Saudi Arabia is the key to the US/EU oil embargo on Iran

The United States and the European Union have imposed sanctions on Iran’s central bank making it increasingly difficult for others to purchase Iranian oil. The European states are phasing out their remaining outstanding contracts with Iran. Saudi Arabia, the avowed “brother” country to Iran, is the key to this strategy. As the swing oil producer, meaning its the country that can increase its oil production by a one or two million barrels of oil a day if need be, has pledged to increase capacity to offset the loss of Iranian oil on the international market thereby preventing an oil shock.  See the video here. I think it’s telling that the analyst said that the Saudi rulers have not commented on it publicly but will  likely increase capacity in a discreet manner. The reason why the Saudis are quiet about collaborating with these sanctions is because the move is quite possibly unpopular with the Saudi population. In a dictatorship like the Saudi regime that is propped up and sustained by Western power, going along with unpopular foreign strategies is indeed a private matter. The funny thing is, this wholly undemocratic regime is now the vanguard regional state pushing for Bashar al-Assad to step down. As much as I think al-Assad lost all legitimacy to rule long ago, if he ever even had it to begin with, I find it comical that one of the most retrograde regimes in the Middle East is leading the charge to unseat al-Assad. If there is to be genuine revolution in the Middle East, the contagion must spread to all the Persian Gulf countries.