{"id":16552,"date":"2016-01-16T11:38:04","date_gmt":"2016-01-16T16:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=16552"},"modified":"2016-01-16T11:38:04","modified_gmt":"2016-01-16T16:38:04","slug":"will-reckless-saudis-seek-war-with-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=16552","title":{"rendered":"Will Reckless Saudis Seek War with Iran?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Will Reckless Saudis Seek War with Iran?<\/a><\/h3>\n

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Now that Saudi Arabia has severed diplomatic ties with Iran and\u00a0reportedly bombed\u00a0Iran\u2019s embassy in Yemen<\/u><\/a>, the big question is whether the Saudis are desperate and unhinged enough to launch an attack across the Persian Gulf. While Saudi leaders insist they have no such intent, there are mounting pressures pushing them in that direction.<\/p>\n

The ruling family is under unprecedented strain.\u00a0Its economy is shrinking; it\u2019s bogged down in a seemingly endless war in Yemen; and its human-rights policies are an international scandal.\u00a0If countries could have nervous breakdowns, Saudi Arabia would be well on its way.\u00a0And when breakdowns occur, nations do crazy things.<\/p>\n

\"King<\/a><\/p>\n

King Salman the President and First Lady to a reception room at Erga Palace during a state visit to Saudi Arabia on Jan. 27, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Of course, there\u00a0is always\u00a0the\u00a0possibility that sanity will suddenly descend upon\u00a0the Saudis.\u00a0\u00a0But reason seems\u00a0to be in increasingly short supply. Here\u2019s a quick rundown of the reasons why Saudi Arabia is in such dire straits that war with Iran might appear to Saudi leaders as the best remaining option.<\/p>\n

Reason #1: Economic collapse.<\/em><\/p>\n

The 70-percent crash in oil prices since mid-2014 is not unprecedented. Crude plunged some 70 percent during and after the 2008 financial crisis, though it quickly bounced back once central bankers began cutting interest rates. But this time around the realization is growing that the prices will not be coming back anytime soon.<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Will Reckless Saudis Seek War with Iran? Exclusive:\u00a0Under growing economic and political pressure, the new Saudi leadership is showing a dangerous impulse toward military interventions, raising prospects for a direct and destructive confrontation with its regional rival Iran, writes Daniel Lazare. Now that Saudi Arabia has severed diplomatic ties with Iran and\u00a0reportedly bombed\u00a0Iran\u2019s embassy in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[6963,184,7398,441,1775,1129,701,901],"class_list":["post-16552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","tag-consortium-news","tag-crude-oil","tag-daniel-lazare","tag-iran","tag-oil-price-collapse","tag-persian-gulf","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-yemen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16552"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16553,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16552\/revisions\/16553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}