FREEMASONRY & ZIONISM – 1. Apocalyptic “Cataclysms” by Synagogue of Satan

March 9, 2024

Genocides in Palestine & Plotted Pandemic for Lethal Vaccines

Fabio Giuseppe Carlo Carisio, born on 24/2/1967 in Borgosesia, started working as a reporter when he was only 19 years old in the alpine area of Valsesia, Piedmont, his birth region in Italy. After studying literature and history at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, he became director of the local newspaper Notizia Oggi Vercelli and specialized in judicial reporting.
For about 15 years he is a correspondent from Northern Italy for the Italian newspapers Libero and Il Giornale, also writing important revelations on the Ustica massacre, a report on Freemasonry and organized crime.
With independent investigations, he collaborates with Carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza in important investigations that conclude with the arrest of Camorra entrepreneurs or corrupt politicians.
In July 2018 he found the counter-information web media Gospa News focused on geopolitics, terrorism, Middle East, and military intelligence.
In 2020 published the book, in Italian only, WUHAN-GATES – The New World Order Plot on SARS-Cov-2 manmade focused on the cycle of investigations Wuhan-Gates
His investigations was quoted also by The Gateway Pundit, Tasnim and others
He worked for many years for the magazine Art & Wine as an art critic and curator.

By Fabio G. C. Carisio

“To the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan”.
Saint John Apostle and Evangelist – Book of the Revelation (Rev. 2, 8-10)


In the cover image the prime minister of the Israeli Zionist Regime Benjamin Nethanyau and the “Pope of Freemasonry” Albert Pike

NB – some quotes of American persons have been translated from sources in Italian so forgive any stylistic errors or differences with the original ones

By Fabio Giuseppe Carlo Carisio

VERSIONE IN ITAIANO

«The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,  who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near».

This Prologue to the Book of the Revelation (Apocalypse) of Saint John the Evangelist, the only Apostle who died without martyrdom as a reward for his loyalty to Jesus under the cross of Golgotha, reread in recent days, after almost a million deaths caused in recent years by the wars in Ukraine, Syria. Iraq and Libya (to name the best known) and after the genocide of the Israeli army in Palestine in which over 8 thousand children were massacred by bombs in a few weeks together with around 22 thousand adults, we should be inspired by a profound spiritual reflection also by virtue of the prophecy on Armageddon, the final battle of the armies foretold in the Holy Land in the same text on the Apocalypse which in Greek, it is good to remember it only means “revelation”, “prophecy” and not “catastrophe”.

They take on an equally tragic meaning if we think of the holocaust of millions of victims caused both by the pandemic triggered by a SARS-Cov-2 built in the laboratory and by the killer vaccines with which unscrupulous Big Pharma is testing the world population like a massive human guinea-pig to reach the transhumanist goal of eugenic health culture: denial of Nature and the Almighty God of the Judeo-Christian tradition, which has survived 7 thousand years of attempts at annihilation.

THE GENOCIDE OF THE PALESTINIANS AND THE HOLOCAUST OF THE VACCINATED

Faced with this extraordinary “pande-medic holocaust” made invisible by the denialism of those who govern politics and science in obedience to the powers of the New World Order clearly theorized as an evolution of NATO by the Hungarian-American plutarch George Soros in 1993, the Palestinian victims , Ukrainian, Syrian conflicts caused precisely by military conflicts plotted by the Atlantic Alliance and by Anglo-Saxon intelligence appear as the ordinary, inevitable consequence of the hatred and ferocity that has plagued human history since the time of Cain. This name will come back later…

Therefore, the biblical reference in the Book of Revelation to “those who proclaim themselves Jews and are not, but belong to the synagogue of Satan” does not appear in vain in the case of the Zionist leader Netanyahu who is carrying out a genocide of Palestinians after having mass vaccinated his fellow Israelis for a gigantic transversal business between the Weapons Lobby and Big Pharma with American President Joesph Biden.

Modern telecommunications means – where not blocked as in Gaza to prevent reckless reporters from documenting the war crimes ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu already renamed “the Hitler of the 21st Century” by Turkish lawyers who demand his indictment – have made the bloody genocide tacitly legalized by the West and carried out in the churches and hospitals of Palestine terrifying, bringing before the eyes and ears cries that implore revenge and make the sense of forgiveness waver even in Christians, all this satanic torment appears comparable screams from the silence imploded in the hearts of children torn by lethal myocarditis or in the brains devoured by turbo-cancer of the victims of adverse reactions to the mRNA Covid vaccines.

Precisely because their roar against death is silent, broken in the throat by a sudden illness of which political, health and judicial authorities too often do not want to detect and reveal traces of the FAILURE OF A SYSTEM. Precisely that of the New World Order which is seeking God’s mercy with the merciless human reason capable of killing an 8-month-old baby girl, Indi Gregory, although she had a concrete hope of being assisted.

THE CATACLYSM FORECAST BY THE “POPE” OF AMERICAN FREEMASONRY

If all this happening is not a coincidence but appears to be an international and historical conspiracy foreseen in very remote times by the American “Pope of Freemasonry”, a Southern general, about whom we have already written, who was among the Confederate supporters of the Civil War but also among the founders of the KuKluxKlan and among the followers of satanic ritesAlbert Pike.

We have already mentioned his extensive correspondence with the 33rd degree Freemason of the Supreme Council of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Giuseppe Mazzini who, thanks to the financing of the hooded friends of the London lodges ready to host him even though he was a fugitive terrorist in Europe, planned the Expedition of the Thousand of Masonic guerrilla Giuseppe Garibaldi with whom the Kingdom of Italy wrested a part of Rome from the Papal State in the gigantic and crude plot against Christianity and the Catholic Church, partly attenuated only by the faith of the Ruling Savoy Dynasty.

But we had missed some passages which in the light of today’s events take on monstrous relevance, furthermore proving the imprint of Freemasonry, like a Mark of the Beast, in every religious and political conflictual drift, prodigiously foreseen in detail by General Pike.

In these first episodes we will analyze the conspiratorial complicity of Freemasonry with Zionism. In the next one with Nazism and Jihadist Islamism, where in a previous investigation we have analyzed the role of hooded men between Capitalism and Communism.

«The Third World War will have to be fomented by taking advantage of the differences stirred up by the agents of the Illuminati between political Zionism and the leaders of the Islamic world. The war will have to be oriented so that Islam (including the State of Israel) destroy each other, while at the same time the remaining nations, once again divided and opposed to each other, will then be forced to fight each other until to complete physical, mental, spiritual and economic exhaustion».

This is what Pike wrote to Mazzini on 15 August 1871 in a letter according to the revelations made by the commodore of the Canadian navy William Guy Carr which he later reported in his famous 1954 book Pawns in the Game. He stated that he learned about the letter from the anti-Mason, Cardinal José María Caro Rodríguez of Santiago, Chile, the author of The Mystery of Freemasonry Unveiled (Hawthorne, California, Christian Book Club of America, 1971).

The Navy official can be considered very reliable as worked also for the Canadian Intelligence Service during World War II, and in 1944 he published Checkmate in the North, a book about an invasion by the Axis forces to take place in the area of the CFB Goose Bay (Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay).

Carr’s books often discuss a Luciferian conspiracy by what he called the “World Revolutionary Movement,” but he later attributed the conspiracy more specifically to the “Synagogue of Satan.”

The term was not a reference to Judaism as he wrote: “I wish to make it clearly and emphatically known that I do not believe the Synagogue of Satan (S.O.S.) is Jewish, but, as Christ told us for a definite purpose, it is comprised of ‘I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.’ (Rev. 2:9 and 3:9)

Albert Pike, the Pope of American Freemasonry

The Canadian commodore reported what we had already mentioned in the previous investigation on Pike and which we will try to contextualize both in the biblical, esoteric and historical context in the following lines.

«The First World War had to be fought to allow the “Illuminati” to overthrow the power of the czars in Russia and transform this country into the fortress of atheist communism. The differences stirred up by “Illuminati” agents between the British and German Empires were used to foment this war. After the war was over, communism had to be built and used to destroy other governments and weaken religions».

Citing Confederate General Pike who was Grand Master of the Mother Lodge of Charleston (but also, in all probability, the only Southerner to have had, until recently, a statue in his memory in the USA sculpted by an Italian but recently destroyed by vandals), the commodore added:

«The Second World War had to be fomented by taking advantage of the difference between fascists and political Zionists. The war had to be fought in order to destroy Nazism and increase the power of political Zionism, in order to allow the establishment of the sovereign state of Israel in Palestine. During the Second World War, a Communist International had to be established as strong as the whole of Christianity. At this point the latter had to be contained and kept under control until required for the final social cataclysm».

Rereading these sentences after having published an investigation into the recent Israeli military plan for the genocide and forced exodus of Palestinians in Egypt and Europe represents a disturbing and burning confirmation but is not enough to understand the deepest motivations of the diabolical NWO conspiracy.

On 15 August 1871, as revealed by Carr, the Pope of American Freemasonry Pike revealed to Mazzini that at the end of the Third World War those who aspire to World Government would cause the greatest social cataclysm ever seen.

«We will unleash the nihilists and atheists and provoke a formidable social cataclysm which will clearly show, in all its horror, to the nations, the effect of absolute atheism, the origin of barbarism and bloody subversion».

And then again:

«Then everywhere citizens, forced to defend themselves against a world minority of revolutionaries, these destroyers of civilization, and the multitude disillusioned by Christianity, whose worshipers will be devoid of orientation in search of an ideal, will receive the true light through the universal manifestation of pure doctrine of Lucifer finally revealed to the public eye, a manifestation which will be followed by the destruction of Christianity and atheism conquered and crushed at the same time».

GEOPOLITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE THIRD WORLD WAR IN FRAGMENTS

If we carefully analyze what has happened in the last twenty years, rereading them with the lens of a geopolitical intelligence analysis, we can put together these dramatic events that prove the gradual increase of the Third World War “in a patchy pattern, in fragments, or in small pieces” as defined several times by Pope Francis.

September 11, 2001 – From the World Trade Center to the War in Afghanistan

Avoidable massacre of the attacks on the Twin Towers facilitated by the obstacles posed by the American counter-espionage of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to the investigations of the director of anti-terrorism of the FBI John O’Neill (who died in the World Trade Center where he was hired after being fired following sabotage of his professional activity). The hidden role of the Israeli counter-intelligence Mossad came to light immediately, recently with the disconcerting confirmation that two of the hijackers were collaborating with the CIA.

Thanks to that event, the USA, led by the Weapons Lobby controlled by investment funds of Zionist financiers such as Larry Fink, began the terrible and unsuccessful war in Afghanistan

July 18, 2007 – Hamas conquers Gaza

Palestinian President Abbas issued a decree outlawing the Hamas militias who defeated Fatah (a Palestinian political and paramilitary organization, part of the PLO, of which Yasser Arafat was leader) and therefore removed the Gaza Strip from the control of the Authority Palestinian national authority.

According to various intelligence experts including a former CIA director, Hamas, linked to the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood (sons of another Masonic history…), was financed by the USA and Israel precisely to lead to the Palestinian exodus plan that was configured in recent days after the attacks of 7 October which took the highly expert Israeli secret services (Shin Bet, Mossad and the military Aman) by surprise.

March 15, 2011 – Civil War in Syria

The Syrian Civil War begins thanks to the Color Revolution financed by Soros and armed by the CIA’s MOM operation with the supply of TOW anti-tank missiles to extremist jihadist factions related to Al Qaeda.

In 2014, ISIS founded by Caliph Al Baghdadi entered the war shortly after his liberation from Camp Bucca where he was detained by the US Army for terrorist activity in Iraq. He was believed to be a Mossad and CIA agent

February 20, 2014 – Start of the War in Ukraine

The second Orange Revolution financed by the Zionist Soros in Kiev explodes in all its violence due to the shooting of mysterious mercenary snipers on Ukrainian policemen and the crowd. It seems like a repeat of what the CIA hatched in 2002 in Caracas. The coup financed by NATO countries materializes with the escape of the legitimately elected president Viktor Fedorovyč Yanukovych to friendly Russia.

From there begins the Donbass Civil War which became a Global Conflict after the start of Moscow’s military operation to protect the pro-Russian victims of genocide by the neo-Nazi guerrillas of the Azov Battalion led by the Kiev Regime and also armed by Israel in an apparent, crazy paradox …

April 2014 – “Sabotaged” elections in Palestine

Fatah and Hamas sign agreements in Gaza for the return to voting in all PNA territories, foreseeing elections for the following October.

In July, however, the Israelis launched Operation Protective Edge to destroy clandestine tunnels into their country, triggering a resurgence of military clashes. Only on 28 August was a ceasefire declared by both sides but the electoral consultations were postponed and never agreed upon again.

October 2023 – Genocide Planned and Legalized in Gaza

Hamas captures hostages from an Israeli Rave Party and several kibbutz settlers in the illegally occupied territories. Israel responds disproportionately by bombing everyone, women, children, hospitals, churches, UN officials. Few Western politicians denounce a GENOCIDE which instead appears LEGALIZED by almost all NATO countries.

If we correlate the recurring subjects of these events it is easy to deduce that the Third World War in fragments has already been implemented for at least two decades with an enormous occult direction of that NATO evoked by Soros to embody the New World Order.

ANALYSIS OF THE SOCIAL CATALYSM: MANMADE VIRUS PANDEMIC

Let’s go back to the tired “forecasts” of the Freemason Albert Pike and reread a significant phrase:

«We will unleash the nihilists and atheists and provoke a formidable social cataclysm which will clearly show, in all its horror, to the nations, the effect of absolute atheism, the origin of barbarism and bloody subversion».

Since 2001, the American virologist Anthony Fauci began playing with dangerous viruses manipulated in the laboratory as biological weapons thanks to enormous funding provided by both the Department of Health and Defense, including through Pentagon agencies such as DARPA.

In 2004 the European Commission chaired by Romano Prodi, a Soros associate, financed the Wuhan Institute of Virology strengthened by the son of President Jiang Zemin, the Executioner of Tiananmen, also in light of an agreement on collaborations for research in the bacteriological field signed with the American president Bill Clinton in 1999.

In December 2019 the first outbreak of SARS-Cov-2 was discovered in Wuhan and for over 2 years the USA blamed the Chinese while the scientific community of Fauci & Co. tried to cover up the artificial orgone ascertained by the Senate Health Commission and the House Investigation Committee of the US Congress only in 2023.

Now even many US politicians admit their nation’s role in building the laboratory virus. This is denied by the National Intelligence Directorate led by Avril Haines who was deputy CIA director expert in bio-weapons when Fauci was carrying out experiments on Coronaviruses on behalf of the Obama-Biden administration together in Wuhan.

European Union politicians continue to ignore or deny the artificial origin of the virus. While almost everyone has welcomed, so much so as to impose them as mandatory even for many professional categories, the experimental mRNA genetic serums based on the toxic Spike protein and promoted by a swirl of billionaire interests of Big Pharma with governments and the usual Zionist lobbies who also invest in Warlord corporations.

Even the Catholic Church genuflects to the Vaccine GOD.

Let’s reread Pike’s prophecy again, a truly disturbing name when associated with the almost homonymous Covid-19 protein.

«Then everywhere citizens, forced to defend themselves against a world minority of revolutionaries, these destroyers of civilization, and the multitude disillusioned by Christianity, whose worshipers will be devoid of orientation in search of an ideal, will receive the true light through the universal manifestation of pure doctrine of Lucifer finally revealed to the public eye, a manifestation which will be followed by the destruction of Christianity and atheism conquered and crushed at the same Time»

HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FREEMASONRY AND ZIONISM

The detractors of the military geopolitical analyst and writer William Guy Carr who refers to the diabolical plan of the Pope of American Freemasonry are based on the fact that Albert Pike in 1871 could not have known about the birth of Communism, nor of Nazism, nor of Zionism.

Nor even knowing about the two world wars. Unless you were among those who designed them.

This observation can easily be refuted by citing some historical references already mentioned and which we will highlight.

«In July 1782 the Order of the Illuminati allied itself with Freemasonry during the Congress of Wilhelmsbad, which the historian Freemason Albert Mackey defined as ‘the most important Masonic Congress of the eighteenth century’ – we read on the website Freemasonry Unmasked, full of anecdotes and authoritative historical sources – The participants in that Congress had to swear not to reveal the decisions they had made to anyone (see Nesta H. Webster, World Revolution, 1921, page 31)».

Wilhelmsbad Castle was owned by the Ashkenazi Jewish banker (of Khazar-European origins) Mayer Amschel Rothschild who, according to various historians, in 1777 brought together twelve of his most influential friends and convinced them that if they pooled their resources they could dominate the world: this is how the Bavarian Illuminati was born.

The French Revolution confirms their success with the annihilation of the first important Catholic Monarchy. It will be the experience of the Paris Commune of 1871, the regurgitation of the regime of terror, that will inspire Lenin in his plan for the subsequent Bolshevik and Communist revolution.

So Pike was not only still alive at the time but knew the details.

The Independent Order B’nai B’rith or Bené Berith (Hebrew: בני ברית, “sons of the covenant”) is a Jewish lodge founded in 1843 during the presidency of John Tyler and still existing and active. It was founded at the Sinsheimer Café, in the Wall Street neighborhood of New York, by Henry Jones and eleven other people on October 13, 1843. The original name was in German “Bundes-Brueder” (which means “League of Brothers”), in the current one which retains the initials (“BB”).

Most of the founders were German-Jews: that is, Ashkenazi like Mayer Amschel Rothschild but also like his descendant Walter Rothschild, eldest son and heir of the banker Nathan Mayer Rothschild, the first Jewish baron of England.

Walter Rothschild was among the promoters of the declaration for the formation of the Jewish state in Palestine, later earning the merit of becoming president of the Council of Deputies of British Jews from 1925 to 1926.

From these seeds we arrived at 1917 when a letter from the British Foreign Minister Arthur Balfour, addressed to the “Dear Lord Rothschild”, sanctioned Balfour’s declaration which committed the British government to supporting the creation in Palestine of a home for the Jews in respect for the rights of other resident minorities.

How did Albert Pike know all these things before they happened?

Very simple because he was among those who concerted them in 1860 when the Southern general through Young America planned the American Civil War to defend the right to slavery, Mazzini with Young Italy committed himself to the Expedition of the Thousand and Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount of Palmerston, British Secretary of State and exponent of the Grand Lodge of England guaranteed all financial and political support.

The first expressions of proto-Zionism took shape, for example, in the foundation of the Universal Israelite Alliance in 1860, an organization aimed at the emancipation of the Jewish communities in the Middle East and North Africa, and in the publication of various works, including Rome and Jerusalem, written in 1862 by the German Jewish philosopher Moses Hess, Derishat Zion by the Polish-Prussian rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer, and the hymn Hatikvah, whose lyrics were written by Naftali Herz Imber and which later became the anthem of the State of Israel.

Zionism draws its roots from the new cultural environment generated in the context of the emancipation of European Jews starting from the French Revolution and throughout the 19th century and from the Haskalah.

The haskalah, with a small delay compared to other Enlightenment movements, arose in Germany and then spread throughout much of Europe and to a small extent also across the Atlantic. The father and inspirer of the movement was Moses Mendelssohn, close to Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, a free thinker of Protestant extraction and an energetic defender of the Jews in Germany. The latter introduced Mendelssohn into the world of Berlin intellectuals where he dedicated himself to the composition of philosophical essays and dissertations.

https://www.gospanews.net/en/2023/11/06/the-conflation-of-antisemitism-and-anti-zionism-is-a-propagandistic-lie/embed/#?secret=OVZhaXya72#?secret=8JINj3nJ2S

A varied and open movement, the haskalah probably did not close its doors even to exponents of the Frankist heresy, a sort of tail of the messianic movement of Shabatai Zevi which had long been in opposition to official Judaism, perhaps linked to lodges of freemasonry, another force of the times, definitely in relation to the Enlightenment philosophy.

Many Jews influenced by the haskalah and the closeness it brought with European culture were seduced by the possibility of assimilation by embracing Christianity. Just think of the family of Karl Marx, descended from rabbis who converted to Protestantism, as did Mendelssohn’s own daughters. Others, however, laid the foundations of the new science of Judaism, the Wissenschaft des Judentums.

THE LODGES INSPIRED BY THE SON OF THE BIBLICAL MURDERER CAIN

In the previous investigation we highlighted how Marx received the task of writing Capital from British Freemasonry. In other reports we have highlighted the fundamental role played by the Protestants in the birth of the Grand Lodge of London on 24 June 1717.

Today we add another detail by recalling the figure of John Theophilus Desaguliers (La Rochelle, 12 March 1683 – Covent Garden, 29 February 1744) who was an English scientist, religious and Freemason of French origins.

Desaguliers emigrated to England in 1694, due to the Edict of Fontainebleau, which revoked the freedom of worship of Protestants. He approached Freemasonry, becoming Grand Master of the First Grand Lodge of England in 1718, and Deputy Grand Master in 1723 and 1725. Under his leadership, the Grand Lodge of London and Freemasonry developed in an “astonishing” way in the islands British, to the point that «in 1740 there were already more than 180 lodges».

https://www.gospanews.net/2019/06/22/summit-di-massoni-in-sfregio-al-papa-per-celare-i-complotti-di-mazzini/embed/#?secret=9KxSXRzVwy#?secret=S4sX0SxP9g

Each of the earliest Masonic texts contains some sort of history of the craft, or guild, of Freemasonry. The oldest work of this type, the Royal Manuscript, dating from 1390 to 1425, has a brief history in the introduction, which states that the “craft of Freemasonry” began with Euclid in Egypt, and arrived in England during the reign of ruler Æðelstan.

A little later, the Cooke Manuscript traces Freemasonry to Jabal, son of Lamech (Genesis 4, 20-22), and tells how this knowledge reached Euclid, from him to the children of Israel when they were in Egypt, and so on for an elaborate route to Æðelstan. This myth formed the basis for later manuscript foundations, all of which claim that Freemasonry dates back to Biblical times, and pegs its institutional consolidation in England during the reign of Æðelstan (927-939).

Shortly after the formation of the first Grand Lodge of England, James Anderson was commissioned to summarize these “Gothic constitutions” into a pleasing modern form. The constitutions produced by his work have a more widespread historical introduction than any previous one, and once again connect the history of what Freemasonry had become to its biblical roots, always inserting Euclid into the chain of narrative.

The first question that a connoisseur of Judeo-Christian history should ask is almost banal.

Why do the Freemasons, due to fabulous legendary and historical beliefs, trace Freemasonry to one of the descendants of the murderer Cain and not to the third son of Adam named Set from whom the Semitic culture was born?

In this, the manipulation carried out over the centuries by Rabbinic Taldumist Judaism, well described by the Judaism expert Professor Paola Persichetti in the previous investigations in which she highlights the correlations of this Jewish regurgitation following the Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, seems evident.

In France, Chevalier (Knight) Ramsay’s 1737 conference added Crusader Freemasons to the family tree claiming that they had revived the craft with secrets recovered in the Holy Land, under the patronage of the Knights Hospitaller. At this point, the “history” of the profession of continental Freemasonry separated from that of Freemasonry in England which in the meantime had published its “charter”.

THE SCHSM ON THE GREAT ARCHITECT OF THE UNIVERSE

The Constitutions of the Free-Masons, “for the use of the lodges” in London and Westminster, was published in 1723. It was edited by the Presbyterian clergyman James Anderson, by order of John Theophilus Desaguliers, and approved by a committee of the grand lodge under its control. The work was reprinted in Philadelphia in 1734 by Benjamin Franklin, who in that year became Grand Master of the Pennsylvania Freemasons. It was also translated into Dutch (1736), German (1741) and French (1745).

Anderson was minister of the Presbyterian church in Swallow Street, London, which had formerly been a Huguenot church, and whose pastor in the 1690s was Desaguliers’ father. At the time of his meeting with Desaguliers, he appears to have presented himself as a Talmudic scholar.

In various historical testimonies that we summarize for brevity, Anderson himself seems to imply the existence of an Italian Grand Lodge.

In Naples in 1728 he saw the light of the first regular Masonic lodge established in Italy, La Perfetta Unione. Raised by the will of the Prince of San Severo, it had Egyptian symbols such as the pyramid, the Sphinx and the radiant sun in its emblem. Subsequently, the English lodge (“La Loggia degli Inglesi”) was established in Florence, founded in 1731 and Freemasonry spread rapidly, despite a series of papal prohibitions.

But already ahead the so-called Great Schism occurred. According to a widespread opinion, the schism between French and English Freemasonry originates from the general assembly of the Grand Orient of France in September 1877. Accepting the recommendation contained in a report by the Protestant pastor (and Freemason) Frédéric Desmons, the assembly decided by a majority of amend its constitutions by inserting the formula “its principles are absolute freedom of conscience and human solidarity”. This replaced the previous statement “its principles are the existence of God, the immortality of the soul and human solidarity”.

The reaction of the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) was the resolution of March 1878 which reiterated “That the Grand Lodge, while anxious to welcome in the most fraternal spirit the Brethren of any foreign Grand Lodge whose proceedings are conducted according to the Ancient cornerstones of the Order, among which the first and most important is the faith in T. G. A. O. T. U. [“the great Architect of the universe”, in English acronym], cannot recognize as ‘true and genuine’ Brothers all those who have been initiated in lodges that deny or ignore that faith.”

FREEMASONRY SIMILAR TO THE BEAST OF THE APOCALYPSE

Having concluded this long but necessary historical digression on Freemasonry implemented with various Wikipedia sources, let’s return to the beginning. To the book of the Apocalypse of Saint John and the disturbing esoteric symbolisms.

If we summarize the historical notes above we can easily conclude that the first promoters of Zionism in the USA were the founders of the B’nai B’rith Lodge composed of Ashkenazi Jews (as Adolph Hitler is also believed to be) that the historians of Jewish culture they define the “13th Tribe of Israel” as they derive from the diaspora of the Khazars who had converted to Judaism

While in Europe it spread thanks to the Rothschild Dynasty (Red Shield) which was the first to weave subversive plots with an anti-Catholic vocation from the birth of the Bavarian Illuminati up to the pact of terror for the French Revolution from which the liberation of the proto- Zionism together with that Masonic concept of “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité” imposed by guillotining even the elderly nobles of the Catholic Vendée French region.

In light of all this, the words of the Satanist Albert Pike, Pope of American Freemasonry, take on an iconic relevance in the common project between Masonic and Zionist Lodges for the New World Order:

«Then everywhere citizens, forced to defend themselves against a world minority of revolutionaries, these destroyers of civilization, and the multitude disillusioned by Christianity, whose worshipers will be devoid of orientation in search of an ideal, will receive the true light through the universal manifestation of pure doctrine of Lucifer finally revealed to the public eye, a manifestation which will be followed by the destruction of Christianity and atheism conquered and crushed at the same time».

https://www.gospanews.net/en/2023/03/29/nwo-zionist-lobby-aims-to-persecute-christians-netanyahu-in-jerusalem-like-zelensky-in-kiev/embed/#?secret=1w4Qk5Mz2J#?secret=CQUO3hzovm

But following this hermeneutical path to the Book of the Apocalypse, one of the most important allegories comes to mind with disconcerting and terrifying impetus:

«The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.  One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast. People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?» (Rev. 13, 1-4)

The prophet Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist delves into the concept with an aura vision

«Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed» (Rev. 13, 11-12)

It is not really scary to note how traditional esoteric Freemasonry became manifest thanks to the Anglican political schism of the Protestants and allowed Pharisaic Judaism, defeated by the Diaspora after the Crucifixion of the Messiah awaited by the Jews, to be reborn in its Talmudic form with Judaism then became with Zionism the most powerful component of the New World Order?

We have historical clues that help identify Freemasonry as one of the two apocalyptic Beasts. But this theme will be explored in greater depth if and when we receive from the Holy Spirit the gift of the wisdom necessary to interpret it. Therefore today we cannot help but insinuate doubt…

POWER OF CHRIST IN THE PROPHECY OF SAINT JOHN THE APOSTLE

But it is precisely Chapter 12 of the Book of the Apocalypse (Rev. 12, 7-12) which comes to illuminate with a radiant dawn of hope the dangers of all of us Christians who strive to be among those “who listen to the words of this prophecy and put into practice the things that are written in it”:

«Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him».

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:

“Now have come the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
who accuses them before our God day and night,
has been hurled down.
They triumphed over him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death.
Therefore rejoice, you heavens
and you who dwell in them!
But woe to the earth and the sea,
because the devil has gone down to you!
He is filled with fury,
because he knows that his time is short.”

Since Saint John was the only Apostle who died without martyrdom for his loyalty to Jesus Christ under the cross and also survived the hell of imprisonment on Patmos (where he received the visions and locutions collected in the Apocalypse), it is probably very useful to start believing him…

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Fabio Giuseppe Carlo Carisio
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MAIN SOURCES

BOOK OF REVELATION (APOCALYPSE) – HOLY BIBLE

Epiphanius – Massoneria e sette segrete, Controcorrente Edizioni, pag. 163, 164, 165, 166. – Citazioni da I Nuovi Vespri

STORIA DELLA MASSONERIA – WIKIPEDIA

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GOSPA NEWS – COVID-19, VACCINES & BIG PHARMA DOSSIER

Most popolar investigation on VT is:

Rumsfeld Shady Heritage in Pandemic: GILEAD’s Intrigues with WHO & Wuhan Lab. Bio-Weapons’ Tests with CIA & Pentagon

Fabio Giuseppe Carlo Carisio, born on 24/2/1967 in Borgosesia, started working as a reporter when he was only 19 years old in the alpine area of Valsesia, Piedmont, his birth region in Italy. After studying literature and history at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, he became director of the local newspaper Notizia Oggi Vercelli and specialized in judicial reporting.

For about 15 years he is a correspondent from Northern Italy for the Italian newspapers Libero and Il Giornale, also writing important revelations on the Ustica massacre, a report on Freemasonry and organized crime.

With independent investigations, he collaborates with Carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza in important investigations that conclude with the arrest of Camorra entrepreneurs or corrupt politicians.

In July 2018 he found the counter-information web media Gospa News focused on geopolitics, terrorism, Middle East, and military intelligence.

In 2020 published the book, in Italian only, WUHAN-GATES – The New World Order Plot on SARS-Cov-2 manmade focused on the cycle of investigations Wuhan-Gates

His investigations was quoted also by The Gateway Pundit, Tasnim and others

He worked for many years for the magazine Art & Wine as an art critic and curator.

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Previous articleThird Reich occultism is reborn in Ukraine, NATO and the EU

Two Years After the Start of the SMO, the West is Totally Paralyzed

February 24, 2024

Pepe Escobar

February 24, 2022 was the day that changed 21st century geopolitics forever, Pepe Escobar writes.

Contact us: info@strategic-culture.su

Exactly two years ago this Saturday, on February 24, 2022, Vladimir Putin announced the launching – and described the objectives – of a Special Military Operation (SMO) in Ukraine. That was the inevitable follow-up to what happened three days before, on February 21 – exactly 8 years after Maidan 2014 in Kiev – when Putin officially recognized the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.

During this – pregnant with meaning – short space of only three days, everyone expected that the Russian Armed Forces would intervene, militarily, to end the massive bombing and shelling that had been going on for three weeks across the frontline – which even forced the Kremlin to evacuate populations at risk to Russia. Russian intel had conclusive proof that the NATO-backed Kiev forces were ready to execute an ethnic cleansing of Russophone Donbass.

February 24, 2022 was the day that changed 21st century geopolitics forever, in several complex ways. Above all, it marked the beginning of a vicious, all-out confrontation, “military-technical” as the Russians call it, between the Empire of Chaos, Lies and Plunder, its easily pliable NATOstan vassals, and Russia – with Ukraine as the battleground.

There is hardly any question Putin had calculated, before and during these three fateful days, that his decisions would unleash the unbounded fury of the collective West – complete with a tsunami of sanctions.

Ay, there’s the rub; it’s all about Sovereignty. And a true sovereign power simply cannot live under permanent threats. It’s even feasible that Putin had wanted (italics mine) Russia to get sanctioned to death. After all, Russia is so naturally wealthy that without a serious challenge from abroad, the temptation is enormous to live off its rents while importing what it could easily produce.

Exceptionalists always gloated that Russia is “a gas station with nuclear weapons”. That’s ridiculous. Oil and gas, in Russia, account for roughly 15% of GDP, 30% of the government budget, and 45% of exports. Oil and gas add power to the Russian economy – not a drag. Putin shaking Russia’s complacency generated a gas station producing everything it needs, complete with unrivalled nuclear and hypersonic weapons. Beat that.

Ukraine has “never been less than a nation”

Xavier Moreau is a French politico-strategic analyst based in Russia for 24 years now. Graduated from the prestigious Saint-Cyr military academy and with a Sorbonne diploma, he hosts two shows on RT France.

His latest book, Ukraine: Pourquoi La Russie a Gagné (“Ukraine: Why Russia has Won”), just out, is an essential manual for European audiences on the realities of the war, not those childish fantasies concocted across the NATOstan sphere by instant “experts” with less than zero combined arms military experience.

Moreau makes it very clear what every impartial, realist analyst was aware of from the beginning: the devastating Russian military superiority, which would condition the endgame. The problem, still, is how this endgame – “demilitarization” and “denazification” of Ukraine, as established by Moscow – will be achieved.

What is already clear is that “demilitarization”, of Ukraine and NATO, is a howling success that no new wunderwaffen – like F-16s – will be able to change.

Moreau perfectly understands how Ukraine, nearly 10 years after Maidan, is not a nation; “and has never been less than a nation”. It’s a territory where populations that everything separates are jumbled up. Moreover, it has been a – “grotesque” – failed state ever since its independence. Moreau spends several highly entertaining pages going through the corruption grotesquerie in Ukraine, under a regime that “gets its ideological references simultaneously via admirers of Stepan Bandera and Lady Gaga.”

None of the above, of course, is reported by oligarch-controlled European mainstream media.

Watch out for Deng Xiao Putin

The book offers an extremely helpful analysis of those deranged Polish elites who bear “a heavy responsibility in the strategic catastrophe that awaits Washington and Brussels in Ukraine”. The Poles actually believed that Russia would crumble from the inside, complete with a color revolution against Putin. That barely qualifies as Brzezinski on crack.

Moreau shows how 2022 was the year when NATOstan, especially the Anglo-Saxons – historically racist Russophobes –   were self-convinced thar Russia would fold because it is a “poor power”. Obviously, none of these luminaries understood how Putin strengthened the Russian economy very much like Deng Xiaoping on the Chinese economy. This “self-intoxication”, as Moreau qualifies it, did wonders for the Kremlin.

By now it’s clear even for the deaf, dumb, and blind that the destruction of the European economy has been a massive tactic, historic victory for the Hegemon – as much as the blitzkrieg against the Russian economy has been an abysmal failure.

All of the above brings us to the meeting of G20 Foreign Ministers this week in Rio. That was not exactly a breakthrough. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made it very clear that the collective West at the G20 tried by all means to “Ukrainize” the agenda – with less than zero success. They were outnumbered and counterpunched by BRICS and Global South members.

At his press conference, Lavrov could not be more stark on the prospects of the war of the collective West against Russia. These are the highlights:

  • Western countries categorically do not want serious dialogue on Ukraine.
  • There were no serious proposals from the United States to begin contacts with the Russian Federation on strategic stability; trust cannot be restored now while Russia is declared an enemy.
  • There were no contacts on the sidelines of the G20 with either Blinken or the British Foreign Secretary.
  • The Russian Federation will respond to new Western sanctions with practical actions that relate to the self-sufficient development of the Russian economy.
  • If Europe tries to restore ties with the Russian Federation, making it dependent on their whims, then such contacts are not needed.

In a nutshell – diplomatically: you are irrelevant, and we don’t care.

That was complementing Lavrov’s intervention during the summit, which defined once again a clear, auspicious path towards multipolarity. Here are the highlights:

  • The forming of a fair multipolar world order without a definite center and periphery has become much more intensive in the past few years. Asian, African and Latin American countries are becoming important parts of the global economy. Not infrequently, they are setting the tone and the dynamics.
  • Many Western economies, especially in Europe, are actually stagnating against this background. These statistics are from Western-supervised institutions – the IMF, the World Bank and the OECD.
  • These institutions are becoming relics from the past. Western domination is already affecting their ability to meet the requirements of the times. Meanwhile, it is perfectly obvious today that the current problems of humanity can only be resolved through a concerted effort and with due consideration for the interests of the Global South and, generally, all global economic realities.
  • Institutions like the IMF, the World Bank, the EBRD, and the EIB are prioritizing Kiev’s military and other needs. The West allocated over $250 billion to tide over its underling thus creating funding shortages in other parts of the world. Ukraine is taking up the bulk of the funds, relegating Africa and other regions of the Global South to rationing.
  • Countries that have discredited themselves by using unlawful acts ranging from unilateral sanctions and the seizure of sovereign assets and private property to blockades, embargoes, and discrimination against economic operators based on nationality to settle scores with their geopolitical opponents cannot be considered guarantors of financial stability.
  • Without a doubt, new institutions that focus on consensus and mutual benefit are needed to democratize the global economic governance system. Today, we are seeing positive dynamics for strengthening various alliances, including BRICS, the SCO, ASEAN, the African Union, LAS, CELAC, and the EAEU.
  • This year, Russia chairs BRICS, which saw several new members join it. We will do our best to reinforce the potential of this association and its ties with the G20.
  • Considering that 6 out of 15 UN Security Council members represent the Western bloc, we will support the expansion of this body solely through the accession of countries from Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Call it the real state of things, geopolitically, two years after the start of the SMO.

The Resistance Has a Plan for Israel. But on the Other Side, Fantastical U.S. Stratagems Ensure a Cascading Failure

FEBRUARY 19, 2024

Source

Alastair CROOKE
Former British diplomat, founder and director of the Beirut-based Conflicts Forum.

ALASTAIR CROOKE 

We have entered a period of breakdown and violence, as the forces pulling apart the old status quo cascade and mutually reinforce one another.

In a speech on Tuesday, Hizbullah leader Seyed Nasrallah said that the Party will continue the border offensive until at least the Gaza massacre stops. The war in Gaza however, is far from over. And Nasrallah warned that even were a ceasefire to be reached in Gaza, “should the enemy perform any action, we will return to operating according to the rules and formulas that existed before. The purpose of the resistance is to deter the enemy, and we will react accordingly”.

Israel’s Defence Secretary Gallant has underlined that contrary to international consensus expectations, he too expects the war in Lebanon to continue. Gallant said the military has stepped up its attacks against Hizbullah by one level out of ten:

“The Air Force planes flying currently in the skies of Lebanon have heavier bombs for more distant targets. Hizbullah went up half a step, whilst we, a full one … We can attack not only at 20 kilometres [from the border], but also at 50 kilometres, and in Beirut and anywhere else”.

It is not clear what ‘red line’ Hizbullah would have to cross for Israel to significantly escalate its response to much higher levels; Israeli leaders have suggested that an attack on a strategic site; or an attack leading to major civilian casualties; or a substantive barrage on Haifa might constitute the breaking point.

Nonetheless, with three military divisions rather than the usual one now deployed in the north of Israel, the IDF has more forces poised for action on the northern border than it has preparing for an incursion into Rafah – at this point. It is clear, as Chief of Staff Halevy has specified, that Israel is “preparing for war” against Hizbullah (more than preparing for Rafah).

Is the threat to Rafah a bluff to put pressure on Hamas to concede on the deal and hostages? One way or another, both Israel’s political and military chiefs are adamant: The IDF will incurse into Rafah – ‘at some point’.

The qualitatively different Hizbullah’s strike on Safed on Israel’s northern regional command HQ on Wednesday – which that resulted in 2 dead and 7 further casualties – is being treating in Israel as the gravest attack since the start of the war, with Ben Gvir calling it a “declaration of war”. Subsequent Israeli attacks killed 11 people, including six children, in a barrage of strikes on villages across southern Lebanon, in retribution for the Safed blitz – with the fierce exchange of fire still continuing.

The ‘Safed Strike’ deep into the Galilee very likely was intended to signal that Hizbullah is not about to capitulate to western demands that it provide Israel with a ceasefire that is intended to facilitate evacuated Israelis to return to their homes in the north. As Nasrallah confirmed in a scathing attack on those external (Western) mediators who serve only as Israel’s lawyers, and neglect to address the massacres in Gaza:

“It is easier to move the Litani River forward to the borders, than to push back Hezbollah fighters from the borders, to behind the Litani River … They want us to pay a price without Israel committing to a thing”.

In these circumstances, Nasrallah clarified that residents of northern Israel will not return to their homes – warning that even more Israelis risk being displaced:

“‘Israel’ must prepare shelters, basements, hotels and schools to house two million settlers who will be evacuated from northern Palestine, [were Israel to expand the war zone].”

Nasrallah outlined what is clearly the agreed Axis of resistance’s overarching strategic plan. (There has been a flurry of meetings between senior Axis principals over the last week, across the region, for which Nasrallah is speaking):

“We are committed to fighting Israel until it is off the map. A strong Israel is dangerous to Lebanon; but a deterred Israel, defeated and exhausted, is less of a danger to Lebanon”.

“The national interest of Lebanon, the Palestinians, and the Arab world is that Israel leaves this battle defeated: Therefore, we are committed to Israel’s defeat”.

Put bluntly, the Axis has its vision of the conflict’s outcome. And it is a “deterred, defeated and exhausted” Israeli State. By implication, it is an Israel that has relinquished the Zionist project – one that is reconciled to the notion of living as Jews between the River and the Sea – albeit with rights no different to others living there (i.e. Palestinians).

On the other side, the western strategic plan, as the Washington Post reports – which the U.S. and several Arab countries hope to present within a few weeks – is a long-term plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, including a “time frame” for the establishment of a provisional de-militarized Palestinian “state”:

“Imperatively, it begins with a hostage deal accompanied by a six-week cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. While it may be termed “cessation of hostilities” or an “extended humanitarian pause,” such a cease-fire will signal the de facto end of the war along the lines and scale that it has been fought since 7 Oct.”

The plan addresses “Post-war Gaza”, in terms already well-known. As senior Israeli commentator, Alon Pinkas, affirms:

“Parallel to the announcement U.S., Britain and possibly other countries will consider and eventually make a joint statement of intent by recognizing a provisional, demilitarized and future Palestinian state – without delineating or specifying its borders”.

“Such a recognition does not necessarily contradict Israel’s legitimate and reasonable demand to have overriding security control over the area west of the Jordan River in the foreseeable future … [it constitutes] a practical, timebound, irreversible path to a Palestinian state living side-by-side in peace with Israel … whose recognition could also be submitted to the UN Security Council – as a binding resolution. Once the Arab countries sign off on such a framework, the U.S. believes that neither Russia nor China would veto it …

“Within the “regionalization” phase however, the Americans will craft a regional security cooperation mechanism. Some in Washington imagine a reconfigured region with a new “security architecture” as a harbinger to a gradual Mideast version of the European Union, with greater economic and infrastructure integration”.

Ah – the New Middle East again!!!

Even Alon Pinkas, an experienced former Israeli diplomat, concedes: “If the plan seems too fantastical to you: You’re not alone”.

The basic improbabilities to this plan simply are disregarded. Firstly, Israel’s Finance Minister Smotrich responded to the reported American-Arab plan, saying: “there’s a joint American, British and Arab effort to establish a terrorist state” next to Israel. Second, (as Smotrich further notes): “They see the polls. They see how the absolute majority of Israelis oppose this idea [of a Palestinian State]”; and thirdly, some 700,000 settlers were installed in the West Bank – precisely to block any Palestinian State.

Is the U.S. really going to impose this onto a hostile Israel? How?

And, from the Resistance perspective, ‘a provisional, demilitarized and future Palestinian ‘state’, without delineated or specified borders, is not a state. It is truly a Bantustan.

The reality is that when a Palestinian State might have been a real prospect (two decades ago), the international community turned a willing ‘blind eye’ – for decades – to Israel’s successful and complete sabotage of the project. Today, circumstances are much changed: Israel has moved far to the Right and is in the grip of an eschatological passion to establish Israel on the entire “Land of Israel”.

The U.S. and Europe have only themselves to blame for the dilemma in which they now find themselves. And a policy stance – such as outlined by Biden – plainly said is doing untold strategic damage to the U.S. and its compliant European allies.

Even on the Lebanon track, let us be plain too, Israel’s demands from Lebanon go far beyond a mutual ceasefire. There is no guarantee, even should a ceasefire be reached in Gaza as part of a comprehensive hostage/end-of-war deal, that Nasrallah will agree to withdraw all his forces from the border with Israel, or conversely, that Israel will comply with its commitments.

And with the U.S. defining its Palestinian ‘solution’ as an improbable, provisional, disarmed and wholly impotent Palestinian entity, nestled within a fully militarised Israel, exercising ‘full security overlordship from the River to the Sea’, it would not be surprising were Hizbullah rather, to opt to pursue the Axis’ plan of a defeated, exhausted post-Zionism.

Israeli commentator, Zvi Bar’el, writes:

“Even were the American assumptions to become a working plan, it is still unclear what policy Israel will adopt on Lebanon. Even pushing Hezbollah back so that Israeli communities are no longer within the range of its anti-tank missiles does not remove the threat of tens of thousands of medium and long-range missiles. The deterrence equation between Israel and Hezbollah will continue to determine [the true] reality along the border”.

[The current U.S. working assumption, as presented by the Administration’s special envoy Amos Hochstein in his previous visits to Lebanon], “is that a border demarcation agreement between Israel and Lebanon will result in final and full recognition of the international border and thus deny Hezbollah the formal basis for justifying its continued fight against Israel to liberate occupied Lebanese territories. At the same time, it allows the Lebanese government to order its army to deploy its forces along the border in order to assert its sovereignty over its entire territory and demand that Hezbollah forces pull back from the border”.

This is just more wishful, ‘fantastical’ thinking. And it contains a flaw: Hochstein’s work plan does not include an agreement on the Sheba’a Farms, but only on the ‘Blue Line’ – the border agreed in 2000, but which is not recognized by Lebanon as an international border. If the issue of the Sheba’a Farms is not settled, Hezbollah will not be bound by a limited demarcation accord that omits the Sheba’a area.

Since Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October, every stratagem and protocol, dug from some musty West Wing cupboard, and upon which the U.S. leant, has failed. What was supposed to be a limited and compartmentalized military operation in Gaza by the IDF has turned into a regional firestorm. Aircraft carriers sent to deter other actors from getting involved failed with the Houthis; U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria became targets, with attacks on U.S. bases continuing, despite U.S. attempts at delivering deterrent ‘punches’.

Quite clearly, Netanyahu is ignoring Biden, and ‘defying the world’ – as this week’s headlines attest:

“Defying Biden, Netanyahu Doubles Down on Plans to Fight in Rafah” (Wall Street Journal)

“As Israel corners Rafah, Netanyahu defies the world” (Washington Post)

“U.S. won’t punish Israel for Rafah op that doesn’t protect civilians” (Politico)

“Egypt Builds Walled Enclosure on Border as Israeli Offensive Looms: Authorities are surrounding an area in the desert with concrete walls as a contingency for possible influx of Palestinian refugees” (Wall Street Journal).

Netanyahu has vowed to forge ahead, saying on Wednesday that Israel would mount a “powerful” operation in the city of Rafah, once residents have been “evacuated”. Israelis explicitly say the White House is not opposed to the Rafah blitz, provided Palestinians are given the opportunity to “evacuate” (to where, is left unsaid). (Meanwhile, Egypt is building a refugee camp inside its border, surrounded by concrete walls …).

At this point, all of the U.S.’ various problems – the political polarization, widening war, funding for wars, the alienation amongst the swing-state Arab constituencies and Biden’s sinking ratings – are beginning to feed into, and reinforce, each other. What began as a foreign-policy issue – Israel defeating Hamas – has become a significant domestic crisis. Dissatisfaction within the U.S. at Israel’s conduct of the war is fuelling the growth of significant protest movements. Who can truly believe that yet another trip by Blinken to the region will solve anything at this point, asks Malcom Kyeyune?

It is hard to say where things in the region will stand, a couple of months from now. We have entered a period of breakdown and violence, as the forces pulling apart the old status quo cascade and mutually reinforce one another.

Day 122: Israeli Aggression on Gaza Continues Dozens Martyred and Wounded in Deir al-Balah

February 5, 2024

Live News – Middle East – News – Palestine – Story of the day – Top

In a continuation of the Israeli occupation’s aggression against the Gaza Strip, the conflict has now entered its 122nd day. The devastating toll has resulted in over 27,365 casualties, with the majority being women and children. Additionally, 66,630 individuals have been wounded, and more than 8,000 are still missing and feared trapped under rubble or along roadsides.

The latest attack occurred in Deir al-Balah, located in the central Gaza Strip. Dozens of citizens were martyred, and many others were injured as Israeli aircraft targeted residential homes. Medical sources reported that two bodies were recovered, along with several injured individuals, after warplanes bombed a residential apartment. Furthermore, the number of martyrs rose to 14 after the Khattab family’s house in the Al-Hakar area was targeted, bringing the death toll in Deir al-Balah to 30 martyrs and numerous wounded.

Rescue efforts have been underway to extract martyrs and wounded citizens trapped under the targeted houses in Deir al-Balah. Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation forces set fire to multiple residential apartments in the Burj Al-Sousi area near the Al-Sinaa Junction in Gaza City. Occupation artillery also bombarded the center of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, while Israeli drones and warplanes flew extensively in the airspace of the central and southern regions.

Gaza City also faced tragedy as three young men were martyred in a Israeli drone bombardment between the Saraya and Aviation junctions, adding to the death toll that reached eleven since morning. Additionally, 21 individuals were injured, while seven martyrs fell victim to occupation sniper bullets.

In Khan Yunis, the occupation forces continued their crimes against defenseless citizens. It was reported in the evening that two young men, Moaz and Hazem Abu Younis, were martyred in an Israeli bombing while inspecting their destroyed homes near Abu Nuwairah School in the new town of Abasan. The two martyrs were buried in the Al-Awda School for the Displaced Persons. The continuous Israeli aggression led to a total of 18 martyrs, with 16 arriving at Nasser and Gaza European Hospitals in Khan Yunis since the morning. The occupation forces did not spare central Khan Yunis, as they bombed more residential areas in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Palestinians’ sufferings with the Israeli barbaric war reached unprecedented levels with 10,000 cancer patients are at risk of death and 700,000 displaced Palestinians face the threat of infectious diseases.

Meanwhile, the European Union has voiced its concern over the suspension of funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, emphasized that UNRWA represents a critical lifeline for millions of Palestinians suffering from hunger and disease outbreaks. Borrell called for an independent investigation into the allegations against 12 UNRWA employees, emphasizing that halting funding would be equivalent to collective punishment.

The suspension of funding by several countries jeopardizes the sustainability of the vital services provided by UNRWA to millions of refugees in its five areas of operations, particularly in the Gaza Strip. UNRWA has warned that it may be forced to halt its operations in Gaza by the end of February if the funding continues to remain suspended. As the humanitarian crisis worsens, the suspension of funding puts relief operations at great risk.
 
 
Source: Agencies and Al-Manar English Website

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المشهد الجيواستراتيجي الجديد: إيران قوة دولية عظمى

ناصر قنديل

– منذ السابع من تشرين الأول من العام الماضي تحول العالم الإسلامي الممتد على مساحة عابرة فوق قارتين كبيرتين هما آسيا وأفريقيا، إلى مسرح تفاعلات وتداعيات سياسية واستراتيجية قالت إن هذا العالم يشكل متحداً سياسياً وثقافياً واجتماعياً تشكل قضية فلسطين والمقدّسات الإسلامية فيها، محوراً جامعاً له رغم مرور خمسة وسبعين عاماً على ظهور هذه القضية، وبذل مساعٍ وجهود دولية سياسية وعسكرية وإعلامية وثقافية ومالية هائلة لتجاوزها وطي صفحتها، بمشاركة حكومات فاعلة في العالم الإسلامي.
– في قلب هذا العالم الإسلامي الذي يمتد على مساحة تعادل ربع مساحة اليابسة (32 مليون كلم مربع)

والذي يبلغ عدد سكانه ربع عدد سكان العالم (2 مليار نسمة)، بقيت قضية التعاون والتنسيق على قشرة الخيارات الاستراتيجية للدول التي تلتقي في منظمة مؤتمر التعاون الإسلامي، وكان عصر دول عدم الانحياز فرصة لتظهير قوة العالم الإسلامي كجزء من منظمة دول عدم الانحياز، عندما كان جمال عبد الناصر ركناً من أركان هذه المنظمة، وكانت قضية التحرّر الوطني على مستوى العالم في رأس جدول أعمال السياسة. ومنذ نهاية التجربة الناصرية، وتوقيع اتفاقيات كامب ديفيد، وتراجع منظمة دول عدم الانحياز وغياب قادتها المؤسسين، أصبح العالم الإسلامي جزءاً من منظومة السيطرة الأميركية على العالم.

– بدأت ملامح نهوض العالم الإسلامي طلباً لدور مستقل مع تراجع القبضة الأميركية على العالم وصعود قطبين جديدين هما روسيا والصين، وبدا أن شعار التوجه شرقاً، كخيار بديل أو رديف للغرب يجمع الدول الفاعلة في العالم الإسلامي، من تركيا واندونيسيا الى باكستان ونيجيريا والسعودية ومصر وإيران، وكان واضحاً أن الدول الساعية للعب دور رياديّ سياسياً على هذا الصعيد هي السعودية وتركيا وإيران، بينما تنشغل الدول الكبرى الأخرى باهتمامات وهموم أخرى، حتى جاء طوفان الأقصى وبدأ يتغيّر وجه العالم، وتظهر المكانة التي حجزتها القضية الفلسطينية في الرأي العام العالميّ، واستطراداً ما أطلقته من مناخات جديدة في الشارع الإسلامي.

– كما ظهرت القضية الفلسطينية ذات دور محوري في صناعة السياسة في العالم الإسلامي، ظهر محور المقاومة بقيادة إيران قوة محورية في رسم مسار الأحداث، ومرّت الأيام والشهور، وبدا أن روسيا والصين تكتفيان بمراقبة ما يجري، وتستثمران على عائداته التلقائية سواء في إنهاك السياسات الأميركية، أو في صرف الانتباه الأميركي عن أولوية المواجهة مع روسيا والصين. وبمعزل عن الأسباب التي تفسر هذا البرود الروسي والصيني، ولو من موقع التعاطف مع نضال الشعب الفلسطيني ومظلوميته، فإن الفراغ الاستراتيجي الدولي هنا ملأته إيران، التي استثمرت وحدها من دون سائر دول العالم الإسلامي، في مكانتها وأموالها وسياستها على تنمية حركات المقاومة ودعمها، معرّضة دولتها لمخاطر حروب واستهدافات وعقوبات، وحصار غربي مديد، يعرف القاصي والداني أنه اتخذ من الملف النووي الإيراني مجرد ذريعة لمعاقبة إيران على موقفها من كيان الاحتلال وإصرارها على المضي بلا تردّد في رعاية وتنمية خيار المقاومة وقواها.
– يأتي مقال وليم بيرنز مدير وكالة المخابرات الأميركية المركزية، (سي آي اي)، المنشور في مجلة الفورين أفيرز، ليكرّس حقيقة صعود إيران إلى المشهد الجيواستراتيجي، كقائد لنهج المقاومة الذي نجح بتمثيل الوجدان الجمعي للعالم الإسلامي خلال الشهور الأربعة من الحرب الأميركية الإسرائيلية على غزة، فعندما يتحدّث بيرنز عن الوقاحة الإيرانية فهو يصف الروح الهجوميّة لإيران، وعندما يقول إن مفتاح أمن «إسرائيل» والمنطقة هو التعامل مع إيران، يعلن إيران الشريك الجيوستراتيجي الذي لا مفرّ من الانخراط معه في التفاوض أو الحروب، على رسم السياسات. يقول بيرنز «إن الأزمة الحالية جعلت النظام الإيراني أكثر وقاحة، ويبدو أن إيران مستعدة للقتال حتى آخر وكلائها، بالتزامن مع تطوير برنامجها النووي ودعمها لحرب روسيا ضد أوكرانيا»، و»أنه مع بدء الحرب بين «إسرائيل» وحماس، أخذ الحوثيون المدعومون من إيران بمهاجمة خطوط الشحن التجارية الدولية، ولا يزال خطر زيادة التوترات على جبهات أخرى قوياً، مستخلصاً «أنه على الرغم من أن أميركا ليست مسؤولة وحدها عن حل أي من المشاكل المعقدة في الشرق الأوسط، إلا أنه لا يمكن إدارة أي من هذه المشاكل، أو حلها، دون قيادة أميركية نشطة»، ليستنتج «أن مفتاح أمن إسرائيل والمنطقة» هو «التعامل مع إيران».

– المكافئ الاستراتيجي الحاضر لدخول المعادلة الدولية عندما تتم إعادة تشكيل المنطقة على إيقاع القضية الفلسطينية، هو إيران وليس أحداً آخر، رغم محاولات تركيا حجز دور في المعادلة، وهي لم تجرؤ على قطع علاقاتها بـ»إسرائيل» تضامناً مع غزة وأهلها، كما فعلت كولومبيا وتشيلي وبوليفيا. ورغم السعي الأميركي لأدوار مصرية وسعودية، وإيران لا تسعى لاحتكار الدور، وتسعى لدعوة الجميع للانخراط في دعم خيار المقاومة والخروج من أوهام التطبيع مع كيان الاحتلال، لكن وحتى إشعار آخر، فإن الفراغ الاستراتيجي الذي لم تملأه روسيا والصين في مواجهة الدعم الأميركي لكيان الاحتلال سوف تملؤه إيران كقوة عالميّة عظمى رابعة الى جانب أميركا وروسيا والصين مع التراجع الأوروبيّ البائن.

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Sayyed al-Houthi: US starving Gaza, turned Red Sea into battlefield

 January 25, 2024

Source: Al Mayadeen

Leader of the Yemeni Ansar Allah movement Sayyed Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses the Yemeni people and the Ummah, on January 25, 2024. (Yemeni Armed Forces/Military media)

By Al Mayadeen English

The leader of the Ansar Allah movement highlights the US’ direct role in war crimes against Palestinians in his latest address.

The leader of the Yemeni Ansar Allah movement, Sayyed Abul-Malik al-Houthi, lambasted the United States for its role in supplementing and supporting the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, during his weekly address to the Yemeni people and the Ummah at large on Thursday.

Sayyed al-Houthi underlined the essential role that Washington plays in extending the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, holding the US administration accountable for piled-up humanitarian aid outside the Gaza Strip and the closure of the Rafah border crossing.

Moreover, the leader pointed to the ongoing US-UK-led aggression on Yemen, which the two Western nations claim aims to secure international maritime trade routes. Contrary to US-UK claims, Sayyed al-Houthi said that Washington “does not care about the threat to international navigation and the fact that it has turned the Red Sea into a battlefield, nor about the arrival of food and medicine to the people of Gaza.”

He added, “[The US] has no problem with expanding the conflict [and increasing tensions in the region].”

Read more: Insurance companies halt services for US, Israeli ships in Red Sea

The US insists on sieging Gaza

In fact, the Resistance leader said the US “insists on keeping Gaza under total siege and keeping the Rafah crossing closed most of the time,” adding that Washington “insists that there be no flow of [humanitarian aid] to the Palestinian people in Gaza.”

It is worth noting that Sayyed al-Houthi’s statements coincide with a months-long effective Naval campaign launched by the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF), aiming at pressuring the Israeli occupation to lift its siege on the Gaza Strip and allow humanitarian aid in. The Biden administration in Washington has opted to support the Israeli occupation’s genocidal war on Palestinians and launched at least eight strikes on Yemen.

In this context, Sayyed al-Houthi said, “While the Americans fight for the supplies to reach the Israelis, they prevent food and medicine from reaching Gaza,” pointing out that “[Washignton] is the one behind the continuation of Zionist crimes and behind [the incompetence of international organizations].”

The US “contributes directly to starving the Palestinian people, causing them to die of hunger, not only with the bombs [it provides the Israeli occupation forces with] to kill them.”

Yemen’s battle is intrinsically tied to Gaza

The leader of the Ansar Allah movement said the Yemeni Armed Forces launched more than 200 attack drones and fifty cruise and ballistic missiles in support of the Palestinian people.

He stressed that Yemen would continue to launch operations in support of the Palestinian people “until food and medicine reach all residents of Gaza and the Zionist crimes” in the Gaza Strip stop.

Sayyed al-Houthi stressed that the US’ military aggression and its insistence to reject a humanitarian deal “will not affect our position,” stressing that the Yemeni people “will never retreat.”

“Our battle is ongoing and is entirely linked to the Gaza battle.”

Yemen’s operations: No threat to international navigation

He also indicated that the US is attempting to “justify its aggression against our country and its protection of Zionist crimes,” under the pretext of protecting international navigation.

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In response to these claims, Sayyed al-Houthi said that since the beginning of the Yemeni Naval campaign, “4,874 commercial ships have crossed,” through the Red Sea, untouched, adding that the US-UK-led escalation “is [the real] threat to international navigation” and has violated “the sovereignty of countries” in the region.

He went on to advise Europeans against allowing the US to exploit their govenrments’ funds for such purposes.

He explained that “no matter how much the Americans and the British escalate,” the results of this escalation will “be counterproductive and will not affect our decision and position, but we will continue to develop our military capabilities.”

“Whenever the Israelis and the Americans insist on [committing war crimes in Gaza], we must be more resolved and determined to prevent it.”

Read more: How is Yemen protecting international law as US, ‘Israel’ violate it?

A historic battle

The leader of the Ansar Allah movement highlighted that in the history of the Arab struggle against the Israeli occupation, there has never been an aggression similar to that on Gaza today, both in terms of the war’s period and the level of criminality committed.

On that note, Sayyed al-Houthi pointed out that the number of casualties in Gaza is now calculated as a percentage of its population. “This is unparalleled today in all conflicts around the world,” he stressed.

In fact, more than 1 in 100 people in the Gaza Strip have been killed by the Israeli occupation since October 7, while more than 1 in 20 Gazans have either been killed, injured, or gone missing in the same period.

Despite the unprecedented level of Israeli brutality, the situation today has differed, he added. “Thanks to the resilience and steadfastness of the Resistance and the people of Gaza,” the equation has changed. The leader added that suffering is mutual and is not limited to Palestinians as in previous periods in the fight against the occupation.

“Despite the scale of the Zionist aggression, crime, tyranny, and incursion, the enemy has failed to achieve its declared goals,” Sayyed al-Houthi emphasized.

A shared global responsibility to support Gaza

Elsewhere in his address, Ansar Allah’s leader reiterated that Muslims bear a great responsibility to “support the resilience of the Palestinian people in the face of extremely difficult conditions, severe suffering, and great oppression.”

He underlined that “if Muslims provide the necessary support to the Palestinian people and its Resistance fighters, the equation will change completely,” pointing out that “the criminal path of the Israeli enemy continues every day, expressing an aggressive tendency, hatred, brutality, and moral bankruptcy.”

“Whenever the enemy fails to achieve its declared goals, it resorts to committing horrendous crimes,” he added, asking, “All international institutions are witnessing what is happening in Palestine, in Gaza, but where is the practical stance?”

“The statements issued by international institutions do not match up to the real situation Gaza is facing,” he added.

Regarding the international public stance on the Israeli war, he emphasized the need for the demonstrations in Western countries to continue, namely in Europe and the United States.

However, he said that “there must be broader and escalating actions to pressure the heinous and brutal crime against the Palestinian people to stop.”

“Mass popular movement has great importance in demanding an end to the aggression on Gaza and ending the crime against the Palestinian people,” Sayyed al-Houthi said, noting that “people suffering severe oppression from their regimes can boycott American and Israeli goods.”

Reaffirming Yemen’s unwavering position to support Gaza, respond to Israeli crimes, and face the occupation’s supporters no matter the challenges, he stressed that Gaza will not be left to its fate.

“Our people will not leave Gaza alone, and Yemenis will not stay at home ignoring what is happening, but the popular mobilization will continue,” he declared, calling for “massive demonstrations on Friday in the capital Sanaa and across other provinces.”

Read more: 1000+ demonstrators in Prague demand a ceasefire in Gaza

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Yemen’s impact: A source of US’ national humiliation

December 19, 202

Source: National Review

A photo posted by the Yemeni Military media depicting vehicles carrying the Al-Mandib-2 anti-ship cruise missile during the 21 September revolution commemoration parade, Sanaa, 2022 (Military Media)

By Al Mayadeen English

US’ inability or restriction of the US Navy to counteract these disruptive and economically impactful acts should be a source of national embarrassment, says Rich Lowry, the editor-in-chief of National Review.

Rich Lowry, the editor-in-chief of National Review, wrote a piece in which he acknowledged that the sole superpower in the world [the United States] has failed to safeguard one of the most crucial global trade routes from “a band of third-world rebels”.

He gushed: “Welcome to the latest humiliation of a Biden-administration foreign policy premised on not being overly provocative toward our enemies.”

Following a prolonged series of operations by the Yemeni Armed Forces in Yemen, shipping firms have declared their intention to steer clear of the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab, a narrow passage linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.

This marks “a setback for freedom of navigation”, a cornerstone of the U.S.-led global order, and a significant triumph for the Yemeni Armed Forces. They have capitalized on drones, missiles, and attempted ship seizures to gain an advantage over the world’s preeminent navy.

That’s the take offered by Lowry who further argued that a minor waterway is not being discussed but a critical route for East-West trade. Approximately 12 percent of global trade and a substantial volume of oil from the Gulf traverse the Red Sea, as per Lowry.

In Lowry’s view, the interruption of this trade essentially provided the Yemeni Armed Forces with “global reach”. Shipping insurance rates are increasing, and businesses are opting to avoid the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, a crucial shortcut linking Europe and Asia. Instead, they are opting for a longer and more costly route around the Cape of Good Hope.

The gist of Lowry’s argument is that the inability or restriction of the US Navy to counteract these disruptive and economically impactful acts should be a source of national embarrassment.

The Red Sea as a war zone

On Monday, and under the guise of securing international maritime trade routes, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the establishment of Operation Prosperity Guardian, a 10-nation “multinational security initiative under the umbrella of the Combined Maritime Forces and the leadership of its Task Force 153, which focuses on security in the Red Sea.”

Earlier today, mobilizing efforts in the face of the Yemeni forces, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin invited dozens of nations to take steps to address the operation conducted in the Red Sea as he spoke at a defense ministerial to tout a new military operation to secure commerce in the waterway.

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“We’re all here because many countries can directly contribute to our common efforts to keep strategic waterways safe,” Austin said, according to prepared remarks.

Calling Yemen’s attacks “reckless”, he described it as “a serious international problem” that needs “a firm international response,” which, as revealed earlier, will bring “together multiple countries to include the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles, and Spain.”

Meanwhile, the Associated Press, which cited an unnamed defense official, reported that several other countries have also agreed to be involved in the operation but preferred not to be named.

While the main claimed reason behind establishing the maritime coalition was the Yemeni operations, which focused solely on Israeli ships and interests, the occupation entity was not named in the list of members of the newly created force.

No further details were unveiled regarding the task force or how it will conduct its operations, amid rising concerns that it might turn the Red Sea into a military confrontations zone and that its publicly declared mission is only part of its real objectives in the strategic trade route, but it is expected to become clearer in the coming weeks.

No compromise on Palestine

In response to Western warnings and pressure on Yemen to stop its operations, the head of Sanaa’s negotiating delegation, Mohammad Abdul Salam, affirmed that “the Red Sea is safe for everyone except ships affiliated with the Israeli enemy,” emphasizing that “Yemeni operations have a significant economic impact on Israel.”

Abdul Salam emphasized that “any actions taken by the Yemeni Armed Forces are linked to lifting the blockade on Gaza and halting the aggression against the Strip.”

“The Palestinian cause does not tolerate compromise, and we cannot accept what is happening to the people of Gaza,” he warned. 

Additionally, Ali al-Qahoum, a member of the political bureau of the Yemeni Ansar Allah, echoed last week the same sentiment, underlining that Yemen will not abandon the Palestinian cause no matter what, despite American, Western, and Israeli threats.

The Yemeni official warned that “those who provide protection to Israel should bear the consequences,” stressing that Yemen “will spare no effort or resources in supporting Palestine and Gaza until victory and the eradication of Israel.”

Elsewhere, al-Qahoum made it clear that Yemen has all the defensive options to respond to any hostile actions by the US, “Israel”, and the West, with surprises that are beyond imagination.

He assured that Yemen possesses all the factors of strength and resilience that qualify it to be pivotal and influential in international equations, with elements of strength that make it steadfast in supporting Palestine.

Read next: US pushing Red Sea into war zone to protect Israeli genocide in Gaza

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Hezbollah drones reaching Haifa daily: Sayyed Nasrallah

 November 11, 2023 

Source: Al Mayadeen

Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
Speech by Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah on the occasion of “Martyr’s Day”

By Al Mayadeen English

Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah underlines that the Israeli occupation is losing on numerous fronts, including before the West, due to its own actions as it also grows weaker in the region.

The aggression being carried out against Gaza by the Israeli occupation is a dangerous, exceptional development; these crimes reflect the brutality of the Israeli occupation, Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Saturday.

Speaking during a ceremony commemorating Martyr’s Day, Sayyed Nasrallah said the Israeli occupation’s crimes were a mere reflection of its brutal nature aimed at subjugating the peoples of the region and breaking their will to demand their rights.

“The goal of the Israeli occupation’s crimes is to push the people to give up and forget about their land, prisoners, sanctities, and the whole of Palestine,” the Hezbollah chief said. 

He also underlined that the Israeli occupation, through its aggression and crimes in Gaza, including the aggressive and deliberate killing of civilians, is “sending a message to Lebanon.”

However, Sayyed Nasrallah explained that “Israel” was making yet another mistake and has not yet learned from its past. “It will not achieve its goal; the massacres it has committed throughout history, including Deir Yassin, bear testament to its failure.”

“The culture of Resistance has intensified generation after generation, despite the massacres that culminated in the great action taken by the al-Qassam Brigades on October 7,” he underlined.

Israeli project failing

“The Israeli occupation’s crimes over the past decades, and even the aggression of July 2006 did not see the Lebanese people abandon the Resistance,” Sayyed Nasrallah added, another testament to his assertions regarding the Israeli occupation’s failure.

“The Israelis must despair when it comes to achieving their goals – not our people whose choices have proven to be those of victory, liberation, and dignity,” he stressed, noting “Israel’s” own actions doomed its bids for the normalization of ties with Arab countries.

“The enemy is inflicting many losses upon itself, including by showing its true, brutal self,” the Hezbollah chief added. “The occupation dealt mighty blows to the normalization bids that it has its eyes set on. Our peoples’ stances against normalization will grow more staunch now.”

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“Israel” had losses on fronts other than the Arab World, as well, as Sayyed Nasrallah noted that the change in public opinion, especially Western public opinion, including in the United States and Europe, was “of great importance.”

He also highlighted how “Israel” was today under substantial pressure in terms of time, and its allies are abandoning it one by one, and today, “it no longer has any supporters other than the US and British regimes.”

“The United States is directing this battle and making every decision in it, and they should be under utmost pressure […] The party that can stop this aggression is the one directing it, and that is the United States,” he said.

People expect action from OIC

The Palestinian people, Sayyed Hassan said, demand that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which brings together 57 countries, do the bare minimum and come out with a stance against the Israeli occupation.

“The Palestinian people hope that the summit held in Riyadh will manage to pressure the United States to put an end to the aggression,” he said.

“The Palestinian people hope that the summit in Riyadh would succeed in opening a humanitarian corridor for the transport of aid and wounded civilians,” Sayyed Nasrallah underlined.

This comes amid an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) aimed at addressing the escalating tensions in the region and the Israeli aggression on Gaza.

‘Israel’ broken, Resistance victorious

“The Resistance’s fighters are fighting with high spirits despite the painful psychological situation, which proves Israel’s ineptitude,” Sayyed Nasrallah stressed.

“The Israeli occupation today is still unable to show one angle where it is victorious or where the Resistance fighters are broken and defeated,” he said.

Moreover, in what was seemingly an invitation for the Resistance in the West Bank to join the confrontation, Sayyed Nasrallah explained that an escalation in acts of Resistance in the occupied West Bank “might force the enemy’s hand to pull some of its units from the border with Gaza and Lebanon.”

He went on to talk about the achievement of the Yemeni Armed Forces, “The Yemeni missile and drone attacks on Israeli sites have important reverberations, regardless of their interception,” he said. “The Yemeni Armed Forces supporting Palestine is highly important, as it is an army and a Resistance in one.”

In terms of the consequences of the attacks carried out by Yemen, Sayyed Nasrallah revealed that “Israel” was “forced to mobilize a part of its air defenses, Iron Domes, and Patriot systems in Eilat, taking them from southern and northern occupied Palestine.”

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‘TURNING GAZA INTO ASHES’: ISRAELI HASBARA VS THE WORLD

NOVEMBER 3RD, 2023

Source

Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of six books. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is ‘Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak Out’. His other books include ‘My Father was a Freedom Fighter’ and ‘The Last Earth’. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net

Ramzy Baroud

Gaza has changed the political equation in Palestine.

Moreover, the repercussions of this devastating war are likely to alter the political equation in the entire Middle East and to re-center Palestine as the world’s most urgent political crisis for years to come.

Since the establishment of Israel, facilitated by Britain and protected by the United States and other Western countries, the priorities have been entirely Israeli.

‘Israeli security,’ Israel’s ‘military edge,’ ‘Israel’s right to defend itself,’ and much more have defined the West’s political discourse on the Israeli occupation and apartheid in Palestine.

This bizarre US-western understanding of the so-called conflict that an oppressor has ‘rights’ over the oppressed has enabled Israel to maintain a military occupation over the Palestinian Territories that has lasted for over 56 years.

It has also empowered Israel to neglect the roots of this ‘conflict,’ namely the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 and the long-denied Right of Return for Palestinian refugees.

Within this context, every Palestinian-Arab overture for peace was rejected; even the supposed ‘peace process,’ namely the Oslo Accords, turned into an opportunity for Tel Aviv to entrench its military occupation, expand its settlements and corral Palestinians in Bantustan-like spaces, humiliated and racially segregated.

Some Palestinians, whether enticed by American handouts or shattered by a lingering sense of defeat, lined up to receive the dividends of the US-Israeli peace – pitiful crumbs of false prestige, empty titles and limited power granted and denied by Israel itself.

However, the Israeli war on Gaza is already changing much of this painful status quo.

Israel’s constant emphasis that its deadly war is against Hamas, against ‘terror,’ against Islamic fundamentalism, and all the rest may have convinced those who are ready to accept the Israeli version of events at face value.

But as the bodies of thousands of Palestinian civilians, thousands of whom are children, began piling up at Gaza hospitals’ morgues and, tragically, in the streets, the narrative began changing.

The pulverized bodies of Palestinian children, of whole families perished together, stand witness to the brutality of Israel, to the immoral support of its allies, to the inhumanity of an international order that rewards the murderer and reprimands the victim.

Of all the biased statements made by US President Joe Biden, the one where he suggested that Palestinians are lying about counting their own dead was perhaps the most inhumane.

Washington may not realize this yet, but the repercussions of its unconditional support for Israel will prove to be disastrous in the future, especially in a region that is fed up with war, hegemony, double standards, sectarian divisions and endless conflict.

But the greatest impact will be felt in Israel itself.

When Palestinian Ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, gave a powerfully emotional speech on October 26, he could not hold back tears. International delegations at the UN General Assembly clapped non-stop, reflecting the growing support for Palestine, not only at the UN but in hundreds of cities and towns and in countless street corners around the world.

When the Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, who had spearheaded much of the lies communicated by Tel Aviv, especially in the early days of the war, delivered his talk, not a single person clapped.

The Israeli narrative had clearly crumbled, crashing to a thousand pieces. Indeed, Israel has never been so isolated. This is definitely not the ‘New Middle East’ that Netanyahu had prophesied in his UNGA talk on September 22.

Unable to fathom how the initial sympathy with Israel quickly turned into outright disdain, Israel resorted to old tactics.

On October 25, Erdan demanded the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres resign for being “unfit to lead the UN.” Guterres’ supposedly unforgivable crime suggests that “the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.”

As far as Israel and its American benefactors are concerned, no context is allowed to taint the perfect image that Israel has created for its genocide in Gaza. In this perfect Israeli world, no one is allowed to speak of military occupation, siege, the lack of political prospects, or the absence of a just peace for Palestinians.

Even though Amnesty International has said in its statement that both sides had committed “serious violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes,” Israel still attacked it, accusing the group of being ‘anti-Semitic.’

Because, in Israel’s thinking, even the world’s leading international human rights group is not permitted to contextualize the atrocities in Gaza or dare suggest that one of the “root causes” of the conflict was “Israel’s system of apartheid imposed on all Palestinians.”

Israel is no longer all-powerful, as it wants us to believe.  Recent events have proven that Israel’s ‘invincible army’ – a brand that allowed Israel to become, as of 2022, the world’s tenth-largest international military exporter – turned out to be a paper tiger.

This is what is infuriating Israel the most. “Muslims are not afraid of us anymore,” said former Knesset member Moshe Feiglin in an interview with Arutz Sheva-Israel National News. To restore this fear, the Israeli extremist politician has called for burning “Gaza to ashes immediately.”

But nothing will turn Gaza into ashes, even if the over 12,000 tons of explosives dropped on the Strip in the first two weeks of war have already incinerated at least 45 percent of the housing units in the Strip, according to the UN’s humanitarian office.

Gaza will not die because it is a powerful idea that is deeply entrenched within the hearts and minds of every Arab, every Muslim and millions of people around the world.

This new idea is challenging the long-held belief that the world needs to cater to Israel’s priorities, security, selfish definitions of peace and all other illusions.

The discussion should now return to where it should have always been – the priorities of the oppressed, not the oppressor.

It is time that we speak about Palestinian rights, Palestinian security and the Palestinian people’s right, in fact, obligation, to defend themselves.

It is time for us to speak about justice – real justice – the outcome of which is non-negotiable: equality, full political rights, freedom and the right of return.

Gaza has told us all of this and much more. And it is time for us to listen.

صفي الدين: سنكون حاضرين في كلّ جبهة بصواريخنا وسلاحنا

   السبت 21 تشرين الأول 2023


وأشار، خلال احتفال تكريمي أقامه حزب الله للشهداء مهدي محمد عطوي، حسين عباس فصاعي وابراهيم حبيب الدبق في كونين، أن «ما يحصل في غزة اليوم له ارتباط بكل قضايا أمتنا الأساسية، وبالقدس والمقدسات، وبكل قضية فلسطين، وبكل مواجهتنا مع هذا العدو المتغطرس على مستوى لبنان وكل المنطقة».

ولفت صفي الدين إلى أنّ «العالم كله يعلم اليوم أن ما يفعله الصهاينة في أطفال وشيوخ ونساء غزة إضافة إلى هذا الدمار فيها، هو فعل أميركي وأوروبي، وبالتالي، فإن كل زعيم دولي جاء إلى الكيان الغاصب ليؤيّد ويدعم وليشد على عضد هؤلاء الصهاينة، هو شريك في هذه الدماء والمجازر».

أكد رئيس المجلس التنفيذي في حزب الله، السيد هاشم صفي الدين، أنّ «مجازر غزة ستزيد من الشعوب الإسلامية والعربية تمسكًا وقناعة بالمقاومة، وستزيد المقاومين تمسكًا وقناعة واعتقادًا بصوابية ما ذهبوا إليه في المقاومة، وسيزيدنا جميعًا قناعة واعتقادًا ثابتًا راسخًا أنّ مع هذه العصابات الأميركية والأوروبية والإسرائيلية لا ينفع إلاّ لغة المقاومة والسلاح والصواريخ، ولذا سوف نكون حاضرين في كل جبهة بصواريخنا وسلاحنا».

وقال إنّ «ما حصل ويحصل في غزة يوصلنا إلى عدة نتائج، أحدها، أن أميركا ومعظم الدول الأوروبية والغربية مع أميركا، هي ليست دولًا، وجيوشها ليست جيوشًا لدول كما يقولون، وإنما هؤلاء عصابات ومافيا قتل وتجار دماء، وأميركا حقيقتها عصابة، والدول الأوروبية التي تحمي الكيان الصهيوني وتساهم في قتل الأطفال، هم عصابات وليسوا دولًا، ولا يجوز أن يتم التعاطي مع هذه الدول أنها دولًا حقيقية تؤمن بقوانين ومعايير إنسانية أو دولية أو تدافع عن حقوق الإنسان أو أي شيء من هذا النوع».

وشدد على أنّ «الذي يُساهم في قتل أطفال غزة على مرأى من كل العالم دون أن تتحرك مشاعره على الإطلاق، ليسوا أسوياء على المستوى الإنساني، وهم من الطغاة والجبابرة ومن الذين قتلت المشاعر الإنسانية في قلوبهم، ولذا ليس مسموحًا لأحد بعد الآن أن يأتي إلى بلداننا أو لأي سفارة غربية أو أميركية لتقدّم النصائح وفق معاييرها الخاصة على مستوى حقوق الإنسان والمطالب المختلفة التي يتحدثون بها ليلًا نهارًا».

وقال إنّ «الجواب الذي يجب أن يكون اليوم لكل الأميركيين والغربيين والصهاينة، هو أن المقاومين في بلدنا ومنطقتنا، متمسكون بسلاحهم وبمقاومتهم، وجاهزون دائمًا على خط المقاومة والجهاد والسلاح إلى آخر الطريق».

وأكد صفي الدين أنّ «كل ما يفعله وما سيفعله الأميركي والإسرائيلي ومن ومعهما مع الشعب الفلسطيني سواء في غزة أو في الضفة التي تنتفض اليوم، أو على مستوى التهديدات للمقاومين على امتداد منطقتنا، سوف يذهب مع الرياح».

وأضاف: «إذا كان الأميركي يستعجل الامتحانات والابتلاءات والتحديات، فعليه أن يعلم أنّ في أمتنا أبطالًا ومقاومين نفضوا غبار الذل وتاريخ المذلة عن أمتهم، وهم جاهزون في الميدان وكل مكان».

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The new Iran-Iraq railway, a track to prosperity and markets

SEP 27, 2023

Photo Credit: The Cradle

After decades of setbacks, the upcoming integration of Iraq and Iran’s railways promises to boost bilateral trade, religious and cultural tourism, and economic prosperity – with significant regional and global implications.

Mohammad Salami

The groundbreaking cross-border railway project connecting Shalamcheh in Iran to Basra in Iraq relaunched on 2 September.

The news came a belated 46 years after it was first announced in 1978 – a year before Iran’s Islamic Revolution took the world by storm. 

In the aftermath of the revolution, and because of the outbreak of the subsequent Iran–Iraq War (1980-88), the railway initiative remained on hold for several decades. Although the project would have reaped significant benefits for both countries – spurring successive governments to pursue its completion – it is Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani who managed to strike the deal.

At the railway’s inauguration ceremony, Sudani helped lay the project’s foundation stone alongside Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, who said the completion of the project would significantly boost trade exchanges between the two countries by connecting their respective railway systems and aligning these with international transport routes.

Map of Shalamcheh-Basra Railway

Tourism and trade relations

Upon its completion in two years, the Shalamcheh-Basra Railway will span 32 kilometers, include three stations, and a bridge connecting Iran with Iraq across the Shatt al-Arab – all constructed with Iran’s support. 

Maytham al-Safi, information director at Iraq’s Ministry of Transport, tells The Cradle that “the railway line will eventually link to the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala” in order to facilitate the transportation of pilgrims visiting shrine cities to and from Iraq.

Iraq and Iran share a border that stretches approximately 1600 kilometers, as well as numerous religious, cultural, and tourism similarities. Each year, around 3 million Iranians make pilgrimages to the Shia holy shrines in Iraq, while 2 to 3 million Iraqis visit Iran, home to the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad and the influential Qom seminary. 

In 2018, about 24 percent of all tourists visiting Iran came from Iraq, the largest of any country. Iran also boasts a significant health tourism industry – ranking 46th globally – and Iraqis constitute the second-largest group of health tourists to Iran after Afghanistan.

Despite these significant cultural ties, the volume of trade between the two countries has remained dismal. Even in the most optimistic scenario, Tehran and Baghdad have achieved only 50 percent of their targeted $20 billion in trade

Several factors have contributed to this: a decline in electricity trade; reductions in gasoline and diesel exports; competition from Iran’s commercial rivals like China, India, the US, Turkiye, and the UAE; excessive commercial bureaucracy between the two states; and a lack of efficient and rapid transit capabilities to Iraq.

Iran-Iraq trade decline

According to the latest statistics, non-oil trade between Iraq and Iran reached $8.9 billion in 2021, but over the past two years, Iran’s exports to Iraq have declined in 20 different categories. Farzad Pilten, head of the West Asia office of the Iran Trade Development Organization, noted a 60 percent decrease in gas exports and an 80 percent decrease in gasoline exports to Iraq. 

Iran’s performance has lagged behind other exporters, slipping to fourth place in exports to Iraq after the UAE, Turkiye, and China.

The decrease in exports between Iran and Iraq can be attributed to various factors, notably the insufficient transportation infrastructure connecting the two countries. Much of this trade relies on a very inefficient transportation of goods by road. As Javad Hedayati, director general of Iran’s International Transit and Transport, explains, Iranian trucks transport goods to the shared border, where they are laboriously unloaded and handed over to Iraqi trucks: 

“In this mode of interaction, trucks carrying cargo due to congestion sometimes have to wait for more than four days at the borders to receive their turn and unload their cargo, while the cost of stopping them at the border is more than $200 per day.”

The completion of the Shalamcheh-Basra Railway project promises to significantly boost trade by reducing transit costs by up to 20 percent, and help Iraq offset its staggering trade imbalance. In 2018, Iran exported approximately $9 billion worth of goods to Iraq, while Iraq’s exports to Iran amounted to a mere $58 million.

Iran’s transit hub ambition

Iran’s strategic goal of becoming a key regional transit hub is closely tied to its ideal geographical location at the crossroads of Asia and Europe. Recognizing this geopolitical opportunity, the Raisi administration – which has heavily prioritized the “Looking to the East” and “Neighborhood” policies – has embarked on ambitious plans to harness this potential.

Iran already has a domestic railway network that spans 14,300 kilometers, with plans to add an additional 10,000 kilometers via 36 ongoing rail projects. Impressively, the country has established seven cross-border connections to neighboring railway networks and achieved self-sufficiency in engineering services, railway construction, and rail production – even exporting domestically-produced railroad cars and train engines. 

Iran is currently strategically positioned along two international railway routes: the East-West and International North-South Transport Corridors (INSTC). The east-west route connects ASEAN countries and China to European markets, while the INSTC transit route links Russia to India via Iran.

The Shalamcheh-Basra rail project particularly complements the East-West railway connection. Via Iraq, Iran will be able to connect to the Syrian port of Latakia and its transit capacities, which might be vital to Europe.

The Iran-Iran railway also opens up the possibility of connecting with other Persian Gulf states like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. There are reports that Saudi Arabia is exploring the idea of linking railroads to Iran through Kuwait and Basra, which would create a direct rail connection between Iran and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. 

Iraq’s role in global transport

Iraq, on the other hand, stands to benefit from improved access to markets in Central Asian countries, Afghanistan, and Azerbaijan via its rail link to Iran. A southern Iraqi railway which already transports more than 6 million tons of cargo, could boost the exchange of goods to over 20 million tons upon completion of the Iran-Iraq rail connection. 

Furthermore, Shia pilgrims from Azerbaijan would have easier access to the holy city of Karbala via this railway, generating transit and tourism income for Iraq. Hafez Sadatnejad, manager of the Shalamcheh-Basra railway project, adds that the rail link with allow for the transportation of 4 million pilgrims to the pilgrimage cities of Mashhad, Qom, and Karbala in both countries.

By integrating this railway with Iran’s considerable capacities in the Khorramshahr and Imam Khomeini ports, cargo from different countries can be efficiently transported to the country’s southern waters. Iran’s extensive port infrastructure plays a crucial role in its foreign trade, with a target of achieving a cargo handling capacity of 500 million tons within the next five years.

For Iraq, the railway link with Iran is part of a broader and more ambitious project that extends from China to Europe. As economist Maitham al-Amili explains to The Cradle

“Despite what is said that the goal of the project is to facilitate the transportation of travelers between Iraq and Iran, it is part of a larger project that will contribute to diversifying Iraq’s financial resources by making it a transit corridor for millions of tons of goods if completed.”

On 20 August, the Iraqi Ministry of Transport announced an agreement with Turkiye to link Iraqi railways to Turkish railways via a 133-kilometre line, with the aim of linking the grand port of Al-Faw to Europe, all within what is known as the “Development Road.”

Amili believes that Iraq has a role in the new global transportation project that “extends from China through Iraq to Syria, by land and sea through the port of Al-Faw.”

A hard American veto

Iraq’s geostrategic location as a bridge between West Asia and Europe favors its position as “a major complement to the global transportation map linking Asian countries to the European Union,” says economist Nabil al-Marsoumi: 

“Rail transport is the safest means of transport, in addition to being inexpensive, and it always brings economic prosperity to the countries that rely on it, as in China and other countries…the multiplicity of ports to Iraq will enhance the opportunities to encourage its industries and increase its exports, not only oil, but also in the agricultural, petrochemical, and other sectors.”

Mazen al-Ashaiqer, also an economist, warns that “Iraq needs to diversify its transport lines with neighboring countries, especially for passengers, with the increasing tourist traffic to and from the country, with added economic importance if a rail or sea connection with China is achieved, making it a corridor towards Europe.”

These ambitions come with notable challenges and geopolitical complexities. Political analyst Mahmoud al-Hashemi says that “there are major American obstacles that Iraq’s plans for sea and land connectivity with Iran and China will face.” 

“The US is well aware of the positive impact of these projects on Iraq, but it wants this country to be part of its conflict with China, Iran, and Russia.”

A senior government source reveals to The Cradle that “there has been an international conflict going on for more than ten years to control international transport lines, at the center of which are Iraq and Syria, and its main poles are China, Russia, Iran, and the United States.”

He says that a transportation project is being sought by some countries to link China with Iraq and Iran, all the way to the port of Latakia on the Mediterranean Sea, to shorten the sea transport route via the Red Sea or the Atlantic Ocean to Europe, “But we cannot say that the Basra-Shalamcheh railway line is part of this project.” 

The same source attributes the mobilization of US forces along the Iraqi-Syrian border and the arming of local tribes to “Washington’s attempts to block the railway project from Basra to the port of Latakia via the Syrian cities of Albukamal and Deir ez-Zor.” 

This is in addition to the express land line that will connect Iran to Syria via Al-Qaim border crossing, as it will constitute a new victory in the soft economic war ongoing between China and Russia on the one hand and the US on the other hand.

Shalamcheh-Basra Railway and the region  

The influence of US propaganda on shaping public opinion in Iraq regarding economic and security cooperation with Iran is a notable concern. Speaking to The Cradle, Iraqi journalist Hassan al-Shammari points out that both “local and international media are subject to an American media machine to direct public opinion in accordance with its policies.”

According to Shammari, “any observer of the Iraqi media will notice that they welcome, or at least turn a blind eye to, any projects between Iraq and Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Turkiye, for example, while an organized media attack is launched against any similar project with Iran.” He adds: 

“This is what accompanied the announcement of the railway connection project with Iran, while there is no criticism of the railway connection with Turkiye within the development road project, or of the railway connection with Saudi Arabia.” 

Opponents of the railway connection with Iran often express concerns about its potential impact on the grand port of Al-Faw. Former Basra governor Wael Abdul Latif and former Minister of Transport Amer Abdul-Jabbar have warned that the railway may divert shipping traffic to Iranian ports, leading to increased prices and a reduction in port efficiency. 

However, as Iraqi government spokesman Bassem al-Awadi confirmed in a recent press conference:

“The government laid the foundation stone for the project after an economic feasibility study, ensuring Iraq’s economic and political security, and not compromising the country’s sovereignty and economy.”

As the Shalamcheh-Basra Railway project advances, it serves as a poignant symbol of progress toward enhanced shared prosperity for, and a new level of connectivity between, Iraq and Iran. 

This often-overlooked region within West Asia is poised to leave an indelible mark on global trade and transportation in the years ahead, contributing to broader regional integration and ushering in a new era of economic and logistical cooperation.The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The Cradle.

Thousands of migrants remain unidentified, missing in Mediterranean

25 Sep 2023

Source: The Washington Post

Migrants sit in a life raft off the waters of Tunisia early Wednesday, May 25, 2022 (AP)

By Al Mayadeen English

A new report by the Washington Post sheds light on migrants who went missing in the Mediterranean with inadequate identification efforts, leaving families in anguish.

Over the past decade, the Mediterranean Sea, separating Europe from the MENA region, has transformed into a theater of mass tragedy. Of the over 2 million migrants from sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East who have undertaken the perilous journey, at least 28,000 remain missing.

A recent report by The Washington Post details the tragedies that irregular migration has claimed in the Mediterranean.

The first quarter of 2023 marked the deadliest period in the central Mediterranean since 2017, as reported by the International Organization for Migration. Director General António Vitorino expressed his deep concern that these deaths may have “been normalized”.

Read more: French authorities wary of migration influx: reports

Shockingly, of the known deceased, only 13 percent of the bodies are ever recovered by European authorities, as estimated by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The vast majority of those who perish are never identified. The chances of a relative receiving confirmation of their missing loved one’s death are as slim as winning the lottery, as described by a humanitarian official. 

Related News

“It’s certainly more challenging than, say, a domestic air crash, but with the right will, it can be done,” said Cristina Cattaneo, a professor of forensic pathology at the University of Milan, who works tirelessly to identify the bodies of migrants recovered by Italian authorities. 

However, Cattaneo’s Labanof laboratory receives no state funding. European governments allocate minimal resources for the recovery, preservation, and identification of human remains arriving on their shores.

Read more: Four Tunisians arrested for piracy over migrant boat engine thefts

“You collect all the information that you need and put it in your data,” she explains. “The difficult part is looking for the relative, but it’s not impossible.”

“People are voluntarily and consciously turning their heads from the problem,” remarks Cattaneo, highlighting the dire need for coordinated efforts to address the ongoing Mediterranean migrant crisis.

In Italy and Greece, limited coordination exists among different offices and regions handling cases of missing migrants.

An agreement from 2018 between Italy, Malta, Greece, and Cyprus to share forensic information with the European Commission has yet to be fully realized.

Read more: Over 870 migrants cross English Channel in 15 boats in one day

The Eastern Mediterranean quartet: big talk, less action

SEP 26, 2023

Photo Credit: The Cradle

Forget the pipelines. The growing détente between Eastern Mediterranean neighbors Israel, Cyprus, and Greece is being leveraged mainly to counter Turkish influence and expand Washington’s presence in the region.

Mohamad Hasan Sweidan

On 4 September, Israel, Greece, and Cyprus met at their ninth tripartite summit to endorse the wave of Arab normalization with Tel Aviv. The trio also committed to determining the process and logistics for exporting stolen Palestinian gas to Europe within the next six months.

For years, Israel, Greece, and Cyprus have diligently deepened their geostrategic partnership across multiple domains, with a primary focus on energy and security collaboration in the Mediterranean Sea region. The group, formalized as the troika in 2015, convenes annually to bolster their cooperation in all areas. 

The tripartite bloc’s origins can be traced back to 2013 when their respective energy ministers convened in the Cypriot capital Nicosia to affirm their intention to collaborate on the construction of the EuroAsia Interconnector. The ambitious project would connect the electricity grids of Cyprus, Israel, and Greece via a high-voltage undersea DC transmission system boasting a capacity of 2,000 MW (currently under construction).

In addition, the trio has initiated another joint project – the Eastern Mediterranean pipeline, known as EastMed – which is designed to transport gas from Cyprus and Israel to Greece and onward to Europe. This controversial route has elicited strong reactions from various states at various times and even skepticism over its feasibility

Map of the Eastern Mediterranean pipeline (EastMed)

Greece’s geostrategic significance

On 20 March, 2019, an American delegation participated in the trio’s Foreign Ministers Meeting held in Jerusalem, where they inaugurated the 3+1 Forum, a construct devised to include the United States with the three bloc countries. 

Washington’s involvement expanded the cooperative framework to encompass not only energy issues, but also security, defense, and shared objectives. During this meeting, the three parties reaffirmed their joint commitment to “increase regional cooperation; to support energy independence and security; and to defend against external malign influences in the Eastern Mediterranean and the broader Middle East (West Asia).”

This cooperation is part of a larger US strategy to recruit Athens as a key ally in the region. As relations with Turkiye soured over the past decade, Washington has found in Greece another NATO ally it can rely on to achieve its ambitions. 

For the Americans, Greece is crucial in addressing the competitive dynamics among global and regional powers in both Southeast Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Leveraging existing Greek concerns about Turkiye’s naval activities and increasingly belligerent rhetoric, the US has strategically bolstered its military presence in the country – with the potential of becoming a de facto US military hub, as suggested by the Turkish president. 

Tensions between Ankara and Washington have also sparked debate about reducing dependence on US military bases in Turkiye.

Increasingly, it appears that Greece represents the linchpin in Washington’s strategic blueprint for the Eastern Mediterranean, serving as a pivotal launching pad for US forces and facilitating their reach into West Asia, North Africa, and Europe. 

For the Americans, Greece yields an advanced vantage point for exerting control over the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas, a particularly vital position in light of China and Russia’s expanding influence in the region. 

EU’s gas export dilemma

Greece’s active engagement in regional alliances alongside US allies like Israel also offers an opportunity to forge a wider security framework. This approach allows Washington to distribute its geopolitical burdens equitably among allies while the US grapples with its core challenges of Beijing and Moscow.

As tensions escalate over offshore gas rights in the Eastern Mediterranean, these countries have sought to further strengthen their alliance. With the endorsement of the Trump administration, the tripartite group inked a 2020 memorandum of understanding which finally greenlit the EastMed project

As envisioned by its stakeholders, the EastMed pipeline will stretch over approximately 1,900 kilometers and plunge to depths of up to 3 kilometers, ranking it the world’s longest and deepest subsea pipeline. Those ambitious specs, in turn, present substantial challenges during both the construction and maintenance phases. 

With an estimated construction cost of $6.2 billion, the project also becomes economically questionable, particularly when compared to the $1.5 billion price tag for a pipeline from Israel to Turkiye. 

In addition, the pipeline project has become a considerable source of regional friction. Turkiye, for instance, remains staunchly opposed to any exploration activities in the Eastern Mediterranean, and any gas transport project to Europe that does not include its participation. These considerations led the US to announce its withdrawal of support for the project early last year. 

With Europe actively seeking alternative natural gas sources to reduce dependence on Russian energy – coupled with large gas discoveries in occupied Palestine, Cyprus, and Egypt – deciding on an export route for Eastern Mediterranean gas has become a pressing concern for the EU. In 2022 alone, approximately 270 billion cubic meters of natural gas were discovered in the waters of Palestine, Cyprus, and Egypt.

A conduit for normalization 

The Eastern Mediterranean gas export route was, therefore, one of the hot topics discussed in September’s tripartite summit. According to reports, a decision will be made on the route of exporting Cypriot gas and Palestinian gas within the next three to six months. To date, there are three proposed routes for exporting Palestinian gas:

The first of course is the EastMed pipeline, an extensive – and expensive – project connecting the Eastern Mediterranean gas fields, including those in Palestinian waters, to Europe through a high-capacity subsea pipeline.

The second route under consideration is a direct pipeline to Cyprus. Nicosia introduced the proposal in June for a 300-kilometer Qusayr pipeline that would link Palestinian gas fields in the Eastern Mediterranean to a gas liquefaction facility in Cyprus. Following liquefaction, the gas would be transported via ships to European destinations.

The third proposed route is a pipeline to Turkiye. This option entails an underwater pipeline connecting Turkiye to the natural gas fields in occupied Palestine. From Turkiye, the gas would be further transported to southern European countries.

The summit’s final communiqué underscored the bloc’s determination to expand its cooperation beyond its current boundaries, reaching out to countries in West Asia and on to India. Through the Arab-Israeli normalization agreements, the three parties believe they can connect and collaborate more easily with other regional players and groups. 

Chief among these is the Negev Forum, which encompasses Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, the UAE, the US, and Israel. Clearly, Tel Aviv aims to leverage its agreements with Greece and Cyprus to encourage economic cooperation with Arab states.

The summit statement was clear: 

“The strengthening and widening of the circle of peace between Israel and the Arab world, unthinkable only a few years ago, holds the promise for a more secure and prosperous region, and we are committed to encourage and support this process.”

During the recent summit, the participants also raised the possibility of inviting India to attend the next trilateral bloc meeting. The move is arguably US-driven and part of Washington’s strategy to attract India’s involvement in the region as an Asian rival to China. Although the two are both core members of BRICS and the exclusive Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the US is now employing all its allies in its geopolitical and economic competition with China.

A Greek tragedy 

Despite Greece being the last EU member to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel, which it officially recognized in 1990, its eagerness to establish a US partnership to counterbalance Turkiye’s regional influence, has brought it closer to Israel. 

This aligns well with Washington’s goal of relying less on a Turkiye under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s leadership. Interestingly, the primary beneficiary of this convergence of interests is Israel, as its relations with Greece and Cyprus continue to strengthen through collaborative projects like the Eastern Mediterranean gas export initiative. 

Recent developments, such as the US-backed India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) to transport cargo to Europe via Greece (excluding Turkiye) and Israel’s ongoing refusal to agree to gas exports through Turkiye, are bound to elicit a strong reaction from Ankara.

Washington is well aware of the provocative nature of these projects for Turkish authorities, and by championing them, is potentially signaling a shift in its relations with Turkiye.

The budding alliance between Athens, Nicosia, and Tel Aviv, meant to enhance their collective security and energy needs, has thus far mainly served to extend Washington’s reach into this crucial crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. But as recent US policies have demonstrated, the Eastern Mediterranean, West Asia – even Europe – do not matter nearly as much as Washington’s fixation on China and Russia.

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The Cradle.

Lebanon Will Become Syrian Refugees’ Transit Stage into Europe: Report

September 18, 2023

Source: Al-Manar English Website

The United States of America decided in 2011 to destroy a politically and economically independent nation just because it does not comply with US administration’s policies in the Middle East.

USA ordered most of the world countries to dispatch terrorists in order to fight the safe civilians and army soldiers in Syria in 2011. Since the military war failed to subdue Syria, the operators in Washington escalated the pressures by passing a law that bans any economic cooperation with Damascus.

As a result of around 13 years of a terrorist war and an economic siege, the Syrian people suffered harsh living conditions deteriorating on a daily basis.

The Syrian laymen found themselves obliged to search for a source of an acceptable income even it costs them to take the risk of crossing the borders illegally and dangerously (via illegitimate boats).

Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan were their main destination before they moved into Europe and other continents.

In the case of Lebanon, the situation was very dramatic since it has been suffering from an unprecedented socioeconomic situation in addition to fragile infrastructure and public services.

Around 2 million Syrian refugees in the 10452-square-kilometer small country with a population of 4 millions makes the Lebanese situation harsher.as the percentage of the Syrian refugees out of the total population is expected to be much higher during the upcoming years.

Thus, the overburdened nation finds itself obliged to seek a solution for this dilemma as the US administration and the European Union have rejected all the proposals to let the refugees back to their homeland.

The Lebanese caretaker government held last Monday a session to discuss the Syrian refugees crisis, assigning the foreign minister, Abdullah Abou Habib, to lead an official delegation to Syria to discuss the issue of the displaced.

After the session, the Minister of Culture Mohammad Al-Mortada published via X platform a post that explains the decisions of the Lebanese government, indicating that Lebanon has got fed up with the NGOs preventing the return of the Syrian refugees.

Al-Mortada warned that such organization would be dissolved, hinting that Lebanon would not be able to prevent boats carrying the Syrian refugees into Europe.

Two days later, Abou Habib contacted his Syrian counterpart, Faisal Mekdad. They agreed to hold a meeting between them shortly upon Minister Bou Habib’s return from New York, where he will participate alongside Premier Najib Mikati in the work of the United Nations General Assembly, and will meet there with the Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister, who will represent his country in UN meetings.

Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdallah Bou Habib (photo from archive).

The Syrian Foreign Minister welcomed the visit of Minister Bou Habib and the accompanying delegation to Damascus, expressing his readiness for all cooperation that falls in the interest of the two countries.

The Lebanese Minister of Social Affairs Hector Hajjar told Al-Manar that Europe will recognize that Lebanon will be the transit stage of the Syrian refugees, adding that Lebanon will not be able to provide the displaced with the suitable living conditions.

Hajjar pointed out that the European states, mainly Cyprus, have notified the Lebanese authorities about their worries pertaining the flock of Syrian refugees into Europe illegally by sea or legally through airports.

Lebanese caretaker social affairs minister Hector Hajjar

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Egypt on the Economic Corridor: No alternative for Suez Canal

Sep 12, 2023

Source: Al Mayadeen

The BW Lesmes is shown in the waterway of the Suez Canal on August 23, 2023 (AP)

By Al Mayadeen English

Former Suez Canal Authority Head asserts that there is no substitute for the Suez Canal in maritime transport, in response to the announcement of the Economic Corridor project by the United States, India, and Saudi Arabia.

General Mohab Mamish, former adviser to the President and former head of the Suez Canal Authority, emphasized that there is no alternative to the Suez Canal, which stands as the fastest route for maritime transport.

These statements come in response to the announcement made by the United States, India, and Saudi Arabia on the sides of the G20 summit on Saturday, regarding the launch of the Economic Corridor project which connects India to the Middle East and Europe through Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and the Israeli occupation. 

In televised remarks, Mamish stressed that there can be “no comparison between a multimodal project and the Suez Canal, which is the fastest maritime route in the world.”

He also denied any potential impacts or repercussions on the canal in the future, stating that “the transportation process through it [the Economic Corridor] would be costly, time-consuming, and against the economics of maritime transport.”

Mamish explained that the project involves “transporting goods by sea, then by rail, followed by land transport vehicles before finally unloading on land.” He added that this is a “highly costly process with no comparison to the Suez Canal.”

In contrast, he explained that the Suez Canal is “capable and prepared to compete since it is the fastest, deepest, and most secure canal in the world. In just 11 hours, we reach the Red Sea and connect to Asia, Europe, and all the world’s ports.”

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It is worth noting that the Suez Canal is an artificial waterway at sea level in Egypt, running from north to south through the Suez Isthmus to connect the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. It serves as the shortest maritime route between Europe and countries surrounding the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean, making it one of the busiest shipping lanes globally.

Read more: Biden reveals the ME economic railway to counter BRI

During the G20 summit in New Delhi, US President Joe Biden announced a plan to build a railway and shipping corridor connecting India, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the European Union, aiming to boost trade and political cooperation.

Biden stated that this deal is “truly significant,” noting that the corridor “will help enhance trade, secure energy resources, and improve digital connectivity.”

The announcement was also attended by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and other leaders from around the world.

According to information released, “Israel will participate in extending the railway tracks, infrastructure, and shipping lines, along with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Jordan.”

The White House did not however specify when the project would be completed, its cost, or how it would be financed.

Read more: New corridor for India-Russia trade via Iran nearly complete

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A Dire Warning: The US Plan To Make Ukraine Into Europe’s ‘Big Israel’

SUNDAY, SEP 03, 202

Source

Tyler Durden

In his famous anti-Vietnam War speech, the late senator from South Dakota George McGovern told fellow Congressional leaders, “This chamber reeks of blood.”

On Saturday, journalist Max Blumenthal opened a hard-hitting talk at the Ron Paul Institute’s “Which Way America…?” conference in D.C. by quoting those words, but applied them to the US proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.

Blumenthal said that in Ukraine, Washington continues “wasting the lives and bodies of over 150,000 men, and that’s according to the Pentagon.” Citing recent studies on the immense numbers of Ukrainians who have lost limbs after a year-and-a-half of fighting (which could be surpassing WWI rates), he said the true Ukraine casualty count could be closer to 500,000 – which marks a monumental tragedy and disaster.

The GrayZone journalist then said of today’s Congress that “this chamber” not only “reeks of blood” but.. “they have wasted Ukrainian society on the mantle of anti-Russia hysteria” – as lawmakers in lockstep with the Biden administration continue to sink billions into Kiev.

Beltway liberal elites, Blumenthal asserted, still think Russia must be punished given they see Moscow as having brought the “bad orange man” to power in 2016. This is a big ideological aspect to what motivates the hawks, he said.

Further, Blumenthal explained that what’s happening here is that the US ruling class has “militarized the culture wars while depicting Ukraine as the ‘woke side’ vs. Russia as backwards and oppressive.”

But more importantly, the real “victors” are the major US defense contractors and their appendages like the K street neocon lobbying firms. Blumenthal highlighted that these, and the Biden administration, are operating with the bigger vision in mind of turning Ukraine into Europe’s “big Israel”

By this is meant a permanently militarized ‘Spartan’ wartime state, which is funded and weaponized by Washington in perpetuity, and possesses all the latest cutting edge Western defense tech. But like with the state of things long evident inside Israel (in particular oppression of both Palestinians and Israeli political dissenters), democracy must be eroded at home for this to happen. Still, the defense tech peddlers in the military-industrial complex will ‘win’ no matter how much Ukrainian society and its people are sacrificed. 

“In order to defend democracy in Ukraine, democracy must be curtailed at home,” Blumenthal emphasized, drawing lessons from current examples of oppression of free speech in the West, particularly related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

He noted here that his own investigative media outlet, The GrayZone, has had the bulk of its funding frozen by the popular platform GoFundMe. The outlet explained days ago [emphasis ZH]:

By this point, we had raised over $90,000 from over 1100 contributors. The generous contributions from our audience were accompanied by hundreds of messages of effusive support for our factual journalism holding imperial power to account.

And now, Gofundme is holding the donations hostage, refusing to transfer them to us, while failing to inform donors that it has effectively seized their money. The for-profit site has similarly refused to explain its freezing of their donations, issuing nothing more than a vague allusion – “some external concerns” – to pressure from powerful outside forces.

Gofundme’s financial sabotage follows the de facto sanctions imposed by Venmo and Paypal on our managing editor, Wyatt Reed, after he reported on the Ukrainian military’s targeting of civilians from the separatist side of the Donbas region.

Again, this is why Blumenthal could draw on recent personal experience in telling the Ron Paul conference audience that “democracy must be curtailed” in America in order to keep unlimited taxpayer dollars flowing into the Zelensky government’s coffers.

Blumenthal continued… but “now Russia has no incentive to negotiate” given they have the clear military momentum amid a failing Ukraine counteroffensive. The US and UK likely had a window of opportunity in the initial months of the war to more easily open up serious diplomatic peace negotiations, but this was actively thwarted

“We cannot have peace negotiations while war is being incentivized [by Washington interests] to this point,” he continued while also referencing neocons like Bill Kristol, who has been leading a charge to silence any dissenting views from among Republican nominees and politicians on Ukraine.

“These operatives need constant opportunities” which a permanent proxy war in Europe enables, Blumenthal continued – just like with the constant and historic billions in aid flowing to Israel, which serves to cyclically fuel the accompanying global reach and outsized influence of the Israel lobby.

On this question of whether negotiations are possible even from Kiev’s perspective, Zero Hedge asked Blumenthal what he thinks would happen in the unlikely scenario that Zelensky himself suddenly pursued peace talks with the Russians. Blumenthal responded as follows:

“If Zelensky were to pursue peace talks now before he’s re-elected… due to the kind of social forces that have been unleashed by Maidan, he will face a far-right Nazi insurgency in his own country, and he will become public enemy number one among some of the most violent and militarized forces.

…Which is why he went and met with Andriy Biletsky, the founder of Azov. Zelensky was elected on a platform of peace by 73% of the population because you still had the ethnic Russian population participating in Ukrainian society. They have been completely driven out and the constituency he’s working with is completely different now.”

Below: Last month, Ukrainian President Zelensky held court with one of the most notorious neo-Nazis in modern Ukrainian history, Azov Battalion founder Andriy Biletsky.

Turning Ukraine into “a big Israel” will involve long-term funding to shape and place “America’s unsinkable aircraft carrier not in the Middle East but in Europe,” Blumenthal said.

But as Ukrainians continue to be slaughtered, it won’t be a happy situation for a country to become a “big Israel”, Blumenthal concluded.

Former US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro (from 2011 to 2017) is helping to push this Ukraine as “big Israel” concept forward, Blumenthal pointed out.

A partial list of key elements of Shapiro’s road map for Ukraine was previously published by The Atlantic Council as follows:

  • Security first: Every Israeli government promises, first and foremost, that it will deliver security—and knows it will be judged on this pledge. Ordinary citizens, not just politicians, pay close attention to security threats—both from across borders and from internal sources— and much of the public chooses who to elect by that metric alone.
  • The whole population plays a role: The Israeli model goes further than Zelenskyy’s vision of security services deployed to civilian spaces: Most young Israeli adults serve in the military, and many are employed in security-related professions following their service. A common purpose unites the citizenry, making them ready to endure shared sacrifice. Civilians recognize their responsibility to follow security protocols and contribute to the cause. Some even arm themselves (though under strict supervision) to do so. The widespread mobilization of Ukrainian society in collective defense suggests that the country has this potential. In his comments, Zelenskyy reflected this reality when he said security would “come from the strength of every house, every building, every person.”
  • Self-defense is the only way: If there’s any single principle that animates Israel’s security doctrine, it’s that Israel will defend itself, by itself—and rely on no other country to fight its battles. The tragedies of Jewish history have embedded that lesson deep in the nation’s soul. Ukraine’s own trauma, forced to fight alone against a larger aggressor, reinforces a similar conclusion: Don’t depend on the guarantees of others.
  • But maintain active defense partnerships: Self-defense doesn’t mean total isolation. Israel maintains active defense partnerships, chiefly with the United States, which provides generous military assistance, but also with other nations with whom it shares intelligence, technology, and training. While Ukraine will probably not join NATO any time soon, it can deepen security partnerships with Alliance members and receive aid, weaponry, intelligence, and training to bolster its self-defense.
  • Intelligence dominance: From its earliest days, Israel has invested deeply in its intelligence capabilities to ensure that it has the means to detect and deter its enemies—and, when needed, act proactively to strike them. Ukraine will need to upgrade its intelligence services to compete against Russian capabilities and ensure that it’s prepared to prevent and repulse Russian attacks.
  • Technology is key: Although it relies on US assistance, Israel also chooses homegrown technology solutions for many of its greatest challenges. Multi-layer rocket and missile defenses, counter-drone systems, and tunnel detection technology are just recent examples. Ukraine—already home to bright technological minds—will know what threats it faces more than any partner; investing in its own solutions will allow it to be most responsive and adapt to new threats.

Petrodollar be warned: Three Persian Gulf energy powers just joined BRICS

AUG 28, 2023

The BRICS revealed its geopolitical priorities when it added three Persian Gulf states to its once exclusive roster of members. Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE have been strategically included to put an end to the petrodollar.

MK Bhadrakumar

The leitmotif of the BRICS Summit meeting in Johannesburg on 22-24 August has been, expectedly, the expansion of the group to include six more member states. While this itself is a stand-alone event, in reality, it dovetails nicely into the group’s core agenda of global multipolarity and the creation of a fairer international trade and finance architecture that is crucial to economic growth. 

The Johannesburg II Declaration adopted at the end of the summit modestly mentions toward the very end of the document that the addition of six more members stemmed out of a “consensus on the guiding principles, standards, criteria and procedures of the BRICS expansion process.”

However, the list of six countries – Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE – also gives away some other important clues. For starters, this BRICS consensus is anchored in a profound Russian-Chinese understanding. Also, the BRICS is declaring itself to be a non-western grouping. There is no question that BRICS ascribes the highest importance to Africa and the Persian Gulf region, with Egypt and Ethiopia, the two ancient civilization-states, as the “lynchpin.” 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov later disclosed that the “consensus” was reached through some “lively discussions” and some serious considerations:

“The weight, prominence and importance of the candidates and their international standing were the primary factors for us. It is our shared view that we must recruit like-minded countries into our ranks that believe in a multipolar world order and the need for more democracy and justice in international relations. We need those who champion a bigger role for the Global South in global governance. Six countries whose accession was announced today fully meet these criteria.”

The BRICS expansion process was thought to be very controversial, but the unity of the group held nicely. The mother of all surprises has been India’s shift to a proactive role, belying all western predictions. This creates a new ambiance for the India-China relationship, as President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi indeed broke the ice

With so much focus on West Asia and Africa, Brazil may have seemed like an outlier, but Argentina’s inclusion calmed Brazil’s sense of unease; China sought Ethiopia’s inclusion; Russia wanted Egypt’s inclusion. India, too was gratified that it enjoys historically friendly and close relations with all six newcomers. 

Credit for this may need to go to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, whose diplomatic skill and sheer perseverance put together the algorithm behind the BRICS expansion. 

Lavrov has visited Pretoria no less than four times after Russia’s special military operations [SMO] began in February last year. To be sure, the Kremlin’s hearts and minds machine was steaming ahead: South Africa hosted a joint military exercise with Russia on the first anniversary of the SMO, and President Cyril Ramaphosa visited Moscow twice this year. Simply put, he held President Vladimir Putin’s hands as Russia asserted its “non-isolation.” The BRICS summit’s outcome bears testimony to it. 

Unravelling of the petrodollar  

But what truly stands out in the BRICS expansion is the preponderance of member states from the Persian Gulf region — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Iran. 

So, what has been the game plan in bringing on board three of the world’s most important energy superpowers? Putin has voiced more than once the Russian assessment that for a long time to come, the world economy, including the western economies, cannot do without hydrocarbons as a major source of energy to run efficient, cost-effective means of production. 

Russia and Saudi Arabia alone account for a quarter of the world’s oil production. Russia and Iran hold the world’s first and second-largest gas reserves in the world. 

If the Ukraine war has shown anything, it is that countries rich in commodities cannot be browbeaten. The issue here is about the willingness and space that these resource-rich states enjoyed to exercise their strategic autonomy. The Cold War era didn’t allow for any space. But the co-relation of forces has dramatically changed, especially as the post-Cold War “unipolar moment” has vanished. 

Saudi Arabia and the UAE exemplify this best. Having been close US allies for decades, they are now diversifying their external relations, including with China and Russia, whom Washington regards as sworn enemies. Iran, too, under the burden of extreme US and EU sanctions, today boasts a strategic partnership with both Moscow and Beijing. 

The salience here is that these three oil-producing countries are also open to trading oil in non-dollar currencies. What the US did to Russia last year by seizing its hundreds of billions of dollar reserves sent shock waves all across the so-called petrodollar states of the Persian Gulf and beyond.  

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed satisfaction a few weeks ago that the process of de-dollarization in the global economy “is going relentlessly. The use of national currencies has already become a reality now, a reality growing at a global scale. Not merely countries facing sanction restrictions but also the ones not facing them are resorting to this practice – they understand the benefits of this regime in the foreign economic [activity].” 

In fact, in July, “non-sanctioned” India and the UAE signed an agreement to settle trade in rupees instead of dollars, boosting India’s efforts to cut transaction costs by eliminating dollar conversions. One needs only to know that India-UAE bilateral trade last year was a whopping $84.5 billion. The first transactions between the two countries under the new agreement, including in oil and gold, have already commenced. 

All indications are that the possible creation of a single BRICS currency figured in the discussions in Johannesburg. Putin made a reference to it in his media statement, saying: “I believe that a single settlement currency definitely deserves our attention. This is a complex issue, but we have to move towards resolving it in one way or another.” 

There is every likelihood that this complex discussion will advance through the next two BRICS summits in 2024 and 2025 under the presidency of Russia and Brazil, respectively, two member states that are supportive of the idea of a common currency. 

In sum, with the induction of the three major oil-producing nations of the Persian Gulf, BRICS 2023 will mark the beginning of the petrodollar’s unraveling. This is a huge step toward a multipolar world. The new settlement mechanisms, common currency, et al, will steadily dethrone the dollar, liberating the world economy from the clutches of the US Federal Reserve. 

Fortifying the Global South

The rationale behind the induction of the three West Asian oil states — along with Egypt and Ethiopia — can also be assessed in terms of the imperatives of regional connectivity with the African continent, which Russia and China regard as being on the cusp of a historic economic transformation. By 2050, manufacturing spending alone is projected to reach $1 trillion in Africa, offering tremendous opportunities for global businesses.

But effective intra-African integration will be critical to the continent’s economic transformation. Russia hopes to connect the Persian Gulf region to the International North–South Transport Corridor, a 7,200-km-long multi-mode network of ship, rail, and road route for moving freight, and extend it further beyond to the African market. 

Moscow is discussing with Cairo the establishment of a special economic zone in the vicinity of the Suez Canal. Saudi Arabia is expanding a sweeping railway network connecting the north and south. A string of new ports is being planned along the Saudi and Emirati coastline.  

In the final analysis, the big question is whether what took place in Johannesburg is the expansion of BRICS as a “stand-alone” event. Certainly, the overnight appearance of six important states under its canopy – who will assume full BRICS membership from 1 January, 2024 – short-circuited all procedural, protracted procedures as is customary in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) or the European Union. 

The sense of urgency is palpable. No questions asked; no interrogation ensued; no compliance report expected from the new hand-picked member states. The countries, each a regional power with its own credentials, simply walked into a red carpet welcome. 

To be sure, much confabulation and quiet discussions between Russia and China paved the way. Russians are superb in distinguishing tactics from strategy, and in this case, they happen to blend with the world order that Moscow has been espousing. 

Taken together with the profound reform of trade and payments that is already in the works, what is happening is no less than the replacement of the international trading system that has been governed exclusively by the west for the past few centuries with the objective of transferring wealth from the rest of the world to their manicured “garden.” Unless the collective west shows the sagacity to adjust to new realities, weeds may soon start taking over its “garden” and turn it into a jungle. Europe’s economic recovery is going to be challenging.

Turbulent times ahead

In sum, the historical significance of the BRICS expansion needs to be weighed in the following terms: First, Iran and two erstwhile US regional allies, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, get much-needed space to negotiate an equal relationship with Washington based on mutual respect and benefit. Make no mistake, they are in a mood to capitalize on it. 

Second, the western dominance of West Asia is ending, in a historical sense, heralding a profound shift in the regional order. The process that China kickstarted – with quiet Russian support from behind the curtain – in mediating the Saudi-Iranian reconciliation will now advance toward its logical conclusion sooner rather than later. 

This means that the west’s colonial mindset of “divide and rule” will have no takers anymore among regional states. Thus, what happened in Johannesburg would be consequential for Israel and Turkey as well. 

Finally, most importantly, the de-dollarization process, which would have moved at a snail’s pace, will now accelerate. What Putin had warned when the Biden administration imposed the “sanctions from hell” against Russia — especially its ouster from the SWIFT payment system —namely, that there would be a very heavy price to pay by the United States, is coming true. The blowback is only beginning in the international financial and trading system. 

The west simply cannot win in the looming confrontation with the Global Majority. And the transition can be addressed by Washington only through reconciliation with Moscow and Beijing, not an easy poison for the Americans to swallow. 

That will have to begin with an end to the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine and a retreat or abandonment of the attempt to fuel tensions with China over Taiwan. On the other hand, any change of course in the US strategy away from its belligerent militarized policies will have long-term implications for the entire US-led western alliance system, while in the short term, impacting President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, too. The humiliating defeat in the Ukraine war cannot be covered up any longer.  

The times ahead will be turbulent as the old, self-centered, hegemonic western mindset won’t surrender easily. As for the entrenched interest groups in the US and Europe, their basic instinct will be to manufacture delaying tactics to stall the march of history. But it won’t work if BRICS stays the course.

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The Cradle.

On Military Coups and Starvation: Is Western Media’s Perception of Africa Racist?

AUGUST 23, 2023

Image by Ninno Jack Jr.

BY RAMZY BAROUD

Racism goes beyond the use of certain words or the discriminatory practices of everyday life. It is also about political perceptions, intellectual depictions, and collective relationships.

Consider the way that Africa is currently portrayed in the news.

From a political viewpoint, Africa is seen as a totality, and not in a positive way, as in a united Africa.

For example, mainstream Western media coverage of the US-Africa Summit, held in Washington last December, presented all of Africa as poor and desperate. The continent, one can glean from headlines, was also willing to pawn its political position in the Russia-NATO conflict, in exchange for money and food.

“Biden tells African leaders US is ‘all in’ on the continent,” an Associated Press headline announced on December 15.

The phrase ‘all in’ – a lingo used in Poker when someone is willing to risk it all – was cited many times in the US and Western media.

Biden offered unconditional US commitment “to supporting every aspect of Africa’s growth,” AP reported. But “growth” had little to do with Biden’s offerings. He merely tried to outbid Russia’s support for Africa so that the latter may adopt an anti-Moscow stance. He failed.

When a Russia-Africa Summit took place on July 27-28, US-western media lashed out, again presenting Africans as political vagabonds, while belittling the strategic value of such a meeting for both Russia and African countries.

A CNN headline began with “Isolated Putin ..,” while a Reuters headline read “Putin promises African leaders free grain.”

Very little mention was made of African leaders spending much time discussing a possible role in finding a peaceful resolution to the horrific war underway in Ukraine.

Indeed, several African leaders articulated a sincere political discourse, rejecting imperialism, neocolonialism and military interventions.

Moreover, there was little media discussion that Africa, like Europe, can negotiate a stronger political position in world affairs.

Instead, the coverage seemed to center around the Black Sea Grains Initiative – brokered in July 2022 – insinuating that Russia is threatening food security in an already impoverished continent.

But this was hardly the case.

In a speech at the Economic Forum in Vladivostok last September, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that, of the 87 grain-loaded ships, only 60,000 tons out of two million reached the United Nations’ World Food Program.

Though Putin’s overall figures were contested, the UN’s Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) said in a statement published in Euronews that “Putin is correct to say only a small amount has been shipped under the World Food Program.”

Even though Western countries have been the largest recipients of grains shipped through the Black Sea, no mainstream media has made it a mission to depict Europeans as starving populations, or worse.

Additionally, Europe is hardly presented as greedy, either. Indeed, the blame is never on Europe, its colonialism, arms, and political meddling. Yet, the blame is readily assigned elsewhere.

This headline in ‘The Conversation’ is a good illustration: “Putin offers unconvincing giveaways in a desperate bid to make up for killing the Ukraine grain deal.”

The bias is astonishing.

The truth is that African leaders were not looking for ‘giveaways’ but were hoping to negotiate a stronger geopolitical position in a vastly changing global political map. Just like everybody else.

Whether Putin’s “bid” in Africa was “desperate” or not, matters little. The bias, however, becomes clear when the alleged Russian desperation is compared to the outcome of the US-Africa summit last year.

Biden’s ‘bid’ was presented as an attempt at building bridges and creating opportunities for future cooperation. All is done, of course, in the name of democracy and human rights.

The misrepresentation of Africa can also be viewed independently from the Russia-Ukraine war.

Take, for example, the way Western media dealt with the Niger military coup on July 26.

Niger is part of the Sahel countries in Africa, a stretch of nations that have all been colonized by France.

Decades after these countries gained nominal independence, Paris continued to exert strong political influence and economic control.

This is called neocolonialism. It ensures the wealth of former colonies continues to be exploited by former colonizers.

In fact, Niger’s wealth of uranium ore has helped fuel more than a fourth of the EU’s nuclear energy plants, and much of France’s.

A decade ago, France returned to the Sahel region as a military force, in the name of fighting Jihadists.

Yet, violence grew, forcing African Sahel countries to rebel, starting in the Central African Republic, then Burkina Faso, Mali, Chad, and, finally, Niger.

Little of that context features in the coverage of Western media. Instead, like Mali and the others, Niger is depicted as another of Russia’s lackeys in Africa.

Thus, the CNN headline, on August 2, “A Niger coup leader meets with Wagner-allied junta in Mali.” Here, CNN leaves no room for the possibility that African leaders have agendas, or political will, of their own.

The West’s problematic relationship with Africa is complex, rooted in colonialism, economic exploitation, and outright racism.

Africans are good ‘allies’ when they toe the Western line and hungry, easily manipulated, and illegitimate regimes when they reject the West’s conditions.

It is time to rethink and confront this demeaning perception.

Africa, like all other political spaces, is a complicated and conflicted region, deserving of deep understanding and appreciation, beyond the self-serving agendas of a few Western countries.

France never stopped looting Africa, now the tables are turning

AUG 8, 2023

As developments in West Africa demonstrate, the francophone countries are no longer willing to accept French neo-colonialism. With the fear factor finally removed, Africa’s quest for genuine independence is steadily coming to fruition.

Brad Pearce

The 26 July coup in the West African nation of Niger, which threatens to undermine French and US military presence in the region, has shed light on the historical exploitation and continued practices of Francafrique – the term used to describe the persistent exploitation by the former French Empire in Africa.

France heavily relies on nuclear energy, with 68 percent of its power coming from nuclear plants. It obtains 19 percent of the uranium required to run these plants from Niger. Despite this significant contribution toward France’s energy needs, only 14.3 percent of Nigeriens have access to a power grid, and even that is often unreliable. This stark contrast highlights the disparities and ongoing exploitation by rapine foreign powers throughout the African continent. 

The Legacy of Francafrique

Francafrique has been known for its exploitative systems designed to profit from African resources, using pressure, capital, and frequently outright force to maintain control over its former empire. As a result, many African states, including Niger, continue to face poverty and underdevelopment.

Burkina Faso’s young, charismatic leader Ibrahim Traore recently spoke at the Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg and decried the fact that Africa is resource-rich, but its people are poor, and criticized African leaders seeking hand-outs from the west, as they perpetuate dependency and poverty. He also described what is being imposed on Africa as a form of slavery, stating:

“As far as what concerns Burkina Faso today, for more than eight years we’ve been confronted with the most barbaric, the most violent form of imperialist neo-colonialism. Slavery continues to impose itself on us. Our predecessors taught us one thing: a slave who cannot assume his own revolt does not deserve to be pitied. We do not feel sorry for ourselves, we do not ask anyone to feel sorry for us.”

France’s inability to justify its presence in Africa with a coherent narrative further complicates the situation. Paris cannot openly confess its greed, feign a “civilizing mission,” or admit to any responsibility due to its past crimes. This lack of purpose weakens French power on the continent, leading to violence and poverty in its wake.

West Africa’s drive for further independence has left Atlanticists concerned about the opening this leaves for Eurasian powers like Russia and China to increase their influence in Africa. The west’s reaction reflects a lack of respect for the sovereignty of African countries, viewing the continent merely as a theater to maintain global dominance.

Since the Ukraine war’s onset in early 2022, Atlanticists have expressed alarm over the unwillingness of Global South states to support the west’s anti-Russia policies, a trend further amplified by the shift to multipolarism everywhere. This weakening of western hegemony has opened a path for many nations to avidly explore their geopolitical options and diversify their economies.

A report from the Munich Security Conference held in February highlighted this very real schism with the west:

“Many countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America have steadily lost faith in the legitimacy and fairness of an international system which has neither granted them an appropriate voice in global affairs, nor sufficiently addressed their core concerns. To many states, these failures are deeply tied to the west. They find that the western-led order has been characterized by post-colonial domination, double standards, and neglect for developing countries’ concerns.”

Fleeced by the CFA Franc

The aftermath of the Second World War marked a significant shift in global power dynamics, and the victorious powers sought to establish a new world order that would maintain peace and promote economic balance. 

In the context of African colonies, where colonial troops played a major role in the allied victory, the victorious powers, including France, aimed to retain economic control and benefit from their former colonies even as the world moved towards decolonization.

This included the establishment of new currency systems, with French leader Charles De Gaulle creating two currencies collectively known as the CFA Franc in 1945 for former colonies in the Western and Central zone.

As the push for political independence grew stronger in the late 1950s, France organized referendums in its African colonies to vote on accepting a constitution drafted by the French. 

Guinea, led by former trade unionist Sekou Toure, opposed accepting the French constitution and voted overwhelmingly against it. In a furious response, De Gaulle’s government withdrew all French administrators from Guinea and took action to sabotage the country’s infrastructure and resources. The harsh measures by Paris aimed to serve as an example of what would happen to any former French colony that resisted France’s agenda.

During the Cold War, the Communist states exploited such actions by presenting themselves as liberators and allies of African countries that sought independence from European influence. This stance has led to some Africans viewing countries like Russia as more equitable partners compared to France.

Over the years, France has demonstrated a pattern of intervening militarily – over 50 times since 1960 – in African countries to secure governments that remain compliant with French economic interests, particularly related to the continued use of the CFA Franc.

The system by which the CFA Franc operates has historically been one of a fixed exchange rate where the currency has unlimited convertibility but is permanently pegged to the French currency, previously the Franc and then the Euro. 

African currency under French control

This means that African countries cannot influence the value of their own currency, and the difference in value makes it so that France can buy African products artificially cheap while Africans are able to buy fewer goods with the money they exchange.

Worse yet, France had requirements to store, and thus profit from, the foreign reserves owned by its former colonies, though the requirement of holding 50 percent of their foreign exchange reserves in a French-ran bank was dropped for the western zone in 2019. 

Under this scheme, African states received a nominal amount of interest, but the bank benefited from lending that capital out at higher rates and attaining massive profits off of African resources and labor. This is despite the fact that many countries in Francophone Africa are major gold exporters and thus have a multitude of options for storing wealth to back a currency in alternative central banks.

While the CFA Franc system has provided some benefits in terms of stability and preventing Zimbabwean-style hyperinflation, it has also come under scrutiny for imposing requirements on African countries that are not placed on more powerful nations. The lack of control over their own currency has hindered economic growth and made these countries vulnerable to global economic shocks.

Northern African states such as Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco chose to leave the CFA Franc upon gaining independence and have experienced relatively higher prosperity. Similarly, Botswana’s success with its own national currency demonstrates that proper management can lead to stable democracy and economic growth, even for less developed nations.

Exclusive rights and privileges

The CFA Franc system has been the geopolitical equivalent of one’s father insisting he manages their savings while leaving them out of his will. There are benefits to having a trade and currency zone, such as the current ECOWAS union that covers the Western part of the continent, but by design under the CFA Franc system, independence has been an illusion by which France has fleeced these countries. 

France has been dependent on Africa for its status as a world power for more than a century. Among other privileges it has carved out for itself in post-colonial treaties, France has had the exclusive right to sell military equipment to former colonies, and enjoys the first right to any natural resources discovered. Paris makes great use of these privileges: as just one example, 36.4 percent of France’s gas is sourced from the African continent.

Moreover, a vast network of French business interests, which include major multinational companies, dominate industries such as energy, communications, and transportation in many African countries. France’s government also supports French businesses in Africa in several ways, including through an enormous public company called COFACE which guarantees French exports into these underdeveloped markets. 

Towards independence and self-reliance

This economic dependence has contributed to the perpetuation of a system where African states remain weak, pliant, and reliant on resource exports, primarily benefiting French companies and interests. Additionally, African states are obligated to ally with France in any major conflict, further eroding their national sovereignty. 

The African continent suffers from many ailments, but perhaps the most persistent and nefarious are a lack of sovereignty and access to capital. Meanwhile, much of Europe’s prosperity has been derived from looting the Global South for centuries. 

The case of Brussels, built on the wealth derived from the brutal exploitation of the Congo under Belgian King Leopold II, is a stark reminder of the deep-rooted impact of colonialism. When the monarch’s crimes against humanity were discovered, he was ultimately forced to bequeath the majority of his fortune to the Belgian state upon his death. 

Not wanting to do so, he embarked on an enormous series of public works to spend his ill-gotten gains, creating modern Brussels. Now the EU and NATO meet there and audaciously give disingenuous lectures about universal human rights while surrounded by the profits of some of the most brutal cases of oppression in human history. 

While military governments often face challenges in achieving their stated goals, it is evident that western-backed “civil democracies” have also struggled to significantly improve the security and well-being of the African public. 

The path to solving Africa’s problems lies in transformative leaders who can shrug off the legacy and remaining shackles of colonialism and enable the continent to carve out a genuine, homegrown path to independence and self-reliance.

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The Cradle.

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The Black Sea: A new arena for a global clash?

AUG 4, 2023

Photo Credit: The Cradle

Amid rising tensions in the Black Sea, Ukraine’s desire for NATO membership, diminished US global influence, and Russia facing a potential quagmire, Turkiye must assert a balanced foreign policy to avoid a global military confrontation in the strategic waterway.

Turker Erturk

On 11 July 2023, NATO issued the 90-point Vilnius Summit Communiqué, at a summit widely seen as “a historic moment for the future of European security, and Ukraine’s in particular.” The take-away: Russia’s war in Ukraine will continue. 

This reaffirmed NATO’s unwavering support for Kiev, as previously pledged at the 2008 Bucharest Summit, and emphasize that “We fully support Ukraine’s right to choose its own security arrangements. Ukraine’s future is in NATO.”

The NATO Summit culminated with leaders from 31 countries making a significant announcement: Ukraine had been offered an invitation to join NATO. The catch, however, was that Ukraine was not yet deemed ready for membership; “We will be in a position to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the Alliance when Allies agree, and conditions are met,” it read. This has left the international community wondering about the timeline and specifics of Ukraine’s eventual participation in the Altanticist alliance.

US avoiding a global hot war 

But beneath the surface, strategic machinations seem to be at play. Ukraine finds itself in a complex position: While NATO appears to be stalling Kiev’s membership, it simultaneously urges Ukraine to pursue its aspirations. The reason becomes apparent upon closer inspection: Ukraine’s entry into NATO could potentially ignite a larger conflict, the NATO-Russia War, which could spiral into World War III, and the ominous specter of nuclear weapons looms large.

Europe, particularly key players like Germany and France, hesitate to give the green light for Ukraine’s NATO accession. The US, too, has its reservations at this stage, as it seeks to avoid a global hot war. Instead, Washington aims to recalibrate its global stance, moving away from a previous globalization effort that failed to benefit its interests and inadvertently bolstered China. 

The US appears to be opting for a long-term strategy, engaging in a war of attrition with Russia, thereby escalating a Second Cold War that was set in motion during the Donald Trump era, although his was more focused on Beijing. 

In this intricate geopolitical dance, it appears unlikely that Ukraine will join NATO anytime soon. Equally, Russia may not meet the stringent requirements outlined in the Vilnius Summit’s communiqué. As a result, the war is set to endure. 

Remarkably, the Ukraine War has already surpassed 17 months, and the parallels with the Soviet Union’s nine-year protracted conflict in Afghanistan are eerily striking. This war looms large for Moscow, with a much wider front to contend with. Barring significant improvements, it could span another 5 years or even longer – a timeline that seems to align with the US’s likely plan.

NATO expansion and Russia’s military challenges 

The US may be banking on a shift in power or regime change within Russia during this protracted conflict. The continuous strain of a war economy on Moscow may eventually lead to public discontent, furthering internal turmoil. 

To maintain its military manpower, Russia has even raised the maximum military conscription age from 27 to 30, highlighting the challenges faced in assembling a large pool of trained soldiers. This is why mercenary structures like Wagner are needed, even if they pose challenges themselves. 

Meanwhile, the west, especially Europe, grapples with its own set of socio-economic problems. Escalating living costs, surging energy prices, inflation, economic contractions, an influx of Ukrainian refugees, rising unemployment, and growing public dissent against the war paint a grim picture. 

France has experienced uprisings that nearly resemble a civil war, while Germany’s decision to distance itself from Russian energy has dealt a severe blow to its industries and economy.

Amidst all this, the US appears to be the sole benefactor in the ongoing conflict. Safeguarding its interests without risking the lives of its soldiers, the US deftly maneuvers in a global struggle. Through its actions, it both challenges Russia and strengthens NATO and Europe behind its cause. 

Defense budgets of NATO countries are soaring, its arms and energy sector are revitalized, and its market share expands, culminating in an anti-Russian stronghold in the Baltic Sea, even securing the involvement of Finland and Sweden on NATO’s Northern flank.

Shifts towards multipolarity 

Despite this, the US has faced challenges to its global hegemony. The situation in West Asia and China’s expanding influence are just a few examples of the changing dynamics. Traditional allies like Saudi Arabia are seeking cooperation with Beijing through projects like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), while Iran maintains resilience despite sanctions, forging ties with Persian Gulf states such as Qatar and the UAE. 

Russia and Saudi Arabia’s increasing energy collaboration further underscores the shifting landscape, while India defiantly continues to buy weapons from Russia. These developments are contributing to a natural evolution towards multipolarity, with various countries asserting their interests and pursuing independent paths. 

Efforts to reduce the reliance on the US dollar are indicative of this trend. Nonetheless, the US remains committed to fighting this struggle to preserve its global leadership and hegemony, aware that time may be working in China’s favor.

One notable development occurred on 22 July, 2022, when Russia, Ukraine, and the UN signed the “Black Sea Grain Iniative” with Turkiye’s mediation. The goal was to facilitate the safe export of cereals, foodstuffs, ammonia, and fertilizers from Ukrainian ports. 

Simultaneously, Russia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the UN Secretariat to support the sale of Russian food and fertilizer products to global markets. However, due to embargoes, SWIFT and insurance barriers, Russia was unable to export any grain and fertilizer. 

But Russia withdrew from the agreement one year later. It turned out that in Africa, the claim that people are at risk of starving because Ukraine can’t access grain is not true. Only 12 percent of the grain exported from Ukraine in a year was sent to the continent, and 40 percent was instead directed to Europe. 

Turkiye’s geopolitical tightrope 

Turkiye, although a NATO member, has tried to maintain a relatively neutral stance since the start of the Ukraine War. This policy was influenced by several factors, including Ankara’s geopolitical position, energy dependence on Russia, trade relations, and Moscow’s support during a time when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faced isolation from the west. 

Under Erdogan, Turkiye has played a vital role in maintaining channels for Russia during the conflict, initially causing concern among US officials. However, the US eventually acknowledged Turkiye’s role as part of its long-term strategy for a war of attrition. Nevertheless, Washington remains cautious, knowing that it could potentially close such channels through various means if needed in the future.

The situation following Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea grain deal has the potential to significantly impact grain prices and food supply. As tensions rise in the Black Sea region, the NATO-Ukraine Council’s meeting on the security situation indicates that the waters may become increasingly heated in the weeks and months ahead. 

The US and NATO are expected to play a more active role in the southern flank and the Black Sea, making it crucial for Turkiye to exercise caution and vigilance regarding these developments and the potential moves of the US and NATO in relation to the Ukraine War and the Black Sea.

Strategic options for Black Sea grain security

Considering possible moves of the US and NATO in the Black Sea and their potential demands from Turkiye, the following options are conceivable:

Option 1: Turkiye, with the largest naval power in the Black Sea, could form a maritime task group to protect ships carrying grain from Ukrainian ports to the Bosphorus Strait for international markets. This task group would be guarded against Russian submarine, surface, and air threats with intelligence support from NATO. While this option does not violate the Montreux Straits Convention, it may still lead to confrontation with Russia and provoke Russian intervention in response to the naval task group’s presence.

Option 2: Another possibility is a naval task force led by Tukiye and involving Bulgaria and Romania to safeguard ships transporting grain from Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea to the Bosphorus against potential Russian submarine, surface, and air threats. Like the first option, this approach avoids direct violation of the Montreux Straits Convention but carries the risk of escalating tensions and inviting Russian intervention in the task group’s operations.

Option 3: Alternatively, NATO could deploy a naval task group, including one or two US aircraft carriers, to protect grain shipments in the Black Sea. This formidable force might deter President Vladimir Putin from intervening, given the potential consequences of such action. However, this option would irreversibly breach the Montreux Straits Convention, necessitating a new agreement to regulate maritime passage through the Turkish straits.

Preserving the Montreux Straits Convention

During the First Cold War, the Montreux Straits Convention’s restrictions on the presence of warships from non-littoral states prevented the Black Sea from becoming a theater of confrontation between superpowers. This provided Turkiye with the opportunity to pursue a balanced foreign policy, which would have been challenging in a volatile and heavily militarized region.

Given the importance of the Convention, Ankara should resist attempts to undermine it and avoid actions that may escalate tensions and conflicts in the strategic waterway, possibly leading to a global war. Instead, Turkiye should advocate for reaching agreements and maintaining dialogue with Russia to ensure the smooth transfer of regional grain to the international market through the Black Sea.

Despite economic difficulties and pressure for short-term gains, Turkiye should prioritize long-term stability and peace in the region. It is essential to protect critical infrastructure, such as natural gas pipelines, from potential sabotage attempts, as they are vital for the country’s energy security. As such, Ankara should develop comprehensive plans and strategies to safeguard its interests, including exploration, surveillance, and monitoring activities in the air, on the surface, and underwater. 

Ultimately, Turkiye’s approach to regional challenges should be guided by foresight, diplomacy, and a commitment to maintaining the Black Sea as a zone of peace and cooperation. By doing so, Turkiye can continue to play a crucial role in fostering stability and security in this strategically significant region.

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The Cradle.