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.
“Palestinian cartoonist’s caricature of an Arab man struggling amid the global oil crisis has caused outrage in Saudi Arabia and led to competing hashtags on social media regarding support for the Palestinian cause.” Mahmoud Abbas, a cartoonist based in Sweden, depicted an exasperated man being pursued by a tumbling barrel of oil. Abbas told Middle East Eye that “the purpose of the cartoon is to show the oil crisis and its impact on the Arab world and the Middle East region - as it relies heavily on oil as a primary source of income,” Middle East Eye (MEE) reported.
The cartoon was not received well by the pro-Saudi elements on Twitter who accused Palestinians of being ungrateful for Riyadh’s support of the Palestinian cause. This claim would be dismissed by most informed observers considering the well-known strategic alliance between the Saudi regime and the Zionist entity.
Courtesy: Middle East Eye
Saudi investments outside of the energy sector are in shambles, a conclusion reached by a detailed analysis conducted by the Middle East Eye (MEE).
Most financial investments of the Saudi regime are currently declining due to the unprecedent blow delivered to the global economy.
The following data on the overall health of the Saudi economy by MEE analysis are important indicators to keep in mind;
Courtesy: Middle East Eye
It appears that Turkey’s Washington strategy in Syria is facing another fiasco after reports of infighting emerge among Ankara backed militias.
Ahrar al-Sharqiya and the Mutassim Brigade, both Turkish-backed, began fighting each other. Al-monitor reported that “a Syria analyst at the Turkish think tank SETA said the fighting began when a division of the SNA from Deir ez-Zour farther south tried to take an area controlled by the Mutassim Brigade in Ras al-Ain. “Mutassim put up resistance and small clashes happened which ended very soon due to the interference of the military police of the SNA with Turkish backing.”
The incident once again highlights that Turkey will not be able to implement its strategy in Syria in a coherent manner and sooner or later will clash with its questionable allies.
Courtesy: al-monitor.com
Some of Central Asia’s dictators gained notoriety for their gross mismanagement of the coronavirus crisis, outdone only by Donald Trump. If the regime in Turkmenistan was ridiculed and shamed for banning people from mentioning coronavirus, in Tajikistan it claimed to have zero coronavirus cases.
Until a few days ago, Dushanbe’s claim was just that, a claim by an autocratic system. However, on April 24, Eurasianet reported that “the World Health Organization in Tajikistan, where the government maintains it has recorded no cases of COVID-19 despite a mounting number of mysterious deaths, has declined to respond to queries from independent media, deepening concerns that the public is being deprived of clear and impartial information on a potential health crisis.”
Courtesy: Eurasianet.org
