Persian Gulf & Middle East Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

MwRYum

Major
Re: Gulf Matters

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That of pretty little concern actually, more of a poor excuse to attack the current administration in-office, since this whole damn thing begin far later than the current cabinet came to power in the UK. Besides, even if UK don't sell these things, they can still bloody well get it from China, y'know they do have such munitions for sale as well, the problem is that MIC "non-lethal munition" had been known to pack more charges that makes them lethal instead (that was discovered in Thailand's riots a few years back), god knows about the others...or have they fixed that...

Plus, without riot gear and tear gas, they'd just turn to live munitions, not necessary expanding bullet (only illegal in international wars, mind you) but the result is nonetheless bloody...but then again, regimes in those places never shy from spilling blood anyway.
 
Re: Gulf Matters

That of pretty little concern actually, more of a poor excuse to attack the current administration in-office, since this whole damn thing begin far later than the current cabinet came to power in the UK. Besides, even if UK don't sell these things, they can still bloody well get it from China, .

Regardless of British politics, Nothing is democratic about the Bahrainian monarchy where a minority Sunni rules over the Shiite majority. the delivery of such gears should have stopped the moment it was used against civilians who are demanding moderate reform for better representation.

Same is true for Saudi Arabia, the moment they intervened on behalf of the Bahrainian monarchy, they are part of the anti-democratic movement in Bahrain. I believe that there are also end-use restrictions on military gears imported by Saudi Arabia to prevent their use against Israel. They wouldn't be able to intervene without approval from the exporting countries. I could be wrong though.

Moreover, what is this with a Royal British salesman selling Riot gears in the midst of a civilian revolt against the Yemeni dictatorship.

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Just my 2 cents.
 
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Schumacher

Senior Member
Re: Gulf Matters

Too bad for military fans we won't be getting a no-fly zone in Bahrain.
Otherwise, we could have had the USN 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain itself, vs Bahrain's F16s and the Saudi F15s, EF2000, supplied by the 'world's human rights champions' themselves.
What we now have instead is Western air forces against a few barely flyable Libyan MIGs.
 
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bd popeye

The Last Jedi
VIP Professional
Re: Gulf Matters

Too bad for military fans we won't be getting a no-fly zone in Bahrain.
Otherwise, we could have had the USN 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain itself, vs Bahrain's F16s and the Saudi F15s, EF2000, supplied by the 'world's human rights champions' themselves.
What we now have instead is Western air forces against a few barely flyable Libyan MIGs.

That was never going to happen. The fith fleet is a paper tiger. The fifth fleet has only what ever ships assigned to it on a rotational basis. The US has no aircraft in Bahrain. The only ships it has actually stationed in Bahrain are 4 mine counter measures ships and 5 Cyclone class patrol ships.

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Builder: Bollinger Shipyards, Inc.
Propulsion: Four Paxman diesels; four shafts; 3,350 shaft horsepower.
Length: 179 feet (51.82 meters).
Beam: 25 feet (7.62 meters).
Displacement: 380 long tons (387 metric tons) full load.
Speed: 35 knots (40 miles per hour; 65 kilometers/hr).
Crew: Four officers, 24 enlisted personnel.
Armament: One MK 96 and one MK 38 25mm machine guns; five .50 caliber machine guns; two MK 19 40mm automatic grenade launchers; two M-60 machine guns.
 

Scratch

Captain
Re: Gulf Matters

Violence is flaring up again in other arab nations again. In Yemen especially, lots of protestors have been delibaretly killed by rooftop snipers with well aimed shots. It seems like a determined try to end the uprising. This situation is really a mess in that particular country. The south wants independance anyway, and in the north there is a terrorism affiliated insurgency that Yemen and western powers are fighting. The more peacefull revolutions in Tunesia and even Egypt have shown that religious hardliners are not appealing to the masses if they see their way out. However, with a weak stabilizing force, like the army in Egypt, and a government resiliant to give up anything the population could see itself forced towards those terrorists many want to actually fight. That would really add further problems.

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Yemen protests: Evidence snipers shot to kill
Photographs and amateur video footage have provided the first compelling evidence that professional snipers shot to kill when they opened fire on an anti-government demonstration in Yemen that left at least 52 protesters dead.
By Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent 6:23PM GMT 19 Mar 2011

Image after image of the dead, men and boys, showed that those killed in the most violent day in the capital city Sana'a for 30 years had been systematically shot through the head and neck by gunmen positioned on city rooftops.

Yet even as the international community condemned Friday's violence, Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen's president of 32 years, remained unbowed as his security forces visited more bloodshed on protesters in the port city of Aden, a strategic British colony until 1963. ...

Syria, wich has been pretty quiet so far also sees more heat now.

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Syrian mourners call for revolt
Thousands attending funeral for slain pro-democracy protesters call for "freedom" as police fire tear gas.
Last Modified: 19 Mar 2011 13:03

Thousands of people gathering in Syria's southern city of Daraa to mourn the deaths of two people killed by security forces have called for "revolution" in the country.

Police sealed off the city and fired tear gas to disperse the crowds who had turned out for the funerals of Wissam Ayyash and Mahmoud al-Jawabra, two of five people killed when security forces opened fire on protesters a day earlier. ...

Bahrain has basicly martial law in effect now and Saudi troops are in the country to prevent further protests.

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Washington urges Bahrain to end crackdown
By Robin Wigglesworth and Simeon Kerr in Manama - Published: March 19 2011 12:05 | Last updated: March 19 2011 12:05

The US says it is “deeply troubled” by Bahrain’s arrest of opposition leaders and activists, and called on the tiny Gulf kingdom to stop its violent security crackdown, particularly attacks on hospitals and medical staff.

Bahrain activists estimate that at least 13 protesters have been killed by security forces since the youthful protest movement took to the streets on February 14, and hundreds have been injured. ...

That really raises the question how to react. It some parts the situation is not anymore so much different then in Libya. And local opposition movements in some parts already call for international support. If some elements bring the situation to another civil war, there might be an obligation to intervene again. Or at some point make a split. And then see how the arab league & the region solve their problems on their own.
 

delft

Brigadier
Re: Gulf Matters

The gorilla in the room ( I acknowledge that this is an insult to a peaceable relative of our's, but is a standing expression ) is Saudi Arabia. It is intervening in Bahrain and, no doubt, Yemen, if only by encouraging that **** Saleh, as well as apparently hiring NATO to attack Libya. Itself seems to be stable and so are Turkey and probably Iran and Libanon. Syria is stable too, for the time being.
Iraq can only be stabilized by establishing close relations with Turkey and Iran and getting rid of the US forces. That would again weaken the position of the Kurds, who were promised a state of their own nearly a century ago and will not get it.
The ME as a whole is getting dangerously unstable, with probably dire consequences for the oil trade. Can the US constrain Saudi Arabia? Certainly no one else can. Even if the US could maintain it's garrison in Iraq, it wouldn't compensate for the lack of a garrison in SA.
And quite likely Turkey will be considering what advantages and disadvantages are of the US presence.
 
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delft

Brigadier
Re: Gulf Matters

This article in The Daily Telegraph suggests, that President Obama's friend President Saleh, is showing weakness sending tanks into the streets of Sana'a after Friday's massacre:
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The soft attitude against the regimes in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Yemen, at the same time as the US war against Libya ( with a little help from the UK, France &c.) will further undermine the position of the US in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
 

bd popeye

The Last Jedi
VIP Professional
Re: Gulf Matters

This article in The Daily Telegraph suggests, that President Obama's friend President Saleh

Delft, How do you know that Pres Saleh is a friend of Pres Obama? Acquaintance or ally maybe. But friend? Who knows??
 

delft

Brigadier
Re: Gulf Matters

As far as I know they have never met, but the Obama administration has supported Saleh strongly in his conflicts with tribes in the North, South and East of Yemen and has been noticeably subdued in its criticism of this murderous regime.
 
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