By Asad Askari
The Middle East is going through the Domino Effect. There are countries, cities, and people standing in the row which are pushed every day for sadistic pleasure. What is going on in Yemen, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, etc. is not hidden from anyone. There are numbers of lives ceasing to exist for natural and unnatural reasons in full public view every day. The annexation of Palestinian land in Gaza and West Bank, War and subsequent mismanagement of Cholera and COVID pandemic in Yemen, foreign supported militias in Syria, kidnappings, and killings of dissenters in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iran, and other middle eastern countries is not a news anymore.
For example in the case of Yemen, the poorest middle eastern country, there were blockades even during the worst Cholera outbreak on the planet in 2016. The country had no access to food and medical help and the Saudi and UAE led forces were bombing the people. The situation continues to be the same during the ongoing COVID pandemic.
The fight that was initially between pro-government forces and the Houthi militia now has advanced to Saudi and UAE backed forces. This power struggle has produced only dead bodies.
There is a dialogue in the 2005 film Lord of War, “There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That’s one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is: How do we arm the other 11?”
This is what the situation is. This is the reality under the guise of local power struggle. The arms industry is continuously flourishing and making profits out of the war zones in the middle east. Among the top ten arms exporter countries of the world, America holds the first rank while five out of those ten are European countries. In the case of arms manufacturers, the top five out of ten companies are American. These countries thrive on the Oil market which they control by continuously fueling war-like situations in the middle east.
Western involvement and interference in middle-eastern affairs have brought no good ever. It is a set pattern – first, they befriend a nation and its head and then they destroy it to fit their puppet. It has been the case with Libya, Iraq, Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, etc. Every country that has seen the so-called revolution in the recent past have all been in the good book of America later condemned to be the dictator ruled state which America and the West come to rescue.
America shares 36% of the world’s arms trade. Pieter Wezeman, a senior researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said in a statement, “Half of U.S. arms exports in the past five years went to the Middle East, and half of those went to Saudi Arabia.”
Where does Saudi Arabia use these arms? As of now, a big chunk goes to Yemen. Earlier their focus was on Syria and Iraq. Saudi Arabia is a longstanding ally of America in the middle east. They have provided America with the strategically important military bases, oil, and money to help the American economy and politics.
This country has been playing with the emotions of the Muslim populations around the world in the name of religion and the holy land. Although Muslims now have started speaking against them after their hypocrisy over Palestine was exposed. Their only service towards Islam was just to propagate a certain hardline ideology and funding its centers around the globe. They contributed heavily to sectarianism which ultimately serves the American dream of the destabilized middle east.
Another dreamer here is Turkish President Recip Tayyip Erdogan. The Muslim population around the world, now detached with Saudi treachery is longing for a new guardian. They find solace in Erdogan’s rhetorics. There is a surprising shift in the general Muslim population’s attitude nowadays. They have now started talking about the lost Muslim prosperity and reviving the Ottoman-like Caliphate.
His aggression against the wrongdoings of Israel brings hope to the new Muslim woke. However, Isn’t it laughable that the same Erdogan who is crying for Palestine holding its map in the UN, has been an Israel ally until 2016 and Turkey is still a NATO member country? Hypocritically, Turkey recognized Israel as a ‘State’ back in 1949 and still does. While Erdogan was, recently, criticizing UAE over their normalization deal with Israel and threatening to sever ties with them, he completely forgot that Turkey still has its embassy in Israel and vice versa.
Erdogan has strong diplomatic ties with Israel and has been there on an official visit in 2005. Turkey and Israel have military and trade relations and Turkey helped Israel bring terrorists into Syria. His sole aim, now, is to replace Saudi Arabia from the role of unofficial Muslim leadership in the world by showing the Muslim population the daydreams of the revival of the Ottoman Caliphate.
On the other hand, there is a country that has suffered a lot due to animosity with Israel and the U.S.A. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, it has sour relations with America and its allies. There are sanctions, embargos, and continuous propaganda running against Iran. Even in the times of the COVID pandemic, U.S.A. has put further sanctions on them while the nation was struggling for the safety measures and the world was silent. The only demand Iran has is to eliminate the presence and influence of America and Israel from the Muslim world. The western puppet regimes of the middle east see it as a threat to their relations with their masters and consequent loss of their unquestioned and illegal wealth. Thus, they have given the whole picture a sectarian angle.
The majority of the Muslim world is quick to pinpoint and question Iran due to the sectarian grudge they hold against a particular faction of Islam. So, Iran can never be accepted to replace Turkey and Saudi Arabia. No matter how firm this country has been on its stand against the west and for Palestine, Iran will always be untouchable for the Muslims. The majority has given in so much to the weird theories against Shi’ism that they are ready to accept the ironical moves of Turkey and the Middle East, instead.
After Israel’s recent normalization deal with the U.A.E. and Oman, other Sultanates are likely to follow. Netanyahu’s clandestine meeting with Saudi crown prince Bin Salman and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday, smells fishy. Such a meeting with the outgoing U.S. administration will show its repercussion by the time. However, looking at the previous records and the lessons from the history, the bottom line is that America and Israel can never be friends of Muslims and those who are or have been friends with them are hidden snakes in the Muslim world. Palestine and the rest of the Muslim world can never be free or at peace until the Muslim population is playing into the hands of Saudi and Turkish hypocrite powers.
Thanks to the author for presenting a crystal clear image of the current scenario. The entire Arab world has shown to the world how spineless it is. Saudi Arab has only fueled sectarian differences around the world. Erdogan was a short while seemed like a leader that could lead the Muslim world but he’s just a Muslim Modi.
Well tried RSS Manuwadi bhakt for trying to remove trustworthiness of Turkish President Erdogan from hearts of Muslims, but you will not succeed Liars!
Saam, Daam, Dand, Bhed—-how creepily this fellow equated luxury-worshipping Western sycophant Arabs with brave Tayyib Erdogan?
What would you say now when Erdogan has openly accepted the slavery of Israel. Who would you call your messiah, your saviour, your caliph or your father, Mr. Creature of fool’s paradise?
There is a dialogue in the 2005 film Lord of War,
“There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That’s one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is: How do we arm the other 11?”
That would be the only fair and just way to ensure Basic Human Right to defend one’s dignity, life, property and territory!