An eerie quiet hangs over Ras Al Khaimah’s industrial port. Usually a thriving maritime hub of the United Arab Emirates, now ships stand docked and silent. Not far out along the hazy horizon, a backlog of hundreds of tankers have lined up in recent days, halted along a waterway flooded with danger.
Any vessel heading past Ras Al Khaimah out to the Arabian Sea must traverse the world’s most treacherous strip of water for shipping today: the strait of Hormuz. Just over 20 nautical miles from Ras Al Khaimah, two oil tankers heading for the strait were attacked by Iranian missiles this week, one catching fire.
It is one of the many consequences facing Gulf states as they are pulled deeper into a war that they did not start and had diplomatically tried to prevent.
For decades, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Oman have allowed US military bases, infrastructure or access on their soil, and have been among the largest buyers of American weapons and technology. In return, the US has stood as the Gulf’s closest and most significant military partner and protector.
But now, Gulf states have growing concerns over the relationship, analysts say, after Donald Trump was seen to wilfully torpedo peaceful diplomatic negotiations in favour of starting a war in the Middle East.
The Gulf states and the Saudis didn’t start the war, but they have long been lobbying for an attack on Iran. They just didn’t want their military personnel in the line of fire. They’re either useless or, in the case of Saudi, too busy committing genocide against Yemenis.
Also in the case of the Saudis also useless. I think the only competent Arab states are Oman and Jordan. As I understand it Yemen is too fractured to really be counted one way or another, even I am tempted to add them to the list.
Did they thank the orange felon/rapist/liar though?
Fuck. Them.
MBS and other Gulf dictators were begging Trump and Israel to attack Iran. They are now being served a good example of FAFO. In particular, I hope MBS and MBZ go down in flames. They are the worst of this inhuman scum.
As a thought exercise, I was considering what the other countries in the middle east could have done to avoid this conflict.
I ended up with nothing reliable. They did not have sufficient power to address the problems in the Iranian regime. And even if they could, the US would likely just be attacking the next state on Israel’s hit list and cause similar problems.
The only thing that might have gotten close, is to outspend the Zionists in their interference in US politics.
If your running that thought experiment it’s not just the Arab states funding trump and America.
Those same stats could also have curtailed Iran’s influence in the region as well including removing funding for the various military and terrorist groups they all have a hand in.
Frankly they have raked in the money while others suffer and now they are suffering because of it.
Meanwhile the orange toad is using the money they gave him to further his own agenda and using their countries as pawns.
It’s complicated, right? On the one hand, those Arab states couldn’t have predicted this crazy US administration and had no say in the US people voting in somebody like Trump.
On the other hand, however, they are totally involved. First of all, they funneled a lot of money into Trump’s election campaign and therefore are now reaping what they sowed. If you fund somebody like Trump, you get somebody like Trump. And all those conflicts in the regions are also fueled by Saudi, Qatari and Emirate money. You know who is also hosting and funding Hamas? Qatar. Who is funding all those extremist mosques? Saudi Arabia. So if they wanted peace in the region they had a lot of leverage to bring it, and they didn’t.
There was saudi money behind the twitter takeover wasnt there?
Theyve actually contributed to this happening. But perhaps in a dumb way that doesnt give them any control.
As a thought exercise, I was considering what the other countries in the middle east could have done to avoid this conflict
They could have closed down the American bases that Trump is using to attack Iran. That would have done the job.
Trump would have attacked from the sea. Though it would have prevented incoming attacks on their soil, their ships would still be caught in the middle.
USS Abraham Lincoln has to stay away from Iran because they keep attacking it with drones. Without bases in Kuwait, UAE and Saudi Arabia, USA would not be able to sustain this war.
As a thought experiment, what do you think would have happened if they wound down their involvement with the u.s., and actually tried to come to their own arrangement with Iran? Maybe a united front of the OPEC countries would have been enough to give the middle finger to any country that supplied Israel with weapons…
Get in bed with china, make their own deals with African nations and india to get industrial capabilities up and running, and we’d see a very large and sudden swelling of the global south.
This has nothing to do with what they could have done to Iran. Iran didn’t start this war, Trump (and Israel) did, and every single one of those countries has financially supported Trump.
They got the US leader they wanted. Now they have to accept that they are living in his demented reality.
They could have not funded him. They could have not propped him and his family up.
They thought they had a useful idiot.
They did, but he was still an idiot.
So the middle east countries paid top dollar to get the US ‘president’ to do all the things they wanted, and he ended up screwing every single one of them. When you get in bed with trump, he will eventually shit the bed, and you will have to lie in it with him. You deserve the stupid choice you made.
They got in bed with a rational USA, and the USA shat out Trump and ruined the world.
Didn’t they give him a plane or something?
No they got into bed with Trump. He has mucho dinero from the Gulf nations.
What a creepy image.
Rules for Being an Evil Overlord, #22: “No matter how tempted I am with the prospect of unlimited power, I will not consume any energy field bigger than my head.”
I love touching glowing balls…
Shahak Shapira already corrected the image.
had diplomatically tried to prevent.
Saudi Arabia: Yeah right…
This is what happens when you outsource defence to a nation that has never acted altruisticly towards an ally (except Israel).
Was it Kissinger who said something along the line of “USA has no permanent allies or enemies, only interests.”
Whole world suffering because Americans can’t handle their pedophiles.
We’re never going to be respected like before. We’re never going to have the same soft power.
Thanks conservatives.
They should start adding convenience fees to US oil.
The US is absolutely defenseless against hidden fees and surcharges.
I hate to say this but as a former US molarity officer I am 100% behind Iran. The Mango Mussolini start Operation Epstein Fury as a distraction and the buzzards need to come home to roost. I am sorry people are getting killed but Iran is not going to stop now that their leader and 180 little girls have been killed.
These “Epstein Files” are just a distraction from the real intent of what’s going on over there.
Let me cry crocodile tears and play the worlds smallest violin for the poor lil ole petrol states
Every single one of you were buddy buddy with Trump to America’s detriment. I don’t give a single shit what happens to you.
Protection for Petro dollar oil dies here. Trump is destroying American dominance on the world stage, it’s wild to see.
Petro dollar is worthless.
It’s been replaced with the pedo dollar, do try to keep up.
Are the Europeans learning the lesson?
Europa has been disentangling and decoupling for about a year. Cloud infrastructure, software, payment systems, defense, … But it takes time.
Not relying on the US is only part of the solution, they have to stamp out their populist nationalism movements while they still can.
right and when are they going to say “thank you”.
