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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Trump says Lebanon has chance for future ''free from Hezbollah grip'', Iran says will agree to uranium enrichment cap
2025-05-15
[NAHARNET] U.S. President Donald Trump
...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania...
 said Wednesday at a meeting of leaders from the Gulf Cooperation Council hosted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

...Crown Prince and modernizer of Saudi Arabia as of 2016. The Turks hate him, so he must be all right, despite the occasional brutal murder of Qatar-owned journalists...
 in Riyadh that there is in Leb
...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects....
 a new chance for peace and for a future "free from the grip of Hezbollah".

"In Lebanon there is a new chance for a future free from the grip of Hezbollah gunnies if the new president and PM can rebuild an effective Lebanese state," Trump said.

"This is a once in a generation opportunity to forge a Lebanon that is prosperous and at peace with its neighbors," he added.

Trump also told Gulf leaders that he urgently wants "to make a deal" with Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
to wind down its nuclear program but that Tehran must end its support of proxy groups throughout the region -- Hamas
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
 in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Iran's Houthi sock puppets
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
s in Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
-- as part of any potential agreement.

(Iran) "must stop sponsoring terror, halt its bloody proxy wars, and permanently and verifiably cease pursuit of nuclear weapons," Trump said.

The U.S. and Iran have engaged in four rounds of talks since early last month focused on Iran's nuclear program. Trump has repeatedly said that he believes brokering a deal is possible, but that the window is closing.

Trump remarks came after he met with Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Riyadh on the sidelines of the gathering, a day after announcing he was lifting sanctions on the war-battered country.

Hezbollah is severely weakened after its war last year with Israel in which much of its top leadership was killed, and after losing a key ally with the fall of former Syrian President Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Horror of Homs...
, a conduit for Iran to send arms.

What President Trump said in Saudi Arabia on the 13th:
Trump says he wants Iran deal, but Tehran must act fast or face crippling sanctions
[IsraelTime] US President Donald Trump says he wants to strike a deal with Iran amid ongoing nuclear talks, but will cripple Iran’s economy if the Islamic Republic “rejects this olive branch.”

“I want to make a deal with Iran. If I can make a deal with Iran, I’ll be very happy if we’re going to make your region and the world a safer place,” Trump says during a foreign policy speech in Riyadh.

“But if Iran’s leadership rejects this olive branch and continues to attack their neighbors, then we will have no choice but to inflict massive maximum pressure [and] drive Iranian oil exports to zero like I did before,” he says.

“Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. But with that said, Iran can have a much brighter future,” he adds.

“This is an offer that will not last forever. The time is right now for them to choose… Things are happening at a very fast pace,” Trump says.

He calls Iran the “most destructive force” in the Middle East, and blames the regime for instability across the region.

Offering what he describes as both a final warning and a potential opening for diplomacy, he says Iran has a choice between continuing its “chaos and terror” or embracing a path toward peace.
Iran’s response to Trump’s threat:
Iranian official says Tehran will agree to deal that caps uranium enrichment
[IsraelTimes] Iran is willing to agree to a deal with the US in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions, an Iranian official tells NBC News in an interview published on Wednesday.

Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, says Tehran would commit to never making nuclear weapons, getting rid of its stockpiles of highly-enriched uranium, agree to only enrich uranium to the lower levels needed for civilian use, and allow international inspectors to supervise the process, NBC reported.

US officials have offered varying statements regarding whether they’ll accept a deal that allows Iran to maintain a limited enrichment program, though, more recently have asserted that they won’t.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
The End of ‘Palestine'
2025-02-07
[TabletMag] Yesterday, President Donald Trump single-handedly collapsed the most destructive idea of the last hundred years—Palestine. During meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, Trump said he was going to move 1.7 million Palestinians out of Gaza. And just like that, he broke the long spell that had captured generations of world leaders, peace activists, and Middle East terror masters alike, who had paradoxically come to regard the repeated failure and haunting secondary consequences of the idea of joint Arab Muslim and Jewish statehood in the same small piece of land as proof of its necessity.

Palestine was a misshapen idea from the beginning, engendered by an act of pure negation. The Arabs could have gone along with the U.N.’s partition plan like the Jews did, and chosen to build whatever version of Switzerland or Belgium on the eastern Med in 1948. Instead, they resoundingly chose war. That’s the storied "Nakba" at the core of the Palestinian legend—the catastrophe that drove the Arabs from their land and hung a key around the neck of a nation waiting to go home. The Arabs chose the catastrophe; they chose war, based on the premise that they would inevitably win and exterminate the Jews.

Yet despite repeated military failures, and the increasing distance between the first-world powerhouse that the Israelis built and their increasingly war-torn, third-world neighborhood, the global conscience was always predisposed to rebuilding what the Palestinians destroyed. Accordingly, the Palestinian Arabs became a tribe of feral children whose identity was carved out of the relentless vow to eliminate Israel and slaughter the Jews en masse—despite repeated failures, each one more crushing than the last.

Trump said, enough, we’re not rebuilding Gaza. Time for a new idea—the Gazans have to to go, they can try to start again somewhere else, in a land where every building still standing isn’t already wired to explode.
Personally, I believe that Arabs shouldn't live outside Arabian Peninsula.
What if they won’t go, or if the Egyptians and Jordanians won’t take them? They’ll take them, said Trump. Ah, he’s talking big, but it’s not real, say the experts—after all, he’s a real estate guy, and he’s pretending it’s just another property deal to pressure Hamas—Mar-a-Gaza. You can’t move a million people just like that, says an American electorate that elected Trump because he promised to deport tens of millions of illegal aliens who crossed the U.S. border in the last four years. He’s nuts says the D.C. foreign policy crowd: He’ll destabilize Egypt and Jordan, and undermine America’s best Arab friends and allies in the region.

Yet Trump is right to see both Egypt and Jordan as paltry constructions with little-to-no ability to project force on America’s behalf, and whose survival depends month to month on American aid. Cairo is useful to the United States only insofar as it, one, makes sure the Suez Canal is open and, two, observes the peace treaty with Israel—i.e., continues its campaign of repression against a populace of 112 million people who can barely afford to buy bread, and many of whose dreams are filled with the same insanity that drives Hamas. The only antidote to this misery that Egypt’s rulers have found is blaming the Zionists next door for the ills of their own society, while torturing religious extremists in their prisons. Maybe when Elon Musk is finished fixing Washington he can conduct an audit of where American money goes in Egypt. Somehow, I doubt he’d get in the door.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s problem is that he allowed Hamas to smuggle arms through the Philadelphi crossing into Gaza, thereby violating Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel—which is what we nominally pay him for.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s problem is that he allowed Hamas to smuggle arms through the Philadelphi crossing into Gaza, thereby violating Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel—which is what we nominally pay him for. From the perspective of Trump, an American president keen to enforce treaty obligations, Sisi has a new chance to prove himself as a friend of America and not a grafting liar by adding a million Gazans—who in the past have been ruled by Egypt and have family names like al-Masri ("the Egyptian")—to Egypt’s existing population of 112 million, amounting percentagewise to roughly the same number of legal immigrants that the United States accepts per year. Sisi can deal with the Hamas members among the Gazan immigrants the same way he deals with Muslim Brotherhood militants in his own society—or he can give them all medals for their service. It’s up to him.

And if not? Well, he might remember that Hosni Mubarak’s regime collapsed not because of Muslim Brotherhood-led street protests during the 2011 Arab Spring but because Barack Obama withdrew his support from the longtime U.S. ally.

With money from the Gulf states, or even Israel, Sisi can afford to absorb Palestinians and might even volunteer to take all of Gaza—the average salary in Egypt at present being the equivalent of $5,000 per year. He can then leave Jordan’s King Abdullah responsible for the rest of the Palestinians in the likely event that Trump, as he did in his first term, encourages Netanyahu to annex the Jordan Valley, or goes a step further and acknowledges Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.

Since the CIA has long treated the Hashemite Kingdom as a key asset, we can expect within the next week The Washington Post’s David Ignatius to publish an article based on intelligence sources—i.e., U.S. and Jordanian spies—concocting a story about Trump’s rationale for "destabilizing Jordan." The reality is that the Jordanians, with U.S. help, put down a Palestinian rebellion in 1970. The country of a little more than 11 million is already estimated to be two-thirds Palestinian, the rest Jordanian tribesmen, and it’s hard to see how adding another 500,000 Palestinians will make it harder for Jordan’s notoriously effective security services to contain their neighbors, especially if the offer includes a few dozen more Black Hawk helicopters. After all, no one will expect the Jordanians to allow Hamas to build a giant tunnel-city stuffed with rocket factories beneath their encampments while giving them billions in foreign aid to pay for it all.

Re: Saudi Arabia: Moving millions of Gazans who have repeatedly attacked their Israeli neighbors out of what is now a shattered war zone is a sensible investment in the kind of stability that helps rich people get richer.
Again, the key players here aren’t Jordan and Egypt but the oil rich Gulf Cooperation Council states, especially Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and of course Qatar. Trump might make Saudi largesse in resettling the Gazans a precondition for the much-hyped prospect of normalizing relations between Riyadh and Jerusalem. Given the fact that Israel regularly attracts nine- and 10-figure investments from Silicon Valley’s biggest funds, the reality is that the Saudis have little to offer Israel except for money applied to exactly this type of local purpose. Moving millions of Gazans who have repeatedly attacked their Israeli neighbors out of what is now a shattered war zone is a sensible investment in the kind of stability that helps rich people get richer.

The Arabs and Democrats are only the most vocal of the many opposed to Trump’s initiative. Left-wing governments from Europe to Australia are lining up to pledge their allegiance to the fantasy of a Palestinian state, in the hopes of propitiating Muslim and Arab constituencies at home—whose understanding of "peace" means eliminating Israel. But even leaving the patent bad faith of those professing "peace" aside, moving Gazans out of Gaza is the only sane option 14 months after they initiated a campaign of rape, murder, and hostage-taking that brought their own house down on their heads.

After all, what’s more fanciful, moving 1.7 million people out of Gaza, a large portion of whom would simply be required to board air-conditioned buses or walk across the nearby Egypt border, or compelling them to live in a giant rubble field booby-trapped by an Iran-backed terrorist group? Estimates vary as to how long it would take to clear Gaza of explosives—half a decade or more? Fifteen years? Twenty? Are the Gazans supposed to live quietly in tents for the next decade or two while their homes are rebuilt next door? Where? In "temporary cities" made of Dwell Magazine-like rehabbed shipping containers built by graduates of Birmingham University? In Hamas’ tunnels?

Regardless, should the Palestinians remain in Gaza, they would invariably return to war no matter how much munificence the Gulf Arab states, the European Union, and perhaps even the U.S. might shower on the toxic sand castle built over the past two decades with billions of Western aid money. Proof the Palestinians can’t and won’t keep the peace is that even after they won a reprieve when Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff forced the Biden administration’s cease-fire on Jerusalem, Hamas and its NGO-supported human shields celebrated in the streets as if the Hamas space program had successfully landed Palestinians on Mars. Even as Israel released jailed murderers, the Gazans paraded Israeli hostages through the ruins of Gaza like trophies of war.

The Saudis, Qataris, Emiratis and others who now rend their clothes while lamenting the likely fate of their ant-farm death cult might well have counseled: Quiet brothers, you have been spared. Don’t bring attention to yourselves. For the winds of Gaza shift on a whim and who knows if you are not next to be swept away by fate—or the American president.

Here is the stark reality: Gazans, not just the enlisted members of the Hamas brigades, waged an exterminationist campaign against Israel, and they lost. At virtually any other time in history, save the last 75 years, they would be lucky to lose only territory and not have their legend and language permanently deleted from the book of the living.
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The Grand Turk
Erdogan will have to try very hard to remain Syria's main partner
2025-02-07
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Kamran Gasanov

[REGNUM] In 2011, the Turkish and Syrian governments went their separate ways, like ships at sea, and for more than ten years they had no contact, except for meetings at the level of heads of the Foreign Ministry, Defense Ministry, and intelligence services, mediated by Russia. In the last two years, Damascus and Ankara have been preparing to restore ties, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan wanted to meet with Bashar al-Assad. However, to the delight of the Turkish leader, this was no longer necessary.

Now the Turks do not have to negotiate for a long time on unfavorable conditions for establishing diplomatic relations, which depended on the demands to withdraw troops from the northern territories of Syria. If earlier Turkey, with certain exceptions in the form of Kurdish zones, had control only over a thin corridor from the Mediterranean to the border with Iraq, now Ankara can lay claim to broad influence in the capital of Syria.

The head of the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT), Ibrahim Kalin, was praying at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus just four days after the change of power, and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan became the first diplomat to visit the Syrian capital.

Turkey's leadership in Syria, it must be said, was deserved. After all, after the introduction of Russian troops in 2015 and subsequent operations by Assad's army, the armed opposition lost significant territories.

Its former sponsors, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, withdrew, and after Turkish military operations in the north against ISIS* and the Kurdish YPG, the rebels either came under full Turkish control (as the Free Syrian Army, later renamed the Syrian National Army) or were heavily dependent on it (as was the case with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham* and smaller groups in Idlib).

The Americans and Europeans have shifted their focus from the fight against Assad to the fight against Iran and the protection of the Kurds, settling in the Euphrates region.

It is therefore not surprising that the first foreign guests in Damascus are Turks, and one of the top priority destinations for the representatives of the new Syria is Ankara and Istanbul. On January 15, a large delegation headed by Foreign Minister Asad Hassan al-Shibani arrived in the Turkish capita . He was also accompanied by Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Kasra and General Intelligence Director Anas Hassan Khattab.

Given that Turkey is Syria's main military supporter, it was expected that the most important person in the Syrian leadership, Ahmad al-Sharaa, would choose Turkey as his first country to visit. But before arriving in Ankara, al-Sharaa left for a two-day visit to Riyadh.

This circumstance, on the one hand, is surprising. After all, the KSA has not been the main player in Syria for a long time, and moreover, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, together with his colleagues from the League of Arab States, has actually legitimized the "dictator" by returning Assad to the LAS.

However, in politics, such steps are called diversification. Al-Sharaa does not want to fall under complete dependence on Turkey and be Erdogan's puppet, like the president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Therefore, he needs to pursue a policy of multipolarity.

High-level Europeans, including the heads of the French and German Foreign Ministries, as well as EU representatives, have come to Damascus, but they demand too much in return – democracy, inclusiveness, an agreement on the creation of Kurdish autonomy. And from the general experience of the Middle East, it follows that the “Westerners” are dangerous and unreliable allies. Al-Sharaa remembers the history of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi well.

The Gulf monarchies do not lobby for human rights and democracy, but they have fat wallets that the UK and the US, especially Donald Trump, covet. Half-destroyed Syria needs money. And what about Syria - Erdogan himself went on a tour of the Gulf to save the lira, which was falling into the abyss. Where there is money, there is politics.

Damascus wants to have the support of Arab countries, whose leader Saudi Arabia is trying to position itself not without success. Syria is aiming even wider, hoping to legitimize itself and gain weight in the Islamic world through bin Salman. Such support will strengthen Damascus's independence from Ankara, and at the same time will become, albeit light, but still a bulletproof vest against Israel, which has expanded its occupation of Syrian lands.

What the parties actually agreed on in Riyadh is still unclear. In general, during this transition period there are almost no specifics on any international issue, including the fate of the Russian bases.

At the same time, having flown to Ankara after Riyadh, the interim president of Syria appeared before Erdogan as a much more authoritative leader than he had been just a few days ago. Negotiations with Erdogan are a recognition of both al-Sharaa and the realities “on the ground”. And Turkey is now the most influential of the bordering countries. And al-Sharaa is not averse to monetizing the potential offered by its northern neighbor.

It is clear from the content of the speeches of the two leaders that the special relations between Syria and Turkey stem not only from the former's great dependence on the latter. Al-Sharaa and Erdogan are also linked by relative ideological closeness.

The Syrian oppositionists who came to power, including armed ones, and various militant groups set the task of establishing an Islamist regime in the country in one form or another. Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party are their model and guide in this direction.

From the very first days of the change of power, Ankara made it clear that it was ready to help Damascus build state institutions. And Erdogan said at a meeting with his guest that he attached "great importance to the creation of the country's administration." Al-Sharaa, for his part, appreciated "Turkey's efforts to ensure the political and economic success of the current Syrian administration."

The Syrian authorities also cannot ignore the fact that Turkey supported the anti-Assad forces almost alone and until the very end. “Turkey did not leave the Syrian people alone in their most desperate and difficult days,” Erdogan said. His guest did not skimp on words of gratitude in response, saying that he would never forget how Erdogan let millions of Syrian refugees into his country, and how “Syrian and Turkish blood mixed in the liberation struggle.”

The refugee issue will also remain a common point of contact for a long time. Türkiye would like to bring millions of Syrians home so as not to burden its economy and reduce social tensions.

For Al-Sharaa, this is a big burden. It is not that Erdogan will terrorize Syria, like Europe, with a “migration baton,” but Damascus will still be obliged to take Ankara’s opinion into account. But money will also be needed to support the refugees, and in this regard, the help of the Arab monarchies becomes even more relevant.

The most painful issue for Erdogan, perhaps even more than refugees, remains the YPG, the Kurds and their separatism.

Since Assad's fall, Turkish troops have carried out several operations against them in Manbij and Tel Rifaat, but Ankara wants the complete destruction, disarmament or evacuation of YPG and SDF fighters, the lead structure in the northeast.

Al-Sharaa is negotiating with Kurdish representatives, the Kurds themselves initiated the talks. However, there are no specifics yet. The Kurds sometimes raise green-white-black flags, sometimes demand autonomy for their political institutions and armed forces.

Erdogan and al-Sharaa share a position on the territorial integrity and unity of Syria, hinting that there will be no independent Syrian Kurdistan. However, the Turkish president wants more practical steps in this direction.

"We discussed the steps that need to be taken against the separatist terrorist organization and its supporters occupying northeastern Syria. I told him that we are ready to provide Syria with the necessary support in the fight against all forms of terrorism, be it Daesh or PKK," Erdogan said after the talks, expressing satisfaction with al-Sharaa's "firm will" in the fight against terrorism.

Ash-Sharaa himself is in no hurry to drive the horses to the east.

He speaks of interest in a strategic partnership with Turkey in all areas. He also noted that Ankara and Damascus are working on "creating a common strategy to counter security threats in the region" and discussing issues of Syria's integrity in the northeast. However, there is still no clarity regarding a military solution to the issue or ultimatums to the Kurds.

What explains such caution?

Perhaps, the hope for a diplomatic solution to the issue, fear of Turkey's strengthening after the next military operations, in which the key player will be the SNA, not HTS*. Also, al-Sharaa is forced to look back at the US and the EU, from which he needs the lifting of international sanctions, without which Arab rials and dirhams will not flood the Syrian market.

In terms of the economy, Turkey depends, firstly, on the lifting of sanctions under the US Caesar Act, and secondly, on funding from the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Turkey understands the scale of the upcoming reconstruction work and is ready to participate in the construction of infrastructure facilities. "Turkey is ready to provide the necessary support for the reconstruction of Syria," Erdogan said, adding that the Arab and Islamic world should provide material support to the Syrians.

To sum up, we can say that Turkey holds the lead in terms of geopolitical influence in Syria. Western countries have only opened embassies, Arab countries can buy Syria, but they need permission from the West.

Turkey has a presence on the ground in the form of military bases and under certain conditions (if Al-Sharaa does not decide to go to war with the YPG) it can increase it. Incidentally, according to media reports, the construction of two permanent Turkish military bases in Syria is currently being discussed.

At the same time, it is worth noting that the competition for influence over the new Syrian leadership has already begun and will only intensify. Al-Sharaa invited Erdogan to visit Syria "as soon as possible", but Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has already been there. Someone else may appear there before Erdogan arrives.

In short, Ankara has a good starting position, but to play its cards successfully, it needs to take into account a number of other factors, including the West's sanctions toolkit, the Gulf's financial advantages, Arab solidarity, and Israeli pressure. And, of course, one should not discount Ahmed al-Sharaa's still underestimated desire for independence.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
PM: Massive military force fastest way to end war
2023-12-06
[JPost] “If our friends want to help shorten the war, which is also their war against the barbarism that threatens to sweep the world, they simply have to stand firmly by our side,” Netanyahu said.

Overwhelming military force is the quickest way to end the Gaza war and ensure the return of the hostages, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters in Tel Aviv Tuesday night amid international concern about the mounting death toll in the enclave.

“I say from here to our friends in the world who are pushing for a quick end to the war: our only way to end the war, and to end it quickly, is to use overwhelming force against Hamas – and destroy it.

“If our friends want to help shorten the war, which is also their war against the barbarism that threatens to sweep the world, they simply have to stand firmly by our side,” Netanyahu said.

The combined pressure of such an IDF campaign in Gaza combined with a determined diplomatic one is the only way to secure the release of the Hamas-held captives, Netanyahu stressed.

“We’re working to bring all the captives home safely, and I mean everyone,” Netanyahu said.

ISRAEL ESTIMATES 138 HOSTAGES REMAIN IN CAPTIVITY
Israel has calculated that there are some 138 captives remaining of the close to 250 that Hamas seized during its infiltration into southern Israel on October 7, during which it also killed over 1,200 people.

He spoke hours after he and the war cabinet met with relatives of the hostages.

“I told the families that we are sparing no effort to return their loved ones. Returning all our captives is one of the three overarching goals we set for the war, and these goals serve each other,” Netanyahu said.

He recalled that Israel had already secured the release of 110 hostages. Eighty of those were Israeli women and children freed through a deal that ended prematurely on Friday morning.

“We managed to bring home 110 of the captives through a powerful ground campaign like no other and a sustained diplomatic effort.

“And I tell you – this is the only way to return the captives who remain in the captivity of Hamas - and we are obliged to do so,” Netanyahu said.

The IDF has been instructed to continue the war, Netanyahu said.

“Our fighters are expanding ground operations against Hamas everywhere in the Gaza Strip – including in the south of the Strip. Tonight we operated there with tremendous force. The ground shook in Khan Yunis, the ground shook in Jabalya. We surrounded them both. There is no place that we are not reaching,” he said.

“We will fight to the end, until the absolute victory,” he said.

That victory is calculated by the return of the hostages, Hamas’s destruction and ensuring that Gaza does not pose a continued threat to Israel.

“No entity in Gaza will support terror, educate for terror, or finance terror,” he said.

Once the war is over, Gaza must be demilitarized and remain under IDF security control, he said.

“No international power can be responsible for this [Gaza security]. We have seen what happened in other places that brought in international forces,” Netanyahu said.

“I am not ready to close my eyes and accept any other arrangement.

PM TO INT'L COMMUNITY: "WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU" ON HAMAS RAPE?
Netanyahu thundered against the failure of human rights groups and the United Nations to immediately condemn Hamas’s acts of rape and sexual mutilation of its female victims during its October 7,

“Were you quiet because we were talking about Jewish women?” Netanyahu asked.

In English, he asked the international community, “Where the hell are you?”

“I say to the women’s rights organizations, to the human rights organizations. You have heard of the rape of the Israeli women, horrible atrocities, sexual mutilations” at Hamas’ hands?

“I expect all civilized leaders, governments, nations to speak up against this atrocity,” Netanyahu said.

He specifically called out the United Nations which condemned the sexual violence only last week after a protracted campaign by Israel and activist groups.

Speaking at a political fundraiser in Boston, US President Joe Biden said accounts of “unimaginable cruelty” by Hamas toward its female victims had been shared over the past few weeks.

“Reports of women raped – repeatedly raped – and their bodies being mutilated while still alive, of women’s corpses being desecrated, Hamas terrorists inflicting as much pain and suffering on women and girls as possible and then murdering them. It is appalling,” Biden said.

Qatar, which mediated the hostage deal, said Tuesday it was working to repair a collapsed truce agreement between Israel and Hamas,

“We are constantly working to renew [the truce] and to alleviate the burden of our people in the Gaza Strip, but truces are not an alternative for a comprehensive ceasefire,” Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, said in a speech to Gulf leaders gathered in the Qatari capital Doha.

Sheikh Tamim, called on the UN Security Council to force Israel to return to the negotiating table over the war in Gaza, saying the inaction by the international community in halting the conflict was “shameful.” Hamas has asserted that close to 16,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza war-related violence.

“It is shameful for the international community to allow this heinous crime to continue for nearly two months, during which the systematic and deliberate killing of innocent civilians continues, including women and children,” he said.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday’s summit in Doha was aimed at forming a united approach to end the war in Gaza across the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

“Now the ceiling should be raised to talk about a sustainable truce that could lead to ending this war,” Majed Al-Ansari, spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry, told Al Jazeera.
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Arabia
Kuwaiti MP calls on Arab world to cease oil exports to West
2023-10-20
You're welcome, you easily manipulated dipshit.
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] Kuwaiti National Assembly member Shuaib Shaaban urged Arab countries and the Gulf Cooperation Council to cease exporting oil to Western countries supporting Israel and to use it as a weapon.

"It is remarkable that the heinous crimes to which the people of Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
 are currently being subject coincide with the 50th anniversary of the meeting of Arab oil ministers in Kuwait on October 17, 1973," Shaaban said, according to Kuwaiti media.

He added that the ministers at that time "took one of the bravest Arab decisions ever, which was to stop exporting oil to Western countries that support the Zionist occupation forces."

"With the interruption of Arab oil supplies at that time, fuel prices rose rapidly in Western capitals, stock market shares collapsed, and performance rates in the global economy declined," Shaaban explained.

This step affected the global economy for several years, which proves that it is a proven and effective weapon, according to the Kuwaiti MP.

He called for using the oil weapon again to impose a practical and collective diplomatic and economic reality that relieves the pressure on the Gaza people.

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India-Pakistan
Quran desecration in Hague 'deliberately provocative, Islamophobic act': FO
2023-09-26
[GEO.TV] Pakistain condemned in the strongest terms the latest senseless and deeply offensive act of desecration of the Holy Koran outside embassies of Moslem countries in The Hague, Netherlands, terming it a "deliberately provocative and Islamophobic act", the Foreign Office said on Monday.

"It is a deliberately provocative and Islamophobic act that has hurt the sentiments of Moslems around the world. Such acts cannot be condoned under the guise of freedom of expression, opinion and protest," a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) read.

It added that the country believes that freedom of expression comes with responsibilities.

Pakistain also urged the governments of different countries to actively prevent racist and Islamophobic acts, which incite religious hatred.

"It is important for the international community to raise its voice against Islamophobia
...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do...
 and work in concert to promote interfaith harmony," the statement also said while referring to the 2022 United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
 resolution on combating Islamophobia.

It further stated that Islamabad has conveyed its concerns to the Dutch authorities. "We urge them to be mindful of the sentiments of the people of Pakistain and Moslems around the world and take active steps to prevent such hateful and Islamophobic acts."

It may be noted that the incidents of Koran burning
...One of the basic tenets of Islam is that once a Koran has been printed it is expected to last for all time, no matter how old, ratty, and smelly other, lesser holy books may become. Should it actually become necessary to put a Koran out of its misery there is a ritual that includes extensive charivari, featuring long drawn-wailing and head bonking, ritual wife beating, and the sacrifice of dozens of women's noses and pubic lips. When the actual disposal has been completed there is a prescribed period of celebratory gun sex with the expectation of a minimum of two hundred casualties. Should actual infidels dispose of a Koran, Islamic custom calls for three weeks of rioting and a minimum of three dozen dead, which is a holdover from the days of Moloch worship....
 and desecration have been on the rise for the last few months.

Last month, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) expressed grave concern over an increase in Islamophobia after a spike in incidents of Holy Koran burning in Nordic nations.

Notorious people, with their governments' approval, have in the last few weeks desecrated the holy book in Sweden and Denmark, inviting strong criticism from Moslem countries.
Dawn adds:
Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah had reported on Saturday that Dutch far-right activist Edwin Wagensveld, who leads the Dutch branch of the far-right group Pegida, had desecrated the Holy Quran in front of the Turkish, Pakistani and Indonesian embassies in the Hague and “insulted Islam and Muslims”.

Separately, Saudi Arabia also issued a condemnation and denounced the incident in a statement posted earlier today on the social media platform X.

Meanwhile, Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary General Jassim Mohammed Al-Budaiwi called for “urgent and effective international steps to confront these aggressive and provocative actions against Muslims.”

The OIC also criticised the “provocative act” in a statement issued a day ago.

Last month, Wagensveld had trampled on and tore up a copy of the Holy Quran at a demonstration outside the Turkish embassy in The Hague, infuriating dozens of counter-protesters.

The Dutch government had already condemned the holding of the demonstration ahead of the event but said it had no legal powers to prevent it.

Similar incidents of the Holy Quran’s desecration have taken place in other European countries recently. In late July, two men set fire to a copy of the Quran in front of the Swedish parliament, and similar incidents have taken place in Denmark this year.

Such demonstrations have provoked anger and condemnations and sometimes unrest in several Muslim countries.

Muslim leaders addressing the United Nations General Assembly last week had berated the West over torchings of the Holy Quran.
Related:
Pegida: 2023-08-19 Far-right activist rips up Quran during protest in the Netherlands, In Sweden Koran-burner meets fire extinguisher
Pegida: 2023-02-01 US warns citizens of ‘imminent’ terror threat to synagogues, churches in Istanbul
Pegida: 2023-01-24 Muslim world reacts to anti-Islam protests: Furious Indonesia and Turkey summon envoys after Korans were destroyed in stunts in Sweden and the Netherlands
Link


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
'Descendant of the Janissaries'. Agent of Turkey and the United States will become the Minister of Defense of Ukraine
2023-09-05
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Denis Davydov

[REGNUM] The candidacy of the new Minister of Defense of Ukraine Rustem Umerov in numerous publications regarding the reshuffle is considered mainly linearly, based on the official biography and the fact that this not very public Crimean Tatar has long been “in the cage”. And he got there straight from the unregistered "Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people" (an organization recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation), which entered into an alliance with Western Ukrainian nationalism in the early 2000s.

Being involved in the financing and activities of the "Mejlis" through the family, being an assistant to its leader Mustafa Dzhemilev on human rights and international activities, Umerov was completely consciously tested in politics. He is, as they say, a “cadre officer”, specially nurtured for this work from the moment when our hero got to the Crimean boarding school for gifted children in the village. Tank, Bakhchisarai region.

A number of sources mention an alleged incident in which Turkish media questioned Umerov about his ties to FETO, the movement of Islamic preacher Mohammed Fethullah Gülen , classified as a terrorist organization by Turkey, Pakistan, Northern Cyprus and the Gulf Cooperation Council.

However, it is unlikely that the real Turkish press did not know that FETO has been in a tactical alliance with the Justice and Development Parties of the current President Erdogan since 2002 . Thanks to this, the AKP showed an unprecedented result in the history of the Republic of Turkey, having formed governments three times following the results of elections in 2002, 2007 and 2011. Thanks to Erdogan, the Gulen movement gained influence in the Turkish police and judiciary, hundreds of supporters of one of the most influential Muslims in the world were appointed to government positions.

Back to Istanbul. Türkiye wants to revive two profitable processes
The Gulen movement used its influence to actively work in the field of education, it had private schools and universities in more than 180 countries. And in the aforementioned gymnasium, founded in 1993, even as of autumn 2014, Turkish citizens worked as teachers. But if the tank gymnasium even entered Gülen's orbit, then Erdogan enjoys the fruits of its work.

The current candidate for Ukrainian ministers can be seen in photographs from the official meetings of the Turkish president with the head of the Crimean Tatar "Mejlis" Mustafa Dzhemilev . And there were many such meetings, and here it should be noted that Turkey's strong connection with the Crimean Tatars, in principle, deserves attention. There they are a political factor, weighing several million (different sources show a figure of 3-6 million) people.

More kyrymly historically live on the territory of the Republic of Turkey than in Crimea itself. Until the beginning of the 20th century, they immigrated from there in six counted waves, the main of which occurred after the annexation of the southern lands to the Russian Empire in 1783, after the Crimean War of 1853-1856 and after the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. About 20 thousand people moved to Turkey from Crimea even in 2022.

Tatars played a very significant role in the socio-political, economic and cultural life of the Ottoman Empire, occupied high positions in the structure of government, among the clergy, their representatives are known for their achievements in culture and science.

So there is nothing surprising, for example, in the fact that Noman Chelebidzhikhan and Jafer Seydamet , leaders of the Milli Firka national party, which claimed autonomy for Crimea during the Civil War, studied and lived in Turkey. In the spring of 1918, Seydamet returned to the Crimea occupied by the German army and became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Crimean regional government of General Matvei Sulkevich ("Suleiman Pasha"). A Tatar by birth, Sulkevich immediately established diplomatic relations with Istanbul, hoping to proclaim the independence of Crimea under his wing. And he sent his minister on a diplomatic mission to Berlin. Seydamet and Turkish journalist Mustejib Ulkusaltraveled in 1942, insisting on the creation of a national Crimean Tatar government in Crimea.

Actually, the special attitude towards the Crimean Tatars (as well as, in principle, towards Muslims) on the part of Nazi Germany was dictated by the desire to please Turkey, to stir up pan-Turkist sentiments. In World War I, she was an ally. In the Second, the Germans wanted the same, realizing that Turkey still had its own interests, coming from those times when the Black Sea was an inland reservoir of the Ottoman Empire.

Such interests exist to this day, as well as the theme of the autonomy of the Crimea, the conductors of which were and remain the Crimean Tatars. Turkey promoted it in the 30s under the Bolsheviks, and in the 90s under Ukraine, when the young Rustem Umerov studied at the gymnasium, and the Tatars returned from Central Asia and bought houses with the money that the Mejlis took from the Turks.

Back in the early 2000s, the author personally recorded Turkish television broadcasting to the peninsula, where the basic political theses “whose Crimea” were brought to the audience in Turkish. Subsequently, Mustafa Dzhemilev and his colleagues became a "pro-Ukrainian party" in the sense that they pursued a common goal with Bandera's Galicia: to eliminate Russian influence and take Crimea under control. Under whose - the parties planned to decide later, and in 2014 the Tatars supported the Maidan and actively joined the struggle "for the Ukrainian Crimea."

And when this struggle was lost, the leadership of the "Mejlis" moved to Kyiv, where the goal of the Crimean Tatar movement was already accepted by default - the creation of a national territorial autonomy of an ethnocratic nature. Crimea was “given away” to the “Mejlis” in absentia. That is why he remains faithful to the Kyiv regime and the Crimean Tatars, in fact, are the only national minority in the country that has the right to public linguistic and cultural manifestations.

At the same time, this lobby maintains close ties with both Turkey and the Sunni states of the Middle East. Umerov also made a career not just anywhere, but in the Life :) mobile communications company, owned by the Turkish operator Turkcell. In the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, he was the co-chairman of the parliamentary friendship groups with Turkey and Saudi Arabia. And he accompanied President Zelensky to the Saudis and his wife during a visit to the UAE on his own. Long-standing connections there were established by the same Dzhemilev, who passed them on to his pupil.

That is, following the general logic, the new Minister of Defense entered the quota from old comrades-in-arms and symbolizes the main interest of Ukraine's military efforts. It is also a guarantee of agreements on who will actually own the “Ukrainian Crimea”. One can state a deep curtsey towards Turkey, which, according to the old tradition, the true masters of the Ukrainian situation want to get into allies.

At the same time, Mr. Umerov agreed with them.

The FLEX Future Leaders Exchange Fellow, funded by the US Department of State, was selected for a reason.

From a Turkish company, he stepped onto the career ladder in the system of Ukrainian government, on which by the age of 41 he had reached significant heights. The ASTEM investment company was allocated to feed him, which through the ASTEM Foundation funded the Ukrainian New Leaders program, a 10-month internship at Stanford University. The program's website reports that faculty members include leading political scientists " who conduct research on democracy, development and the rule of law": Michael McFaul, Larry Diamond, Francis Fukuyama, Anna Grzymala-Busse, Eric Jensen. Basically - prominent experts on the problem of pacification of Russia.

It is curious that ICG Investments and iCapital, which are indicated everywhere as Rustem's places of work, are affiliated with ASTEM, whose chief adviser and member of the Advisory Board is his respected dad, Enver Umerov, a resident of Boca Raton, Florida, USA. And this firm has a connection with the Florida company Surfside, owned by Rustem's older brother, one of the main sponsors of the Mejlis, Aslan Enverovich Omer Kirimli.

So whether Umerov will cope with the duties of the head of the military department is not a question.

First, he is not very worried about the result. Secondly, the minister in Ukrainian realities is primarily a communicator, and Umerov, who speaks English and Turkish and has been tested in negotiation groups, can speak. A completely loyal specialist in general and should not have any specific knowledge in the field of state property management or the army economy.

Like other similar agents of influence (for example, former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk), they move from position to position simply to gain experience in new conditions. And all the necessary decisions are sent down to them from above and assisted in the implementation through the institute of assistants and advisers accompanying key departments.

Quite a typical personnel decision for “independent Ukraine”, where, along with visible power, there is a parallel structure that regulates and guides. The growth of its influence only confirms the simple fact that all the actions taken in recent years are agreed upon by senior comrades and are part of a plan that has nothing to do with the interests of Ukraine itself. So this word in the new position of Rustem Umerov should be considered very conditionally.

Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard runs drill on disputed Persian Gulf islands
2023-08-03
[IsraelTimes] Islands are claimed by UAE; exercise comes as US military presence in region grows

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched a surprise military drill Wednesday on disputed islands in the Persian Gulf, just as the US military increase its presence in the region over recent ship seizures by Tehran.

The drill focused primarily on Abu Musa Island, though the Guard also landed forces on the Greater Tunb Island as well, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported. Ships, drones and missile units took part in the drill, the report said.

Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
did not provide a reason for launching the drill, though such snap exercises have happened in the past.

"We always try for security and tranquility; it is our way," the Guard’s chief, Gen. Hossein Salami, said in a televised address during the drill. "Our nation is vigilant, and it gives harsh responses to all threats, complicated seditions and secret scenarios and hostilities."

However,
it was a brave man who first ate an oyster...
 the drill comes as thousands of US Marines and sailors on both the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan and the USS Carter Hall, a landing ship, are on their way to the Persian Gulf. Already, the US has sent A-10 Thunderbolt II warplanes, F-16 and F-35 fighters, as well as the destroyer USS Thomas Hudner, to the region.

The Pentagon has said the deployment is "in response to recent attempts by Iran to threaten the free flow of commerce in the Strait of Hormuz and its surrounding waters." Some 20% of the world’s oil passes through the narrow waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to the wider world and the US views it as crucial to both its national security and keeping global energy prices stable.

Meanwhile,
...back at the the conspirators' cleverly concealed hideout the long-awaited message arrived. They quickly got to work with their decoder rings...
 Iran now enriches uranium closer than ever to weapon-grade levels after the collapse of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

The use of Abu Musa and Greater Tunb in the drill also provides another message to the region. Those two islands remain claimed by the United Arab Emirates, home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Iran’s late shah seized the islands in 1971 just before the UAE became an independent country and Tehran has held the islands since. Lesser Tunb Island was also seized.

Seizing those islands reminds Iran’s neighbors of its military might as Tehran’s diplomats have been trying to convince Gulf Arab countries allied with the US that "foreigners" aren’t needed to secure the region.

Meanwhile,
...back at the the conspirators' cleverly concealed hideout the long-awaited message arrived. They quickly got to work with their decoder rings...
 Iran has been trying to signal its displeasure over recent comments about the islands made by Russia, which Tehran has supplied with bomb-carrying drones for its war in Ukraine. Russia earlier this summer in a joint statement with the Gulf Cooperation Council called for "bilateral negotiations or the International Court of Justice" to decide who should control the islands. That prompted an outcry in Iran and Tehran summoned the Russian envoy over the remarks.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran to Pursue Peaceful Nuclear Program: Kanaani
2023-02-18
Peaceful like Islam means submission?
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani says that the Islamic Theocratic Republic would carry on with its peaceful nuclear energy program and constructive cooperation with IAEA.

Kanaani made the remarks on Thursday in reaction to a joint statement by the United States and the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council.

The thoroughly anti-Iranian statement was issued by American and PGCC officials during a meeting of the so-called "Working Group on Iran" at the council’s headquarters in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Wednesday. It saw the countries in question accusing Iran
...The nation is noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence...
of leading "destabilizing policies," "supporting terrorism," "weapons proliferation...in the region and around the world," and "nuclear provocations."

Kanaani roundly rejected the accusations that were leveled against the Islamic Theocratic Republic in the statement, describing them as "oft-repeated" and "tedious."

He considered the issuance of such statements to be in line with the US regime’s age-old strategy of sowing division among the countries of the region.

The official went on by citing many instances of the US "destructive" and "interventionist" policies in the region, which had worked to disrupt regional stability and security.

The spokesperson enumerated the US’s sales of millions of dollars worth of weapons to the regional states, its "support for Takfiri
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed...
 terrorism," its "continued all-out backing of the Zionist regime’s crimes against the oppressed Paleostinian people," and Washington’s contribution to the years-long devastating war against the Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
i nation.
Link


Economy
Gulf states to experience low demand for oil, new Survey reveals
2023-01-25
Thoughts, dear Reader?
[Garowe] The economies in the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council will grow this year at half the rate of 2022 as oil revenues take a hit from an expected mild global slowdown, according to the median view from a Rooters poll of economists.

Crude oil prices, a major driver for Gulf economies, are down more than a third from last year's highs and were expected to remain under pressure this year over fears of a recession in major economies sapping demand.
It’s a little late to fear a recession when the usual indicator — 6 months/2 quarters of negative GDP growth — has apparently already happened. Although I really do wonder how much the oil price drop is related to new discoveries around the world.
Overall growth in the six GCC economies was forecast to average 3.3 percent and 2.8 percent this year and next respectively, the Jan. 9-23 poll showed, down from 4.2 percent and 3.3 percent in the previous poll.

"The outlook for 2023 is more cautious given the weaker external environment, although the GCC will likely continue to outperform many developed economies in terms of GDP growth," wrote Khatija Haque, head of research and chief economist at Emirates NBD.

"While oil and gas output growth is expected to slow this year, continued investment to boost production capacity in the region should see the sector contribute positively to headline GDP again in 2023."

Brent crude is expected to average $89.37 a barrel in 2023, nearly 4.6 percent lower than the $93.65 consensus in a November survey and lower than an average of $99 per barrel seen last year, a separate Rooters poll showed.

Saudi Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century...
, the region's largest economy and top crude oil exporter, was forecast to grow 3.4 percent this year and 3.1 percent in 2024, slightly outperforming the region as a whole. The economy expanded at a record pace of 8.8 percent in 2022.

Economic growth in the UAE was expected at 3.3 percent this year, down from 6.4 percent last year.

Among other Gulf countries — Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
, Oman, and Bahrain — growth was expected at 2.4 percent - 2.7 percent for 2023. Kuwait was seen growing at 1.7 percent.

Despite lower oil GDP growth, non-oil growth was expected to remain resilient in 2023, economists in the survey said.

Analysts expected continued current account surpluses for the main Gulf economies, based on relatively high oil prices.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait were predicted to see double-digit growth in current account surpluses in 2023, with Oman and Bahrain in single digits.

The inflation outlook was modest, but varied, with the lowest in Oman at 1.9 percent and the highest at 3.1 percent in the UAE.
Link


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russia pushes for authoritarians to join Shanghai Cooperation Organization
2022-09-11
[Jpost] The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is holding its annual summit this year in Samarkand. The gather of a number of authoritarian regimes usually goes unnoticed in the West. However, this year’s gathering, which will take place this week, showcases how Russia, despite the invasion of Ukraine, will be greeted with respect by a number of other authoritarians. Uzbekistan, a country that is ostensibly close to the US and the West, is hosting the meeting. High-level meetings between China and Russia as well as Iran, Russia, Turkey and China are expected.

The states are expected to sign a memorandum on Iran’s role in the SCO this year. “We expect [SCO] leaders to sign a memorandum on Iran’s commitments to join the organization, after which Iran would fulfill [its] commitments in accordance with the procedures and complete its accession to the organization,” SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming told Russia’s TASS on Friday.

Iran isn’t the only authoritarian regime coming to the SCO. Belarus has also submitted an application. “The SCO is currently actively discussing Belarus’s application, and major coordination work is underway on behalf of the Secretariat. We believe there will eventually be consensus,” Zhang Ming said, according to reports.

With the exception of India, the countries that attend the SCO are generally authoritarian regimes. The SCO has eight members and includes six dialogue partners. The countries that attend include Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Afghanistan, Iran and Belarus are observers. Armenia and Azerbaijan, along with Turkey are attending this year as partners of the grouping. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar are also reportedly becoming dialogue partners.

Turkish state media is highlighting Ankara’s role this year at the meeting. This is part of Turkey’s growing alliance with Russia, Iran and China. Turkey wants to form an alliance of authoritarian regimes that will be anti-western and help reduce the US role in the Middle East and Asia. The SCO increasingly appears as a forum that is designed to confront the US. Countries like Pakistan under its former leader Imran Khan often spoke out against the US and said he was seeking to create a “multi-polar” world alongside Russia. Far-right commentators in Turkey who back the ruling AKP party are also proud of Ankara’s role alongside Russia and China at the meeting.

The SCO didn’t have turn out this way. It didn’t have to end up as a grouping that gives a positive greeting to Russia in the wake of the Ukraine invasion and promotes membership for more authoritarian regimes. However recent years and summits have clearly been used by Russia, China and others to create a forum that is totally disconnected from the West. The goal is increasingly a world that exists without the West. What that means is a way to avoid US and western sanctions on Russia or Iran. These countries have common interests. Turkey, which is buying the S-400 from Russia and is now outside the US F-35 program, a partnership with Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Belarus and China is also a key part of the current Turkish government’s approach.

In the Middle East countries increasingly look to the SCO as a grouping that is important. What this means is that it is not only seen as a gathering of Central Asian states, it is growing to have more importance as it expands partnerships to Ankara, Tehran and Belarus.

An article at Arab news noted that “established in 2001 as a successor to the Shanghai Five, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is the largest regional grouping in Eurasia, covering around 40 percent of the world’s population and 30 percent of global economic output. Owing to its impressive profile of security and economic cooperation, the SCO has gained enormous traction across Asia. No surprise that a number of countries from the Middle East and Southeast Asia are lining up to join as dialogue partners, observers and members.”

WHO ELSE MIGHT JOIN?
The Arab News article claimed recently that “the UAE reportedly wants to join the SCO as a member, bypassing other accession conditions. Syria, Iraq, Israel, Bangladesh and Vietnam also hope to join as dialogue partners or observers.” The article, by Ishtiaq Ahmad, a former journalist who has been vice chancellor of Sargodha University in Pakistan and Quaid-e-Azam Fellow at the University of Oxford, writes that the SCO is not an anti-US bloc, “quite the contrary, its evolution conforms to the familiar pattern of ‘new regionalism’ in the developing world, which has produced viable regional organizations, such as the Gulf Cooperation Council and ASEAN. All are intergovernmental organizations with similar structures, defying the supranational mode of integration in the EU.”

His assertion might ring more true if western countries and democracies were also seeking to be partners of the SCO. Iran and Belarus running to join appear to indicate that this is not what is happening. Ahmad notes that “the SCO’s comparative distinction arises from its rapid progress in forging close security and economic collaboration. The Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure is its key institution to counter the three evils. Security cooperation is reinforced by military exercises, dubbed as peace missions, and counterterrorism drills held periodically in the member states.” He also writes that “their overarching goal is to create the Greater Eurasian Partnership by synergizing SCO’s developmental activities with multilateral integration projects in Eurasia, including China’s Silk Road Economic Belt and Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union.” His conclusion is that the Gulf states should seek to work with the SCO and diversify their “geo-economic linkages in Asia without jeopardizing geopolitical partnership with the US.”

His article also argues that with Iran joining the SCO is a positive sign because countries that join are less likely to cause trouble with other members and partners. Indeed, Iran is increasingly an ally of Russia and Turkey. The fact is that Iran continues to destabilize the Persian Gulf and threaten many countries in the Middle East. It remains a key question whether countries that are close to the US and the West will seek dialogue with the grouping. India is the one major exception of a country that is close to the West and also works with the SCO.
Related:
Shanghai Cooperation Organization: 2022-07-03 Saudis Consider Joining BRICS - Impact on Dollar as World Reserve Currentcy
Shanghai Cooperation Organization: 2022-06-24 The West does not live by the truth: Interview of Sergey Lavrov
Shanghai Cooperation Organization: 2021-10-15 Terrorists flood into Afghanistan: Russia's Putin
Link


International-UN-NGOs
Establishing ‘Arab NATO’ is not possible at current stage: Egypt’s FM
2022-07-01
[AlAhram] Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry stated on Wednesday that establishing an Arab military alliance akin to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
) is not possible and would not be proposed..
Like NATO would be ineffective without America, an Arab NATO would be just another talk shop without Israel —distressing though it is for certain parties to contemplate. Better nothing official than that.
Shoukry’s remarks came in a joint presser Wednesday with Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Alzayani on the sidelines of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi’s two-day visit to Bahrain.

In the past few days, speculation regarding the creation of an "Arab NATO" involving US-sponsored Arab-Israeli security cooperation has widely circulated in advance of US President Joe The Big Guy Biden
...46th president of the U.S. You're a lyin' dog-faced pony soldier. Of course Corn Pop is a real person....
’s visit to the region in mid-July.

Though Shoukry ruled out the idea of creating an Arab NATO at the current stage, he stressed the importance of reinforcing joint Arab action, according to the Bahraini daily Akhbar-Alkhaleej.

"We are confident that our joint capabilities are great and capable of protecting Arab national security interests against any interference from outside the Arab region," the Bahraini newspaper quoted Shoukry as saying.
No doubt.
The top Egyptian diplomat stressed, "we have an interest in continuing consultations and coordination at the level of relevant leaderships and agencies to maximise benefit from cooperation among us in all fields [including] political, economic and security, because we have a common history and destiny that must be preserved."

In an interview with to CNBC earlier this week, Jordan's King Abdullah II said he believed a Middle Eastern military alliance could be built with like-minded countries, stressing that the vision of such an alliance must be very clear.
“We’ll be in charge, and someone else will do the work.”
The remarks come nearly two weeks before the upcoming Gulf Cooperation Council+3 Summit which will be chaired by Saudi Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century...
 on 16 June.

The summit will host the heads of state of the GCC countries, the leaders of Egypt, Jordan and Iraq, as well as US President Joe Biden, who will be making his first tour in the Middle East by visiting Saudi Arabia, Israel and the West Bank.
It doesn’t sound like Israel will participate, but they have an election to deal with.
Link



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