I never ever want to read another word by Ross and Jordinson...

I never ever want to read another word by Ross and Jordinson unless they stop giving Mehdiabad away this instant (drop the bid). So of course I find it funny to read MAK's comments. I really have had a guts full of Ross and Jordinson. They are worse than Drummond in my book now.

Iran apparently has to choose between an economy and a nuclear project according to Cliff Kupchan (a Middle East analyst). Julian Borger (Diplomatic correspondent of the Guardian) says if the talks in Moscow fail it is more likely Israel will attack than if the talks had never taken place! I believe the Moscow talks will fail. John Bolton (a former US Ambassador to the UN?) wryly points out we have been negotiating for more than 10 years with Iran so of course these talks will fail but that Iran-daft Ashton woman (yes a Brit) will probably find another way to squeeze in a fourth round of talks to cover up the Moscow failure. Iran will lose $4bn a month in lost oil sales from the EU import ban and from the Iran tanker insurance ban (I think that figure is a bit high but I've seen it in the press). All America has to do now is engineer an oil price fall (release emergency stocks?) and Iran will be in a complete mess. Interesting piece in the New York Times by Nick Kristof about how pro-American ordinary Iranians are: USA gives aid to Egypt and gets back hate - USA puts sanctions that really hurt ordinary Iranians but he got back loads of love and hospitality apparently (except when a market trader scoffed at the age of his laptop). Bread prices have shot up 30% in the last month. Chicken up 57% and Aubergines up a lot too. It is all set to get worse too. Regime change coming soon hopefully. I saw a figure of 7 million VPNs in Iran and it is illegal to sell them there (I believe these enable you to use your office computer from home as if you were in your office, so in the case of Iranians with VPNs to computers outside the country they can evade censorship perhaps? Hopefully Israel won't do anything daft to prolong the regime's life.

I do not want my betting slip on Iran regime change altered by an someone with no comprehension of Middle Eastern affairs.