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.
The past week will enter history books as perhaps one of the most politically humiliating for the US regime.
On August 14, the UN Security Council rejected a US proposed resolution to extend the conventional weapons embargo on Iran. The only country that supported the US was the Caribbean island of the Dominican Republican, a virtual US colony.
Washington’s political fiasco manifested itself in the fact that its anti-Iran resolution was not even supported by its closest allies like Germany, France and Britain.
To make-up for its inability to institute an arms embargo on Iran, US President Donald Trump announced that he will be instituting snapback sanctions on Iran related to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) treaty that he abandoned in May 2018.
Trump immediately received a rude awakening from EU foreign policy chief who reminded the White House that the US can no longer play any role in relation to JCPOA as it withdrew from the treaty.
Washington allies’ total disregard is one more proof that the US is in the process of terminal decline. This is how empires collapse, when even their allies stop taking them seriously.
Courtesy: Al Jazeera
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the NATO-backed terrorist outfit based in Syria’s Idlib province arrested one of its principal media promoters, Bilal Abdul Kareem, a US citizen and founder of the social media outlet, On the Ground News (OGN).
Since the beginning of the proxy-war in Syria, OGN has been a central information tool in propagating the takfiri narrative on events in Syria to the English-speaking Muslim audience.
According to the Washington based www.al-monitor.com, “Abdul Kareem was taken from his car and taken into custody by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham militants alongside his driver, identified as Abu Mohamad al-Homsi, near the city of Atmeh in the Idlib countryside, the stepson said. The arrest followed Abdul Kareem’s interview of Racquell Hayden-Best, wife of Tauqir Sharif, a British aid worker arrested in June by the militant group.”
Abdul Kareem almost never criticized the takfiri militants in Syria and his latest exposure of the torture suffered by Tauqir Sharif shows that the Wahhabi movements can’t even tolerate justified criticism from within their own constituency. How could these movements be leaders of the global Islamic movement? This is precisely the reason the NATO powers have facilitated the growth of such organizations so that they can undermine the Islamic movement from within.
Courtesy: www.al-monitor.com
As the UAE made its long-maintained unofficial relations with Israel, public, it seems to have lost its regional political maneuvering space.
Iran’s Armed forces chief of staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri, was quoted by Reuters as saying that “Tehran’s approach to the UAE will change... If something happens in the Persian Gulf region and if our national security is damaged, however small, we will hold the UAE responsible for that and we will not tolerate it.”
Abu Dhabi’s cooperation with Israel was well known and its announcement to officialize the relationship with Israel was not a surprise. Nevertheless, the latest move will limit UAE’s political maneuvering as it will not be able to put on any “Islamic” or Arab “nationalist” façade on its policies.
The latest move also discredits Muslim “scholars” who were closely linked to the autocratic regime in the UAE, like Abdallah bin Bayyah, who leads the rubber stamp UAE Fatwa Council which approved the “treaty.”
Courtesy: Reuters
After Donald Trump hinted that he might not recognize the results of the presidential selection process and then even suggested postponing the election date, a logistical hurdle is added to the US presidential race.
Reuters quoted United Parcel Service stating that “State ballots must be postmarked to be considered valid and only the USPS has lawful postmarking status. Therefore UPS, FedEx and other private parties cannot technically be involved in shipping ballots.”
In the same report FedEx was quoted as saying that “FedEx does accept individual ballots, and we advise that customers planning to return their ballots via FedEx should closely review their state’s guidelines on absentee voting and deadlines for ballots or related election documents.”
Due to the coronavirus pandemic many voters in the US will be casting their ballot through mail, but due to the dismal condition of public services in the US, the US postal service expressed its inability to handle the new situation. As can be seen from the Reuters report, private companies are not willing to step up and assist during the presidential race.
There is already deep mistrust among citizens of the US electoral process because money plays a huge role in it. If the upcoming presidential selection process experiences additional logistical malfunctions, given its domestic situation, the US might implode internally.
Courtesy: Reuters
