6 July 2013 — Strategic Culture Foundation
The Gas Summit in Moscow: What Has Been Left Unsaid?
06.07.2013 | 00:00 | Igor TOMBERG
…The leaders of 13 states – Algeria, Bolivia, Venezuela, Egypt, Iran, Qatar, Libya, Nigeria, United Arab Emirates, Trinidad and Tobago, Equatorial Guinea, Oman and Russia, which together control more than 70 percent of natural gas reserves, 45 percent of its exports and a third of all the world’s gas pipelines, along with Kazakhstan, Norway, the Netherlands and Iraq as observers – gathered together in Moscow… And the most important thing which is most relevant right now, but which unfortunately did not get much coverage at the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, is the scramble for Asia’s gas markets that is already underway…
America’s Plan B in Egypt: Bring Back the Old Regime
06.07.2013 | 00:00 | Mahdi Darius NAZEMROAYA
Morsi’s fall sends a negative message to all of America’s allies. Everyone in the Arab World, corrupt and just alike, is more aware than ever that an alliance with Washington or Tel Aviv will not protect them… An empire that cannot guarantee the security of its satraps is one that will eventually find many of its minions turning their backs on it or betraying it. Just as America’s regime change project in Syria is failing, its time in the Middle East is drawing to an end. Those who gambled on Washington’s success, like the Saudi royals, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, will find themselves on the losing side of the Middle East’s regional equation…
Egypt: Deeper Uncertainty or Ray of Hope?
05.07.2013 | 12:05 | Andrei AKULOV
For six decades before 2011, the military ruled Egypt. The country has the largest standing military in the Arab world, estimated at 450,000 troops. Most are conscripts and low-ranking officers who have little opportunity for advancement. For decades, however, its tens of thousands of elite officers have jealously guarded their privileged station… Besides the Brotherhood, the armed forces officers’ corps is a tightly knit group and the only really cohesive institution in the country. In 2012 the military welcomed former President Morsi allowing them to exit from the accountability of governing but leaving perks untouched… When Morsi actually endorsed the calls for jihad in Syria, he raised fears of a new generation of Egyptians coming home after getting combat experience in a foreign war…
Morsi’s Fall and the «Arab Summer» Spells Doom for the Obama Doctrine
05.07.2013 | 00:00 | Wayne MADSEN
President Barack Obama’s policy toward the Arab and Muslim world was born in Cairo and it died there… Egypt’s new interim government, a newly-emboldened Assad, Lebanese Hezbollah, and Turkey’s secular opposition won the day against those who would take the Arab Middle East back to the thirteenth century. The Obama Doctrine was punched, kicked, and beaten in Tahrir Square. As America celebrated Independence Day, Egyptians celebrated their own independence from a regime that was the product of secret think tanks and planning sessions involving the most cursed names in the Middle East today: Brennan, Rice, Power, Rhodes, Hillary Clinton, and Patterson…
Egypt’s Coup Churns up Regional Politics (II)
05.07.2013 | 00:00 | Melkulangara BHADRAKUMAR
It has now come to light that none other than the US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel was in touch with Sissi from Washington… That is to say, the famous ultimatum given by the Egyptian army on Monday to Morsi had actually followed consultations between Hagel and Sissi… In the final analysis, though, Israel is the regional power most affected by the changes in Egypt. The return of the military leadership in Cairo works in Israel’s security interests. The Egyptian state will be looking inward for the foreseeable future, groping for a new identity, which is fraught with all sorts of uncertainties. Put differently, the nascent regional alignment of Egypt-Qatar-Turkey, which Hamas leadership began tapping into lately, has overnight disintegrated and that leaves the militant group vulnerable to Israeli pressure…
Will Israel’s Gas Hopes Come True?
04.07.2013 | 00:00 | Dmitry MININ
The 2nd leaders’ summit of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) has taken place in Moscow. Experts say there is a candidate to enter the elite club of 13 members once the rich East Mediterranean deposits start to be developed. The vast sea bottom natural gas fields were discovered a few years ago. Israel is the leader in the development; it starts its activities without waiting for neither ultimate resolution of legal issues, nor settling the emerging disputes with neighbors… The Eastern Mediterranean «gas pie» is disputed by Cyprus, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Turkey, as well as Palestine striving for independence…
The Itinerary of President Maduro: from the Vatican to Moscow
04.07.2013 | 00:00 | Nil NIKANDROV
Nicolás Maduro’s first visit to Moscow was a busy one. Monday 1 July was dominated by the topics under discussion at the Forum of Gas Exporting Countries. On Tuesday, the Venezuelan president was received by the State Duma to begin with and then by the Kremlin. President Vladimir Putin welcomed his Venezuelan guest in the Green Drawing Room: «I am pleased to note that you have picked up the baton from your predecessor, one of the most prominent leaders in Latin America, Hugo Chavez. Our trade and economic ties have reached a new level… all our plans are developing successfully»… And just several hours after his meeting with Vladimir Putin, the Venezuelan president began his next official visit – to Belarus…
Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Will Not Capitulate (I)
03.07.2013 | 00:00 | Melkulangara BHADRAKUMAR
It is hard to foresee what lies ahead in immediate terms. A military takeover cannot be ruled out, but is unlikely… Or, there could be a Turkish-style «postmodern» coup in Egypt by the military, pressuring Morsi to call for fresh presidential election… The high probability is that Morsi may invite the opposition leaders to join a broad-based unity government within a power-sharing arrangement and agrees to review the constitution… What complicates matters in any of these scenarios is also that there are external players who have high stakes in what happens in Egypt…
Moscow Hosts Gas Exporting Countries Conference: Intrigue, Divisions and Syria
03.07.2013 | 00:00 | Igor PANKRATENKO
…The Qatar’s double game gives rise to one more intrigue, the fact once again proven at the Moscow Gas Exporting Countries Forum conference. Once no arrangement with Qatar is possible, it is worth to think about «special relationship» with the countries which view the Moscow initiatives favorably because they meet the interests of their national economies, the states like Venezuela, Iran and Iraq. The accords with the Islamic Republic may be an important factor promoting Russia’s general advance on all fronts of the «gas war». Unlike Qatar, Iran puts forward hard-nosed joint projects proposals, including the development of South Pars…
From Bilderberg to Google-Berg: The Technocratic Restructuring of the Global Elite
02.07.2013 | 00:00 | Olga CHETVERIKOVA
World events are showing more and more clearly that the most important goals of the world elite are the total restructuring of human consciousness and even changing the essence of humans. In fact, this is both the end and the means of building a «new world order». The last meeting of the Bilderberg Group, which took place on June 6-9, 2013 at the Grove Hotel in a London suburb, was especially telling in this regard…
Who is Shaking Up Brazil and Why
01.07.2013 | 01:00 | Nil NIKANDROV
…Events in Brazil are being covered by the Western media down to the tiniest detail. Political scientists assess their work as a deliberate operation to compromise the image of Brazil and its ability to organize large international sporting events. There have even been suggestions that the football championship should be canceled due to danger to the lives of the players and fans. This is a rehearsal for using the upcoming sporting events in Brazil to pressure the country on issues that have nothing to do with sports.
The Way Anglo-Saxons Spy on Germans
01.07.2013 | 00:00 | Natalia MEDEN
The PRISM and TEMPORA programs made clear the correlation of forces in the North Atlantic organization. Western media outlets avoid mentioning other countries which along with the United States make up the alliance of intelligence operations known as Five Eyes: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand. All these states belong to the English speaking Anglo-Saxon bloc. It was an unpleasant surprise for Germans to find out they were watched… by the allies. And they were surveyed more closely than anyone else in Europe!.. A surge of anti-US sentiments in Germany is a natural reaction to the disclosure…
The Abdication of the Emir of Qatar Due to the Collapse of Anti-Syrian Forces
30.06.2013 | 00:00 | Dmitry MININ
Qatar is an extremely important link in America’s chain of strategic interests in the Middle East… At the same time, Qatar and the US are effectively becoming major competitors on the wave of the «shale revolution» and in view of the anticipated expansion of American companies into the global LNG market after 2016. Washington could «suddenly» open its eyes to the fact that «the emir has nothing on at all» when it comes to democracy, a «national protest» having already been organised against his government. Then may Doha not be surprised at the variability of the sympathy shown by the great ones of this Earth and forget the former achievements of the current ruling dynasty in the fight for freedom…
The All-Seeing Eye of Big Brother
30.06.2013 | 00:00 | Nikolai MALISHEVSKI
Europe and the US are being rocked by scandals related to the creation of a system of total surveillance and control over the population of the planet. In the middle of June, human rights defenders from the American Civil Liberties Union sued the US government and US intelligence agencies for wiretapping. At the same time, the European Union has demanded an explanation in connection with reports that the US intelligence services have been gathering information on the telephone calls and internet activity of citizens of EU member states…
The Libyan Lesson and Jihad in the Middle East
29.06.2013 | 19:29 | Leonid SAVIN
…Despite the fact that there is an obvious connection between the matrix of the fight for power in Libya and the situation surrounding the Syrian opposition, neither Brussels nor Washington nor even the liberals among the Syrian opposition wants to understand what further attempts to overthrow al-Asad’s government in Syria will lead to. And if no model for regulating the current large-scale (from the social, economic, political, geographical and ethnic perspectives) conflict in Libya has yet been worked out through the mediation of the EU or the UN, what sense is there in continuing to shake up the situation in Syria? It seems that European and American leaders’ decisions on Syria are beyond the bounds of political expediency.
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