Posted on 04/01/2002 6:15:34 PM PST by kattracks
— KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Using Islamic oil as a weapon to force Western nations to force an Israeli West Bank withdrawal could be very effective but would need the backing of all the states concerned, Iran said on Tuesday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, asked if Iran would back Iraq's call to use oil as a weapon against the West to pressure Israel's hand, said, "I believe the Islamic (unclear) has enough instruments to use but it all depends on the collective decision of Islamic countries.
"If they decide to use oil as a weapon, it would be very effective," he told a news conference.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, facing a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings, has promised an "uncompromising war to uproot these savages" and crush what he calls a terror campaign directed by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Iraq called on Monday for Arab states to use oil as a weapon to punish countries supporting Israel and to stop the Jewish state's current military action against Palestinians.
Muslim countries from the Organization of Islamic Conference, whose representatives are in Malaysia to talk about terrorism, accused Israel on Monday of dragging the Middle East toward war.
Copyright 2002 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved.
Absolutely, I would rather pay you $40 or more a barrel than $20 to the middle east producers. We are nuts to put up with this extortion.
The typical Muslim country isn't capable of manufacturing a toaster oven on their own. Pull the Western workers out of these countries and there will be nobody left to repair the Mercedes Benz's and nobody left to keep the generators going. It is Western goods and services that allow these Muslims to live in the 21st Century. If they cut off our oil, we simply cut off the flow of Western goods and they will soon enough be forced to go back to their medieval existence.
As for the oil, if we need it, we will simply come and take it. If they try to stop us, we will deal with them as a fisherman brushes off gnats.
But we don't make goods anymore. Have you tried to buy anything lately that's not made in China?
Last time I checked, oil is flammable. D@mn @$$h%!e @r@b$...
Especially since, without oil exports, the combined economies of the oil-producing states in the Middle East roughly amounts to...Finland's.
If you're an Arab state in the Mideast and you ain't pumpin' oil, you ain't doin' (or earnin') squat!
Meanwhile, could we also, in exchange for shutting off Islamic access to oil, also shut down the desalination plants in Saudi Arabia.... Seems like the least we could do.
We could turn on the water, once the Sauds get serious and shut down entirely their support of Israeli and American hating Islamic radicals... or let them drink sand.
I don't know whether the Arabs have the finesse to play such a game but think about the ramifications. They dole these rumors and rumblings out piece meal, to instigate a 5-10% hike in crude prices over a period of several months. To quote from the Canada.com article:
The Toronto Stock Exchange oil and gas sector rose almost two per cent as crude oil topped $27 US a barrel. There are fears that energy supplies might be disrupted if the Mideast conflict spreads. That could lead to much higher prices and affect consumers' ability to spend, which would hurt the economic recovery.
It would have the dual purpose of hurting us economically- even small changes can have long range knock on effects- and directly hurting Bush. If it hurt the economic recovery, it also would hurt the Bush administration. The left would beat that drum just as loud as they could. The media would have as many stories of Workers Laid Off Due to US Foreign Policy as they could think up.
It wouldn't even have to amount to that much, just simple harrassment of the President when he has more important things to think about. Think about the way the EU is hoping to install target tariffs on hotly contested congressional districts in order to undermine the Bush admin.
I agree that they will only suffer if they actually cut off the oil and they would be unlikely to do so, I believe. But can you imagine the panic if people really believed they would do it? We had the petrol protests over here a while back and it was quite frightening. The farmers blockaded fuel delivery to protest high petrol taxes. Tony Blair pleaded with the public not to panic, naturally ensuring that they did just that very thing. Within days there was no petrol to be had and there were serious lines at the petrol stations that did have it. Supermarket shelves were quickly emptied from panic buying and couldn't be easily restocked because the supermarket delivery trucks had no fuel. If the protest had lasted a few days longer, I'm telling you, it would have been complete chaos over here.
That's something to seriously consider IMHO, especially considering the Arabs could induce such a condition (if they were skilled enough) without even actually doing anything or firing a shot. A long drawn out economic warfare in this vein would not be a good thing.
Sounds fair to me.
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