The traditional special relationship is fading under Saudi mistrust of Obama’s intentions toward a potential insurgency against the throne, especially in the Shiite oil regions. Elements of good cooperation survive.

Russia is ready to supply Iraqi Kurdistan with assault helicopters after Obama refused the KRG leader’s request for an air force. Moscow has acquired a stake in the oil of Kirkuk and accepts the Kurds’ need of an air force to protect it. Iraqi prime minister Maliki plands to ...

The US army is completed its planning for an Israeli war on Iran in October at the latest. Its tasks will be to destroy Iranian missiles geared for reprisals against US military sites and Israel, defend Saudi oil and keep the Strait of Hormuz open to oil traffic.

Shiite unrest is bursting its bounds in the oil-rich Eastern Provinces of Saudi Arabia, dangerously close to the largest oil installations in the world. Tehran is signaling Riyadh that they can be disrupted by sabotage and not just by Iranian missiles.

The fall of Damascus may be drawn-out, bloody and excruciating. It will also have wide regional repercussions, as debkafile shows in this exclusive video, because neither the Assad regime nor Iran will take it lying down.

Vladimir Putin has seized on the Eurozone crisis to buy controlling shares in Greek and Cypriot oil and gas fields and infrastructure in return for bailing out their sinking economies. President Vladimir Putin had more than one fish to fry in dispatching a large flotilla of Russian warships to the eastern Mediterranean. They are on hand not just for the Syrian crisis but also to secure the hot new energy acquisitions about to fall in Moscow’s lap.
 

As Russia and NATO boosted their military strength in the E. Mediterranean, debkafile reports the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier and dozens of unmanned underwater craft for destroying mines are being rushed to the Persian Gulf. By August, five aircraft carriers will be on site - four American and one French. "If Iran starts spreading underwater mines in international waterways, i.e., the Strait of Hormuz, it will find American forces ready to dismantle them," said a Western military source.

The Saudis offered Beijing $60 billion plus an oil bonanza for a single nuclear warhead.  China has agreed in principle to sell the Saudis medium-range Dong-Feng 21 ballistic missiles in return for the cash and/or having its oil requirements for the next 23 years guaranteed by Riyadh. The deal was ...

Iran is alarmed by Azerbaijan’s soaring trade relations with Israel, its ambitions to expand into Mediterranean oil and gas through Israel and large arms purchases from the Jewish state.

If Iran really can copy the captured US spy drone and plumb its secret codes, this will have far-reaching implications for a potential US or Israel strike against its nuclear sites.

Monday, April 24, the Obama administration stepped in to damp down the military frictions developing between Jerusalem and Cairo, fanned further this week by a dispute over the suspension of Egyptian gas to Israel. Earlier that day, Egypt’s military ruler Field Marshal Muhammad Tantawi said: “If anyone comes near Egypt’s border, we will break their leg.” Egyptian Islamists and Bedouin groups have since announced they would mark Israel’s Independence Day Thursday with a mass assault on the Sinai memorials of Israel’s fallen soldiers.

Riyadh sees Iran counting its profits from sanctions-boosted oil prices regardless of extra Saudi pumping. Washington blocked the sale of arms for a Saudi strike against Iran and shut the Jordanian route for Saudi troops to enter Syria. The two Kings Abdullah are at odds.

China and Pakistan are profiting hugely from sanctions-busting financial services to Iran, while Russia, India and Turkey also help cushion Tehran against the depredations of sanctions.

A major Saudi oil pipeline was indeed blown despite Riyadh’s disclaimers and more Iran-instigated sabotage of its oil sector is to be expected – either by covert Iranian squads, local Shiites or Hizballah.

When the Saudis discovered the US was backing off military operations against both Iran and Syria, they retaliated by letting oil prices float upward without lifting a finger. This week oil prices hit an all-time high carrying the message to Barack Obama: Either attack Iran, or we’ll let oil ...

Russia needs a presence in Syria to promote its interests in the Middle East, to keep the lid on Caucasian unrest and to pave the way to challenge the United States in the global arena.

The Saudis are building up their defenses in the Eastern oil provinces, calculating that Iran is already losing customers for its oil, cutting its exports by 15-20 percent and bringing Tehran closer than ever to striking the kingdom's oil industry and exports.

A detailed report to Washington by Saudi and Kuwaiti intelligence details Iran's preparations for sabotaging oil production in the Gulf emirates, striking US targets and blocking the Strait of Hormuz.

Libyans see their revolution falling off track. Their transitional leader Abdel-Jalil predicts a slide into civil war - or worse, former rebel militias are fighting it out in the streets, pro-Qaddafi forces are returning to the attack, and oil deals are transacted by faceless ministers who offer no accounting to the citizenry.

Many believe ...

Kurdistan's regional president Masoud Barzani claims America has betrayed the Kurds and left them at the prey of Iraq's Shiite prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has already cut off oil revenues due to the Kurdish republic under a sealed and signed accord.