Rivalry of Saudi, Iranian rulers grows as Mideast alliances shift

BY MAGGIE TROWE

Sharp competition between the ruling classes of Saudi Arabia and Iran ensured the collapse of an already shaky attempt by some of the world’s biggest oil producers to freeze production and boost oil prices.

Rivalry between the Iranian regime and the Saudi monarchy for economic and political domination in the Mideast is also evidenced by the two capitalist powers taking opposing sides in military conflicts in Yemen and Syria. Washington’s pivot toward Moscow and Tehran to establish a Mideast order in its imperialist interests — a shift away from its longstanding alliance with the governments of Israel and Saudi Arabia — has increased tensions between Riyadh and Tehran.

Officials from Russia and most of the members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries showed up for an April 17 conference in Doha, Qatar. The meeting was called after the governments of Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela made a preliminary oil freeze pact in February and sought to convince more oil producing countries to join.

Oil prices rose from $28 to over $40 a barrel after the February accord, even though a production freeze would not end the oil glut. The world capitalist contraction of production and trade has resulted in plummeting prices for commodities such as oil, which brought in more than $100 per barrel until mid-2014.

The Iranian government sent no one to the Doha meeting and refuses to freeze oil output. Tehran is ramping up production, as crippling trade sanctions finally began to be eased in January under the deal brokered by Washington and its allies in return for Iran curbing nuclear fuel production.

The talks fell apart when the Saudi government said it won’t freeze production if Tehran doesn’t.

Riyadh is banning vessels carrying Iranian crude from entering Saudi waters, and, according to some oil traders, blocking Tehran from shipping oil from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean through pipelines it used before sanctions. A price war has developed between the two countries in what they charge Asian buyers.

Oil workers strike in Kuwait

Many oil-producing countries are slashing budgets to adjust to low oil prices. When the government of Kuwait said it may cut oil workers’ wages and benefits, thousands of them struck April 17-20, the first such action since 1996.

Tehran, which is increasing trade with European capitalists, signed 12 agreements with Italian firms April 13.

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, in a joint press conference with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif April 16, said, “We are doing all that we can” to encourage closer banking ties with Iran. Iranian officials have blamed Washington’s continuation of some sanctions for discouraging European bank involvement in Iran.

Executives of U.S. airplane producer Boeing held public talks with Iranian authorities in Tehran in early April, the first such visit by a U.S. company since the 1979 Iranian Revolution that overthrew U.S.-backed dictator Shah Reza Pahlavi.

Boeing’s European rival Airbus is planning to deliver the first batch of planes Iran ordered when sanctions were lifted, but must first get U.S. export licenses because more than 10 percent of the planes’ parts are U.S.-made.

Tehran has begun deploying regular army troops to Syria to back up the brutal regime of President Bashar al-Assad, in response to Moscow signaling it might agree to demands for his removal. Washington has worked with Moscow and Tehran to impose a new order in Syria, where war has raged for more than five years since Assad responded with overwhelming military force to crush mass mobilizations calling for an end to his regime. The war has cost some 500,000 lives and displaced millions of people.

Assad’s flagging fortunes were reversed in recent months by the backing of Moscow’s airstrikes and ground troops, including Tehran’s elite Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy force in Lebanon.

Iranian Major Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of foreign operations for the Revolutionary Guards, flew to Moscow April 15 for talks, days after the first delivery of Russian S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Tehran. U.S. officials complained this trip violated United Nations travel sanctions against Tehran that are still in place.

Frictions between Washington and Riyadh are mounting. A bill before the U.S. Congress would allow the Saudi government to be sued in American courts for any role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Riyadh responded with threats to sell off up to $750 billion of U.S. assets, although such a move, which would deal a blow to the Saudi economy, is unlikely.

President Barack Obama says he will veto the bill, while Republican presidential front runner Donald Trump and Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders support it.

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