Iran

On Tuesday evening we checked in on Xi Jinping as he makes his first visit to the Mid-East as President.

As we detailed extensively, the trip comes at a critical time for the region. Saudi Arabia and Iran are at each other’s throats following a series of unfortunate events that began with the execution of a prominent Shiite cleric and quickly escalated into an all-out diplomatic firestorm.

Now, the spat is on the verge of triggering a wider sectarian conflict that could further destabilize an already precarious security situation.

Submitted by Justin King via TheAntiMedia.org,

China is “at the center of a clash between Saudi Arabia and Iran,” WSJ wrote on Tuesday, as Xi Jinping marks his first visit to Riyadh as President.

To be sure, Xi’s trip to the Mid-East comes at a critical juncture. The Sunni and Shiite communities exist in a perpetual state of strife, but Riyadh’s execution of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr threw gasoline on a fire that’s already being fueled by fighting in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.

Earlier this month, a black swan landed in the Mid-East when Saudi Arabia executed prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr along with 46 other “terrorists.”

Most of those executed were not Shiites but that didn’t matter. Al-Nimr was a key voice among Saudi Arabia’s dissident Shiite minority and his death reverberated across the Shiite community, sparking mass protests from Bahrain to Pakistan.

So crappy China growth and increased Iran supply prompted a stop-run surge in crude oil overnight as "bad news is good news" stimulus hopes lifted all boats. But that is over now as Iran cuts oil prices to Europe, reigniting the price wars...

Who could have seen that coming?