US SECRETARY of State Mike Pompeo is currently in the Middle East organising an Israeli-Arab coalition to fight Iran and prevent a Palestinian state.
Pompeo has already said in Tel Aviv that he is working for other Arab states to follow the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and normalise relations with Israel. Pompeo’s five day trip will take him to the UAE, and also Sudan and Bahrain to get them to sign a deal that establishes full diplomatic ties with Israel, as well organising to fight Iran.
Israeli and US officials believe Bahrain, Oman and Sudan will be next to sign an Anti-Iran pact and dump Palestine.
In Tel Aviv, Pompeo also addressed reports of a planned US sale of advanced F-35 fighter planes to the UAE, saying: ‘The United States has a legal requirement with respect to maintaining Israel’s qualitative military edge. We will continue to honour that.’
He added: ‘But we have a 20-plus year security relationship with the United Arab Emirates as well, where we have provided them with technical assistance and military assistance. We will now continue to review that process to continue to make sure that we’re delivering them with the equipment that they need.’
However, the projected anti-Iran and anti-Palestine alliance has its problems with a split developing in the NATO alliance.
Turkey and Greece have just announced they will conduct rival naval exercises off the Greek island of Crete this week amid rising tensions over their claims to gas and oil in the Eastern Mediterranean. Turkey and Greece – both NATO members – are mobilising their armed forces. The European Union is calling for a dialogue. However, France is siding with Greece, with French and Greek warships recently completing a joint naval exercise.
Turkey announced on Monday that exploration by its Oruc Reis research vessel in contentious waters would be extended for four days to 27 August.
Greece answered: ‘We are responding calmly and with readiness both on a diplomatic and on an operational level. And with national confidence Greece will do everything needed to defend its sovereign rights.’
Turkish President Recip Tayyip Erdogan responded: ‘Turkey will not take even the smallest step back from the activities of either Oruc Reis or our naval elements escorting it.’
Greece signed a maritime border deal with Egypt this month to declare exclusive economic zones, but that agreement impinges on one signed by Turkey and the UN-recognised Libyan government in the oil rich country.
Greek officials said on Friday that the UAE would dispatch F-16 fighter jets to Crete for joint training this week. There is not much of an alliance here!
Meanwhile, Israel continues to hammer Gaza. Yesterday, August 25, Israeli warplanes and artillery struck two sites to the east of Rafah, south of the besieged Gaza Strip.
Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) has denounced the machinations of the Trump administration and Secretary of State Pompeo for ‘attempting to reinvent Israel as a military, security, intelligence and economic power in the region, enjoying normal relations with Arab governments in spite of its occupation and escalating crimes against the Palestinian people.’
She added: ‘The UAE normalisation serves the Trump-Netanyahu agenda of undermining international law, bypassing the Arab Peace Initiative, the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, as well as denying Palestinian rights.’
She urged that Israel must be held accountable for its crimes, rather than rewarded for them. ‘This forced normalisation will deepen the schism between Arab governments and their people and create conditions of instability and insecurity,’ she warned.
In fact, US policy to mobilise Arab states for war against Iran will backfire, and see pro-American Arab regimes removed by the Arab masses.
The workers of the world, particularly of the US and the UK, must give their full support to Iran and Palestine. They must bring peace to the Middle East and see that the state of Palestine is established by overthrowing the US and UK ruling classes. Their enemy is at home! It is definitely not Iran.
