Kuwaiti Press: Khamenei Orders Plan to Seize Yemeni, Saudi Embassies

The Iranians just keep escalating the conflict in the Gulf. It is remarkable how far they are willing to go to support their extremist Houthi allies fighting the Yemeni and Saudi government.

First, Iran reacted to the Saudi naval blockade by sending their own warships to the Gulf of Aden. Then, the Iranians tried to instigate riots during the hajj in Saudi Arabia. Now, this:

The Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa reports, citing Iranian sources, that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has submitted to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei a plan to take over the Yemen and Saudi Embassies in Tehran, like the U.S. Embassy takeover in 1979.

The plan, which the report says includes kidnapping Saudi and Yemeni diplomats, was drawn up on Khamenei’s instructions, with the aim of pressuring both countries to stop fighting the Houthi rebels in northern Yemen.

Source: Al-Siyassa, Kuwait, December 11, 2009

World Threats

A Recession In Terrorism Finance?

By Rachel Ehrenfeld

inFocus | Summer 2009

The economic downturn and instability of the financial markets in the West has battered global economies. Despite the accompanying drop in oil prices, the current financial crisis has actually presented opportunities to expedite the influence and extend the global reach of Islamism in ways Sunni imams and Shiite mullahs could have only fantasized about before.

Saudi & Gulf Funding

The financial tsunami that swept state and local governments, as well as national and international aid organizations, has led to a precipitous decline in services to growing numbers of unemployed or needy citizens, not to mention subsidies to academic institutions and other organizations. This provided petrodollar-loaded Islamist regimes with an opportunity to practice da'wa (Islamic missionary outreach) through donations in the name of Islam. Such donations, including financial bailouts of cash-strapped Western institutions and businesses, have helped directly and indirectly to spread Islamism globally.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is commonly recognized as the primary exporter of Wahhabism, among the more extreme strains of Islamism. In 2008, Saudi Arabia earned $285 billion, up from $201.1 billion in 2007. Indeed, the Saudi Kingdom took the lion's share of the $968 billion total revenue of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Read more ...

Source: The Jewish Policy Center

US is going "Shariah Compliant" by asking for money from the Gulf

KUWAIT CITY (AFP) – The United States has asked four oil-rich Gulf states for close to 300 billion dollars to help it curb the global financial meltdown, Kuwait’s daily Al-Seyassah reported Thursday.

Quoting “highly informed” sources, the daily said Washington has asked Saudi Arabia for 120 billion dollars, the United Arab Emirates for 70 billion dollars, Qatar for 60 billion dollars and was seeking 40 billion dollars from Kuwait.

Al-Seyassah said Washington sought the amount as “financial aid” to face the fallout of the financial crisis and help prevent its economy from sliding into a painful recession.

The daily said the United States plans to use the funds to help the ailing automobile industry , banks and other companies suffering from the global financial turmoil.

The four nations, all members of OPEC, produce together 14 million barrels of oil per day, around half of the cartel’s production and about 17 percent of world supplies.

The four states are estimated to have amassed close to 1.5 trillion dollars in surplus in the past six years due to high oil prices that rocketed above 147 dollars in July before sliding to just above 50 dollars.

The daily also said that the United States has asked Kuwait to forgive its Iraqi debt estimated at around 16 billion dollars.

Source: AFP

GULF STATES TO EARN RECORD USD 562 BILLION IN REVENUE

DUBAI, AUGUST 22 - Gulf oil producers are expected to earn a record $562 billion in 2008 as crude prices are projected to remain above $100 and they are pumping at one of their highest levels, according to new data from the London-based Centre for Global Energy Studies (CGES), reported by Wam news agency.

Accordingly, the combined oil export earnings of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries will soar to their highest level of $562 billion this year.

The UAE's income will swell to an all-time high of $97 billion while that of Saudi Arabia will surge to $307 billion and that of Qatar and Kuwait will peak at $89 billion and $32 billion respectively.

The income, it added, is nearly $234 billion above their 2007 revenues of $328 billion and more than four times their earnings of $137 billion in 2003. In 1998, the GCC's combined revenues plummeted to one of their lowest levels of around $56 billion after oil prices collapsed below $10 a barrel and averaged $12 through the year.

Leo Drollas, deputy manager of CGES said the revenue forecasts for the Gulf states and other Opec members are based on an average Opec basket price of around $110.8 this year compared with nearly $69 in 2007. Saudi Arabiàs output is projected at around 9.5 million bpd in 2008 while that of Kuwait and Qatar is forecast at nearly 2.6 million and 815,000 bpd respectively.
2008-08-22 19:01

Source: (ANSAmed).