Mideast Heats Up -- Saudi Arabia Vs Iran -- November 11, 2017

Where we stand:

• ISIS defeated
• Iran rising under previous US administration
• current US administration renews relationship with Saudi Arabia

Is a pending Lebanese civil war new proxy for war between Saudi Arabia and Iran?

Two links from The Drudge Report:

• tension mounts in Lebanon as Saudi Arabia escalates power struggle with Iran
• Saudi Arabia scrambles fighter jets amid fears of war in Middle East 

Key paragraphs from The [London] Guardian:

Now, more than at any point in modern history, Iran and Saudi Arabia are squared off against each other as a race to consolidate influence nears a climax from Sana’a [Yemen] to Beirut and the tens of thousands of miles in between.

The standoff is seeing new ground conquered, previously unimaginable alliances being mooted and the risk of a devastating clash between two foes whose calculations had long been that shadow wars through proxies were safer than facing up directly.

The shift in approach has been led from Riyadh, where a new regime determined to put Saudi Arabia on an entirely different footing domestically, is also trying to overhaul how the kingdom projects itself regionally – and globally.

The ambitious, unusually powerful, crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has been given a mandate by his father, King Salman, to take on what the kingdom and its allies in the United Arab Emirates see as an Iranian takeover of essential corners of the Sunni Arab world.

Key paragraphs from The [London] Star Sunday:

The kingdom has mobilised its F-15 fighter jet fleet ito launch a military operation against the Iranian-backed terrorist militia of Hezbollah in Lebanon, regional news website The Baghdad Post reports.Saudi Arabia previously accused both Lebanon and Iran of commiting an act of wars against it after rebels fired a missile at the King Khalid International Airport in the kingdom's capital of Riyadh.

Yesterday, Saudi Arabia ordered its citizens to leave Lebanon escalating fears of war to new heights – which the US have dubbed grounds for a “proxy war”.

Hezbollah are the most powerful military and political force in Lebanon and receives major support from Iran.

Not too long ago I posted a short note regarding the price of oil: if we see a Saudi Arabian crude oil export loading terminal in flames, the surge in the price of oil will be immediate. Now this from the WSJ:

How some might see it:

From The New York Times: