Sunday, March 31, 2019

New Middle East Alliance Shakes World Powers

The leading members of the new bloc are Turkey, Iran, and Qatar; with Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan submitting to the new bloc.

In Tehran, Assad commit-ted to supporting the new bloc and to support the greater Middle East the bloc members were trying to create.

On March 19, 2019, PRC Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan stressed the rôle of Iran as "The strategic part-ner" in the greater Middle East for "The further development of economic and trade ties" with the entire region.

Russian experts explained in late December 2018 that "Turkey, Iran, and Qatar are moving in a direct course towards creating a full-fledged alliance in the Middle East, threatening to make serious adjustments to the status quo in the region." And even though the tripartite summit in Damascus and other regional fora hailed their friendship with Russia, the Kremlin was apprehensive regarding the ascent of the bloc.

Most important, the Kremlin's grand design for the future of the greater Middle East rests on the ascent of the Fertile Crescent of Minorities - where the Kurds are assigned a key rôle - as a buffer zone containing the upsurge of the Sunni Arab milieu and blocking the access of both Iran and Turkey into the heartlands of al-Jazira.

Since US influence in the Arab Middle East had, by 2019, become close to non-existent, despite the pres-ence of US forces in Syria-Iraq-Jordan and special relations with Saudi Arabia, the US focus has been on stifling the primary north-south and east-west arteries between Russia, the PRC, and the greater Middle East by hitting the weakest link: Azerbaijan.

This would only galvanize both Turkey and Iran into further anti-US actions in and around the greater Middle East, thus further empowering "The Middle Eastern Entente".

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-30/new-middle-east-alliance-shakes-world-powers

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