Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Myanmar’s military junta hired an Israeli-Canadian lobby to help explain to the west about the situation currently facing the country. Ari Ben-Menashe (69) was recruited by the Tatmadaw, as the junta is called, this week, The Guardian reported.
Ben-Menashe is not just anyone. He is a former arms dealer who has worked for the African nation’s longtime ruler, Robert Mugabe. He has also worked for the Sudanese military junta including presidential candidates in a number of countries such as Venezuela, Tunisia and Kyrgyzstan.
In an interview, the man who was born in Tehran, Iran, confirmed this. He was paid a large sum by the junta and will receive a bonus if sanctions on Myanmar’s military leaders are lifted.
Ben-Menashe said his political consulting firm, Dickens & Madson Canada, had been hired by Myanmar’s generals to help him communicate with the US and other countries. “To resolve their misunderstanding,” he quotes Guardian.
The message to the west is leader de facto Myanmar, which was overthrown last February 1,, Aung San Suu Kyi has a more role than what the US and other countries know. Included in the persecution of the Rohingya ethnic minority and allowing China’s growing influence.
“There is a real impetus for (Myanmar’s junta) to move towards the west and the US rather than trying to get closer to China,” Ben-Menashe told Reuters quoted Tuesday (9/3/2021).
“They don’t want to be puppets of China.” Even so, the claim could not be verified. Because Suu Kyii is currently serving special detention and is facing a number of charges from the junta. “
Aung San Suu Kyi as the leader is the one who commits (violence) on the Rohingya, not the army, “he added.
Suu Kyi has repeatedly defended Myanmar military violence against the Rohingya including in The Hague in 2019. This has led to calls for her to be removed from a number of awards including the Nobel peace prize.
Meanwhile in the US, Ben-Menashe himself became famous because he accused US president Ronald Reagen of conspiring with Iranian revolutionaries to free American hostages during the 1980 campaign, against Jimmy Carter. He also made a report on the close relations between the US and Iran regarding the sale of Senjaya to left-wing groups in Latin America.
In England, he once caused a scene when he published a report on Robert Maxwell, a member of the British parliament. He said Maxwell was a Mossad agent, Israeli intelligence, although this was denied.
(boss / boss)
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