Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, the powerful US ally who joined Washington’s fight against al-Qaeda and sought to modernize the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom with incremental but significant reforms, including nudging open greater opportunities for women, has died, according to Saudi state TV. He was 90.
More than his guarded and hidebound predecessors, Abdullah assertively threw his oil-rich nation’s weight behind trying to shape the Middle East. His priority was to counter the influence of rival, mainly Shiite Iran wherever it tried to make advances. He and fellow Sunni Arab monarchs also staunchly opposed the Middle East’s wave of pro-democracy uprisings, seeing them as a threat to stability and their own rule.
Abdullah’s death was announced on Saudi state TV saying the king died after midnight on Friday. His successor is his 79-year-old half-brother, Prince Salman, who has recently taken on the ailing Abdullah’s responsibilities, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.
In March 2014, Abdullah named another half-brother, Prince Moqren, as a second heir to his throne, in an unprecedented move aimed at ensuring a smooth succession. The royal statement Friday named Moqren, the youngest of Abdul Aziz’s sons, the new crown prince.
Regionally, perhaps Abdullah’s biggest priority was to confront Iran, the Shiite powerhouse across the Gulf.
He backed Sunni Muslim factions against Tehran’s allies in several countries, but in Lebanon for example, the policy failed to stop Iranian-backed Hezbollah from gaining the upper hand. And Tehran and Riyadh’s colliding ambitions stoked proxy conflicts around the region that enflamed Sunni-Shiite hatreds — most horrifically in Syria’s civil war, where the two countries backed opposing sides. Those conflicts in turn hiked Sunni militancy that returned to threaten Saudi Arabia.
The IDF further bolstered its presence along the Lebanon border Thursday in anticipation of a possible retaliatory attack by Hezbollah for an airstrike on members of the terror group allegedly carried out by Israel on Sunday.
According to defense officials, the IDF has mobilized ground and air forces to the border region and deployed Iron Dome anti-missile batteries throughout northern Israel as precautionary measures.
Israeli TV reports noted “a massive military presence” in the North, with locals speaking of the highest tension in the area since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
Heightened tensions along the border are the result of a deadly airstrike that killed 12 Lebanese Hezbollah operatives and Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps members near Quneitra, on the border with Syria on Sunday. The dead included an Iranian general and a senior Hezbollah commander, Jihad Mughniyeh, son of slain terror mastermind Imad Mughniyeh.
Iranian officials have threatened harsh retaliation against Israel for Sunday’s strike. Revolutionary Guards chief Mohammad Ali Jafari said Tuesday that Israel should anticipate “devastating lightning,” according to the Iranian Tasnim news agency, and that Iran would widen its support for Muslim fighters in the Middle East “until the final collapse of the Zionist regime.”
Russia is bleeding the Petrodollar dry by leading the BRIC nations in the purchase of Iranian oil for gold. The same situation is emerging in Europe as Russia is on the verge, either by invasion or by the present attempt at proxy control of Ukraine, of controlling a good portion of energy needs to Europe and being able to bypass the Petrodollar as a means of payment for Russian energy shipments into Europe. Also, Russia is in dire straits because of the U.S.and western banker led plunging oil prices. Both Russia and the United State are playing a game of chicken. Adding fuel to the fire with regard to alliances forming for World War III, Russia has just completed a deal which brings China into the Russian energy sphere of influence. This will eventually culminate in the weakening of NATO and the isolation of the United States both economically and militarily. What does Russia want and what will be its eventual goal? A short-term effect centers around the fact that I believe it is very possible that German will leave NATO and enter the Russian sphere of influence.
Putin is pursuing a military strategy that most Americans have never heard of and even fewer understand and it has to do with Russia’s geographic makeup and this holds the key to Russian military strategy Although Russia possesses one of the largest landmasses in the world, they possess an abhorrent lack of serviceable coastline. Historically, Russian economic growth has been severely impeded because of the lack of usable ports. Russia rues the day that they sold Alaska to the United States. It also helps to explain why Syria has jumped to the forefront of world affairs. Russia is sitting on vast energy deposits and they are threatening to expand their energy based and mineral world dominance by exploiting the newly discovered riches at the North Pole and they have invested significant resources in beefing up their Arctic fighting forces towards this end. Russia may be able to acquire vast mineral resources, but without significant ports from which to trade, the Russian economy will always run in second gear. One does not need to have access to Putin’s war plans to understand what is going on, one needs to only be a student of history in order to predict where this coming conflict is headed.
From Mackinder’s perspective, Soviet Russia had to be contained within the heartland. Mackinder’s believed that whosoever controlled Eurasia, controlled the world, so long as the controller had access to useable ports. The problem for Russia is that they have so few usable ports thus impacting commerce and the movement of men and material in a time of war. So long as Russia could be prevented from being a major sea power, the forces of the United States and Western Europe were safe. However, if Russia should become a sea power in conjunction with its massive land-based power, Russia could rule the world. And now, through the release of Russian secret documents we are finding out that Stalin was willing to fight a war with the US over obtaining Alaskan seaports as predicted by the Heartland Theory.
The Chinese-Russian energy deal allows Russia access to Chinese ports.
Russia is steadfast in its protection of Syria because of the Russian need to use the ports of Tartus and Aleppo.
And it is highly likely that once the energy pipelines in Ukraine are secured by Putin, Europe will soon be making seaport concessions to Russia in exchange for Russian based energy shipments. At the beginning of the crisis in Crimea, the first objective of the Russian military was to secure the naval base in Sevastopol. The Russians desire the fleet to grow in support of a new Mediterranean task force created by Russia last year as a move to counter an increase in US naval presence in the Mediterranean. If Ukraine had been allowed to be wooed by Western banksters to join the European Union, Russia’s most important naval force would have been effectively neutered because of the potential loss of Sevastopol as a naval base. The G7 nations may view Putin’s actions in Crimea as being offensive, Putin, no doubt, views the action as a matter of military survival. Again, the Heartland Theory comes into play. The Heartland Theory also came into play during last year’s Syrian crisis as Putin threatened to nuke the United States if it invaded Syria in violation of international law. Syria is critical to the Russians on a number of fronts including the prevalence of Syria’s warm water ports. Syria’s importance to Russia can be condensed to five essential factors:
1. Russia has a naval installation in Syria. The base is vitally important because it is Russia’s last foreign military base outside of the former Soviet Union. Putin is playing a bit of a slight of hand approach by stating they are closing the facility. However, the Russians are maintaining navy technicians and they service their permanent flotilla in the area. This runs in opposition to what the MSM has reported. However, my sources are uniform on this point
2. Russia is moving to further advance the use of the ports at Aleppo and Tartus to facilitate its sea trade.
3. Fortifying Syria provides protection for Iran who is undermining the Petrodollar by selling its oil for gold. This allows Putin to be engaged in an economic war against the dollar and the Federal Reserve.
4. Syria is a military satellite of Russia as Assad continues to buy a high quantity of Russian military exports, which aids the Russian economy.
ISIS mission is twofold. The first goal is to unseat Assad in Syria. The primary goal is for the West to draw Putin into a military conflict starting in Syria in order to topple Syria and Iran and preserve the Petrodollar.
Where is Russia most vulnerable? The clear answer is in Syria. Syria has both economic and military significance to Russia. If Syria were to fall to the United States, the military and economic loss would be catastrophic, not the least, would be the loss of Syrian ports. Russia’s prudent course of action would be to continue to erode the US economy by its relentless attacks upon the Federal Reserve and the Petrodollar. However I do not foresee the Federal Reserve banksters are going to continue to let this happen as the dollar erodes. Subsequently, when Ukraine falls, Syria and probably Iran will be attacked by the United States. The provocation will likely be a false flag event within the United States in which the Syrians are falsely implicated. Remember the Heartland Theory, it also predict the second front of the coming World War III. Along these lines, Putin will attack Alaska if the United States attacks Syria. This is how a cold war can turn hot in a hurry. If you do not believe me, just ask the Polish as they have begun mobilizing for war. DHS has continually been practicing for an American martial law lock down drill yesterday which will last for nearly a month. Ask yourself, what do these people know that you do not? Again, I want to caution people to stock up on supplies. If a false flag event does occur, your ability to resupply could be seriously imperiled.
Our military high command believes that World War III will begin in Syria as well when Russia comes to the aid of Assad as his forces are toppled. The United States have diverted no significant military assets from the Middle East since the Ukraine crisis began. Do not take your eyes off of Syria.
I read from J Vernon McGee a long time ago that he considered the hook for Russia would be a warm water port. Taking Israel would be the ideal place to park their ships.
ReplyDeleteSo many things coming together now. Won't be long till our Lord brings us home.
Thats an interesting point. Ive assumed oil and gas. Could be some combination of factors but the access angle makes sense
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