“…What really matters is the “follow the money” angle: Yousef al Otaiba reaffirmed the $1.4 trillion UAE investment commitment in the Empire of Chaos – which covers multiple deals in energy, AI infrastructure, semiconductors, and manufacturing.
The infernal escalation machine is in full effect. Tehran carefully studied every instance of the UAE’s direct involvement not only in the outbreak of the war but also the current escalation. Abu Dhabi not only hosts U.S. military bases; but also allowed the U.S. to use some of its own air bases to attack Iran, and helped hostile entities to develop their target database using the Emirates AI infrastructure.
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Langley’s top asset in Pakistan is Army Chief Gen. Asim Munir – part of the regime change gang that deposed former PM Imran Khan and threw him in jail. Munir has Trump on speed dial.
They had recently spoken in detail about Iran – with Munir instrumentalizing the back channels between Tehran and the Witkoff-Kushner duo, everything enveloped in the subterfuge of “negotiations”.
Munir is rabidly anti-Shi’ite; nearly a Salafi-jihadi in his mind; and very close to Saudi Arabia – which wants Trump to go all out on Iran.
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As it stands, a clear possibility is that the GCC may become instrumental in the international financial system implosion, as it will have to pull massive funds out of the U.S. market to be able to bet on their shaky survival.
China is watching all of the above with bated breath. Beijing has been more than aware that the fall of Assad severed the absolutely critical overland node connecting the New Silk Roads/BRI to the Eastern Mediterranean.
China was betting heavily on the trilateral railway linking Iran, Iraq and Syria, which would be a beauty in terms of bypassing imperial naval chokepoints. Iran controlling the Strait of Hormuz though should be the beginning of a geoeconomic counterpunch.
After all Iran has just institutionalized the petroyuan as the payment system at the Hormuz toll booth. As 80% of its oil revenue was already being settled in yuan through CIPS, the system now includes shipping fees, simultaneously bypassing the U.S. dollar, U.S. sanctions and SWIFT – and that in the most consequential chokepoint of the global economy…”