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The Arab alliance of Saudi Arabia and its GCC satellites seems to be breaking up, with Qatar ostracised by the Saudis and their puppets. President Trump has actually claimed credit for this. Yet Qatar was a voice of moderation. Worse, there is a US base in Qatar, which was a cause for alarm in the Trump cabinet as Tillerson and Mattis expressed concerns over its continued existence. Meanwhile, NATO member Turkey has thrown oil on the fire by offering to send troops to Qatar in case of an attempted invasion by the Saudis, signaling a new rift not only among the Arabs but among the Muslim world in general. Below are some commentaries and news items to help you understand what is happening in this part of the Middle East.
Clickhttp://www.tehrantimes.com/news/414078/S-Arabia-doing-what-Saddam-did-to-Kuwait-George-Washington Hossein Askari, who teaches at George Washington Univerisity, tells the Tehran Times that “the world must not allow Saudi Arabia to bully Qatar with U.S. support.” Following is the text of the interview: Q: What are the real reasons behind the decision of some Arab states to cut ties with Qatar? A: Please understand that this was not an Arab decision, but a Saudi one. The Arab and other Muslim countries that followed the Saudi decision are countries that rely on Saudi Arabia one way or the other—money or assumed political protection. Saudi Arabia has long been irritated by Qatar. They have had border disputes with armed skirmishes. The Al-Sauds have been upset with Al-Jazeera because of freedom to criticize Persian Gulf rulers. As you know, there is zero press freedom in Saudi Arabia and the Al-Sauds find Al-Jazeera objectionable. They look at Qatar as a small country that talks too much and acts too big for its size. Simply said, they want Qatar to follow Saudi Arabia’s lead as a ‘little boy’. Read more. http://www.tehrantimes.com/news/414072/German-FM-blasts-Trumpification-of-Qatar-PGCC-dispute German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel is completely out of step with Chancellor Merkel and most of the other politicians of Germany, where it is still popular to genuflect to anti-Russian Washington and also to support the Sunni Saudis and their support of terror through importation of imams and Wahhabist mosques – even while pretending to “fight terror.” If in the future, Gabriel should become chancellor, Europe will not only complete its divorce from US Neocon policies but will also usher in a break from Merkel’s pro-Saudi policies. At that point, Europe will be more insulated from the Neocons than ever and the US will have succeeded in isolating itself from the civilized world. Quote: German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel accused the United States President Donald Trump of stirring up conflicts in the Middle East and risking a new arms race as Qatar's neighbors cut ties with Doha. Read more. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/world/middleeast/trump-qatar-saudi-arabia.html?_r=0 REAL SYRIAN YOUTH OPEN UP ABOUT ASSAD GOV'T AND US-BACKED 'MODERATE' REBELS “Our government is one of the best governments in the world. Most of the things you see about our government is totally wrong. There are good and bad things but our government won’t hurt us. We are not forced to stay here, if we want we can leave but we are still here. People who left, left because of terrorists not because of government,” Amin said. “The Free Syrian Army is trying to turn our country into a strict Islamic caliphate and before that in Syria we used to live altogether. Christians, Muslims and different religions lived together and nobody had a problem with that,” Amin said. “Media outside shows that Russia is bombing us, but it’s quite the opposite, we live here and we are seeing where they are bombing. They are bombing areas which do not have civilians, it’s the places that have the terrorists,” Amin said. He further said, “They are saying that Russia is bombing civilians but they don’t mention when the US or France bombs villages in the countryside in Aleppo.” https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201706031054282341-syrian-youth-discuss-assad-us-backed-rebels/ White phosphorus illegally used by the US military. https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/us-warplanes-launch-white-phosphorus-airstrikes-isis-militants-near-raqqa/ Russian Hypersonic missile successfully completes tests. The Russians seem to have developed a missile that is virtually impossible to intercept by available means. http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/06/russia-successfully-completes-tests-of.html Turkish parliament okays troop deployment in Qatar amid Saudi dustup. Trump just recently took credit for the rift between the Saudis and Qatar. The Saudis are annoyed, for example, because Qatar wants to use diplomatic means to deal with Iran, which Saudi Arabia seeks to isolate if not destroy. In this it is in solidarity with US Neoconservatives and Democrats and with Israel. But since Russia is a loyal ally of Iran, this policy – along with the US-Saudi-Israel efforts to oust Assad in Syria, carries a real risk of a world war. http://www.tehrantimes.com/news/414077/Turkish-parliament-okays-troop-deployment-in-Qatar-amid-Saudi US ground-based midcourse defense (GMD) succeeds in unrealistic tests https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/06/05/us-missile-defense-test-realistic-assessment-incredible-accomplishment.html Today, the GMD is hardly reliable.19 tests have been conducted since 1999 with only 9 of them successful. Combined with the high cost, the tests gave the system a bad reputation. The EKV is the main problem. If the May 30 test were a failure, the future of the GMD -- Ground-Based Midcourse Defense -- program would be questioned. It was a matter of survival rather than achieving a technological breakthrough. One does need to be a military expert to realize that a real success would be achieved after a number of tests conducted under various conditions. Will the interceptors hit the targets when electronic countermeasures and decoys are used? Normally, such measures reduce efficiency by roughly 50%. Russian and Chinese missiles carry sophisticated suites of countermeasures to overcome advanced ballistic missile defense (BMD) systems. The GMD interceptors can hit only unsophisticated missiles launched by those who are new to the game, like North Korea, for instance. It leaves open the question of how the GMD interceptors would perform under real war conditions. https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/06/02/foundation-west-shaken-its-future-unsertain.html NATO and the EU are going through changes to shake the foundation the West was built on. There will be no such thing as the West-Russia pattern. Rather, Moscow will have to deal with the groups of states to emerge as a result of the West’s unity currently bursting at the seams. Sanctions and other things will simply die away. The groups may differ in their views on the issues the West has been unanimous until now and the very term – the West – may lose its relevance. The things that had seemed to be unimaginable before have happened with new poles of power emerging to change the political landscape of the Euro-Atlantic region and the contemporary world. Read more. https://eadaily.com/ru/news/2017/06/05/smozhet-li-rossiya-ispolzovat-saudovsko-katarskiy-konflikt?utm_source=push here to edit.
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