Headline News 16/12/2017

Headlines

• America Continues to Accuse Iran of supporting Houthi to Justify Yemen War

• American Think Tank Delegation Surprised by Weak Saudi Reaction over Jerusalem

• Erdogan Leads Idle Rhetoric against American Decision on Jerusalem

Details

America Continues to Accuse Iran of supporting Houthi to Justify Yemen War

Facing worldwide condemnation for the scale of human suffering in Yemen, the US continues to attempt to justify continued war. Last week, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on the Saudi leadership to be more ‘measured’ in its foreign engagements. And this week, the US is drawing attention to Iranian complicity, which even Western powers like France are finding difficulty accepting. According to Reuters:

France reacted cautiously on Friday to U.S. evidence which allegedly proved Iran supplied weapons to Houthi militia in Yemen, saying it was still studying information at its disposal and the United Nations had yet to draw any conclusions.

The United States on Thursday presented for the first time pieces of what it said were Iranian weapons supplied to the Houthis, describing it as conclusive evidence that Tehran was violating U.N. resolutions.

The arms included charred remnants of what the Pentagon said was an Iranian-made short-range ballistic missile fired from Yemen on Nov. 4 at King Khaled International Airport outside Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh, as well as a drone and an anti-tank weapon recovered in Yemen by the Saudis.

When asked whether Paris believed that evidence was irrefutable, foreign ministry deputy spokesman Alexandre Giorgini declined to respond directly.

“The United Nations secretariat has not, at this stage, drawn any conclusions. France continues to examine the information at its disposal,” he said.

Yemen is of crucial strategic significance to America as major global shipping lanes pass close to its coast, connecting Asia to Europe. The importance of this area can be gauged from China’s establishment of its first foreign military base in Djibouti in order to deploy its navy to secure these waters. America’s use of Iran is simply a ploy to justify war; America sometimes uses the Saudis against the Iranians and sometimes uses the Iranians against the Saudis. Muslims will not be able to take control of their own affairs until they throw out these regimes that exist only to execute Western demands, and come to realise that the entire Muslim Ummah is one and should live together under one state in accordance with the true Deen.

American Think Tank Delegation Surprised by Weak Saudi Reaction over Jerusalem

A US think tank delegation meeting with senior Saudi leadership was surprised to find no substantial reaction to the announcement of US President Donald Trump recognising al-Quds as the capital of the Jewish state.

According to Middle East Monitor:

Describing his encounter with the Saudi royals, the think tank chief had nothing but high praise for Bin Salman. “Jerusalem was never uttered” during their meetings, which took place while Trump made his televised declaration about the holy city. “The US delegation had spent five hours in meetings with three different Saudi ministers, discussing everything from crises with Yemen, Qatar and Lebanon, to the kingdom’s ambitious ‘Vision 2030’ reform programme, to the possible public offering of the state oil company Aramco,” Satloff wrote in an article for Foreign Policy magazine.

Mystified by the silence over Jerusalem, the US delegation, according to Satloff, were anticipating the Saudis to “unload” their frustration during their final meeting of the day with the Secretary General of the Muslim World League. “Surely,” he mused, “the head of the MWL would denounce America’s assault on the sanctity of Muslim control of Jerusalem.”

To his “amazement” Jerusalem never passed the lips of the Saudi officials. Instead, they “noted with pride” their friendships with rabbis in Europe and America, the visit that had been made to a synagogue in Paris, and the interfaith dialogue to which the Saudis were now committed. The US delegation went to bed that evening confident that they would witness the “fire and brimstone of the old Saudi Arabia” once the details of Trump’s announcement were known.

The following day they had an audience with none other than the Crown Prince himself. The 32 year old Mohammad Bin Salman is the de-facto ruler of the Kingdom, and he “had a lot to say” explained Satloff, although it wasn’t apparent that Jerusalem was one of the issues bothering him. “If we hadn’t asked him directly about Trump’s announcement, it may never have come up. He certainly didn’t come to the meeting to vent [his anger].”

Such observations further confirm that regimes such as that of Saudi Arabia are enslaved to Western interests and so preoccupied with implementing the directives given to them that they forget to pay even lip service to their own or their peoples’ interests. These interests will only truly be served by the re-established righteous Islamic Khilafah state on the method of the Prophet (saw).

Erdogan Leads Idle Rhetoric against American Decision on Jerusalem

Regarding official statements, Muslim rulers continue their ineffective rhetoric on the subject of Jerusalem, without any real intention of bringing change. According to Reuters:

Turkey is launching an initiative at the United Nations to annul a decision by the United States to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.

Erdogan was speaking two days after a Muslim leaders meeting in Istanbul condemned U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision, calling on the world to respond by recognizing East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine.

“We will work for the annulment of this unjust decision firstly at the UN Security Council, and if a veto comes from there, the General Assembly,” Erdogan told crowds gathered in the central Anatolian city of Konya via teleconference.

The United States is a permanent Security Council member with veto powers, meaning any move to overturn Washington’s decision at the council would certainly be blocked.

If Erdogan was really serious about the issue of al-Quds, then he would take direct action. Erdogan was willing to take direct action to build a Kurd-free enclave on his border within Syria. The difference, however, is that it was America that pushed Turkey to take a role in Syria, after seeing that Saudi was not effective in playing its role there. And regarding the Jewish state, America wants it defended at all costs, to remain a thorn in the side of the Muslim Ummah, and a strategic location from which to prevent Muslim unification. But the plans of America and its allies will soon be defeated and the world shall soon see, with Allah’s permission, the ejection of Western agents from Muslims lands at the hands of sincere, indigenous, ideological Muslim leadership.