By the time you're reading this, the United Arab Emirates, the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, will have left the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries after nearly 60 years of membership. In an existential blow to the historically indomitable oil cartel, the Gulf monarchy announced that it would instead "respond to evolving market needs" by adjusting production to "take into account global supply and demand." ... But the UAE's withdrawal is less about short-term economic interest and more a declaration of liberation from the political failures of decades of global Iranian appeasement. And the UAE's desire to fully realign with the imminent victors of the Iran War: the United States ... Unlike a faucet, an oil field cannot be shut off and simply turned back on again. Instead, the "pause" of oil production more likely turns into the clogging of the pressurized valves and veins that moved the product, rendering reservoirs inoperable after a "shut-in." Iranian theocratic leadership boxed in The useful idiots of the West may try to argue that the mullahs can find a way out of basic petrophysics, yet the UAE sees the writing on the wall. Iran is not resorting to stuffing 29-year-old, retired tankers and tiny trains with oil to China, and sending its foreign minister back to Pakistan for negotiations abandoned by the Trump administration, because it is operating from a position of strength. Iran, rather, is finally facing a consequence that would indefinitely end its ability to fund its 47-year Shia Islamic authoritarian rule, not just temporarily ask it to swallow some pain in pursuit of outlasting the U.S. The end of the war is now a matter of when, not if, and the UAE no longer wishes to be throttled by OPEC's delusion that it is capable of curtailing American export power. While OPEC produced more than half the crude on the planet in 1973, it now comprises less than 30% of global production. By contrast, the U.S. has tripled its share of global crude production in the past 18 years. The UAE is wise enough to know that once this war is over, the deluge of pent-up demand is ready to be released, and the U.S. and its vassals will be ready to profit through volume, not artificially elevated prices. The UAE is ready to leave the central planners behind and join a victorious West. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/in-abandoning-opec-for-the-free-market-uae-sees-iran-writing-on-the-wall/ar-AA22an5D?uxmode=ruby&ocid=edgdhpruby&pc=U531&cvid=69f4c27f2d6b4e97bdb667c82e20c5bc&ei=101 The UAE has already figured out who has won, and it's not Iran. Underlining the concerns of the Gulf states, UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash said the "collective international will and provisions of international law" were the primary guarantors of freedom of navigation through the strait. "And, of course, no unilateral Iranian arrangements can be trusted or relied upon following its treacherous aggression against all its neighbors," Gargash wrote. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/uae-says-iran-cannot-be-trusted-over-hormuz-peace-efforts-at-an-impasse/ar-AA229jRF?uxmode=ruby&ocid=edgdhpruby&pc=U531&cvid=69f4c27f2d6b4e97bdb667c82e20c5bc&cvpid=077159dec5894345a4bf2001cf4a1b4d&ei=13 And they want everyone to know it.
