Big News Friday: Middle East Shake-up; Banking Hot War?

The big news in the Middle East is what looks like reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran—two regional Muslim heavyweights who have been at dagger point for decades. In a China brokered deal, the two countries are re-establishing diplomatic ties and opening embassies. This follows similar reconciliation between the Saudis and Egypt on the one hand and Syria on the other.

I’d call this a game changer, except it’s difficult to tell in that region. Nevertheless, it has the appearance of a game changer for this reason: It’s difficult to impossible to believe that this move was made without each side thoroughly vetting all the implications and coming to some agreement going forward on the issues that have fueled their enmity for so many years. For that reason one would not expect this initiative to break down quickly. Has there been some division of spheres of influence and/or action? Areas of cooperation? Time will tell.

Big winners and losers? Obviously China is the biggest winner. China establishes itself as diplomatic influencer to be reckoned with in an area that is still key to its energy need. It’s also key to Japan’s energy needs. Russia also wins because Russia has been very much behind this reconciliation. My guess is that NATO Turkey will not want to be the odd man out in this reconfiguration of the Middle East. Putin has wooed Erdogan with the possibility of making Turkey a major energy distribution hub in the region. With the the major energy players in the region now openly aligning, as it seems, with Russia and China, and with close military ties developing between Russia, Iran, and major Arab countries like Egypt (and Saudi Arabia?), Turkey will not want to be odd man out.

Major loser? The US. Clearly. Also Israel. Little need to elaborate, but I will add this—this development could also affect US/UK attempts to gin up unrest against Russia in the Caucasus. Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan. Russia’s regional positioning is looking more and more solid.

You can read more from Moon of Alabama:

Mediated By China Iran And Saudi Arabia Restore Ties - There Are Winners And Losers

Moon has a comprehensive list his own winners and losers.

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Are we seeing a major escalation in the financial war between the Fed/NY Guys and Davos/US Treasury? American sovereigntists v. globalists? The fact that the shutdown of Silicon Valley Bank was done early on a Friday, rather than hush-hush over the weekend, suggests that something is up. But what?

*Walter Bloomberg @DeItaone

$SIVB - JPMorgan a buyer of SVB Financial given 'highly attractive valuation'

The_Real_Fly @The_Real_Fly

MASSIVE CRASHING OF BANKS UNDERWAY ###

The_Real_Fly @The_Real_Fly

FDIC CLOSES SVB $SVIB

Charlie Gasparino to Tucker: “This shows the economy is structurally screwed up”, and he quickly cites the crazy government spending as a major contributor to that. Hmmm. Who would want to get that message across? Not the Zhou regime!

The_Real_Fly @The_Real_Fly

$SIVB $TLT

Tom Luongo (Head Sneetch) goes for the big picture jugular. Note that Luongo is offering some alternatives here:

First thing's first. This $SIVB thing is happening before 5pm on a Friday. So, this is meant to affect the closing of this week's market. /1

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/silicon-valley-bank-crashes-65-halted-pending-news

In 2008/09 all the FCID bank closures happened after the market closed on Fridays to limit the damage. Today we are treated to a vandalistic "Biden" regime making a big deal out of this DURING trading hours. /2 

From a purely political and qualitative standpoint I'd say a number of things are at play here.

For a major SV bank to fail this spectacularly in 24 hours, 72 after the FOMC Chair went full "Resting Hawk Face" smells of a setup to force a "pivot" this weekend./3 

But, it could also be revenge for the direct attacks on $JPM CEO Jamie Dimon by running a 'nuts and sluts' campaign on him through Epstein and an incomprehensible ruling against him earlier in the week. /4

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/jpmorgan-sues-jes-staley-over-potential-epstein-fallout

So there we see two alternative theories: A Regime strike against JPowell, or maybe a strike by the NY Guys against the regime. Could it have something to do with Zhou’s crazy budget?

We have continued attacks happening against Credit Suisse, who the Fed helped out last summer, and who the Saudis and UAE put large sums into their spun-off IB unit.
This is a clear Davos attack on their enemies.
/5 

So, payback for the attacks on Credit Suisse? Luongo appears to come down on the side of, this is a NY Guy strike on Zhou/Yellen—a big time shot across the bow. I tend to agree—even though I’m a complete ignoramus on banking and finance. But my guess is that this will prove a significant crisis for Zhou—this can’t be something he wants.

Peter Thiel comes out against $SIVB lends credence to me that this is a $JPM revenge play against SV for selling out the US to foreign, globalist powers.

Take away their money, you take away their power. More fallout from the Fed's war on egregious leverage 6/ 

This smells like another $FTX hit job by the Fed and Wall St. to roll over one of their clear enemies and this is why it's not happening over the weekend...

Systemic risk is likely negligible and (prediction time) if $JPM scoops up the remains of #SIVB's assets, then we know /7 

But it could be a Davos attack which was anticipated. I'm not here to give definitive answers but to present the possible scenarios at play. /8 

We should be hearing much more over the weekend and …