*BUMPED* Russia Warns Israel Not To Strike Iran – Military action against Iran would be a “very serious mistake fraught with unpredictable consequences“, Russia’s foreign minister has warned. (Read More)
You might have read much media chatter about a possible air strike being planned by the Israelis on Iranian nuclear facilities in an effort to stop them from finishing their design for a nuclear weapon. Some people have speculated and queried about whether the United States would be informed of any Israeli action prior to it occurring.
However, there are more tentacles to this story than the mainstream news media is putting forth. Today (Monday) Russia and China are meeting privately to discuss their strategic alliance and geographic interest in Pakistan and Iran. In addition, last week there was an event that scarcely made the news, but future historians might mark as an inflection point of change for the United States in the Middle East and Euro-Asia.
In Kyrgyzstan, a landlocked mountainous former Soviet state, they held elections and elected a new president, Almazbek Atambayev. One of the first announcements he made was that he would shut down the United States Manas Air Base once the lease expires in 2014. It’s our only major military base in Central Asia, and it’s been a crucial conduit of arms and supplies to the war in Afghanistan. Manas is our only U.S. military outpost in the volatile region after we were evicted in 2005 from a base in authoritarian Uzbekistan over Washington’s criticism of a brutal crackdown on protesters by Uzbek forces.
In 2014, regardless of whether we’re still in Afghanistan or not, it will be time to move out of Kyrgyzstan, and Russia is moving back in. After implicitly supporting Kyrgyzstan’s mass uprising last year, Moscow is now rebuilding ties with its former Soviet sub-state. Not only does Moscow keep its military air base there, the new Kyrgyz leadership has also said it would consider joining a proposed Eurasian union, led by Moscow.
Here is the information about today’s Russia/China meeting…..
MOSCOW – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao will meet Monday to discuss expanding their loose Central Asian security alliance to include Pakistan and Iran. Putin will host Wen in his native city of Saint Petersburg almost exactly 10 years after the two countries joined forces with the four ex-Soviet Central Asian republics to form the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
Russia has previously billed the alliance as a regional alternative to NATO and discussed at past meetings the option of including other regional powers in its ranks. “We are talking about Pakistan and Iran, which have applied for membership,” Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told reporters ahead of the talks.
“India is also intent on joining, and Afghanistan has said it wants to be an observer,” the Russian spokesman said. But analysts said China prefers to view the group as primarily an economic organisation and note that Pakistan’s membership has already been under discussion for five years.
Russia is also upset that the group still receives no formal recognition from NATO. “Of course, SCO expansion is not an easy process. It requires careful analysis and assessment,” the Russian foreign ministry spokesman conceded. The meeting between Wen and Putin will be their second since the Russian premier announced in September plans to next year regain the Kremlin post he held in 2000-2008.
Bilateral relations are particularly important to Russia’s attempts to find new Asian clients for its energy exports just as European growth stalls. A top Russian official said the meeting will note slowing global growth’s impact on the price of commodities — the bulk of Russia’s exports — and financial market stability. “You should expect the prime minister to deliver an assessment of economic affairs in the SCO region,” Russia’sSCO envoy Kirill Barsky told Interfax. “By the way, it is distinguished by stability, good GDP growth rates and improving investment attraction,” the Russian envoy said. (read more)
It is not only in Israel’s interest to strike Iran now, it may be the only option they have to avoid the protection that will soon be afforded to Iran from China and Russia….
Think about it.
We are leaving Iraq completely, and will have to withdraw from Afghanistan after losing the Manas Air Base. It is inevitable, a self-fulfilling prophecy…..
When you consider the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and their soon-to-be political as well as military power. Then add, Tunisia just electing a fundamental Islamist majority, along with Libya announcing their intention to form a sharia compliant Islamist state, and Yemen under al-Qaeda control, not to mention current Syrian uprising, and Turkey’s return to a more hard-line Islamist sentiment. Well, you see where this is headed…..
