Today we have an excellent guest post from Alisha Venetis. Alisha Venetis is co-founder of www.thePrepRoom.net; an online store specializing in emergency preparedness supplies. She writes for Smart Girl Nation, as well as other conservative blogs, where she reports on world politics, domestic and global economics and the potentially negative ramifications they may have on America.
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The recent headlines coming out of the Middle East sound like something torn from the pages of a Brad Thor novel. For those of us watching the drama unfold, it has us sitting at the edge of our seats.
In Egypt, the recent election win by the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), who now, haplessly, call themselves the Freedom and Justice Party, is what many in the US and Israel have feared would happen and what many in the “know” thought would never happen.
The Freedom and Justice Party recently announced a temporary agreement that would install a MB leader as speaker of the country’s newly elected parliament, with the Islamist party expected to control as many as half the seats.
The MB was founded in 1928, in Egypt, with the goal of spreading Islamic Sharia law worldwide and uniting all Muslim nations into one Islamic super state. It was eventually banned in Egypt because it was believed to be too radical, even for Egypt’s standards. But for the past several decades the MB has worked behind the scenes in the Middle East. The Brotherhood is believed to have ties to almost every major terrorist organization, with chapters in more than 100 countries including Iran, Libya and the United States.
It is hard to imagine that Egypt and Israel’s relationship will be strenghtend with this newly elected regime. The 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt is now being put under pressure, as there are calls to re-vote on the treaty. If peace is not maintained between Egypt and Israel this will inflame the rest of the Middle East and embolden Israel’s enemies, which are many in the region, including the most dangerous; Iran.
Iran has been all over the news lately as they are flexing their muscle in the Middle East.
Unfortunately, for the West, it is their nuclear capabilities they are flexing.
Recent reports have come out that Iran is about a year away from a nuclear bomb, however, many people, including former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, believe that those reports might even be too optimistic. “I worry the publicly available information is giving only a very small picture, and that Iran is actually even much further along,” Bolton said.
This scenario of Iran having a nuclear bomb has led to an increase in assassinations of many of Iran's top nuclear scientists and missile developers (four in the past two years), in an apparent effort to halt Iran’s nuclear enrichment program.
The most recent car bomb assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist garnished public news. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that those behind the killing would be punished.
Khamenei, of course, blamed its arch-enemies, Israel and the United States and insisted the incident would not change the country's nuclear course. There has also been a barrage of computer viruses to Iran’s nuclear program and a host of unexplained explosions.
Iran was one of the first places in history where the game of chess was played, and now Iran is playing their own real life version, in which their strategic moves can have severe consequences on their opponents.
Iran has threatened to close the Straight of Hormuz, a key oil route that would cripple the world economies (as well as cripple Iran- but a move they are willing to make). The threat of this caused crude oil to go up. Europe and the US then sanctioned Iran and their central bank.
The European Union and the Obama administration then sanctioned Iran by severing all contacts between American financial institutions and Iran’s Central Bank. The sanctions were designed to force the Iranian regime to halt its nuclear weapons development program. Economic analysts say the sanctions are biting, with the Iranian currency growing ever weaker against the American dollar.
Keep in mind that the real winner in these sanctions is China and Russia; Iran’s allies, as this will only increase the amount of oil dedicated to these countries at lower prices.
The pawns are being set for a game with real life consequences for the entire world. Who will make the next move and who will say “checkmate” are questions of historical importance.
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Alisha Venetis is co-founder of www.thePrepRoom.net; an online store specializing in emergency preparedness supplies. She writes for Smart Girl Nation, as well as other conservative blogs, where she reports on world politics, domestic and global economics and the potentially negative ramifications they may have on America.
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