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Cheney was called to SA last month for an asschewing. He was told that there was to be NO rapprochement with Iran, and that US soldiers would have to stay in Iraq. The Saudis are determined that the Shi'as will not gain influence over the Arab world, and they have the majority of Muslims on their side--those shi'as, they are a dangerous minority, but they are still a minority. And they need to be contained.
So, we rattle our carrier-sabres at Iran, and Monkey sends more troops to Iraq.
On the other front, IRAN desperately needs their oil revenues. They fund all of their public works, their government salaries, their largesse to the mullahs, many of whom are corrupt bastards, the widows and orphans pensions, and so forth...they NEED that income. They also have to pay to refine almost half of their gasoline because they don't have the capacity to do it in-house...when there's not a lot of margin on the price of oil, that takes up more of their budget. When the price of oil goes up, they can use the spare cash they make from their oil sales to toss a few rials to Hizb'allah, to fund the odd insurgents, to buy a few missiles from China and repaint them to suggest they've made them themselves, and so on.
When oil is LOW, Iran is boxed in. They've no spare cash, and their influence in the "ARAB" world is reduced. "Out, OUT, damned PERSIANS!" is the Saudi strategy. The Persians, when oil is cheap, can barely make the mortgage, as it were.
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