Link to Article: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/stop-israel-bombing-irans-oil-sites-gulf-states-urge-us-2024-10-10/
As of October 10th, gulf States have been requesting that the United States stop Israel from bombing Iran’s oil sites. As part of their attempts to avoid being caught in the crossfire, Gulf states including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are refusing to let Israel fly over their airspace for any attack on Iran and have conveyed this to Washington. After Iran’s attack on Tehran, Israel has declared that “Iran will pay”. The Gulf States are worried that if Israel hit Iran, they could be targeted as well and that would lead to a global oil crisis. They know they can ask for US intervention as the US is going into their election season, and if this were to happen, Harris’s chances at winning would be jeopardized if the price for an oil barrel went up to $120/barrel.
This is an important article as the decision that the US makes will affect us directly one way or the other. But also, it brings to light the reality of the escalation of the conflicts in the Middle East. If Israel hits all of these oil sites, many countries will be forced to find new sources which may be primarily focused on American countries such as Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, and Columbia. The US has the capabilities of producing their own oil but due to the influence of climate change activists, President Biden has banned much of the United State’s drilling, making the country reliant on other countries oil; the US buys 11% of their oil from Saudi Arabia and Iraq. However, while it could mean an economic boom in the Americas, the Middle East’s biggest export is oil and if they lose that they lose their largest source of exports.
The stakeholders at hand are the United States, Iran and Israel, as well as the Gulf States as the threats are on either side of them. The Gulf States are not allowing Israel to fly over their airspace in an attempt to stay out of any crossfire that could result. They are pleading with the US following Iran’s missile attack to stop Israel from retaliating against Iran. Which is a risky decision as the US and Israel are close allies.
This event is similar to the guns and butter activity that the class participated in. When your allies go to war you have their back. Iran favors a Palestinian state as opposed to the Israeli state. So Iran is naturally going to be alongside Palestine. But, with the Gulf States separating Israel and Iran, Iran is going to threaten them in order to prevent them from allowing Israel to come through and attack them. Since the Gulf states are now being threatened they want the biggest power to come in and protect them and ensure their safety. Just like when we played the game, the middle country was the divider between two other big countries and felt threatened which led them to ask for other countries help.