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.
A court hearing in Turkey regarding the restoration of Istanbul's Hagia Sophia as a mosque is raising concern internationally.
As reported by 5pillaruk, the Russian Orthodox Church voiced its opposition to converting the current museum back into a mosque.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the Greek government have also urged Turkey to keep the building as a museum.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has described foreign criticism over the proposal as an attack on Turkey’s sovereignty.
Since 1453 Hagia Sophia was a mosque, until the militant-secular pro-Western dictator of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal, converted it into a museum in 1934.
Many Muslims worldwide view the current Turkish attempt to make Hagia Sophia a mosque once again as a Muslim assertion of themselves on the international arena. There are, however, some alternative views on the Turkish move as well.
Prominent British-Muslim journalist Roshan Muhammad Salih wrote that “I'm actually against turning the Hagia Sophia into a mosque. I think it sends out the wrong message to Christians about tolerance and just invites retaliatory action against mosques in non-Muslim countries. Also, isn't it haraam to forcibly convert the places of worship of the Ahl al Kitaab? Muslims don't need fancy places to pray in; they just need places to pray in and we already have enough of those. I think this is just political posturing by Erdogan.”
Courtesy: 5pillarsuk.com
As reported by the Middle East Eye (MEE), Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), both involved in providing military equipment to Zionist occupation forces, will cooperate with the United Arab Emirates' Group 42 (G42) to research and develop equipment and solutions to tackle the coronavirus.
According to MEE, G42 has previously been “linked with DarkMatter, a shadowy UAE tech company whose hacking unit targeted Emirati activists around the world.”
In July 2019, Israeli Foreign Minister attended an international climate summit in Abu Dhabi.
UAE’s efforts to normalize and legitimize the Zionist occupation of Palestine are not accidental.
For decades the Sheikhdom has been spearheading the secularization of Islam and Muslim societies, a role allocated to it by Western powers, in exchange for being part of the global profiteering economic system.
UAE’s autocratic system utilizes Muslim scholars and motivational speakers to present itself as a role model of a modern “Islamic” system. However, its PR approach has failed to appeal to Muslim masses.
Muslim personalities like Hamza Yusuf received a huge backlash for being too cozy with the autocratic system ruling the UAE. Thus, Israel seems to be betting on a losing horse to legitimize its occupation of Palestine within Muslim societies.
Courtesy: Middle East Eye
Washington based al-monitor.com reported that the US State Department is pushing Khalifa Haftar and the UN recognized government of Libya to disband their militias. It is not clear how the White House regime is justifying its demands for Libya’s UN-recognized government to disband forces under its jurisdiction.
Last week middleeastmonitor.com reported that “at joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Macron clearly denied his support for Haftar and announced his disappointment regarding the latter’s attack on the capital of Tripoli, on 4 April 2019… Just one year ago, Paris acknowledged that the US Javelin missiles discovered by the Libyan army after the liberation of Gharyan (100 km south of Tripoli), belonged to the French army.”
The primary reason Haftar is being dumped by his NATO patrons is due to his failure to achieve total control of Libya, not any concern for the Libyan people.
Haftar was never a credible candidate to rule Libya. The warlord spent decades outside the country as a CIA asset and proved to be highly incompetent even as a militia chieftain. NATO regimes supported Haftar to destabilize another Muslim country and prevent Libya from becoming a properly functioning state after its destruction by Nato forces.
Even though Western support for Haftar is decreasing, the overall strategy of destabilizing Libya will remain in place.
Courtesy: al-monitor.com, middleeastmonitor.com
Discussion about America’s imperial demise is no longer confined to anti-imperialist circles but a reality which has become part of the mainstream discourse carried by even proponents of US dominance.
Francesco Sisci, an Italian sinologist, author and columnist who lives and works in Beijing, writing for Asia Times states that “US global power and influence is on the wane but that doesn't mean China will take its place any time soon… China’s power projection similarly was built on the railways. More than 100,000 kilometers of new tracks and fast trains changed China by connecting all the periphery to Beijing and to one another in the past two decades. The BRI actually was the extension of this plan to Europe, across the entire Eurasian continent, the largest landmass on earth… The American project, whatever its policies, will need to follow. The US needs to upgrade its railways at home, and extend a network crossing the whole new continent from north to south. It needs to move on a plan to connect by rail Europe and Africa from Oslo to Cape Town, and then from there reach out to Asia and India, the latter excluded from the Chinese BRI.”
Empires in decline are particularly vicious, as they try to stay relevant. Thus, it will not come as a surprise if Washington triggers crises far more vicious than it already has done in order to maintain its global influence.
Courtesy: Asia Times
Lebanon’s economy is in a tailspin.
Supermarket shelves are empty, its currency, the lira has lost 80% of its value against the US dollar since October and the situation has been worsened by the “Caesar Act” passed by US Congress to exert additional pressure on Syria that has also adversely impacted Lebanon.
Under these circumstances, the Lebanese government would jump on the offer from Iran to supply it food stuff, medicines and fuel.
But it is terrified of US sanctions imposed on Iran under UN Security Council resolution 1929 passed in June 2010.
That resolution, however, was terminated by UNSC Resolution 2231 passed in January 2016 after the CJPOA (aka the “Iran Nuclear Deal”) with the P5+1 countries came into effect.
Shafiq al-Masri, professor of international law, states that “American sanctions are not legally binding on Lebanon, as they are state-to-state sanctions and not international sanctions against Iran.”
Despite the people’s desperate plight, “Iranian cargo ships in Lebanese waters have been prevented from docking and unloading over fears the move may lead to the extension of US sanctions onto the Mediterranean state, according to a report by Al-Hurra.”
And Iran is not asking for payment in US dollars; it will accept barter goods or payment even in the Lebanese lira that is sinking fast.
This was reported by the US-based Middle East Monitor.
People have resorted to Facebook to barter and exchange clothes and furniture for food.
Courtesy: Middleeastmonitor
