Used
by the Saudi Arabia and the US against Syria,Iran and Russia
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You can ask
any Western diplomat who knows the Middle East, what the term "weapon
of oil" means, and he will answer that it's an attempt by the
oil-production countries of the Gulf to affect the US-Israel
relations by interfering on the international oil price - sometimes
by blocking the flow of the "black gold", or, by supplying
market with large quantities so that to bring prices down. At least
this was the case since the big oil crisis of 1973, until a few years
ago, when Saudi Arabia showed that is able to use the "weapon of
oil", not against the United States, but in cooperation with
them.
After the
official visit of the US President Barack Obama to Riyadh, there were
rumors that the two countries were planning to "drown"
global market in oil, in order to reduce prices up to 12 dollars per
barrel and hit Russia economically. The plan was mentioned even by
George Soros, during a speech in Berlin, while Philip Verleger,
former consultant under Ford and Carter administrations, estimated
that in case that the United States alone would add in the market
500,000 barrels from their strategic deposits, the economic cost for
Moscow would reach 40 billion dollars, or, 2% of the Russian economy.
The economy of Iran would had receive a proportional hit.
The target
of such an operation, at least according to the related scenario,
would be to strike the two key pylons supporting the Syrian regime,
that is Moscow and Tehran, and open the road for Assad's overthrow.
Despite the fact that Iran, under the leadership of Rouhani who is
friendly to the West, didn't support Syria as someone should expect,
and Russia didn't rise tension for the same matter, the two countries
remained the basic barriers for Saudi Arabia.
While Riyadh
will support officially that reducing prices is not a political move
but aims to open new markets, there are indications that oil price is
used in the geopolitical field. According to some information, at the
same time that Saudi Arabia reduces black gold's price, imposes a
very aggressive policy to its customers forcing them to guarantee
that they will buy all the quantity at a fixed price, therefore,
tries to prevent profit losses.
It is
certain that Riyadh proceeded in such moves, if not with Washington's
cooperation, at least under its knowledge. Initially, Obama visited
the area and most recently, John Kerry. The basic target of these
visits was to restore relationships with Saudi Arabia as the United
States postponed their plans for invasion in Syria. It is known that
Riyadh was furious for this decision as well as for the approach
between Washington and Tehran.
The first
"reward" the Riyadh received from Kerry's visit, was the
right to continue training and arming extremist groups to fight Assad
regime. It's the same process through which ISIS was created under
the tolerance and general inspection of US agencies, like CIA. It is
rather naive someone to assume that these two countries left out of
the discussion the design of a common policy in the energy markets,
which would be beneficial for the American interests in economic and
mostly in geopolitical level, as they could bring increased pressure
to Moscow.
In any
possible cooperation with any country, Saudi Arabia now sets as top
priority its commitment to work for the fastest possible overthrow of
Assad regime at any cost. While previous attempts created a monster,
like ISIS, no one can guarantee that this big mistake will not be
repeated.
From
the article Saudi Arabia declared petroleum war by Aris
Chatzistefanou
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