Headline News - 2  05/09/2020

Headlines:

• UAE-Jewish State Intelligence Base on Yemeni island of Socotra

Pakistan: Prime Minister Imran Khan to Find Permanent Solution to Karachi's issues

China May Gradually Dump US Treasury Bonds Amid Rising Tensions

Details:

UAE-Jewish State Intelligence Base on Yemeni island of Socotra

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Jewish state were working silently on a plan to establish spy bases on the Yemeni island of Socotra, according to JForum, the official site of the Jewish and French-speaking community. The two countries, which normalized relations earlier last month, have already undertaken steps to install a secret station on Socotra, which is strategically located in the Arabian Sea some 350 kilometers (217 miles) south of Yemen and currently under the control of the Emirates. According to the report, a delegation of Jews and Emirati intelligence officers recently visited Socotra and examined various locations for establishing the planned intelligence base. The purpose of such a spy station would be to collect intelligence across the region, particularly from the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a sea route chokepoint between the Horn of Africa and the south of Yemen, along with the Gulf of Aden and the Middle East. The report alleged that Tel Aviv’s surveillance centers would monitor the actions of Houthi militants in Yemen and Iranian naval movements in the region, as well as examine sea and air traffic in the southern part of the Red Sea. Known as the “Jewel of the Gulf of Aden,” the island of Socotra, officially a part of Yemen, is the largest of the archipelago of the same name, which consists of four islands and two islets sitting at a strategic location in the Indian Ocean, off the Horn of Africa’s coast, in the Arabian Sea. Socotra’s 60,000 inhabitants have lived in harmony with nature for thousands of years, almost completely isolated from the outside world. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site known for its dragon blood trees, white beaches and unique flora and fauna. Socotra overlooks the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea. Most exports of oil and natural gas from the Persian Gulf that transit the Suez Canal or the Suez Canal and Suez-Mediterranean (SUMED) Pipeline pass through the straight. Every day over 3 million barrels of oil travel from the Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. Ships navigating this route travel westward through the Arabian Sea into the Gulf of Aden, then turn north, entering the Red Sea via the narrow pass at Bab el-Mandeb before proceeding on to the Suez Canal. [Source: Daily Sabah]

The rulers of the UAE and others are bending over backwards to strengthen the Jewish state across different areas of the Middle East. It is well known that the Jewish state cannot exist without support from crusader powers and the complicity of rulers of the Muslim world.

Pakistan: Prime Minister Imran Khan to Find Permanent Solution to Karachi's issues

Frequent power outages, water scarcity, long-standing garbage and drainage issues, and now the monsoon rains followed by urban flooding has left the residents of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, frustrated and abandoned. After the record-breaking rain devastated Karachi taking dozens of lives and destroying homes, Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the federal government would soon announce a plan for a “permanent solution to the problems” by cleaning riverbeds fixing the sewage system and resolving the huge challenge of water supply. “We will not abandon the people of Karachi in their time of crisis”, the premier said as he directed the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to immediately rescue the stranded people and provide emergency medical assistance, food and shelter to those in need. On Friday, Sindh Governor Imran Ismail also reassured the citizens that the federal government is devising a comprehensive strategy to improve the situation of Karachi on priority. He added that PM Khan, after consulting his cabinet members, would soon formally announce the necessary steps to resolve the issues of Karachi – Pakistan’s financial hub and a city of over 16 million. The governor, who is appointed by the federal government, said there was an urgent need to remove encroachments and illegal dwellings on riverbeds, which is creating issues for the entire city. It was unfortunate that every issue of Karachi was politicised and “no one ever seriously addressed the problems” that aggravated the difficulties in the country’s economic hub. Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) – ruling Sindh for the last 12 years and the major opposition party in National Assembly – has come under fire over the flood response by both the citizens and the politicians. “What have they done in the past 12 years?” Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar lashed out at the PPP. Akhtar, a leader of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), said the people of Karachi were facing “criminal negligence” on part of the party for the last four years. He also requested the prime minister to visit the long-ignored city. The ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)’s central vice president and parliamentary leader in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh also grilled the PPP performance in the last decade, adding that the political party had failed to do the job in 12 years, which “the NDMA has done in five days”. PM Khan earlier tasked the federal disaster management agency, NDMA, to clean Karachi’s clogged drains and remove tons of garbage blocking the flow of water. [Source: Gulf News]

Imran Khan like the rest of the political and military establishment will not be able to fix the manmade disasters that afflict Karachi and other cities during the predictable monsoon season. The primary focus of Pakistan’s ruling elite is exploit and subjugate the people of Pakistan to serve the interests of the foreign colonial powers.

China May Gradually Dump US Treasury Bonds Amid Rising Tensions

China may gradually cut its holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds and notes, in light of rising tensions between Beijing and Washington, state-backed newspaper Global Times cited experts as saying. With Sino-U.S. relations deteriorating over various issues including coronavirus, trade and technology, global financial markets are increasingly worried if China would sell the U.S. government debt it holds as a weapon to counter rising U.S. pressure. "China will gradually decrease its holdings of U.S. debt to about $800 billion under normal circumstances," Xi Junyang, a professor at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, was quoted as saying on Thursday, without giving a detailed timeframe.  "But of course, China might sell all of its U.S. bonds in an extreme case, like a military conflict." China, the second largest non-U.S. holder of Treasuries, held $1.074 trillion in June, down from $1.083 trillion the previous month, according to latest official data. China has steadily decreased its holdings of the U.S. bonds this year, although some market watchers suspect China may not have necessarily sold U.S. Treasuries as it may have used other custodians to purchase Treasuries. Dropping to $800 billion from the current level could mean shrinking its holdings by more than 25%. Analysts say large-scale Chinese selling, often referred to as the "nuclear option", could trigger turmoil on global financial markets. Another reason the state newspaper cited was the potential default risk in the United States as the debt of the world's largest economy has surged sharply to about the same size of its gross domestic product, a level not seen since the end of the World War Two and well above the internationally recognized safety line of 60%. China is heavily exposed to the U.S. dollar and dollar-denominated assets. Its official foreign exchange reserves stood at $3.154 trillion at the end of July. [Source: Economic Times]

The real question is whether China possesses the political will to carry out such a threat. Hitherto, China has been unable to deter America from increasing its presence in the South China Sea and isolating Chinese tech companies.