Category Archives: Persian-American Gulf

Bahrain, Persian-American Gulf, UAE, US Foreign Policy

Obama and Abu Dhabi Strategize against Extremism and Aggression by Aliens……

   

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                       Neck of the woods

“The President and Crown Prince pledged to sustain the two countries’ joint counter-terrorism and security initiatives in the region. They discussed programs to counter violent extremism and the ideological roots of terrorism, and welcomed the upcoming launch in October in Abu Dhabi of the new Center for Countering Violent Extremism, a project supported by both countries and the international community. The President and Crown Prince reaffirmed their commitment to strong bilateral defense cooperation to enhance regional security and deter any threat of aggression against the UAE. …….…”

Now wtf would attack the UAE? The Martians? Klingons? Foreign Laborers? Saudi Arabia has had territorial and other disputes with the UAE, still does have border issues. I expect their foreign mercenary force would be enough to beat back any Saudi invasion: even the ragtag Huthi clan of Yemen defeated them a couple of years ago. As for Iran: highly unlikely since they have already got the disputed islands (they claim they’ve regained them) and they would face the mighty U.S. Fifth Fleet right next door in occupied oppressed new Saudi province of Bahrain.
Cheers
mhg
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Iran, Persian Gulf, Persian-American Gulf, UAE, US Foreign Policy

Strait of Hormuz: a Visit to an Island for Lease, Liberation of Iran……

    

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“Tehran on Monday warned Arab states in the Gulf that things could become “very complicated” if they do not act cautiously over a simmering islands dispute between Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi made the declaration to Iran’s ISNA news agency on the eve of talks in Doha between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states over three tiny islands in the Gulf and claimed by both Iran and the UAE. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad infuriated the UAE by visiting one of them, Abu Musa, on April 11 and asserting in a speech that historical records proved “the Persian Gulf is Persian,” as state media called his trip a purely “domestic issue.”…………”


“Sheikh Abdullah said the islands were in a “pivotal area”, crucial to the passage of oil. The UAE wants to find a solution to the conflict, but Iran’s behaviour “might bring serious complications and implications”, he said. “We have to have a clear agenda, a deadline for these negotiations.” If necessary the parties should seek international arbitration or go to the International Court of Justice, Sheikh Abdullah said. “But we cannot keep this matter going on for ever.” The Foreign Minister added: “It is with regret that a Muslim and neighbour country with civilisation and traditions behaves in such a manner. It is supposed to behave rationally, not to project its internal concerns abroad. In this case the consequences can be dangerous.”………”

I had thought there was an old agreement between Iran and one of the Emirates (Sharjah), allegedly brokered by Britain which had controlled the island, to share the oil and gas around Abu Moussa. I need to research this, but I thought there was some agreement regulating supervision as well (I can be wrong, but I doubt it).
 
More Seriously: There are rumors swirling around me that Abu Dhabi wants to lease at least one of the islands to a foreign power as a military naval base. The rumors have it that since the Canadians pulled out of their base, the UAE has had major foreign bases for only the United States, Britain, and France. In addition to some possible facilities to smaller powers like Bosnia and Monaco and the Maldives. Apparently the rulers of Abu Dhabi feel that they need more foreign bases (on the assumption that “the more the merrier“). The rumor says they wish to release an island to the Sultan of Bruni to use as a naval base to protect the Strait of Hormuz from Iranian incursions. The idea is that Western bases and Bruni bases will protect the Gulf from such ‘external’ threats as Iran poses. Bruni-ian and Western soldiers are known to be always eager to defend their national territorial waters in the Persian-American Gulf against outside incursions from faraway foreign places like Iran.
Another rumor, quickly discounted by yours truly, is that the potentates plan to settle their new foreign mercenary brigade formed by Blackwater executives from among Colombians gang veterans, disgruntled white South Africans, rare teetotaler Australians, Mexican drug cartel graduates, and other such Arab nationalists.
The Iranians, remembering Iraq in 2003, may worry that the mercenaries and/or Bruni forces will use the island as a base for launching an invasion of their country with the intention of liberating it. Stay tuned.
I still don’t know wtf Ahmadinejad was doing visiting that island at this time. It is not like he is running for office again; he can’t. Maybe he knows.
Cheers
mhg


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GCC, Gulf states, Persian-American Gulf, Saudi Arabia

GCC to AGUC: Camel Gives Birth to a Mouse, Arabizing the Leaders……….

 

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تمخض الجمل فولد فأرا

تمخض الجبل فولد فأرا
“The Camel (mountain?) went into labor but gave birth to a mouse” Succinct Arabic saying


“The GCC consultative committee met here yesterday and proposed to change the name of Gulf Cooperation Council to Arab Gulf Union Council. Muhammad Al-Rasheed, chairman of the committee, proposed the new name and hoped the new move would speed up integration of GCC states. He commended Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for making his proposal at the last GCC summit to transform the council into a powerful union to confront growing challenges. The GCC leaders have instructed the consultative committee to study a new strategy for youths, ways to enhance the spirit of citizenship, a strategy for employment in the public and private sectors, formation of a united commission for civil aviation, tackling noncontagious diseases and a GCC confederation. He commended the committee for conducting studies on global warming, climate change, unification of efforts in translation and Arabization, promoting the Arabic language and alternative energy resources. He thanked GCC leaders for appointing him chairman of the committee. He commended the achievements made by the committee in the past, adding that some of its proposals have already been implemented. Al-Rasheed emphasized the need to implement the resolutions taken by the Supreme GCC Council as many of them are still awaiting execution…………”


“Still awaiting execution”: yadda yadda yadda.……..
The Arabic language is one of the most beautiful languages. It has great literature that goes back many centuries: great poetry, great prose, great old films, lousy new films, lousy newspapers, but many great and wise and clever sayings. One of these great Arabic sayings is:“the Camel went into labor but gave birth to a mouse“.
I am not sure what these sub-potentates, the flunkies of the potentates, who met in Riyadh meant by “Arabization and promotion of the Arabic language and alternative energy sources”. This is odd: all GCC citizens speak Arabic, most of them speak it much better than their leaders. The only people who do not speak Arabic are the majority of the population of the GCC who are laborers and housemaids who hail from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Philippines, Ethiopia, and other faraway lands. That means only 85%+ of the population of the United Arab Emirates don’t speak Arabic, that only one third of the people in Saudi Arabia don’t speak Arabic, that only……….. etc, etc.  But these expatriate people, the majority, are in the Gulf on a temporary basis.

Which leads to my four unavoidable WTFs:


  • WTF1:     is it possible the Mufti off Saudi Arabia, Shaikh Al Al Al Shaikh, was behind the language?


  • WTF2: what the hell did they mean by alternative energy sources? Could they mean corn ethanol or grain alcohol (100-200 proof)?
  • WTF3: now that they have promised it, how do they presume to tackle the issue of “global warming”? I mean it can’t be handled through more extensive air-conditioning.
  • WTF4: do these council members even know what they are talking about? I mean in a technical sense. I hope so, because I sure don’t. On the other hand, maybe it is better if they have no clue: they can do less damage.

Cheers
mhg


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Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Persian-American Gulf, Saudi Arabia, US Foreign Policy, Wahhabi, Yemen

Of Iranian Mullahs, Saudi Princes, the Old Ikhwan, and Walled Cities on the Gulf…..

“For, since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, US and Saudi foreign policy has been almost single-mindedly dedicated to destabilising Iran. Indeed, there is a way to understand the post-1979 political history of the region stretching from Pakistan to the Red Sea as permutations of an ongoing and devastating battle between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The export of the battle keeps expanding: sectarian violence has become ubiquitous in countries where it had been non-existent. Colonial powers may have engineered sectarian strife into the geography of countries like Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, but what of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and even Bahrain? The expanding battle field tells us something about shifts in Saudi ambitions, and the anxieties that shape them. The Kingdom that exports terrorism is also the Kingdom of the terrified………. Saudi Arabia has never fought a war. In fact, as the embarrassing flight from Al Khafji well ahead of a badly battered Iraqi brigade demonstrated, the Saudi army is not capable of managing even a scrimmage. However, the government has been engaged in proxy wars more or less continuously since 1962……………..”

She says: “US and Saudi foreign policy has been almost single-mindedly dedicated to destabilising Iran….“  Yet that is also what the USA and the Saudi regime accuse Iran of doing around the Middle East. My humble guess: they are both doing it to each other. But the weapon of sectarian divisiveness and hatred is a specialty of the Saudi regime, and they have used it effectively in the Gulf region in the past few years.

Actually the al-Saud clan and their fanatical Ikhwan Wahhabi tribal troops initially waged wars to expand their domain and bite off big chunks of other countries early in the 20th century. They focused on countries that were not part of the British or other European empires. They preferred to attack and invade neighboring countries that were not under any foreign protection. They tried briefly to conquer one country that was part of the British Empire, Kuwait, but were disabused on the notion quickly. (For a long time the Kuwaitis had to build a wall around the old city for protection).
They conquered and annexed big chunks of Yemen, invaded Hashemite-ruled Hijaz (Mecca and Madinah), and occupied and annexed al-Ahsa’a (now part of the Eastern Province). That was early in the 20th century, before the “Kingdom of Saudi Arabia” was announced.


But all that was then. The Ikhwan fanatics are long gone, disbanded long ago when their usefulness to king Ibn Saud ended. If they were around, the Ikhwan would be fighting against the princes whose corruption and opulent lifestyles would be abhorrent to them. The regular Saudi army is not a force capable of fighting wars. It is one of the best-armed, or most expensively armed, military forces in the world, but that is all. Advanced weapons alone do not make a capable military force, otherwise the UAE would be a superpower. Two years ago they were soundly defeated by the Huthi tribal clans of northern Yemen.

Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Arabian Peninsula, GCC, Libya, Persian-American Gulf, Saudi Arabia, US Foreign Policy

Libya and the GCC: a Garbled Speech, a King’s Urge to Merge……….

 

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The late Muammar Qaddafi was famous for his ‘urge to merge’ with nations (as well as with women). He tried merging Libya with Egypt, Tunis, Chad, Algeria, Morocco and other assorted African states. Qaddafi became a legendary advocate of Arab mergers, before he gave up on Arabs and faced the rest of Africa. Saudi kings and princes normally have restricted their ‘urge to merge’ to women, multiple wives among others. But nowadays they are getting into the political side of ‘merging’ as well.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, in another one of his unintelligible speeches a couple of weeks ago, again brought up the issue of a “confederation” or “union” among the Gulf GCC nations. Hard to believe that Arabic, one of the most beautiful languages, originated from the same place as these barely intelligible princes. Jordan and Morocco have not even joined the GCC yet, at the invitation of Saudi King Abdullah. But the princes are now distracted, they have other plans.
Saudi officials and media of course have started now to echo the king. They are saturating their vast outlets with calls for more “integration”. Their agents and trolls are all over the internet encouraging it. True to form, Wahhabi faux-liberal media and tribal academics in one or two Gulf states, and the Salafi fifth column in one or two Gulf states, have taken their cue and are treating the king’s speech as the equivalent of the Sermon on the Mount. They are pushing for Saudi hegemony over the GCC nations through this half-baked “confederation” idea.
Bad idea. But I shall have more on this, and soon.
Cheers
mhg


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Iran, Israel, Muslims, NATO, Persian-American Gulf, Racism, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

Kipling on My Gulf: Native Rights, White Man Rights, Muslim Rights, NATO Rights…………

   

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 “Take up the White Man’s burden
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go send your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild—
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child
Take up the White Man’s burden
In patience to abide
To veil the threat of terror……..” Rudyard Kipling (White Man’s Burden)

When Israelis threaten Iran with a preemptive attack, unprovoked, the West takes it for granted: oh well, boys will be boys, as long as they are white boys. Western media like CNN immediately spin it as self-defense.

When Iran “threatens” to defend herself, the West acts shocked, calling for more sanctions, choking off the economy, leaving “all options” on the table until after the 2012 elections (after the American November elections not after the Iranian March elections; definitely not after the Saudi elections for that would be just after hell freezes over which would be no time for a war).

Western (and Saudi media) continue to call the Iranian presence in our region a “threat”. Iranian warships in their own neighborhood in the Gulf are called a danger, while “foreign” Western warships from ten thousand kilometers away, practically clogging the Gulf, are not a “danger”. Now, where else can the Iranian navy go? After all it is the “Persian” Gulf according to the UN resolutions (okay, Persian-American Gulf now). It is jointly “owned” solely by Iranians and Arabs and by nobody else. Yet Israeli and Western leaders and assorted political climbers continue to threaten to bomb Iran for just ‘being there’, or for looking sideways at Netantyahu.
Such threats are considered a right, an entitlement of the “white” man, something God-given. Even Ban-Ki Moon (Mooney) agrees with that, although not in so many words. Moony does want to be re-elected for another term and he knows the history of Butrus Ghali (Egypt) and Kofi Annan (Ghana).
Even the Wahhabi Salafis agree on that last point, the one of going to war against Iran for looking sideways at Benjamin Netabyahu. They also agree with Rick Santorum and the other GOP clowns about the necessity of another war in the Gulf. As long as they don’t have to fight it (with three or four wives, one has no time for war). They pray for it to some Salafi God of their own, as their royal princes pray for rain, even as they curse the Gods of their “heathen” benefactors whom they want to wage war “on their behalf”.

Who would have thunk life would get so complicated in our region in just a few years.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Politics, GCC, Gulf states, Persian-American Gulf, Saudi Arabia

Honey and Onion: Do Saudi Princes Trust Qataris? Do Qataris Trust Saudi Princes?………….

 

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“A secret meeting was held between members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Riyadh last month to discuss Saudi Arabia’s concerns over the “smuggling of Iranian arms to Hezbollah by sea,” according to an article published on February 15 in the German newspaper, Die Welt. The article stated that “the faltering of Syria, and Iran’s attempt to procure other ways to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah prompted a perturbed Saudi Arabia to hold a secret meeting with other members of the GCC in the capital, Riyadh, on January 18.” GCC members – apart from Qatar, which was excluded from the meeting – also discussed the threats made by senior Iranian officials to close down the Strait of Hormuz, a strategically important route linking Gulf countries to the outside world. The newspaper obtained data from “Western intelligence agencies” and mentioned that the oil-rich kingdom refrained from inviting Qatar to the secret congregation since “it is not reliable on issues related to Iran.”………….”

Also sprach al-Akhbar from Beirut.
The mistrust between Qataris and Saudis runs deep, too deep for the usual public platitudes that are mouthed at GCC meetings to cover up. During the late 1990s, Saudi Arabia sponsored a plot to overthrow the current Emir of Qatar. Saudi security officers directly participated, and several of these Saudis were arrested and imprisoned in Doha after the coup failed. They were not released until about two years ago. There were also reports that members of some local tribes that have Saudi roots and possible divided loyalties were implicated in that plot.
The Qataris fancy their own independent foreign policy. They have moved away from the Saudis and cultivated good relations with the Mullahs in Iran, as have the Omanis. They also have hosted the US Central Command, as another way to keep the Saudi danger at bay (real and near Saudi danger not the far away Iranian danger).
The Qataris and Saudis had started a honeymoon of sorts when the Arab uprisings started a year ago. Now this honeymoon may be over. The month of honey (shahr Asal) may becoming the month of onion (shahr bassal). An Arab saying, it sounds much better in Arabic and it rhymes. Onion and homey rhyme, but only in Arabic. Go figure.

Cheers
mhg


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Apartheid, Arab Counterrevoltion, Human Right, Persian-American Gulf, Salafi, Saudi Arabia, Terrorism, US Foreign Policy

Saudi Regime: Free Speech as a form of Terrorism, a New Fifth Column…..

 

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Rasid website reports that the Saudi regime has accused an outspoken Shi’a cleric of terrorism for speaking against injustice and repression. Shaikh Hassan al-Saffar had openly questioned how a regime that ‘condemns killing protesters in other countries allows the killing of protesters at home’. Saudi regime spokesmen have again accused the protesters and civil rights advocates in Qatif (Eastern Province) of being pawns of foreign powers. (Charging protesters and opponents of the Wahhabi regime of being Iranian pawns is a standard refrain of some Gulf despots and of the pro-Saudi Wahhabi faux-liberal media and regime academics along the Gulf). The Saudi regime media have often spoken of a “fifth column”, referring to Shi’as who are demanding their rights as citizens on their own ancestral land of the Eastern Province.
The Saudis, in fact, have their own strong “fifth column” all along the Persian-American Gulf: it consists of the Salafis who are loyal to the al-Saud clan and their Wahhabi shaikhs more than to any other entity. Most of the Saudi oil is extracted from the Shi’a area but they are the last to benefit from it.

I wonder if the Saudis can convince the Obama administration to add free speech to the list of acts of terrorism. That new definition of terrorism would only include free speech in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE, almost exclusively.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Media, Iran, Iraq, Persian-American Gulf, Saudi Arabia, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

Godfather of Unreliable Sources: Saudi Princes Claim Iran to Take Over Iraq Soon………..

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“Don Corleone: Tattaglia’s a pimp. He never could’ve out fought Santino. But I didn’t know until this day that it was Barzini all along…….” The Godfather

Alarabiya network is a semi-official Saudi media outlet managed by a son of the late King Fahd on behalf of his uncles. Its English headlines are relatively more moderate and are targeted to appeal to Western readers (and maybe policy makers). The English headlines represent the front, the moderate cover for the ‘unique’ Arab headlines.
The Arabic headlines of Alarabiya are the most sectarian, divisive, distorting of any major Arab media, or any other media outside North Korea. This item here is typical of the unsubstantiated rubbish it headlines in Arabic, with the goal or stoking fears and sectarian hatreds, mainly in the Gulf region where most of its website readers are. Here the topic is headlined as “Ruling parties Preparing for an Iranian Takeover of Iraq”. The network claims it has received a ‘statement’ from “Iraqi parliamentarians” about a statement Alarabiya had originally claimed was made by chief of the al-Quds Brigade of the Iranian IRGC. There is no reference to such item anywhere in Iranian news agencies. It is probably part of preparing the Saudi people, and other gullible Gulfies, for choosing the right side, the Western-Israeli side, if and when war erupts in the Persian-American Gulf region.
This is the modus operandi: Alarabiya headlines in Arabic a fake news item it ascribes to “sources”, than it creates “news” threads based on that, with more fake news from more fake ‘sources’. Many people with a sectarian bent in the Gulf GCC countries tend to believe this openly crass propaganda, especially the Wahhabi faux-liberals who dominate the media and some academic institutions of the ruling potentates.
Cheers
mhg


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9/11, Gulf states, Iran, Iraq, Israel, nuclear Iran, Persian-American Gulf, Saudi Arabia

Remember Joe (Judas) Lieberman? He is Alive and Well and Homesick for Iraq……..

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““I don’t know that the president will order a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities even if the sanctions don’t work, but I know that he’s capable of doing that and I believe he’s prepared to do that,” he said, adding that he doesn’t think Obama would ever send ground troops to Iran. Over the New Year’s break, Lieberman visited Israel, Iraq, Tunisia, and Libya, and he said Iran was the number one concern of leaders in the region. In previous meetings, Israeli officials had focused almost entirely on U.S. red lines and their concern over whether Obama would really attack Iran if push came to shove, emphasizing that Israel would attack if the United States doesn’t. But now the Israeli government seems more willing to let the sanctions strategy run its course, Lieberman said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview this week that Iran is beginning to show signs of cracking under the international sanctions regime……….”

Now WTF rock did Joe (Judas) Lieberman crawl from under? Joe the famous turncoat of 2008. Maybe he is covering his backside for 2913: maybe he hopes Obama will appoint him secretary of state if he wins again. He might as well appoint that other (Avigdor) Lieberman.
Joe and John (McCain) and their friend Goose had wanted to establish permanent bases in Iraq, although they have plenty of bases and warships all over the Persian-American Gulf to hang around, as well as an alleged drone base in Saudi Arabia.
Anyway, Joe who single-handed derailed the original Obama healthcare plan is back and he has a whole year left of his senate term to do damage and push for a project dear and near to his heart: a new war in the Middle East.

These right-wingers like Joe Lieberman seem to have a perverse attachment to our region, to the Middle East. From Bush-Cheney to Hillary Clinton to the pandering Republicans of 2012, they all want to start yet another war or two or three in the Middle East. Oddly they never want to start a war against the only Middle East country whose citizens attacked the American homeland in September 2001. They want to start a war of choice against another country that has not attacked anyone, not yet.

Cheers
mhg


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