International virus
The whole world is affected by the coronavirus, now called COVID19, because it is putting in check, for example, from the celebration of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to the Chinese Formula 1 Grand Prix. International media attention is focused on the virus and its consequences in China and other countries, where many things continue to happen that should not be lost sight of. There is a powerful reason: in the global village in which we live surrounded by tension and confrontation, nothing happens by chance and everything is related, one way or another. What was a suspicion several days ago among experts in international relations about the origin and spread of the virus is beginning to be reported in some Arab and other countries' media.
They point to the United States and Israel, but we should not be naive because the situation also lends itself to launching false news in a campaign to discredit these countries. Beyond the objectives of political attrition and global influence and power, there are the threads that usually move almost everything on the international scene: economic, commercial and business interests. The damage that China is suffering, in the midst of a struggle for hegemony in the world economy, including a trade war with the United States, can have consequences that are still difficult to quantify or predict.
The signing of the first agreement between Beijing and Washington to end the trade war may have been forced in the face of what was to come for the Chinese communist regime, which has had to resort in public to its leader, Xi Jinping, wearing the long-awaited mask in order to reduce not only the panic in some regions of the country, but also to face protests from those most affected in Wuhan, a historic place for modern Chinese history. In the Middle East, with a certain calm between Iranians and Americans after the death of General Soleimani, we witnessed the attempted show of force by the Turkish President, Recep Tayip Erdogan in Syria and Libya. His defiant threats to the Syrian regime of President Al-Assad are pitting him against Russia, his former refuge after his estrangement from the United States and NATO. His interference in the Libyan crisis by sending soldiers, mercenaries and weapons has complicated and worsened the situation in this Mediterranean country that serves as a refuge and area of action for terrorist militias and mafias trafficking in people, drugs, weapons and everything that provides money. Erdogan seems to have started a flight abroad, as dictators usually do, in order to distract attention from the real problems of the Turks, who have serious economic problems and are disaffected with the president's imperialist appetites for spending.
In Yemen, meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates has confirmed its support for the legal government to prevent the country from falling into the hands of the Hutu rebels, supported by Iran, and to protect some regions from Al Qaeda terrorism.