There are two major events in the middle east today. Iran hijacked a South Korean ship and Saudi Arabia and Qatar have a new diplomatic deal that creates a unified Arab front against Iran.
1. Iran seized a South Korean-flagged tanker in Gulf waters and detained its crew. $7 billion in Iranian funds are frozen in South Korean banks due to U.S. sanctions.
The ship had 20 crew members and they are from South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar.
2. Saudi Arabia will open its borders and airspace to Qatar on Monday night after boycotting it since 2017. There will be commerce and travel between Saudi Arabia and Qatar for the first time since 2017. In 2017, Saudi Arabia accusing Qatar of supporting terrorism and Islamists in the region, and of getting too close to Iran.
More reconciliation is to follow. The Saudis want a united front to counter Iran.
Saudi Arabia allows Qatar Airways to fly over its airspace. Qatari planes will have shorter flights. Iran will lose up to $100 million in annual fees Qatar has been paying to fly over Iran instead.
SOURCES- Reuters, NY Times
Written By Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
"Go brave Iranian lions!"
Do you dress up in a cheerleader outfit, pompoms in hand, and preform for your dear Ayatollahs?
First – I do not think Bidden has much of a mind to change – the man has some serious signs of dementia showing through…
Second – The question is not what Bidden will do but what Harris will do as she will be the new POTUS. They are not going to keep Bidden around long, or they will at least play pretend he is still in charge while in fact he will just be a prop.
The tanker is worth peanuts in comparison.
There sanctions had some effect, but the economy simply collapsed. By the early 80s all the Soviet Bloc economies were collapsing. One of the big lessons of the USSR is that communism is simply not a feasible economic system. It's not sustainable and never will be. The US hastened their collapse through rearmament. The Soviets tried to keep pace and it proved to be the straw that broke the camels back. Collapse was inevitable. President Reagan simply hastened it.
Moreover, it doesn't matter what # the US is. Just like the USSR, Iran's government system is not sustainable. No system built on murdering and repressing its own people ever is. The funny thing is that the Ayatollahs were able to overthrow the Shah because he was hated by the people of Iran. Now the ayatollahs are hated. Clearly, they have forgotten their own history.
Those that forget history are doomed to repeat it. Just saying!!!!!
I think he's already changed his mind, if even he ever truly wanted to lift them in the first place. Most likely his public statements on lifting the sanctions have been political posturing.
The key here is the compliance requirement. Likely Biden knows that there is a snowballs chance in hell that compliance will happen. The Iranians don't want compliance. They want to spread Shiite Islam across the Middle East. Trump knew that which is why the sanctions went back into effect. So Joe loses nothing by offering to lift the the sanctions cause he knows they wont ever comply. The political payoff is that it puts the burden on the Iranians and makes them look bad if they don't comply. In that case Joe can say "look, I offered you an olive branch and gave you a chance to comply and you didn't. You have no one to blame for the sanctions but yourselves".
1) It is higly debatable that the USSR collapsed because of USA sanctions. Gorbachev said the opposite
2) at that time the USA was no 1 now they are no 2 and declining
Just saying
USSR had tons of nukes but that didn't stop US sanctions until it collapsed.
I did say "at least", but I rate the chances of Biden changing his mind about a lot of things once he's already in office pretty high; The only real question is which things he's going to change his mind about.
Likely much longer. And most likely never for as long as the Ayatollahs are in power. The odds of the Biden Administration lifting those sanctions are slim to none. Biden has said that he will lift them if the Iranians return to compliance. The Iranians have said they will return to compliance only if the US first lifts the sanctions. Which comes first – the chicken or the egg? Moreover Biden has also said they want to discuss the Iranian ballistic missile tech which Iran has said is a no go.
Bottom line: the sanctions will stay in place. It's very unlikely the Iranians will return to compliance first. They've gone too far down the escalation road to pull back now. Additionally, the IRGC is threatening a coup if they back down. Have been since 2014. Iran is stuck btwn a rock and a hard place. Can't de-escalate. Can't escalate.
"$7 billion in Iranian funds are frozen in South Korean banks due to U.S. sanctions."
For at least two more weeks, anyway.
The Village Idiot returns