MIDEAST UPDATE: 10.17.20 - Saudi Arabia: We, Too, Are Fed Up with the Palestinians

Saudi Arabia: We, Too, Are Fed Up with the Palestinians - by Khaled Abu Toameh - https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16622/saudi-arabia-fed-up-palestinians Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz's scathing and unprecedented attack on the Palestinian leadership, during an interview aired by Saudi Al-Arabiya televisionstation on October 6, adds Saudi Arabia and its citizens to the growing list of Arabs who regard the Palestinians as "ungrateful." During the interview, the prince, a former Saudi ambassador to the US, said that "the Palestinian cause is a just cause, but its advocates are failures, and the Israelicause is unjust, but its advocates have proven to be successful." He accused the Palestinians of cozying up to Saudi Arabia's foes, Iran and Turkey, and criticized them for accusing the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain of betrayal foragreeing to establish relations with Israel." He also accused the Palestinians of "ingratitude or lack of loyalty" toward Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries that supported them for decades. After the interview, many Saudis and other Gulf citizens expressed support for Prince Bandar bin Abdulaziz's criticism of the Palestinians, with some saying the time hascome for a new Palestinian leadership that prioritizes its people's interests and does not pocket the financial aid sent to them by the Arab countries and the West. "I believe that the time has come to form a permanent Arab committee under the umbrella of the Arab League to manage the Palestinian issue and conduct face-to-face dialoguewith Israel," said Emirati columnist and political analyst Abdullah Nasser Al-Otaibi. "Today, after this very revealing and frank talk (by the Saudi prince), I strongly believe in the need for the Arabs to find a way to manage the Palestinian issue." Al-Otaibi is one of several Arab commentators who have recently talked about the need for the Arab countries to take matters into their own hands and try to solve the Israeli-Arabconflict without involving the failed and corrupt Palestinian leadership. This is a demand that no Arab has dared to make in the past few decades. It demonstrates that a growing number of Arabs believe that there can be no solution to the Israeli-Arab conflictas long as the current Palestinian leadership remains in power. Saudi political analyst Fahim Al-Hamid noted that over the past several decades, the Palestinians have missed many opportunities to find a solution to their conflict withIsrael. Referring to the ongoing power struggle between the Palestinian ruling Fatah faction in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Al-Hamid accused the two parties of 'trafficking"in the Palestinian issue. "When Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, it was possible for the Palestinians to seize the opportunity to achieve more gains," he wrote. "Hamas, however, refused to unite the Palestinians and established the foundations for the beginning of the division between the Palestinians. Instead, Hamas sought to raisefunds from Turkey, Qatar and Iran." Praising Prince Bandar's statements, Al-Hamid added: "It is unfortunate that the Palestinian brothers have traded in their issue for more than 60 years and insisted on not compromising, sabotaging negotiations and rejectingall peace initiatives. The time for trafficking in the concerns of the Palestinian people is over. The interest of the people in Gaza and the West Bank requires the intervention of rational Arabs to achieve comprehensive peace in the region. We tell the Palestinianswhat (US) President (Abraham) Lincoln said: 'You can fool all the people some of the time and some people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.'" Saudi columnist Mohammed Al-Saaed, echoing Prince Bandar bin Abdulaziz's criticism, refuted Palestinian claims that they do not meddle in the internal affairs of Arab countries: "Over the past six decades, the Palestinians have presented themselves as being neutral on Arab issues. However, they [Palestinians] have turned themselves into puppetsin the hands of Qatar, Turkey and Iran. The Palestinians have practiced systematic terror against most Arab countries and directed their guns and bombs against the Arabs." Al-Saaed said that the Palestinians have also been engaging in another form of terrorism: extorting money from the Arabs "or else they count you as hostile (to the Palestinians).We must not forget their terrorist operations against consulates and embassies, assassinations of Saudi figures, as well as the hijacking and bombing of airplanes." He went on to accuse the Palestinians of insulting Saudi Arabia by burning its flags and pictures of its leaders and publishing offensive cartoons in media outlets run bymembers of Fatah and Hamas. Al-Saaed added: "Saudi Arabia only wants (the Palestinians) to stop hurting the kingdom and its citizens. The Palestinians must be aware that the popular mood on the Saudi street is nolonger able to tolerate these abuses. The Palestinian leadership must take a rational position before losing Saudi Arabia's support." Saudi political analyst Abdel Rahman Al-Mulhem praised the Saudi prince for exposing the Palestinian leadership failures. "The masks have fallen and the truth has been revealed,"Al-Mulhem wrote. "Palestinian leaders could have ended the tragedy of the Palestinian people by accepting United Nations Resolution 242," he said, referring to the November 22, 1967 resolution that talked about "the need to work for a just and lasting peacein which every State in the area can live in security and peace within recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." Al-Mulhem said he fully agreed with the Saudi prince's assertion that Palestinian leaders do not want to end the conflict with Israel because they want to preserve theirpersonal interests, and added: "Palestinian leaders missed many opportunities that could have ended the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but they squandered these opportunities so that they could continueto trade in the Palestinian issue... Palestinian leaders have chosen to align themselves with Iran, the No. 1 enemy of the Arab nation. What has Iran done for Palestine since 1979? Iran is a terrorist country. Terrorism only breeds terrorism. Palestinian leadersstole the aid sent to the Palestinian people and built mansions in Washington, Paris and London, while ignoring the suffering of their people." Commenting on the Saudi prince's statements about the Palestinian leadership's corruption and ineptitude, Fahd Al-Shoqiran, a Saudi researcher and columnist, wrote thatthe Palestinians "must be reminded that the hundreds of billions of money their leaders received to support their cause from Saudi Arabia throughout its history were capable of building the Palestinians huge cities." Instead, Al-Shoqiran said, Palestinian leaders used the money to buy private planes and luxurious buildings in Europe and the US. "For the Palestinian leaders, the Palestinianissue is just an investment project that generates huge profits," he said. "That's why the talk about the need for an efficient alternative political leadership causes them to panic. The prince's speech was clear, direct, accurate and frank. Thespeech is a wake-up call. Things have changed, and whoever wants a solution should seek ways to achieve one." Palestinian leaders, meanwhile, appear to be afraid of responding to the serious charges made by Prince Bandar bin Abdulaziz. These leaders have not sent their people to the streets to burn Saudi flags in protest of the criticism made by the prince and other Saudis. Palestinian Authority PresidentMahmoud Abbas and his officials are well aware that, unlike the UAE or Bahrain, Saudi Arabia is a large and extremely powerful country. They also know that losing the support of Saudi Arabia would mean forfeiting the backing of several other Arab countriesclosely associated with the kingdom. The latest Saudi media onslaught against the Palestinians could be seen as a prelude for Saudi Arabia following suit with the UAE and Bahrain by establishing relations withIsrael. What is evident, meanwhile, is that, where Saudi Arabia is concerned, the Palestinians are on very thin ice. In fact, they may wake up to discover that the ice is melting all over the Arab world. Turkey Is The Next Iran - Dan Schueftan - https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=4340 Bernard Lewis, the preeminent Middle East researcher of the past few generations, said after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan rose to power thatIran could turn into Turkey and Turkey might morph into Iran. Lewis meant that after the mullah regime was ousted, Iran might fulfill the hope for moderation and contribution that were once hung on Turkey, whereasErdoğan could drive the modern and moderate Turkey he inherited into destructive radicalism in the style of the Islamic Revolution. For now, the threat from Ankara is materializing, but not the hopes for Tehran. In addition to the disaster he has brought down on his own country, Erdoğan's megalomaniacal policies have outraged his neighbors in the Fertile Crescent,the Arabia Peninsula and the Mediterranean Basin. The damage he is causing is being discovered in Europe. His policy is hurting American and Israeli interests. Hamas, Qatar, Azerbaijan and the government of Fayez al-Sarraj in Tripoli are his only allies. In Europe, he poses a multifaceted threat. The NATO alliance was established by democratic nations to address the Soviet danger. Turkey was a littleunusual, but gradually developed democratic characteristics, and NATO could depend on its large military. Recently, we have been seeing a stark contrast between the democratic characteristics of most NATO members and Turkey's regime of oppression. Erdoğan's close ties with Russia, and acquisition of an air defense system that poses a threat to NATO aircraft, testify to his intentions. Erdoğan'ssteps to eradicate government functionaries and weaken Turkey's armed forces erode its value as a military asset. His policy is ruining Turkey's credibility; it is now a Trojan horse in NATO. Erdoğan isn't even trying to hide the threat to European society and politics in two sensitive areas: enclaves of Turks and refugees. He is blatantlyencouraging a process of radicalization among the million Turks who have emigrated to Europe since the 1970s, mainly to Germany. That radicalization demands that they remain loyal to Turkey and their Islamic culture, at the expense of their citizenship and process of integratinginto their new home countries. In the fall of 2015, Erdoğan encouraged a wave of about a million refugees to Europe, mostly from Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Given the Europeans'helplessness in addressing the matter, he struck a "protection" deal with German Chancellor Angela Merkel--he would stop the influx of refugees for a billion euros. Since then, he has been using his ability to reopen the dam as a way of extorting benefitsand money from the frightened Europeans. The danger he poses to American interests is clear, and it's hard to understand why President Trump accepts his outrageous behavior. The damage hehas done to NATO hurts the United States, too. Weakening European society through radicalized Muslim citizens and a flood of refugees also hurts Europe's ability to stand up to Russia and bolsterstheir already-strong tendency for pacification. Erdoğan's battle against the Kurds hurts the United States' trusted allies in Syrian and Iraq and sends a message to local forces that the Americans cannot be depended upon. We also need to add the threats the Muslim Brotherhood--with Erdoğan's encouragement--poses to pro-American governments in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, thePersian Gulf and Jordan, and his hostile policy toward Israel. Nor does the United States want Turkish hegemony in the Mediterranean Sea. The only American punishment meted out to Erdoğan so far--a refusal to sell him F-35 aircraft because he bought a missile system from the Russians--isno deterrent. Israel has a long list of problems with the anti-Semitic megalomaniac from Ankara. He supports Hamas, he tried to break the maritime weapons blockadeon the Gaza Strip and allows terrorists to operate in his country under Turkish passports. He threatens Turkey's most important Arab allies, wages a pan-Islamic war against Israel in Jerusalem and sends his agents to fight it. In the Mediterranean,he threatens Israel's economic assets as well as its allies. Erdoğan is hated and isolated. Turkey is vulnerable mostly in the economic sector. About a month ago, Moody's lowered Turkey's credit rating to B2,the lowest in the 30 years it has been measured and five steps below the rank it needs to attract investment. Aside from his nationalist incitement and oppressive measures, Erdoğan is holding on because the economic situation remains tolerable. This is wherehe can be reined in, but for that to happen, we need the Americans to take the lead. Trump hasn't suggested it yet and Joe Biden will almost certainly not want anything to do with it. Iran's Next Move: Arms Transfers to South America? - by Joseph M. Humire - https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16643/iran-weapons-south-america By the end of October, the security landscape in South America could change, with the Islamic Republic of Iran setting up armssales in South America, from Venezuela to Bolivia. But first, any of these three things must happen: 1.The United Nations would have to ignore its security council resolutions and effectively let the decades-old Iran arms embargo expire on October 18. 2.Evo Morales' political party Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) in Bolivia would have to win the presidential elections, set for the same date (October 18). 3.Venezuela's Nicol�s Maduro regime would need to initiate a potential weapons transfer from Tehran, as reported in late August by Colombian President Ivan Duque. In August, President Duque, speaking at a virtual event, claimed that the Maduro regime in Venezuela was looking to acquire medium-to-long-rangemissiles from Iran. President Maduro initially responded by denying these claims, then said, "It's not a bad idea" and ordered his defense minister to look into the deal. More than fuel shipments To understand the context of this claim by Colombia, it is important to understand the recent developments between Venezuela andIran. Starting in late May, Iran, in what appears to be a gold-for-gas scheme, repeatedly sent gasoline shipments to the fuel-starved Maduro regime in Venezuela. Last week, the second round of tankers from Iran, carrying an estimated 820,000 barrels of gasoline,arrived in Venezuela. Despite having the world's largest reserves of petroleum, Venezuela's state-owned oil enterprise, PDVSA, cannot refine its heavycrude due to years of bad investments and a lack of maintenance that ended up plundering the country's refining capabilities. One year ago, for instance, PDVSA's state-owned refining network produced 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of fuel for domestic consumption.This past March, PDVSA barely produced more than 7,000 bpd of gasoline, causing long lines of vehicles at Venezuelan gas stations and basically bringing commerce to a halt. Importing fuel is not that easy for Venezuela: PDVSA is under US sanctions; some of its main trading partners -- Spain, Italy,and Russia -- do not want to risk doing business with it and getting sanctioned themselves. Earlier this year, Russia actually withdrew Rosneft from Venezuela after the U.S. sanctioned some of its sub-units. This is where Iran enters the picture. Starting on April 21, 2020, a series of 17 flights flown by Mahan Air, the preferred airline of Iran's dominant militia, the IslamicRevolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), touched down at Punto Fijo, near the Amuay Refining Complex on the Paraguana Peninsula. China provided the parts, Iran the technicians, and Venezuela's newly minted oil minister, Tareck El Aissami, dispatched one of his toplieutenants to Iran -- a Lebanese-Colombian businessman, Alex Saab -- to work out Iran's reported gold-for-gas scheme. Saab is now being detained in Cape Verde pending possible extradition to the U.S. on eight counts of money laundering. Months later, the refineries on the Paraguana Peninsula still are not operating, and Venezuela is facing fuel shortages yet again.According to Bloomberg, Iran nevertheless received almost half a billion dollars' worth of gold bullion as payment. While gasoline is needed in Venezuela, the fuel shipments from Iran are likely an excuse to operationalize its once latent IRGC network in thecountry. In July, a civil forfeiture complaint by the US Department of Justice claimed that the IRGC controlled the fuel shipments to Venezuelathrough an Iranian businessman with ties to the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). Aside from the five Iranian-flagged tankers that arrived in Venezuela in the summer, another four Liberian-flagged tankers from Iran en route to Venezuela were detained offthe coast of West Africa. The US Department of Justice seized a reported 1.1 million barrels of gasoline on the tankers, as well as websites of the Iranian front companies used in the fuel shipment. The interception was labeled the "largest U.S. seizure ofIranian fuel" to date. The dual-use nature of Iran's "commercial" entities involved in this alleged gold-for-gas scheme -- namely the NIOC, Mahan Air,the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), as well as others -- are all sanctioned by the US for helping Iran's strategic weapons programs. Accordingly, the US Treasury's 2017 sanctions on Maduro were updated in September 2020 to include his cooperationwith Iran. Covert military cooperation For the last 14 years, Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) has worked with Venezuela's Company of MilitaryIndustries (CAVIM) to set up the IRGC's footprint in the country. On the surface, this cooperation included designing Venezuelan unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), constructing ammunition-manufacturing plants, refurbishing jet engines, and trading parts forfighter jets and helicopters. Yet, most of these joint military projects had irregularities, such as being overvalued, under-delivered, and experiencing unusual delays, suggesting that they might have a purpose beyond the overt defense cooperation betweenthe two countries. Beneath the surface, it appears that Iran used these joint military projects with Venezuela to erect a covert procurement andacquisition network in Latin America. The network was seemingly aimed at amassing prohibited parts, minerals, metals, and technology for Iran's strategic weapons programs. These procurements included sensitive items banned by the UN arms embargo -- for instancemissile parts and strategic minerals -- while using cutouts and front companies in Latin America. According to the #FinCENFiles, a massive leak of documents from the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a Chinese businessman,Cheng Mingfu, between 2010-2015, was allegedly helping finance a secret missile program in Iran from his home base in Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico. Mingfu was sanctioned in 2016 by Treasury's OFAC for his business with Navid Composite Material Company, an Iraniancompany that, since 2013, has been sanctioned for its involvement in Iran's covert procurement of weapons components. Navid Composite is part of Iran's defense logistics agency, the MODAFL, which oversees Iran's missile production. From 2006-2013, the MODAFL's main acquisition arm for Iranian rocket fuel, the Defense Industries Organization (DIO), had a subsidiaryin Venezuela, Parchin Chemical Industries (PCI), which was ostensibly helping CAVIM produce ball powder for its growing supply of small arms from Russia. Located along the northern Caribbean coast of Venezuela, in a small town called Mor�n, Iranian petrochemicalengineers routinely arrived to work with the Venezuelan petrochemical company Pequiven, a subsidiary of Venezuela's oil conglomerate, PDVSA. At the time, PCI was sanctioned by the US, Germany, the UK, Japan, and was listed in the annex to United Nations Security CouncilResolution 1747, as one of the "entities involved in [Iran's] nuclear and ballistic missile activities." The covert objective of PCI in Venezuela is not clear; however, the fact that a MODAFL front company involved in Iran's missileprograms was operating for several years in a remote town off the Caribbean coast of Venezuela, should be cause for concern. A Venezuelan general, Aref Richany Jimenez, was in charge of this project while also he served in a unique dual billet at thehelm of Venezuela's military industry and as the director of external relations for PDVSA. This dual billet, between CAVIM and PDVSA, blended Iran's and Venezuela's energy and military cooperation while shielding financial transactions through China. Thatarrangement led to US sanctions on both PDVSA in 2011 and CAVIM in 2013, but, more importantly, served as a precursor for the Iranian fuel shipments now being sent to Venezuela. While these fuel shipments appear to have a humanitarian or commercial intentthey seem to have militaristic future. The air bridge In April 2019, when Mahan Air flew for the first time from Iran to Venezuela, some analysts dubbed the flight the return of "Aeroterror,"a reference to a shared flight from years past between Venezuela's state-owned airline, Conviasa, and Iran Air, the national airline of the Islamic Republic. From 2007-2010, the infamous route between Caracas-Damascus-Tehran reportedly shuttled illicit productsand people between Venezuela and the Middle East through a bi-weekly flight. Without much commercial value, the flight lost more than $30 million in its first three years of operation. It was, however, subsidized by Venezuela's Mining Ministry -- a hint atthe strategic purpose of the flight. All the same, the 27-year-old, long-range, wide-body commercial aircraft used by Conviasa for "Aeroterror" became well-known inregional counterterrorism circles, who were meticulously tracking tail number YV1004. In February 2020, Conviasa YV1004 showed up in Uruguay, Panama, and Nicaragua, before returning to Venezuela, then back to Iran. According to the manifest, the Airbus 340that was used to jet across Latin America in February was flown by former Iranian air force pilots belonging to Mahan Air. The journey means that Iranian pilots were already on the move in Latin America, through state-owned Venezuelan planes, monthsbefore Mahan Air began its official flights to Caracas and Punto Fijo in April 2020. While most attention earlier this year was on Mahan Air flights from Iran to Venezuela, the Conviasa flights have been moving regularly between Iran, Syria, Europe, and Centraland South America. In February 2020, the US Treasury Department's OFAC sanctioned the airplane YV1004 along with the entire fleet of Conviasa aircraft.OFAC reported that "the Maduro regime has commandeered Conviasa's aircraft to promote its own political agenda, including shuttling regime officials to countries such as North Korea, Cuba, and Iran." Nonetheless, "Aeroterror" continues to take to the skies.In March 2020, Conviasa YV1004 restarted direct flights to Syria priced at $1,700, well above what most Venezuelans could afford. The plane also flew humanitarian flights from Mexico, and this year began flights to Buenos Aires, Argentina, although these havebeen delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Bolivia, between Iran and Venezuela One of Maduro's closest allies in South America, Evo Morales, the former president of Bolivia who resigned last November, is alsoa close ally of Iran. The Iran-Bolivia nexus is a lesser-known, but equally important aspect of Iran's outreach to Latin America. Throughout Morales' 14-year tenure as president of Bolivia, Iran made strong overtures to court the Andean country into its geopoliticalorbit. Beginning in 2007 with a strategic framework agreement, Iran and Bolivia quickly established formal ties. In five years, the twocountries signed several joint natural resource and mineral extraction projects, engaged in technical and diplomatic exchanges, started anti-narcotics cooperation, and constructed embassies in their capitals, Tehran and La Paz. The Spanish daily El Pa�s reportedin 2012 that Bolivia had at least 145 registered Iranian diplomats in the country. Like Venezuela, Iran's formal cooperation with Bolivia has a dual-use component that raises suspicion for potential covert activity. In July 2019, Morales hosted his final formal delegation from Iran. The group included no less a figure then Foreign MinisterMohamad Javad Zarif. Among the notable agreements signed, was the transfer to Bolivia of Iranian nanotechnology. Iranian engineers have been working for more than a decade, with help from China, to boost Iran's nanotechnology sector, which supposedly exportsto 45 countries. It is a business that has raised alarms for some technical experts, worried about nanotechnology's military applications. Iran's Defense Minister, General Amir Hatami, stated last year that nanotechnology has helped to boost his country's militarypower: "Nanotechnology has a major impact on the further development of defense systems." That development causes one to question if Iran were using its commercial and technology cooperation with Bolivia to set up futurearms transfers, as it is doing in Venezuela. If so, the resignation last year of its preferred partner in Bolivia, Evo Morales, surely stalled this effort. With the Bolivian election less than a week away, however, and on the same date as the expiration ofthe UN arms embargo -- October 18 -- there is a chance that Iran could restart its strategic cooperation with Bolivia if Morales' political party, the MAS, returns to power. A new security challenge for the Americas The dual-use nature of Iran's cooperation with the Maduro regime in Venezuela, coupled with the possible proliferation from Mexicoto Bolivia and beyond, presents a unique set of problems for regional security officials in Latin America. For casual observers, the ramped-up presence in Venezuela this year will seem as if Iran's recent activities are a product ofAmerica's "maximum pressure" campaign against both countries. To informed analysts, however, it is clear that Iran has gradually built up the IRGC's presence and capabilities in the region for almost 20 years -- while using commercial and energy contracts,military-industrial cooperation, high-technology transfers, and other Iranian niche industries to cover its tracks. Given that October 18, 2020, has been on the calendar since the Iranian nuclear deal was signed in 2015, Iran knew it had fiveyears to strengthen its asymmetric capabilities in Latin America before the arms embargo expired. That way, it could legitimize its military presence while maintaining its covert activity in Latin America. Come October 18, the Iran-Latin America problem couldbecome more complex if any of three situations -- lifting the UN arms embargo, a Morales-MAS electoral victory in Bolivia, or a missile transfer to Maduro in Venezuela -- comes to pass. VISIT: PROPHECY WATCHER WEEKLY NEWS: HTTP://PROPHECY-WATCHER-WEEKLY-NEWS.BLOGSPOT.COM