Anyway, when Turkey's President, also known as "Sultan" Erdogan, visited the new Saudi King Salman in early March, they reached an understanding; they will both turbo-charge "support" -- weaponized and otherwise -- for the Syrian opposition. Problem is there is no credible Syrian opposition; virtually everyone that knows how to fight has migrated to the fake Caliphate of ISIS/ISIL/Daesh.
What this means in a nutshell is once again a Sunni against Shi'ite set up; a classic Divide-and-Rule gambit that is the perennial House of Saud priority.
The "Empire of Chaos," in theory, should but be pleased. But it's not. The Obama administration's objective -- on the record -- is "[prioritizing] the Islamic State, not Assad."
But that may also change in a heartbeat. New Pentagon supremo Ashton Carter has just admitted, "the forces that we train in Syria, we will have some obligation to support them after they're trained." But that would also "include the possibility that, even though they're trained and equipped to combat ISIL, they could come into contact with forces of the Assad regime."
No wonder Damascus is weary, and will wait for US "actions" before any possible negotiation with Washington. One day Kerry says talks with Damascus are necessary to end the Syrian civil war. The next day he repeats, "Assad must go."
Osama's pal plays paranoiaAs for a no-fly zone over northern Syria -- heavily pushed by Erdogan, and a wet dream of neo-cons in Washington -- it won't fly. One extra reason for Ankara to stay away from this new Saudi anti-Iran push.
To complicate things further, power within the House of Saud remains diffused. Both the CIA and BND -- German intelligence -- agree, and there have been constant rumblings in Washington that the House of Saud eventually should go.
The House of Saud still has not understood that Syria is not the main "threat" against them. They are freaking out about their border with Iraq -- as well as their borders with Yemen and Bahrain. On top of it they picked a fight with Russia via the oil price war. The Saudis say they are pumping only 9.5 million barrels of oil a day out of their 12.5 million barrels a day; Moscow is essentially saying they are pumping their entire capacity.
If the oil price war delights the Russia-demonizing "Masters of the Universe," they are at the same time deeply enraged because it is decimating the US shale oil "revolution." What's left for masses of unemployed US workers? Find a job in Saudi Arabia. Still one more reason for the "Masters of the Universe" to dump the House of Saud anytime they feel like it.
Predictably, House of Saud paranoia remains the norm. Former Saudi intelligence capo di tutti i capi (and former great pal of Osama bin Laden), Prince Turki, is on overdrive, charging Iran with being "a disruptive player in various scenes in the Arab world, whether it's Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Palestine or Bahrain"; accusing Iran of "expanding its occupation of Iraq"; insisting "the enemy" is both Assad and ISIS/ISIL/Daesh; and last but not least unequivocally blasting any possible nuclear deal with Iran.
What's even more worrisome is that King Salman brought Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to Riyadh -- rushing to meet him at the airport -- to confirm a key strategic, secret nuclear agreement before any Iran/P5+1 deal is clinched. The bottom line: the House of Saud does not trust the American nuclear umbrella anymore. They are making their own nuclear power play with the help of nuclear power Pakistan. The connection does exist, but remains extremely mysterious.
No need to outline the upcoming maze of ominous consequences. Demented nuclear Wahhabis, anyone?
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