JohnRoberts said:
The Houthi rebels just took credit in tweets for two drone attacks on Saudi Airports.
The Saudi's are at war with Yemen. This concept of being at war abroad but at peace at home is another fantasy American export. If the Saudi's don't enjoy having their airports bombed, perhaps they should stop bombing their neighbour.
(Saudi targets have included Yemeni airports, schools, school busses, food markets, weddings, funerals, prisons, ports, water supplies, food supplies, foreign embassies and anywhere else you can imagine that's usually filled with civilians)
The Saudis are supporting the internationally recognized government of Yemen, so maybe make that Iran against UN too.
The "internationally recognized government of Yemen", residing inside a hotel in Riyadh?? This so-called government doesn't control any territory in Yemen.
Good time to mention the coup of Aden, and the current control of South Yemen by UAE backed separatists. The exact same thing Iran is blamed for in the North, was done by the UAE in the South. In response, Iran gets Haley and Pompeo faking outrage on TV. UAE gets F35's.
If it isn't a proxy war it is between Iran (who is supplying the advanced weapons technology to the Houthis) and the Saudis.
The Zaidi's have governed North Yemen for the last 1000 years. Iran didn't wish them into existence, and the only way the Saudi's and US have found to discount them as real people with real concerns, is to label them as 'proxies'. Iran isn't involved more than France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Canada, Russia, China, and whoever else is arming either of the sides. There are no Iranian planes bombing Yemen or Saudi Arabia. No Iranian soldiers fighting in Yemen, or invading Saudi Arabia.
US and UK play a much larger role since they provide unlimited weapons sales, aerial targeting assistance, aerial refuelling capabilities, and directly service and train the Saudi military on the ground. Without the US military providing spare parts and ground personnel, the Saudi airforce couldn't operate at all.
(even under your new definition, if you want to include Iran in any form, it's still a US-Iran proxy war. US arms Saudi's. Iran arms Houthi's)
Nobody wants this to go all out open warfare. When Iran was at war with Iraq, they both reportedly used poison gas, but Saddam even used poison gas against his own people (the Kurds).
This is already all out open warfare. Hundred thousand Yemeni's dead, 20 million at risk of famine, infrastructure turned to rubble and over 90% dependent on imports!
Iraq used chemical weapons on Iran. Iran didn't respond in kind. Americans provided Saddam with satellite imagery and targeting info on Iranian troop movements, knowing he would be using mustard gas. This complicity led the US to lie about Iraq's WMD use until 1990 and the invasion of Kuwait. Only then did it become convenient for the US to confirm what everyone already knew, and the rest leading up to 2003 is history.
(https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/08/26/exclusive-cia-files-prove-america-helped-saddam-as-he-gassed-iran/)
Otherwise under no scenario is it realistic to think any GCC country stands a chance militarily. Iraq took Kuwait in a day. 30 years later GCC countries are still extremely soft targets with their economic infrastructures fully exposed on their coastlines. Doesn't matter how much they spend on advanced western military equipment if they can't defend their installations (desalination plants, oil and gas plants, airports, ports).
regarding the "Iran deal" Saddam and Gaddafi both had nuclear programs that were stopped. Sadly 8 years after Gaddafi abandoned his nuclear program in 2003, he was killed by Nato backed rebel forces. IMO this was a gross miscalculation by western powers as it telegraphs a rather unpleasant outcome to any other leaders who surrender their nuclear programs. North Korea and Iran leadership do not want to experience a similar fate.
Libya had an active nuclear weapons research program, but little actual know-how. Giving away something they never had in favour of sanctions relief was easy. We all know the US lied about the status and reach of Iraq's weapons programs. Neither of these countries had Iran's nuclear fuel cycle development, nor achieved break-out capability. Iran already has.
Can't undo know-how.
Iran is reportedly working with N Korean to develop advanced long range missile capability so they can extend the reach for a nuclear weapons delivery threat.
They already have the capability. Can't put satellites into orbit without it.
UN inspectors recently found new evidence of undeclared nuclear activities in Iran, and Iran wants the world to trust them and remove the sanctions first.
US isn't 'the world' and no-one trusts the US either.
There are no ongoing undeclared nuclear activities in Iran since they telegraph every violation to the IAEA a month before they do it. That's how you read about violations in the press the day they happen. Also remains the most heavily inspected country on the planet.
(Iran's weapons research program ended in 2003. Date verified by every one of your 17 intelligence agencies in consecutive NIE's. Supposed haul of secret files by the Israeli's were also all pre-2003)
Iran has an election coming up in matter of months and are feeling the full effects of the sanctions. Now is when we have the best leverage to press for a better outcome but I do not have much faith in the new administration. To their credit they have kept the sanctions in place for now, so lets hope for a good result.
It's over. Time to learn to live with Iran's break-out capability. Can't ever be undone.
Your partisan bias also omits Trump's total failure to achieve any kind of progress or results. All he did was put Americans at risk of reprisals and made millions of Iranians suffer. Neither of those outcomes are in line with US interests or supposed values.
Final comment on your support of sanctions: no-one with power in Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Syria or Venezuela suffers from a lack of food, medication, or basic supplies. The misery falls squarely on those who struggle to live a normal life under the best of conditions. Result of your sanctions is to guarantee their lives become impossible.
Continued support for blockades in the current state of the world is messed up, even for someone with your political convictions.