Middle East

The Middle East Doesn’t Care About Ukraine

At first, they were ready to go to Ukraine to join the international legion fighting there. But in the weeks following the Russian invasion, the three young Syrian men changed their minds.

“Why would we fight somebody else’s war?” one of them explained last week as the trio sat around a café table in central Berlin. All three friends, all in their early 30s, are refugees and have been in Germany since 2015. They had discussed going to Ukraine to fight the Russians, who had ruthlessly bombed their own city, Aleppo.

But they decided against it. “We have our own problems,” another of the men argued. “[Syrian dictator] Assad is still in power, the Russians still support him — and nobody cares.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Ukraine - Russia", Middle East

How to Undermine Friends and Empower Enemies in the Middle East

Progressive U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East deserves a tragicomic TV series called How to Undermine Friends and Empower Enemies.

The plotline of How to Undermine Friends and Empower Enemies is formulaic. The president, his advisers, and members of Congress pursue agreements, make statements, and introduce resolutions aggravating the Middle East through endangering allies and advancing the interests of adversaries. Main characters include Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Iran, while Hezbollah and Hamas play supporting roles.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inMiddle East, USA

Why Arabs Do Not Trust the Biden Administration

… Prominent Arab political analysts, commentators and journalists are continuing to express fear about Iran’s “expansionist” schemes in the Arab countries, especially Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. They say they are worried that a return to the JCPOA would further embolden the mullahs in Tehran and the Iranian-backed terrorist groups.

The Arabs are saying that they cannot understand the Biden administration’s reluctance to re-designate the Houthi militia as a terrorist organization, particularly after the recent drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Joe Sleazebag Biden", Middle East

The Middle East: The US Is All In or All Out

It is time for the Biden administration to come to terms with the challenging situation in Yemen. It seems that the administration is trying to pick a middle ground, but the Houthis’ ongoing terrorist attacks and the massive scale of the humanitarian crisis rules out staying the course of strategic compromise.

Despite multiple attacks on Abu Dhabi, which include an air base that hosts American military personnel, the current administration seems unwilling to designate the Houthis as the terrorist organization it is. At the same time, however, it wants to put constraints on the use of weapons the U.S. might sell to the United Arab Emirates, whose civilian population has been targeted by the Houthis. As so often happens when you fail to identify a clear direction, the status quo is maintained. For Yemen, this is no longer acceptable.

The State Department is pulling out of the ME, a process begun under Obama.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inMiddle East, USA

The Realignment: In the Middle East, Biden is finishing what Obama started. And his top advisers are all on board.

The Realignment: In the Middle East, Biden is finishing what Obama started. And his top advisers are all on board.

…The Realignment rests on, to put it mildly, a hollow theory. It misstates the nature of the Islamic Republic and the scope of its ambitions. A regime that has led “Death to America” chants for the last 40 years is an inveterately revisionist regime. The Islamic Republic sees itself as a global power, the leader of the Muslim world, and it covets hegemony over the Persian Gulf—indeed, the entire Middle East. But the only instrument it has ever had to achieve its objectives is regional subversion.

Longish read making the case for what we all knew or suspected. As under Obama the OK is being given to Mullah hegemony by Biden.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inMiddle East

Will Communist China Dominate the Middle East?

After Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s almost week-long recent tour of the Middle East, there can be little doubt that China is actively seeking to expand its influence in the region, not only economically but also militarily, diplomatically and politically, actively challenging the long-standing role of the United States as a dominant power in the region.

China’s influence in the Middle East has been growing for years, especially through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a gigantic global infrastructure and economic development project that Chinese President Xi Jinping launched in 2013. Its aim is, it appears, to build an economic and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe, Africa and beyond. This mega development and investment initiative seeks dramatically to enhance China’s global influence from East Asia to Europe by making countries worldwide increasingly dependent on China.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"China - Communist Slave State", Middle East