🔥 Perhaps, Serving as a Prelude to The Launch in Qatar of The World Cup
An oil tanker associated with an Israeli billionaire has been struck by a bomb-carrying drone off the coast of Oman amid heightened tensions with Iran, an official has told The Associated Press.
The attack happened on Tuesday night off the coast of Oman, the Mideast-based defense official said. The official spoke on Wednesday on condition of anonymity as they did not have authorization to discuss the attack publicly.
💭 As NATO has pulled together in opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Turkey, the ‘black sheep’ of the family, remains awkwardly straddled between its roles as Europe’s ally and antagonist.
In recent weeks, Turkish state banks have become the latest to suspend the use of Russia’s Mir payment system, just a month after Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati raised eyebrows by dismissing warnings of sanctions over Turkey’s continued business with Russia, even disdainfully labelling the West’s threat as ‘meaningless’.
While Turkey’s recent compliance is encouraging, such contemptuous rhetoric from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s administration has become as common as it is troubling. Erdogan has weaponised refugees to strongarm the European Union; facilitated the ethnic cleansing of Kurds; and arrested, abducted and tortured countless political opponents. He has, unsurprisingly, little affection for the West.
However, by fixating on Erdogan’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin during his war in Ukraine, we have neglected Turkey’s involvement in another tragedy that epitomises its uncomfortable fit within NATO: Ankara’s drone sales to Ethiopia.
The Telegraph has labelled the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region as the ‘Great War of Africa’ and the ‘deadliest war in the world’. It is on track to be the bloodiest and most costly conflict of the new millennium, yet it has failed to grab major headlines.
Clashes in late August between the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) and the militant Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in Ethiopia’s northern regions reignited a two-year civil war that has seen horrific crimes committed by both sides.
At least half a million Ethiopians have been killed and millions more displaced. These figures, which already dwarf the human cost in Ukraine, don’t include the cost of the war’s agricultural devastation during a severe drought, which the World Bank estimates will plunge 70 million East Africans into famine by next July.
Disturbingly, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed—a former Nobel Peace Prize winner—has morphed from Africa’s democratic darling into a repressive and autocratic warmonger.
Worse still, Abiy has equipped his forces with fleets of armed drones from international suppliers, including the United Arab Emirates, China and Iran. Since last November, however, when it finalised a security pact with Erdogan, the ENDF has been turbocharging its drone fleet with Turkish Bayraktar TB2s—a platform so cheap, reliable and popular it has been called ‘the Toyota Corolla of drones’.
The use of these drones has fundamentally changed the strategic calculus underpinning both sides’ behaviour, threatening to push any potential peace deal out of reach. The damage they have wrought throughout Tigray prompted UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk to issue a statement last week describing the toll on civilians as ‘utterly staggering’.
First, the use of armed drones undermines one of the key forces motivating a resolution to any conflict: cost aversion. Drones will likely not permit a Clausewitzian culminating victory over the TPLF, particularly given their guerrilla tactics. However, they do allow Abiy to score cheap, regular tactical victories, reducing the incentive for negotiations while forcing his insurgent opponents deeper underground. Tragically, the inevitable terrorist retaliations will likely target Ethiopian civilians as much as ENDF personnel.
In addition, given both the TB2’s range and the TPLF’s inability to counter aerial vehicles, previously salient borders between TPLF-controlled and ENDF-controlled territories are becoming blurred. No longer safe within Tigray, TPLF fighters are encouraged to move into neighbouring regions such as Amhara, widening the conflict’s zone of devastation while Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan contribute greater resources to the war.
ENDF drone strikes have already prevented aid providers from providing much-needed food, water and medical services to victims of the violence, famine and human rights abuses, compounding the crisis and pushing East Africa closer to the point of no return.
There are arguments both for and against launching a full-scale intervention in Ethiopia, led by the United Nations, the United States or others. However, there’s no excuse to sit by while Ethiopians are devasted by advanced military technologies sold by despotic human rights abusers, particularly when they target peacekeepers and aid providers.
Turkey’s recent suspension of the Mir payment system in the face of Western sanctions suggests that the confluence of Ankara’s precarious economic situation and Erdogan’s own political vulnerabilities might motivate NATO’s black sheep to move a little closer to the flock. If Erdogan demands customers for Turkish drones, Western-allied states could arrange to purchase more TB2s. NATO could kill two birds with one stone by arming Eastern European militaries with drones already proven against Russian armour, while keeping them out of the hands of the developing world’s autocrats.
Given the widespread atrocities in Ethiopia, the West can’t give full moral support either to Abiy’s regime or to the TPLF. It can, however, support the millions of innocent people trapped in this conflict zone by addressing the impact of Turkey’s drones.
More than just military platforms, Erdogan is exporting instability throughout the developing world—sales from which Turkey is profiting handsomely.
Erdogan’s drones would surely be better used to uphold security in Ukraine than to undermine it in Ethiopia. As the bodies in Tigray pile higher and higher, so too does our obligation to act.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on October 21, 2022
😲 Another Form of Indirect Technology Transfer?
Iran’s military on Friday is boasting that it has seized a pair of unmanned US vessels in the Red Sea at a moment tensions with Washington are at boiling point over arms transfers between Tehran and Moscow.
Iran’s Navy Chief, Admiral Shahram Irani issued a statement describing that the sea drones posed safety issues to area maritime navigation, as quoted in semi-official Tasnim news agency. According to the Iranian navy statement, “Where maritime safety was threatened by the unjustified forces in the region, Iran’s Army Naval Forces were able to seize 2 American unmanned vessels.”
“The US should know it must comply with international laws if it is shipping somewhere,” the admiral added. “The Islamic Republic of Iran, with its powerful presence in the region, will deal decisively with any move that endangers the security and safety of shipping, he stressed.”
Little is as yet confirmed of the incident, which an initial statement from the US Navy calling the Iranian claims “not true”. However, it appears something did happen, given other international monitors say they are tracking an incident unfolding.
According to Bloomberg, “The British Navy’s UKMTO said it is aware of reports of an incident in the vicinity of Ash Shihr, Yemen, according to a post on its website.”
Both the US and Israel have of late stepped a joint naval presence in the Red Sea region, citing both threats from Iran and Yemeni Houthi rebels, which are backed by Tehran have at various times attacked Saudi Arabia.
“Why this, all of a sudden, is now a big violation of 2231 when you didn’t call it out as such before? There was nothing done in terms of action on the drones being used in Ethiopia, in Syria… No action on Ethiopia.”
But now, they call it out as ‘a big violation of 2231’ because these Iranian drones are being used in ‘their beloved’ Ukraine.
By the way, Tehran got these drone technology ‘inadvertently’ from the US (remember the US drones ‘lost’ flying over Iranian airspace in 2011 & 2019?). In April 2012 (Re-election year of Barack Hussein Obama – and the drone + the billion dollars Obama & Biden given to Iran as a present ), Iran claimed it had copied technology ( reverse-engineering) from a US drone brought down in December 2011 on its eastern borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Israel has also ‘inadvertently’ contributed to Iran’s drone technology. When the Shahed-129 was unveiled in 2012, some noted similarities to the US MQ-1 Predator. It is a large drone able to carry eight missiles. However, analysts believe that its design can be traced back to a crashed Israeli Hermes 450 drone — two were apparently lost over Iran in the 1990s.
Furthermore, Iran gets more drones from China.
👉 The Ukraine war shows us:
😈 United by their Illuminist-Luciferian-Masonic-Satanist agendas The following Edomite-Ishmaelite entities and bodies are helping the genocidal fascist Oromo regime of evil Abby Ahmed Ali:
☆ The United Nations
☆ The World Bank
☆ The International Monetary Fund
☆ The European Union
☆ The African Union
☆ The United States, Canada & Cuba
☆ Russia
☆ Ukraine
☆ China
☆ Israel
☆ Arab States
☆ Southern Ethiopians
☆ Amharas
☆ Eritrea
☆ Djibouti
☆ Kenya
☆ Sudan
☆ Somalia
☆ Egypt
☆ Iran
☆ Pakistan
☆ India
☆ Azerbaijan
☆ Amnesty International
☆ Human Rights Watch
☆ World Food Program (2020 Nobel Peace Laureate)
☆ The Nobel Prize Committee
☆ The Atheists and Animists
☆ The Muslims
☆ The Protestants
☆ The Sodomites
☆ TPLF
💭 Even those nations that are one another enemies, like: ‘Israel vs Iran’, ‘Russia + China vs Ukraine + The West’, ‘Egypt + Sudan vs Iran + Turkey’, ‘India vs Pakistan’ have now become friends – as they are all united in the anti-Christian, anti-Zionist-Ethiopia-Conspiracy. This has never ever happened before it is a very curios phenomenon – a strange unique appearance in world history.
✞ With the Zionist Tigray-Ethiopians are:
❖ The Almighty Egziabher God & His Saints
❖ St. Mary of Zion
❖ The Ark of The Covenant
💭 Due to the leftist and atheistic nature of the TPLF, because of its tiresome, imported and Satan-influenced ideological games of: „Unitarianism vs Multiculturalism“, the Supernatural Force that always stood/stands with the Northern Ethiopian Christians is blocked – and These Celestial Powers are not yet being ‘activated’. Even the the above Edomite and Ishmaelite entities and bodies who in the beginning tried to help them have gradually abandoned them.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on October 20, 2022
✈ In response to the following statement by deputy State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel:
💭 “US Says Iranian Drone Supplies to Russia and Ethiopia Violate UN Resolution
“Earlier today, our French and British allies publicly offered the assessment that Iran’s supply of these UAVs to Russia is a violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231, and this is something that we agree with,”
👉 AP Diplomatic Writer Matt Lee asked Mr. Patel:
“Why this, all of a sudden, is now a big violation of 2231 when you didn’t call it out as such before? There was nothing done in terms of action on the drones being used in Ethiopia, in Syria… No action on Ethiopia.”
But now, they call it out as ‘a big violation of 2231’ because these Iranian drones are being used in ‘their beloved’ Ukraine.
By the way, Tehran got these drone technology ‘inadvertently’ from the US (remember the US drones ‘lost’ flying over Iranian airspace in 2011 & 2019?). In April 2012 (Re-election year of Barack Hussein Obama – and the drone + the billion dollars Obama & Biden given to Iran as a present ), Iran claimed it had copied technology ( reverse-engineering) from a US drone brought down in December 2011 on its eastern borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Israel has also ‘inadvertently’ contributed to Iran’s drone technology. When the Shahed-129 was unveiled in 2012, some noted similarities to the US MQ-1 Predator. It is a large drone able to carry eight missiles. However, analysts believe that its design can be traced back to a crashed Israeli Hermes 450 drone — two were apparently lost over Iran in the 1990s.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on October 3, 2022
💭 Yemen Warns Oil Companies to Leave Saudi Arabia, UAE as Truce Ends
Yemeni resistance forces warned that oil companies operating in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates could be targeted as long as Riyadh and Abu Dhabi fail to commit to a proper ceasefire.
Tweeting on Sunday, the Armed Forces’ spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree said Yemeni troops were providing the oil companies with a window of opportunity to leave the Saudi and Emirati soils “fast.”
The Saudi kingdom and its allies, most notably the United Arab Emirates, have been waging a war against Yemen since March 2015, trying, in vain, to restore Yemen’s power to its former Riyadh-friendly officials. The military campaign, which has been enjoying unstinting arms, logistical, and political support from the United States, has killed hundreds of thousands of people, and turned the entire Yemen into the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
A temporary United Nations-mediated ceasefire took effect between the warring sides in April and has been renewed twice ever since. The truce, however, expired on Sunday amid the invading coalition’s constant violations of the agreement and its refusal to properly lift a siege that it has been enforcing against Yemen simultaneously with the war.
“The warning,” Saree said, “stands as long as the countries that make up the invading American-Saudi coalition refuse to adhere to a ceasefire that allows the Yemeni people to exploit their oil wealth….”
Also on Sunday, Hans Grundberg, the United Nations’ special envoy for Yemen, confirmed failure of efforts aimed at extending the truce.
“The UN special envoy regrets that an agreement has not been reached today, as an extended and expanded truce would provide additional critical benefits to the population,” a statement said.
“I urge [the warring parties] to fulfill their obligation to the Yemeni people to pursue every avenue for peace,” the Swedish diplomat was quoted as saying.
💭 Iran-Backed Houthis Attack Saudi Oil Facilities, Slowing Refinery Output amid Global Crisis
The Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen, delisted as terrorists by President Joe Biden as one of his first acts in office, launched a massive terrorist strike on Saudi oil facilities and water desalination plants on Sunday.
Saudi officials said the Houthi attack targeted two petroleum distribution terminals, a natural gas plant, and an oil refinery. The targets were spread between several cities, including the Saudi capital of Riyadh and the major Red Sea port of Jeddah.
The Saudi military coalition said the Houthi attack involved cruise missiles made in Iran. The coalition said its air defenses intercepted many of the Houthi weapons, but Saudi state media carried photos and videos of fires and explosive damage from the missiles that made it through.
The coalition also charged the Houthis with launching at least 106 explosive-laden boats in an effort to compromise freedom of navigation in the Red Sea. The coalition said it was able to destroy most of these bomb boats, “protecting shipping lines and global trade.”
One of the Houthi missile strikes started a “limited fire” in a tank at the Jeddah distribution plant for Saudi Aramco, the national oil company. The fire was brought under control without loss of life
Another strike damaged a natural gas plant and refinery in the city of Yasref. The Saudi Energy Ministry said on Sunday the assault on Yasref “has led to a temporary reduction in the refinery’s production, which will be compensated for from the inventory.”
Aramco officials said the attacks did not cause enough damage to seriously disrupt gas and petroleum supplies, but the state-run Saudi news agency SPA on Monday quoted a Foreign Ministry source that said the Saudis would not be held responsible for disruptions to the already-stressed world oil market caused by Houthi attacks.
The Foreign Ministry source warned that continued drone and missile attacks “will affect the kingdom’s production capacity and its ability to fulfill its obligations, which undoubtedly threatens the security and stability of energy supplies to global markets.”
The Houthi attack – a major escalation of the insurgency’s conflict with Saudi Arabia, and one of the heaviest salvos it has launched against Saudi targets since the beginning of the Yemeni civil war – came after several days of intense diplomacy in Oman, where U.N. special envoy Hans Grundberg met with Houthi negotiators to discuss “a possible truce during the holy month of Ramadan.” Ramadan begins on April 2 this year.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan condemned the Houthi strikes on Sunday as “terrorist attacks” and complained about the insurgency constantly using such violent actions to sabotage peace negotiations.
“These attacks reportedly targeted water treatment facilities as well as oil and natural gas infrastructure. The Houthis launch these terrorist attacks with enabling by Iran, which supplies them with missile and UAV components, training, and expertise. This is done in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions prohibiting the import of weapons into Yemen,” Sullivan said.
“Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni Government have endorsed multiple U.N. calls for ceasefires and de-escalation over the last year. The Houthis have rejected these calls, responding instead with new offensives in Yemen and terrorist acts, such as those launched against Saudi Arabia last night,” he complained.
The Houthis were listed as terrorists by the Trump administration, but this designation was rescinded in the early days of the Biden administration, which has frequently complained about Houthi terrorism over the ensuing year.
The Biden administration has stubbornly resisted calls to relist the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization, including advice from some White House officials. Resistance to reclassifying the Houthis as terrorists ostensbily flows from human rights advocates who fear the enraged insurgents would interfere with the delivery of humanitarian aid, but some critical observers believe the Biden administration is also worried about disrupting its nuclear deal negotiations with the Houthis’ patrons in Iran.
Competing regional powers have quietly backed Abiy Ahmed in Ethiopia’s deadly conflict
👉 From The New Arab
The war that started in November 2020 as a conflict between the Ethiopian Federal Government and the Tigray Regional Government has turned the country into an arena where many regional and international powers are active.
Like a Pandora’s box suddenly opened, the conflict has borne many geopolitical surprises, but one of its most important ironies is the reported use of drones and weapons supplied by competing powers in the Middle East, who seem to have agreed on their support for Ethiopia’s government.
U A E, the first player
The United Arab Emirates (U A E) has intervened in the Ethiopian war since it began, with leaders from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) accusing Abu Dhabi of targeting Tigray an forces in November 2020 with drones stationed at its Assab military base in Eritrea.
In the wake of the Ethiopian withdrawal in the face of the advancing Tigray an forces in the summer of 2021, an Emirati air bridge supporting the government was monitored. This comprised more than 90 flights between the two countries in the period between September and November 2021.
Satellite images identified Emirati drones at Harar Meda Airport in Ethiopia and at a military base in Deirdawa in the east of the country.
The U A E’s intervention was an extension of its strategy to build an allied political and security system across the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa, most notably following Who Tea gains around Bab al-Mandab at the beginning of Yemen’s conflict.
Abiy Ahmed’s election as Ethiopia’s prime minister in 2018 further accelerated an alliance between Addis Ababa and Abu Dhabi.
That same year, the U A E-sponsored Eritrean-Ethiopia peace agreement pledged to support the Ethiopian treasury with three billion dollars, and made huge investments in various sectors.
From this perspective, the possibility of the Tigray ans seizing power in Addis Ababa was a threat to these political arrangements, and Emirati investments, especially since the TPLF view Abu Dhabi with hostility after its role in their first defeat in November 2020.
Turkish drones in the Habesha sky.
The visit of the Ethiopian prime minister to Ankara in August 2021 represented a turning point in the relationship between the two countries, which had become estranged in parallel with the development of Ethiopian ties with the U A E-Saudi axis.
During the visit, a package of agreements was signed that included “military cooperation”. Indeed, according to the Turkish Defence Industries Corporation, the value of Turkish military exports to Ethiopia increased from just $234,000 in 2020 to nearly $95 million in 2021.
Although in July 2021 the Turkish embassy in Addis Ababa denied that it had supplied drones to Addis Ababa, reports alleged the participation of Bayraktar TB2 drones in military operations in Ethiopia’s conflict after Ahmed’s visit to Ankara, which were not denied by either side this time.
This development is an extension of the Turkish approach in the region described by Jason Moseley, a Research Associate at the African Studies Centre at Oxford University. “Turkey has adopted an interventionist attitude in the regional crisis, with the consequent rebalancing between soft and hard power in favor of the latter,” he wrote last year.
In fact, Turkey saw drone support for the Ethiopian government as a strategic gain, bolstering its reputation in the African military and security market after it had proven its success in an African war arena, with growing demand for this type of weapon.
Ankara’s participation also indicates that Turkish construction companies could make a significant contribution to the reconstruction of infrastructure in the areas destroyed by the war
Preventing Ethiopia from sliding into a civil war protects Ankara’s large investments inside the country and ensures that the ensuing chaos does not spread into neighbouring Somalia, the most important centre of Turkish influence in the African continent.
Additionally, Turkish support for the Ethiopian government appears to be a strategic necessity due to Ankara’s fears of the Tigray ans, who Ethiopia has accused of being supported by Egypt.
In this sense, Ankara’s ties with Ethiopia are related to the exchange of support between the two countries, which is taking place in the context of their conflict with Egypt.
Iran seeks an opportunity
In a letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, on 7 December 2021, TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael accused Iran, along with the UAE and Turkey, of providing the Ethiopian army with weapons, including drones.
Prior to that, the US government had accused Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF) of providing drones to Ethiopia, and on 29 October 2021, sanctions were issued by the US Treasury Department.
According to investigative websites, Iranian drones have been seen in Ethiopia and 15 flights from two airlines linked to the IRGC have been monitored from Iran to the Harar Meda military base in Ethiopia.
Both the Iranian and Ethiopian governments have not yet commented on these reports.
The sharp dispute between Ethiopia and the United States over the war in Tigray, and Washington’s continuous pressure on Ahmed’s government, who has framed the conflict as a colonial attack on Ethiopia’s unity, has apparently brought Tehran and Addis Ababa closer.
Iran sees the Ethiopian PM’s need for military equipment as an opportunity to expand its strategic presence in a country that is historically an ally of the United States and Israel.
This level of Iranian engagement demonstrates the importance of the Ethiopian arena for Tehran, and indicates Iran’s desire to enter the burgeoning military and security market in Africa.
However, the most important prize for Tehran is a return to Ethiopia, which is situated close to Yemen, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Horn of Africa, after losing its influence in recent years with allies Eritrea and Sudan following Emirati-Saudi pressure, and the fall of Omar al-Bashir’s regime in Khartoum after popular protests.
Ultimately, all three powers are trying to exploit a moment of Ethiopian weakness to create or consolidate their influence.
The weight and extent of their involvement are best indicated, perhaps, by consultations the US envoy to the Horn of Africa, which has historical influence in Ethiopia, has been having with Middle Eastern capitals to try to find a solution to the Ethiopian crisis.
💭“አዲሱን የዓለም ሥርዓት ለማስጠበቅ ልዩ ቀውስ ያስፈልጋል።…አዲሱን የዓለም ሥርዓት ለመጠበቅ የመንግስት ያልሆኑ ተዋናዮችን እና ስልጣን የተሰጣቸውን ግለሰቦችን ማስወገድ ግድ ነው”። “Extraordinary Crisis Needed to Preserve New World Order….The elimination of non-state actors and empowered individuals “must be done” in order to preserve the new world order.
💭 The Washington Post has analyzed photos of shrapnel and satellite imagery and cross-referenced video to confirm that Ethiopia used a Turkish drone in January in an attack that killed at least 59 civilians sheltering in a school in Tigray, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported, citing an analysis by the paper published on Monday.
On January 7, a school was struck by a drone-delivered bomb, killing at least 59 people and gravely injuring dozens more, according to aid workers whose organizations worked at the camp for internally displaced people in Dedebit, located in the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray.
According to The Washington Post, more than 300 civilians have been killed by drone and air strikes since September, including more than 100 since the start of this year.
Weapon remnants recovered from the site of the strike by aid workers showed internal components and screw configurations that matched images of Turkish-made MAM-L munitions released by the weapons manufacturer. The MAM-L pairs exclusively with the Turkish-made Bayraktar TB-2 drone.
Military experts from the Dutch nongovernmental organization PAX and Amnesty International also identified the weapon used as a MAM-L bomb that is fitted to a TB2 drone, Politico earlier reported.
The attacks have drawn criticism from US President Joe Biden and a warning from the United Nations that they may constitute a grave violation of international law, Politico said.
Drones are rapidly turning into the decisive weapon of the conflict and have helped Ethiopian government forces turn the tide against rebels from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which governed the country for nearly three decades before 2018.
Turkey has exported Bayraktar armed drones manufactured by defense contractor Baykar Makina Sanayi ve Ticaret Anonim Şirketi (Baykar), which is run by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son-in-law Selçuk Bayraktar. Ukraine, Poland, Qatar, Libya, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Ethiopia and Azerbaijan have all taken delivery of the armed drones.
According to Turkey’s 2021 export figures announced by the Turkish Exporters Assembly in early December, Turkey’s arms sales reached a record level, with the biggest increase to African countries.
In the first 11 months of 2021, Turkey exported $2.793 billion worth of defense products, an increase of 39.7 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. The Turkish defense industry, which set an export record of $2.7 billion in 2019, is preparing to set a new record by closing this year with exports of more than $3 billion. For the first time the defense sector had a 1.8 percent share of Turkey’s total exports in November 2021.
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