KSA oil price war is killing Tehran's purse

Submitted by blert (United States), May 10, 2015 at 20:25

If I read the tea leaves right: Assad has been bled white, forcing the al Qods crew to really step up. While the Saudis are underwhelming -- in virtually every dimension -- Iran has a huge problem getting their toys into Yemen. Consequently, Tehran is unlikely to 'go large' in Yemen. Indeed, the dust-up in Yemen is compromising -- even further -- any prospect of shipping weapons to Assad. Al Sissi has shut off open access through the Suez canal. While Putin is happy to supply Assad -- he wants payment in cash -- at his price.

Whereas, Tehran would drastically prefer to provide weapons in kind -- at manufacturer's cost. [ The whole S-300 sales snafu (2011) turned more on cash flow than diplomacy. Putin is now expecting Tehran to pay for this SAM with funds released from escrow by Washington... oil sales by Iran are woefully short of the mullah's spending tempo. Back then, the West was embargoing Iranian monies faster than they could clear SWIFT. Tehran could talk payment, they couldn't execute payment. (!) This payments hang-up went so far as to give the atomic reactor project at Bushehr the 'slows.' Not mentioned to the wider public, Iran is being let back into the SWIFT (electronic global money transfer) system as part of 0bama's 'diplomacy.' THAT'S the big bone that the mullah's want.] So the real player releasing weapons across the MENA is 0bama -- very much in the style of Zardoz. ( In the 1974 Sci Fi flick a floating head spews automatic weapons out to mindless, savage, proles. The name is a play on Basil Zaharoff -- the infamous peddler of machine guns a century ago.)

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