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Strategic Importance of Iran for Russia and China: Eurasian “Triple Alliance”
CONFRONTATION BETWEEN MILITARY BLOCS: The Eurasian “Triple Alliance”
Despite areas of difference and rivalries between Moscow and Tehran, ties between the two countries, based on common interests, have developed significantly.
Both Russia and Iran are both major energy exporters, they have deeply seated interests in the South Caucasus. They are both firmly opposed to NATO’s missile shield, with a view to preventing the U.S. and E.U. from controlling the energy corridors around the Caspian Sea Basin.
Moscow and Tehran’s bilateral ties are also part of a broader and overlapping alliance involving Armenia, Tajikistan, Belarus, Syria, and Venezuela. Yet, above all things, both republics are also two of Washington’s main geo-strategic targets.
The Eurasian Triple Alliance: The Strategic Importance of Iran for Russia and China
China, the Russian Federation, and Iran are widely considered to be allies and partners. Together the Russian Federation, the People’s Republic of China, and the Islamic Republic of Iran form a strategic barrier directed against U.S. expansionism. The three countries form a “triple alliance,” which constitutes the core of a Read more…
Chinese supertankers hired for Iran oil
Clarkson Research Services Ltd., a unit of the world’s largest shipbroker, announced the two supertankers were booked to carry about 2 million barrels of crude from Iran’s Khark Island to China.
Qi Lian San, a large crude carrier anchored near Singapore, was booked to load 270,000 tons of crude at Khark Island from Feb. 3 to Feb. 5 and carry the cargo to China, Clarkson said.
The Chinese oil trader, Zhuhai Zhenrong Co., also booked an unidentified ship owned by the National Iranian Tanker Co. to load 265,000 tons of crude in Khark Island on Jan. 29 and sail to Read more…
India to pay gold instead of dollars for Iranian oil. Oil and gold markets stunned
India is the first buyer of Iranian oil to agree to pay for its purchases in gold instead of the US dollar, debkafile’s intelligence and Iranian sources report exclusively. Those sources expect China to follow suit. India and China take about one million barrels per day, or 40 percent of Iran’s total exports of 2.5 million bpd. Both are superpowers in terms of gold assets.
By trading in gold, New Delhi and Beijing enable Tehran to bypass the upcoming freeze on its central bank’s assets and the oil embargo which the European Union’s foreign ministers agreed to impose Monday, Jan. 23. The EU currently buys around 20 percent of Iran’s oil exports.
The vast sums involved in these transactions are expected, furthermore, to boost the price of gold and depress the value of the dollar on world markets.
Iran’s second largest customer after China, India purchases around Read more…
Iranian trucks carrying missile materials intercepted en route to Syria
Four trucks with Iranian license plates were intercepted by Turkish authorities two weeks ago at the Öncüpınar Border Gate in Kilis province, which lies to the north of Syria, a country to which Turkey has been blocking the delivery of arms shipments since pro-democracy protests turned bloody in the Arab country.
Although the contents of the trucks were not publicized by customs officials, Taraf stated that on Friday it obtained reports confirming the trucks’ dangerous load. According to the daily, one of the trucks was carrying four six-meter-long cylindrical tanks and heat-resistant materials, while the other three were carrying 66 tons of sodium sulfate, all of which were on Read more…
Russian Threats of Nuclear War Grow Louder
The most recent threats of nuclear war come from the Russian foreign minister. Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov is threatening a “very big war” with “suffering across the world” if the west encourages anti-government uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa.
Russian threats of nuclear attack started out in Georgia back in 2008. These threats expanded to the trans-Caspian gas pipeline. Then they moved onto the expansion of NATO. Then onto Iran and Syria. Now these threats have expanded onto the entire Middle East and North Africa. Does anybody see a problem here?
Back in August of 2008 we got a first taste of Russia’s nuclear threats:
Moscow has issued an extraordinary warning to the West that military assistance to Georgia for use against South Ossetia or Abkhazia would be viewed as a “declaration of war” by Russia.
Later Russia issues an implied nuclear threat if Georgia joins NATO. Obvously, attack on Georgia would then be an attack on Read more…
DANGEROUS CROSSROADS: NATO launches radar in Turkey to target Russia, Iran and Syria
Turkey has recently launched the early warning radar station, a part of NATO’s missile system, which the USA has been building near Russia’s borders. The radar station will be controlled from Germany. The station is located in the town of Malatya, which is 500 kilometers to the south-east of Ankara and some 700 kilometers from the border with Iran. Turkish and US servicemen will serve at the station.Turkey agreed to deploy the radar station on its territory in September 2011. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan stated back then that the deployment of the radar in Turkey would be an important step for the whole region.
Data from the station will be transferred to command posts in the United States and to the ships equipped with the AEGIS system (a sea-based missile defense system). NATO officials stated that the radar station was deployed in Turkey in connection with the growing threat for Iran to use small and medium range missiles in the Middle East.
Several local politicians stood up against the deployment of the elements of NATO’s missile defense system in Turkey. They believe that the West would thus get Turkey involved in a possible conflict with Teheran.
Needless to say, Iran was Read more…
Iran nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan killed by magnetic bomb in Tehran
Target: Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan who was killed in Tehran today when two motorcyclists attached a magnetic bomb attached to a carIran yesterday blamed the U.S. and Israel for the assassination of a university professor and scientist who played a key role in the country’s controversial nuclear weapons programme.
Two hitmen on a motorcycle were said to attached a magnetic bomb to the car of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan killing him and a passenger instantly as they sat in the Iranian-assembled Peugeot 405 in northern district of the capital Tehran.
A 32-year-old chemistry expert and director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran, Roshan was said to have been involved in Read more…
Our Perspective on the 8 Strategic Factors Shaping Oil Price in 2012
The price of oil is still one of the most important factors shaping the economy. It can determine not just how much you’ll pay for a gallon of gasoline but also how fast the American and the eurozone economies will recover. It even has a say in who will be the next American president. This is why many people and companies try to predict the price of oil and better understand the events that influence its volatility.
Two people that tried to give it a shot are Gregory Copley and Yossef Bodansky, who are editors at GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs. They published a list of 8 strategic factors that will likely to influence the price of oil in 2012. This is a very interesting list, although it comes from a business-as-usual perspective, which doesn’t look much beyond the price volatility implications of geo-political events. Adding the green energy market point of view might provide an even more comprehensive picture of the upcoming year, so here’s our take on 2012: Read more…
Iran’s Ahmadinejad touring Latin American countries
Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi announced during the weekend that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began his low-key tour of Latin American countries, according to a report obtained by the Terrorism Committee of the National Association of Chiefs of Police.
FM Salehi stated that the planned Latin American tour will take the Ahmadinejad to Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Ecuador, all nations run by left-wing governments hostile to the United States.
According to several intelligence reports from U.S. agencies and the U.S. Congress, Venezuela is home to a number of Iranian intelligence and military officers, as well as members of the Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah, which is supported by the Iranian regime.
During his tour, the President Ahmadinejad is expected to Read more…
IAEA Confirms Iran Has Started 20% Uranium Enrichment
ranian technicians at the Uranium Conversion Facilities in Isfahan. (File photo)
The geopolitical foreplay is getting ridiculous. At this point it is quite obvious that virtually everyone involved in the US-Israel-Iran hate triangle is just itching for someone else to pull the trigger. And the latest report out of the IAEA will only precipitate this. Who – remember the IAEA? The same IAEA which did not find nukes in Iraq in 2003 only to be overriden by Dick “WMD” Cheney to “justify” an invasion. As RIA reports: “The International Atomic Energy Agency officially confirmed that Iran has started enriching uranium to the 20-percent level, which can easily be turned into fissile warhead material. “The IAEA can confirm that Iran has started the production of uranium enriched up to 20 percent using IR-1 centrifuges in the Fordo Fuel Enrichment Plant,” the agency said in a statement. However, IAEA Spokeswoman Gill Tudor said that all nuclear materials and operations in the Fordo facility are “under the Agency’s containment and surveillance.”” Naturally, that leaves the Read more…
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