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With the calm of global capital markets shattered in the past two weeks, the ongoing military conflict in the Middle East has taken an understandable back seat to monetary matters. And yet, tensions involving Syria, Iran and Israel continue to escalate, most notably with this weekend’s outright attack by Israel on Syria, allegedly in retaliation for an Iranian drone launch from a Syrian army base, and which led to the first downing of an Israeli F-16 jet in decades.

Yet what has so far prevented the proxy way from spinning out of control, was that Putin – as guarantor of the Syria-Iran axis on one hand, and Netanyahu as his nemesis on the other, had expressed restraint. For now.

That may change, however, following a Reuters report that Russian fighters were among those killed when U.S.-led coalition forces clashed with pro-government forces in Syria earlier this month.

While Russia’s Defense Ministry said at the time that pro-government militias involved in the incident had been carrying out reconnaissance “and no Russian servicemen had been in the area”, the story changed on Monday when it emerged that at least two Russian men fighting informally with pro-government forces were killed in the incident in Deir al-Zor province, their associates told Reuters.

One of the dead was named as Vladimir Loginov, a Cossack from Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave. Maxim Buga, a leader of the Cossack community there, said Loginov had been killed around Feb. 7 along with “dozens” of other Russian fighters.

The other man killed was named as Kirill Ananiev, described as a radical Russian nationalist. Alexander Averin, a spokesman for the nationalist party he was linked to, told Reuters Ananiev had been killed in shelling in the same fighting on Feb. 7.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Israel “Preparing For War In North”, Boosts Air Defenses; Warns Iran

February 11, 2018

Israel “Preparing For War In North”, Boosts Air Defenses; Warns Iran

Witnesses cited by JPost reported seeing a convoy of missile-defense batteries heading north near the Israeli-Arab city of Baka al-Gharbiya. Other witnesses posted photos of several trucks carrying the batteries on central highways in northern Israel.

Israel’s air defenses currently include the Iron Dome, designed to shoot down short-range rockets.

Additionally there is the Arrow system, which intercepts ballistic missiles outside of the Earth’s atmosphere and the David’s Sling missile-defense system, which is designed to intercept tactical ballistic missiles, medium- to long-range rockets and cruise missiles fired from ranges of between 40 km. to 300 km.

The Arrow system was first reportedly used in April when it was launched to intercept three surface-to-air missiles fired toward IAF jets by Syrian-regime air defense.

* * *

Meanwhile, according to AFP, Israel issued a stark warning on Sunday over Iran’s presence in neighbouring Syria after the previously reported confrontation between the neighboring nations threatened to open a new and unpredictable period in Syria’s seven-year civil war, which now appears to also be engaged in de facto war against Israel.

In a dramatic escalation, Israel carried out major air raids in Syria on Saturday, including against what it described as Iranian targets – the first time it had publicly acknowledged doing so since the war began. The raids came after an Israeli F16 fighter was shot down by Syrian air defenses.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Israel Carries Out “Large Scale Attack” On Syria After Israeli F-16 Shot Down

February 10, 2018

Israel Carries Out “Large Scale Attack” On Syria After Israeli F-16 Shot Down

What we previously described as Assad’s strategic “waiting game” and reluctance to respond to repeat Israeli violations of Syrian airspace while launching unprovoked attacks appears to be over as Syrian air defense has shot down an Israeli F-16 fighter jet near the Golan border region in what is a major escalation in the conflict.

IDF
✔@IDFSpokesperson

Moments ago, IAF aircraft, targeted the Syrian Aerial Defense System & Iranian targets in Syria. 12 targets, including 3 aerial defense batteries & 4 Iranian military targets, were attacked. Anti-aircraft missiles were fired towards Israel, triggering alarms in northern Israel

3:13 AM – Feb 10, 2018

Leith Aboufadel
✔@leithfadel

Sources in Damascus say surface-to-air missiles going off non-stop. Israel is pounding western Damascus

2:20 AM – Feb 10, 2018

Though details remain murky and are still developing, Israel has confirmed that its F-16 jet has crashed in Israeli territory after it was struck carrying out operations targeting locations in Syria. The IDF spokesman quickly stated in a tweet confirming the shoot down that “Iran is responsible for this severe violation of Israeli sovereignty.”

Confirmed photographs of the F-16 crash site in Northern Israel, which is reported to be 20-30km from the Syrian border.

Israeli security forces walk next to the remains of the downed F-16 Israeli war plane near the Israeli village of Harduf, Israel. February 10, 2018. Image source: Reuters

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Man Who Sold America the Iraq War Just Warned Iran Is Next, but Is Anyone Listening?

February 7, 2018

(ANTIMEDIA) — Fifteen years after the calamitous U.S. invasion of Iraq, an architect of the propaganda used to drum up support for the war is warning that it’s happening again — this time with Iran.

Lawrence Wilkerson, who was chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, helped the then-secretary “paint a clear picture that war was the only choice” in his infamous 2003 speech to the U.N. This week, writing for the New York Times — an outlet that, at the time, parroted misleading narratives in support of the war — Wilkerson accused the Trump administration of manipulating evidence and fear-mongering in the same way the Bush administration did to cultivate public support for ousting Saddam Hussein.

In his Monday op-ed, titled “ I Helped Sell the False Choice of War Once. It’s Happening Again,” he wrote:

“As his chief of staff, I helped Secretary Powell paint a clear picture that war was the only choice, that when ‘we confront a regime that harbors ambitions for regional domination, hides weapons of mass destruction and provides haven and active support for terrorists, we are not confronting the past, we are confronting the present. And unless we act, we are confronting an even more frightening future.’”

Though the U.N. and much of the world didn’t buy it, Wilkerson says Americans did, and it amounted to the culmination of a two-year effort by the Bush administration to initiate the war, which he now condemns.

“That effort led to a war of choice with Iraq — one that resulted in catastrophic losses for the region and the United States-led coalition, and that destabilized the entire Middle East,” he wrote, going on to call out the Trump administration for pushing the United States down the same path in Iran.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Blowback: How a CIA-Backed Coup Let to the Rise of Iran’s Ayatollahs

February 5, 2018

WHY CAN’T IRAN have a secular, democratic government? It’s a question Americans often ask of their longstanding Middle East adversary — especially when they see images of anti-regime protesters taking to the streets of major Iranian cities and towns to demand greater freedom.

Unlike citizens of the Islamic Republic, however, citizens of the United States tend to have short memories. The historical reality is that Iran didhave a secular, democratic government, led by Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh between 1951 and 1953 — but Mossadegh was removed from power in a coup organized and funded by the CIA and Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6.

With a handful of exceptions — Madeleine Albright in 2000, Barack Obama in 2009 and 2015 — most mainstream U.S. politicians have little to say about any of this sordid history. In Washington, D.C., Iranian hostility toward the U.S. has long been treated as inexplicable and irrational, while the CIA’s role in the 1953 coup — which set off a chain of events that resulted in the rise of Iran’s ayatollahs and the Islamic Revolution of 1979 — has vanished into a memory hole.

It was left to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, of all people, to remind Americans of the catastrophic consequences of that coup in a televised debatewith Hillary Clinton during the Democratic presidential primaries in February 2016:

Mossadegh back in 1953. Nobody knows who Mossadegh was. Democratically elected prime minister of Iran. He was overthrown by British and American interests because he threatened oil interests of the British. And as a result of that, the Shah of Iran came in, terrible dictator, and as a result of that, you had the Iranian Revolution coming in, and that’s where we are today. Unintended consequence.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

How regional rivalries threaten to fuel the fire in Syria and Iran

January 31, 2018

How regional rivalries threaten to fuel the fire in Syria and Iran

Turkish allegations of Saudi, Emirati and Egyptian support for the outlawed Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) threaten to turn Turkey’s military offensive against Syrian Kurds aligned with the PKK into a regional imbroglio.

The threat is magnified by Iranian assertions that low-intensity warfare is heating up in areas of the Islamic republic populated by ethnic minorities, including the Kurds in the northwest and the Baloch on the border with Pakistan.

Taken together, the two developments raise the spectre of a potentially debilitating escalation of the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran as well as an aggravation of the eight-month-old Gulf crisis that has pitted Saudi Arabia and its allies against Qatar, which has forged close ties to Turkey.

The United Arab Emirates and Egypt rather than Saudi Arabia have taken the lead in criticizing Turkey’s incursion into Syria designed to remove US-backed Kurds from the countries’ border and create a 30-kilometer deep buffer zone.

UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said the incursion by a non-Arab state signalled that Arab states would be marginalized if they failed to develop a national security strategy.

Egypt, for its part, condemned the incursion as a “fresh violation of Syrian sovereignty” that was intended to “undermine the existing efforts for political solutions and counter-terrorism efforts in Syria,”

Despite Saudi silence, Yeni Safak, a newspaper closely aligned with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), charged that a $1 billion Saudi contribution to the reconstruction of Raqqa, the now Syrian Kurdish-controlled former capital of the Islamic State, was evidence of the kingdom’s involvement in what it termed a “dirty game.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Tillerson Pledges Open-Ended Military Presence In Syria To Counter Iran

January 17, 2018

Tillerson Pledges Open-Ended Military Presence In Syria To Counter Iran

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke at Stanford University Wednesday afternoon about the future of Syria and the US role in the war. In his talk entitled, “The Way Forward in Syria,” Tillerson once again reiterated the US desire to eventually see President Bashar al Assad removed from power while also pledging US commitment to staying in Syria in order to counter Iran’s influence in the region.

Ultimately, according to Tillerson, “the Unites States will remain in Syria” until certain conditions are met which include the complete destruction of ISIS, Assad’s removal from power, and the return of refugees to a stabilized country.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke alongside former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at Stanford University on Wednesday. Image source: KGO-TV

The talk – which was seen as the clearest articulation of Trump’s future strategy in Syria thus far – comes after the Pentagon announced plans on Sunday for the US coalition in Syria to establish a 30,000-strong new border security force with the Kurdish dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which many analysts see ultimately as a US commitment to the partitioning of Syria along ethnic and sectarian lines. Currently there are over 2,000 US troops in Syria according to recent Pentagon statements.

Notably, Tillerson also articulated President Trump’s plan for US personnel to stay in Syria to complete “stabilization initiatives in liberated areas” while simultaneously on the international front waging economic war against the Syrian government. “We will discourage economic relationships between the Assad regime and any other country,” Tillerson said. “Once Assad is gone from power, the United States will gladly encourage the normalization of economic relationships between Syria and other nations.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Fabricating a War on Iran

January 10, 2018

Fabricating a War on Iran

Photo by futureatlas.com | CC BY 2.0

Secretary of State Colin Powell brandished a vial he claimed contained anthrax at the UN Security Council on 5 February 2003, and showed satellite photos of secret sites where chemical weapons were supposed to be manufactured. He later admitted the story was fabricated, but not before it had served as a PR launch pad for the Iraq war.

On 11 December 2017 the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, appeared with huge fragments of what she claimed was an Iranian missile that had missed its target. She maintained it had been fired from Yemen at a Saudi civil airport, ‘a G20 country’ and had ‘the potential to kill hundreds of innocent civilians in Saudi Arabia … Just imagine if this missile had been launched at Dulles Airport or JFK. Or the airport in Paris, London or Berlin.’

Never mind it could not have travelled that far. Once again, fear is being manufactured to justify war: 14 years after destroying Iraq, the US government has Iran in its sights.

Haley’s lack of imagination might be entertaining were the subject not so serious. In 2003 Powell criticised the existence of ‘sinister’ links between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaida. This was replayed on 1 November 2017: the CIA published a cache of documents seized in Pakistan when Osama bin Laden was assassinated, supposed to prove the existence of improbable links between some of Bin Laden’s successors and Iran’s (Shia) leadership.

It’s as if Washington has already forgotten the support – real, not alleged – it gave Bin Laden when he fought the Soviets in Afghanistan, or Ronald Reagan’s illegal arms sales to Iran when he sought funding for his far-right friends in Nicaragua.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Iran Sanctions Will Help China’s Petro-Yuan

January 9, 2018

Iran Sanctions Will Help China’s Petro-Yuan

In a few days, U.S. President Trump may try to re-impose sanctions on Iran, a dramatic step that could heighten tensions between the two countries. Some analysts believe the move could contribute to a much broader global economic power shift from the U.S. to China.

The connection between the issues may not be obvious at first glance, but by seeking to isolate Iran from the international market, Iran could look elsewhere. Because the global oil trade is conducted in greenbacks, the U.S Treasury was able to restrict Iran’s ability to access the global financial system in the past. That made it extremely difficult for Iran to sell its oil prior to the thaw in relations in 2015, which kept millions of barrels of daily oil production on the sidelines.

This time around, however, the U.S. will likely go it alone. The Trump administration won’t have the backing of the international community in its campaign to resurrect sanctions against Iran, which will make isolation much more difficult. A few months ago, Goldman Sachs predicted that unilateral sanctions from the U.S. could affect a few hundred thousand barrels per day from Iran, but without help from the rest of the world, the effort would not curtail nearly the same amount of oil as the last time around.

Moreover, some analysts argue that the Washington crackdown could merely push Iran to begin selling oil under contracts denominated in yuan rather than dollars.

“Potential consequent reactivation of sanctions may cause Iran to export oil using the Chinese Yuan denominated contract, which launches on 18 January,” Bjarne Schieldrop, Chief Commodities Analyst at SEB, said in a statement. “This may spark a move away from the present long-established U.S. Dollar (USD) denominated oil trading regime.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

From Shahs To The CIA: The History Of Western Intervention In Iran – Part 1

January 7, 2018

From Shahs To The CIA: The History Of Western Intervention In Iran – Part 1

“Once you understand what people want, you can’t hate them anymore. You can fear them, but you can’t hate them, because you can find the same desires in your own heart” – concluded Andrew Wiggins in the novel Speaker for the Dead. When Americans hear the word Iran, many have a sort of knee-jerk visceral reaction. The very mention of the word conjures up frightful images of be-turbaned bearded imams leading mobs of Kalashnikov-carrying Muslim men and women whose faces are grotesquely contorted by intense anger as they enthusiastically wave banners bearing squiggly lines, no doubt saying, “Death to America”.

Such specters are no frightful flights of fantasy, but reflect a real time and place in Iranian history. The year was 1979 and the place was Tehran. But the Islamic Revolution and subsequent American embassy hostage crisis which shocked the world, catching the West completely off guard, did not materialize in a vacuum. The chaotic domino effect which would lead modern Iran into the hands of the Ayatollahs was set off from the moment the CIA intervened with its 1953 coup d’état in Tehran, which became known as ‘Operation Ajax’.

The opening sequence from the 2012 movie ‘Argo’ features a brief history of aggressive Western intervention which shaped modern Iran.

But Western intervention in Iran’s affairs actually started many decades prior even to the CIA’s well-known covert operation with the establishment of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, or today’s British Petroleum (BP). After this, the 20th century witnessed a series of external interventions in Iran – a pattern which could potentially be continued now at the beginning of the 21st century as officials in the US and Israeli governments are now calling for action in support of protesters.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Iran Claims It Has “Hard Evidence” Of Foreign Meddling In Protests

January 6, 2018

Iran Claims It Has “Hard Evidence” Of Foreign Meddling In Protests

Friday’s UN Security Council meeting didn’t disappoint in terms of the anticipated level of inflammatory rhetoric and accusations. Also not unexpected is that the US finds itself isolated after a week of the Trump White House going on the offensive: first by essentially calling for regime change in Iran after the onset of mass protests last week (the State Dept.’s first statement a week ago referenced “transition of government”), and then came the bombshell announcement that all foreign aid to Pakistan, which reportedly totals up to $2 billion in promised security aid, has been cut.

And not helpful to any of this was Trump’s lashing out through a series off the cuff tweets aimed at Iran and Pakistan in the past days – some of which may have precipitated Pakistan’s finally pulling the trigger on ditching the dollar in trade with China in retaliation.

Image via the AP

These countries and others came out swinging at the UN. First, Iran’s ambassador told the meeting that his government has “hard evidence” that recent protests in Iran were “very clearly directed from abroad.”

According to the Washington Post, Iran’s highest legal authority previously claimed direct CIA involvement in the unrest which has now taken over two dozen lives, including at least one police officer and three Iranian intelligence officers who were reported killed during clashes in the western city of Piranshahr on Wednesday. The Washington Post summarized the allegations as follows:

Iran’s prosecutor general, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, alleged Thursday that an American CIA official was the “main designer” of the demonstrations. And Iranian Ambassador Gholamali Khoshroo – whose country isn’t a Security Council member but was invited to participate Friday – said the protests had gotten “direct encouragement by foreign forces including by the president of the United States.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Iran in 2018

January 5, 2018

Iran in 2018

In 1953 Washington and Britain overthrew the democratically elected government of Mohammad Mosaddegh and installed a dictator to rule Iran for the benefit of Washington and the British. In declassified documents, the CIA has admitted its role in overthrowing the Iranian government. The overthrow pattern is always the same. Washington hires protesters, then introduces violence, controls the explanation, and unseats the government.

Ever since the Iranian Revolution that overthrew the Washington-installed dictator in1979, Washington has been trying to regain control of Iran. In 2009 Washington financed the “Green Revolution,” which was an attempt to overthrow the Ahmadinejad government.

Today Washington is again at work against the Iranian people. It is difficult to believe that any Iranian, after watching what Washington-organized protests have done to Hondurus, Libya, Ukraine, and Syria, have attempted to do to Iran in 2009, and is attempting to do today to Venezuela, could possibly in good faith go out into the streets against their own government. Are these Iranian protesters utterly stupid or are they hired to commit treason against their country?

Why does Iran permit foreign-funded operatives to attempt to destabilize the government as Ukraine did and as Venezuela does today? Are these governments so brainwashed by the West that they think that democracy means permitting foreign agents to attempt to overthrow the government?

Are governments so intimidated by the Western presstitutes that they find it challenging to defend themselves against foreign-paid provocateurs?

Having succeeded in causing violent protests in Iran, Washington now intends to use an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Iran in order to set the stage for more intervention against Iran. The Washington-incited violence has been turned into a “human rights issue” against Iran. Will Washington get away with it?

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Russia Slams US “Attempts To Interfere” In Iran After Macron Warns Of “Conflict Of Extreme Brutality”

January 4, 2018

Russia Slams US “Attempts To Interfere” In Iran After Macron Warns Of “Conflict Of Extreme Brutality”

Russia has joined China in calling for a policy of non-interference in Iran’s domestic affairs after a week of unrest has gripped multiple major cities and towns across the country in what started as protests over economic grievances, but which have since increasingly turned to riots and calls for President Rouhani and the clerical regime to step down, resulting in the deaths of at least 22 people, including at least one police officer who was shot dead.

In remarks given to Russia’s TASS news agency Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov expressly warned the US “against attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” while stressing, “What is happening there is an internal affair, which attracts the attention of the international community.” Russia’s stance is similar to that of China’s voiced previously on Tuesday. When asked about the Iran protests at a regularly scheduled press conference, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang simply gave a one-sentence answer, saying, “China hopes that Iran can maintain stability and achieve development.”

Image source: Reuters via al Monitor

Both Russia and China – permanent members of the UN Security Council – have already signed deals worth billions to develop sectors related to travel, energy, and infrastructure, soon after international sanctions were lifted in January 2016 as part of the 2015 nuclear deal brokered by the United Kingdom, United States, France, Russia, China, and Germany. Last August Russia and Iran signed a $2.5 billion deal to jump start the rebuilding of Iran’s ailing rail lines. Forbes described Iran as poised for an “infrastructure building bonanza” at a moment when trade with Russia doubled over the course of 2016, which has included the sale of military equipment such as helicopters and various rocket systems, and has also seen Russian oil and gas giants such as Gazprom quickly move into Iran.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Iranian Protests – Target of Opportunity or Necessity?

January 4, 2018

Iranian Protests – Target of Opportunity or Necessity?

From the moment reports of protests in Iran surfaced I was skeptical of the narrative. It only makes sense to be. So many things are coming together in the first half of 2018 that the timing of these protests warrants scrutiny.

The earliest reports were of legitimate and peaceful protests of changes in law creating huge price spikes in certain foods and commodities. But, that was quickly hijacked by forces both internal and external to foment wider strife and violence.

I recommend Moon of Alabama’s commentary on the early days of these protests to get up to speed with how complicated the situation may be in Iran (here and here). In short, what started as normal grievance airing has blossomed into something uglier but that still hasn’t reached anything close to the critical mass needed to replicate successful regime change operations in Libya and Ukraine.

And with very good reason. Iranians are not as fractious in their opinion of their government as simplistic narratives spun by the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Israel would have you believe. This commentary by Ramin Mazaheri over at The Saker’s Blog makes this very salient point:

For 8 horrible years the West foisted Iraq on Iran, supplied Iraq with weapons, turned a blind eye to the worst chemical weapons atrocities since World War One, and did all they could to create, prolong and influence the deadliest war in the last quarter of the 20th century.

And it was still not enough.

A 2nd phony Western war would also totally backfire in 2018 – have no doubt about that. The Iran-Iraq War created a nationalist unity which Libya did not have; Libya’s revolution did create the highest standard of living in Africa and fewer poor people than the imperialist Netherlands (and free loans, education, health care, etc.), but it was never really tested.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Iranian Crisis Could Send Oil To $100

January 3, 2018

Iranian Crisis Could Send Oil To $100

Oil prices started the year on a high note as some geopolitical tension pushed aside bearish concerns. Both WTI and Brent opened above $60 per barrel for the first time in years.

The protests in Iran were the main driver of the bullish sentiment in the oil market. Anti-government demonstrations swept across the country in recent days, and unlike the widespread protests in 2009, the current rallies are related to economic woes and are also taking place in more cities than just Tehran. “Growing unrest in Iran set the table for a bullish start to 2018,” the Schork Report said in a note to clients on January 2.

At least 14 people have been killed in the protests and an estimated 450 have been arrested. It is the most serious challenge to the Iranian government in years, and Iran’s Supreme Leader put the blame on foreign agents, presumably the United States. “In recent days, enemies of Iran used different tools including cash, weapons, politics and intelligence apparatus to create troubles for the Islamic Republic,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said.

Meanwhile, tension over North Korea – although not a new development – could be spreading to include a spat between the U.S. and Russia as well as the U.S. and China. Reuters reportedlate last week that Russian oil tankers have sent fuel to North Korea on multiple occasions in the last few months by transferring cargoes at sea. If true, the actions would amount to a violation of UN sanctions. Sources told Reuters that there is no evidence that the Russian state was involved, but the news has raised the specter of U.S.-Russian tension as Washington seeks a hard line on Pyongyang.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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