Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Secret US-Iranian Dialogue Brings Oil Prices down, Shakes up Mid East Alliances?

DEBKA is a bit odd, to say the least. From the Wikipedia entry:
...Debka has been criticized as a fringe outfit catering to conspiracy theorists. Yediot Achronot's investigative reporter Ronen Bergman claims that the site relies on information from sources with an agenda, such as the rightist elements of the American Republican Party, and that Israeli intelligence officials do not consider even 10 percent of the site's content to be reliable....

On the other hand they have been almost clairvoyant in some of their reports and were named a Forbes "Best of the Web" (see the Wiki entry).
I remembered this story from last week as oil approached $150 this morning. From DebkaFile:

Oil prices suddenly slumped Tuesday, July 8, as predicted by DEBKA-Net-Weekly on June 27, under the impact of the secret American-Iranian talks embarked on last month to solve burning issues by diplomatic engagement.

These talks between the US and Iranian delegations, representing President George W. Bush and Iranian supreme ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have yielded ad hoc understandings on controversial issues. One is an agreement not to allow the price of oil to rocket past $150 the barrel.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s exclusive Gulf and Iranian sources disclosed that the bilateral negotiations were deliberately masked by the war fever engineered by Washington in the form of a stream of leaks indicating that a US or Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear installations was imminent....MORE including war and rumors of war.

The August futures were $137.95 last, down $7.23. It has traded as high as $146.73 and as low as $135.92 today.