SAUDI CONNECTION

ANDREI MARTYANOV—OK, first things first–“several tens of thousands”? Typo, but even if typo and only several thousand kilometers into space, it is mind-boggling still. Defies imagination, on the other hand with the range of 1000 kilometers against aerial targets and SU-57 (and S-70 Okhotnik) officially having the ability to guide air-defense missiles it has not just operational but strategic implications.

TOM LUONGO—While this is speculation, it is on target however, because this statement from the State Dept. came before the Saudis sat down and signed an agreement with the Russians during the height of the U.S.’s shameful and shambolic retreat from Kabul.

As insults go in geopolitics, this was a pretty big one.

So, that will be the next shoe to drop here. If I’m right and the goal of those behind the Biden Administration (itself with a use-by date similar to that of the petrodollar) is to dismantle the U.S. as much as possible, then we will see Lindsey Graham and others wring their blood-soaked hands in grief lamenting the necessity of sanctioning our long-term friends in Saudi Arabia.

MONDOWEISS—If the Empire thought that the Sharif, with Ibn Saud now on his border and armed to the teeth by the British, would finally become more amenable to the division of Arabia and the British Zionist colonial project in Palestine they were short lived. A new round of talks between Abdulla’s son, acting on behalf of his father in Transjordan and the Empire resulted in a draft treaty accepting Zionism. When it was delivered to the Sharif with an accompanying letter from his son requesting that he “accept reality”, he didn’t even bother to read the treaty and instead composed a draft treaty himself rejecting the new divisions of Arabia as well as the Balfour Declaration and sent it to London to be ratified!

RAUL DIEGO—Despite all the glamour and fantastical riches ascribed to the Saudi royal family, their wealth is quite literally all in one basket. If the price of oil plummets, so does the ability of the Saudi princes to close billion-dollar weapons deals. In 2017, when the colossal $110 billion arms deal was made between the Trump administration and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, thanks to the work of Squire Patton Boggs, only $14.5 billion had been “earned” one year later.

The reality is that such deals are hardly worth the name. They are mostly comprised of letters of intent and proposals, which prospective buyers may or may not take up. In the case of American client states, like Saudi Arabia, there are ways to make them loosen the purse strings, but when these strings are tied to resources like oil extracted out of a foreign country teeming with armed groups intent on asserting their sovereignty, deals have a tendency to fall through.

MoA—The White House on Sunday defended its decision to not target Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after a U.S.intelligence report linked the royal to the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. 
“Historically and even in recent history, Democratic and Republican administrations, there have not been sanctions put in place for the leaders of foreign governments where we have diplomatic relations and even where we don’t have diplomatic relations,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” program.