Pepe Escobar: All in play in the New Great Game

[unhappycamper]

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-03-231213.html



All in play in the New Great Game
By Pepe Escobar
Dec 23, '13

The big story of 2014 will be Iran. Of course, the big story of the early 21st century will never stop being US-China, but it's in 2014 that we will know whether a comprehensive accord transcending the Iranian nuclear program is attainable; and in this case the myriad ramifications will affect all that's in play in the New Great Game in Eurasia, including US-China.

As it stands, we have an interim deal of the P5+1 (the UN Security Council's five permanent members plus Germany) with Iran, and no deal between the US and Afghanistan. So, once again, we have Afghanistan configured as a battleground between Iran and the House of Saud, part of a geopolitical game played out in overdrive since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 along the northern rim of the Middle East all the way to Khorasan and South Asia.

Then there's the element of Saudi paranoia, extrapolating from the future of Afghanistan to the prospect of a fully "rehabilitated" Iran becoming accepted by Western political/financial elites. This, by the way, has nothing to do with that fiction, the "international community"; after all, Iran was never banished by the BRICS, (ie Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), the Non-Aligned Movement and the bulk of the developing world.

Every major player in the Barack Obama administration has warned Afghan President Hamid Karzai that either he signs a bilateral "security agreement" authorizing some ersatz of the US occupation or Washington will withdraw all of its troops by the end of 2014.

[bemildred]

1. Yep, that sounds about right.

Furthermore, Iran is now the only country in a position to anchor some sort of stability in the Middle East. And it needs a lot of stabilizing. His point about the Shiia Crescent being a stabilizing factor is a good one, the real danger now is a descent into chaos and warlord-ism. Turkey is too peripheral, Egypt does not have its shit together, etc. Only Iran has the size, location, internal political stability, and modernity to anchor a stable new political order without some outside hegemon.

And Iran and Iraq together, that's one hell of a lot of oil.

[Ghost Dog]

2. (geopolitical) entertainment. Happy New Year!

Used to it by now. But, isn't it revealing to observe how little interest, even here at DU, most US citizens show themselves as having in 'foreign affairs'.

The socialization of such ignorance/indifference (until the calls to war come) starts in school, for the majority, I guess? And is reinforced by the media propaganda?

Interesting times. Meanwhile, we are all increasingly, and increasingly rapidly, ecologically screwed..