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faye's chauffeur
Pashton's girlfriend
I'm a Pashtun Princes
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Update: The Americans have succeeded in removing Sep Blatter as head of FIFA and are working to get the world cup taken away from Russia, but there are around 36 months left until the world cup in Russia will take place.Originally posted by Bengal_Tiger View PostUpdate continued....
- Pro-Iranian Shia militia men have taken de facto control of Yemen's capital, Sana'a.
Iranian soldiers and Hezbollah fighters in Yemeni jails have been released.
- A Yemen with a pro-Iranian government could lead to increased military co-operation between Yemen and Iran or even Russia, China or India.
A while ago on a notorious Pakistani website ("defence.pk"), a Saudi "prince" threatened Russia with terrorism.
The individual used the internet handle of "Yzd Khalifa", and he also posted videos of Iranian women being executed in Saudi Arabia and mocked their deaths, he also used to insult Bangladesh and call Bangladeshis "savages" and "criminals".
This Saudi regime official alluded to Saudi Arabia's involvement with Chechen terrorists that could carry out violence against Russia. Fortunately Russia has been able to stop Saudi-backed terrorism from taking place during the Sochi Olympics and elsewhere in the Russian federation.
A Russian military base or presence in Yemen in conjunction with Iran would serve as a warning and a deterrence to the Saudi regime from causing trouble in Russia.
Pro-Iranian Houthi militia men have taken control of the Yemeni capital, Sana'a. Iran is a military ally of Russia.
Putin smiles. Russia will most likely be happy with a Houthi victory and the decrease in Saudi power in Yemen.
Putin's probable message to the Saudi regime and Saudi thug "Yzd Khalifa" (whom the Russian FSB [intelligence agency] presumably have full details of as well as the Iranian intelligence agencies too]
I personally read with my own eyes where thug "Yzd Khalifa" was speaking to a Russian on the notorious Pakistani hate-site "defence.pk" and alluded to Saudi using terrorists to destabilize Russia as Saudi leverage over Russia. Here is a link from a Russian website - not on Yzd Khalifa - but on the Saudi threat to Russia:
http://voiceofrussia.com/2013_08_29/...t-attack-2596/
Anyway if one looks at some of my older posts on pages 13 and 14 you can see that I covered Yemen way before it became major news in the international media.
The Saudis seem to have been betrayed by the Pakistanis who it seems as though they organized the Yemen operation and presumably with a Pakistani commitment to their own participation, which they later characteristically in their typically treacherous fashion reneged on.
Now the Saudis are feeling the heat, as their army is pathetic and unable to fight with useless soldiers and useless officers.
The Houthis are taking the fight to Saudi Arabia and have captured Saudi territory as well as killing Saudi soldiers.
Below is a video:* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Comment
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The video above allegedly shows Yemeni tribesmen knocking out American-made Bradley vehicles, the Americans sold to the Saudis. The Yemenis used Russian-made Kornet missiles.
The American made Bradely armoured vehicle.
There are other videos and also reports of how the Saudis have been betrayed by the Pakistanis and now found themselves in a humiliating quagmire, with the world laughing at how they spend tens of billions on weaponry and are now being humiliated by impoverished Yemen tribesmen.
Now...
"Incidentally", the Saudis are now sending their no.3 boy to Russia presumably on some begging mission.
What are some of these "important issues"?
Perhaps...the coincidental fact that the Arab world's richest country is waging war against the Arab world's poorest country, Yemen and is losing territory to Iranian-Russian backed Houthis?
Russian-made Kornet missiles, now being used by Yemenis against the multi-billion dollar Saudi army.
Putin will be laughing at the Saudis who have sent the son of their king to Moscow itself on a shameless begging mission.
He might even become bored with the Saudi begging...
Or...he and his foreign minister, Lavrov might laugh at how the Saudis (betrayed by the Pakistanis) are now in deep trouble a few years after threatening Russia with terrorism.
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Originally posted by Bengal_Tiger View PostYoutube video by Sheikh Imran Hosein on the Crimean Tatars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC6ocsqK480
At 9.07 he says the Majlis (parliament/assembly) of the Crimean Tatars have decided it is better to work with Russia rather than to confront her.
Sheikh Imran Hosein.
I don't believe in some of the ideas that Hosein has theologically but I am merely quoting a statement of his last year.
Russian Church Cuts Ties with French and Scotch over LGBT "Plague"
Russian resistance to the homosexual trend in Europe and the US is rock-solid
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Russia respectfully disagrees
This article originally appeared at Lifesite News, one of the largest Christian websites in the world, based in Canada.
MOSCOW, June 5, 2015 – Churches that have deemed homosexuality morally acceptable have rejected Christianity and are preparing their followers to accept the Anti-Christ, according to one of the leading figures in the Russian Orthodox Church.
His statement came as the Russian Orthodox Church announced that it is ending “formal contacts” with the United Protestant Church of France and the Church of Scotland over those churches’ abandonment of traditional Christian sexual morality. In its statement, the church said ecumenical dialogue was pointless after France’s United Protestant Church last month voted to allow pastors to officiate at same-sex “marriages” and the Church of Scotland approved ordaining clergy who are in same-sex civil unions.
“The Russian Orthodox Church holds the firm position based on Holy Scriptures and has repeatedly declared that [homosexual ‘marriage’ is] inadmissible for moral teaching,” the statement reads. Churches that offer to “marry” homosexuals “trample upon the principles of traditional Christian morality.”
The statement explains that over a period of years, the Orthodox Church has shared her concerns with these Christian bodies and warned of ecumenical consequences if they adopt same-sex “marriage.”
“Regrettably, the words of warning have not been heard,” Orthodox officials concluded.
Following the decision, the Very Rev. Fr. Dmitry Smirnov – the chair of the Russian Orthodox Church Commission for Family, Protection of Motherhood and Childhood – told one of the leading Russian television stations the new moral teachings place these liberal denominations beyond the pale of Christianity.
“We separated ourselves from them as from the plague, as it’s contagious,” he said. “The Russian Orthodox Church cannot support with its authority something that is just an iniquity from the Biblical point of view.”
“These are not Christian communities anymore. This is another community with its own distinct name of ‘LGBT.’ Its future is simple and clear – the ‘fire of Gehenna’ – this is just what the Holy Scripture says,” Fr. Smirnov said.
By rejecting the Christian faith’s immemorial teaching on sexual morality, “the former Christian peoples are preparing themselves for the solemn reception of the Anti-Christ.”
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow has stated many times that gay “marriage” is incompatible with Christian teaching.
The Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Hilarion, explained, “The legalization of same-sex cohabitations, tolerant attitude to euthanasia and prostitution, disruption of the centuries-old institution of marriage and family, pose a clear threat to the future of humanity.”
Archpriest Jason Kappanadze of the Orthodox Church in America, the “daughter” church of Moscow, called the Moscow Patriarchate’s move “an appropriate statement of moral clarity,” noting that “certain Protestant denominations that have crossed the line away from Christianity…making further dialogue impossible.”
Kappanadze was careful to point out that the reason for Moscow’s decision is not hatred but its care and concern for the well-being of all. “We stand with firm love for the salvation of our fellow human beings!”
Father Hans Jacobse of the American Orthodox Institute told LifeSiteNews, “People will look at the decision by the Russian Orthodox Church and think it is unfair. One must understand that the Russian Orthodox looks at gay marriage as a grave distortion of God’s design for men and women.”
Fr. Jacobse said the Russian Orthodox Church is concerned with the long-term societal effects of sanctioning homosexuality. “The Russians have always been brilliant long term thinkers,” he told LifeSiteNews. Orthodox leaders believe that legalizing same-sex “marriage” “will change our understanding of who God created us to be, and that will have destructive ramifications for society down the road.”
The Russian Bishops’ Council of 2013 explained that “Dialogue with confessions which openly defy the Biblical moral norms is impossible.” The Church’s Department for External Church Relations “does not see any prospects in maintaining official contacts” with such groups.
Noting a tragic liberal trend throughout the Protestant world and implying there may be more severing of ties to come, the Moscow Patriarchate statement read, “We regretfully acknowledge, that today we have a new divide in the Christian world, not only regarding theological subjects, but regarding moral issues as well.”
The Russian Orthodox Church previously cut ties with The Episcopal Church in the United States in 2003 after it consecrated an open, practicing homosexual as bishop. Two years later, it severed its ecumenical relationship with the Swedish Lutheran Church after it sanctioned ceremonies for same-sex civil unions in 2005.
The bishops of the Orthodox Church in America, which together are called “the Holy Synod,” have made several public statements against homosexuality. “Homosexuality is to be approached as the result of humanity’s rebellion against God, and so against its own nature and well-being,” one such synodal statement from 1992 explained. “It is not to be taken as a way of living and acting for men and women made in God’s image and likeness.”
Those suffering from same-sex attraction are to be treated in the Orthodox Church with compassion.
“Men and women with homosexual feelings and emotions are to be treated with the understanding, acceptance, love, justice and mercy due to all human beings,” the bishops said. “They are to seek assistance in discovering the specific causes of their homosexual orientation, and to work toward overcoming its harmful effects in their lives.”
However, homosexuals “who still want to justify their behavior” are barred from Holy Communion, “since to do so would not help, but harm them.”
Russia is defending Christian values.
Also in the middle east, Russia has made it clear that it sees itself as a protector of the ancient Christian communities in the birth place of Christianity (the middle east, Christ - pbuh - was a Palestinian), including from persecution by American-Saudi sponsored "Islamist" terrorist organizations e.g. ISIS.
Russian president Putin with Muslims.
Kremlin and Kaaba.
Homosexuality and the US and its "Islamist" proxies.
The US and the globalists are engaged in a "crusade" to spread homosexuality. This is not merely to "protect" homosexuals, but to silence all opposition to it, criminalize any rejection of it and then the active encouragement of it to the point that it becomes common place.
US asset, Erdogan has promoted homosexual rights in Turkey and if the US had succeeded in its project of an AKP-led middle east with "Muslim Brotherhood" states ruling, these brotherhood run states would have copied Erdogan in promoting homosexual rights.
Russia and others are very acutely aware of this aspect of the globalist agenda which is of such fundamental importance that it goes to our very existence itself, i.e. we exist because of a man and woman having physical relations.
Long live Russia, Long live Vladmir Putin!
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Drone captures footage of Muslims in Moscow performing Eid prayer.* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Comment
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In defence of traditional morality and social values, Putin's party has started a "straight flag" to counter the rainbow homosexual/LBGT flag.
Picture of president Putin saying NO to US dollars.
Russian women celebrate straight pride, in defence of traditional values and the US-sponsored global homosexualization offensive.
Russian girl displays straight pride flag.
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President Putin in the FINA world championships in Kazan this week.
Kazan is the capital of mainly Muslim Tatarstan.
Another picture from another event:
A week or more ago with the Chinese:
China and Russia working together to end US global hegemony and bullying and create a more peaceful multi-polar world.
China and Russia are dumping the US dollar.
The article below uses the term "hyperinflation", I don't believe that will happen, on the contrary I believe both China and Russia want a stable and peaceful USA, but a de-fanged and disciplined one which does not invade, loot, plunder and destroy nations as it does now.
However the rate at which US dollars are being dumped shows the rapid pace of de-dollarization and thus the end of "Pax Americana".
This also has a major impact on Afghanistan as the American agenda is to use Afghanistan and Central Asia to destabilize Russia and China through "Islamic" extremists, whereas Russia and China want a peaceful Afghanistan with a strong economy.
[MENTION=1201]Toramana[/MENTION]
Hyperinflation could begin to appear in America sometime in 2015 ?
Posted by blogfactory On July 24, 2015
Russia Unloads $22 billion U.S. Holdings In ONE Month, Tokyo sold over $10 billion in the same month !
The dollar dump has begun. China , Russia and Japan are all selling U.S. Treasury debt.
China recently dumped 500 billion dollars ( half a trillion).
John Williams warned that hyperinflation will begin to appear in America sometime in 2015. He noted that, though the dollar is currently strong compared to other fiat money, signs that a currency collapse is coming will begin with the sell-off of the U.S. dollar.
It’s a known fact that the Russians and Chinese have already begun divesting themselves of dollar dependency by implementing trade agreements that completely sidestep the world’s reserve currency, but there has been no overt sign of a sell-off that might be indicative of a coming attack on the American currency.
Until now, that is.
According to a report from Zero Hedge the Russians have already started unloading their dollar reserves. In the month of December alone they sold a record $22 billion in U.S. Treasurys. While this may not seem like a big number, it is over 20% of their total US dollar holdings.
But here’s the kicker: They’re not the only ones getting rid of their dollars in what appears to be a fairly uncommon sell-off over the course of the last 60 days.
Back in December, Socgen spread a rumor that Russia has begun selling its gold. Subsequent IMF data showed that not only was this not correct, Russia in fact added to its gold holdings. But there was one thing it was selling: some $22 billion in US Treasurys, a record 20% of its total holdings, bringing its US paper inventory to just $86 billion in December – the lowest since June 2008.
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It wasn’t just Russia: the country that has ever more frequently been said to be in the same camp as Russia – and against the US – namely China, also sold another $6 billion in Treasurys in the last month of 2014, which would have made its US treasury holdings equal with those of Japan, if only Tokyo hadn’t also sold over $10 billion in the same month.
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And while we know that Russia used at least some of the proceeds to buy gold, the bigger question is: just what is China buying with all these stealthy USD-denominated liquidations, and how much gold does the PBOC really have as of this moment.
Is Russia, after being under economic attack for the better part of a year, now starting to make its own moves? And are they working in unison with the Chinese in an effort to debase the dollar?
*America is getting weaker and weaker.
In the 2000s it invaded Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 2011 it bombed Libya and used its Al-Qaeda proxies to take control of Libya and install a US-backed regime there.
However now...
- It was not able to bomb Syria, Russia and China threatened the US.
- It failed in Ukraine, where Russia took Crimea and has taken control of the most important industrial eastern Donbass region of Ukraine.
- It is now making peace with Iran.
So Syria, Ukraine, Iran....US bullying and power is decreasing rapidly.
Haha, Americans are being humiliated.
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OBAMA STARTS BULLYING AFRICAN STATES OVER HOMOSEXUALITY.
1. The US and Globalist agenda is not merely to "protect" what western liberals would view as a discriminated minority but to make homosexuality seem just as totally valid as normal man-woman relations, and to make it widespread.
2. The American regime does not believe that individual states or societies have the right to decide how to govern their societies based on their cultures, religions and moral beliefs.
3. Over the next few years unless Russia and China can significantly weaken the US ability to bully, threaten and intimidate other states, the American regime will be using the massive resources at its disposal to promote homosexuality worldwide and threaten states which do not submit to its homosexophilia.
4. The west is heading towards criminalizing even merely disagreeing on a conceptual, moral belief with homosexuality.
Obama is a thug and a war criminal but has only 18 months in power before he is booted out for good, another establishment selected thug will replace him but the homosexual agenda will continue.
The American regime, globalists and others are planning to accelerate its global homosexual campaign at a massive rate. One sign of this is a thug in Turkey called Selahattin Demirtas and his HDP who have completely turned a blind eye to far more important things such as the apparently hundreds and thousands of black Turks (Turkish citizens of African origin) and the racism and discrimination they suffer but is instead peddling the globalist homosexual agenda.
Pro-homosexual march in Istanbul, Turkey.
Demirtas with an image of terrorist and war criminal, Abdullah Ocalan in the background.
Black Turkish women.
The global homosexual agenda masks itself as a benevolent and humanitarian one, however its motivations are far more sinister and cannot be fully explained in this forum due to the presence of many trolls, it also prioritizes homosexuality over much greater issues and problems and the suffering of far bigger minorities or communities.
The global homosexual agenda needs to stop. American terrorism, bullying, economic rape, plunder and destruction of countries such as Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria also needs to stop.
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Everyone should read this link:
1. There were reports in a Lebanese paper Al-Akhbar that Russia had pushed for a Syrian-Saudi meeting which resulted in the form of a Syrian intelligence official visiting Riyadh.
Beirut based, Al-Akhbar has published an article suggesting the war in Syria may come to an end with a Saudi-Syrian reconciliation starting to take place, brokered by Russia.
2. The Saudi prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is King Salman's youngest son and favourite and the one whom he would like to see as king.
He wanted to secure his accession to the throne (after the current crown prince, interior minister Nayef) by having a glorious war against the Yemenis which would propel him to hero-status amongst the Saudis.
Mohammed bin Salman, the 2nd in line to the Saudi throne and the man claimed to be by some to be the key advocate of a Saudi war in Yemen to establish his reputation as a war hero and cement a powerful status as a national hero thus preventing rival princes from taking the throne instead of him.
3. He had expected Pakistani and Egyptian soldiers to be the cannon fodder for this war, which is now disastrously going wrong with Houthis allegedly inside Saudi Arabia and attacking military buildings and personnel inside Saudi.
4. The Syria war is going nowhere and had seen Saudi involvement partly due to the now disgraced Bandar, who like Mohammad bin Salman, wanted to rise to the throne by having a major successful war to boast about i.e. Syria.
The Syria situation as well as Yemen is escalating dangerously out of control and the Saudis are apprehensive, hence they were receptive to Putin's ideas for a meeting with the Syrians, the first step in a process of reconciliation and normalization.
5. In other words the Saudis may end their support for militants in Syria and the Assad regime may survive.
Interestingly, on Saudi state media "The Arab News" (a Saudi royal family owned organ) there was an article calling for Syrians to decide the fate of Syria.
It was written by these people:
• Abdelelah Alkhatib (former foreign minister of Jordan), Amr Moussa (former secretary-general of the Arab League), Mohammad Al-Sabah (former deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs of Kuwait), and Turki Al Faisal (former general intelligence director of Saudi Arabia).
A) It does not call for the removal of the Assad regime.
B) It condemns ISIS (Daesh) and the Nusrah front.
We must NOT allow Daesh, the Nusra Front and other terrorist organizations to hold the future of Syria hostage.* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Comment
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THE MOHAMED BIN SALMAN DILEMMA; The Throne or the Abyss
By Ghassan Kadi 2 August 2015
THE MOHAMED BIN SALMAN DILEMMA; The Throne or the Abyss
By Ghassan Kadi
2 August 2015
Love them or hate them, the descendants of King Abdul-Aziz, the founder of the House of Saud, had always been united, and they always made consensual decisions. That was the wish of the dying king, a wish that his eldest sons heard, took to heart and never forgot.
A combination of intense procreation, time, money and greed has diluted this death-wish over the years, and the second generation royals were less determined to stick to it than their own fathers.
The biggest issue that played into this was that of succession. Given that the founding grandfather had forty five sons with a huge age gap in between them, succession was made initially from Abdul-Aziz to his eldest son Saud, but from there onwards it was based on a succession from older brother to younger brother.
When Khaled inherited the throne from his half-brother King Faisal who was murdered, there was an established and consensually-reached lineage for the first three in line, with Fahed as the Crown Prince, Abdullah as the Deputy Crown Prince, and Sultan as the third in line.
Khaled, Fahed and Abdullah eventually all became kings and all passed on, but there was a little twist that changed the fate of the next steps.
The infamous Bandar Bin Sultan was hoping that once his father becomes king, he would become the rightful successor and the first grandson of Abdul Aziz to take the throne.
After all, his father Sultan had been the minister of defence for many years, and one of the senior princes in terms of hierarchy. But Bandar did not rest on his laurels, he had his own profile as a long-term Saudi Ambassador at Washington to capitalize on. To bolster his position and also be able to land a lethal blow on Iran, he decided to spearhead the campaign against Syria.
Never before had the Saudis taken such a hawkish approach with their foreign policies. Bandar however managed to rally up some princes around him and gained a lot of stature and his dream to become the first second generation prince to become king looked attainable.
But Bandar had two disasters that he was totally unprepared for down the pipeline. First of all, his father died before he made it to the throne. As if this was not bad enough, his hawkish policies failed in Syria. Bandar eventually fell on his sword and was marginalized in a couple of swift royal decrees; the first was when he was sacked as chief of Saudi intelligence by the late king Abdullah, and secondly when he was stripped off all office titles by the incumbent king Salman.
The now disgraced Bandar with Putin, an old picture.
King Salman is one of the junior sons of Abdul Aziz. As a matter of fact, he is only four years older that his heavy-weight nephew Saud Al-Faisal who died recently. Salman has also been always junior in stature. His ascendance to the throne was meant to be a brotherly gesture done in accordance with the death-wish of Abdul-Aziz.
That said, the late king Abdullah had a huge succession problem to deal with.
Because of their ageing, many of the sons of Abdul Aziz who reached the throne did so at a very late age. They always counted on their younger half-brother Crown Princes to be in charge. Fahed was the first to assume this uncrowned king role. By the time his half-brother Khaled became king, he was very old and Fahed became the uncrowned king, and later on, the same happened when Fahed became king and Abdullah took over the runnings of the kingdom.
The lineage to the crown that was set up in 1978 with Sultan as the third in line remained in force for over thirty years. But after the death of Sultan, Abdullah had to change the lineage twice because of the deaths of ageing and ailing crown princes among other things. When Abdullah died, he was unable to leave behind that firm lineage that had the same power like the one that lifted him to the throne. Whether he liked it or not, the succession lineage he left behind had the hallmarks of “after me, the flood”
The new king Salman who is 79 years old, and also reportedly a sufferer of Alzheimers disease, didn't have the regular Saudi established either political or succession lineage to follow. His power-hopeful son Mohamad wanted to secure his position to be the first king from the second generation, so he talked his father into turning the tables, making a coup within the royals, thereby marginalizing the old guards and appointing him as the deputy crown prince. With the king and crown prince both old and sick, in effect, the arrogant and inexperienced 30 years old Mohamed bin Salman became the uncrowned king and the first to assume this position from the second generation royals.
If Bandar was bad enough to take the gamble of launching the proxy-war against Syria, the new arrogant king-hopeful did not only ignore the death-wish of the grandfather let alone learned from the mistake of his cousin Bandar, he has gone further and actually engaged the Saudi Army for the first time ever in combat, and in Yemen out of all places.
He thought it was all planned well. He truly counted on Pakistani and Egyptian ground troops to support him and put boots on the ground for him. He was wrong on both counts. Then came the icing on the cake; the signing of the Iran nuclear deal. His “Royal arrogance” is feeling the coldness of being alone.
Given that he has no idea how to deal with what is left of Bandar's war aka Syria. Suddenly he sees himself facing two huge threats; Syria and Yemen... well make that three when you add ISIS to the equation.
He is quickly realizing that Yemenis are not less fierce as fighters than the Afghanis. With recent bomb attacks in the Saudi Eastern Province and Kuwait, his fear is not only about his own self-promised throne, but also about the continuity of the House of Saud.
But according to reliable recent reports, it seems that Mohamed has learned something from his cousin Bandar.
By a twist of fate, almost exactly to the day two years ago his cousin Bandar stormed into Moscow parading like Don Quixote trying to intimidate, threaten and bribe President Putin. Two years later, Mohamed now realises that President Putin is an important person not to be under-rated. Feeling abandoned by the Americans and bogged down in two wars and facing the threat of ISIS, when Putin offered him an opportunity to extend an olive branch to Syria, it is not at all surprising that he grabbed it like someone drowning grabbing a lifebuoy.
Saudi delegation led by 2nd crown prince, Mohammad to visit Putin in Moscow.
His eventual Russian-sponsored and brokered meeting with Syrian General Ali Mamluk was meant to be the ice-breaker. The two parties agreed to disagree on many issues, but agreed to meet again.
Neither the Saudis nor the Syrian officials denied this secret meeting after it was reported on the Arabic paper Al-Akhbar and co-published on the highly reliable Al-Manar. The only medium who denied it ever happened was an obscure anti-Hezbollah Shiite Arabic-language online newspaper by the name of Al-Jounouieh. Parties who are in shock or in denial that the meeting did take place are suddenly quoting Al-Jounoubieh.
This meeting was not expected to solve the huge impasse between Syria and Saudi Arabia. As a matter of fact, it was not expected to happen at all, and the fact that it did happen is a miracle of its own.
Where will Mohamed Bin Salman go from here is not really the pertinent question. What is more pertinent is what options has he got. He has nothing left to gain in Syria and a lot to lose in Yemen. Deep down inside he knows that if he can count on Russia to get him out of the mess in Syria, he may use her services later on in Yemen. It is truly a choice between the throne and the abyss.
The following link has a translation of the Lebanese newspaper's article stating the Russian role in organizing the beginnings of a Saudi-Syrian rapprochement and a possible end to the Syrian war.
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PUTIN DOES IT AGAIN!
- Putin does it again!
He has made the Saudis come visiting him on a virtual begging mission and he has started organizing the beginning of a move to a more stable middle east.
Russia-China want peace in the middle east.
The US and west want instability and infighting.
The US is getting weaker and for example was unable to implement a NO-FLY zone over Syria and it has had to refrain from war with Iran and sign an agreement with Tehran.
Saudi, a major US client state, has started sucking up to Russia e.g. investing $10 billion.
If the articles above are true and the Assad regime stays in power, here are my opinion on the winners and losers in the region and geo-politically.
SAUDI
Saudi weakens Iran and the Assad regime, even though Assad may survive the scars of the war haunt Syrians and there will be a latent resentment to the Assad regime, one day it may resurface and he may be overthrown. By that time it will be irrelevant as US power will have been destroyed, de-dollarization will be complete and it may not matter.
Conversely it could be argued that the sheer scale of the suffering in the Syrian war would prevent anyone in Syria ever think of rebelling against Assad ever again.
However Syrian Sunnis rebelled against Assad's father in Hama in the 80s, and then 30 years later they rebelled.
The Alawites are an island of heterodoxy in an ocean of Sunni Islam.
Saudi has made Iran lose billions in propping up Assad.
It has also established its leadership role in the Arab and Sunni world and learnt that Pakistan cannot be trusted and that Saudi can only rely on itself and its GCC allies/vassals. It has also started moving away from the US and now working more with Russia and China.
Unlike Jordan or Turkey, Saudi was not flooded with Syrian refugees and the Syrian war did not harm the cunning Saudis much directly.
Saudis are still winners of sorts.
IRAN
Even though the Saudis can be considered as winners since they sucked the blood out of Iran and its proxy, Syria whilst remaining stable e.g. no Syrian refugees in Saudi.
The Iranians can be considered "winners" in that they thwarted the US, Western, GCC and Turkish attempts to remove their surrogate Assad in Syria.
They held on.
They also made the US come and be forced to sign a nuclear agreement with them.
Iran will experience relative economic re-normalization, massive trade and a massive improvement in its economy.
Though battered hard by the Saudis, they are still "winners".
TURKS
Definitely losers.
Their territory has been destabilized with up to possibly 2 million Syrian refugees, billions spent on supporting them.
Turkish society has also been impacted with Syrian refugees in major cities including Istanbul, engaging in begging and other things.
Turkey has suffered economically with lost trade to Syria.
It has experienced a bad image as supporters of ISIS e.g. the Kobane fiasco and failed to win an UN security seat (rotating) despite spending millions (e.g. Japan bribed Bangladesh with $6 billion just for its support for a Japanese rotating seat in the UN security council).
They failed to dislodge the Syrian government, who now for a generation will see them as treacherous and a threat.
Neo-Ottomanism failed in Syria, with the Arab nationalist Baath thwarting the neo-Ottoman AKP and other "Islamists".
Neo-Ottomanism fails in the middle east with Turkey shunned by Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and other Arab countries as a sponsor of terrorism.
USA
US power is declining.
De-dollarization is taking place consistently and US economic power is coming to an end.
Even the Saudis have started distancing themselves somewhat from the Americans and getting closer to the Chinese and Russians.
In the future documents will be released to show the US role in creating the fake CIA outfit, "ISIS" and its generally malevolent role in Syria.
The US was humiliated in Syria by Russia and China, more visibly by Russia but - perhaps - more importantly by the more silent and backseat Chinese.
SYRIA
The Syrians are clear losers.
Nothing changed.
Assad remained in power, as he was before.
The country is destroyed.
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Putin wins in the middle east and prevents the removal of the Syrian regime in the region which would have been a prelude to an US attack on Iran followed by further destabilization of Russia and China.
In the future it will probably emerge clearly that Putin threatened America with nuclear war if it tried to remove Assad.
Russia with its over 1,000 years of history, civilization, science and heritage has humiliated the Anglo-Saxon pirate state that is the USA.
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Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister to visit Russia for talks on Syria
Old picture of former Saudi ruler, Abdullah giving president Putin what appears to be a gold chain.
Saudi Arabian foreign minister Adel Al Jubeir in Rome on August 7.
August 8, 2015 Updated: August 8, 2015 09:30 PM
Away from Syria’s battlefields, Saudi Arabia and Russia look to build bridges
ABU DHABI // Saudi Arabian foreign minister Adel Al Jubeir will visit Moscow this week to discuss the conflict in Syria with his Russian counterpart.
The meeting between Mr Al Jubeir and Sergei Lavrov, scheduled for Tuesday, was announced by Russia’s foreign ministry following a flurry of diplomatic activity that regional observers believe could be a fresh push to end the Syrian war.
“The ministers will discuss the possibility of Russia-Saudi cooperation in fighting terrorism, which is in the interests of both countries,” the Russian foreign ministry said on Saturday.
A Russian proposal to create a “broad international coalition” to fight ISIL in Syria will also be discussed. Saudi Arabia is currently taking part in a US-led coalition that is bombing ISIL in Syria and Iraq that Russia has not joined, though Moscow has said it supports efforts to defeat the extremist group.
In June, Saudi Arabia’s deputy crown prince and defence minister Mohammed bin Salman met Russian president Vladimir Putin in an effort to improve relations between the countries. Riyadh supports rebels seeking to overthrow the Assad regime while Moscow has steadfastedly supported Damascus. Analysts were hopeful the meeting signalled that the countries might be changing their approach to the region.
“Although the two countries still see the conflict in Syria through different lenses – with Russia continuing to see Assad as part of the solution while the Saudis see him as the main problem – it does appear that the Saudis have concluded that Russia may hold the key to bringing the bloodshed in Syria to an end,” said Fahad Nazer, an analyst at Virginia-based consultancy JTG Inc who used to work at the Saudi embassy in Washington.
“Saudi Arabia’s persistence in this effort also suggests that Putin’s commitment to Assad may not be as ironclad as many assume.”
While efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the Syrian conflict have been unsuccessful for years, Mr Al Jubeir’s visit carries special significance because of the influence Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries have over rebels fighting the Assad regime.
The regional atmosphere is also vastly different from when other talks took place. On July 14, Iran, the main backer of Mr Al Assad, reached a deal with world powers over its nuclear programme.
The accord – which is being trumpeted by supporters as a victory for diplomacy – sets the ground for Iran to rejoin the international community after debilitating sanctions are lifted in return for Tehran scaling back its nuclear enrichment programme.
Russia, which has maintained close relations with Tehran, was reported to have played a key role in reaching the deal.
Following the signing of the accord, Syrian foreign minister Walid Al Moallem, was in Tehran last week for talks with Russian and Iranian officials about ending the conflict.
“Fortunately we see a change in the strategy of regional players in the Syrian crisis. If four years ago they believed war is the only solution, now they prefer to focus on diplomacy,” said Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, according to Fars News Agency.
At nearly the same time, US secretary of state John Kerry was in Doha meeting with GCC foreign ministers about the Iran deal. He also met separately with Mr Lavrov and Mr Al Jubeir over the Syris crisis.
Following his talks in Tehran, Mr Al Moallem flew to Oman, the country that helped US and Iranian officials begin talks that led to the signing of the nuclear deal. The trip was Mr Al Moallem’s first trip to a GCC country since the uprising against the Assad regime started in 2011 and was the clearest sign yet that the new efforts to end the conflict are serious.
During their meeting in Moscow, Mr Al Jubeir and Mr Lavrov will also discuss a resolution to the conflict in Yemen where Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition of countries in a campaign against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
jvela@thenational.ae
* With additional reporting from Agence France-Presse
- Saudis are not happy with America "reconciling" (yet to be seen) with Iran.
Partly out of fear and to counter the US-Iran rapprochement, the Saudis are moving towards Russia.
- The US rapprochement with Iran was not done out of love for peace but a cold hard geo-political realization that Russia, China, India were planning to normalize trade with Iran with or without the US.
So in order to avoid embarrassment and even further exposure of the decline of their power, the US signed the treaty with Iran.
- The Saudis are feeling the heat in Yemen, which borders right next to them and have lost soldiers, whereas Syria is relatively far away with no direct border.
Assad has been weakened severely and removing him was only as a means to weaken Iran, but if Iran is now going to be accepted in mainstream international affairs then removing Assad is pointless.
In fact Assad staying in power,as opposed to a lawless Afghanistan (of the early 90s) with "Islamist" warlords and fiefdoms, is better for the Saudis.
The China-Russia-Iran axis are winning in Syria.
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HOUTHI FORCES ATTACK SAUDI BASE AND CAPTURE THEIR WEAPONS
On 6 minutes 36 onwards of the video you can see the Houthi fighters with the captured Saudi vehicle which has the Saudi insignia (palm tree with two swords).
A few second before that they can be heard chanting slogans in Arabic (with a Yemeni accent) associated with the Houthi movement or "Ansarullah" as they call themselves e.g. death to Israel and other stuff.
The video is on the Al-Masirah facebook page which has 1/2 million followers on facebook.
- Saudi Arabia is in trouble in Yemen.
- They may need to make a deal with Putin and Iran, that the China-Russia-Iran axis will recognize Yemen as a Saudi zone of influence in return for an end to the war in Syria.
Yemen may become to Saudi Arabia what Afghanistan has become to Pakistan.
[MENTION=3580]asad71[/MENTION]* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Comment
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Russia reportedly sends 6 MIG-31s to Syria.
The Mig-31 is primarily designed to eliminate other air craft, as opposed to bombing missions, that means that (if true) this is a message from Putin to the Americans, "don't think of an NFZ (No Fly Zone) over Syria".
...
The Americans and Germans meanwhile have announced their decision to pull out patriot missiles from Turkey by early next year.
Von der Leyen said the nature of the threat to Turkey from Syria had changed from one stemming mainly from President Bashar al-Assad to that posed by jihadist rebels...
The decision follows criticism from some German officials of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's military crackdown against Kurdish militants and his declaration last month that the peace process he initiated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in 2012 was effectively at an end.
This follows reports over a week ago that Russian colonel-general Vladimir Shamanov, has said Russia is prepared to send elite Russian airborne troops to Syria if the Assad regime requests so, a clear indication to the Americans to back off.
Vladimir Shamanov second from right, has spoken of Russian elite airborne troops going to Syria.
However later on the Russian government denied that Russia would send troops to Syria, perhaps the initial statement by Shamanov (if indeed issued and most likely it was) and the subsequent denial by the Kremlin is just a concealed warning to the US.
Russian airborne troops.
*I doubt the Russians would send their own soldiers to Syria whilst they could rely on local Arabs to do their fighting. This is just a message to the Americans that if things really do get too out of hand the Russians are prepared to send their forces in to Syria the way the Americans went in to Iraq and Afghanistan.
However after the SAA and allied Shia militias it would be a major deployment of Iranian troops that would probably be expected to support the Assad regime.* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Comment
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