A photo Beijing released on March 6th of Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a seismic shock in Washington. There was the Secretary-General of the Chinese Communist Party standing between Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, and Saudi National Security Adviser Musaad bin Mohammed al-Aiban.
This week, the Senate voted down a resolution that would have blocked a defensive weapons sale to Saudi Arabia. The measure attracted support from senators of both parties for its potential to pressure the kingdom to end the war in Yemen. Intercept reporters Sara Sirota and Ken Klippenstein join Ryan Grim to discuss what the politics surrounding Saudi Arabia look like with a Democrat back in the White House. Transcript coming soon.
Source: Deconstructed: Congress Caves to Saudi Arabia on Yemen
Now that the Blob in Washington is increasingly training its sights on China, the US may finally leave the Middle East alone. But it will continue to support dictators in the region as long as oil supplies for allies are at stake. The electric car and the decline of petroleum may be an impetus to democracy, as states lose their overwhelming superiority over society. Washington, D.C. will be irrelevant to those developments. And with the turn to an open embrace of fascism by a majority of the Republican Party, America’s own democracy is walking a tightrope at fifty stories in a high wind with no net.
Source: In the Middle East, the US was Never about Democracy Promotion
BBC Monitoring translates a report in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot that alleges a high UAE official told its correspondent that “The aircraft are part of the deal.” That is, an arms deal was part of the agreement between the two countries, and that the US would sell Abu Dhabi F-35s was openly specified. So the United Arab Emirates made the treaty with Israel not to bring peace to the Middle East but to ensure that it is armed to the teeth. The UAE has a citizen population of only about a million (plus 8 million guest workers), so it is the Rhode Island of the Middle East. The country has enormous oil wealth, however, and has used it to begin asserting itself throughout the region, from Libya to Yemen. It joined Saudi Arabia in an air war on the Shiite Houthi rebels of Yemen, and Abu Dhabi clearly sees its sophisticated fighter jets as one key to regional dominance.
Was F-35 Stealth Jet Sale to Arab UAE at heart of deal with Israel and Trump? Did Netanyahu Lie?
Who we and the USA proudly call Allies in the Middle East
via Youth among 37 Executed by Saudis had Repudiated Confessions as result of Torture
Consider just one. At the end of the class on World War II, I always asked: “What is the moral difference between flying three planes into the Twin Towers and Pentagon—killing 3,000 civilians—and using hundreds of U.S. planes to firebomb Tokyo on March 9, 1945—killing some 90,000 civilians?” Suffice it to say that most cadets didn’t like this question at all.
In sum, as we compare the two military organizations, one must conclude, ultimately, that CENTCOM is at least as terrorist as the IRGC. Maybe more.
No doubt many critics will label this assessment “treasonous.” I call it “ethically consistent.”
Let history be the judge.
Trump has driven the Arab world away from God (ODT)
via Arab World Warms to Russia after Trump gives Syria’s Golan to Israel
Al-Sadr, however, has just announced that he will form a post-election coalition with Hadi al-Ameri, the leader of a heavily pro-Iranian political list, Fatah, that comprises party-militias backed by Iran, who played a major role in defeated the hard line Sunni ISIL terrorist group that took over northern and western Iraq 2014-2017.
via With new pro-Iran Iraq Coalition, Tehran Outmaneuvers Trump-Saudi-Israeli Axis
Saudi Arabia and its allies bombed indiscriminately. A third of their targets have been civilian buildings like schools or hospitals or key civilian infrastructure like bridges. Perhaps half the people they’ve killed have been civilian non-combatants, including children.
Also deadly have been the public health effects of the war.
The numbers on the Saudi-led Yemen War are apocalyptic, worse even than Syria.
The total number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in Yemen is 22.2 million – or 76% of the population – including 11.3 million children.
The Saudis and allies have hit Yemen with 15,000 airstrikes.
5,000 children have been killed.
8,700 civilians have been killed
50,000 civilians have been wounded
1.9 million children are not in school, and both sides have recruited children, some as young as ten, as fighters
11.3 million children need humanitarian assistance, with many on the verge of going hungry.
All in all, 22.2 million Yemenis of all ages need humanitarian assistance, 3/4s of the population.
There have been a million cholera cases and there is the threat of another outbreak.
via Apocalyptic Numbers: The Saudi-Trump War on Yemen | Informed Comment
“Ten thousand more dead civilians in the Middle East, in a region that’s seen 1 million in the last 30 years, by my count… are not going to deter the Saudis and the Israelis from acting against this threat,” he said.
The Threat loss of OIL
“The geostrategic and economic factors that made the Middle East so important to our national security in the past are just as potent today,” Edelman said. Even with recent increases in U.S. energy production as a result of the fracking revolution, “real or even potential disruptions to the flow of oil anywhere would have serious negative effects on our economy.”
With his remarks, Edelman made it clear that U.S. officials continue to value the Middle East for its oil. The region “contains half of global proven oil reserves, accounts for one-third of oil production and exports, and is home to three of the world’s four biggest oil transit chokepoints,” he explained.
via It is all about the Oil: US Diplomats on Mideast Obsession | Informed Comment
Despite allegations of US-led western connivance being denied, the subsequent leaking by Qatar of an official US National Security Agency (NSA) document reference (TS/SI/NF) S2E332 in October, has confirmed the armed opposition in Syria ‘was under the direct command of foreign governments from the earliest days of the conflict’. (2) Furthermore, the NSA document confirmed collusion and coordination between four countries to destabilise Syria.
The Syrian rebels also appear to have been well-financed and equipped with armaments provided by the US through contractors and their front companies in Eastern Europe. An estimated $2.2 billion Soviet-era weapons were actually made available by the Pentagon to rebel groups according to Scott Bennett, a former US Army Operations Officer. (4)
The Strange, Shadowy and Contradictory World of “Counter-Terrorism Experts”
Trump would be wise to heed this warning. Even as U.S. forces continue to turn the tide on IS, the trail of destruction left in the campaign’s wake is unsettling. The specter of massive civilian casualties will remain a rallying point for new terrorist organizations long after anti-IS operations conclude.
Source: More civilian Airstrike Deaths under Trump than in 8 years of Obama | Informed Comment
It is very difficult to accept at face value this newfound determination to defeat terrorism by the Gulf states by humiliating a smaller neighbor whose differences consist primarily of alternative choices of distasteful proxies. By Gary Sick There are several things that I find confounding about the current conflict within the GCC: First, as a member of the US policy team that first applied sanctions against Iran when our diplomats were being held hostage in Tehran, we drew the line at food and medicine. That has remained true in the succeeding 37 years. Despite all the onerous sanctions that the…
Source: What’s the story with the siege on Doha? | +972 Magazine
As Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain criminalise sympathy with Qatar, what will be the long-term impact of these laws?
Source: What’s the human cost of the Gulf row with Qatar? | Qatar | Al Jazeera
This part of ‘The Crusades: An Arab Perspective’ explores the birth of the Muslim revival in the face of the Crusades.
Source: Revival: The Muslim Response to the Crusades – Al Jazeera English
Maybe it’s because I live in Lebanon, and return to Beirut from Aleppo and Damascus, that the place seems so “normal”.
On Saturday at 5pm local time US Central Command launched airstrikes on Syrian army positions in Deir al-Zour in the Thardeh Mountain region, killing 62 Syrian Aran Army soldiers and leaving over 100 injured. The SAA was defending a position it had recently reclaimed from Islamic State, and the air strike enabled IS militants to…
Andrew Bacevich’s fierce and fearless critique of US the military strategy.
Source: America’s war for the Greater Middle East – Al Jazeera English
From foundation and evolution to dispute and division. The story of over 1,300 years of succession and leadership.
Source: The Caliph
If you’re feeling flustered by the mini-heathwave over parts of the UK and Europe at the moment, then you’ll want to avoid the Middle East right now. On Thursday a blistering temperature of 54C (129.3F) was recorded in Kuwait, firmly putting our hot spell into context. It is the highest temperature ever recorded in the eastern hemisphere and almost certainly the highest temperature ever recorded on earth.
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Pew Research has released a report saying that “As a whole, …
Source: Is Religion really Driving Middle East Violence? | Informed Comment
First, they came for Istanbul. On Tuesday night, three suspected Isis militants launched a brazen assault on Turkey’s main airport, exploding their suicide vests after gunning down numerous passengers and airport staff.
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The 2016 Global Peace Index has been released, with the bad …
Source: World More violent in past Year, but Middle East drives Deterioration | Informed Comment
The Sykes-Picot agreement as seen through Arab eyes
The practice of assigning a faith to every citizen promotes division and sectarianism.
Source: Diversity in disunity in the Middle East – Al Jazeera English
Sexual harassment in Egypt has reached such epidemic proportions that it has even infiltrated the campus of the country’s oldest secular university. At the hea
The UK has covertly deployed special forces in Libya, Israel is turning a blind eye to Al-Nusra, and Turkey wants radical Islamists to prevail in the Middle East and go to Europe, are the shocking insights King Abdullah of Jordan confidentially shared with US lawmakers.
People should not be fooled by the branding “1st Gulf War/2nd Gulf War/Iraq War” since what is going on today is the extension of that war and part of larger strategy to control the region, says Michael McPhearson, veteran of the 1st Gulf War.
Source: ‘1st Gulf War biggest outcome – US still there, has no intention to leave’ — RT Op-Edge
The first misconception is the existence of a “true”, supra-historic Islam. A raging fight is currently taking place of who truly represents “Islam
Source: Revisiting misconceptions about “chaos” in the Arab region – Your Middle East
Photo Cred As the elections in the United States continue to attract attention, one major topic of concern is the so called ‘war on terrorism.’ The continuous conflict that’s plagued the Middle East for years continues to move forward, and as former 4 star United States General and Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO told […]
As the Iranian nuclear deal with the U.S. and the five other global powers goes into effect, this is an opportune time to consider the next steps the international c
Source: Everyone tried confrontation. Here’s a better road for the Middle East – Your Middle East
Source: The WorldPost-
After mass beheadings of 47 people, human rights leaders challenge U.S. support for the extremist Saudi monarchy
Iranian government and religious leaders say killing of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr will have serious repercussions for royal family
Source: Saudi Arabia: execution of Shia cleric sparks outrage in Middle East | World news | The Guardian
Presidential candidates on both sides nostalgic for Middle East dictators.
Source: Why Dictators Don’t Bring Stability To The Middle East | ThinkProgress
Any Saudi push to fight terrorism is welcome, but this announcement of an international Islamic coalition is hard to swallow – and has worrying omissions
Source: Is Saudi Arabia’s anti-terrorist alliance real? | Oliver Miles | Opinion | The Guardian
Paris. For French President François Hollande, the attacks in Paris on November 13, carried out by French and Belgian citizens, changed everything. His prior, oft-repeated mantra that “Assad must g…
Source: Who’s Afraid of ISIS?
Since the end of the World War I, for tens of millions of Arabs, a dream is far from becoming a reality.
Source: The Middle East’s century to come – Al Jazeera English
Brennan, who spoke at an intelligence conference in Washington on Tuesday, was joined by other security officials and industry experts.”When I look at Libya, Syria
Source: Military solution ‘impossible’ in parts of Middle East: CIA chief – Your Middle East
Recent reports have it that there is a family feud going on in the House of Saud in Arabia.
Source: The end of the House of Saud? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
A monster lives among the Arabs. Its sole purpose is to terrify people from love and sex. No one has seen it, but we’ve all heard it. The monster whispers at t
Source: Love, sex and the burden of shame on the Arab woman: changing the narrative – Your Middle East
In a report on the impact of conflict on education in six countries and territories across the region, the United Nation’s children fund UNICEF said more than 8,85
Source: 13 million children denied education by Middle East wars – Your Middle East
Gulf analyst Michael Stephens examines the reasons why Gulf states are not taking in Syrian migrants.
Source: Migrant crisis: Why the Gulf states are not letting Syrians in – BBC News
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