Thailand does import most of its oil, 807,000 barrels a day I believe is the current figure. The amount from Iran itself is very small, but Thailand does of course rely on the Strait of Hormuz. However, I doubt Iran would shut the strait solely because of a ban on Iranian visitors.
But I’m not sure how practical such a ban would be myself. We get a lot of Iranians, and the vast majority are not terrorists. I think that would be an unprecedented move, and any serious attempt would probably be doomed to become bogged down in parliamentry debate and delays. Although it’s not quite the same thing, Saudi citizens are banned by their own country from visiting Thailand – has to do with a big jewelry scam perpetrated on a Saudi pince 20-odd years ago,followed by the murder of some Saudi diplomats in Bangkok, an act that was related to the gems case – and Thailand has always been against that. (Of course, if Thailand would just arrest the perp responsible for the scam, ties would normalize, but since that person is a prominent member of a Family That Cannot Be Named, it’s a dead issue.)
Meanwhile, police think a series of stickers placed strategically on poles may have been markers telling the bombers where to strike. Story here.
Everything’s settling down now. The only new update is that those stickers are now believed to have marked a getaway route for the bombers rather than indicating potential targets. Story here.
Just to be sure, I personally inspected the Patpong red-light district last night. All was well. No terrorists that I could find.
Security seems to be a tad tighter. One example is I passed through the Asoke intersection in central Bangkok in the back of a taxi last night. The taxi had to slow down so the cop at a police checkpoint could shine a light in at me. The cop just waved us on, presumably because I did not look West Asian. Photos of cops inspecting IDs of West Asian tourists have been appearing in the news. This sort of thing is usualy just for show, because really, what are you going to find doing this except for maybe an expired visa? I don’t even carry my passport on me (but I do usually have a photocopy on hand).
There’s usually pretty good cooperation between Malaysia and Thailand. I’m sure the Malaysian authorities, who are themselves concerned about extremism, will start watching this route more closely and extradite that one guy they nabbed once they’re done with him.
“The Delhi Police figured out the conspiracy behind the recent attack on an Israeli Embassy car by studying call details of the Bangkok bombers, who reportedly belong to the same Iranian module that planned assaults on Israeli targets in New Delhi, Georgia and Bangkok last month.”
There’s a new update: The suspects, including the one who blew his own legs off and had to be wheeled into the courtroom, appeared in court today.
They were stunned – STUNNED, I say – to find explosives stashed in their cabinets and were actually fleeing to safety when they went off. It was the dastardly Israelis! Israel planted the explosives.
EDIT: Okay, this report doesn’t have them blaming Israel, but I thought I saw one today in which they did.
Update: The court somehow did not believe the Iranians’ story about having found the explosives in the house once they’d moved in and sentenced them to 15 years and life. Heh.
