Why would bombing inside Turkey help him? Indeed as he has been able to defend himself now for years against his Saudi, Qatar and Turkey sponsored opponents it is unlikely that your view of his actions is accurate.
Persian Gulf & Middle East Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter delft
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asif iqbal
Lieutenant General
I did not say that it would necessarily help him but he can not be trusted
And I do not support either side for sure both are wrong on this one
And I do not support either side for sure both are wrong on this one
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
President Barack Obama's summit with Arab leaders doesn't seem to be going as planned.
First, King Salman of Saudi Arabia when he backed out of the summit after the White House announced he was going to attend.
The last-minute move was widely perceived as a deliberate snub, and the Saudis offered only a vague excuse for King Salman's absence.
Crown Prince and Defense Minister Mohammed bin Nayef and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz attended the talks in Salman's place.
Obama then the deputy crown prince and misnamed the founder of the kingdom.
Then came today's big news: reported that Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries intend to match Iran's nuclear capacity if the US reaches a deal that allows some aspects of the country's nuclear program, including uranium enrichment and ballistic missiles research, to continue.
One unnamed Arab leader who is participating in the talks that Sunni Arab countries "can't sit back and be nowhere as Iran [a Shiite regime] is allowed to retain much of its capability and amass its research."
David Rothkopf, CEO and editor of the group that publishes Foreign Policy magazine, , saying that Saudi Arabia's expression of intent to match Iran's nuclear development is a bigger blow to Obama's summit than King Salman's absence.
While the nuclear deal would allow international monitoring of Iran's nuclear activities, many worry that Iran intends to eventually construct a nuclear weapon and would not hold up its end of the agreement.
Obama's summit, which includes high-level officials from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain and is being held at the White House and Camp David, was designed to reassure Arab leaders that the US is still keeping their security in mind as negotiations over Iran's nuclear program progress.
But so far, the talks don't seem to be having their desired effect.
"My guess is that the summit is going to leave everybody feeling a little bit unsatisfied," Jon Alterman, the Middle East director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, .
The rift between the US and Sunni Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, has gotten so wide that some leaders from the region may be counting the days until Obama is out of office.
Emile El Hokayem of the International Institute for Strategic Studies : "They hope what they have is an Obama problem, not a US problem. They’re looking toward 2016."
For his part, Obama seems intent on finalizing the landmark deal with Iran while also assuaging the concerns of Gulf Arab leaders.
Other sources of strain between the US and Saudi Arabia that go beyond the US' handling of the nuclear negotiations make that more difficult.
The US has been working in parallel with Iran-backed Shiite militias to help drive the Islamic State terror group out of Iraq. The US has also become less dependent on Saudi Arabia for oil, and this changing economic relationship has altered the relationship between the two allies.
The Saudis, in turn, are increasingly taking regional matters into their own hands. A Saudi-led coalition has been bombing Houthi positions in Yemen in an effort to beat back forces that are aligned with Iran and Yemen's former president, who was overthrown during the Arab Spring uprisings.
With Washington reorienting its policies in the region and with Riyadh feeling less constrained by its relationship with the US, Saudi Arabia could continue its assertive policies, enhancing its regional power and prestige.
As David Ottaway, a scholar at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC, : "We are witnessing the first real attempt to see whether Saudi Arabia can become the new military and political superpower of the Arab world. A younger generation of impatient Saudi hawks is coming to power that is fed up with the failure of the kingdom to project its military and political influence."
Everyone saw this coming.
IMHO, this administration is so worried about a so-called "legacy," that it is ignoring patently obvious cause and effect consequences that will arise from what they are trying to achieve...which in turn will void any short term legacy they acheive.
The Diplomat said:
Iran is continuing to play with fire here.
They are looking for any slight commercial or civil issue and then using their military to try and force it. It is going to lead to an exchange if they keep it up...and I am afraid their Navy will come out very much rt end of that stick.
kwaigonegin
Colonel
The Obama admin has lost a lot of credibility from both allies and non allies alike. Bush messed up a lot in ME but it appears Obama is trying to make things even worse.
We need to let the experts run things there and not politicians. Our biggest foreign policy mistake has been the failure to truly understand the dynamics and mechanisms of what drives the tribalism of the local populace and their motivations and culture.
To simply win battles and wars you don't need those variables at all, however to keep the peace after that is the single most significant thing you must understand.
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
Experts can drink the Kool-Aid of your liking too.
ShahryarHedayat
Junior Member
Tanker engaged by Iranian vessels liable for $300mn in damages to oil rig
Iranian naval ships (Reuters/Jamejamonline/Ebrahim Norouzi)
A Singapore-flagged tanker which, owner claims, came under Iranian navy fire in the international waters off the UAE this week, is wanted over the unsettled $300mn debt in damages it caused to an oil rig in late March, according to Iranian official.
The incident happened on Thursday after Iranian naval patrol boat spotted MT Alpine Eternity commercial ship in the international Persian Gulf, just off the island of Abu Musa, and demanded it to maneuver into Iranian waters.
Several warning short were fired as the tanker, operated by Norway’s Transpetrol TM AS, issued a distress call, prompting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to send out coastguard vessels. The tanker’s owner, South Maritime Pte Ltd, even claimed that one shot was fired directly on the ship, but “no serious damage was sustained by the vessel and none of the 23 crew members were injured.”
The Alpine Eternity was escorted and is now safely anchored off Dubai.
Iranian officials did not comment on the incident much, with the country’s sole oil official announcing that the tanker was wanted by Tehran in connection with its collision with an oil rig at around March 22.
“We want neighboring countries to take the necessary cooperation on confiscation and handing over of this particular vessel,” Habib Jadidi, a director of Iran’s giant South Pars gas field operations, told Shana news outlet.
The director blamed the ship and its captain for drifting some 40-50 kilomenters off course in March which has caused the accident.
“The collision has created a very dangerous situation for the wells. If it is not quickly tackled, wellhead installations will be damaged and if no gas flows from the wells it could lead to unpleasant hazards and pollution,” Jadibi said. Notifying the operators of the caused damage, Jadibi said, produced no result.
Iranian naval ships (Reuters/Jamejamonline/Ebrahim Norouzi)
A Singapore-flagged tanker which, owner claims, came under Iranian navy fire in the international waters off the UAE this week, is wanted over the unsettled $300mn debt in damages it caused to an oil rig in late March, according to Iranian official.
The incident happened on Thursday after Iranian naval patrol boat spotted MT Alpine Eternity commercial ship in the international Persian Gulf, just off the island of Abu Musa, and demanded it to maneuver into Iranian waters.
Several warning short were fired as the tanker, operated by Norway’s Transpetrol TM AS, issued a distress call, prompting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to send out coastguard vessels. The tanker’s owner, South Maritime Pte Ltd, even claimed that one shot was fired directly on the ship, but “no serious damage was sustained by the vessel and none of the 23 crew members were injured.”
The Alpine Eternity was escorted and is now safely anchored off Dubai.
Iranian officials did not comment on the incident much, with the country’s sole oil official announcing that the tanker was wanted by Tehran in connection with its collision with an oil rig at around March 22.
“We want neighboring countries to take the necessary cooperation on confiscation and handing over of this particular vessel,” Habib Jadidi, a director of Iran’s giant South Pars gas field operations, told Shana news outlet.
The director blamed the ship and its captain for drifting some 40-50 kilomenters off course in March which has caused the accident.
“The collision has created a very dangerous situation for the wells. If it is not quickly tackled, wellhead installations will be damaged and if no gas flows from the wells it could lead to unpleasant hazards and pollution,” Jadibi said. Notifying the operators of the caused damage, Jadibi said, produced no result.
ShahryarHedayat
Junior Member
Sailor dies in Bahrain after fall from balcony
An E-3 assigned to the destroyer Farragut died Saturday night after falling from the balcony of a Bahrain hotel room while on liberty during a port visit.
The sailor fell from the balcony in Manama at around 11 p.m. local time. Early reports indicate he died of head trauma, according to a report obtained by Navy Times.
Bahrain authorities and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service responded and pronounced the sailor dead at the scene. The sailor's name has not been released.
The death is under investigation by NCIS and Bahrain authorities, according to a Navy release.
The Mayport, Fla.-based Farragut is deployed with the Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, the campaign against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.
RIP...
An E-3 assigned to the destroyer Farragut died Saturday night after falling from the balcony of a Bahrain hotel room while on liberty during a port visit.
The sailor fell from the balcony in Manama at around 11 p.m. local time. Early reports indicate he died of head trauma, according to a report obtained by Navy Times.
Bahrain authorities and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service responded and pronounced the sailor dead at the scene. The sailor's name has not been released.
The death is under investigation by NCIS and Bahrain authorities, according to a Navy release.
The Mayport, Fla.-based Farragut is deployed with the Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, the campaign against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.
RIP...
I don't think Obama is making things worse if the goal is to let the Middle East sort, or at least stalemate, itself out with minimal US resources spent on it. The other side of the same coin is that the US will have much less influence over what happens, which may be regarded as things being worse. However it has been obvious since at least Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, and there was 9/11, that it is questionable whether the US gets more value out of its Middle East alliances than the troubles they bring.