In April 2023, many foreign observers found themselves startled when senior diplomats from Iran and Saudi Arabia met at a China-brokered summit in Beijing—the first high-level meeting between both inveterate foes in several years. Beijing appeared to demonstrate a new diplomatic prowess—an active willingness to mediate tensions in one of the most geopolitically challenging and conflict-ridden portions of the globe.
Established In: 2015;
Key Members: Hafiz Saeed Khan, Shahab al-Muhajir;
Operational Area: Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, India;
Size: 1,000 (US estimate); 2,500-4,000 (UN report); 10,000 (Russian estimate);
Involved In: Bomb Attacks, Assasinations, Armed Attacks, Kidnapping;
Established In: 1994;
Established By: Mohammed Omar;
Also Known As: Taleban;
Country Of Origin: Afghanistan;
Latest Developments
China urged Iran to pressure the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen to end their attacks against Red Sea commercial shipping, Iranian sources told Reuters in a January 25 report. Beijing also warned that Chinese-Iranian commerce could suffer if Houthi attacks continue, a potentially potent threat since China remains Iran’s largest trading partner. On January 26, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin affirmed that China is “deeply concerned over the recent rapid escalation of tensions in the Red Sea.” He also said that the United Nations Security Council did not “authorize the use of force” against Yemen — an apparent criticism of recent U.S. and allied strikes against the Houthis.
China would probably have never entertained using IMEC had it not been for the Red Sea crisis, but its decision to rely on this route serves the interests of all responsible stakeholders in the global economy, which should prompt members of the Alt-Media Community to radically reconsider their worldview.
Latest Developments
The Houthis in Yemen announced on January 19 that they would permit Chinese and Russian vessels to safely transit the Red Sea. The same day, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce called on the Houthis to cease “harassment” of commercial shipping and announced unspecified future efforts to protect regional seaborne commerce. Nevertheless, the price of shipping a 40-foot container between Europe and China increased by 260 percent within the past month, pressuring countries that rely on shipping through the Red Sea.
Interview with Hai Phong
Haifog: I’m glad to have you here because there’s a lot of economic novelties. But your specialty is to highlight, and this channel is trying to highlight, the relationship between geopolitics and the economy, such as Radhika [Desai, and Ben Norton, and other great journalists have tried to do so.
The defeat in Ukraine
Can we stop things falling apart? 2024 begins with wars burning in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine and peacemaking in crisis. Worldwide, diplomatic efforts to end fighting are failing. More leaders are pursuing their ends militarily. More believe they can get away with it.
In an article in the respected British journal, The Economist Pakistan’s ousted Prime Minister Imran Khan has expressed doubt about the fairness of the forthcoming General Elections scheduled to be held in January 2024. In his words, Imran Khan is now in jail on charges of exposing state secrets by reading out in the Pakistan National Assembly a secret telegram sent by the Pakistani ambassador to Washington which accused the US government of conspiring with the Pakistani military authority to oust Imran Khan from his post as Prime Minister.
Observers might expect that the exacerbation of long-running Iranian-Pakistani tensions would be against Islamabad’s interests, just like they might think the same about closer Indian-Iranian relations in the aftermath of this unprecedented tit-for-tat against designated terrorists in Balochistan. In reality, the Pakistani Establishment – which refers to the country’s powerful military-intelligence structures that call the shots behind the scenes – stands to benefit from this crisis.