In this section, Crescent International will highlight news and events that do not attract much media Attention. We will provide our brief analysis. Hyperlinked references will be provided for confirmation, corroboration and crediting purposes.
On April 10, a day after OPEC++ reached a commitment to cut 10 million bpd of oil production in both May and June, oil prices declined to $32.02 per barrel.
According to oilprice.com, “analysts say cuts are too little, too late. Other analysts also said the risk is to the downside. ‘These cuts are not enough to prevent massive stockbuilds in May, let alone April,’ JBC Energy wrote in a note.”
The coronavirus’ negative impact on travel and the global economy makes OPEC++ a relatively toothless platform as they find themselves in untested circumstances with no planned exit strategy. The price of oil will remain low in the near future, which will hit the Central Asian dictators particularly hard.
Courtesy: Oilprice.com
Sweden is continuing to use an alternative approach to combat the spread of coronavirus. Swedes are insisting that their approach to avoid a total shut down of their country as the primary method of containing COVID-19 is the only effective way to continue the battle against the pandemic.
On April 9 NPR reported that “Imperial College in London, which has been a very influential place when it comes to setting government policy in response to coronavirus found that a long-term lockdown was not necessarily the best decision for public health… Another recent study from Harvard's Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases found that a long lockdown was less effective at dealing with pandemics than shorter, more-targeted social distancing measures.”
Since most countries have adopted a knee-jerk policy to coronavirus, Sweden’s approach will most likely be put-down and mocked. If successful, Sweden’s approach will make policymakers elsewhere look incompetent.
Courtesy: NPR, National Review
Russia Today regularly spews anti-Muslim diatribes. On April 9 it published a column by Abhijit Majumder, former editor of the Hindustan Times, implying that preaching of Islam is to blame for the spread of coronavirus in India.
Majumder wraps his anti-Muslim narrative which has become an official policy in India under the BJP by stating that “one in three people who have tested positive for the Covid-19 virus in India have contracted it at a common source: a gathering of a massive and mysterious Islamic organization named Tablighi Jamaat (TJ).”
Majumder also attacks normative Islamic beliefs and presents the preaching of Islam as an “indirect line to terrorism” in his article.
Tablighi Jamaat is a backward Islamic organization whose simplistic message is well known and often utilized to pacify Muslims from resisting neo-colonialism.
The blatant attack on the Tablighi Jamaat reflects the ugly reality that in today’s India there is very little tolerance for public manifestations of the Islamic faith.
Courtesy: Russia Today
American citizens in Lebanon have decline an offer from the US embassy to be repatriated back home amid the coronavirus pandemic, as reported by CNN on April 9.
In its letter to Americans, the US embassy said each person would have to pay US$2500 for the plane ticket.
Much to the surprise—and perhaps annoyance—of the embassy staff, most Americans declined the offer preferring to stay in Lebanon saying it is a lot safer than in the US.
The coronavirus pandemic has spread rapidly in the US with the number of infected cases surpassing 557,000 as of Sunday April 12 at 21.22 GMT.
The US has also surpassed Italy in the largest number of corona-related deaths (21,956), as per the worldometer.info that keeps track of infections, deaths and recoveries for each country.
Americans rightly feel they are a lot safer in Lebanon where the number of infected cases is miniscule compared to the US.
Even many Americans have realized that the US under Donald Trump is now officially a ‘shit-hole country’ and they wish to have nothing to do with it.
Courtesy: CNN, worldmeter.info
According to the MiddleEastMonitor, “Israeli settlers have been accused of trying to spread the coronavirus in Palestinian neighborhoods by spitting on cars in a West Bank village… Speaking to Palestinian WAFA news agency residents described how settlers from Ramot settlement, build on land belonging to Beit Iksa in violation of international law, stood at the entrance to the village and started to spit on Palestinian cars entering or leaving the village in an attempt to spread the coronavirus.”
According to the electronicintifada, “Israeli occupation forces continue to attack Palestinian communities as they struggle to hold back the threat from the coronavirus pandemic... Israeli forces confiscated food parcels that were due to be distributed to quarantined families in Sur Baher, a village south of Jerusalem.”
The situation in Gaza where everything is in very short supply due to Zionist blockade is even more dire.
Israel’s brutal nature leaves no doubt that the Zionist regime will utilize the pandemic in order to further advance its occupational grip on Palestine.
(Courtesy: ElectronicIntifada, Middleeastmonitor)
Last week the leader of Yemen’s AnsarAllah movement, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, offered to release captured Saudi mercenaries in exchange for Hamas members illegally detained by the Saudi regime. Senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar welcomed the proposal. Over the past several months the Saudi regime has been arresting several Palestinians, most probably to appease Zionist Israel.The offer by Yemen’s leadership is a reminder that no Muslim leader can make fake excuses for forgetting the Palestinian cause.
If Yemeni leadership can prioritize the oppression of Palestinians in their difficult situation, what excuse do other rulers of Muslim countries have? Are they scared that their bank accounts in Western countries will be frozen?
(Yemen's Houthis offer to release Saudi prisoners in exchange for Hamas detainees Courtesy: Middle East Eye)
According to the AFP, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) requested the Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions to postpone by one year its multi-billion-dollar exposition event scheduled to be held in October 2020.
The US surrogate (UAE) has invested billions over the past decade to prepare for Expo 2020. Its postponement is surely going to create a lot of layoffs and business closures.
With the oil prices at their lowest and the geopolitical tide in the region turning against the US and its allies, Expo 2020 postponement may be another economic blow to the US presence in the region. (Courtesy: AFP)
According to al-monitor.com, “to prevent private companies from laying off their staff, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud announced that the government will cover a portion of private sector salaries in the industries most impacted by the novel coronavirus.”
With oil prices hitting the floor, the coronavirus crisis continuing and the Saudi regime lacking a real economy outside of the oil sector, Riyadh is between a rock and a hard place.
If the combination of the coronavirus and low oil prices continues, the Saudi royals will be unable to spend their way out of the current crisis. The Saudi regime assumes that throwing money at complex issues will make them disappear, they may soon be in for a huge surprise.
(Courtesy: www.al-monitor.com)
On April 1, US officials announced that they will be deploying Patriot anti-missile systems to Iraq. It appears that Washington’s move comes without the formal approval of the Iraqi government, as Iraq's caretaker Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi warned against any "offensive military action without the approval of the Iraqi government".
While the While the Pentagon announce that although it was significantly reducing its number of troops in Iraq, it will not end its occupation of the country anytime soon. Iran’s Press TV reported on April 2 that a convoy of 20 trucks, loaded with US logistical materials used in military engineering fortifications arrived in Syria from Iraq.
It appears that the US is beginning to feel the strategic pressure of Iran’s plan to expel the US from the region as it vowed to do after Gen. Qassem Soleimani’s martyrdom on January 3.
The recent US moves are last ditch attempts by Washington to retain some presence in the region. While this will be a failure in the long-term, it will contribute to the destabilization of Iraq and Syria in the near future.
(Courtesy: Al Jazeera, Press TV, the National.)
Responding to the cynical US announcement to “help” Islamic Iran in its battle against the coronavirus, the Rahbar, Imam Sayed Khamenei stated that the US is in no position to help itself with the coronavirus and Washington’s criminal history in Iran makes it an untrustworthy party.
Imam Khamenei also said that given the accusations that the US caused the out-break of coronavirus, they can’t be trusted at all. While Imam Khamenei simply stated a possibility of the US being behind the coronavirus, given Chinese accusations, the corporate Western media and their regional outlets like Al Jazeera immediately twisted his words and presented his statement as a propagation of a “conspiracy” theory, as if state entities never conspire.
It should also be noted that Médecins Sans Frontier team which arrived in Iran a few weeks ago, had nothing useful for Iran. Just a team of doctors with 50 inflatable beds. IRGC had built a 300-bed hospital just the day before. Iran needed ventilators and other equipment that was never sent.
(Courtesy: www.khamenei.ir)
