Thursday, November 9, 2017

The Fulcrum Crumbles In Riyadh, Con't

The fallout from Jared Kushner's latest trip to Saudi Arabia continues to pile up and all indications are that the Saudis have been given a tacit green light to go after Iran's Shi'a Gulf State alliance in full.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman continues to roll up his opposition in Riyadh as he fully consolidates power.

Saudi Arabia's attorney general says at least $100bn (£76bn) has been misused through systemic corruption and embezzlement in recent decades. 
Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb said 199 people were being held for questioning as part of a sweeping anti-corruption drive that began on Saturday night. 
He did not name any of them, but they reportedly include senior princes, ministers and influential businessmen. 
"The evidence for this wrongdoing is very strong," Sheikh Mojeb said. 
He also stressed that normal commercial activity in the kingdom had not been affected by the crackdown, and that only personal bank accounts had been frozen. 
Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb said investigations by the supreme anti-corruption committee, which was formed by royal decree and is headed by 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, were "progressing very quickly". 
He announced that 208 individuals had been called in for questioning so far, and that seven of them had been released without charge. 
"The potential scale of corrupt practices which have been uncovered is very large," the attorney general said. 
"Based on our investigations over the past three years, we estimate that at least $100bn has been misused through systematic corruption and embezzlement over several decades."

Make no mistake, MBS wields the political power now.  What of the military power though?  Well, they're going to be a bit busy right now.

Saudi Arabia has ordered its citizens out of Lebanon amid skyrocketing tensions between their two governments.

A brief statement carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency called on all Saudis living in or visiting Lebanon to depart, and warned against travel to the country.

"Due to the circumstances in the Lebanese Republic, the kingdom asks its citizens who are visiting or residing" in the country to leave it as soon as possible, a Saudi Foreign Ministry source quoted by the agency said
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri shocked his country Saturday when he announced in a televised statement out of Saudi Arabia that he was resigning. He has not been seen in Lebanon since.

He said his country had been taken hostage by the militant group Hezbollah, a partner in his coalition government and a major foe of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia says it considers Hezbollah's participation in the Lebanese government an "act of war" against the kingdom.

Bahrain and Kuwait are issuing similar warning to their citizens: get out of Lebanon now.  The storm is coming and it's going to be a bad one.

Saudi military action against Lebanon to fight Hezbollah will certainly draw in Iran, which is what the Saudis, the Israelis, and the Trump regime want.  That's the point.  Of course, other players in the region will have to be dealt with too.  Syria will need to be resolved, but an upcoming meeting between Trump and Putin in Vietnam will work out those details, the most likely will be the end of the Assad regime with Syria under nominal Russian control.  Yemen too will have to dealt with, but the Saudi vice grip on all entrance to the country by land, sea, and air is not going to be a long-term solution, but it is a short-term one.

The Turks are more than happy to look the other way as long as they get to beat up on the Kurds on their border.  Israel gets the go ahead to flatten what's left of the Palestinian Authority.  Everybody gets what they want out of the deal, including Trump.

It's a race at this point to see who Trump ends up with at war with first, Tehran or Pyongyang.  The truth of what went on in Jared Kushner's meeting with MBS, when it comes out, is going to be shocking.  But make no mistake, an illegitimate American president is now hurtling towards global conflict in order to wash away his domestic problems with blood.

We're very close now to a point of no return.

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