Amalthea, the Libyan ship sailing from Greece on Saturday carrying 2 million pounds of aid to Gaza… isn’t going to Gaza, according to the ahead-of-the-pack Israeli source that originally broke the story.

Instead, they will head for the Egyptian Sinai port of El Arish, where they will unload cargo under watchful Israeli eyes, and let it be transported to Gaza through the usual overland route.

So the flashpoint event is a flash in the pan, unless things change again.

Which directs our attention back to the really important story.

Iran is being pressed to the wall by the new US sanctions, as reported in the previous post

Iran has a limited number of viable options.
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The new US sanctions signed by President Obama a little over a week ago seems to be having a profound effect on Iran.

The sanctions effectively increase the risk of buying oil from Iran, so buyers are demanding discounts of up to $7 a barrel on Iranian oil.

On the other end of the bite, Lloyds of London, the world’s prime insurer of ships and their contents, has announced that they will no long insure or reinsure petroleum shipments to Iran. Of course that includes crucial gasoline Iran needs for daily life. As you may know, insurance is the Big Gorilla In The Room when it comes to shipping. Without it, no ship sails. This is a huge coup for Obama.
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