Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah and Houthi militias raise fears of wider conflict
Palestinian militant group Hamas said an Israeli strike killed its leader in Lebanon on Monday, while another Palestinian militant group said three of its leaders were killed in a strike on Beirut, the first attack within the city limits.
Dans Géopolitique de la colère. De la globalisation heureuse au grand courroux, dont une seconde édition actualisée et enrichie est parue le 29 août 2024 aux éditions Le Cavalier Bleu, Myriam Benraad, professeure en relations internationales à l’Université internationale Schiller à Paris, aborde la question des émotions dont découlent de nombreux conflits contemporains et qui contaminent toutes les interactions sociales et tous les rapports politiques. La réflexion qui suit, tirée de cet ouvrage, appréhende la colère comme un affect dominant dans le déclenchement et la prolongation d’une majorité de crises récentes au Moyen-Orient – celles à Gaza et en Syrie plus particulièrement. Comment, au sein de cet espace géopolitique singulier, des adversaires répondent-ils à des expressions réciproques de rage ?
An army with a state
In her seminal piece titled “Pakistan-from hybrid-democracy to hybrid-martial law” published in the 2019 Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Ayesha Siddiqa, a Pakistan born and UK based leading expert on the Pakistan armed forces made some very pertinent and precise observations of how the all-powerful Pakistan army was continuing its subtle subversion of the country’s constitution with renewed vigour. One of her prognostications was – “The military is keen to generate a new national discourse in which the army’s position is considered synonymous to the state.” [Emphasis added].
In the latest issue of its Urdu-language magazine “Taliban,” Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) eulogizes slain fighters, argues that it is ahead of the Pakistani military in building narratives in the eyes of Pakistani audiences, frames Pakistani military leaders as those who monopolize resources and obstruct the establishment of Islam, and says that the TTP should not be viewed as a terrorist group but as an Islamic jihadi group striving for an Islamic welfare system.
Nabil Qaouq, a senior member of Hezbollah’s executive council was killed in another Israeli airstrike south of Beirut on Saturday
Israel said Sunday it killed another senior Hezbollah official in an airstrike a day earlier after dealing the Iran-backed group a seismic blow by assassinating its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
IRAN’S FOREIGN MINISTRY: The ministry said in a statement that Nasrallah’s “path will continue and his goal will be realised in Jerusalem’s liberation”.
Following are reactions by regional politicians and others to the killing of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Friday:
Position: Unknown, former Head of the Special Operations Division (Division 4000) in IRGC’s Intelligence Organization (replaced by his former deputy Javad Ghafari).
Background: He is behind multiply failed attempts to assassinate and kidnap Israelis in the last months in places like Turkey, Cyprus, and UAE.
In 1904, Sir Halford J. Mackinder, one of the founders of classical geopolitics, conceptually divided the world into three parts: the pivot area of northeastern and central Eurasia, the surrounding area of an inner crescent of remaining Eurasian and North African territories, and an outer crescent of all the remaining oceanic countries. His notion was that any malicious power able to organize the defined pivot area, which became known as the ‘Heartland,’ and accumulate sufficient highly mobile manpower, inevitably becomes aggressive toward its neighbors on all sides.
The fact that some of the top Western diplomats and leaders and the overwhelming majority of people of Ukraine had opposed NATO membership should be better known
As the Ukraine crisis continues to escalate and the possibility of a direct confrontation between Russia and USA/NATO also increase, it is important that some facts not generally raised in western mass media should be more widely known in the west and also internationally.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seeks a role for Turkey in Gaza’s post-war reconstruction if not governance, and the Biden administration appears ready to accede to this request. Others also see Turkish involvement after the conflict as a fait accompli.