Sunni/Shi’ite jihad reaching a boiling point. Could it erupt into full-scale war? Easily.
“Saudi Arabia declare missile attack on Riyadh by Iran-backed rebels an ‘act of war’ and accuse Tehran of ‘blatant military aggression,'” by Alex Matthews, Mailonline, November 6, 2017:
Saudi Arabia has declared a missile attack on Riyadh by Iran-backed rebels an ‘act of war’ and has accused Tehran of a ‘blatant act of military aggression’.
Tensions have been rising between Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and predominantly Shiite Iran, which are locked in conflicts across the Middle East, from Yemen and Syria to Qatar and Lebanon.
The crisis escalated on Saturday when the kingdom intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile near Riyadh’s international airport.
The rocket had been launched from conflict-torn Yemen, in an escalation of the Saudi’s war against Huthi rebels, backed by Iran.
The missile attack was the first aimed by the Shiite rebels at the heart of the Saudi capital, underscoring the growing threat posed by the raging conflict in Yemen.
Today, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir also warned Tehran: ‘Iranian interventions in the region are detrimental to the security of neighbouring countries and affect international peace and security.
‘We will not allow any infringement on our national security.’
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif issued dismissive tweets over the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in response.
He wrote: ‘KSA bombs Yemen to smithereens, killing 1000s of innocents including babies, spreads cholera and famine, but of course blames Iran.
Today, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir (pictured) also warned Tehran will ‘not allow any infringement on national security’
‘KSA is engaged in wars of aggression, regional bullying, destabilising behaviour & risky provocations. It blames Iran for the consequences.’
Saudi forces on Saturday intercepted and destroyed the ballistic missile near Riyadh’s international airport after it was reportedly fired by Shiite Huthi rebels from Yemen….
thomas says
This is very serious!
Saudi Arabia, a real enemy of the USA (who has been funding hateful mosques,) could lead USA into war just like Europe was plunged into WWI. These treaties are terrible!
gravenimage says
Yes–Saudi Arabia is not our ally.
Benedict says
Looking forward to the day when the “sacred” sites of Mecca and Medina are blown to smithereens by Muslims themselves – that would hopefully put an end to evil ideology of Islam, so that we could all join in the final battlecry: “Allahu Akbar!”
Jack Diamond says
Mecca has been destroyed-rebuilt before. It never brought an end to Islam, in fact Islam has prophecies about the future destruction of Mecca, so it wouldn’t shock them. Anger them, yes, shock them, no. The Shi’a always have Karbala to replace Mecca.
But Iran targeting the Saudis (instead of Israel or America) with their steeds of war, including radioactive ones, is always possible. At any rate, the proxy war in Yemen and perhaps in Lebanon, with the Saudi’s war on Hizballah {11/6/17 BEIRUT (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia said on Monday that Lebanon had declared war against it because of what it described as aggression against the Kingdom by the Iran-backed Lebanese Shi‘ite group Hezbollah} make things even more interesting.
As long as we keep out of it ( and keep them out of here) ….
let them have at it.
Johnny Cuyana says
Jack D. …
DRILL BABY, DRILL … and pursue all other non-ME energy options!
If the ME war gets serious, world oil prices will sooner rather than later approach $100/BO; should things get to the point of even “saber rattling” about going nukes — whether kinetic or dirty — prices will approach $200/BO … and I don’t even want to conjecture beyond this possibility.
In such an event, we in the West — North America and elsewhere — will be challenged by such high energy prices, but, relatively speaking, we will come out okay. What concerns me, and many others, are those human beings, globally, who are now on the margins of society and technology; where, with such prices, they will suffer and die [prematurely] at rates which will be beyond biblical proportions; where, it will be pain and suffering like we have seen never before.
I wish that the USA did not need to be involved, in the ME [or other places globally], to any large degree; however, with respect to the ME, we have made our bed — we are dependent heavily on petroleum … because in decades past it was so cheap so that now it runs through our veins — and now we are finding that if we want to continue using petroleum to support our lives of low-cost luxury, in the grand scheme of things, it is not so cheap.
So, what do we now do?
Evacuate and let Iran and Russia call most of the shots? Yep, that is possible. Of course, Russia wants much higher oil prices so they will, IMO, prod Iran to do something crazy … and such could very well include something nuclear. If such happens, and the USA is not present, Israel, for sure, will not sit by idly; where they know that, after KSA, Israel will be next on the hit-list. On the opposite sideline, what will Pakistan do with their nukes? They have some commitments to ally with KSA. Will they just sit by and watch the action or, something otherwise?
Keep in mind, that the LAST THING China would want is higher petroleum prices. Recent news reporting hi-lights the fact about which many have been warning: China has BIG PLANS where, currently, they are working to be THE LEADING global superpower. Dramatically higher energy prices, most likely, will toss them back to the early 20th century. I suspect that we all understand that they will want NONE of this; rather, they will step in to do WHATEVER they need to do to protect their interests.
I am not going to guess how, specifically, all this will work out; however, I am willing to bet a few bucks that, regardless of whether the situation will even approach a “shooting war”, the price of crude, relative to current, will go through the roof … and, for many countless 3rd-world souls, literally, there will be hell to pay.
I share your desire for the USA to stay out of this region — in full view that, given our established energy needs, such MAY NOT be one of our options — however, at the same time, I am in the camp with those who believe that we need to do anything and everything reasonable which we can in order to expand and diversify our non-ME energy sources. Alternately, of course, the other option is for us, and, much of the rest of the world would be to cut back drastically on our energy needs; and, my bet would be that we are NOT going to find more than a handful of “smallish” countries who will even be willing to consider any such cutbacks.
Jack Diamond says
During the Cold War so many seemed so nervous about anything upsetting the status quo, as if it was so great. It wasn’t. The fall of Soviet Communism and everything that contributed to it, was. The status quo today is neither great nor desirable (and we do largely have energy independence), it’s a question of priorities.
I’ll give you some salient quotes from Hugh Fitzgerald:
“Should the West worry about any of this? Not at all. It would be like the eight-year Iran-Iraq War, which from the West’s point of view ought to have gone on forever. That war used up men, materiel, money, and fully preoccupied two aggressive Muslim states that otherwise might have turned their aggression against the West. It is the same situation now. The more Sunnis and Shi’a go at it, the more each side expends in men, materiel, money, and morale, in fighting with each other in many different theaters — Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Bahrain, possibly the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan (where Sunni terrorists of Sipah-e-Sahaba target for murder the Shia whom they regard as Infidels), Afghanistan (where the Taliban and ISIS both carry out attacks on the Shia Hazara, also seen as Infidels) — the less trouble they can make for us, the Infidels. The “proxy war” between Iran and Saudi Arabia that is now going on will be even more useful to the West if it becomes a direct and ferocious conflict, and one which, given the balance of forces in the area, is likely to go on for at least as long as did the Iran-Iraq war. Perhaps there is some downside to such an outcome, but I just can’t figure out what that might be.
Such a conflict, ever widening, offers the best hope for the West to divide and, if not exactly conquer, to buy itself time, so as to better withstand its external Muslim enemies, including that country which has done so much to spread propaganda world-wide for a fanatical version of the faith of Islam, the johnny-appleseed of Salafism, our putative “friend and ally” Saudi Arabia.
In the world of Islam, you end up as Victor or Vanquished. Iran has now publicly stated its intentions and signaled its determination to win further victories for the Shi’a in Bahrain, Yemen, and Iraq (Mosul). Saudi Arabia has not only used its own airmen (a first for the Saudis) for an extensive bombing campaign in Yemen, but has organized support for Yemen’s Sunnis from a coalition of Sunni powers, including Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates. Neither Iran nor Saudi Arabia is in a mood to back down or to let the Yemenis themselves decide their fate. The conflict has taken on a life of its own.
What should the West, what should the United States do, in such circumstances? It should do absolutely nothing, but pull up a chair, and watch the spectacle unfold, and secretly wish that it might go on forever.
Iran’s threat to the U.S. is real, but attacking the U.S. is not first on Tehran’s To-Do List, despite all the chants of “Death-To-America.” First is countering the threat to Shi’a in lands dominated by Sunnis. Let the Iranians go on the offensive, and expend men, money and materiel pari passu with what the Saudis, and their coalition of lesser Sunni powers, are throwing into the fight to keep the Shi’a down in near Bahrain and far Yemen. Let those fights continue, as they will, without any need for Western involvement or encouragement. If the Saudis and other Arabs want to take the fight to Iran itself, there is always the southern Iranian province of Khuzistan to target, where 90% of Iran’s oil is produced, a province peopled mainly by ethnic Arabs, who have been suffering from discrimination by the Iranian government, and rose in revolt, swiftly put down, in 1979. Thus it’s a place where the possibility of outside Arab intervention must fill the Iranians with the same kind of anxiety as they’ve been giving the Saudis over the Shi’a in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Both Iran and Saudi Arabia have large and restive minorities (Arabs among Persians in Khuzistan, Shi’a among Sunnis in the Eastern Province) in their respective oil-producing regions.
The important thing for the American government is not whether the Shi’a win over here, or the Sunnis prevail over there. It is, rather, that it is highly desirable that both sides keep fighting each other, with no end in sight, and with each side continuing to pour greater assets of all kinds into the fight.
We want Muslim enemies to become stuck in the waste of war, to endure what the European powers endured in the endless trench warfare of World War I. The Iran-Iraq War used up the aggressive energies of both Khomeini’s Iran and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq for eight full years (1980-1988); it was a war that, from the viewpoint of Infidels, should have gone on much longer. Now the Sunni-Shi’a conflicts in Yemen and Bahrain, in eastern Syria and western Iraq (both with swathes of territory even now under the control of Islamic State takfiris, anathematizing the Shi’a who make up the majority of the population in both countries), can have the same effect as the Iran-Iraq War did, consuming the men, money, and materiel of Iran and Saudi Arabia, the two Muslim powers that are now, in different ways, most dangerous to the West.
The Sunni-Shi’a conflict has no logical endpoint, and though the Shi’a are only 10-13% of the world’s Muslim population, in the Middle East itself the two sects are much more evenly matched, with Shi’a comprising 95% of Iranians and 60-65% of Iraqis and 45% of Yemenis, making it possible that the war between Sunni and Shi’a in that region will go on for a long time — if not exactly forever, then for a reasonable facsimile thereof. And a war that uses up Muslim assets and Muslim energies and Muslim attention on both sides is a Good Thing. We don’t have a dog in their fight. Our dog is their fight.
I can’t understand this worry, this fear. Which was the Roman who laid down the law: Divide et impera? I am perfectly open to being persuaded that the deepening of the Iran-Saudi Arabia rift is a terrible thing for us. I am equally eager to be persuaded that whipping up the resentment of non-Arab Muslims for Arab Muslims is a Bad Thing. But I just can’t figure out why.”
Sons of Liberty says
Exactly, Jack Diamond ! Stay out of it and let the Muslims war with each other . This PROVES that even the BELIEVERS in this evil ideology can’t get along . The only concern is that an Iran takeover of the House of Saud would be a nightmare energy scenario for the world. If Iran controls that energy it would create huge problems. It shows WHY we need to develop our OWN ENERGY supplies and President Trump is moving us in that direction. Funny how BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA and the Democrats wanted to destroy our coal and oil industries while HELPING IRAN in EVERY WAY THEY COULD ! Very interesting ?
gravenimage says
I agree with Jack.
All too many seem to believe that dropping a bomb on the Ka’aba would end Islam–I think it would have little effect, save for even more screams for “revenge”.
Matthieu Baudin says
Get ready for new waves of Muslim war refugees banging on our doors to be let in. We should help them on their own doorstep but at the same time admit to ourselves that at root it’s not something of our making or responsibility.
Sons of Liberty says
Hell no ! As President Trump stated we can help them more OVER THERE . Do not let Muslims CONTINUE TO COME to our COUNTRY ! This is a RECIPE FOR DISASTER ! STOP the US State Department NOW…. from DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY.
Greyhound Fancier says
They ought to receive help from the umma. It would be more culturally compatible for them.
Darryl Kerney says
the more they fight each other the less time, energy and resources they’ll have to direct their hostility towards us. they have used the – wait for the other guys to fight it out and weaken each other and then conquer them both strategy- in the past, no reason we can’t now or in the near future, unless we have lost the will to defend and save what was so hard won, and squander our own forces defending enemies.
Sarah says
OK, so if Iran and Saudi Arabia start killing each other in the Middle East – what are the consequences for the rest of us?
Sure, the Saudis are technical allies – but let’s face it, even to those who support the regime in Saudi Arabia, the notion of allying with them is financial – whether that be from buying their oil or selling them arms. Diplomatically the West isn’t buddy pal with the Saudis. And we never have been with Iran.
The biggest impacts I can see are a disrupted supply of oil – and potential refugees from Iran. Although seriously, every one of those refugees should be staying within the MENA region and not coming anywhere near the West.
And given how the West isn’t close to Iran diplomatically and how Iranian migrants find it difficult to secure asylum in the West as it is today, I would not be surprised to see Temporary Protection Visas rear their head once more, if floods of Iranians started heading our way.
Of course there’s the issue of the rest of us getting dragged in, whether by ‘having’ to support the Saudis in a military capacity, or whether because these brain dead retard’s decide to fling nuke’s at one another and environmentally we all start suffering from it.
That North Korean chubster will be furious, LOL. He immediately becomes nothing special once more, if the world is turned to the Middle East (yet again, I note with frustration and exasperation) and his hysterical threats lose their current power.
The biggest issue is a world war scenario. Pakistan will jump to aid the Saudi’s. And potentially rattle their chains at India while everyone is distracted. India may not be as apocalyptic as the Paki’s, but I cannot see them backing down, if Pakistan starts getting serious with the threats. The rest of the MENA region will be split between Sunni nations aligning with the Saudis and the Shiites aligning with Iran. Which means sectarian violence in the street of every MENA nation – because damn, Muslims just love to brawl against and slaughter anyone else who doesn’t fit their world view – including slightly different other Muslims.
So, right now, thanks a great big bunch to Obama. While he’s swanning around on celebrity owned yachts and islands, Iran is putting his favours towards them, to good use. And thanks a bunch to the various Western Politicians from various Western nations,especially the British, for flooding weapons into the hands of the madcap Saudi’s.
God I wish Islam would just die, already. The whole world is suffering right now, in various ways, across the board, thanks to that cesspit ideology. And now we’ve got these two supreme scumbag nation’s rattling chains at one another.
Sarah says
Oh – and all of them across the MENA region who get involved in this mess – expect to see each of them start surreptiously flinging missiles and God knows what else at poor bloody Israel.
That’s the only time I’d support Western intervention – to get in there and physically back Israel to the hilt.
LeftisruiningCanada says
+1
“Saudi Arabia has declared a missile attack on Riyadh by Iran-backed rebels an ‘act of war’ and has accused Tehran of a ‘blatant act of military aggression’”
But Israel should just ignore rockets launched at them from gaza….right.
Sarah says
Exactly!
Thankfully, the Israelis are essentially, the brightest by far, of that bunch over there. If any nation has a chance of withstanding an onslaught, from a military viewpoint as well as a technological viewpoint – its the Jewish.
No matter how hard those mouth frothing, rabid Muslim nations try – they just can’t get it together properly, in order to do some serious harm to Israel.
Sons of Liberty says
I didn’t think the Iranians HAD NUCLEAR WEAPONS ? I thought that was the WHOLE REASON for BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA to …HAND OVER BILLIONS of US DOLLARS TO THEM . The TRAITOR OBAMA wanted to MAKE SURE THEY GOT THEM SOON ! Maybe some of our own YELLOW CAKE Uranium , is ENDING UP in Iran NOW thanks to allowing the Russian company ROSATOM to CONTROL 20% of OUR URANIUM . Thanks OBAMA and Hillary !
c matt says
It was a missile attack, I did not see anyone say it was a nuclear armed missile.
Johnny Cuyana says
Question: has it been established positively that there has been a meaningful [significant] rocket attack … directed specifically toward Riyadh, and, if yes, that IRAN [or one of its proxies, in Yemen or elsewhere] is, indeed, the source of this rocket attack?
Even if KSA’s understanding of this instance may be their true belief, are we to take it at face value that they have straight all of their “facts”?
PS: further, rocket attacks, of several variants, ballistic and otherwise, are not entirely unique in this large region; and, there are a lot of different unaccountable cowboy troublemakers.
PPS: whenever I read such articles, invariably, I come away with the same comment: Wow, that’s interesting. I wonder whether it is true.
gravenimage says
Unclear if this claim from the Saudis has been confirmed:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-missile-king-khalid-international-airport-fired-from-yemen-a8038051.html
c matt says
Let’s see, KSA has been bombing the crap out of Yemen for a couple years now, and a missile gets launched back at them. What the hell did they think was going to happen?!?
Stan Lee says
Iran is feeling power, resulting from its coziness with Russia, Pakistan for its nuclear know-how, and iIran’s oil production & dealings giving it at least business relationships with Central & South American countries and Cuba, It has worked itself into being a business partner, which is a first step to influence in the Americas and Pakistan Its many trespasses are noted by other nations jealously envious of the U.S.A., but becoming less respectful after eight years of Obama’s cowardly apologizing throughout this world, trivializing the U.S.A. at every opportunity. President Trump inherited a country desperately needing to reassert itself in all fields of endeavor, yet the Leftists of the U.S.A. seek to embellish a legacy of the Obama regime which will never be deserved.
Although PM May and Chancellor Merkel do not represent themselves as confirmed Leftists, in my opinion they have managed UK & Germany to reveal themselves as damaging as any Leftist national leaders could be. There could be hope for the Brits if they decide as a people to lead, instead of being led by their noses. For Germany, I cannot see a positive future, it appears to be headed to the same mistakes it started making in the late 1930’s and that will mean this world had better prepare itself.
gravenimage says
Saudi Arabia says missile attack on Riyadh by Iran-backed jihadis an “act of war” by Iran
……………….
More Muslim-on-Muslim savagery.
Guest says
So Saudi Arabia and Iran are at war with each other. I missed the part that tells me why I should care. Neither of them are our allies. Iran sends us death threats daily and Saudi Arabia just takes advantage of us. I say let them kill each other and two of our enemies will be destroyed
gravenimage says
Saudi Arabia was also behind 9/11.
Jack Diamond says
and Iran wasn’t far behind 9/11. A plague on both their houses.
gravenimage says
Yes–they gave haven to many Al Qaida members post 9/11–and may have been more directly involved.
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
No, gravenimage, Saudi Royal family are your true allies because they are Jews working closely with your master the evil state of Israhell. may be you have no insight about services the evil Saudi Royal family have been rendering for your masters the evil Jews. Not too long ago they surrendered the sum of $110 billions to your evil United States under devil Trump to be supplied with obsolete weapons that could not even stand Yemenis rebels. They are now crying blaming Iran. very soon, the evil Saudi Royal family will be removed from power and sent on exile to your evil United States to serve your evil Jewish masters more
gravenimage says
Unhinged Mohammedan Ibrahim itace muhammed wrote:
No, gravenimage, Saudi Royal family are your true allies because they are Jews working closely with your master the evil state of Israhell (sic).
……………………………..
There are few states more Islamic than Saudi Arabia, where there are no human rights, women are oppressed, Infidels are abused, and people are regularly beheaded.
These are, in fact, all things that the appalling Ibrahim itace muhammed has lauded as perfectly Islamic.
So why does he dislike the Saudis? Likely they represent a rival Jihad group to his own.
More:
may be you have no insight about services the evil Saudi Royal family have been rendering for your masters the evil Jews.
……………………………..
You mean by not so much as allowing any Israelis into the country? How stupid *is* Ibrahim itace muhammed, anyway?
And he has said this before–that anyone who balks at being raped or murdered by Muslims only has a problem with it because we have been “enslaved” by Jews. Otherwise, we would welcome such things.
Here he is from just earlier today, claiming that Infidels enjoy being raped by Muslims:
“Having sex with a valid war captive is not a rape, because there is no forceful penetration…The master who treats his female slave with kindness and love needs not resort to violence for him to have sex with her, she will be willing to satisfy his sexual demand…”
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/11/uk-social-worker-accused-of-failing-to-protect-muslim-rape-gang-victims-is-allowed-to-keep-her-job#comment-1769132
More:
Not too long ago they surrendered the sum of $110 billions to your evil United States under devil Trump to be supplied with obsolete weapons that could not even stand Yemenis rebels.
……………………………..
It *was* foolish of Trump to sell them weapons.
But clearly Ibrahim itace muhammed’s main problem is their having to *pay* for them. After all, as he sees it, Muslims have the right to simply take what belongs to Infidels.
He also doesn’t say why he is upset over the Saudis having to pay for what they buy if they are “Jews”.
Notable that this Mohammedan cannot keep his bs straight for the length of a single post. Just sad.
More:
They are now crying blaming Iran. very soon, the evil Saudi Royal family will be removed from power and sent on exile to your evil United States to serve your evil Jewish masters more
……………………………..
Is Ibrahim itace muhammed Shia? Perhaps he just hates Sunnis. After all, these Muslims are always trying to kill each other…
IanB says
“Unhinged Mohammedan” indeed!
This crazed fool hardly deserves your reasoned responses gravenimage. I doubt he will give them any serious consideration.
Perhaps we should ignore his ravings. On the other hand if he has no responses he may assume he has won the argument by default, led by his inferior muslim mentality. I’m split on this one.
IanB says
Of course, we who are regular counter-jihad JW readers / contributors appreciate and admire your repudiations of his nonsense.
Chand says
He might be Shia. At one point many moons ago he commented that Wahaabism was an ‘invention’ of the West during the Ottoman rule or something along those lines. Then I thought he might be a Wahaabi Suuni himself. My guess is he’s a radical Sunni Jihadi who wants to topple the Saudi royals.
Or he might be the voice of the Prophet Muhammad ibn Abdullah himself!!!!
c matt says
As long as they pay taxes here.
chris says
Quick,,,,,, time to get more white Christian soldiers over there to fight other peoples battles while the real war rages back home with nobody to defend us
Then after our soldiers have killed the enemy of whoever we are fighting for this time, they will get castigated by all sides, including the governments who sent them , and the west will be again labelled as the Great Saturn and because of all that guilt, will be forced to accept even more invaders from the countries our soldiers were forced to go to, making our own countries even more dangerous
CommoHull says
Hmmm, could it be that the reason the Saudis are rushing to ‘moderate’ is that they want to be sure to have US on their side?