisenhower or Reagan? Be more specific than the generic USA.

 

Right now they are a closed society in much of the world where alternative points of view are banned or strongly discouraged.

The Internet, which many Islamists use to their advantage, also serves to modernize many other Muslims who are drifting away from the closed-mindedness of Islam and realizing there is a great deal more to life than what Islam has to offer. Loyalty to family and the past plays a larger role than rational thought.

 

The American military industrial complex is quite embarrassed and are quite busy trying to spin tales about what happened. While I wanted to wait for the facts to emerge, enough has emerged for me to say that the attack was most likely launched by the Houthis from their own territory, using missiles that actually have the reach, range and precision to do the job. To admit that, would make America's defense industries look really bad for the reason you suggested. They may not be foolish enough to want a war with Iran, but they are trying to come up with excuses why they couldn't detect and shoot down the Houthi missiles. Those missiles are based on an Iranian cruise missile system that Iran had always maintained have such capability. Given that Iran builds those missiles at a fraction (1/50th) of the cost of the Tomahawk missiles by the US, it really doesn't look good for the American military industries at all. And worse, the air defense systems being sold by the Americans aren't going to find many buyers when they can't pick missiles fired at a key installations which are being guarded heavily by such systems.

As for Putin, and his comments, I was listening to it when he made the comments. I wasn't impressed! It is not as if the Russian S-300 has proven itself all that much better either.

 

We are not dealing with Children. Perhaps their actions seem childish to those who do not understand the game that is being played - but the Establishment is well aware of the possible long term consequence of its actions.

That these consequences may not be in the long term interest of the US - does not matter - or at most it is a secondary consideration.

 

Is that what you were taught?

 

Was it Henry Kissinger who said about the Iran/Iraq war that he hoped both sides lost? In fact that's just what happened. Hundreds of thousands of lives lost for nothing and now they want to do it again.

These countries are burdened by obscure dates in the past, for which they feel so passionate, and think little of their future. That's what separates those raised in democracies from much of the rest of the world.

 

Can you explain this game that is being played?

 

Yes the Houthis began against the attempt by Saudi Arabia to force the people of Yemen to become Wahhabi.

I will repeat. The US until it started fighting with the Saud's and the UK against one of the poorest countries in the world knew that the Houthis were not working in collaboration with Iran. The Houthi were involved in one of the most genuine calls for Democracy in the ME - obviously not reported in the West. It was the failure of that to be addressed as well of course as Saleh losing his job as Dictator/President which allowed the Houthis to have access to a great deal of the ammunition of the Yemen army. Whether that one which you did before was real or not is highly questionable given that at that time they had access to such from the Yemen army. Basically it has been near enough to impossible to get anything from Iran to Yemen.

This war is about Saudi Arabia trying to force the people of Yemen to become Wahhabi - that affects both Sunni Muslims and Zaidi which is why both were fighting with the Houthi against Al Qaeda and the Saud's. Yemen is now split due to the Saud's aggressive war against Yemen.

This is a war of aggression by the richest and best armed countries of the world against one of the poorest in order to force them to become Wahhabi against their will. The Houthi are fighting an outside aggressor trying to save their country which they have been living in for over 1000 years.

 

Yes, or on transportation systems, etc. just as Islamic terrorists have done in the rest of the world. However Iran has also isolated itself to such an extent that they likely won't get much sympathy or support from within the Islamic world.

 

I was thinking about this article.
https://www.petroleum-economist.com...hina-and-iran-flesh-out-strategic-partnership
I understand Pakistan's problem with that, but they really need the gas.

 

Russia suffered about 20 thousand in the past months, so they're not that worrisome.

I don't think any administration has the power to change our policies no matter how bad they might be. The Russian collusion idiocy was to prevent Trump from bettering relations with Russia by demonizing them while at the same time accusing Trump of colluding with them.

Tulsi Gabbard who wants to stop the lies and demonizing of Assad is being thrown at the wayside by the Dems over it, even though she's probably the only one with a chance of beating Trump.

 

I know. I have read that article. It is basically something you should ignore for now. To simplify it best I can: when the situation is such that you can have major deals with Iran in the oil and gas sector, due to various reasons (corruption being one of them), those deals will go to major European firms. When the situation is not such, both Iran and China negotiate a lot of deals. Iran mainly as a propaganda tool to prove the ineffectiveness of US sanctions, but also as a tool to pressure European rivals in the same projects to do more to fight US extraterritorial sanctions to allow them back into the game. Even when a deal is actually finalized with the Chinese, the Chinese always prove unwilling to do more than use the deals as leverage in other negotiations, while Iran is sometimes stuck figuring how to kick them out of projects they aren't either spending on or doing any work on either.

As for Pakistan and its energy needs, they could have actually fulfilled them under the deal they had negotiated with Iran in 2009. The inability to find contractors to build their pipeline was an excuse, as Iran was even willing to do it for them. Ultimately they didn't go through with it because the Pakistanis had moved in the meantime even closer to Saudi Arabia. And the Saudis and Americans didn't want them to go through with their agreement with Iran.

 

Ah yes, but now they have the S-400 and working on a S-500.

 

What a load of manure. Yemen has a Sunni majority and they aren't Wahabbi.. That's an excuse and a lie. A Houthis minority wants money and power at any cost even at the expensive of an already fragile and impoverished nation. The Houthis have been active in Yemen since 2004. A generation of kids hasn't been able to go to school... like Syria and Afghanistan. Where do you think that's going?

How about those deadly attacks on the US and British embassies in Sana in 2008?