Middle East

Middle East (Region)
Of particular geopolitical interest primarily because of the fossil fuel reserves of the Persian Gulf.

The Middle East is a region of the world. Situated between Europe, Asia and Africa, being the heart of the largest religions in the last two millennia and its abundance of resources such as oil, the Middle East is of strategic importance.

Oil

The oil wars: How America's energy obsession wrecked the Middle East - Eugene Gholz - Big Think

Oil is a viscous, black, highly energy dense material which is used both as a fuel and as a raw material for production of a wide range of chemicals such as plastics and pesticides. It is naturally occurring but limited to a relatively few areas of the world, of which the most important, historically, has been the Middle East. In the 21st century, "non-conventional" methods have been developed to extract oil from tar sands. These methods are highly polluting to the natural environment.

Post-2001

Post 1989, the US has continued to intervene overseas. These have becoming increasingly more ambitious as the influence of the US deep state has replace that part of the democratic process which actually respected the will of the citizens. In the 21^st century, effective control of groups such as Al Qaeda has allowed the post 9/11 "war on terror" to be exploited as a general purpose casus belli. In countries such as Libya, aggressive foreign intervention has been portrayed by the commercially-controlled media as "humanitarian intervention".

NATO Drug Surge

The Golden Cresent - very coincidentally - right after the 1980s Afghan war has become the biggest opium-producing area in Asia since 1991. Afghanistan - again, quite the coincidence - became the largest country after the ban by the Taliban on producing heroin was lifted after a US/NATO-led invasion costing $1,000,000,000,000 in which a country occupied by the NATO troups became responsible for 90% of the worlds heroin production.

Waterways

The Suez Canal has been fought for by dozens of countries, mostly Iran, Saudi Arabia and Israel, as Big Oil relies on the vital waterway for distribution. 12% of all global trade and 8% of all liquefied natural gas pass through the canal. A temporary blockage in 2021 - even during the Covid-19-pandemic - caused $9 Billion in damages.

Wikileaks

Why the Middle East’s Borders Guarantee Forever Wars - RealLifeLore

Full article: 2010 United States diplomatic cables leak

According to a leak of diplomatic cables by U.S officials all over the world in 2010 from the previous 12 years, the Strait of Hormuz was deemed a vital world water-route, and critical to US national security. Other diplomats painted a story of how absolutely nobody in the middle east amongst top officials trusted each other, all wanted other countries to be bombed and accused them of supporting militant groups.

Triangle of envy

Iraq vs Saudi Arabia

The Iraqi government was said by one such cable of Wikileaks leak to hate Saudi Arabia, rather than Iran, as see them as threat to the stability and unity of their emerging democratic state. They believe that Saudi Arabia, along with other Sunni Arab states, aims to bolster Sunni influence, weaken Shia dominance, and foster a fragmented and weak Iraqi government.

Moreover, Saudi Arabia applied pressure on Kuwait to reverse initial agreements with Iraq dating back to the Saddam-era. Saudi Arabia also opposed Qatar and Bahrain's plans to improve their relations with Iraq. The Saudis, much like the Iranians, did not hesitate to utilize their financial resources and political influence within Iraq. They aimed to support Sunni political aspirations, exert control over Sunni tribal groups, and counter the Shia-led Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) and Iraqi National Alliance (INA).

They were said to use media influence through satellite channels like Al-Arabiyya and Al-Sharqiya to achieve these goals. In a meeting with White House counterterrorism adviser John O. Brennan, Saudi King Abdullah expressed his belief that the U.S. invasion handed Iraq to Iran "on a silver platter".

King Abdullah, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud bin Faisal, and Prince Muqrin all indicated that the Saudi government had no plans to send an ambassador to Baghdad or open an embassy in Iraq in the near future. They cited security and political concerns for this decision. King Abdullah expressed his distrust of Nouri al-Maliki, stating that the Iraqi Prime Minister had previously made promises and failed to deliver on them. While the specific broken promises were not mentioned, he still was called an "Irani agent".

Iran's nuclear facilities

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia repeatedly urged the United States to "cut the head of the snake," referring to Iran's nuclear program.

1 year

A tense discussion between Saudi King Abdullah and former Iranian Foreign Minister Mottaki highlighted Saudi Arabia's concerns about Iran's interference in Arab affairs. When the King challenged Mottaki on Iranian involvement in Hamas affairs, he responded by saying, "You as Persians have no business meddling in Arab matters." King Abdullah indicated that the Iranians wanted to improve relations, but he gave Mottaki an ultimatum, saying, "I will give you one year" to achieve this goal.

At one point King Abdullah expressed concerns about Iran's efforts to establish Hezbollah-like organizations in African countries and its provocative missile launches, which he believed aimed to create fear, even though he admitted Iran was reliable, had no betrayed him over the years.

Prince Turki al Kabeer, Saudi Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, suggested that other Gulf states might follow and allow the stationing of nuclear weapons in the region as a deterrent to Iran, he warned about a possible environmental catastrophe resulting from the Russian-built reactor at Bushehr, which is located close to Saudi shores. Saudi Arabia could not accept Iranian supremacy in the region, according to him.

 

An Office Holder on Wikispooks

Name	From	To	Description
Gary Sick	1975	1980	"the point man in the White House dealing with Iran" under Carter

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Tariq Ali	“and then the NGOs bought off many of the best people with the tacit understanding that they could not engage directly in politics if they wanted to receive funding or assistance. Unfortunately the NGOs have helped remove secular intellectuals from politics - their impact on intellectual life in the Muslim world needs to be tabulated,\.”	Tariq Ali	2005
Joe Biden	“It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy. I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate," Biden said to Emerald City supporters, mentioning the Middle East and Russia as possibilities. And he's gonna need help. And the kind of help he's gonna need is, he's gonna need you - not financially to help him - we're gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be apparent that we're right.”	Joe Biden Time Magazine	2008
Joe Biden	“Our allies in the region were our largest problem in Syria. The Turks were great friends, and I have a great relationship with Erdogan, [who] I just spent a lot of time with, [and] the Saudis, the Emirates, etcetera. What were they doing? They were so determined to take down Assad, and essentially have a proxy Sunni-Shia war, what did they do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad – except that the people who were being supplied, [they] were al-Nusra, and al-Qaeda, and the extremist elements of jihadis who were coming from other parts of the world. Now, you think I'm exaggerating? Take a look. Where did all of this go? So now that's happening, all of a sudden, everybody is awakened because this outfit called ISIL, which was al-Qaeda in Iraq, when they were essentially thrown out of Iraq, found open space and territory in [eastern] Syria, [and they] work with al-Nusra, who we declared a terrorist group early on. And we could not convince our colleagues to stop supplying them. So what happened? Now, all of a sudden – I don't want to be too facetious – but they have seen the lord. Now we have ... been able to put together a coalition of our Sunni neighbors, because America can't once again go into a Muslim nation and be the aggressor. It has to be led by Sunnis. To go and attack a Sunni organization. And so what do we have for the first time? President Erdoğan told me, he is an old friend, said you were right, we let too many people through, now we are trying to seal the border.”	Joe Biden The Washington Post	2014
Strategy of tension	“The West sees how the process of forming a multipolar world order is gaining momentum. And in order to restrain development of independent, sovereign countries, to split the world majority, they use the same means. (these forces, sic) want the epidemic of vigilance and hatred (to engulf not just the middle east, but Eurasia)”	Vladimir Putin	2023
Donald Trump	“Islamic terrorism is eating up large portions of the Middle East. They've become rich. I'm in competition with them. They just built a hotel in Syria. Can you believe this? They built a hotel. When I have to build a hotel, I pay interest. They don't have to pay interest, because they took the oil that, when we left Iraq, I said we should've taken”	Donald Trump	June 2015
Donald Trump	“When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're not sending you. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people. But I speak to border guards and they tell us what we're getting. And it only makes common sense. It only makes common sense. They're sending us not the right people. It's coming from more than Mexico. It's coming from all over South and Latin America, and it's coming probably – probably – from the Middle East. But we don't know. Because we have no protection and we have no competence, we don't know what's happening. And it's got to stop and it's got to stop fast.”	Donald Trump	June 2015
US/Foreign policy	“The US/Saudi/Israeli alliance against Iran is the most important geo-political factor in the region today. It is high time this alliance stopped both funding ISIS and pretending to fight it; schizophrenia is not a foreign policy stance.”	Craig Murray	20 December 2018

 

Nation states

Nation state	Description
Bahrain	Oil rich Arab nation, formerly part of the British Empire.
Egypt	Strategically important due particularly to the Suez canal.
Iran	Iran possesses the 4th largest oil reserves of any nation state.
Iraq	Iraq possesses the 5th largest oil reserves of any nation state.
Israel	Only country in the world to be founded, led and designated by and for Jewish people after the Holocaust. Zionists achieved this with forms of land grabbing, apartheid and murder of Palestinians, but saying that is apparently.... antisemitic...
Jordan	Middle Eastern kingdom.
Kuwait	Kuwait has the 6th largest oil reserves of any nation state.
Lebanon	Religiously diverse Middle Eastern country.
Oman	The oldest independent state in the Arab world.
Palestine	Another victim of the British empire, Palestine is recognised by most UN member states.
Qatar	Oil rich, gas richer! Huge arms importer in the Persian Gulf.
Saudi Arabia	Longtime political ally of the USA, Saudi Arabia possesses larger easily accessible oil reserves than any other nation state.
Syria	A nation state in the Middle East being targeted by NATO countries and their terrorist proxies with a "humanitarian intervention"/"War on Terror" campaign to effect 'regime change'.
Turkey	Turkey is a nation state at the south east corner of Europe.
United Arab Emirates	The United Arab Emirates has the 7th largest oil reserves of any nation state.
Yemen	A war torn country in the Middle East

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Arabs Beware the Small States Option	article	29 July 2013	Sharmine Narwani	A succinct introduction to proposals, widely canvassed among Western Elites but otherwise largely suppressed, to impose a new political settlement on the entire Middle East involving the re-ordering of its national borders along sectarian lines. These proposals represent the increasingly dominant leitmotif of 21st century Globalist driven Middle-Eastern policy.
Document:Backing the Wrong Horseman	blog post		Craig Murray	The neo-con drive to dominate the Middle East, in alliance with Saudi Arabia and Israel, has caused an apocalyptic level of death and destruction, which I put (an extremely conservative figure) at 5 million dead. Now compare that to the worldwide death toll from coronavirus: 220,000. Let me say that again. Western aggressive wars to coronavirus: 5,000,000 versus 220,000.
Document:Bitter Roots - The Bases of Present Conflicts in the Middle East	speech	1977	J. Rives Childs
Document:Syria Turkey Israel and a Greater Middle East Energy War	report	12 October 2012	William Engdahl	A comprehensive report on the struggle to control Middle East oil and gas, exposing the plans behind Western/Israeli diplomatic and military activity towards Syria & Iran. The current state of affairs accords very closely with a publication of the Brookings Institution's "Saban Centre for Middle East Studies" - the PDF of which was removed from the Brookings web site in early October.
Document:Twenty Years On, We’ve Learned Nothing From 9/11	Speech	17 September 2021	Ron Paul	20 years on from 9/11, Ron Paul says that The Establishment in the United States has learned nothing since the attacks.
Document:US bombs Syria and ridiculously claims self defence	Article	26 February 2021	Caitlin Johnstone	The US can bomb who it likes, whenever it likes, and when it does it is only ever doing so in self-defence, because the entire planet is the property of Washington DC. It can seize control of entire clusters of nations, and if any of those nations resist in any way, they are invading America’s sovereignty.
Document:Western Power And The Middle East	working paper		Denis Healey

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