An Iran thread

As the denial fades, perhaps we need one thread for this particular front in Cold War II…

Sounds like it may be better for Iran to use the Newspaper for their early warning system.

The company they keep…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/iran-russia-and-turkey-meet-over-syrias-future-as-trump-mulls-troop-withdrawal/2018/04/04/c607e27c-3770-11e8-af3c-2123715f78df_story.html?utm_term=.398b4b1917b2

The US position in that part of the world is very weak… for now. Got to slap Team America back into working order.

Speaking of strange bedfellows, the Saudis seem to be on board. But never forget: there are no good guys thereabouts.

We can stick a fork in the done deal…

Now let’s watch the unraveling of what that deal was meant to prop up. The mullahs will fall slow, but they’ll fall hard.

(Well,the very end will be sudden. But you know what I mean.)

Start off with:

http://www.startribune.com/us-begins-to-dismantle-iran-nuclear-deal-sanctions-relief/486692071/

Not thinking it all the way through…

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-05/iran-guards-says-can-stop-hormuz-oil-exports-after-u-s-threat

Or maybe a murder-suicide thing.

Oh, and… here’s a link to an old thread so we don’t lose track of it:

Another Venezuela…

Something for the armchair admirals:

I guess there’s a limit to how much terrorism they’re willing to tolerate:

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/10/france-freezes-iranian-assets-over-foiled-bombing-attempt.html

The western world does not present a unified front against Iran… yet.

A little extra leverage against the deep state:

If you look at Iran as a nation, this makes zero economic sense. But if you the government as having interests distinct from that of the people, then it’s all about taking their cut.

Even then, it doesn’t make much sense.

The business model:

Extortion. Piracy. Audacity. All that matters is whether they get away with it.

Does the US have an interest here? It’s not 1973 anymore. The problem is, allowing this to happen sends a very bad signal.

I think it shows how hard Iran is feeling the pinch of economic sanctions .
I think Trump should sit it out , whilst cranking up those sanctions even more .
It’s up to the EU etc, to react . They are the ones that need to realize that Iran seems to want a conflict situation . Enforces the worry that this regime should not have nuclear weapons …
The British will no doubt write a strongly worded letter to Iran.

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Trump needs to signal a willingness to go to a shooting war over this, without actually going to a full-fledged shooting war.

It’s inexcusable for these tankers to have insufficient armament to defend themselves. These have always been questionable waters.

Pathetic:

Ruling the waves mattered, as it turns out.

I know right? How can any country have the audacity to not bend over for the west? It’s tit for tat, not piracy. Not a single one of the unfortunate events since Trump pulled out of the deal were initiated by Iran.
The Trump administration does not look like it will accept anything short of capitulation. Why would anyone roll over and accept that?
It’s amazing that people can be so self-righteous that they can’t see unfair treatment of other countries. The west made a deal over something that was unfair to begin with, then it pulled out of the deal and went like “no way you stop doing what you were supposed to be doing in exchange of what of I said I would do but I’m totally not going to anymore”.
I am not an Iran apologist at all. It’s just that the US is pushing Iran into a position to respond like that. What else can Iran do? They are the weaker party, this is literally all they can do short of going full-on crazy with their proxies. And no total war is not an option, not even for them, they are crazy but not that crazy.
I do believe in a strong response. Do a 50x stronger response but it has to be followed but a gesture that shows them the west is willing to sign a true deal (which is hard to do for the obvious reason that the west did not honor the last one but is it their fault our political system is broken?). Otherwise the only way it can end is war.

You just have to handle Middle Eastern politics so carefully , as the Brits have learned.

Piracy is piracy.

How does an oil producing nation manage to have an energy crisis?

Remember how Reagan won Cold War I: stop bailing them out and let them collapse.