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Friday, April 01, 2022

Cracks In U.S. Influence – The Arabs’ Unthinkable Shifts To China & Russia In Defiance Of The Western Sanctions




Cracks In U.S. Influence – The Arabs’ Unthinkable Shifts To China & Russia In Defiance Of The Western Sanctions





Is Ukraine, armed with billions of dollars worth of American weapons, really winning the war against Russia? It depends. If you restrict yourself to reading Western news media, then Ukraine is indeed winning. How can Ukrainians not win when the media keep reporting that thousands of Russian helicopters, aircrafts, drones and whatnot are dropping from the sky every day?



In the same breath, NATO reported up to 40,000 Russian troops have been killed, wounded or taken prisoner in Ukraine. Putin also lost thousands of tanks, armour vehicles and other war machines. The Ukrainian forces reportedly have attacked the Russian military so fiercely that not only Ukraine suffers zero lost, but also saw Russian forces surrendering without a fight.



In fact, tons of American and British tabloids said Vladimir Putin had gone mad, mentally ill, dying of cancer or even so terrified of losing the war that he had gone hiding under some secret bunkers. Yet, despite winning the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky concedes that his country will not join NATO and agreed to engage in peace negotiations with the devilish Putin.



Is the “international” community really united in condemning and isolating Russia? That also depends. If by international you mean the U.S., North America and Europe, then it’s true. However, some major nations supposedly allies of the U.S. had decided not to join the bandwagon, despite the West’s popular argument that 141 countries voted to condemn Russia in UN.



While Colombia, Argentina and Chile have called for swift withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, other Latin American countries have stopped short of calling for a Russian exit. For example, Mexico declines to impose economic sanctions on Russia. Brazil is another Latin America’s biggest democracy that has refused to sanction the Kremlin.



Along with 5 countries (Russia, Belarus, Syria, North Korea and Eritrea) that voted against the United Nations resolution condemning Russia for invading Ukraine, there were another 35 nations that chose to abstain or stay neutral. Aside from China, surprisingly, U.S. allies like India and Pakistan have refused to condemn Moscow, let alone sanction Vladimir Putin.



But the biggest shock came from the Arabs, the traditional allies of America in the Middle East. It’s not hard to see the double standard and hypocrisy practised by the U.S. when it repeatedly threatening and criticizing China for not condemning Russia, but allows India, Pakistan, UAE (United Arab Emirates), Saudi Arabia and even Israel and Turkey (NATO member) to get away.



The U.S. was caught with its pants down when the UAE, who has a seat in the Security Council, abstained on a U.S.-drafted resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Gulf state argued that taking sides “would only lead to more violence”. Therefore, the best approach, it says, is “to encourage all parties to resort to diplomatic action and to negotiate to find a political solution”.



Heck, the UAE has even grown a pair when it said the country should not be projected as a puppet of the United States anymore. Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a political science professor in the UAE, said – “Just because we have such great relations with America, we do not take orders from Washington, and we have to do things consistent with our own strategy and priority.”



Indeed, the Arabs were long regarded as “puppets” for the Americans since 1945, when then Saudi King Abdul Aziz bin Saud and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt met onboard the USS Quincy, an American battleship, in the Suez Canal. The historical meeting on the Valentine’s Day forged a long relationship between the U.S. and Saudi, which expanded to neighbouring monarchies.



However, it seems the oil-for-protection agreement is slowly coming to its end, judging by the defiance of the Arabs when the U.S. needed them the most in condemning Russia. But the cracks in the U.S. influence did not happen overnight. The distrust can be traced to the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, which was contributed in part to Barack Obama’s famous “Cairo Speech” in 2009.



The speech – “A New Beginning” – was being blamed by the traditional Arab monarchies as the trigger that started the protests for democracy. The uprisings began with anticipation of support from the U.S., but Obama stayed quiet instead, trying to portray the protests as none of America’s business. The U.S.’ half-hearted intervention saw unrest, even till today in many parts of the Arab world.



Saudi Arabia and the UAE knew they could not depend on the U.S. to protect their national interests. When the U.S. became the world’s largest crude oil producer in 2018, the 1945 deal was as good as dead. The United States doesn’t need Saudi oil anymore – it is almost energy independent. Worse, America has become a competitor of Arabs in the energy business.



After Joe Biden was elected, he removed the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels (Yemen) as a terrorist organization. Less than a year later, the Houthis have begun rocket strikes on the UAE and Saudi. Abu Dhabi and Riyadh demanded the Houthis reinstated as terrorists, but Washington has only promised to improve their defence – a sign of downgrade of American commitment to protect Saudi and its allies.



Biden’s foot-dragging is easy to understand. He has promised to restore the nuclear deal (which was scrapped by Donald Trump) so long as Iran reimposed the limits on its program. Meaning the U.S. president would lift U.S. terrorism sanctions on Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. This is also one of the reasons Israel went against U.S.’ sponsored sanction on Russia.



The UAE was also furious with the U.S.’ deliberate stalling in selling its fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II jets, despite earlier commitments during Trump administration to deliver a formidable fleet of 50 Lockheed F-35s, including 18 Reaper drones and assorted munitions in a deal worth a staggering US$23 billion. Biden administration wanted to re-study how to restrict the usage of F-35s for UAE.




It was only after the Emirates suspended the mega deal that the U.S. says it is ready to move forward with the fighter jet sale. The rich Gulf state deliberately signed a deal for 80 French Rafale fighter jets as an alternative to the F-35s. Last month (Feb 2022), it stunningly purchased 12 Chinese L-15 light combat jets, with an option to purchase additional 36 in the future.



As US-UAE relations turn sour, the bilateral ties between China and UAE becomes closer. Not only China is the UAE’s largest trading partner (US$50 billion trades), the Chinese has never interfered in Arabs’ internal affairs and has kept a low profile on the issue of the Houthi conflicts. Beijing insists that ethnic and religious issues cannot and should not be resolved by outsiders.



During the Coronovirus pandemic, a new factory was set up in Abu Dhabi to manufacture Covid-19 vaccine under a joint venture between Chinese pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm and Abu Dhabi-based technology company Group 42 (G42). The plant, capable of producing 200 million doses a year, was part of Beijing’s initiatives to help the UAE diversifies its economy from energy sector.



In March 2021, the UAE launched “Operation 300bn”, an ambitious 10-year plan to increase the contribution of the industrial sector from 133 billion to 300 billion dirham. The plan to transform the country into a technology-based sustainable economy saw heavy participation from China’s mid-and-high-level technologies. The cooperation between both nations has even expanded into education.



Since a Chinese language course started in 2006 in the UAE, the Chinese-language education has seen the number of enrollments increased from merely 20 students to a whopping 45,000 last year. The first Chinese school outside China was opened in Dubai in 2020. There are now 142 schools (as of Dec 2021) in the UAE offering Chinese language classes.



In 2019, despite US pressure to avoid Huawei’s products, the UAE announced that it would employ equipment from the Chinese technology giant to establish a new high-speed wireless network. Washington, extremely concerned over Huawei 5G dominance, has even used its F-35 as bargaining chip to threaten the Arab state, only to see the UAE chose technology over fighter jets.



Likewise, the Saudi isn’t happy with the U.S.’ hypocrisy and flip-flop in its foreign policies, which changes every 4 years when a new president is elected. It was only in 2020 that Joe Biden called Saudi Arabia a “pariah”. Now that the economic sanctions have failed to defeat Putin, the U.S. president is begging the same pariah kingdom for help. However, Saudi has so far decided to side with Russia.



As the crude oil prices hit above US$100 a barrel, President Biden tried to get Saudi Arabia, supposedly U.S. biggest and closest ally in the region, to increase oil supply after formally banning Russian oil imports. Embarrassingly, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the UAE’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan have “declined calls” with the U.S. president.



When asked about damaged relations between Saudi Arabia and the US following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and its impact on the US president’s opinion of him, Crown Prince Mohammed replied – “Simply, I don’t care. It’s up to him to think about the interests of America”. Despite the U.S. request, OPEC+, which includes Russia, declined to increase oil production.



Instead of entertaining the U.S., the Saudi has instead engaged in active talks with China to sell its oil in Yuan / Renminbi, bypassing the U.S. dollar. The Chinese buy more than 25% of its oil from Saudi. Last year (2021), Saudi sold 1.76 million barrels a day to China, more than Russia’s 1.6 million barrels. If the commodity is priced in Yuan, it would certainly boost China’s currency.



The kingdom has also expressed its interest in yuan-denominated futures contracts, known as “petroyuan”, something which China introduced in 2018 to compete with petrodollars. Unlike Washington’s policy of making Saudi forever depends on the U.S. for weapons and protection, Riyadh saw how China has helped it build its own ballistic missiles, and even provided consultations on a nuclear program.



Beijing has offered incentives such as multibillion-dollar investments in the kingdom like NEOM, a pet project of Crown Prince Mohammed. Such mega projects could be funded by Yuan revenues from the crude oil exports to China. Saudi also hopes the shifting to the Chinese currency would strengthen both countries’ friendship, which in turn reduce support for traditional rival Iran.



Earlier this week, UAE Energy Minister Suhail Al-Mazrouei said that Russia would always be a part of OPEC+, despite sanctions on Moscow. On Tuesday, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz Salman said OPEC+ would not mix politics with business. This suggests that the Gulf states are seriously seeking an “independent foreign policy” based on national interests, which China and Russia could provide.



Aside from Kuwait, the Arab world has chosen to adopt a neutral position, leading to a lack of condemnation of Russia. They know the U.S. is not the only game in town, what more after America’s abrupt exit from Afghanistan. It’s not rocket science that China and Russia are the only options available in the eventuality the U.S. retreats from the region to focus elsewhere.



More importantly, according to an Arab Youth Survey, 70% of youngsters in the 50 Arab cities see Russia as an ally and only 26% consider it as an enemy. In comparison, only 57% see the U.S. as an ally while 41% see it as an enemy. The region hopes to see a bipolar world, or a shift towards a multipolar world where Russia and China joined forces to compete for power with the U.S.




9 comments:

  1. Twit-for-Twat's frustration is clearly showing through.
    I mean, how could Russia not be victorious by now ?, as he predicted before the Russian invasion started.
    Russia with its vast, superb army, 10x bigger than Ukraine's, equipped with the Best of the Best weapons and equipment, would have overrun Kyiv within 2 days , at most 2 weeks.
    Zelensky was supposed to have been captured and put on trial by now, with a Ukrainian taking orders from Moscow in charge in Kyiv.

    Yet, Ukraine is still fighting, in the 6th week of the war.
    Ukraine is littered with the burnt out carcasses of destroyed Russian military equipment, and the unburied, unrecovered , carcasses of dead Russian invaders.

    Ukraine wins by still fighting, still killing Russian invaders.
    Sanctions take time to work, and Ukraine has bought the world time.
    At some point , Russia will have to inform the mothers and wives of the dead Soldiers, that is when public opinion in Russia will start to change.
    Right now, for people inside Russia, the invasion looks like a beautiful , cost free, display of Russian power.

    ReplyDelete
  2. If I were the Yanks, I would just let the Saudis and the CCP sink their Billions into NEOM...105 mile long linear city in the desert....
    it's going to be 100x worse than Putrid Jaya (in Malaysia's case) as a destructor of Oil Wealth.

    ReplyDelete
  3. How dare the Ukranians fight to defend their country ? Ukraine is not even a real country...its just Little Russia.
    By the Super-Genius Putin's calculations, Kyiv should have fallen in the first few days of the Invasion.... at most just put on a token for-show resistance, then let Zelensky be tried as a Nazi traitor.

    Even though a few Nazis may have insisted to continue resisting, the shock and awe of the unstoppable Super-Hypersonic Khinzal and Iskander missiles should led to the complete demoralisation and collapse of Ukraine's army.

    The mighty Russian Army WILL crush Ukraine...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wakakakakaka…

    U read Putin correctly? Based on all the farts u inhaled from that fart filled well!

    Right from the beginning, capturing Ukraine isn't the goal of the Russian special operation. Do keep Putin's declared aims & bear them in mind before u fart.

    The lighting strikes of the first few days in destroying almost all the Ukraine air powers/military bases r the indications of the Russian advancing military might.

    Yet the 40km queue of military convoy into Kyiv & the prolong inaction of not able to taking down that capitol make many a military analysts thinking that the Russians r very ineffective & sloppy in their attacking plans. There were claims of Russian logistics & maintenance shortfalls. They have even thrown in the mental state of Putin!

    Meanwhile advances r been achieved in Donbass, resulting in the open establishments of the Donetsk People's Republic & Luhansk People's Republic. The Donbass has been under heavy & incriminating military attacks by the Ukrainian national guards, especially the Azov battalion since 2014!

    Putin has played a brilliant military move by encircling Kyiv with seemingly large military forces to entice most of the heavily armed Ukrainian forces to station & protect Kyiv. His other forces r then quietly & quickly trapping the Azov battalion in Mariupol, its operational hq - to plan its final extermination.

    That's WHY out of all the cities under Russian attacks, Mariupol suffers the most devastating fate.

    Kyiv is only a bait to diverse & divide the 250,000
    Ukrainian army, which out number the 'invading' Russians of 80k strong!

    Putin's liberation of Donbass has achieved. The demilitarization of the Ukraine is almost complete with major military depots/airports destroyed. Most of all the deNazification of the Ukrainian army has achieved with the annihilation of the Azov battalion!

    That's HOW Putin planned his special military operation.

    Ooop… don't forget his other brilliant counterattacks on the economic fronts to reassemble the sanctions!

    A mentally unstable Putin?

    Ill-ly advised?

    Perhaps that r what those foul gaseous doing to all u mfering Yankee acolytes!

    ReplyDelete
  5. This monster ball guy is a poodle of the evil and satanic empire of lies. He's so brainwashed that he leaked the earth those evil and satanic west trampled on.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The article seem to pont to the policies instigated by Obama ,and the Biden regime. No mention of Trump’s record in the middle east. It was the Abraham Accords that sowed the peace initiatives, in the middle east. You can blame those lefties for the flip-flops. One thing that you could say about Trump. His actions matched his words….

    ReplyDelete
  7. Why bother when the Caucasians are slugging up each other...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Typically katak dibawah perigi mentality.

      These Caucasian ain't no fools to fight their wars of self retribution due to their geopolitical infighting.

      Eventually, they would manoeuvre outsiders to bet their fights via ideological farts that have been permeated deep & through amongst those indoctrinated converts.

      & there r many of such cultivated fools outside their folds!

      That's why in a conflict, they r always the one that consistently in providing killing weapons to the warring parties to upstage their humanitarian claim of preventing massacre of the weaks!

      Never in their thoughts that providing 中庸之道 compromises to the warring parties via methodology other than bloodsheds r the best solutions with limited collateral casualties.

      Perhaps, blood thirstiness is deeply ingrained in their nomadic mental psycho such that every competition MUST have a champion via sacrificing bloodied lambs.

      The two WW have clearly proven this anmoukausai high&mighty humanitarianism!

      Delete
  8. This article will lead to only one outcome. And that is

    Red Alert Command and Conquer
    :Generals

    AK47 for everyone!

    ReplyDelete