On Arab Culture and Its Crucial Characteristics

What is Arab?

Understanding Arab culture and the values based on it are the crucial points for the proper understanding of the modern region of MENA (composed of the Middle East and North Africa) and its fundamental features. Nevertheless, it must be noticed that all people in the region of MENA are not Arabs like Turks, Jews, some North African tribes, or Iranians. The Arab League (or the League of Arab States) is composed of 22 Arab countries. Even though Arab states are, in fact, from a very cultural viewpoint considered to be Middle Eastern (in a broader sense), not all of them belong to the Middle East (in a narrow sense), and not all Middle Eastern or MENA countries are Arab.

Paul Craig Roberts: RIP, The Western World

I have come to the depressing conclusion that the white ethnicities that constituted the nations of Western Civilization have degenerated into such insouciance and stupidity that they have no possibility of survival.

They sit mindlessly in front of TV absorbing their brainwashing and indoctrination.

Oil tanker hit by missile after transiting Red Sea — Houthis claim responsibility

An oil tanker operated on behalf of Trafigura was struck by a missile on Friday after transiting the Red Sea, a company spokesperson told CNBC in statement.

The Marlin Luanda, a petroleum products tanker vessel, was struck by the missile in the Gulf of Aden. Firefighting equipment on board is being used to suppress a fire in one of the cargo tanks, the spokesperson said.

ISIS Redux: The Central Syria Insurgency in December 2023

Following is the December 2023 installment of “ISIS Redux: The Central Syria Insurgency,” a monthly chronicle of attacks by the terrorist group ISIS in central Syria. A review of developments throughout 2022 and 2021 can be found here and here. The January 2023 edition of ISIS Redux can be found here, February’s here, March’s here, April’s here, May’s here, June’s here, July’s here, August’s here, September’s here, October’s here, and November’s here. A full background and analysis of ISIS’s resurgence in Syria, including the methodology used to collect this data, can also be explored here, here, and here.

Iran’s New Best Friends

The Houthis Have Become Key Partners in Tehran’s Quest for Regional Dominance

Since November, the Red Sea has become the site of escalating attacks by Yemen’s Houthi movement, the armed group that governs most of Yemen’s population. These assaults, which the Houthi rebels say are designed to pressure Israel to end the war in Gaza, mark the emergence of a new conflict zone in the already volatile Middle East. By effectively closing the sea to cargo ships, the strikes have disrupted global trade and earned the Houthis unprecedented international attention.

How Russia Stopped Ukraine’s Momentum/ Iran’s New Best Friends,

How Russia Stopped Ukraine’s Momentum

A Deep Defense Is Hard to Beat

Many held high hopes for Ukraine’s 2023 summer offensive. Previous Ukrainian successes at Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Kherson encouraged expectations that a new effort, reinforced with new Western equipment and training, might rupture Russian defenses on a larger scale and sever the Russian land bridge to Crimea. If it did, the thinking went, the resulting threat to Crimea might persuade Putin to end the war.

Yemeni-Houthi Official Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti: We Are A Moral Movement, That Is Why We Do Not Support The Russian Military Operation In Ukraine, Even Though Russia Supports Us

Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Yemeni-Houthi Ansar Allah Political Bureau said on a January 24, 2024 show on Al-Araby TV (Qatar) on January 24, 2024 that his movement does not support the Russian military intervention in Ukraine. He said that his movement is a “moral movement,” therefore despite the Houthi’s good relations with Russia, the Ukrainian government’s support of the “aggression” against Yemen in 2015, the Ukrainian government being a “coup” government, and its support of the aggression against Gaza, the Houthis distinguish between the Ukrainian people and its government. Al-Bukhaiti continued to say that it is the United States that is responsible for the war in Ukraine, because it has been seeking to expand NATO.

Iraqi MP And Hizbullah Brigades Official Hussain Mouanes: I Am Proud To Be On The U.S. Treasury Sanctions List; I Have Nothing To Hide; U.S. Forces Must Be Expelled From Iraq, They Constitute A Threat

Iraqi MP and Hizbullah Brigades in Iraq (Kata’ib Hizbullah) official Hussain Mouanes discussed on a January 26, 2024 show on Mayadeen TV (Lebanon) a recent announcement that he has been put on the U.S. Treasury sanctions list. He said that he is proud to be on the sanctions list and that he has nothing to hide. Mouanes said that the U.S. forces must be expelled from Iraq “one way or another.” He further said that their presence in Iraq constitutes a threat. On January 22, the U.S. Treasury announced that it has sanctioned three leaders of Katai’b Hizbullah, which it referred to as “one of the IRGC-QF’s [Iranian Revolutionary Guards – Qods Force] main Iran-aligned militias in Iraq.”