🏛️ MUSCAT — The country that won't pick sides just picked a venue. 📌 LOOK CLOSER: Iran-Oman committee formalizes the IRGC's "coordination required" procedure into a diplomatic structure. Muscat's neutrality launders Iran's unilateral claim into a joint framework. Flag states and GCC capitals now face a mechanism, not just a threat — harder to challenge legally, easier to treat as legitimate.
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🛢️ GAS PUMP — Brent climbs but American drivers won't feel it — yet. 📌 LOOK CLOSER: The divergence is political cover, not economic fact. Brent-to-pump transmission lags via refinery margins and domestic crude mix — but with SPR nearly exhausted, that buffer closes fast. ING's "won'
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🛢️ YEMEN — Houthis threaten Saudi oil if Riyadh joins the US coalition. 📌 LOOK CLOSER: The $1.96B US arms sale to Riyadh gives Houthis their pretext — "Riyadh escalating" now has a documented trigger. Aramco facilities remain vulnerable to drone swarms; 2019 Abqaiq proved it. With Iran's infrastructure
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⚡ TEHRAN — Iran just named civilian infrastructure as a two-way target set. 📌 LOOK CLOSER: Tehran's "all regional infrastructure" threat is a direct counter-deterrence to Trump's power plant threat — it implicates Gulf energy hubs, Saudi Aramco, UAE grids, and Bahrain ports, all US-adjacent.
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💥 BEIRUT — Israel strikes Lebanon while claiming a ceasefire holds. 📌 LOOK CLOSER: IDF hitting Lebanon during active Iran-US war resets the escalation geometry. Hezbollah's degraded resupply chain — Syria cut the Iraq corridor today — makes this a pressure window. But strikes risk pulling Hezbollah into retaliation, opening a second