The powder-keg that constitutes the nations of the Middle East, continues to erupt on an hourly basis allowing the stage to be further set for the players in the biblically prophetic wars soon to begin.
Iraq’s protests hold threat of Shiite internecine showdown, key to Tehran’s control of Baghdad............
02 December 2019
Adel Abdel-Mahdi’s resignation as Iraq’s prime minister on Saturday, November 30, confirmed that Iraq’s 22 million Shiites (out of a 39 million population) are being torn apart by a potential internal Shiite war.
More than 400 people were killed in three months of protest and 16,000 injured. At least 40 died on Friday, most from gunfire.
The protest against corruption and failure of government sweeping the Shiite south and parts of Baghdad is pitting opponents of Iranian influence against the Shiite militias loyal to Iran which defer to Al Qods chief General Qassem Soleimani. [pictured above]
By stepping down, the prime minister responded to the demand of Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who condemned the use of force against protesters and called for a new government.
An analyses of the root- causes leading up to the current crisis.......
1. The last Iran-Iraq war was fought 40 years ago when Saddam Hussein led the Sunni rule in Iraq and the Shiites were an oppressed minority.
2. The current crisis finds Baghdad ruled by Shiite politicians. They command Shiite militias of quarter of a million officers and men, which are more powerful than Iraq’s national army and armed with more advanced weaponry.
3. However, the split allegiances of those militias are the cause of the unfolding internecine war, since, through them, Tehran calls the shots for the Baghdad government.
4. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei entrusted General Soleimani with the “Iraq file.” His task is to employ Iraqi militias to forcibly incorporate Iraq in Iran’s Shiite arc of influence, along with Syria and Lebanon. But the Al Qods chief missed a beat by being too focused on his task to notice the increasing restiveness of a population deprived of proper services and jobs under a failing economy and deep corruption. He first responded by transforming the loyal Badr Brigades militia into a political party, the Badr Organization, which took its place in parliament as one of the largest factions.
5. Officials of the Shiite-led government in Baghdad, meanwhile, instead of developing the war-torn country and its oil-based economy, busied themselves with promoting Iranian influence, while amassing personal wealth and positions of strength for themselves and their personal militias.
6. They took no interest in the quiet competition going forward between the Iraqi and Iranian clerical establishments for control of the world’s 150 million Shiite Muslims. The question of which is superior between Qom in Iran and Najaf and Karbala in Iraq has never been resolved. For now, Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali al-Sistani, aged 90 and 45-year old Moqtada Sadr hold the edge over their Iranian colleagues. And it is they who are most adamantly opposed to Iran’s dominant influence in Baghdad and the machinations of its agent General Soleimani. The motives behind this power contest are therefore both national and religious.
7. The protest demonstrations started out in October under the slogan of “The Iraqi Intifada of 2019” marking them as an uprising against Iran’s dominant footprint in Baghdad as well as their other grievances. On Saturday, after burning the Iranian consulate in Najaf, they celebrated the prime minister’s resignation, but went on to demand an end to Iran’s interference in Iraq’s internal affairs.
8. The protesters remained defiant amid a bloody crackdown. After the burning of the Najaf consulate, General Soleimani made the huge mistake of ordering Iraqi Shiite militias led by Al Qods officers to suppress the street riots in Najaf and Nasiriya with live ammunition as well tear gas. More than 40 protesters were killed in 24 hours. The Iranian general was reported late on Saturday to be planning to go to the extreme of deploying loyal Iraqi militias to seize control of Najaf in order to silence Ayatollah Sistani.
9. The Iraqi protest movement’s battle with armed pro-Iranian gunmen is fast descending into a showdown that will determine not just who rules Baghdad but the fate of Iran’s influence in Iraq,
Developing rapidly..........
Turkey-Libya deal clamps siege on Israel’s marine gas fields..........
December 2, 2019
Turkey and Libya [2 of the nations involved in the soon-to-come Ezekiel 38/9 battle] have signed a pact dividing control of the waters of the Mediterranean between them, a grab that virtually blockades the offshore gas and oil fields of Israel, Egypt, Cyprus and Greece.
It also overrides those countries’ economic zones. Israel, deeply deadlocked in its efforts to form a government, has not reacted. So far.
The Turkish-Libyan siege overrides the Mediterranean rights of the littoral nations and sets up a major barrier against plans for laying pipelines to carry their gas and oil to their primary export markets in Europe.
This crude action may be likened to China’s unilateral declaration of sovereignty over South China Sea islands. It will not be left this way for long – and is now shaping up to begin the catalyst for the coming attempted invasion of Israel.
North Korea threatens Japan with 'real ballistic missile'.........
December 2, 2019
North Korea has branded Japan's PM Shinzo Abe an "imbecile" and "political dwarf", accusing him of mislabelling its latest weapons test.
Mr Abe condemned the North for "repeated launches of ballistic missiles" after two projectiles were fired on Thursday.
But the North insisted it was testing a "super-large multiple-rocket launcher".
On Saturday, state media said Japan "may see what a real ballistic missile is in the not distant future".
North Korea is banned from firing ballistic missiles under UN Security Council resolutions.
The country is under various sets of sanctions over its missile and nuclear programmes. Lifting the sanctions has been a key aim of the North in talks with the US - Japan's ally - but these have stalled since a summit between its leader Kim Jong-un and President Donald Trump broke down in February.
The North fired what observers in South Korea called two "unidentified projectiles" from its South Hamgyong province into the Sea of Japan on Thursday.
Gorbachev warns of 'hot war' between US, Russia......
02 December 2019
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev warned in a new interview that tensions between the U.S. and Russia could lead to a “hot war” between the two nations. Asked whether the tensions threatened to lead to a new era akin to the Cold War, Gorbachev told CNN, “I think this should be avoided.”
"It's good that already all over the world there is a conversation and people are talking, people are reacting, and this is the most important thing,” Gorbachev said.
"Speakers and politicians, people understand that this, the New Cold War, must not be allowed. This might turn out to be a hot war that could mean the destruction of our entire civilization," he added.
"This must not be allowed.”
Gorbachev also expressed hope for a new version of the landmark Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty that he and then-President Ronald Reagan presided over in 1987 after both the U.S. and Russia exited the pact earlier this year.
"All the agreements that are there are preserved and not destroyed," he told the network. "But these are the first steps towards destruction of [that which] must not be destroyed in any case. Therefore, if this path goes further, then everything is possible."
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