Gulf Open News Today

Long-simmering economic and political tensions between the U.S. and China have continued to spill over into the technology sector, where the two superpowers have made this ever-more vital industry the site of a new Cold War. The acrimony looks poised to only get worse moving forward, potentially leading to a tech decoupling, and 5G is at the heart of it. Some third parties have sought to find a way to navigate this divide and the dilemma is particularly acute for the Gulf states. As they seek to...

Happening. has he, in effect, emboldened iran? >> i think, jim, the presidents problem going to the u.n. is that he appears weak in response to these actions by the iranians over the last six months. in the hard bitten world of middle east politics, with both the sunni arabs and the iranians, the president doesnt appear to be standing up to the challenge. now hes got a little bit of time. he may want to use this week to see what kind of support he has out there. i think its very little, frankly,...

Going all the way back to the 1973 war in the middle east. the united states has always kept the gulf open. we dont appear to be doing that now. thats not in our national interest. >> and your sense of the message here to the iranians, and you have president of iran coming here. youll be covering the general assembly this coming week. how do they process what is happening here. perhaps the u.s. is goaded into doing something and it did nothing. >> yeah. and the iranian prime minister is tweeting...

Our enemies dont fear us and our allies dont trust us. when you send out words youre not willing to back up, it causes confusion. if youre prepared to make grand statements and not back them up, were not with you. if were not with you, who is going to defend keeping the gulf open? is it the chinese, the russians and not the united states? that would be -- bode not well for the united states and contribute to a tremendous dislocation of the economic situation locally. >> neil: but that takes fore...

Worlds oil and gas coming out of the middle east to the big asian economies and to europe. thats a u.s. interest to keep these open. and i do think the president will have support from south korea, from japan, from some of the suuni arab countries, to do this. and interestingly enough, weve been down this road before 30 years ago president reagan in responding to these piratical attacks by the iranians organized a coalition, kept the gulf open. president trump is in the right here. and hes the l...

Unless theres a miscalculation by the iranians. if they struck one of our ships or downed one of our aircraft that would prompt a strong u.s. military response. other than that it makes no sense to fight in the persian gulf. military power could take out their irgc naval elements for sure in 72 hours. we cant keep the gulf open with military power. we cant get their nuclear weapons with military power. the iranians dont want a fight. the saudis clearly will be a target. the iranians will try to ...

Understand hes bluffing. military power is not an appropriate tool to keep the gulf open. we can punish the iranians terribly, nor is it an appropriate tool and their nuclear capability. >> why do you say that? why would military punishment, which you argue wisely can be inflicted upon iran, while we may not be able to get to their nuclear plants all that effectively, we can certainly take out a lot of their refining capacity, their military capacity, why wouldnt that be a deterrent in your opin...

They knew what they were doing and, frankly, i think president trump would be right to back off a little bit, warn the iranians privately, a stiff warning, get the allies behind us, keep the gulf open, contain iranian power. there is no reason to go to war with them. and the law of unintended consequences can come back to bite you pretty quickly, as we found out in iraq in 2003. >> are those the diplomatic options you were saying for de-escalation that you just mentioned there? >> they are. i me...

Understanding the issues and, by the way, bringing in our allies and keeping them apprised of our thinking. i think most of that process has evaporated and we saw it if the reporting is correct, and ill bet it is, that he actually ordered a strike and then stopped it during launch. this is the kind of miscalculation that will lead to a shooting war. by the way, i dont want to overstate this, but we actually have devastating capabilities to go after the republican guard maritime units in particul...

Week. the global economy depends still on the flow of oil and gas in the persian gulf. so there is a national security imperative here. keep the gulf open. and thats to warn the iranians not to do this again. but i agree with general clark, there is no reason to go to war. weve been containing iranian power for 30 years. president reagan faced a crisis somewhat similar to this 30 years ago. we can handle this if were steady. and i hope that the so-called moderates in the trump administration wil...