Belarus Turns to Pro-Western Nations in the Middle East

Belarus Digest ^ | May 5 2015 | Siarhei Bohdan

[SunkenCiv]

Belarus's recent leaning towards pro-Western nations in the Middle East follows fast on the heels of rapprochement with the West. On 6-7 May, Joint Belarus-Saudi Committee on Cooperation will meet in Riyadh. On 15 April, Belarus opened an embassy in Qatar.

Establishing closer links with the very centres of conservative Arab bloc allied with the West is a milestone in Belarusian foreign policy. In the past, Minsk enjoyed amicable relations primarily with the so-called radical republican regimes in the Middle East. Saddam's Iraq, Qadhafi's Libya, Assad's Syria, as well as Ahmadinejad's Iran figured among Belarus's main partners.

The shift towards pro-Western monarchies reveals a contradictory, yet pragmatic approach by Minsk. The Belarusian government is looking for quick money to compensate for Belarus's trade deficits with other countries, though some odd deals and alliances have emerged as a result...

The partnership with Qatar complements Minsk's other policies in the region. Besides establishing closer relations with Saudi Arabia, the Belarusian government has undertaken many other activities in the region in the last two months. It held political consultations with Oman and the UAE, received an Omani parliamentary delegation, sent its representative to a ministerial meeting of the Arab League -- dominated by conservative Arab nations -- and sent a delegation to Pakistan, another nation allied with the pro-Western bloc in the Middle East.

What is more, Belarus has enjoyed excellent relations with Erdogan's Turkey and made attempts to befriend pro-Western Kurdistan. Minsk's policies in the Middle East complement its policy of rapprochement with the West. Belarus's attempt to move away from risky partners challenging the West is greatest in the history of its foreign policy to date.

[SunkenCiv]

Image: Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

[SunkenCiv]

Could be routine, but probably worth keeping an eye on it.

[1rudeboy]

"Leaning towards pro-Western nations?" Here's your invasion.

[Army Air Corps]

Serious as an IRS audit.

[goldstategop]

Russia is not following through on Union State pledges.

[SunkenCiv]

;’)

[elhombrelibre]

Putin will not like this and may even try to destabilize Belarus.

[Cronos]

There is very little to destabilize in Belarus — Lukaschenko rules with an iron hand and most of the population, though they speak Russian not Belarussian (a resurrected language), don’t want to be under Moscow.

[elhombrelibre]

Yet, Putin doesn’t care what the people there want, or the people in Russia, or any other people. He cares about making the state of Russia a strong empire again and himself even more rich and powerful. Beyond that, he could be a KGB Colonel, a pseudo paladin of the Christian faith (under his strict control, of course), or any other charade to legitimize his rule and lust for power.

[SunkenCiv]

These moves could relate to the imminent demise of the Assad regime.

[Cronos]

And with the demise of the Assad regime will be the demise of all Christians in Syria and then Lebanon with destruction of ancient Christian churches, monuments etc. and the destruction of world historical sites.

That is NOT a consummation devoutly to be wished...

[elhombrelibre]

Wish it or not it is Assad's cruelty and gangster family that led to this conflagration. You can see him and the brute Putin as on God's side if you'd like. But I see them as the cause and not the solution. An alternative would have been to force an alternative more agreeable to the West earlier in the conflict. Now, due to Assad's war on his people and anyone not in favor of the gangster statesman family oligarchy, he's created no viable alternative.

[elhombrelibre]

Here is the Christian burial Putin provides his soldiers fighting to suppress a nation he is waging an undeclared war upon.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/may/26/russia-using-mobile-crematoriums-hide-dead-soldier/

[SunkenCiv]

Definitely time for boots on the ground, huh? Actually well past time for that, since the Assad Jr regime couldn’t hit the floor with a handful of grapes. He’s been great at assassinating some of his enemies, apart from getting fingered for his crimes. He showed his prowess at shooting unarmed Syrian citizens and bringing on a civil war.

His disarming of all Christian citizens, part of a centuries-long practice by muzzie overlords, will lead to their deaths, assuming they haven’t already fled (millions of Syrians are refugees outside of Syria). They should arm themselves and defend themselves, or flee. If they want to flee, I’m all in favor of resettling them in Detroit.

[odds]

The ‘powers that be’ have Christians the least on their mind in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, etc..

The fight against and destabilizing Assad are mainly about getting Qatari oil thru Syria; Assad is an obstacle because it is against Russian and Iranian interests (Syria’s current allies). Qatar, and Saudi Arabia don’t like that, nor do certain Western powers like Britain and the U.S. (allies of Qatar and Saudi Arabia). This war is already by proxy.

2 points:

1) those who complain and magnify Assad’s ‘killing of people’ (similar to what they did with the Shah in Iran) as a catalyst for overthrowing him, never seem to complain about any of the Arab states killing their own people, or abusing human rights. For the latter, ie abuse of human rights and clear tendencies & actions, Turkey should be included in the same mob. Yet Turkey is still in NATO, go figure.

Jordan, ALL Gulf states, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia are neither democratic gov’ts in nature, nor are lenient in action, in any way, towards those who oppose the regimes in mentioned countries, which we in the West support.

2) Whilst there is a hoopla about ‘Assad has to go’, I’m yet to see what and who Realistically & exactly, the same supporters of ‘Assad has to go’, think can and will take Assad’s place in Syria. My guess is, they will have no problem installing or supporting an Islamic gov’t (same as the Taliban, for instance). Until and unless the same Islamic gov’t, at some other point in the future, becomes or is viewed as a threat.

In sum, the war will continue indefinitely, even after Assad is gone. Plus, that type of war is good for some industries to make money. But there are significant downsides to that too. Though, never fear, all is under-control :)

[Cronos]

They can't arm and defend themselves after centuries of being cowed down -- it's like asking the Jews to do that during the Holocaust.

Assad is not good, but he's better than the other options except if the US invades Syria and Lebanon and creates a Christian majority state and an Alevi state and lets the desert between them and the Iraqi Shias and the Kurds become the IS caliphate (with a nice fence between them)

[Cronos]

please note also that Assad, while killing many Moslems is no better nor worse than any other Arab state or Turkey

And besides Turkey, Iran and now Tunisia, none of the Islamic Middle Eastern states are even a little bit democratic

[SunkenCiv]

He’s only a better option if one likes Assad. If the US really has a responsibility to Syrian Christians, the proper course of action would have been to remove his sorry ass when he first started gunning people down. He left Christian villages unarmed as part of a deliberate policy, and did nothing to defend them, just rolling in with some reporters for the photo op, and peddling the nonsense that Christians were being victimized by someone other than him.

[AdmSmith]

Look at the map:



Putin has to grab land from Belarus and Lithuania in order to connect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad to Russia, i.e. repeat the present occupation of Ukraine.