Headlines:
- Simplistic Russians thought Trump-Putin Summit in Helsinki was for Real Negotiation
- Population ‘Cleansing’ now in South-West Syria to Consolidate Assad’s Rule
- Pakistan Establishment Support for Imran Khan now an Open Secret
- UN Yemen Envoy in Washington to Promote ‘Peace’ Plan
- Henry Kissinger working on Artificial Intelligence
Simplistic Russians thought Trump-Putin Summit in Helsinki was for Real Negotiation
According to the Washington Post:
Russia provided additional details Friday of what it said were agreements made at the presidential summit in Helsinki this week, shaping a narrative of the meeting with no confirmation or alternative account from the Trump administration.
Not surprisingly, the Russian story line tended to favor the Kremlin’s own policy prescriptions, at times contradicting stated administration strategy.
Russia already has sent formal proposals to Washington for joint U.S.-Russia efforts to fund reconstruction of war-ravaged Syria and facilitate the return home of millions of Syrians who fled the country, following “agreements reached” by President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev, the three-star head of the Russian National Defense Management Center, said Friday.
Mizintsev, speaking in Moscow at a joint session of planners from the Defense and Foreign Ministries, said that Russia had already begun work on the ground in both areas but that additional resources and international coordination are needed.
Since the time of the Tsars, the Russian elite have been obsessed with proving that they are not a ‘backward’ Asian state but can stand ‘equally’ with the best of European civilisation, even choosing to speak in French and looking down on their own Russian language. Such a mentality becomes more preoccupied with the appearance of power rather than power itself. When US President Donald Trump invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to Helsinki for their long-awaited first summit meeting, the Russians evidently did not stop to consider why, assuming that this would be on a par with the path-breaking Reykjavik summit of Reagan and Gorbachev. In fact, the purpose was far more banal.
Trump, emboldened by his foreign policy team of Pompeo and Bolton, is undertaking multiple international initiatives that are straining the existing world order. America doesn’t want to see other powers taking benefit of this, by forming new relationships and alliances independently of America. Trump spoke out against the German-Russian relationship at a breakfast meeting on 11 July 2018 during his visit for the NATO summit. According to the Washington Post:
“I think it’s very sad when Germany makes a massive oil and gas deal with Russia, where you’re supposed to be guarding against Russia, and Germany goes out and pays billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia,” Trump said. “So we’re protecting Germany. We’re protecting France. We’re protecting all of these countries. And then numerous of the countries go out and make a pipeline deal with Russia, where they’re paying billions of dollars into the coffers of Russia.”
“Germany is totally controlled by Russia,” he later added, “because they will be getting from 60 to 70 percent of their energy from Russia and a new pipeline. And you tell me if that’s appropriate, because I think it’s not, and I think it’s a very bad thing for NATO and I don’t think it should have happened.”
Hence, America decided simply to momentarily draw Russia close to it, without having anything of particular significance to offer Russia at this time, as is evident from the lack of detail from the American side.
It is incumbent upon us as Muslims to achieve political awareness of great power machinations in order to generate sincere, indigenous leadership that can carry our Ummah once more to becoming the leading nation in the world.
Population ‘Cleansing’ now in South-West Syria to Consolidate Assad’s Rule
According to The Guardian:
Defeated Syrian rebels near the border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights are preparing to evacuate the region and cede control of the frontier to Bashar al-Assad, securing a key victory for the Syrian president, whose forces are on the verge of concluding a swift campaign to reclaim control of southern Syria.
Under the deal, the Syrian military will deploy once again to its pre-2011 positions along the Golan frontier, defined by the 1974 disengagement treaty with Israel.
Mirroring other agreements throughout the country, rebel fighters who do not want to reconcile with the Assad regime will be allowed to leave for opposition-controlled regions in the north near Turkey.
Those who wish to stay have to resolve their status with the government and may be drafted into the military in the future. All heavy weapons will be turned over to authorities.
Undoubtedly, this deal could not be made without the permission of the Americans, who have full mastership of all elements of the counter-revolutionary war in Syria. As the same article further explains:
The US said in June that it would not intervene to protect the southern rebels, despite years of logistical, political and military support for them, a declaration that accelerated their surrender after a short but violent bombardment by regime forces backed by Russia.
Clearly, America has already designed an end-game for the Syrian conflict, giving something to Assad and something to the Russians, something to the Kurds and something to Turkey. And clearly America is ever-ready to abandon those naively dependent on it without a moment’s notice, as it has done in betraying the revolutionaries in southwest Syria.
It is vital that Muslims, even and especially in this time of apparent overwhelming weakness, depend on Allah (swt) alone, and reject the evil hand of the disbelieving imperialist foreigner.
UN Yemen Envoy in Washington to Promote ‘Peace’ Plan
According to Asharq al-Awsat:
UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths is in Washington seeking solutions and international support for his mission to end the Yemeni crisis and implement UN Resolution 2216.
Reliable diplomatic sources informed Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that Griffiths is expected to meet with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and several Congressmen.
The sources said Griffiths has been engaged in the past few months in a shuttle diplomacy that took him to Sanaa, Muscat, Jeddah, New York and lastly Washington in an attempt to spare Hodeidah a new military battle between the government forces supported by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen and the Iran-backed Houthi insurgents.
An agreement between the UN envoy and militias faces huge challenges due to the intransigence of Houthis, said the sources.
However, Griffiths is receiving international support in his attempt to call for the implementation of Resolution 2216.
Griffiths held talks with UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation Reem Bint Ibrahim Al Hashemy, and UAE Ambassador to the US Yousef Al Otaiba in order to intensify efforts for a political solution in Hodeidah in particular and Yemen in general.
According to “Defense News,” US administration officials have in recent months stressed that the Arab Coalition is committed to avoid harming civilians in Yemen.
Well at least Martin Griffiths, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, has come to the right place, as it is undoubtedly the United States of America, alone, that controls and directs this evil war against the Yemeni people, using the foolish Saudi crown prince Mohamad bin Salman as a tool only in its evil plans. In Yemen, the innovative US has devised yet another new style of war, throttling the supply routes to the civilian population to create mass starvation and disease. America sees nothing wrong in contradicting ethical, humanitarian or, indeed, spiritual values in order to achieve its goals because Western secular Capitalism determines that worldly matters must be addressed in accordance with materialistic benefit only, which the remaining Western Christians apologetically justify as serving both Caesar and God.
But it must be understood that the UN Special Envoy for Yemen also has no interest in genuine peace but only in exploiting the situation in Yemen for the benefit of his home country. Martin Griffiths is a former career diplomat from the British Foreign Service who has been active in recent years in multiple international organisations, no doubt on behalf of British state interests. Britain has dominated Yemen since the 19th Century, when control of Yemen was seen as vital to securing British shipping lanes to India.
It is only when Muslims fully take their affairs in their own hands that we can evict the disbelieving foreigners from our lands and solve our problems in accordance with our genuine interests and the dictates of our Deen.
Pakistan Establishment Support for Imran Khan now an Open Secret
According to the Wall Street Journal:
This nation’s military is working behind the scenes to manipulate this month’s election to try to produce a government it can better control, politicians and human-rights groups said.
The military’s intelligence arm is carrying out a campaign of persuasion, intimidation and threats, politicians who have experienced it said, in an effort to get them to change parties and to pressure key local voting blocs to switch allegiance.
The drive particularly targets the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who military officers have privately said is too soft on traditional foe India, and looks to help the avowedly pro-military party of former cricket star Imran Khan. To achieve this, the military is working closely with police, local officials and the anticorruption watchdog—all institutions over which they have considerable sway, these politicians said.
Mr. Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party was expected to put up a strong challenge in the July 25 election, but in a closely fought battle with Mr. Sharif’s party, the military’s role could make the difference, some experts said. A contested result risks future instability for this country of 200 million, politicians warn. The military denies trying to influence the election.
There are agents and then there are agents. But it is becoming increasingly evident that Imran Khan’s deep foreign links and complete lack of personal awareness of Islam, despite his public rhetoric to the contrary, make him perhaps the most dangerous ever contender for Prime Minister in Pakistan’s history. The Pakistan military, apparently oblivious to this threat, have quite obviously sided fully with him.
Democratic practice is countries like Pakistan is no different from democracy in ‘advanced’ Western countries. ‘Representative Democracy’ is in reality no more than oligopoly, a contest between factions of the elite for the preservation of their interest, while allowing only enough to the general population that is required to keep mass uprising at bay. Why should the noble Muslims of Pakistan participate in an engineered election only to end up with someone who will serve foreign interests and preside over the implementation of British law, which continues to underpin the system of government in Pakistan?
Henry Kissinger working on Artificial Intelligence
In a wide-ranging interview with the Financial Times, former US Secretary of State Dr Henry Kissinger talked also about his ongoing concern regarding artificial intelligence:
But the doyen of cold war diplomacy is as interested in the future as he is in the past. This year Kissinger wrote a terrifying piece on artificial intelligence for The Atlantic Monthly, in which he compared humanity today to the Incas before the arrival of smallpox and the Spanish. He urged the creation of a presidential commission on AI. “If we do not start this effort soon, before long we shall discover that we started too late,” he concluded.
It is not surprising that the 95-year old Kissinger, a former nuclear war expert, should have developed a deep interest in artificial intelligence also. The present Western civilisation has weaponised every science known to man, employing all of Physics, Chemistry and Biology for this purpose, so it is expected that the West will turn to artificial intelligence to power the next generation of its weapons.
With Allah’s permission, the soon-to-be re-established righteous Islamic Khilafah (Caliphate) State on the method of the Prophet (saw) shall prioritise the acquisition of scientific and technological expertise in order to devise weapons not for the purposes of deployment against humanity but to confront, contain and disarm the present global powers who seek only evil through what Allah has created and made available for us. The West’s horrendous record of the use of such weapons alone must surely disqualify them from any leadership role over mankind.