Middle East

The Unpredictable Implications Of The Killing Of Khashoggi

October 14, 2018 Moon of Alabama Educate! Jamal Khashoggi, Middle East, Saudi Arabia

The negotiation over the Khashoggi case will be extremely difficult. The protagonists are headstrong and dangerous people. The issue could easily escalate. It could escalate into something much bigger that could be painful for many people. Unfortunately there seems to be no one who could talk sense to these people and get them to bury the case. While I earlier thought that the case would be settled rather sooner than later, I now expect the conflict to go on for weeks or months while collateral damage will accumulate around it.

Syria And The S-300s: Re-Centering The People In The Global Struggles For Power

October 4, 2018 Ajamu Baraka, Blackagendareport.com Educate! China, Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Middle East, Russia, United States

But as result of greed, hubris and just plain incompetence, U.S. policy-makers, especially the amateurs running foreign policy during the Obama years, pushed the Russians out of their preferred zone of caution in international affairs, with Syria being exhibit A. Forcing the Russians’ hand in Syria was followed by the Ukraine when the U.S. sparked a coup in that nation as the second front against Russian “intervention” in Syria. So it was quite comical to see how the announcement that Russia will deliver the S-300 air defense system to the Syrian government was met with feigned horror by U.S. and NATO forces . This decision was taken after the U.S. allowed or didn’t stop the Israeli Air Force from playing games that resulted in a Russia cargo plane being shot out of the air by Syrian ground defenses who mistook the Russia plane for an Israeli aircraft.

17 Years Of Getting Afghanistan Completely Wrong

September 29, 2018 David Swanson, Davidswanson.org Educate! Afghanistan, Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Middle East, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

There are, as far as I know, no polls on the percentage of people in the United States who know that the war is still going on, but it seems to be pretty low. Polling Report lists no polls at all on Afghanistan in the past three years. For longer than most wars have lasted in total, this one has gone on with no public discussion of whether or not it should, just annual testimony before Congress that this next year is going to really be the charm. Things people don’t know are happening are not polled about, which contributes to nobody knowing they are happening. Possible reasons for such ignorance include: there have been too many wars spawned by this one to keep track of them all; President Obama claimed to have “ended” the war while explicitly and actually not ending it, and pointing this out could be impolite...

Freedom Rider: World War Dangers In Syria

September 28, 2018 Margaret Kimberley, Blackagendareport.com Educate! Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Middle East, Syria, US Imperialism

President Bashar al-Assad has reconquered most of Syria from the United States-backed al Qaeda and Isis terrorists. But the war that should be over isn’t because the U.S., Israel, Turkey and Saudi Arabia refuse to walk away from their regime change scheme.Their goals haven’t changed and theyare determined to carve up as much of Syria as they can and prevent their venture from being a total loss. Their plots may yet create an even wider conflagration after a Russian plane was shot down as a result of Israeli skullduggery. The average American is unaware of the dangers because the corporate media collude with Democrats and Republicans to make the case for endless war. Russia has been so thoroughly demonized that only a handful of people would question an attack on that country which is in fact operating within the framework of international law.

Speaking In Front Of Israel’s Nukes, Netanyahu Says IDF Will Hit Iranian Forces In Syria With “All Its Might”

August 31, 2018 By Whitney Webb, Mintpressnews.com Educate! Iran, Israel, Middle East, Nuclear Weapons, Syria

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL – During a ceremony at an Israeli nuclear-weapons development center, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a speech in which he stated that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) would act with “all its might” against Iranian military assets in Syria, and that Israel would oppose Iran’s presence in Syria with the same “determination” it used to push the United States to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Revisiting Regime Change In Iran

August 28, 2018 Gareth Smyth, Lobelog.com Educate! Iran, Middle East, Regime Change, US Imperialism

After abandoning the 2015 nuclear agreement signed by the Obama administration with Iran and five world powers, the Trump administration has returned to past American notions of Iran’s Islamic Republic being either overthrown or weakened to the point of collapse. President Donald Trump’s national security advisor, John Bolton, has led the argument that a new wave of United States sanctions will encourage widespread protests within Iran. Bolton has long called for ‘regime change’, and has been an associate and paid advocate of the Mujahideen-e Khalq, an opposition group with a long record of violence. In Israel last week, Bolton stressed that official Trump administration policy is for “a massive change in the regime’s behaviour” rather than ‘regime change’.

Saudi Leader To Keep Bombing Children So Yemen Fears Saudi Arabia For Generations

August 28, 2018 By Whitney Webb, Mintpressnews.com Educate! Children, Middle East, Saudi Arabia, US Imperialism, Yemen

NEW YORK — On Monday, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, Lise Grande, called for an “independent and impartial investigation” into the Saudi Arabia-led coalition’s attacks on Yemeni civilians. Grande stated that “what is happening in Yemen is unimaginable” and added that “the time has come to wake up to the terrible reality of the war and its human cost and the need to work together to end hostilities.” Grande cited last week’s attacks on a family home and later on a civilian vehicle fleeing fighting near the city of Dreihimi. Those two airstrikes, separated by a matter of hours, killed over 30 civilians, at least 24 of whom were children, some as young as three years old. Despite the international outcry from UN officials and other public figures, the concern over the coalition’s extensive targeting of civilians is unlikely to influence Saudi Arabia’s actions.

UN Chief Suggests Deploying Armed Forces To Protect Palestinians From Israel

August 28, 2018 Staff, Mintpressnews.com Educate! Israel, Middle East, Nationalism, Occupation, Palestine

“The combination of prolonged military occupation, constant security threats, weak political institutions, and a deadlocked peace process provides for a protection challenge that is highly complex politically, legally and practically.” The protection of Palestinian civilians could be improved by the deployment of UN-mandated armed forces or unarmed observers, a beefed-up UN civilian presence or expanded UN assistance, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote in a report on Friday. The United Nations General Assembly requested the report in a resolution adopted in June that condemned Israel for excessive force against Palestinian civilians and denounced the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israeli civilian areas. The resolution asked for proposals to ensure “the safety, protection and well-being of the Palestinian civilian population under Israeli occupation, including … recommendations regarding an international protection mechanism.

Should Al Qaeda Be Made The 51st State?

August 9, 2018 David Swanson, Davidswanson.org Educate! Middle East, Repression, US Imperialism

While Saudis have threatened Canada with a 9/11 attack, the U.S. has moved on to blaming 9/11 on Iran. Al Qaeda, despite being Saudi in origins and ideology, was easily tied to Afghanistan, then Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, the Philippines, and Yemen, and now Iran. The potential is almost as endless as with Communism in the good old days. Without Al Qaeda the United States would not be whole. With it, all is in perfect balance. If there were no Al Qaeda we’d have to invent one. In fact, where there is no Al Qaeda, the effective policy has been to invent one. Pretending there’s been a major Al Qaeda presence in Afghanistan has worked wonders. Pretending Al Qaeda members all wanted to move to Afghanistan from which to destroy the United States, the moment the United States stopped bombing people and kicking in doors and paying off members of Al Qaeda or related groups in Afghanistan has been a gold mine.

Weapons Made In America

July 28, 2018 Vijay Prashad, Newsclick.in Educate! Children, Middle East, Military Industrial Complex, US Imperialism, Yemen

US President Donald Trump has made economic nationalism the centrepiece of his political agenda. ‘Made in America’ is one his touchstones. Trade wars are part of his arsenal. Last month, in the shadows of the White House, Trump met with his advisers to cement a renewed approach – sell more weapons around the world. Other sectors of the US economy might be stagnant, but the arms industry is booming. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), US arms exports increased by 25% from 2013 to 2017. The United States now accounts for over a third of total arms exports. The arms deals, since 1975, have escalated as was dramatically shown by a video made by Will Geary based on SIPRI data.

Chomsky, Prashad, Hedges And Other Leading Intellectuals: Denuclearize The Middle East

July 27, 2018 By Noam Chomsky, Commondreams.org Create! Chris Hedges, Left Politics, Middle East, Noam Chomsky

American political decision makers, as well as Israeli political leaders, need to rethink their political, military, economic, and cultural policies in the region. The Middle East is in turmoil now, possibly again on the verge of a major war that could draw in the United States and Russia. President Donald Trump has pulled the United States out of the six-nation nuclear agreement with Iran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA. Although a few of his advisers counseled against leaving the agreement, he has brought into his cabinet advisers who are known to be hawkish toward the Middle East and prefer regime change in that area to regime reform. The most notable of these advisers is John Bolton, appointed as director of the National Security Agency.

God Only Knows

July 25, 2018 By Sean Reynolds, Vcnv.org Educate! Middle East, US Imperialism, Yemen

In July of 2018, an Amnesty International report entitled “God Only Knows If He’s Alive,” documented the plight of dozens of families in southern Yemen whose loved ones have been tortured, killed, or forcibly disappeared by Yemeni security forces reporting to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE is part of the Saudi-led coalition that, with vital US support, has been bombarding and blockading famine and disease-ravaged Yemen for three brutal years. The disappearances, and torture, can sadly be laid at the doorstep of the United States. One testimonial after another echoes the sentiments of a woman whose husband has been held incommunicado for more than two years. “Shouldn’t they be given a trial?” she asked. “Why else are there courts? They shouldn’t be disappeared this way – not only are we unable to visit them, we don’t even know if they are dead or alive.”

Afghanistan: Civilian Deaths Hit Record High, Says UN

July 19, 2018 Staff, Aljazeera.com Educate! Afghanistan, Middle East, United Nations, Violence

The number of civilians killed in Afghanistan hit a record high in the first half of the year, despite last month's ceasefire, according to the United Nations. In the latest figures released on Sunday by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), 1,692 civilians were killed during the first six months of 2018 - the most recorded in the period over the last decade since the agency began documentation. However, with a total of 5,122 casualties, including 3,430 injuries, UNAMA recorded a three percent overall decrease in the number of those affected by the violence in the war-torn country. The UN figures also showed a 15 percent drop in child and women casualties - at 1,355 and 544 respectively - but UNAMA voiced grave concern over the human cost of the conflict. "In the first six months of 2018, the armed conflict continued to destroy the lives and livelihoods of civilians at the same toxic levels as last year," the report said.

Middle East Peace Plan Doesn’t Ring True

July 2, 2018 Linda S. Heard, Intrepidreport.com Educate! Gaza, Israel, Middle East, Nationalism, US Imperialism

The US administration’s peace team, led by Jewish colony funders Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, has recently held meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as the leaders of Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, hoping to pave the way for the implementation of President Trump’s mysterious peace plan. The details are still being kept from public scrutiny. The overall framework has received no input from Palestinian National Authority (PNA) negotiators who turned their backs on US mediation in response to the US Embassy’s relocation to occupied Jerusalem as well as America’s hostile stances towards the Palestinian people in the UN Security Council (UNSC).

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