Here are this weekend’s top ten Wikileaks revelations for the Greater Middle East:
The US and India wanted to slap United Nations sanctions on Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and his group, Jama’at al-Da’wa, for terrorism. But Pakistan asked China to block this move at the UN, and Beijing complied. The Jama`at is widely considered a front group for the Lashkar-i Tayyiba or “Good Army,” a terrorist group that India suspects of planning and carrying out the 2008 attack on Mumbai. China is Pakistan’s closest ally.
Qatar has used its Aljazeera satellite television channel for diplomatic bargaining, according to some cables. Aljazeera denies the allegations. The cables maintain that the emir of Qatar offered to cease broadcasting in Egypt for a year if President Hosni Mubarak would intervene forcefully to secure a Palestinian state. (Egypt’s government despises Aljazeera and its coverage of Egypt, seeing it as favorable to dissidents and challengers to the ruling National Democratic Party). Mubarak is said to have greeted the proposal with silence.
In 2008, the pro-West Lebanese government revealed to the US and its allies that Iran had funded the building of a private fibre optics communication system in Lebanon for the Shiite party-militia, Hizbullah.
The Shiite government of Iraq views Saudi Arabia, not Iran, as the biggest threat to its stability.
Obama administration officials are opposed in private to any deal-making that would bring the Taliban into the government of President Hamid Karzai, whatever they say in public.
The European Union gave up on the Afghanistan War around 2009, and only keeps troops there out of loyalty to the United States.
Swedish intelligence discovered that the US was transporting through people it had kidnapped (“rendition”) to be tortured in countries like Egypt through Swedish airports,and stopped the practice.
Saudi Arabia has done all right stopping financing for al-Qaeda from wealthy Saudis, but isn’t very good about policing funds that go to the Taliban or the Lashkar-i Tayyiba (see above).
In fall of 2009, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki criticized Iranian influence in Iraqi politics and gave that as the reason he chose not to join an all-Shiite coalition. The irony is that al-Maliki did not receive enough votes to actually remain independent of Iran, and was forced to rejoin with the other Shiite parties in order to form a government.
And these are the vital infrastructure and key resources for the US in the Middle East and Central and South Asia [Note: Nothing in Afghanistan; zilch, nada, zero]:
NEAR/MIDDLE EAST
Djibouti: Bab al-Mendeb: Shipping lane is a critical supply chain node
Egypt: ‘Ayn Sukhnah-SuMEd Receiving Import Terminal ‘Sidi Kurayr-SuMed Offloading Export Terminal Suez Canal
Iran: Strait of Hormuz Khark (Kharg) Island Sea Island Export Terminal Khark Island T-Jetty
Iraq: Al-Basrah Oil Terminal
Israel: Rafael Ordnance Systems Division, Haifa, Israel: Critical to Sensor Fused Weapons (SFW), Wind Corrected Munitions Dispensers (WCMD), Tail Kits, and batteries
Kuwait: Mina’ al Ahmadi Export Terminal
Morocco: Strait of Gibraltar Maghreb-Europe (GME) gas pipeline, Morocco
Oman: Strait of Hormuz
Qatar: Ras Laffan Industrial Center: By 2012 Qatar will be the largest source of imported LNG [Liquefied Natural Gas] to U.S.
Saudi Arabia: Abqaiq Processing Center: Largest crude oil processing and stabilization plant in the world;Al Ju’aymah Export Terminal: Part of the Ras Tanura complex As Saffaniyah Processing Center Qatif Pipeline Junction Ras at Tanaqib Processing Center Ras Tanura Export Terminal Shaybah Central Gas-oil Separation Plant
Tunisia: Trans-Med Gas Pipeline
United Arab Emirates (UAE): Das Island Export Terminal Jabal Zannah Export Terminal Strait of Hormuz
Yemen: Bab al-Mendeb: Shipping lane is a critical supply chain node
SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA
Kazakhstan: Ferrochromium Khromtau Complex, Kempersai, (Chromite Mine)
India: Orissa (chromite mines) and Karnataka (chromite mines) Generamedix Gujurat, India: Chemotherapy agents, including florouracil and methotrexate
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