How 2017 is going to an end

Since President Trump decisions on status of Jerusalem, most tourists kept away from the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem: Palestinians have celebrated Christmas amid tensions because of protests across the West Bank and Gaza Strip against the US flagrant violation of the UN Charter, of Internatinal Law and  of the relevant UN Resolutions.
During the last UN general Assembly, 128 countries voted against Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and only eight stayed with it. On the one hand,  four of the eight countries that stood with the US are tiny Pacific Islands. On the other hand, US allies, such as France, Britain and Germany voted for the UN resolution.

So to sum up, the last month of 2017 confirms, once again, that the US is no longer credible as mediator in the peace process. That's why so many believe that President Trump has isolated the US. Actually, with regard to climate change he recently did the same.   

Yemen and Syria, in addition to Palestinian people,  are still paying a terrible price for the Saudi-Iranian rivalry. And some expert say that tensions may escalate into a major regional conflict including Lebanon.   

From 10 to 20 December 2017 in the Middle East

During the second decade of December two main events affected the Middle East: the U.S President's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and the Houthi rebels' ballistic missile targeting  the Saudi Arabia's Royal Palace in Riyadh. At the same time stock markets rose steadily! It's easy to understand how human rights abuses and violations of international law are strictly related to the increase of stock markets around the world. At first glance, it seems that the two facts contradict each other. But it isn't always the case.

 

Sale of weapons and stock markets booming

It seems that a lot of people, such as investors, individual traders, market experts and columnist have been waiting for a new periodic crisis of the markets. Actually, we could see a "rotation" in terms of money which may flow out from the stock markets. In particular,  technology stocks have been on a all time high for a long time, thanks to the sharp development of networks and nodes both related to the world's system on transactions.       

Unfortunately, there are also some geopolitical uncertainties in the Eastern emisphere which may affect the markets:   

• Saudi Arabia leadership accepts to partially normalise relation with Israel in exchange for an alliance against Iran.
• Rohinjy people are still brutally oppressed while the developed world holds its inaction in the face of genocide and example of ethnic cleasing.
• The EU has been cutting funds allocated to Turkey due to the deteriorating situation in terms of democracy, rule of law and human rights.
• U.S. President is considering recognising Jerusalem as capital of Israel, although 330,000 Palestinians, who make up 37 percent of the city's population, have been living there since Israel captured and annexed the Eastern Sector.
• Conflicts in Yemen and Syria haven't still gone to an end.
• Sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia, Myanmar and Iran has increased sharply since 2016.

It seems that there is a relationship between the rise of stock markets and the frenetic and uncontrolled sale of weapons and munitions in the Asian continent. 

In addition to this, China and Russia call on U.S. to reduce military exercises in East Asia Region of the World. In particular, Russia foreign minister have questioned U.S. tactics on East Asia, considering the U.S. secretary of state pushes diplomatic options on North Korea.

In this perspective, while secretary of State Tillerson was consistently calling for dialogue, Trump responded to North Korea missile tests with insults on Twitter ... He called Kim Jong "Little rocket man" and "Sick puppy".