Carta OpinionGlobal, 05.05.2021 Riad Fouad Saade, empresario libanés y consul honorario de Chile en El Líbano
It has been a while since I sent you one of my periodical analysis about the Middle East.
Indeed Covid 19 modified drastically our lives, but I should admit that the Lebanon economic and political crisis has put me on an extremely stressful “survival mode”. August 4, 2020 Beirut Port mini atomic bomb that destroyed half of the city, represented the “coup de grace” to a century of Lebanese extravaganza.
Questions about Lebanon’s future are more than ever linked to the evolution of the Middle East. The USA that had decided to move out to deal with its growing concerns in the China-Pacific zone, are harvesting negative effects of their Middle East policy leaving behind literally destroyed countries and millions of “collateral damages”. Even their petro monarchies puppet leaders are rightfully worried about their future. Europe that resigned its leading role to become a simple follower of the USA, is simply absent from the region.
This leaves the ground to the slow but sure move of China which expansion style is quite different than the Western hegemony led by the USA. Russia is another international player, while Israel, Iran and Turkey are struggling to secure their piece of cake of the shuttered Levant.
Never have we been experiencing such an uncertain future and explaining the Middle East as I have done it yearly at the Diplomatic Academy of Chile appears as “mission impossible”. I still hope that my yearly pilgrimage to Santiago will happen next November and that I will share with you facts and visions.
Meanwhile the analysis provided by former British diplomat Alastair Crooke in "A Middle East in Motion" (Strategic Culture, 19.05.2021) is a good updating attempt of the USA-China-Russia-Iran-Israel quagmire, it surprisingly lacks to speak about neo Ottoman Turkey, and not surprisingly omits Europe.
Wish this update will bring us close again and that you will keep safe away from Coronavirus.
