Blood Red Sea
Red Sea scramble, Fox news lied, Sudan port is central, Red Sea state crisis, Saudi FM in Syria, Syria FM in Tunisia, Somalia in crisis.
UPDATE: The Red Sea stretches from the Suez Canal through the Bab el Mandeb Strait to the Gulf of Aden. Its waters, which shore on Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, constitute one of the most critical maritime routes enabling global trade. Thus, great power competition to control Sea Lines of Communication (SLOCs), sea ports and natural resources lie at the heart of Red Sea conflict.
In 2014, Houthi rebels drove Yemen’s internationally recognised government into exile and assumed control over Sana'a. Months later, the Saudi-led coalition – backed by the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and France – launched a military intervention to try to restore the government to power. However, the war has created what is often referred to as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The Iranian supported Houthis have since tried to hold onto their gains in northern Yemen, while occasionally launching strikes inside Saudi Arabia. In the south, the United Arab Emirates is backing the two secessionist movements – the Southern Transitional Council and the Giant Brigades – and militarising two Yemeni islands off the southern coast.
China’s successfully brokered rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran has renewed hope that peace talks will generate a realistic plan that includes leaders from all factions nationwide. However, multiple armed groups continue to vie for influence and despite the exchange of hundreds of prisoners between the adversaries, promising discussions of a permanent ceasefire and the lifting of the Saudi-led blockade of Yemen, regional instability has moved across the Red Sea from Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula to Sudan on the Horn of Africa.
The surge in political, economic, and strategic engagement across the Red Sea is challenging old assumptions and erasing old boundaries. As the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey seek to expand their spheres of influence, via the proliferation of seaports and military facilities and/or the rights to such facilities. Interest from great powers has further complicated the changing geopolitical landscape as China’s arrival at the fulcrum of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden has been joined by both India and Russia. For the fragile African states on the western shores of the Red Sea, new engagement from outside powers is most visible in renewed conflict in Sudan.
Fox Dominion Over
It’s all over but the spinning. At the eleventh hour, after the jury was sworn in and the lawyers were ready to make their opening statements, the judge presiding over Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News announced on April 18, 2023, that the “parties have resolved the case.”
Little is known about the reported US$787.5 million settlement, one of the largest known defamation awards in the country’s history. Fox issued a vaguely worded statement confirming the merits of Dominion’s defamation claims – “We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false” – but was not required to make on-air apologies or corrections. With that, the lawsuit that captured public attention for two years ended.
Dominion’s claims that Fox and its on-air pundits had damaged the voting equipment company’s reputation by falsely questioning the integrity of its operations during the 2020 elections were the same essential claims that any libel plaintiff must make for a case to proceed to trial. The issue is not truth, alone, but whether false statements harmed the plaintiff’s reputation, and whether the news organization was at fault for publishing those statements.
Presiding Judge Eric Davis had already ruled that the many accusations Fox hosts and guests hurled at Dominion after the 2020 election – most notably that it switched votes from former President Donald Trump to challenger Joe Biden – were false as a matter of law. It was “CRYSTAL clear,” he wrote. All that remained for a jury to decide was whether the statements were made with actual malice.
Beyond the $787.5-million payout to end the Dominion case, Fox now must contend with a second defamation suit filed by a rival voting machine company, Smartmatic USA, which has demanded $2.7 billion. And Fox investors are lining up with their own lawsuits, alleging that Rupert Murdoch and other board members were derelict in their duties by allowing Fox News to promote election lies, which harmed the network’s reputation as a news organization.
Revelations from emails and text messages, disclosed in the court motions, tarnished Murdoch and high-profile hosts, including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Maria Bartiromo. Murdoch and others privately indicated they knew former President Trump’s “stolen election” claims were bogus, but they appeared to be more interested in protecting Fox News’ big profits than telling the truth to its millions of viewers, according to the court documents.
Tuesday’s resolution spares the 92-year-old mogul; his son Lachlan, the company’s chief executive; and their anchors from the embarrassment of taking the witness stand in a courtroom packed with reporters. There, they would‘ve been grilled about why the network aired lies in service to Trump and his ardent supporters in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
Sudan Port
Russia has, long ago, developed deep interest in building a naval base and related military facility in the Republic of Sudan due to its geo-strategic location – in the Mediterranean Sea. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s meeting with Sudanese officials during his February vivit to the Northeast African country was not, apparently the first when first time this question on establishing the naval base in Sudan.
Western countries are concerned about Russia’s widening sway in Africa’s Sahel and its border regions. Sudan’s ruling military council has previously considered allowing Russia to open a naval base on the Red Sea coast, a strategic region where Gulf countries and Turkey also vie for influence. Lavrov acknowledged the existence of Russian mining companies operating in Sudan and said that agreement had been reached previously on a naval base but was awaiting Sudanese legislation to implement it. Such a deal had been reached under Omar al-Bashir, who was toppled in a 2019 uprising.
Before his overthrow, Omar al-Bashir made one more trip to Moscow in November 2017. During this official working visit, agreements were reached on Russia’s assistance in modernizing the Sudanese armed forces. Khartoum also said at the time that it was interested in discussing the issue of using Red Sea bases with Moscow. That proposal drove Moscow into signing a document, after several discussions and negotiations, the possibility of constructing a naval base in the region, along the Red Sea and in the Indian Ocean.
The Mediterranean Sea is a junction of three continents and bordered by a great diversity of countries and cultures. Further tracking down from the Maghreb coastline to Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia, there are many competing interests within EU countries, notably between France and Germany, and in the Arab world. Nevertheless, Russia presents itself the right reliable strategic partner for building a foreign naval base, and control that sea route.
According to the executive order, the published document says “an agreement between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Sudan on creating a facility of the Navy of the Russian Federation in the territory of the Republic of Sudan be adopted” and further authorizes “the Defense Ministry of Russia to sign the aforementioned agreement on behalf of the Russian Federation.”
The document stipulates that a maximum of four warships may stay at the naval logistics base, including “naval ships with the nuclear propulsion system on condition of observing nuclear and environmental safety norms.”
According the Kremlin website, that document submitted by Russia’s Defense Ministry, approved by the Foreign Ministry, the Supreme Court, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Investigative Committee of Russia and the Russian Cabinet. As the document says, the Russian Navy’s logistics facility in Sudan “meets the goals of maintaining peace and stability in the region, is defensive and is not aimed against other countries.”
Foreign Minister of Sudan Mariam Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi following talks in Moscow together with Lavrov, agreed to the ratification of the document by both the State Duma of the Russian Federation and Parliament of Sudan. Thereafter on July 1, President of Russia Vladimir Putin submitted an agreement on building a Russian naval station in Sudan for ratification by the State Duma. Earlier, Sudan announced its decision to revise the 25-year agreement that was first brokered by its ousted leader Omar al-Bashir during a meeting with Vladimir Putin in 2017 to establish a Russian naval base in Port Sudan, on Sudan’s Red Sea coast.
Read more here.
Red Sea State
Red Sea State is located to the northeast of Sudan. It borders Kassala and River Nile states and shares international borders with Egypt and Eritrea. Its state capital is Port Sudan town, which hosts Sudan’s main seaport – Port Sudan. The main tribes in the state are the Handandawa, Bani Amer, Amarrar, Bisharyeen, Nuba, Rashaida, Shawigaa, and Hausa. About 90 per cent of Sudan’s international trade goes through Port Sudan.
There are 32 neighbourhoods and two villages in the state hosting internally displaced persons (IDPs), according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Mobility Tracking Round Five.
Conflict, poor basic services, and the economic crisis are the main drivers of humanitarian needs in Red Sea. The economic crisis has had an impact on humanitarian operations in the state. School dropout has been reported in some communities, as children are forced to work to support their families. Low household purchasing power of families, compounded by the high prices, is also negatively affecting the nutrition and food security of the most vulnerable families in the state.
Red Sea State in Numbers
1.6 million population in 2023 (National: 49.7 million)
61 in 1,000 number of children who die before their 5th birthday (National: 68)
95.2% children who complete primary school and continue to secondary school (National: 90.7%)
71.9% percentage of literate young women (15 – 24 years) (National: 59.8%)
32.2% percentage of girls married before the age of 18 (National 38%)
45.4% chronic malnutrition (severe and moderate) prevalence among children U5 (National: 38.2%)
14% GAM (Global Acute Malnutrition) prevalence among children U5 (National: 16.3%)
97,513 number of children U5 suffering from GAM (National: 3.1 million)
293,156 number of people projected at IPC phase 3 & 4 (Oct 2022 – Feb 2023) (National: 7.7 million)
33.2% percentage of people with access to improved drinking water (National: 68%)
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Syria welcomes Saudi FM
Syrian regime leader Bashar al Assad has met with Saudi Arabia's top diplomat in Damascus, state media reported, ending more than a decade of diplomatic deep-freeze between the two countries. The trip comes less than a week after Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad visited Saudi Arabia, also on the first such visit since the conflict began. Saudi Arabia has been pushing to formally invite Syria for the upcoming Arab League summit in Riyadh next month.
Assad's regime has been politically isolated in the region since the conflict began, but a flurry of diplomatic activity has been underway in the past week as regional relations shift following a decision by Saudi Arabia and Damascus's ally Iran to resume ties. Last week, diplomats from nine Arab countries met in the Saudi city of Jeddah to discuss ending Syria's long spell in the diplomatic wilderness and its possible return to the 22-member Arab League after Damascus was suspended in 2011.
Saudi Arabia, along with several other Arab countries had severed ties with Assad's government in 2012 and Riyadh had long openly championed Assad's ouster, backing Syrian rebels in earlier stages of the war. But regional capitals have gradually been warming to Assad, with crucial backing from Russia and Iran. The United Arab Emirates, which re-established ties in late 2018, has been leading the charge to reintegrate Damascus into the Arab fold.
The war in Syria has killed over half a million people and displaced almost half of the country’s pre-war population of around 20 million. The war and the occupation of its resource rich regions in the east by the US forces, along with sanctions imposed by the US and its allies, have deterred reconstruction efforts of the Syrian government, which survived the war with the help of Russia and Iran.
Diplomatic efforts to reintegrate Syria into the Arab world have gathered pace since the Chinese-mediated rapprochement between regional heavy weights Iran and Saudi Arabia in March. The efforts were also expedited following the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria in February. More than 6,000 Syrians were killed, mostly in the country’s north-west.
According to a report by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), Farhan conveyed his country’s support for Syria’s attempts to “preserve its territorial integrity and restore stability and security, along with creating an environment conducive to the return of refugees and displaced persons.”
The restoration of relationships with the Arab countries is expected to bring financial and political support to Syria, and may mitigate the effects of war and sanctions to some extent. Assad is hoping normalisation with wealthy Gulf states could bring economic relief and money for reconstruction, as broader international funding remains elusive without a United Nations-backed political settlement to the conflict.
Tunisia Syria Normalisation
Syrian Foreign Minister Mekdad was in Tunisian capital Tunis to meet with President Kais Saied. Mekdad and Saied proclaimed the normalization of the Syria-Tunisia diplomatic relationship and both countries have decided to reopen their embassies soon. Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad met his Tunisian counterpart Nabil Ammar shortly after arriving on Monday evening.
The decision is a glaring example of the evolution of the situation in the region over the past decade. Tunisia was the cradle of pro-democracy Arab Spring movements that spread to Syria in 2011 and has long been among Assad's strongest critics. But today, Tunisian leaders are reverting to authoritarianism and allying themselves once again with Assad's Syria.
Earlier this month, Tunisian President Kais Saied ordered the appointment of an ambassador to the Syrian capital, Damascus. This decision follows that of the Syrian government to reopen its embassy in Tunis and appoint an ambassador. In February, Mr Saied announced his decision to raise the level of the Tunisian diplomatic representation in Damascus, while stressing that the crisis facing the Assad government was "an internal matter that concerns only the Syrian people". The move came just as Tunisia was sending emergency humanitarian aid to Syria following the earthquake that killed tens of thousands in the country and neighboring Turkey.
Mr. Mikdad's visit to Tunisia is the second leg of a journey that began in Algeria, one of the few Arab countries to have maintained diplomatic relations during Syria's civil war. It comes as the influential Tunisian Islamist leader Rached Ghannouchi was arrested following a police search, according to his lawyer, a measure denounced by his supporters as an increased effort by the president to stifle the Tunisian opposition. Mr. Ghannouchi, leader of the Ennahdha party, is Mr Saied's main critic.
Last week, Mr. Mikdad also visited Saudi Arabia. The two countries have announced that they are preparing to reopen their embassies and resume flights for the first time in more than a decade. In recent years, as Assad has consolidated his control over most of the country, Syria's neighbours have begun to take steps towards rapprochement. However, The continued US occupation of much of Syria’s richest agricultural land and oil production remains the single greatest threat to Syria’s reconstruction and political stability.
Read more here.
Somalia needs massive aid
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appealed for “massive international support” for Somalia, which is facing the worst drought in decades.During a joint news briefing with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on his visit to the country, Guterres told reporters in the capital Mogadishu on Tuesday that he was in Somalia “to ring the alarm” on the country’s need for significant international support.
Five successive failed rainy seasons in parts of Somalia, as well as Kenya and Ethiopia, have led to the worst drought in four decades, wiping out livestock and crops and forcing at least 1.7 million people from their homes in search of food and water.
While famine thresholds have not been reached in Somalia, the UN has said about half its population will need humanitarian assistance this year, with 8.3 million affected by the drought.
Adding to the woes, seasonal rains in March led to flooding that killed 21 people and displaced more than 100,000, according to the UN, which warned that the rains were unlikely to be enough to improve the food security outlook for many.
President Mohamud said the visit assures that “the UN is fully committed to supporting our plans for state-building and stabilising the country”.
“We are confident that the Somali people will be able to overcome the problems and challenges they are still facing through the completion of the liberation of the country and reconciliation,” he added.
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud urged rival sides in Sudan to come together and resolve their differences through peaceful and constructive dialogue. The rival sides are locked in a power struggle.
Read more here.