The Arab Spring

So uh. Politics by firearms.

Maybe someday they will blow up and find peace instead of oil or something.

Laculus - It was just a bit of overly poetic waxing on my part, sorry if that confused people.

Allies - I thought that Egypt and Saudi Arabia had a nice working relationship with Russia?

edited 6th Oct '15 7:31:44 AM by KnitTie

Okay so more on the rocket attack on the al Qasr Hotel. Seems Bahah and his ministers have been ferreted away to a new, undisclosed, location. Of course, the article also went on to say that they are still in Aden so whoever is responsible can probably figure our where they are by process of elimination.

The attack killed four UAE guards. No idea about the other casualties of the total of the fifteen reported.

No one has claimed responsibility, but the coalition has lost no time in blaming the Houthis as the "only ones technically capable" of the rocket attack.

It is here where I call shenanigans: First, any idiot with an RPG can do this attack. It's a popular tactic among irregulars for a reason, so the coalition sounds hollow to claim otherwise. Second, the Houthis are not the only ones in Yemen with a beef against the Hadi regime. Al Qaeda is in the city, and the Hirak fighters are only allied to Hadi as long as they can win their freedom. Finally, if the Houthis did it, what does that say about how "secure" Aden is?

edited 6th Oct '15 7:32:12 AM by FFShinra

Are they? I'd like to know of this if possible too

I suspect it is not much the case for Egypt, however. The Arab Spring and the undernet from Egypt was made by U.S people, was it not? If anything the people will more likely remember the U.S before Russia

The people mostly hate us for supporting the Mubarak regime, as well as Israel and the various other sins that make us hated in most of the Muslim world. The people are probably ambivalent about Russia, but the regime has been moving closer to Moscow. The thing is it's moving even closer to Paris form what I understand, same with Saudi Arabia. So

Edit: Also since Assad is probably the most hated man in the Arab world right now, supporting him, especially with airstrikes, is more than likely to generate great hostility towards Russia in the Arab street, and possibly from the Arab governments,who will be pissed that an Iranian backed government will retain control of Syria. Then again, as shown by their alliances with the even more despised US, the Arab governments have a tendency to ignore their populations when it comes to foreign policy.

edited 6th Oct '15 7:43:35 AM by JackOLantern1337

There was a big visit of Putin to As-Sisi, and then a lot of talk about mutual cooperation and lastly some orders of military hardware by Egypr from Russia. And Saudi Arabia, IIRC, invensted ten or so billions into Russia earlier this year. Now of course this doesn't mean that they are allies of Russia, but it does indicate that they are willing to cooperate with Russia al long as it's in their interests.

Hence why I said "a working relationship" and not an alliance or anything of the sort.

edited 6th Oct '15 7:47:53 AM by KnitTie

Undernet?

In any case, the US is more likely to be remembered for bungling its responses to the Arab Spring... and Benghazi.

The trip in question that resulted in this?

Russian aircraft have violated Turkish airspace again. My sympathies do not lie with the lot who decided to sit on their asses over their porous border until recently to say the least.

al-Queda has confirmed the death of Mokthar Belmokthar.

My concern with Egypt at least specifically is that it seems to be...ah. Pliable, right now. The regime can be overthrown, again, and the interests radically change.

The dark net was used to help set up the Arab spring in the first place

edited 6th Oct '15 7:52:09 AM by Aszur

It was used by the activists behind the Arab Spring, in addition to social media. The Tor protocol had grown beyond its original military network security uses by that point.

I thought Mubarak had shut down the social media before the arab spring.

Putin's visit to Egypt was also notable for As-Sisi plastering Putin's face all over Cairo's billboards and for Puting giving As-Sisi an Ak-74-shaped vodka bottle as a gift. Or was it an actual Ak-74? I don't quite recall.

I don't even drink vodka nor like guns. But an AK-47 shaped bottle sounds awesome.

Turns out it was just an actual AK.◊ Iz sad

edited 6th Oct '15 10:26:28 AM by KnitTie

BORING.

Guess that settles it. Egypt hates Russia for making lousy gifts.

This thread has moved a lot.

Any recent developments in the last 24 hours in Syria and in Yemen?

edited 6th Oct '15 10:49:44 AM by Quag15

Possibly unconfirmed Russian airstrikes and a coalition of rebels vowing to oppose "Russo-Iranian occupation" - that's all, I guess.

Yemen:

ISIL claims bombing on coalition bases claiming at least 15 UAE soldiers deaths

Yemen Strait contested

Turkey:

The turks and by extension NATO are not happy with Russian jets crossing the Syrian-Turkey border

And that is all for now.

edited 6th Oct '15 11:01:57 AM by AngelusNox

I also read that russian jets crossed the turkish air borders again, right?

I'm struggling to find a good explanation for Russian jets in Turkish airspace as well. Why would you ever want to do that?

edited 6th Oct '15 11:04:39 AM by KnitTie

Spy on dirty kebabs? Try to shoo away bad kebab smell? Show them might of mighty russian clay with mighty motherland jets of made in mighty russian clay?

Bad weather?

Thank you, Knit and Nox. I think I'm getting out of the loop now.

What's with people and their dislike of Kebab? It's the most popular fast food in my country.

edited 6th Oct '15 11:11:29 AM by DrunkenNordmann

@Knit

Now you want to cooperate with NATO Erdogan, you fucking idiot, after all this time dragging your feet on the fight and focusing on the Kurds rather than ISIL.

That can actually give us an explanation - Stoheberg's insinuation that Russia is going to attack Turkey is firmly in the tinfoil hat territory, so it's entirely possible that the incursion was a simple mistake that NATO has paranoia'd out of proportion.

@Quag - Someone tried to off the Yemeni PM via rocket attack, which failed. Quick blames to Houthis, but I personally suspect AQ or the Hirak.