The Sectarian Divide in the Middle East

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July 7, 2017 Transnational issues like religion and ethnicity have long bedeviled the countries of the modern Middle East. Major Arab states like Egypt, Syria and Iraq began to flirt with pan-Arabism – a secular, left-leaning ideology that sought political unity of the Arab world – not long after they were founded.

Erdogan’s purge may give Nato no choice but to expel Turkey from the alliance

Ironically, as written about two days before the ‘coup’, this could be the icing on the cake for Turkey’s swing towards America’s enemies. It wants out of NATO and is engineering crisis as a means to an end. It’s not to say that the coup was an ‘inside job’, because we don’t know 100% for sure, but what it’s doing in the aftermath brings us to the logical conclusion that it has very little (if none) respect for any Western nations. It wants to align itself with the Russian-Chinese-Iranian axis.

Turkey is also kissing up to the Assad regime in Syria, which has a mutual defense pact with Iran. If you befriend one, you get both. And as we now know, Iran is supporting everything Turkey’s megalomaniac leader is doing to consolidate power in the ‘coup’ aftermath.

 

Ever since Turkey joined Nato in 1952, its membership has been viewed as a vital bulwark in the defence of Europe against threats emanating from Russia and the Arab world.

During the Cold War, the fact that American bombers could be flying over the former Soviet Union within an hour of take-off from their Turkish bases meant the other alliance members were unswerving in the commitment to keep Turkey in Nato.

Europe: Suicide by Jihad

• In the last two decades, Belgium has become the hub of jihad in Europe. The district of Molenbeek in Brussels is now a foreign Islamist territory in the heart of Belgium. It is not, however, a lawless zone: sharia law has effectively replaced Belgian law.
• One of the organizers of the Paris bombings, Salah Abdeslam, was able to live peacefully in Molenbeek for four months until police decided to arrest him. Belgian police knew exactly where he was, but did nothing until French authorities asked them to. After his arrest, he was treated as a petty criminal. Police did not ask him anything about the jihadist networks with which he worked. Officers who interrogated him were ordered to be gentle. The people who hid him were not indicted.
• Europe’s leaders disseminated the idea that the West was guilty of oppressing Muslims. They therefore sowed the seeds of anti-Western resentment among Muslims in Europe.
• Hoping to please followers of radical Islam and show them Europe could understand their “grievances,” they placed pressure on Israel. When Europeans were attacked, they did not understand why. They had done their best to please the Muslims. They had not even harassed the jihadists.

The March 22 jihadist attacks in Brussels were predictable. What is surprising is that they did not take place sooner. What is also surprising is that more people were not killed. It seems that the authors of the attacks had larger projects in mind; they wanted to attack a nuclear power plant. Others may succeed in doing just that.

Obama Starts Mid-East Nuke Race As Israel Says Gulf States Pursuing Bombs

Back in October, we asked the following: “Did Obama Just Set Off A Global Nuclear Arms Race By Signing The Iran Deal?”

On the surface that seems like an oxymoronic headline. After all, the nuclear accord is supposed to be about curbing nuclear proliferation, not setting off an arms race.

Leadership for Syria

BERLIN/DAMASCUS (Own report) – With impressive scholarship programs, the German government seeks to establish firm ties to the future elite of post-war Syria. Already last year the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs began to bring more than 200 selected Syrian students to Germany, within the “Leadership for Syria” program, to be instructed – alongside their academic studies – in advanced training in “governance,” organizational setup and similar courses. The program run by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) – the largest foreign program the organization has ever undertaken – has the declared objective of preparing “a select elite among Syria’s future leadership” for “active participation in organizing” post-war Syria. This assures Germany a wide range of channels for influence in Damascus over the next few decades. Berlin is also making efforts to sift out students from among the refugees arriving in Germany to be included in its efforts to gain influence. This would crystallize into Germany’s becoming the Syrian elite’s top European point of reference.

A European CIA (II)

All throughout the news you only hear about how the EU is crisis, how it’s unraveling at the seams and that its days are numbered. That may be so, but as well documented on this site, there’s an undercurrent pushing it in a united direction. Piece by piece and step by step, the United States of Europe, lead by Germany’s Fourth Reich, is under construction. In one way or another, it will be the replacement for what’s known as the EU today. The political structure is already in place and EU Army is slowly taking shape. Now we have the rise of a European CIA. The necessary components are being built.

Europe has much more to lose than the EU bloc if it doesn’t unite. It has Russia right at its doorstep waiting to pounce on a Europe it’s already successfully dividing. However, there is no magical way of knowing how things will turn out with Russia. There’s the very real possibility it might even merge with the EU, which will only be possible if barely-ready NATO gets the boot — and it’s already losing support.

 

BERLIN/BRUSSELS (Own report) – A German intelligence officer has assumed the management of the EU’s IntCen espionage agency and has the responsibility of enhancing its effectiveness. Last week, the BND’s Gerhard Conrad was appointed the new director of the Intelligence Analysis Center (IntCent), which is under the authority of the European External Action Service and lays the groundwork for an intelligence agency in the service of the EU’s foreign and military policy. The core of the agency has existed since 1999, with the objective of reducing the EU’s dependence on US intelligence services, to become militarily autonomous – even, if necessary, without the USA. Because of rivalry between the national intelligence agencies, particularly those of the larger EU countries, IntCen’s development had not progressed as rapidly as was hoped. As its new director, Conrad is expected to correct the situation. However, the German government continues to reject the substitution of its national intelligence services by an EU agency, because Berlin would have to give up its special advantages, for example, through the BND’s cooperation with the US agencies, and give up its methods that are incompatible with the interests of other EU member countries.

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.

Update: America Has No Arab Allies

On December 9, 2015, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

His comments state the reality of so-called Arab allies.

Saudi Arabia ‘destabilising Arab world’, German intelligence warns

It is unusual for the BND spy agency to publicly release such a blunt assessment on a country that is considered an ally of the West. Germany has long-standing political and economic ties with Saudi Arabia

…

Internal power struggles and the desire to emerge as the leading Arab power threaten to make the key Western ally a source of instability, according to the BND intelligence service.

The Article 5 World

BERLIN/BRUSSELS (Own report) – NATO’s new “Southern Strategy” and further expansion of this war alliance are on the agenda of the NATO Foreign Ministers Conference, which begins today in Brussels. Since some time, Southern European member nations have been pushing for broadening the focus of the alliance’s activities beyond the limits of Eastern Europe, to concentrate more on the Arab World, reported Karl-Heinz Kamp, President of the Federal College for Security Studies (BAKS). This is now up for debate. The idea is to reinforce the ties to countries, such as Jordan or Tunisia, as “partners” – and exclusively equip and provide them with training for waging war in the Arab World. The fact that NATO also will propose membership to Montenegro, Kamp explains, is primarily directed at Russia. NATO wants to show Moscow that, in its acceptance of new members, NATO is not willing to take other powers’ interests into consideration. As the President of BAKS points out, the accent will now be oriented much stronger toward accepting Finland and Sweden’s membership into the war alliance, rather than an eventual Ukrainian membership.

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.

Saudis Risk Draining Financial Assets in 5 Years, IMF Says

Such was the price to be paid for King Abdullah’s economic war on America’s oil independence from shale before he passed away. The Saudi-friendly IEA has said America will never take the crown from Saudi Arabia whereas a Saudi prince has mentioned oil will never see under $100 per barrel ever again. The baton has now been passed to King Salman and he will be continuing the attack for an indefinite duration.

In the end, it was a matter of who had more asset reserves: American oil companies or the Saudi coffers built on decades of exports.

In this game of economic chicken it looks like the American oil companies who are already down to the “bare bones” might be the first to blink, however, total destruction on both sides shouldn’t be dismissed.

 

• Estimate based on current fiscal policies amid oil’s slump
• Saudi authorities are already planning spending cuts

Saudi Arabia may run out of financial assets needed to support spending within five years if the government maintains current policies, the International Monetary Fund said, underscoring the need of measures to shore up public finances amid the drop in oil prices.

The same is true of Bahrain and Oman in the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, the IMF said in a report on Wednesday. Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have relatively more financial assets that could support them for more than 20 years, the Washington-based lender said.

US ex-intelligence chief on ISIS rise: It was ‘a willful Washington decision’

Create ISIS, send them weapons through Benghazi to help them expand, then bomb them — but only a few.

 

The US didn’t interfere with the rise of anti-government jihadist groups in Syria that finally degenerated into Islamic State, claims the former head of America’s Defense Intelligence Agency, backing a secret 2012 memo predicting their rise.

An interview with retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), given to Al Jazeera’s Mehdi Hasan, confirms earlier suspicions that Washington was monitoring jihadist groups emerging as opposition in Syria.

General Flynn dismissed Al Jazeera’s supposition that the US administration “turned a blind eye” to the DIA’s analysis.

Nuclearizing Iran, Sabotaging Arabs

• Obama’s solution? To let Iran have legitimate nuclear bombs in a few years, along with intercontinental ballistic missiles to deliver them to the U.S. — or perhaps from America’s soft underbelly, South America, where Iran has been acquiring uranium and establishing bases for years. Or perhaps launched from submarines off America’s coast, which would make the identity of the attacker unknowable and a response therefore impossible. Incredibly, America’s politicians do not even seem to seem to be concerned about that.
• We have just sacrificed Sunni stability for American ideology: empty slogans fed to us by clueless, if well-meaning, American officials.
• As we watched one stable Arab regime fall after another, we have allowed ourselves to be destroyed from within by these bungling diplomats — from America, Europe, China and Russia. Instead of keeping our eyes on the real threat, we exhausted ourselves in wasteful, unending battles against the Jews — meanwhile letting the Iranian menace slip out of sight.
• Obama really does deserve a Nobel Prize, but it should have been awarded by the Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, in gratitude for America’s surrender.

“Nation building” seems to have fallen into disrepute in the West, but it should not. It is vitally important — as the successes of Germany, Japan and South Korea attest.

Over the past few years, in our foolishness, we in the Middle East swallowed the deceptive bait of “democracy” dangled before us, even though we knew that it could not, in the misguided way it was presented, be implemented in the Middle East.

An African Military Power

BERLIN/LUANDA (Own report) – Parallel to the escalating crises in Greece and Ukraine and the participation or involvement in various wars in the Arab world, the German government is intensifying its efforts to enhance its political and military influence on the African continent. German companies are seeking lucrative business opportunities in booming Angola at the “Angola/Germany Economic Forum” ending today in the country’s capital Luanda. Despite its persistent efforts, so far, German trade relations with Angola have not achieved a real breakthrough, whereas Berlin has already made progress in its military cooperation with Luanda. In late 2014, both countries signed an agreement on a “partnership” in military policy followed by a joint military exercise in March 2015. Angola is considered useful as an ally for implementing Germany’s geo-strategic interests in Sub-Saharan Africa. It has been massively upgrading its military apparatus and thereby become a challenge to South Africa’s claim to continental hegemony.