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| Khamenei and Mousavi. |
Since the planting of limpet mines on oil tankers off the
coast of the UAE in May, the subsequent downing of the US surveillance drone in
the Persian Gulf and the brazen attack on the Abqaiq petroleum facility and the
Khurais oil field in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia on September 14,
choreographed protests have erupted in Lebanon and Iraq since October.
Lebanese American journalist Rania Khalek has documented
for The Gray Zone [1] the US-backed political forces are spearheading the “color
revolution” in Lebanon, where Iran-backed resistance group Hezbollah is part of
the coalition government.
Similarly, Iraq has been through the US occupation from 2003
to 2011 and is known to have US sympathizers in the Kurdish-held north and the
Shi’ite-majority south of the country, where the US oil majors operate and
dispense largesse among local chieftains of myriad clans and fraternities.
Unlike Lebanon and Iraq, though, Iran itself is immune to
foreign-backed political demonstrations as it does not have any imperialist
collaborators on the ground, besides a fringe militant group Mujahideen-e-Khalq
(MEK) funded by the US, France and Israel.
The proximate cause of the November 15 protests in Iran was
steep rise in petrol prices by the Rouhani government, dubbed as “sabotage” by
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The worst-hit region was Khuzestan province in
southwest Iran which is home to large Sunni Arab minority known to have
grievances against Tehran and susceptible to infiltration by imperialist
stooges.
Regarding the recent escalation in the Persian Gulf, although
the Houthi rebels based in Yemen claimed the responsibility for the September
14 complex attack involving drones and cruise missiles on the Abqaiq petroleum
facility and the Khurais oil field in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, and
they have UAV-X drones having a range of 1,500 kilometers, Washington dismissed
the possibility.
Instead, the United States accused Tehran of mounting the
attack from Iran’s territory, which is unlikely because Iran would never leave
behind smoking gun evidence implicating Tehran, as the strategically vital
Persian Gulf is monitored round the clock by American satellites and
surveillance aircraft. The most likely suspects were Iran-backed militias in
Iraq because the complex attack involving drones and cruise missiles was staged
from the north.
Quoting Iraqi intelligence officials, David Hearst reported
[2] for the Middle East Eye a day after the September 14 attack that drones and
missiles were launched by the Hashed al-Shabi militia from its bases in
southern Iraq.
Although Washington concocted “credible intelligence” the
attack was mounted directly from southwest Iran, what lends credence to the
report the attack was staged from southern Iraq is the fact that several eye witnesses
reported seeing drones traversing the Kuwaiti airspace, entering from north and
hitting targets south in eastern Saudi Arabia.
Moreover, in the weeks preceding the attack, Washington had
accused the Hashed al-Shabi militia of mounting another attack in eastern Saudi
Arabia claimed by the Houthi rebels because the oil-rich Eastern Province of
Saudi Arabia is nearer the Iraq border than it is to the Houthi stronghold in
Saada, Yemen.
Furthermore, in the weeks before the attack, the Iran-backed
militias blamed
[3] the US and Israel in August for mounting airstrikes on their bases in Iraq
targeting the missile storage facilities. The missiles were recently provided
to the militias by Iran. It’s worth noting that 5,000 American troops and
numerous aircraft are still deployed in Iraq, therefore the likely culprit
targeting the Iran-backed militias in Iraq was the United States, not Israel.
Taking cover of the Israeli airstrikes, Washington has
conducted several airstrikes of its own on targets in Syria and Iraq and blamed
them on Israel, which frequently mounts air and missile strikes against Iranian
operatives and Hezbollah militia in Syria and Lebanon, though Israel has never
conducted an airstrike in Iraq because for that Israeli aircraft would have to
violate Jordanian airspace.
Besides the airstrikes on the missile storage facilities of
Iran-backed militias in Iraq, it is suspected that the US air force was also
behind a recent airstrike at the newly built Imam Ali military base in eastern
Syria at al-Bukamal-Qaim border crossing alleged to be hosting the Iranian Quds
Force operatives.
In addition to planting limpet mines on the UAE’s oil
tankers and shooting down the American Global Hawk surveillance drone, the
September 14 attack on the Abqaiq petroleum facility and the Khurais oil field
was the third major attack in the Persian Gulf against the interests of
Washington and its regional clients.
That the UAE had forewarning about imminent attacks is
proved by the fact that weeks before the attacks, it recalled forces from Yemen
battling the Houthi rebels and redeployed them to man the UAE’s territorial
borders.
Nevertheless, a puerile prank like planting limpet mines on
oil tankers can be overlooked but major provocations like downing a
$200-million surveillance aircraft and mounting a drone and missile attack on
the Abqaiq petroleum facility that crippled its oil-processing functions for
weeks can have serious repercussions.
The September 14 attack on the Abqaiq petroleum facility in
eastern Saudi Arabia was an apocalypse for the global oil industry because it
processes five million barrels crude oil per day, more than half of Saudi
Arabia’s total oil production.
The subversive attack sent jitters across the global markets
and the oil price surged 20%, the biggest spike witnessed in three decades
since the First Gulf War when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, though the
oil price was eased within days after industrialized nations released their
strategic oil reserves.
In order to bring home the significance of the Persian
Gulf’s oil in the energy-starved industrialized world, here are a few stats
from the OPEC data: Saudi Arabia has the world’s largest proven crude oil
reserves of 265 billion barrels and its daily oil production is 10 million
barrels; Iran and Iraq each has 150 billion barrels reserves and has the
capacity to produce 5 million barrels per day each; while UAE and Kuwait each
has 100 billion barrels reserves and produces 3 million barrels per day each;
thus, all the littoral states of the Persian Gulf, together, hold 788 billion
barrels, more than half of world’s 1477 billion barrels proven oil reserves.
Not surprisingly, 35,000 American troops have currently been
deployed in the military bases and aircraft carriers in the oil-rich Persian
Gulf in accordance with the Carter Doctrine of 1980, which states: “Let our
position be absolutely clear: an attempt by any outside force to gain control
of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital
interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled
by any means necessary, including military force.”
It bears mentioning that alongside deploying several
thousand American troops, additional aircraft squadrons and Patriot missile
batteries in Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the Abqaiq attack, several
interventionist hawks in Washington invoked the Carter Doctrine as a ground for
mounting retaliatory strikes against Iran.
The only saving grace of Iran is its military strength,
geostrategic location in the Persian Gulf and the rhetoric of resistance
against American imperialism appealing to the grassroots sentiments of the
Middle East’s masses, who stand firmly united behind the revolutionary
government, nevertheless Tehran has prudently avoided further escalating the
conflict with Washington’s client regimes in the region following the
choreographed demonstrations in Lebanon and Iraq since October.
Footnotes:
[1] US-backed parties have infiltrated Lebanon’s protests:
[2] Iranian drones launched from Iraq carried out attacks on
Saudi oil plants:
[3] Iranian-backed militia blames US and Israel for attacks
on bases in Iraq:
