the edited version
Lebanon's Sunni Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, Flees To Saudi Arabia:
[What The Hell Is Going On?]
[It has just been announced that The United States has been rebuffed by the Iraqi Government to it's demands that Iranian forces be removed from Iraqi territory as it prepares to impose economic sanctions on Tehran.
Also, now, coincidentally (!) CNN is starting to promote separation of the Kurdish region from the rest of Iraq.
I can only add with some sadness that the involvement of Iran was a direct result of the United States dismantling the Ba'athist military and civilian structure after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. So the present chaos in the Arabian peninsula and the new reality (of a Shia majority in Iraq) is a direct result of U.S. incompetence after the complete collapse of the country following it's administration by the United States. But don't expect your mainstream media to ever tell you this sad truth.
PE]
Saudi Arabia:
On The Brink of Collapse or, as a Stopgap, A War With Iran
There is a real crisis in both Lebanese-Saudi and in Saudi-Iranian relations.
I told you many years ago that, and I quote myself 'the Saudis have no backbone......all of their fighting and dying is done by foreigners – Christians – Americans and British forces – mainstream and contracted.'
I also told you that they are hoping to replace these by Pakistan supplied and trained Salafist and Waahabist contracted forces in the future – to do the fighting and dying in the Yemen.
For years, when the United States was a stable democracy (which it is not today under Donald Trump) the State Department and other branches of government have tried to persuade the Saudis that it was in their own interests – and in the interests of regional stability – that they transform a feudal monarchy into a modern democracy. All diplomatic efforts by the U.S. State Department met with rebuff.
Saudi was so important to the stability of the Gulf and to Christendom that nobody wanted (had the political courage) to force the issue on the reluctant Saudis, least they take offence and tilt towards China or even worse, towards Moscow.
Iran, The New Power Broker In the Arabian Peninsula – To The Alarm Of Israel
[Yet Is Has been failed U.S. - Israeli Foreign and Domestic Policies Which Have Brought About This Crisis]
We have now reached the situation I informed you was just around the corner over one year ago:
Iran is on the verge of major victories – in Syria and in Iraq.
(The West, through it's stupidity, handed over Iraq on a silver platter to Iran.)
It is also poised to have a major long-term military presence in Yemen which the Saudis alone will find impossible to militarily defeat in the longer-term.
Israel Was the Islamic State's Silent Backer
[If They Could Reach The Golan Heights, Israel 'Humanitarian Support' Was There To Assist ISIS Fighters]
The Christian Lebanese government, together with Israel, were covert supporters of the Islamic State.
I warned that this would come to no good – but was, as usual, laughed at.
It appeared that the Islamic State was on the verge of a major victory.
Indeed, at one point I was very partial to seeing how co-existence might be possible and was even ready to travel to Syria to research a book about the Islamic State. The objective of the book was to see the world 'through the eyes of ISIL' not to analyze the historical grievances but look at how they viewed Islam and their conception of a Caliphate. My contacts suggested that it was safe. Everything that was happening was suggesting otherwise. This was at a time before ISIL/ISIS atrocities were being reported.
The Mainstream Media Stayed Silent Whilst The Yazidis, Kurds and Syrian Christians Were Being Massacred By ISIS
For over two years, CNN, Fox and all the mainstream media were staying silent – because Syria and Iraq were suffering and nobody really cared. The position only changed when Western (Christian) politicians realised that, like dominoes in South East Asia, the situation was getting out of control.
At one point it appeared that Muqtadar al-Sadr would be defeated and Reuters falsely reported that he had fled to the safety of Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon.
I checked my source and told you (my readers) that, that very weekend he was supposed to have 'fled to Lebanon', as with Archbishop Makarios III, being both a spiritual leader and military commander, that very weekend, he was visiting the Holy City of Najaf to both encourage the Mahdi Army and those Iraqi force commanders desperately fighting to prevent Baghdad from being taken by ISIS and praying for victory.
The atrocities against Shias - civilians and captured prisoners of war by ISIS - were disgraceful – by any standards. This was also at a time when the mainstream media and every politician and clerical leader across Christendom – including The Pope -were staying silent about the atrocities of ISIS/ISIL/The Islamic State. Such is politics.
The British government, at that time, was taking a more longer-term view and many with foreign-relations expertise in branches of government could see the very real dangers ahead – but were not listened to by their political masters – similar to that what was happening in the United States.
(There was one European politician, an MEP, estranged from his wife and whose girlfriend was being maintained with Israeli money from Brussels (he had long been compromised – like the British Cabinet Minister Priti Patel – by the Israelis.)
His views reflected that of most British politicians at that time (except Jeremy Corbyn, the now Leader of the British Labour Party. Corbyn was, at that time, not Leader of the Opposition Party and was a relatively unknown politician on the international stage.)
I asked this unnamed MEP about the fate of the Coptic Christians, The Syrian Christians and the persecuted Yazidis; about Priests and Nuns (you know the ones - who were being murdered, sold as slaves in the marketplace, burned – nay roasted - alive – and tortured to death by the most sadistic imaginable means) and I will never forget his reaction to my question about accepting refugees for humanitarian reasons:
''I'm a great friend of the Christians and the Lebanese but will not support a single one being granted refugee status in Europe'' he said with as much contempt for the question as an answer for it.
I have paraphrased his words to remember the essence of his thoughts.
They reflect a society which has lost all sense of a Christian compass and has sold it's very soul to Satan. He reflected the views of the majority of British politicians - whilst Christians were being slaughtered in their thousands - and while they all looked the other way hoping it would all be over by the time they reacted.. Such is politics.
Well now the tables are turned. Iran, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, The Mahdi Army, The PKK (Kurdish Forces), Hezbollah and the Syrian Army are all on the verges of major victories in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Iranian forces and Hezbollah are pressing the advance into the Yemen.
This is coupled with the fact that we have as President of the United States, someone who has placed control of the intelligence agencies and the military in the hands of highly inexperienced individuals placed in office on the basis of their extremist politics and not their abilities to defend the interests of the United States from it's superpower rivals.
Saudi Arabia's survival, as a Wahhabi and Salafist country (Kingdom) is now in the hands of the Israelis, the Americans and to a lesser extent the British.
Saad Hariri
Saad Hariri (a Sunni Saudi passport-holder) had to flee because when the extent of his cooperation with Saudi Arabia ISIS/ISIL and Israel – and the 'betrayal' of Christian communities in Syria - becomes evident, his position in Lebanon will be, in any case, untenable.
It is a sad situation – and a very dangerous one - because Russia will be the ultimate beneficiary of political turmoil and war in the Gulf.
What America desperately needs at this critical time is a President and administration who will prevent the world from sliding into wars both in South East Asia (North Korea) The Middle East (Iran) and in the Arabian Peninsula. This will not happen. Expect the first major war against Iran.
This will be a huge miscalculation. Perhaps Saudi Arabia will also appeal to it's friend the Egyptians to provide the 'canon fodder' to fight the Iranians and Hezbollah. I do not see a single Gulf country having the backbone to fight against professional and seasoned forces from the Mahdi Army, Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah – fresh from their victories over the Islamic State fighters. I have stated that, whilst retribution must be exacted for the terrible crimes committed against civilians and prisoners of war by ISIS, I respect their bravery in preferring to die fighting than facing retribution as captured war criminals responsible for the most heinous of crimes since the second world war – excluding Vietnam and Cambodia's Pol Pot.
….''When the Ace Falls From His Suit''....
The Israelis, through their misguided foreign policy adventures and covert support for ISIS/ISIL, have played no small part in the downfall of Saad Hariri , and have maybe even set the trigger for a new Middle East War.
It's a mess of a situation – and there is no seasoned political leadership in Washington to deal with any of these critical looming crises - of global significance.
Quite the opposite, because Trump has no personal experience of war and gets his information from either Fox News or Hollywood War Movies or Conspiracy Theorists, the future (for the immediate world) looks very bleak indeed.
I've seen his appointments to date – Pompeo at the CIA, Mattis in the Military and their 'fringe' thinking about combat operations and intelligence are more akin to what the conspiracy theorists want than to 'realpolitik'.
This is at a time when the Russian Federation has one of the most experienced and globally savvy political leadership of anytime in it's recent history. It's professional armed forces have secured a major victory in Syria – having effectively liberated the country from ISIS/ISIL. Because of this the status of President Putin and The Russian Federation is almost at a 'god-like' level amongst ordinary Arabs (I monitor Arab channels) – especially Shias - across the Arab world. [I was just going to say that his status was 'very high' but that would have been a lie - more akin to your mainstream media.]
Unless new leadership emerges in Washington, Russia is now poised to have major footholds in the Persian Gulf and across the Arabian Peninsula.
And this is all because of political incompetence in Washington – both before Trump and now during his incumbent 'leadership' of the 'democratic' world (if you will now still call it that.)
So the losers, through sheer incompetence, are the United States and Great Britain. The winners are undoubtedly Iran, Hezbollah and the Russian Federation.
Luckily for the Russian Federation, this balance of power re-alignment in the Middle East and North Africa is occurring at a historic moment when it also has it's own Manchurian Candidate firmly ensconced in Washington D.C.
©Patrick Emek, November 2017