This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- Russia isolates itself further by vetoing MH17 investigation
- US in major weapons sale to Saudis to compensate for Iran nuclear deal
Russia isolates itself further by vetoing MH17 investigation
Screen grab of Buk missile system in Ukraine in July of last year. (Ukraine Security Service)
Last week, Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution, proposed by Malaysia, to authorize an impartial investigation into the shooting down of a passenger airliner on July 17 of last year. It was Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew members, when it crashed in east Ukraine near the border with Russia, killing everyone on board. All others voted in favor of the resolution, except for abstentions from Russia’s three “allies”: China, Venezuela and Angola.
Immediately after the MH17 airliner was shot down last year, Igor Strelkov, the commander of the Russian invasion forces in east Ukraine, tweeted the following to brag about the kill:
We shot down AN-26 [military transport] near the city Torez, Donetsk People’s Republic … We warned, don’t fly in our sky.
Later, when Strelkov learned that he had shot down a passenger plane, not a military plane, the tweet was taken down, but by then it was too late. Strelkov had already admitted about shooting down the plane — actually bragged about it. Later evidence showed that the Russians had shot down the passenger airliner with a Russian Buk surface-to-air missile launched from the area controlled by the Russians in east Ukraine.
There followed a blast of Russian propaganda, attempting to confuse the issue and pin the blame elsewhere. The claims by Russia controlled media included:
- The airplane was not shot down at all, but fell out of the sky by itself;
- A bomb exploded aboard the airplane;
- The airplane was hit by a Ukrainian missile fired from the ground;
- A Ukrainian air force fighter pursued and then attacked the plane;
- The U.S. shot down the plane in order to damage Russia’s reputation;
- The U.S. shot down the plane in order to embarrass Putin;
- No living people were aboard the plane as it flew on autopilot from Amsterdam, where it had been pre-loaded with “rotting corpses.”
That was followed by Putin’s army of paid Russian trolls, whose job was to harass people like me who were describing what was really going on. I was targeted by no less than three of the trolls on different web sites in one week, and I have had frequent attacks by Russian trolls since then.
So Russia’s veto of a resolution to set up an international tribunal to investigate the MH17 disaster is consistent with Russia’s policies for the last year.
However, this time Russia received an additional humiliation: Russia’s so-called ally China did not join Russia in vetoing the resolution; instead, China abstained, as did Russia’s other “allies,” Venezuela and Angola.
The fact that even Russia’s allies did not join in voting against the resolution was a major defeat for Russian diplomacy, and indicates that even these countries refused to be associated with covering up as horrendous a crime as shooting down an airliner filled with passengers.
Russia is becoming increasingly isolated in the international community because its economy is cratering, mainly because of the collapse in oil prices. Russia Today and Jamestown
US in major weapons sale to Saudis to compensate for Iran nuclear deal
US Secretary of State John Kerry was in Doha, Qatar, on Monday, visiting the foreign ministers of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The GCC members are extremely anxious over the nuclear deal with Iran. As I wrote last month in “19-Jul-15 World View — Behind the scenes in the Iran nuclear deal”, the Iran nuclear deal is forcing yet another realignment in the Arab world, as it deteriorates into war.
Kerry on Monday told the GCC ministers that the United States had “agreed to expedite certain arms sales that are needed and that have taken too long in the past.”
The arms sales that Kerry referred to were announced earlier this week. A $5.4 billion weapons deal involves the sale of PAC-3 Missiles as part of the upgrade of the Royal Saudi Air Defense Force. An additional $500 million sale includes ammunition, tracers, artillery shells and mines. Some of these weapons will resupply Saudi’s military in Yemen, where the Saudis are fighting a proxy war with Iran.
And so, with the Mideast deteriorating into war, the Iranians will receive billions in sanction relief to purchase weapons, while the Saudis are going to receive US weapons. There is now apparently a major arms race going on between the Arabs and Iran.
As I’ve been writing for years, Generational Dynamics predicts a full-scale sectarian war in the Mideast, with Iran an ally of the West fighting the Sunni Arabs. AFP and Middle East Eye and Reuters and Sputnik News (Moscow)
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Russia, Ukraine, Igor Strelkov, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, MH17, Buk missile, China, Venezuela, Angola, John Kerry, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Gulf Cooperation Council, GCC, Yemen
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail