US-Iran standoff 2019-

medo wrote:

Isos wrote:

Russia and Iran build powerful alliance countering USA and Saudi Arabia

That's why Putin offered yesterday the S-400 to saudi arabia ?

Putin was just putting some salt on the wound. I wonder for who this offer was more painful. For US or for Saudis?

..Russian and Turkish pressure on Iran’s President Rouhani to withdraw Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps forces from Syria might have motivated Saturday’s drone and/or cruise missile attack on Saudi oil production plants, strategic analysts in several countries believe. The IRGC may have instigated the attacks to preempt a deal that would have reduced its forces in Syria after a bloody multi-year campaign against Sunni rebels backed by Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
As a collateral benefit, torpedoing any possible chance for a Trump-Rouhani meeting at the upcoming New York United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) may have been another aim.IRGC air forces chief Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh boasted a year ago that Iran’s missiles could hit US troops at bases in Qatar, the UAE and Afghanistan. He reiterated the threat yesterday. Whether or not Iranian missiles could swamp American (or Israeli) anti-missile defenses is not clear, but there is no question that Iran owns enough Chinese-manufactured medium-range missiles to inflict catastrophic damage on Saudi oil infrastructure.
US naval vessels are vulnerable to Iranian attacks by a number of means, including artillery dug in along the coast of the Persian Gulf.
To box in the Revolutionary Guard, Washington’s best option is to work with Russia, Turkey and China. Russia and Turkey have enormous leverage over Tehran because they help Iran transship hydrocarbons to the European market and evade American sanctions. China is Iran’s largest trading partner and also its largest supplier of weapons. Given Washington’s tense relationship with the other three countries, that is tricky – although not impossible – to accomplish.
American diplomacy is not adept at distinguishing between areas of conflict and cooperation with other powers. For a generation after the fall of Communism, the US enjoyed a monopoly of power. The present crop of US foreign policy specialists suffered in consequence from self-righteousness and complacency. The Iranian mess can be managed, but it can’t be managed by Washington unilaterally – and certainly not by the present crop of strategists.
https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/ankara-summit-might-have-motivated-irans-drone-attack/

The devastating attack on Saudi oil facilities by drones and missiles not only transforms the balance of military power in the Middle East, but marks a change in the nature of warfare globally.

On the morning of 14 September, 18 drones and seven cruise missiles – all cheap and unsophisticated compared to modern military aircraft – disabled half of Saudi Arabia’s crude oil production and raised the world price of oil by 20 per cent.

This happened despite the Saudis spending $67.6bn (£54bn) on their defence budget last year, much of it on vastly expensive aircraft and air defence systems, which notably failed to stop the attack. The US defence budget stands at $750bn (£600.2bn), and its intelligence budget at $85bn (£68bn), but the US forces in the Gulf did not know what was happening until it was all over.

Excuses advanced for this failure include the drones flying too low to be detected and unfairly coming from a direction different from the one that might have been expected. Such explanations sound pathetic when set against the proud boasts of the arms manufacturers and military commanders about the effectiveness of their weapons systems.

Debate is ongoing about whether it was the Iranians or the Houthis who carried out the attack, the likely answer being a combination of the two, but perhaps with Iran orchestrating the operation and supplying the equipment. But over-focus on responsibility diverts attention from a much more important development: a middle ranking power like Iran, under sanctions and with limited resources and expertise, acting alone or through allies, has inflicted crippling damage on theoretically much better-armed Saudi Arabia which is supposedly defended by the US, the world’s greatest military super-power.

If the US and Saudi Arabia are particularly hesitant to retaliate against Iran it is because they know now, contrary to what they might have believed a year ago, that a counter-attack will not be a cost-free exercise. What happened before can happen again: not for nothing has Iran been called a “drone superpower”. Oil production facilities and the desalination plants providing much of the fresh water in Saudi Arabia are conveniently concentrated targets for drones and small missiles.

Another noteworthy change, according to Escobar, lies within Houthi intent. The once unthinkable – '" Houthis investing in a mad dash across the Arabian desert to capture Mecca and Medina in conjunction with a mass Shiite uprising in the Eastern oil belt […] to drive the House of Saud out of power" –  is now, writes Escobar, a "distinct possibility."
It’s no surprise that Tehran has sided with Houthi claims. Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that Yemenis targeted Saudi oil facilities as a "warning" of a possible wider war in response to Riyadh’s US-backed intervention in their conflict-ravaged country.
"Learn lessons from this warning and consider that there could be a war in the region," he said, in words evidently intended for the rulers of Saudi Arabia, which has spent billions of dollars on US weapons.
Yet, Stephen Bryen says, satellite photos of the attack show no signs of explosions or fires. Why not? "Maybe," says Bryen, "the idea was to blow some holes in the tanks to show what could happen – a demonstration aimed as much at the United States as at Saudi Arabia. [or those oil tanks were empty] In fact, while we are making bets," continues Bryen, "I will bet this attack had nothing whatever to do with the Houthis. They were the plausible deniability Iran thought it needed. This attack was aimed at humiliating the United States."
How Iran precisely targeted Saudi oil facilities by Stephen Bryen  https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/how-iran-precisely-targeted-saudi-oil-facilities/
Houthi rebels overturned the chessboard by Pepe Escobar
https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/how-iran-precisely-targeted-saudi-oil-facilities/
Iran’s Rouhani says Yemenis attacked Saudi oil sites as "warning" by Sebastian Smith and Francesco Fontemaggi
https://news.yahoo.com/irans-rouhani-says-yemenis-attacked-saudi-oil-sites-081427560.html

US is not able to shot down drones, bombs and missiles launched from Russia or China. US have no more technological superiority against them and in quantity they are also becoming equal.

Tsavo Lion wrote:They r getting the Israeli Iron Dome. Also the Saudis want to buy S. Korean AD systems.