[this analysis was written for the Unz review] Some of my longtime readers might have noticed that I rarely (if ever!) wrote about Belarus or President Lukashenko. As always with the blog, there always is a reason for why I do mention something and no less a reason why I do not mention something. In the case of Belarus or Lukashenko, my reason for not writing about them was the
by Ghassan Kadi for The Saker Blog Most of the current instability in the Levant and the whole Middle East is inadvertently and inadvertently a result of the obsession about Israel’s security; both from the Israeli as well as the American sides. That said, many of the region’s problems are deep-rooted and go back to times before Israel was created and before America had any influence. In the middle part
by Paul Schmutz Schaller for The Saker Blog At the end of the year 2019, I wrote: „From my point of view, 2019 was a very positive year and I am convinced that the same will be the case for 2020.“ Unfortunately, my expectations for 2020 have turned out to be too optimistic. There is however no reason to hang one’s head. The general outlook remains positive, a Western dominated
by Eric Zuesse for The Saker Blog U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper told Europeans, in statements on July 29th and August 9th, “I’ve said that very publicly, I’ve said that very privately to my counterparts as well, about the importance of NATO, any alliance, sharing the burden so that we can all deter Russia and avoid peace in Europe.’” “We are moving many troops further east, closer to Russia’s
I am pleased to announce that The Essential Saker IV is now available in softcover, pdf and epub. The book covers Saker essays and analysis from January 2019 through to December 2019. The pre-publication work was completed literally minutes before the killing of General Suleimani and Abu Mahdi Muhandis, just before we entered 2020 to encounter challenges that most could not foresee. Upon looking back over the year of 2019,
by Saker’s Johnny-on-the-spot in Belgrade for The Saker Blog Last Monday, August 3 – to paraphrase President Roosevelt – was a day that will live in Serbia’s parliamentary infamy. The fraudulently elected “parliament” was formally seated, but its inauguration was most inauspicious. On the plateau in front of the Parliament building indignant citizens greeted the arrival of the tyrant’s rubber stamp “parliamentarians” with angry shouts, eggs (hopefully as rotten as
by Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog Eight months into the modern, digitised world’s first-ever global pandemic the results are in: Every government has failed miserably. Despite the vast differences between socialist-inspired nations and capitalist nations every single government in 2020 has forfeited the chance at the possibility of maybe perhaps having something like a little bit of a rightly-guided mandate of heaven. Our 2019 taxes must be refunded everywhere.
by Pepe Escobar : Republished from Asia Times by permission of author The narrative that the Beirut explosion was an exclusive consequence of negligence and corruption by the current Lebanese government is now set in stone, at least in the Atlanticist sphere. And yet, digging deeper, we find that negligence and corruption may have been fully exploited, via sabotage, to engineer it. Lebanon is prime John Le Carré territory. A
Full speech by Hezbollah Secretary General, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, on August 7, 2020, devoted to the explosion at the port of Beirut. Source: https://video.moqawama.org/details.php?cid=1&linkid=2148 Translation: resistancenews.org Key points: The tragic context requires a sacred union, in order to overcome the humanitarian crisis, and not to settle political accounts; Hezbollah has mobilized all its resources to help the victims All the accusations claiming Hezbollah is somewhat responsible are outrageous, because Hezbollah
Original link: http://middleeastobserver.net/translation-of-key-points-nasrallahs-speech-on-beirut-disaster/ Description : Key excerpts from Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s latest speech surrounding the Port of Beirut disaster several days earlier. Source: Various networks Date: 7 August, 2020 (Important Note: Please help us keep producing independent translations for you by contributing as little as $1/month here) Transcript: Hezbollah chose to view all forms of support & visits to Lebanon positively We look positively at every form of help and (show of)
My Lebanese friend just sent me this report about Hassan Nasrallah’s speech today: – There is much to say, but Sayyed did not allow the enemies any chance to turn this disaster into a ‘campaign’ against the Resistance, whereby the Resistance ‘reacts’ and gets led into their traps, further leading the country into chaos and destruction – it must be said, Sayyed calmly but categorically denied that Hezbolllah had any
by Thorsten J. Pattberg for The Saker Blog NEW YORK – A media professional from China asks: “Why do the Western media always promote the same ‘China experts’ who preach China doom, over and over again?” The answer is quite simple: The game of ‘expert testimonials’ is rigged. ‘Expert testimonials’ is not a level playing field. Never was. It is no coincidence that you will always see the same China
Source: Al-Mayadeen, Lebanese TV channel pro-Hezbollah, August 5th, 2020 Translation: resistancenews.org https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTNPvuApgNw&w=1280&h=720 https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7vf2l2 Transcript: Greetings. Anyone who sees these photos will find it hard to believe that they show the Beirut port just 24 hours ago, full of life, before being (completely) destroyed by (the explosion) of (hundreds of) tons of ammonium nitrate, stored in an anarchic manner in warehouse n° 12 for several years. Beirut was faced with a
Dear Serbian friends, Since the crisis began in Serbia some of you have been enraged by the articles written for the Saker Blog by “Saker’s Johnny-on-the-spot in Belgrade”. Some of you have posted irate comments, often in direct violation of the moderation guidelines, while others sent me outraged emails. And yet, each time I offered my angry correspondents the right of reply (I told them I would post any original
Dear friends, As soon as I heard about the tragic explosion in Beirut I told my family “you will see, there will be some idiots who will say it was a nuke”. Sure enough, today I already see nonsense posted about the usual suspects about the Israelis nuking of Beirut. Some even claim this was a thermonuclear explosion! This just proves to me that I was right when I added
by Phillyguy for The Saker Blog Summary The US emerged from WWII as the world’s leading military and economic power. US global hegemony is augmented by the ability of force projection virtually anywhere in the world and control of strategic waterways. The Arabian Peninsula and Horn of Africa occupy strategic locations in the Middle East/Africa and have been of significant interest to Global powers and resident countries for decades. In
by Ghassan Kadi for The Saker Blog I have mourned Beirut time and time again, but with all the cities I have lived in, Beirut will always be my favourite. After all, how can I ever forget its hustle and bustle before the infamous fifteen year long civil war that started on Sunday the 13th of April 1975? I was a student back then, with very limited financial resources, but
By Godfree Roberts from his newsletter This week’s selection from Godfree’s excellent China newsbrief includes the status of Dollar trade, Huawei, Technology and the much maligned (in the West) Social Credit system. Economy and Finance After years of talking about abandoning the US dollar, Russia and China are doing it for real. In the first quarter of 2020, the share of the dollar in trade between the countries fell below
This was just sent to me by a good Lebanese friend: Huge disaster, investigation underway, on face value was caused by utter negligence, corruption and incompetence of Lebanese state, but I am one of those that has been stressing that the enemies could have exploited this state negligence and corruption to trigger this disaster through sabotage. Few simple reasons for this, including: a) this disaster completely serves current US-Israeli efforts
by Mansoureh Tajik for the Saker Blog As part of a very thoughtful email last month, the Saker wrote, “In your latest contribution you wrote ‘Every day is Ashura, Every land is Karbala’ twice. Did you know that this is my absolute favorite Islamic saying? I also believe that this belief is the real core of the strength of the Resistance in Lebanon, especially Hezbollah.” He was referring to the
