China Working to Boost Role in Middle East

China’s President Xi Jinping gives a speech during the 8th Ministerial Meeting of China-Arab States Cooperation Forum at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on July, 10, 2018. (WANG ZHAO/AFP/Getty Images)

 

Growing influence in the region helps China accelerate its Belt and Road Initiative.

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered remarks in Beijing on July 10 at the eighth ministerial meeting of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum. Xi’s basic message to the representatives from 21 Arab nations and to the secretary general of the Arab League was that China seeks to become more involved in the Middle East.

He stressed the importance of Sino-Arab relations, saying, “Arab states and China are natural partners.”

Russia and China rush to fill Mideast void left by Obama

It was meant to be a farewell visit by a cherished friend heading for retirement. Instead, Barack Obama’s visit to Saudi Arabia Tuesday and Wednesday turned into an unwanted call by an uninvited guest at an inconvenient time.

It started a the airport, when Saudi King Salman sent one of his nephews to greet the US president on arrival in Riyadh. The gesture was specially telling because the Saudi monarch had spent much of the day personally welcoming other leaders at the airport. It ended not much better: forced smiles, unconvincing statements of solidarity.

It was typical of what has become the Obama Doctrine: dropping old allies in the hope of turning adversaries into new friends.

Needless to say, the gamble has failed.

Policy-Shaping Power in the Middle East (I)

BAGHDAD/ERBIL/BERLIN (Own report) – With its military intervention in Syria and Iraq, Germany is emerging as a “policy-shaping power in the Middle East,” according to a government advisor of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). The intervention in Syria, decided last week, could, therefore, last ten years and could be accompanied by “long-term” efforts to “politically reorganize” the entire region, with the cornerstone being military units, equipped and trained by the German government, serving as ground troops for the war against the “Islamic State” (IS/Daesh). In Iraq, the militia of the Kurdish Regional Government in northern Iraq could take on this role, whereas Berlin only provides minimal support to the Iraqi government’s armed forces. Whereas the government in Baghdad has good relations with Iran and Russia, the Kurdish Regional Government in northern Iraq is seen as loyal to the West. Having illegally remained in office beyond the August deadline in an insidious coup, the Regional Government’s President Masoud Barzani, with whom German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier met yesterday, is responsible for the brutal repression of civil protests. Ultimately – and with Berlin’s military aid for his Peshmerga – Barzani may be able to proclaim “Iraqi Kurdistan’s” statehood.

Is Egypt About to Fall Into Chaos—Again?

The crash of a Russian airliner in the Sinai Peninsula is just the latest weight on the shoulders of Egypt’s beleaguered President Sisi.

For Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, it could not have come at a worse time.

On Saturday, October 31, a passenger plane carrying mostly Russian nationals fell from the sky over the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 on board. Initially, the Egyptian government (as well as the Russian) did their best to quell any suggestion that terrorism was the cause. Yet within a week, the United Kingdom had halted flights in and out of the popular tourist destination of Sharm el-Sheikh, declaring that the crash was most likely the result of a bomb on board.

The Radius of Germany’s Governance Policy

DAMASCUS/NEW YORK/BERLIN (Own report) – A German government advisor has been given a leading function in future negotiations to end the war in Syria. Volker Perthes, Director of the Chancellery-financed German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), will head one of the “working groups” recently created by Staffan de Mistura, the UN and Arab League’s Special Envoy to Syria, to create a framework for concrete talks between Syria’s government and opposition. Perthes, one of the most experienced German experts on the Middle East, attributes to Germany and the EU “primary governance responsibility” for those regions bordering on Europe in North Africa as well as the Middle East. He is supportive of possibly sending a “peacekeeping” military mission to Syria – even with German Bundeswehr participation. The SWP, under his direction, is researching the current “fragmentation of Syria” and the “development of political options” for that devastated country. Three years ago, the institute was still engaged – under the title, “The Day After” – in planning Syria’s reorganization with the Syrian opposition, in the aftermath of what, at the time was considered the eminent overthrow of Syria’s President Assad.

What Russia is up to in Syria and the ‘progressive’ U.S. suicide

As oft said here, America is suiciding itself, and in more ways than this article states.

Note: As in other rare cases when an article deserves special recognition, a majority of this article will stay posted here. Still be sure to click the source link for the full article.

 

A new round of the “Great Game”* in Syria demonstrates not so much Moscow’s growing power, as the intellectual vacuum in the West.

Western leaders, the media and experts state the obvious: the Kremlin is trying to save Assad. Of course, yes, but principal points remain outside of the focus of their attention.

It is not only about Syria. It’s about two polar ideologies, two worldviews that are incompatible with each other.

Saudi bombing raids will continue in Yemen until rebels ‘withdraw and surrender their weapons’: Arab League

Saudi-led bombing raids will continue in Yemen until Shia insurgents who have taken control of swathes of the country “withdraw and surrender their weapons,” the Arab League said Sunday.

Officials from Sunni Arab states, attending a summit in the Egyptian city of Sharm el Sheikh, also announced plans to set up a joint reaction force to tackle uprisings in the region.

Russia discusses cooperation with African Union

The high-ranking Russian diplomat participated in the 24th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of States and Governments of the African Union

MOSCOW, January 31. /TASS/. Russia’s plenipotentiary presidential representative on the Middle East and African countries, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail bogdanov discussed in Addis Ababa development of cooperation between Russia and the African Union, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.

Al Saud Media: Assad and His Family Stay on a Russian Navy Ship

Translated from Arabic to English by using Google, we now know why he hasn’t been caught just yet:

“Al-Watan” from intelligence sources that the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, he lives with his family and close associates limited him aboard a warship in the Mediterranean sea, guarded by Russian. The informed sources “home” with information, stating that “Assad travels to and from the warship by helicopter afford to a site inside Syria, and transmits its transnational dimension cars common to the People’s Palace under heavy guard, in case he had a date for the formal reception or protocols,” but Most residence be in the ship, according to sources, who attributed it for two reasons: first, to provide a safe environment for the President who has lost confidence, one way or another, in the security cordon near him, and that it was worried that penetrate the ring is easy, according to the sources. In this context published “home” two weeks ago, citing intelligence sources, news recruit and Ministry of Intelligence and Security of Iran’s Dean Hafez Makhlouf – a cousin of President Assad – without the knowledge of Assad and leaders of military and intelligence Syrian, which has become a major concern to the lion of breakthroughs, According to the sources.

The Day After

As was discussed in a previous post, the plan was to whittle away at Iran, one country after another until it is isolated.

BERLIN/WASHINGTON/DAMASCUS (Own report) – German-US-American plans for Syria’s transformation along the lines of the Western model are already meeting resistance, even before the possible overthrow of the Assad regime. For months, German government advisors from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) have been working on measures to be immediately implemented following an overthrow of the government in Damascus. These plans are being forged in the German capital in collaboration with the state financed United States Institute for Peace (USIP) and about 45 Syrian opponents, with the objective of installing a pro-western regime in Damascus as soon as possible. Inside Syria, however, it is becoming more and more apparent that influential insurgent militias will not submit to the West and will insist on their independence, according to a study, focused on the example of one military rebel unit near Aleppo. The Islamist oriented forces among the militias would have to be given more influence in Syria’s transformation. An enhanced role of Islamist forces in Syria is also among the plans developed by SWP and USIP in Berlin, which, if successful, could end Syria’s alliance with Iran for the foreseeable future, further isolating Teheran.

…

Against Iran

Serious consequences loom on the horizon, given the fact that Islamist forces are playing a prominent role, both locally and in German-US-American concepts, in spite of the obvious unwillingness of influential militias to accept having a western agenda imposed on their post-Assad Syria. Syria’s Islamists will shift the equilibrium in the Arab world – further away from secular milieus, toward a religious conservative order that can get along well with the current leading political role played by the Gulf dictatorships in the Arab League. In addition, under Sunnite Islamist influence, Syria will abandon its alliance with Shiite-Islamist Iran, thereby, leaving Iran without any governmental allies in the Arab world. This exposes the background of the West’s policy toward Syria, which is dependent upon the support of Islamist forces, to achieve its primary objective of a total isolation of Teheran, to block its geopolitical development at the Persian Gulf for a long time to come.

Full article: The Day After (German Foreign Policy)

Regime security, not national security, is dominant priority in Beijing and Moscow

If a breakout of the escalating Syrian conflict or an Israel/U.S. military attempt to halt Iran’s progress toward nuclear weapons sets off even a 200-day regional conflict, it would be catastrophic for the Chinese economy.

Han Xiaoping, chief information officer of the China Energy Resources Net, recently warned China’s estimated reserve of only 110 million barrels would last only 46 days if there were a Persian Gulf closure. China’s dependence upon imported crude is far greater than the United States’ with some 40 percent coming from the Gulf. But only a declining 11 percent actually comes from Iran, the rest from the Arab states now unsuccessfully lobbying China to help defuse the Syrian timebomb and halt Iran’s nukes.

Full article: Regime security, not national security, is dominant priority in Beijing and Moscow (World Tribune)

Syrian revolt creeps closer to Damascus

The Syrian government this week dismissed a demand by the Arab League for Mr Assad to cede power to a transitional unity government. Walid al-Mouallem, foreign minister, said Syria was “like a mountain that never shakes in the wind”.

Despite that vivid claim, overnight clashes were reported in the Irbin area on Thursday, while the Arab League observers did not go further than a government checkpoint in the nearby district of Zamalka. Two corpses lay on the pavement there, a soldier and a civilian dumped that morning by regime opponents, a Syrian military commander claimed. Hussein Makhlouf, governor of the area, told the Arab peace monitors that the authorities were seeking a truce with local rebels.

The Free Syrian Army checkpoint was one of several in place this week in the area around Irbin and neighbouring Seqba, whose proximity to the capital is fast making it a critical battleground between the opposition and the regime.

Continue reading article: Syrian revolt creeps closer to Damascus (Financial Times)