Iran captured 15 British military personnel last week, accusing them of illegally entering Iranian waters, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair has warned that the dispute would enter a “different phase” unless they are freed. Iran has denounced the U.N. resolution as illegal and has vowed not to suspend its nuclear work, denying Western accusations it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Putin, according to the Kremlin, said the recent U.N. Security Council vote on a new resolution expanding sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program had sent Iran a "serious political signal of the need for cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency and the international community." Putin also said the resolution "unambiguously rules out the use of force." British embassy spokesman said Wednesday that a freeze of relations with Iran will include bilateral formal meetings and all the state-sponsored commercial activities.
Two US, one French aircraft carrier in Gulf region — The United States and France have three aircraft carrier battle groups in the Gulf region, U.S. and French naval sources said on Monday. The USS Stennis carrier strike group arrived in late February with an additional 6,500 sailors to join the USS Dwight D Eisenhower carrier strike group. The West needs access to their ports and airbases in the Gulf to execute operations. This raises the questions:
· Can the West count on Gulf countries to support the West in a time of crisis?
· Should the West provide weapons to these states?
· Should the state owned companies be trusted to own critical industries in the West?
· Can the West count on their military being able to use the ports, shipping and airports owned by these countries?
In my article Dubai Ports – Strategic Implications I wrote; “The goal of Islamists, following in the footsteps of Muhammad, is to create the Islamic kingdom of God on earth. The strategy to obtain this goal in our lifetime includes the control of the world's energy infrastructure, the transportation systems, currency, media, elections, immigration and education. The control of the port facilities is hence a critical element. Foreign ownership, in and of itself, although important, is not as significant as the strategy and goals of the owner. In the case of DP World ownership, my hypothesis is that their plan for utilization of these strategic infrastructure resources is to accomplish the ultimate goal of world domination of the sea borne transportation infrastructure. In similar moves, a newly-formed Dubai consortium unveiled plans to bid for the development and operation of airports in China, India and the Middle East, a market they estimate to be worth $400bln. The consortium comprises DAE Airports and six other top companies in the United Arab Emirates.
After buying sensitive access to world and American ports last year, Sheik Mo, the prime minister and vice president of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of Dubai — also known as the man who will never be turned down by an American president — now is planning to get into the American defense-related aerospace industry and airports.
According to Bloomberg: Dubai Plans to Buy Two Aviation Firms From Carlyle, “Dubai, the Gulf sheikhdom forced to sell its U.S. port assets last year on security fears, aims to buy two U.S. aircraft repair companies operating in the U.S. and is wooing American lawmakers to avoid a political backlash.”
State-owned Dubai Aerospace Enterprise plans to buy Landmark Aviation and Standard Aero Holdings Inc. from the Carlyle Group in “a couple of weeks,” Chief Executive Officer Bob Johnson said in a phone interview today. It has hired advisers to help it “carve out” parts of the deal that might concern U.S. politicians as Standard Aero has some defense contracts, he said.
Landmark calls itself one of North America's largest providers of services for the business aviation industry and has repair facilities at 19 U.S. locations. Winnipeg, Manitoba, based Standard Aero repairs military and business aircraft for 1,400 customers, the biggest of which are Lockheed Martin Corp. and Rolls Royce Group Plc.
The sheik and his family own everything that matters in Dubai, including all the land. His new targets are Landmark Aviation and Standard Aero Holdings Inc. which provide repair and overhaul services at 33 American airport terminals for small-jet aviation, including some military transports, according to news reports. Their activities include fueling, flight-scheduling services, maintenance operations, and repairs on jet aircraft.
Why is one opaque ruler from a little-known place like Dubai buying access to world seaports and airports with such determination?
Youssef Ibrahim writing in the New Your Sun Article: Where Are Clinton, Schumer? “He is closely managed by a group of equally opaque British and Palestinian Arab expatriate mercenaries who have created him a well-crafted image as a horseman and visionary. In effect virtually nothing reliable is known of the man. Dubai's population is almost entirely made up of expatriates — at least 300,000 are Iranian citizens. Only 10% are natives of the UAE… It is an open secret that Iran maintains one of its biggest spying and intelligence operations abroad in Dubai, as do, in all fairness, the CIA, the British, the Russians, and the French.
Almost a whole floor of the American Consulate in the World Trade Center building of Dubai is populated with intelligence agents fluent in Farsi. Iranian spies make their headquarters in an entire floor of the enormous Iranian hospital of Dubai. Many of the captains who sail back and forth on dhows to Iran from Dubai Creek maintain a wife in each port. Farsi is the second language of Dubai, after English.
We do know this about the UAE: It was one of three countries in the world to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. It has been a key transfer point for illegal shipments of nuclear components to Iran, North Korea, and Libya. And, according to the FBI, money was transferred to the terrorists behind the attacks of September 11, 2001, through the UAE banking system, which is nothing but a huge money-laundering operation.
In the Whitehouse Fact Sheet: The United States–UAE Bilateral Relationship General Peter Pace, Chairman Of The Joint Chiefs Of Staff, 2/21/06 said: “[T]he military-to-military relationship with the United Arab Emirates is superb. ... They've got airfields that they allow us to use, and their airspace, their logistics support. They've got a world-class air-to-air training facility that they let us use and cooperate with them in the training of our pilots. In everything that we have asked and work with them on, they have proven to be very, very solid partners.”
· UAE Ports Host More U.S. Navy Ships Than Any Port Outside The United States. The UAE provides outstanding support for the U.S. Navy at the ports of Jebel Ali - which is managed by DP World - and Fujairah and for the U.S. Air Force at al Dhafra Air Base (tankers and surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft). The UAE also hosts the UAE Air Warfare Center, the leading fighter training center in the Middle East.
· The UAE Is Supporting Middle East Peace Efforts. The UAE is a moderate Arab state and a long-time supporter of all aspects of Middle East peace efforts. The U.S. and the UAE are also working together to create a stable economic, political and security environment in the Middle East.
The UAE Air Force and Air Defense Force (UAE AF&AD) has commanded the lion's share of new procurement funding over the past decade, including major programs to buy 80 new Lockheed Martin F-16E/F Block 60 Desert Falcon multi-role combat aircraft. Both new F-16 versions have the latest technology in avionics, weapons, sensors and systems integration that provide pilots with increased situational awareness. Block 50 aircraft were sold to Oman. Oman is the fifth Arab nation and the third member of the Gulf Cooperation Council to acquire the F-16. This follows UAE deals with France to acquire new Mirage 2000-9-combat jets and upgrade the UAE AF&AD's existing Mirage 2000 fleet to this new standard. These projects will give the UAE AF&AD long-range precision strike and beyond-visual-range air-to-air combat capabilities, making it one of the most advanced air forces in the Middle East.
In the article published in the Khaleej Times on March 28: UAE won’t be used for attack on Iran: Khalifa “The President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, looks forward to pro-active participation in the Arab Summit in Riyadh and expressed the hope that the summit, would succeed in uniting Arabs, resolve existing differences and help tackle the many challenges facing Arab nations. He also said the country would not be used as a base for any US attack on Iran.”
Shaikh Khalifa reiterated that the UAE totally rejects the use of its land, air and territorial waters to attack any country. “We have reiterated to our Iranian brothers in a letter delivered recently by the foreign minister that we are not a party to the conflict between Iran and the United States and that we shall never allow the use of our soil for any military, security or intelligence activities against them,” he said.
The Gulf Cooperation Council, a loose alliance of six Gulf Arab states, has also called on its members not to offer support to any U.S. action against Iran.
The U.S. has denied any intention to attack Iran. But the public refusals of several countries to allow the United States to use their lands if any such action looms could affect U.S. military options, or require shifting of resources, if tensions did seriously escalate.
In the article from Air Force Times of March 28 U.A.E. ban may complicate U-2 mission “The president of the United Arab Emirates forbade the U.S. military from using bases in his country to attack or spy on Iran as mammoth Navy maneuvers in the Gulf entered their second day. Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who leads this key U.S. ally, said Tuesday that the Emirates had assured Iran that it was not siding with Washington in its dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program.
The Emirates “refuses to use its territorial lands, air or waters for aggression against any other country, let alone a neighboring Muslim country with which we maintain historic and economic ties,” Sheik Khalifa said in a statement carried on Emirates news agency WAM.
“We have assured the brothers in Iran ... that we are not a party in its dispute with the United States, that we will not allow any force to use our territories for military, security and espionage activities against Iran,” Sheik Khalifa said.
The statement could prevent the Air Force from flying intelligence missions over Iran with its squadron of U-2 and Global Hawk spy planes based at al-Dhafra Air Base near the Emirates capital Abu Dhabi.
Earlier this month, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheik Hamad bin Jassem Al Thani issued a similar message, saying Qatar wouldn’t permit an attack on Iran to be launched from its soil.
Qatar is home to the enormous al-Udeid Air Base, from where Air Force Lt. Gen. Gary North commands all American air operations over the Middle East.
The U.S. maintains nearly 40,000 troops on bases in allied Arab countries that face Iran across the Persian Gulf, including about 25,000 in Kuwait, 6,500 in Qatar, 3,000 in Bahrain, 1,300 in the United Arab Emirates and a few hundred in Oman and Saudi Arabia, according to figures from the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center.
The Fifth Fleet base in Bahrain is the command center for the roughly 30 U.S. and 15 allied ships patrolling regional waters, including areas right on Iran's doorstep.
In February Iran said it had tested missiles that could sink “big warships” in the Gulf.
In the article by PressTV of March 27: Iran, UAE keen on expanding ties “Iran's ambassador to the UAE, Hamid-Reza Asefi, says he hopes the sound relations between the parliaments of the two countries will lead to further expand bilateral ties. Asefi made the comment in a meeting with the United Arab Emirates National Assembly Speaker, Abd al-Qarir. “Islamic Republic of Iran's policy is to expand its relations with the UAE and we are prepared to use all our potentials in this regard,” he added.
The UAE National Assembly Speaker, for his part, said the two countries should work to further expand bilateral ties, citing the role Iran's Majlis and the UAE Parliament can play in realizing that goal.”
Leon Trotsky was a Russian Communist theorist and agitator, and a leader in Russia's October Revolution in 1917. “The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.”
Without diminishing the threat posed by the near term events in the Middle East, it is important nonetheless to recognize that they are a distraction, a deliberate provocation designed to keep our eyes focused on the wrong enemy. The true threat is and always has been the worldwide communist movement, spearheaded by Russia, and Communist China. While the Iraq and Iran crises continues, the strategy of the Grand Chess Masters—Russia the bear and China the dragon, along with their pawns the Leftists, Marxists and Islamists, continue to develop and put in place their strategy for the ultimate goal of world domination. See my article: The Grand Chess Masters—The Bear and the Dragon..
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