West Asia News and Discussions (YEMEN, gulf)

kit · Post by **kit** » 26 May 2016 13:00

The End of the Petrodollar ?

UAE and Saudi are moving to replace the Dollar with Euro as the currency for oil transactions.. if true an earth shaking event of global ramifications

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 26 May 2016 14:37

While I was going through Chris Kyle's story on American Sniper , Came across Baghdad Snipper Juba

Some read on this topic for Singha

American Sniper vs. Baghdad Sniper

Video

schinnas · Post by **schinnas** » 26 May 2016 15:18

kit wrote:The End of the Petrodollar ?

UAE and Saudi are moving to replace the Dollar with Euro as the currency for oil transactions.. if true an earth shaking event of global ramifications

I doubt this will really happen. It is more of a pressure tactic to get what they want from US. Massa has a clear Lakshman Rekha. Anyone regime or leader in ME that tries to go against the notion of petrodollar would need to face regime change and an ugly, demeaning end - similar to what Qadaffi and Saddam had to go through. There should be more to this than what meets the eye. Either the manipulation of Massa in ME is too much to bear for these monarchs or they think together they are in a better position to take on Massa. Some of it could be preparations for a Trump US as well. Lets wait and watch.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 26 May 2016 15:26

Going to the Oiro is a stupid move. Might as well go to the Pakistan Rupee or Sudanese currency. How long is the Oiropean Oonion going to be around? Then again, that's my narrow-minded view. Maybe the Sheikhs and Sultans reason that pretty soon they will OWN all Oirope.

So its just trading in their own currency -

Riyals Avec Un Attitude Tres Elegante

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 26 May 2016 17:31

maybe they've seen the size of trump's hands?

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 26 May 2016 18:13

looking at background music , its same as the chanting that IS videos now use..so "Juba" whether a single man or a group must all be in core of IS now.

kit · Post by **kit** » 26 May 2016 22:11

UlanBatori wrote:Going to the Oiro is a stupid move. Might as well go to the Pakistan Rupee or Sudanese currency. How long is the Oiropean Oonion going to be around? Then again, that's my narrow-minded view. Maybe the Sheikhs and Sultans reason that pretty soon they will OWN all Oirope. So its just trading in their own currency -
Riyals Avec Un Attitude Tres Elegante

Not really .. the OPEC especially Saudi and UAE are moving to a currency (as yet unnamed) similar to the Euro ... by the way remember ..you heard it first here

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 27 May 2016 00:18

KSA and UAE maybe - but I have a tough time visualizing Venezuela and Iran moving to a currency controlled out of Riyadh or Qatar.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 01 Jun 2016 08:13

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 01 Jun 2016 08:14

1+ year of indiscriminate aerial campaign by the GCC and moves on the ground by hired cannon fodder mercs from somalia & sudan and TFTA mercs from uk,aus,colombia have not shifted the frontlines by any measure.

its still mostly at the map of old north and south yemeni republics...with north yemen losing control of the marib province on their eastern flank

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... en.svg.png

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 06 Jun 2016 16:20

Maher on Saudi involvement in 9/11: 28 pages prove ‘we definitely attacked the wrong country’

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 09 Jun 2016 22:53

CNN: Saudis exerted 'massive' pressure on U.N. to be removed from blacklist

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/09/middl ... index.html

IndraD · Post by **IndraD** » 13 Jun 2016 23:30

A court in Qatar has convicted a Dutch woman of having sex outside marriage after she told police she was raped. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-36516006

has any western country raised Q how will Qatar host FIFA in such a environment?

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 13 Jun 2016 23:56

But as long as they didn't violate her suitcase looking for a satphone, some of us should have no concerns at all...

Another din, another immoral kuffar wimmens, pah! How DARE she complain about a Real Mard? Or several?

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 14 Jun 2016 12:03

tsk tsk the concept of uncovered meat is so poorly understood by westerners...

JE Menon · Post by **JE Menon** » 14 Jun 2016 21:49

On the Qatar rape sentence, it is a suspended one. The Dutch ambassador there, also female, is said to have made it clear there would be repercussions on the football front. The unfortunate girl will return home.

TSJones · Post by **TSJones** » 15 Jun 2016 08:32

But as long as they didn't violate her suitcase looking for a satphone, some of us should have no concerns at all..

Indian cops are taking care of that. catching terrorists and everything....

habal · Post by **habal** » 15 Jun 2016 09:37

Saudi Arabia lost 2 apache helicopters yesterday.

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 15 Jun 2016 11:13

JE Menon wrote:On the Qatar rape sentence, it is a suspended one. The Dutch ambassador there, also female, is said to have made it clear there would be repercussions on the football front. The unfortunate girl will return home.

she's lucky the police didn't rape her and her boyfriend as well

Yagnasri · Post by **Yagnasri** » 15 Jun 2016 11:47

Lalmohan wrote:
JE Menon wrote:On the Qatar rape sentence, it is a suspended one. The Dutch ambassador there, also female, is said to have made it clear there would be repercussions on the football front. The unfortunate girl will return home.
she's lucky the police didn't rape her and her boyfriend as well

If Duch has any guts, i seriously doubt they have any, the should boycott the FB WC.

asgkhan · Post by **asgkhan** » 15 Jun 2016 12:57

habal wrote:Saudi Arabia lost 2 apache helicopters yesterday.

Pathetic !!

These barbarians really set the bar low on incompetence.

habal · Post by **habal** » 16 Jun 2016 10:09

On another note, 3rd Apache heli downed in Yemen in 48 hrs.

https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/742835881619431425

habal · Post by **habal** » 16 Jun 2016 10:10

It seems the honeymoon between KSA and UAE over Yemen is over big time.
UAE said: basta.
KSA's coalition of the idiots is collapsing.

https://twitter.com/agitpapa/status/743166073181192192

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 16 Jun 2016 14:03

The United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) Crown Prince Mohammad bin Zayed Al-Nahyan announced on Wednesday that his forces will be leaving Yemen after spending more than 14 months inside the country. Prince Mohammad issued this statement regarding the depature of his troops from Yemen via his Twitter news account on Wednesday. It has been a rough week for the wealthy Gulf nation, as they have lost three military helicopters near the southern port-city of Aden.

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/ua ... emeni-war/ | Al-Masdar News

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 16 Jun 2016 14:03

^^ so much for the mighty columns of Leclerc tanks all rumbling north to teach the houthis a lesson...

JE Menon · Post by **JE Menon** » 16 Jun 2016 14:06

>>If Duch has any guts, i seriously doubt they have any, the should boycott the FB WC.

Not likely. They are already pissed off that they didn't qualify for the European Cup 2016 (now underway), so no chance of missing the World Cup even if it is held in Raqqa and women are being sold on the slave market as the game is in play. They are that crazy about football.

But the problem is solved. The girl Laura is coming home. Everybody's happy, except the girl because the rapist got away scott free looks like.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 16 Jun 2016 14:27

Haykal Bafana ‏@BaFana3 6h6 hours ago
I hear the latest Saudi plan for victory in Yemen is to declare Riyadh supported Houthis & Saleh all along & that Hadi was a just decoy.
3 retweets 5 likes

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 16 Jun 2016 14:32

twitterers are claiming that KSA proxies did the missile strike on the 3 downed Apaches based on intel passed on.
some dispute over yemen or libya is claimed as root cause.

russia+egypt+UAE is said to be the team backing east libya
NATO + GCCminusUAE is said to be the team backing west libya
Daesh has a enclave in the middle
Tuareg and Toubou tribes run their own show in the sahara regions as always...

most of africa are just straight lines on a map drawn up by british and french in the club. to tribes and communities separated by these lines, they hold no meaning and everyone is heavily armed to back their ancestral pride lands

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 17 Jun 2016 00:17

India’s Grand Plans in Iran Go Way Beyond the Chabahar Port Dea
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/arti ... -port-deal

With international sanctions against Iran lifted, India is keen to get ties with Tehran back to their pre-sanctions level. This was reflected in the flurry of high-level visits that took place this year in the run-up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Iran in late May. While India is looking to Iran to help in its transition to an economy fueled by natural gas, it is also betting on Iran to be its gateway into markets in Central Asia, through the development of the Iranian port of Chabahar. For its part, Iran seems keen to deepen its strategic economic ties with India, which continues to have a strong energy relationship with Saudi Arabia. India’s ambitions may also allow Iran to play a bigger role in emerging trade and transportation corridors in Eurasia, where China and Pakistan have already partnered.

Gas is a key part of India’s plans for Chabahar. Indian Energy Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s own trip to Iran, which preceded Swaraj’s visit, aimed to secure Iranian consent for India’s state-owned OVL to develop the offshore Farzad-B gas block in the Persian Gulf, which the company had discovered back in 2008. Estimated to hold up to 12.8 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas, Farzad-B is the single biggest overseas gas find ever made by an Indian state-owned oil company; OVL is looking to invest $7 billion to exploit it. Iran has reportedly agreed to keep Frazad-B off the auction block. During Modi’s visit, both sides expressed the hope that an agreement will be concluded by the third quarter of 2016, leading to further developments, including a commercial contract for Farzad-B later this year.

Besides gas blocks, Indian companies have other industrial ambitions in Iran and could invest up to $20 billion in greenfield petrochemical, fertilizer and metallurgy plants, mostly in the Chabahar special economic zone. These plants will probably be linked not only to Iranian gas fields like Farzad-B, but also to natural gas pipelines from Russia and Central Asia on the basis of swap agreements. Importantly, India is now also pushing for a liquefied natural gas plant at Chabahar, underscoring India’s interest in finding an alternative means to capitalize on Iranian gas, given the uncertainty surrounding the proposed but now stalled pipeline running from Iran to India through Pakistan. The sheer quantity of proposed projects around Chabahar illustrates Iran’s importance in India’s plans to transition to a gas-based economy in order to meet its 2030 emission targets.

But Chabahar will not only serve as a conduit for energy flows from Iran and Central Asia to India. It is also expected to serve as the pivot for India’s trade with the Eurasian Economic Community. During his Iran visit, Modi signed a Trilateral Transport and Transit Corridor agreement among India, Iran and Afghanistan, unveiled during a meeting hosted by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani also in attendance. Acutely aware of Chabahar’s geo-economic importance, Rouhani has called it “a defining partnership which has the potential of connecting the entire region.” In addition to the port, the transit deal includes an agreement for a 300-mile railway line connecting Chabahar with Zahedan near the border with Afghanistan, to be built by India’s state-owned construction company, IRCON. India will also be extending a $400 million credit line to Iran to supply rail tracks, rolling stock, signaling and other equipment.It isn’t difficult to see India’s moves as a response to China, which has its own grand plans to access the northern Indian Ocean via Pakistan and its port of Gwadar, creating a land-sea corridor to the Persian Gulf and beyond. India, though, intends to skirt Pakistan in the northern Indian Ocean to access the Eurasian heartland through Iran. Tehran has also expressed its support for India to join the 2011 Ashgabat Agreement, which would allow it to use existing transportation corridors between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf.

For all these plans, given the scale of India and Iran’s economic partnership, Iran wants ties institutionalized through trade, taxation and investment treaties, which Modi has indicated are likely to be ready before the end of this year. India is obliging Iran since Tehran has agreed to invest in downstream Indian projects, like refineries, to complete an interlocking energy web in the wider region. In another sign of its accommodations with Iran, India has agreed to settle $6.5 billion in oil payment dues in euros via European clearing houses, according to Tehran’s preference. New Delhi has also agreed to make an interest payment of 1.5 percent on these dues as a goodwill gesture.
These growing mutual economic stakes are bound to reflect a shared approach to stability in the region. While stating that Iran was a reliable energy partner, Rouhani also called for “closer consultations with India on regional issues such as Afghanistan and the challenge of terrorism.” The fact that Modi met Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during his visit further underlined an emerging political dynamic to these deepening economic prospects. At the signing of the trilateral transportation agreement with India, Iran and Afghanistan, Modi said the deal would “strengthen our ability to stand in mutual support against those whose only motto is to maim and kill the innocents.” It seemed like a message to Pakistan. Pakistani officials are no doubt examining Modi’s words, as well as the major plans underway at the Iranian port not far from their border.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 17 Jun 2016 07:22

Sounds like Houthis have got some mijjiles with good intel on Apache defensive systems? 3 in 48 hours is a massacre for attack helicopters.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 17 Jun 2016 08:58

so handing latakia on a platter might be a peace offering by Erdogan to ask assadists to disassociate from YPG - as predicted on brf yesterday

Leith Abou Fadel ‏@leithfadel 8h8 hours ago
Erdogan wants Assad to declare the YPG his enemy. Why? YPG is stopping Turkey's terrorists in northern Aleppo.
17 retweets 30 likes

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 17 Jun 2016 09:04

i have never seen a war after WW2 where {iran,assad,russia} fighting on same side all have different end goals in mind kind of like {uk,usa,russia}

likewise {turkey,nusra} but {turkey,usa} too on paper
on paper {ypg,usa} but they play with russia and assad also.
{assad,turkey} vs {sdf} could be emerging axis if turkey disowns and orphans the nusra and hands over Idlib emirate to assadists in exchange for assadists doing nothing when {turkey,nusra} smash and ransack afrin canton. both russia and usa might intervene though.

the only thing everyone incl its former backers perhaps agrees on is smacking the ISIS

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 17 Jun 2016 09:06

the old lion is wounded but alive.

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 17 Jun 2016 12:37

Singha wrote:i have never seen a war after WW2 where {iran,assad,russia} fighting on same side all have different end goals in mind kind of like {uk,usa,russia}

likewise {turkey,nusra} but {turkey,usa} too on paper
on paper {ypg,usa} but they play with russia and assad also.
{assad,turkey} vs {sdf} could be emerging axis if turkey disowns and orphans the nusra and hands over Idlib emirate to assadists in exchange for assadists doing nothing when {turkey,nusra} smash and ransack afrin canton. both russia and usa might intervene though.

the only thing everyone incl its former backers perhaps agrees on is smacking the ISIS

its like Game of Thrones, but for real...

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 17 Jun 2016 12:41

..and every day targeted assassination of jihadi leaders in Idlib..some say internal rivals...some claim syrian intel agency...

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 17 Jun 2016 12:42

winter is coming

Shanu · Post by **Shanu** » 28 Jun 2016 19:55

Yemen is heating up again as talks are stuck between the different expectations. Another stalemated Middle-eastern conflict.

yesterday IS struck the Saudi-backed soldiers in Mukalla - the city which was liberated from AlQ in April.

IS strikes in Mukalla, Yemen

Triple bomb attacks claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group have killed at least 35 people and injured 24 in Yemen's south-eastern city of Mukalla.
The militants struck at sunset as soldiers were preparing to break their day-long fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, officials say.
The attacks involved a suicide bomber, a car bomb and an improvised explosive device, Reuters news agency reports.
The first explosion occurred as an attacker detonated his suicide vest at a checkpoint on Mukalla's western approaches, Reuters says.
A bomb-laden car then exploded at the military intelligence headquarters, while the last bomb went off as soldiers were preparing to eat, the agency says.
The al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) group had taken advantage of Yemen's civil war to seize territory, weapons and money.
Yemeni security officials believe there is an overlap between AQAP loyalists and IS, despite the rivalry between the two groups, Reuters says.

So under pressure, AlQ and IS is merging together to take on the Haraam Saudi forces.

Today Saudis responded, not in Mukalla but in Taez, using airstrikes against the Shia Houthis. Of course, spilling Shi'a blood is more important than sunni-sunni brotherly fight.

Airstrikes kill 80 in Taez

Shanu · Post by **Shanu** » 28 Jun 2016 20:00

Meanwhile UAE has abandoned the fight against the Shi'a Houthis and is hunting the IS/AQAP now. May open up new differences with the Saudis as their vision of Yemen war is different.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen ... SKCN0ZE1EA

http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/arti ... bridgeable

arun · Post by **arun** » 27 Aug 2016 14:35

X Posted from the Indian Foreign Policy thread.

Our MEA should not accept Taqiyya and Kitman reeking explanations that OIC pronouncements on Jammu & Kashmir somehow do not represent the views of the individual Mohammadden majority countries on the Jammu & Kashmir issue.

As a start, our MEA should as a matter of course summon individual members of OIC and lodge protest for any pronouncement by the OIC on J&K that is not to our liking:

Transcript of Media Briefing by Secretary (ER), JS (BM) and Official Spokesperson (August 26, 2016)
August 27, 2016 ……………………………

Question: What has been Egypt’s stand in OIC on the issue of Kashmir?

Secretary Economic Relations, Shri Amar Sinha: That is an issue that we will raise with them. You see, most of our partners, they have very good relations with us, but when it comes to OIC, they allow somebody else to run the agenda, so that is something that we are trying to change because we would want our friends to take a stand. They have to look at the issue and understand that OIC has no locus standi absolutely on Jammu & Kashmir, it’s an internal matter and they appreciate that. They take a public posture, but what they tell us privately, there is slight gap and we would like that what they tell us privately, they should also say publicly and take a stand.

From here:

Clicky

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 02 Sep 2016 06:59

http://www.voanews.com/a/egyptian-presi ... 89653.html

Egypt's Sissi Starts India Visit, Likely to Meet Kerry

NEW DELHI — Egypt's president has begun an official visit to India, where he is also expected to meet with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who extended his stay in the country.A U.S. Embassy official said Kerry and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi were expected to meet late Thursday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.The Egyptian president is to hold talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday.Kerry had been scheduled to return to Washington on Thursday after visiting India. The embassy official said he will now join President Barack Obama in China for the G-20 summit this weekend.President el-Sissi is accompanied by Cabinet ministers and business leaders.Egypt has traditionally been one of India's most important trading partners in the African continent. The two countries are expected to sign agreements on Friday covering economic and cultural ties.Trade between the two countries reached $4.76 billion in the past year, making India Egypt's sixth-largest trading partner, according to India's External Affairs Ministry.