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| Changing roles of Russia, China in the Middle East, Part I |
| 2023-04-23 |
| [NPASyria] It was a classic T-bone collision. Northeast Syria, where speed limits and lane direction are open to interpretation, sees dozens of traffic accidents a day. But the one on August 26, 2020, near the city of Derik (al-Malikiya) in the far northeast Syria, was different. A Russian military patrol purposely rammed a US army convoy, leaving four American servicemen with concussions. It was, in fact, the first physical altercation between the armed forces of both countries since the beginning of the Cold War. The attack did not escalate beyond road rage, but it highlights the claustrophobic and volatile space which regional and global superpowers share in the Middle East, and especially in Syria. On March 10, a new global player seemed eager to establish itself in this crowded space. Chinese media reported that the country’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, had brokered a rapprochement between the Middle East’s two main heavyweights — Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula. Until the accession of King Salman the place was under the thumb of Wahhabi holy men and was the driving force behind Salafist terrorism world-wide. Western intelligence agencies, even the dumb ones, were wise to this from at least September 12th, 2001, but politicians were reluctant to upset the international applecart. Once we started assassinating people instead of invading them the Saudis quietly folded the Death to Infidelstent, did some assassinating of their own, started modernizing, and pretended that Osama bin Laden thing had never happened... and Iran. It was an unprecedented foray into the world of Middle East politics for Beijing, which had never so openly intervened in the region. What does this development herald for the people of the Middle East? |
| Posted by:trailing wife |