Arabian Peninsula / Persian Gulf Update 6/11/2017...Russia Won't Let United States Squeeze Qatar

Global Tensions heads up over QATAR STANDOFF!

RUSSIA WON’T LET UNITED STATES SQUEEZE QATAR!

Israel, Saudi, UAE team up in anti-Qatar lobbying move | The Vineyard of the Saker

……………….Obama famously said the Saudis need to find “an effective way to share the neighbourhood and institute some sort of cold peace” with the Iranians.

“But then Obama okayed billion dollar arms deals to assure Gulf partners he wasn’t entirely pivoting towards Iran,” William Hartung, director of the Arms & Security Project at the Center for International Policy, a think-tank in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera.

Now, Trump has adopted an “all-in” approach to Saudi relations, including a controversial $110bn arms deal regardless of human rights concerns surrounding the use of these weapons in the ongoing Yemen conflict.

Arms sales have long acted as a means of influencing US policy. “There was always a sort of tacit quid pro quo,” Hartung continued. The Saudis would buy US weapons and receive the superpower’s protection, the arms expert explained.

Israel has historically raised concerns about arms deals with Gulf Arab states, who last fought a war in 1973. But the Israeli leadership has “kept quiet” about the $110bn arms deal with Saudi Arabia inked by the Trump administration because “there was a shift from viewing the Saudis as a potential adversary”, Hartung said, because Iran is a common enemy.

“In the old days, there was a pro-Israel block in Congress … that would have been very sceptical and possibly pushed for votes against arms sales to Saudi Arabia. That hasn’t happened in a long time,” he said.

The geographic and corresponding congressional re-alignment will continue, Parsi predicted, and pressure on Qatar will remain.

The small Gulf country “is a problem because it is independent and doesn’t share Saudi Arabia’s obsession with Iran”, he said.

For its part, Qatar has vowed to retain its independence.

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ISIS garrison sets up camp in Bayda province while Saudi coalition battles Houthi troops

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/isis-garrison-sets-camp-bayda-province-saudi-coalition-battles-houthi-troops/

A couple hundred ISIS militants are making their presence felt in central Yemen, constantly redeploying across Bayda province and targeting Houthi-held villages and checkpoints.

In a show of praisal for Ramadan, Amaq Agency published a string of photos showing insurgents loyal to the Islamic State preparing meals, weaponry and reading the Quran

Meanwhile in western Yemen, the Saudi-led coalition and its allies are gaining steady ground in the embattled city of Taiz after capturing the Presidential Palace earlier in the week. Taiz represents the second largest city in the country and a huge military prize.

If Saudi proxies wrestle control of Taiz, thousands of troops are likely to be unleashed on the Houthi port city of Hudaydah which remains under a naval siege, preventing goods from reaching the Yemeni capital Sanaa.