Politics

Submitted by Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org,

The New Year’s execution by Saudi Arabia of the Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr was a deliberate provocation.

Its first purpose: Signal the new ruthlessness and resolve of the Saudi monarchy where the power behind the throne is the octogenarian King Salman’s son, the 30-year-old Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman.

 

Second, crystallize, widen and deepen a national-religious divide between Sunni and Shiite, Arab and Persian, Riyadh and Tehran.

 

A few days ago Pakistani forces infiltrated the Indian airforce base on the western border. And more recently there was news of an Indian consulate in Afghanistan coming under attack.  These provocations run a very real risk of war if India retaliates against Pakistan. That war could go nuclear as Pakistan previously declared that any attack by Indian forces would lead to a nuclear retaliation.

US presidential candidate Donald Trump has said that he is open to the possibility of “spying on Israel” if he becomes President.  Trump was asked by CBS News for his views on the NSA spying on Israel in order to obtain information to counter Netanyahu’s anti-Iran nuclear deal campaign. Trump said that if he were President, he would probably do the same. He told the Sunday morning news program, “I have to say this. We’re being spied on by everybody. And it’s terrible what is going on in that whole thing. We find out that we’re being spied on by them.

British MPs have decided to hold a debate in Parliament about whether U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump should be allowed into the UK following a petition that attracted 565,000 signatures calling for Trump to be barred from the UK. The House of Commons petitions committee announced that a debate would be held on January 18th, in Parliament’s secondary debating chamber. Politico.eu reports: A rival petition opposing a ban has been signed by nearly 40,000 people. It will also be debated.

At the cost to world peace, the Saudi government experiments with terror on its perceived Shia enemies. Dan Sanchez reports: The Saudis Go Full ISIS In Their US-Backed Takfiri War on the Shia Saudi Arabia has perpetrated a mass execution that puts ISIS’s beach beheadings to shame. Forty-seven heads rolled on Saturday. One of them belonged to Nimr al-Nimr, a revered Shi’ite cleric who had been sentenced to death for sermons in which he criticized the government (especially for its persecution of the country’s Shi’ite minority). His brother has been sentenced to be crucified.