December surprise ?
Israeli and Saudi officials have confirmed an unprecedented secret trip by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accompanied by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Yossi Cohen, the head of the Israeli spy agency Mossad, to Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
The meeting between Pompeo, Netanyahu and bin Salman in the Red Sea city of Neom, like the August deal, was aimed not at achieving Middle East peace, but rather solidifying an alliance between Washington, Israel and the Saudi monarchy, the linchpin of reaction and imperialist domination in the Middle East, in preparation for a war against Iran.
At a Nov. 12 meeting between Trump and his national security cabinet the US president raised the possibility of airstrikes against Iran’s main civilian nuclear site at Natanz.While the Times reported that senior advisors persuaded Trump against striking the nuclear facility and “left the meeting believing a missile attack inside Iran was off the table,” there are ominous indications that preparations for war are continuing.
The US Central Command confirmed over the weekend that US B-52H Stratofortress bombers, capable of deploying up to 20 nuclear cruise missiles, as well as conventional munitions, have been redeployed from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota on a “short-notice, long-range mission” to the Middle East.
This follows the redeployment last week of an F-16 fighter squadron from Germany to Al-Dhafra Air Base in Abu Dhabi, while the US Navy’s Nimitz Carrier Strike Group remains deployed in the Persian Gulf.
The Washington Post reported Sunday that “speculation that the Trump administration was preparing for military action against Iran nuclear capacities in its waning days has been rising. Some considered Netanyahu’s apparent visit to the [Saudi] kingdom and the presence of Pompeo as further evidence that a strike was possible.”
In the context of the political crisis unfolding within the US, however, the Trump administration’s launching of a military confrontation with Iran—and the inevitable Iranian retaliation—could serve a definite and sinister political purpose. It would provide the pretext for the declaration of a national emergency, blocking the transfer of power and imposing martial law.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/11/24/saud-n24.html
