"S. Korea refuses to send troops to Strait of Hormuz..." Topic

… despite 70% of its crude oil imports shipping through there.

Read it here….
link

Amicalement
Armand

Due to a constant threat from North Korea, they should not be expected to deploy to the Persian Gulf region.

Perhaps they can go solar, or use wind power, instead.

If they get 70% of their oil from the region, and want that to continue, then they should contribute to helping to keep the straits free, and the oil flowing from there.

With one the largest OPEC nations being Indonesia, they could shift purchasing there.

Indonesia is not an OPEC country.

link

In the global economy, when price of oil goes up anywhere it has an affect on the price of oil everywhere.

"Seoul is in a dilemma as it wishes to avoid damaging its long-standing trade relations with Iran."

Not every nation is going to let Washington dictate to them whom they should trade with and how they should conduct their foreign policy.

Not every nation is going to let Washington dictate to them whom they should trade with and how they should conduct their foreign policy.

So which nations do let Washington dictate their trade and foreign policy? Sounds like you are implying that most do. Can you list them?

The British for starters. They're practically "yes men" for the US and are in-line with the US on just about all matters of foreign policy and trade. The rest of Western Europe not as much to varying degrees.

Tell me why anyone should do business with Iran? State sponsor of terrorism, arguably in the world, whose stated national policy is to wipe Israel off the map and kill all Americans?

I could told you…

link

link

link

Amicalement
Armand

Same reason people buy cheap Chinese knock-offs (or illegal recasts of minis), the price is right. So why get into all those complicated ethical and moral issues when they can save a few bucks?

@Pz4HV3 (no personal insult intended!):

Because pre-1953 Iran was amazingly good to do business with? You guys are just so butthurt over 1979 that you seem to forget all prior history.

Because Saudi Arabia, followed by Pakistan, is the No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism in the world? One could argue the USA, but I'm not going to (because I don't believe it!).

Israel? Yeah … can't really argue that one … Iran keeps saying it … it's like their biggest weakness. They really should just shut up about that and have far more friends.

"Kill all Americans" … do they really say that nowadays? You could say "Sticks and stones…"

Usafpiot. I just did a simple google search for opec. Indonesia is listed as a member country. Whether they are still a member country or not, South Korea could get their oil from them. That was my point.

Yeah, they actually are. TBH, I was surprised …

OPEC link

It's a global economy.

That was mildly confusing. But, it stated that: "Ecuador, Indonesia and Qatar are former members."

I'm surprised Qatar is a former member. But I honestly never knew that Ecuador and Indonesia were members.

Bigby--none taken.

Hard to say that pre-1953 Iran and current regime are at all related except for geography,

Oh, obviously no "relation" at all. There's just an awful lot of Iranians (not necessarily resident in Iran!) who still harken back to those "apparently" golden days.

Personally, I think Iran has built a kind of bed over the past 40 years (no small period of time!) and it's up to them to live in it. We saw a lot of civil discontent last year, that was put down pretty damned violently. We've also seen some horrific human-rights abuses in Iran, condoned and conducted by Iranian authorities (gay hangings, for example).

I guess because I have actual Iranian friends (although they don't live in Iran! They live in Japan) I feel "something" other than total hatred for the nation. I guess I believe Iran could be a much better place than it currently is.

Iran could be a much better place than it is, without the current leadership. They are fighting quite hard to keep their population suppressed and Europe and Asia buying oil from them helps with that oppression.

They're a major reason behind the ongoing fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, and Yemen. So, yeah, I think Europe should consider the effect of sending money to them to buy oil.

It's possible to like the people and still hate what their government is doing and has been doing for 40 years.

@Col. Scott: It's simultaneously possible to like the people and hate what the preceding government was doing for the previous 26 years. You can walk back through the history of horrific oppression for quite a bit longer, but I'll just plug Professor Rejali's book that basically does that:

link

I have a great deal of sympathy for the Iranians. In a place where you can vote for anyone you like….providing the ruling elite like the candidate, you can hardly blame them for their government's actions.

Hey, there's true democracies in the world where I don't blame the people for their choice of leader and his actions!

It's possible to like the people and still hate what their government is doing and has been doing for 40 years.

On 9/11/01, when Arab countries were having spontaneous street parties that 'the Great Satan' had been struck, Iran had spontaneous candlelight prayer vigils for the victims.

I don't much like Iran's government. The people are fine.

On 9/11/01, when Arab countries were having spontaneous street parties that 'the Great Satan' had been struck, Iran had spontaneous candlelight prayer vigils for the victims.

I didn't know that. That says a lot about Iranians. I fervently hopes that things improve for them.