World View: Mammoth Russian Truck Convoy Heads for Confrontation at Ukraine Border

World View: Mammoth Russian Truck Convoy Heads for Confrontation at Ukraine Border

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

  • Mammoth Russian truck convoy heads for confrontation at Ukraine border
  • Indirect Hamas-Israeli negotiations for Gaza war continue in Cairo
  • U.S. sends 130 more troops to Iraq as advisors

Mammoth Russian truck convoy heads for confrontation at Ukraine border

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Russiaand Ukraine had reached agreement that a huge truck convoy will bepermitted to cross the border from Russia into Ukraine to distribute humanitarian aid in areas of east Ukraineinhabited by a mostly Russian-speaking population. 

According to Lavrov, the truck convoy will arrive at the Ukraineborder in a couple days, at which time they will take onrepresentatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross(ICRC), who will oversee the aid distribution. However, the ICRC hasnot said that it agrees to participate in this operation. 

The convoy is mammoth, several miles long. According to Lavrov, thereare 280 trucks. The convoy will be comprised of 262 vehicles,including 198 truck with material means and electricity generatorswith an overall weight of 1,809.9 tonnes. The humanitarian aidincludes: 69 electricity generator, 400 tonnes of cereals, 340 tonnesof canned meat, 30 tonnes of salt, 100 tonnes of sugar, 60 tonnes ofcanned milk, 0.8 tonnes of tea, 679.5 tonnes of bottled water, 62.4tonnes of baby foods, 54 tonnes of medical equipment, and 12,300sleeping bags. 

The Russians are deeply distrusted by the West and by Ukraine, thanksto their illegal annexation of Crimea and their thousands ofinvasion-ready troops, tanks, and warplanes massed near the Ukraineborder. The fear is that this mammoth truck convoy is like themythical “Trojan Horse,” carrying soldiers and weapons to armedanti-government militias in east Ukraine. Reuters and Itar-Tass (Moscow) and PRI

Indirect Hamas-Israeli negotiations for Gaza war continue in Cairo

With the latest 3-day ceasefire scheduled to expire at midnight onWednesday, officials from Hamas and Israel are in Cairo to decide onterms that might allow the ceasefire to be extended. The negotiationsare being called “indirect,” because Hamas and Israeli representativesare in different rooms and are not talking to each other. Hamas doesnot recognize the nation of Israel, and Israel considers Hamas to be aterrorist organization. Instead, Egyptian representatives talkalternately to the Hamas and Israeli representatives and carrymessages and proposals back and forth between the two rooms. 

According to leaks, no progress is being made on the major issues.Hamas will not agree to military disarmament, as Israel is demanding, and Israel will not agree to build an airport and seaport and offersafe passage between the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as Hamas isdemanding. 

However, the leaked reports suggest that some progress may have beenmade. In particular, the Israelis and Palestinians have agreed on thereopening of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt,provided that 1,000 Palestinian Authority police officers are deployedat the terminal. 

As I’ve written several times in the past, there’s only one big thingthat the two sides agree to: No return to the status quo ante.Israel will not tolerate a ceasefire if it means a continuing streamof rocket launches from Gaza into Israel. And if Hamas cannot getsome major concession, such as the opening of all six border crossingsfrom Gaza into Egypt and Israel, then all the destruction thatGazans have suffered in the last few weeks will be lost. The logic ofthis situation indicates that the war will continue. 

As long-time readers are aware, Generational Dynamics predicts thatthe Mideast is headed for a major war between Arabs and Jews,re-fighting the war between Jews and Arabs that followed the1948 partitioning of Palestine and the creation of the state ofIsrael. Arab News and Jerusalem Post

U.S. sends 130 more troops to Iraq as advisors

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced on Tuesday that 130additional troops were being deployed in Iraq to act as advisors.According to Hagel: “This is not a combat boots on the ground kind ofoperation. We’re not going back into Iraq in any of the samecombat mission dimensions that we once were in inIraq.”

CNN and ABC News

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Russia, Ukraine, Sergei Lavrov, Trojan Horse,International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC,Egypt, Israel, Gaza, Hamas, Palestinian Authority, Rafah crossing,Iraq, Chuck Hagel 

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