SAUDI CONNECTION

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.

F W. ENGDAHL—Now that her allied neighbors, the UAE and Bahrain, have formally agreed to recognize Israel, MBS is under significant pressure to join the US-brokered initiative. All indications are that world oil demand, especially in the industrial countries of the EU and North America will decline as pressure for a green agenda politically grows. That has already created a serious global oil glut that Saudi is able to do little to change.

The recent 25-year Iran-China strategic partnership which apparently includes a significant military component, increases the pressure on MBS and the Saudis to devise a new geopolitical strategy beyond the series of proxy wars in Yemen and elsewhere that have been a significant failure for the Saudi side, with Iran-backed Houthi rebels able to regularly lob missiles at Riyadh and other Saudi targets.

ERIC ZUESSE—The Syrian and Russian Governments had planned to finish them off there in Idlib, so that none of them could escape back into their home countries to continue their jihad. However, the U.S. and its allies raised ‘humanitarian’ screams at the U.N. and other international organizations, in order to protect the ‘rebels’ against the ‘barbarous dictator’ of Syria, its President, Bashar al-Assad — just in order to create more anti-Assad (and anti-Russian, and anti-Iranian) propaganda. And, so, on 9 and 10 September 2018, Putin and Erdogan and Rouhani met in Rouhani’s Tehran to decide what to do. By that time, Erdogan was riding the fence between Washington and Moscow. On 17 September 2018, I headlined “Putin and Erdogan Plan Syria-Idlib DMZ as I Recommended” and reported that Putin and Rouhani entrusted Idlib to Erdogan, with the expectation that Erdogan would keep the jihadists penned-up there, so that Putin and Assad would be able to bomb them to hell after the ‘humanitarian crisis’ in Idlib would be no longer on front pages. As things turned out, Erdogan double-crossed Putin and Rouhani, and just grabbed the territory.

MoA—

The United States is pulling its Patriot missile systems from Saudi soil as part of broader curbs on its military support for the Arab kingdom, a report says. Citing unnamed US officials, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that four Patriot surface-to-air missile batteries and dozens of military personnel will be removed from Saudi oil facilities. The officials said the US will also reduce its Navy presence in the Persian Gulf soon, adding that two jet fighter squadrons have already left the region.