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Archive for July 1, 2018

London fears losing ‘market’ and ‘influence’ if Trump makes ‘peace’ with ‘boogeyman’ Russia

July 1, 2018

Published time: 1 Jul, 2018 13:40

https://www.rt.com/news/431403-putin-trump-uk-nato/

Donald Trump (R) speaks with British Prime Minister Theresa May at a working dinner meeting at the NATO in Brussels, on May 25, 2017. © Matt Dunham / AFP

The UK establishment is alarmed by a “peace deal” that Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump may reach at their upcoming meeting. London has used Moscow as a “boogeyman” to preserve its fading influence in Europe, experts told RT.

After the time and date of the meeting – that is, Helsinki, Finland on June 16 – was set this week, the Times laid out a piece conveying the fears of unnamed cabinet ministers that a “peace deal” will undermine NATO and compromise European security.

Ideas of “what can go wrong” ranged from the cancelation or downsizing of NATO drills in Eastern Europe to acknowledging Crimea as Russian territory and lifting sanctions against Moscow. One minister even predicted “further provocation by Moscow.”

Clear and present danger of “losing market”

“The UK has been one of the most active supporters of a hard line towards Russia,” and the “vigorous resistance” of its ruling circles to any positive shift in the stance of Washington towards Moscow shouldn’t be surprising, Alexander Bartosh, a military expert and former Russian diplomat, told RT.

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“The UK, which quit the European Union, feels a certain loss of its weight in Europe and tries to turn Russia into a kind of boogeyman, seeing the ‘Russian threat’ as a unifying factor for nations, looking for closer ties with London,” he said.

British historian and author on international affairs John Laughland believes that “in the context of Brexit, Britain wants to talk up the Russian threat in order to be able to sell British military expertise, military capacity, and intelligence gathering expertise to the Europeans.

“The British are afraid [because] if the Russian threat is perceived to disappear they lose their market.”

There are all grounds for London to worry because “the common belief that America and Britain are such great friends isn’t really justified, as there are many in the US who support tougher and more pragmatic relations with the UK. The Americans don’t want to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for Britain as they used to do previously,” Bartosh said.

Friends and money

The paper also wrote about fears that US President Donald Trump, who has been bashing NATO allies for not chipping in enough to the organization’s budget, may accept the Polish offer to pay for the establishment of a permanent US base in the country in a bypass of NATO.

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Bartosh believes Poland is striving to replace the UK as America’s prime ally in the region.

“The Poles are using the decrease of the British influence in Europe to show the US that they should now put stakes on them,” he said.

Laughland also believes the proposed establishment of a US military base in Poland without NATO’s involvement “reduces Britain’s role and influence. It shows that it’s not NATO that’s important, but the US – which, of course, is the reality.”

Trump, who has been critical of NATO in the past, is only interested in the bloc “to the extent that he can get the Europeans to pay more money and buy more American weapons,” Laughland said.

By offering Washington a military base on its territory, Warsaw is “pursuing economic targets, in the first place, because it would increase the flow of funds into the Polish economy,” Bartosh said. “Poles are quite reasonable people and they are unlikely to really think that there’s some significant military threat coming from Russia towards Poland.”

So what about the meeting?

During their meeting, Putin and Trump will be trying to find a “unifying agenda for the US and Russia because the relations of the two countries affect not only their own wellbeing, but international security as a whole,” Bartosh said, adding that “none of the sides will be aiming to undermine the integrity of NATO.”

READ MORE: Trump to meet Putin regardless of ‘noise’ at home as it’s in US national interest – Bolton

NATO is jeopardized by internal problems, including Trump’s demands to members-states to increase military spending, divisions and differing views on threats within the EU, and the trade war between Europe and America, according to Bartosh.

It’s also “possible” that during their meeting, Putin and Trump will be able to “find the formulae to overcome the current situation” in relations between the West and Moscow,” Laughland said. The US sanctions can be lifted and the EU may follow suit shortly afterwards as “the European sanctions are coming under heavy questioning from Italy, Austria, Hungary, and other countries.”

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Israel deploys tanks, artillery forces at Syria border

July 1, 2018

Source: Israel deploys tanks, artillery forces at Syria border – Israel Hayom

Syrian rebels lose control of significant parts of southwest Syria as 160,000 refugees flee heavy bombardment • IDF: Israel maintains policy of non-involvement but will respond to any violation of sovereignty • U.N. warns of impending catastrophe in Syria.

News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

Smoke rises over buildings hit by a Syrian government forces attack in southern Syria on Thursday

| Photo: AP

Israel’s military said it deployed additional tank and artillery forces on the Syrian front on Sunday as a precaution given intensified fighting over the border between the Syrian army and rebels.

“The forces deployed this morning as part of preparations and readiness, in light of developments on the Syrian Golan Heights,” the military said in a tweet Sunday, adding that Israel was sticking to its longtime policy of non-intervention in Syria’s civil war.

“The IDF will continue to maintain its non-involvement in Syria while at the same time responding forcefully to any violation of Israel’s sovereignty or endangerment of Israel’s citizens,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement.

In Syria, meanwhile, a string of rebel-held towns and villages accepted government rule on Saturday as insurgent lines collapsed in parts of southwest Syria under an intense bombardment that the United Nations says has forced 160,000 people to flee.

The southwest was an early hotbed of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad and defeat there stands to leave rebels with just one remaining stronghold – the area around Idlib province bordering Turkey in the northwest.

Rebels met Russian negotiators on Saturday to seek peace terms for Daraa province, where most of their southwest territory is located, but said these failed.

Moscow is Assad’s strongest ally and its air power since 2015 has been crucial to his recapture of vast swathes of Syria.

Local groups in many towns seized by the army in recent days negotiated their own surrender deals independently of the main rebel operations, after heavy air raids.

Rebels said they had taken back several towns and villages lost to the army earlier in the day, but their overall loss of ground was still significant.

State television broadcast footage from inside the towns of Dael and al-Ghariya al-Gharbiya, where people were shown chanting pro-Assad slogans. A war monitor and a military media unit run by the government’s ally Hezbollah said numerous other towns and villages had agreed to come back under Assad’s rule.

Fierce battles were still ongoing around Daraa city, near the Jordanian border, where the army had repeatedly failed to capture a disused air base, rebels said. The northwestern chunk of Daraa province remains in opposition hands.

Air raids meanwhile intensified, said the monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, as displaced people flocked to the border areas least likely to be hit.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein warned, meanwhile, that many civilians in Syria were at risk of being trapped between government forces, rebels, and Islamic State which has a small foothold there – an outcome he said would be a “catastrophe.”

“The real concern is that we are going to see a repetition of what we saw in eastern Ghouta – the bloodshed, the suffering, the civilians being held, being under a siege,” U.N. human rights spokeswoman Liz Throssell said.

After the peace talks failed on Saturday, warplanes launched a new wave of strikes on the rebel-held towns of Bosra al-Sham, al-Nuaima and other areas, the Observatory reported, causing deaths, injuries and damage.

One strike killed at least 10 people including five children in the town of al-Sahwa, east of Daraa, it said, raising to 126 the number of civilians killed in the offensive since fighting escalated on June 19.

The army’s offensive follows the capitulation of rebel enclaves near Homs and Damascus, including eastern Ghouta, which was recaptured after a scorched-earth assault that killed over a thousand civilians and laid waste to several towns.

Warfare in the southwest could risk a further escalation because of its proximity to Israel. The Israelis have already targeted Iran-backed militias fighting in support of Assad’s army, which Israel has vowed to keep far from its borders.

The government’s offensive so far has focused on Daraa province, which borders Jordan, but not Quneitra province abutting the Israeli Golan Heights.

The entire southwest is part of a “de-escalation zone” agreed upon last year by Russia, the United States and Jordan. Despite Washington’s threats that it would respond to breaches of that arrangement, it has so far shown no sign of doing so.

Jordan, which has already taken in more than half a million displaced Syrians since the war began, and Israel have both declared that at this time they will not open their borders to refugees.

In an interview with Israeli radio station 102 FM, Israel’s Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said: “I think we must prevent the entry of refugees from Syria to Israel, in the past we have prevented such cases.”

The Israel Defense Forces said an increased number of civilians had been spotted in refugee camps on the Syrian side of the Golan over the past few days, and that it had sent aid supplies at four locations to people fleeing hostilities.

Late on Saturday, the Jordanian government said its army had also started delivering humanitarian aid to thousands who had taken shelter across the frontier.

At the meetings with Russia, rebel negotiators sought a deal for all of Daraa province to come back under government sovereignty, but without the army or police entering the area, an insurgent spokesman said.

But the talks, in the town of Bosra al-Sham, whose Roman citadel is listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, collapsed as the insurgents rejected proposed terms for their surrender, a rebel spokesman said.

The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump will have a detailed discussion about Syria when they meet in July.

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Is Guilt Killing the West from Within?

July 1, 2018

by Giulio Meotti
July 1, 2018 at 5:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12569/guilt-museums-artifacts

“The fact is that we have no idea what would have become of the world’s ‘looted’ antiquities if they hadn’t been preserved in Western collections. Would the treasures of Beijing’s Summer palace have survived Mao’s Cultural Revolution? Would the Elgin marbles have survived Turkish tour guides chopping off chunks to sell as souvenirs? Would Daesh [ISIS] have spared those Middle Eastern artefacts that survive in European museums?” — Zareer Masani, historian.
When Christians in Iraq were exiled, murdered or persecuted en masse by the so-called Islamic State, the West stood silent — as if these Christians were the agents of Western colonialism and not the legitimate and oldest inhabitants of the Middle East, long before the Arabs converted to Islam.
When a mob destroyed the French Institute in Cairo, burning books and collections, those who now want to return the “colonial artifacts” stood silent. Where are our Monuments Men now?

A “sense of guilt” for colonialism is debasing the West from within, according to Professor Bruce Gilley, and authoritarian regimes such as Iran, Russia, China and Turkey are profiting from this weakness.

The Romans called it damnatio memoriae: the damnation of memory that resulted in destroying the portraits and even the names of the fallen emperors. The same process is now underway in the West about its colonial past. The cultural elite in the West now seem so haunted by feelings of imperialist guilt that they are no longer confident that our civilization is something to be proud of.

A sense of guilt now seems a kind of post-Christian substitute religion that seduces many Westerners. The French scholar Shmuel Trigano suggested that this ideology is turning the Westerners into “post-colonial subjects” who no longer believe in their own civilization, but instead what will destroy it: multiculturalism. In France, for example, a manifesto was launched for “a multicultural and post racial republic”. The result would be, in the words of the anthropologist Jean-Loup Amselle, a “war of identities” and a clash between communities. Last month, the UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said that, if elected Prime Minister, he would order the British Museum to return to Greece the Elgin Marbles, the frieze that had surrounded the Parthenon of Athens and one of the major attractions of the British Museum. “This whole campaign is sheer lunacy,” wrote Richard Dorment. But it is a lunacy spreading all over Europe.

Pictured: Figures from the East Pediment of the Parthenon, exhibited as part of the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum. (Image source: Andrew Dunn/Wikimedia Commons)

French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he wants to change the rules that make French public collections untouchable, and allow the return to Africa of dozens of historical artifacts now in the Louvre Museum. Macron has appointed two commissioners, the writer Senegalese Felwine Sarr and the art expert Bénédicte Savoy, to prepare a report.

Tanzania is asking for the return of the famous skeleton of a prehistoric Brachiosaurus, the main attraction of Natural History Museum of Berlin. New guidelines guide on restitution of “colonial objects” were recently unveiled by Germany’s Minister of Culture, Monika Grütters.

Most historians are now taking the side of the campaign for returning these objects. One is David Olusoga, a historian of Nigerian origins, who has claimed that these colonial artifacts were “thefts” committed by the colonial powers at the time. Writing in The Telegraph, Zareer Masani, a historian of Indian origins, took a different position. It was the colonialists, he said, who had a decisive role in preserving the antiquities of the civilization:

“It was their dedication, often at huge personal sacrifice, that unlocked the wonders of many lost classical civilisations… The fact is that we have no idea what would have become of the world’s ‘looted’ antiquities if they hadn’t been preserved in Western collections. Would the treasures of Beijing’s Summer palace have survived Mao’s Cultural Revolution? Would the Elgin marbles have survived Turkish tour guides chopping off chunks to sell as souvenirs? Would Daesh [ISIS] have spared those Middle Eastern artefacts that survive in European museums?”.

In 1969, the BBC aired Kenneth Clark’s “Civilization“, the series exploring Western art and culture. Then, civilization was something to be glorified. In 2018, the BBC aired the remake of Clark’s classic, “Civilizations” — note the plural. “This year, the 21st century version of the landmark show is to turn a critical eye to the history of British civilisation, questioning whether it is built on ‘looting and plunder’ and who, really, are the barbarians,” writes Hannah Furness in The Telegraph. One of the new presenters is David Olusoga, the historian who called the Elgin Marbles “a very clear case of theft“.

Thirty years ago, in a book, The Tears of the White Man, the French philosopher Pascal Bruckner wrote that, “the remorseless and self-righteous critic who endlessly denounces the deceptions of parliamentary democracy is suddenly rapt with admiration before the atrocities committed in the name of the Koran, the Vedas, the Great Helmsman…” Since then, Western elites have excused many crimes committed in the name of political Islam, as if these were the consequences of our own colonial crimes.

When Christians in Iraq were exiled, murdered or persecuted en masse by the so-called Islamic State, the West stood silent — as if these Christians were the agents of the Western colonialism and not the legitimate and oldest inhabitants of the Middle East long before the Arabs converted to Islam. When a mob destroyed the French Institute in Cairo, burning books and collections, those who now want to return the “colonial artifacts” stood silent. When Iran’s President Rouhani visited Rome, the Italian authorities covered the naked statues in the Capitoline Museums. Are we covering our own culture to please the Islamic world?

Unfortunately, what we are “returning” are not only the colonial artifacts, but our very pride in Western civilization. A new “damnation of the memory” is taking place in our own museums, academia and chattering classes — and it has deep consequences for our ability to deal with the enemies of civilization. “Postcolonial material provides an important fuel for jihadism,” stated France’s most important scholar of Islamism, Gilles Kepel.

“The Monuments Men“, a film made in 2014 by George Clooney, is about a group of Western curators and art experts who traveled to Europe to rescue the artistic masterpieces stolen by the Nazis. It was a story of Western bravery and moral clarity during the Second World War. In 2015, ISIS destroyed Palmyra, one of the most important cities of the ancient world. But the West watched this cultural destruction passively and no “Monuments Men” were dispatched to save Palmyra and other threatened sites. The Russians, profiting from the Western passivity, entered Palmyra and Russia’s most famous conductor, Valery Gergiev, on performing a triumphal concert in the Palmyra arena, said: “We protest against barbarians who destroyed wonderful monuments of world culture”. The Westerners then recreated a banal copy of the arch of Palmyra in London.

Where are our Monuments Men now?

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Russian military downs unidentified drones near Khmeimim Air Base in Syria – MoD

July 1, 2018

Published time: 1 Jul, 2018 08:52

Edited time: 1 Jul, 2018 12:42

https://www.rt.com/news/431393-russia-khmeimim-drones-downed/

Pantsir-S1 air defense system seen at Khmeimim airbase © Dmitry Vinogradov / Sputnik

A group of unidentified drones has been shot down by Russia’s Air Defense units near Khmeimim Air Base in Syria, the Russian MoD has announced. No damage to the facility was reported.

The objects were detected north-east from the military facility on Saturday, the base’s authorities said. “All aerial targets were destroyed,” they confirmed. The military, however, stopped short of naming exact weapon systems which were used to bring down the drones (UAVs).

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This is not the first time Khmeimim Air Base, located south-east of the port of Latakia, has been targeted with unmanned aircraft this year. In May, the Russian MoD said its units also downed a drone near the military compound.

But the most large-scale assault on Khmeimim was launched in January with at least 10 drones attacking the site. Three others targeted the Russian maritime logistics point in the city of Tartus. The majority of the intruders were successfully downed by the Russian Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft weapon system. The radio electronics warfare specialists also managed to override the operating systems of other drones.

After examining the devices and recovering the data, Russian specialists determined that the January attack was launched from an area near Idlib, controlled by various rebel forces.

Back then, the head of the UAV department of the Russian General Staff, Major General Aleksandr Novikov, warned that terrorists acquired advanced drone technology which raised the risks of potential attacks all over the world. “The research showed that the avionics equipment mounted on the drones facilitated their fully automated preprogrammed flight and bombing, ruling out any jamming,” Novikov said at the time.

READ MORE: Russian air defenses down drone in Syria’s Khmeimim in suspected air attack

The Russian military also noted that that detonators used in the militants’ Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) carried by the drones were “of foreign manufacture.” It suggested that preparing an attack with such aircraft required special skills, which the perpetrators may have received from a foreign party.

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Iron Dome versus laser system missile interceptors? Israeli strategists are split

July 1, 2018

Source: Iron Dome versus laser system missile interceptors? Israeli strategists are split – DEBKAfile

un 30, 2018 @ 19:42 Gaza, HIzballah missiles, IDF, Iron Dome, lasers, northern front

The IDF does not have enough Iron Dome anti-missile batteries to cover both the Gaza and northern fronts. The system would be further stretched if central Israel came under attack.

In two barrages on June 20 and June 27, Hamas launched up to 100 missile mortar shells from the Gaza Strip against Israel towns and villages. Timely alerts sent civilians to shelters in time to avoid casualties. But it had had become obvious that the south was short of Iron Dome batteries to ward off heavy rocket salvoes, because the bulk were deployed along Israel’s northern border where war tensions are rising. This deficiency would become critical if central Israel came under missile attack. This eventuality comes closer as Hizballah and Iraqi Shiite militias, under Iranian Revolutionary Guards command, become a strong component of the Russian-backed Syrian assault advancing in the Daraa province.

Israel’s generals and other strategists are painfully aware of the inadequacy of protection for North and for the national strategic facilities across the country from the new precision missiles, especially those in the Hizballah arsenal. Such missiles could be launched from Syria, Lebanon or the Gaza Strip.

To address this rising threat, the Israel security cabinet is meeting urgently on Sunday night, July 1, to draw up plans for preparing the northern home front for an outbreak of hostilities. The ministers will need to resolve a hot debate taking place in recent weeks among Israel’s military leaders over whether to supplement Israel’s Iron Dome missile interception system with new US laser beam weapons. Israeli projects for developing these systems, partly in conjunction with US partners, were shut down in 2007, when it was decided to focus on the home-made Iron Dome. Then, too, some circles argued that the high cost of deploying the Israeli Iron Dome did not justify the large investment in its development. But after the last Gaza operation in 2014, Iron Dome was held as a national icon and no one talked about its high cost.

However, now the threat has exacerbated. Potentially ranged against Israel are at least 12,000 different kinds of advanced missiles, which pack are far deadlier and more precise punch than the Hamas projectiles of four years ago. And so the argument has revived. It is calculated that it will take at least three to four Iron Domes to intercept one these advanced enemy missiles, a prohibitive outlay that would come on top of the high expense of conducting a full-scale war. This is beyond Israel’s means. The arithmetic is simple: Downing an estimated number of 12,000 enemy missiles would take more than 30,000 Iron Dome missiles, at the astronomical cost of $5 billion. The preponderant rationale under consideration therefore is for Israel to stop paying for additional Iron Domes and instead buy SkyGuards, an anti-missile laser system developed from the US Nautilus, which is readily available or can be quickly assembled.

Fifteen SkyGuard batteries (at $75 million apiece) would come to around $1.125 billion, representing a saving of $3.75 billion compared to the cost of Iron Domes.

The pro-Iron Dome lobby is putting up a strong fight against introducing the laser interceptor to IDF service. Part of this argument is that replacing the Israel product would be detrimental to sales on world markets. Last week, as part of the Iron Dome campaign, reports of a laser beam’s effectiveness against the incendiary kites and balloons flying across the Gaza-Israeli border were hushed up. But as threats escalate on two fronts, the IDF may not have enough time to train field units in anti-missile laser warfare to meet the next conflagration.

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Iran looking for ways to export oil despite US sanctions

July 1, 2018

Source: Iran looking for ways to export oil despite US sanctions | The Times of Israel

Tehran sets up committee to seek potential buyers, as Trump calls on Riyadh to boost production to offset lost Iranian exports, stem price hikes

By AP and TOI STAFF30 June 2018, 7:02 pm

Iranian Presidency, President Hassan Rouhani addresses the nation in a televised speech in Tehran, Iran, May 8, 2018. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)

Iranian Presidency, President Hassan Rouhani addresses the nation in a televised speech in Tehran, Iran, May 8, 2018. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)

Iranian leaders held a meeting on Saturday to examine countermeasures to US economic sanctions, including ways to keep exporting oil, according to a report in the Iranian news agency IRNA.

In the meeting between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and the heads of parliament and the judiciary, “various scenarios of threats to the Iranian economy by the US government were examined and appropriate measures were taken to prepare for any probable US sanctions, and to prevent their negative impact,” Reuters quoted IRNA as reporting.

Among the issues discussed were “suggestions to achieve self-sufficiency… in producing petroleum, and to prevent the vulnerability in the field of energy carriers,” the news agency wrote on its English-language site.

The Iranian government also set up a committee to look for potential oil buyers after US sanctions come into effect.

“Due to the possibility of US sanctions against Iran, the committee will study the competence of buyers and how to obtain proceeds from the sale of oil, safe sale alternatives which are consistent with international law and do not lead to corruption and profiteering,” Fereydoun Hassanvand, head of the parliament’s energy committee, was quoted as saying by IRNA, Reuters reported.

This photo taken on March 12, 2017, shows an Iranian laborer walking the platform of the oil facility in the Khark Island, on the shore of the Gulf. (AFP PHOTO / ATTA KENAR)

Iran has faced mounting economic woes since US President Donald Trump announced in May that Washington was withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, negotiated under his predecessor president Barack Obama. The accord imposed controls on Tehran’s nuclear program, in exchange for a lifting of sanctions.

The country has also witnessed growing protests in recent months. On Saturday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused the US of being behind the unrest.

In a series of tweets, Khamenei said the US formed a coalition with other “disgraceful states” in the region as it is unable to defeat Iran on its own. The Iranian leader didn’t name any specific nations in this so-called coalition, but alleged it was imposing economic pressure on Iran to “separate the nation from the system.”

“If the US was able to overpower the Islamic system, it would not have needed to form a coalition with notorious countries of the region to create chaos, unrest, and insecurity in Iran,” he said.

“Six previous US presidents made efforts against Iran but failed at their vicious goals,” the Iranian leader tweeted. “Today, after losing hope in other methods, the enemy’s plot is to create a rift between establishment and nation; that’s foolish: they don’t understand that establishment entirely represents nation.”

Over the past six months, Iran’s currency has lost almost 50 percent of its value, with the US dollar now buying around 85,000 rials on the open market.

Iranians have been hit by rising prices, and record levels of unemployment have left a third of under-30s out of work.

Slogans chanted by crowds of Iranians in the recent economic protests, which have leaked out to the world via social media, show that many blame their own government’s foreign policies for the downturn.

A group of protesters chant slogans at the main gate of old Grand Bazaar in Tehran, Iran, June 25, 2018. (Iranian Labor News Agency via AP)

The protests have seen unusual scenes of demonstrators chanting against continued Iranian spending of billions of dollars on regional proxy wars and support for terrorist groups, which many say has meant less investment in the struggling economy at home.

In recent years, Iran has provided financial aid to Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthi rebels, and Shiite militias in Iraq. Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Tehran has poured a reported $6 billion into propping up President Bashar Assad’s government.

Earlier this week, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani sought to calm the growing discontent by assuring Iranians they would be able to withstand the new US sanctions. He blamed the spontaneous demonstrations that erupted across the country earlier that week on “foreign media propaganda,” and accused the US of waging “an economic war” against Tehran.

At the end of last year, similar economic protests roiled Iran and spread to some 75 cities and towns, becoming the largest demonstrations in the country since its 2009 disputed presidential election. The protests in late December and early January saw at least 25 people killed and nearly 5,000 arrested.

Saudi allies

Also on Saturday, Trump said he had received assurances from King Salman of Saudi Arabia that the kingdom will increase oil production, “maybe up to 2,000,000 barrels” in response to turmoil in Iran and Venezuela. Saudi Arabia acknowledged the call took place, but mentioned no production targets.

Trump wrote on Twitter that he had asked the king in a phone call to increase oil production “to make up the difference…Prices to (sic) high! He has agreed!”

Oil prices have edged higher as the Trump administration has pushed allies to end all purchases of oil from Iran, following the US pulling out of the nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers. Oil prices also have risen with the ongoing unrest in Venezuela, as well as with fighting in Libya over control of that country’s oil infrastructure.

In this June 29, 2018 photo, President Donald Trump gestures while speaking, during an event in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Saudi Arabia currently produces some 10 million barrels of crude oil a day. Its record is 10.72 million barrels a day. Trump’s tweet offered no timeframe for the additional 2 million barrels — whether that meant per day or per month.

However, Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser told journalists in India on Monday that the state oil company has spare capacity of 2 million barrels of oil a day. That was after Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said the kingdom would honor the OPEC decision to stick to a 1-million-barrel increase.

“Saudi Arabia obviously can deliver as much as the market would need, but we’re going to be respectful of the 1-million-barrel cap — and at the same time be respectful of allocating some of that to countries that deliver it,” al-Falih said then.

The Trump administration has been counting on Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members to supply enough oil to offset the lost Iranian exports and prevent oil prices from rising sharply.

The administration has threatened close allies such as South Korea with sanctions if they don’t cut off Iranian imports by early November. South Korea accounted for 14 percent of Iran’s oil exports last year, according to the US Energy Department.

China is the largest importer of Iranian oil at 24 percent, followed by India at 18 percent. Turkey stood at 9 percent and Italy at 7 percent.

The State Department has said it expects the “vast majority” of countries will comply with the US request.

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Trump claims Saudi king promised to up oil production to offset Iran

July 1, 2018

Source: Trump claims Saudi king promised to up oil production to offset Iran | The Times of Israel

Riyadh does not confirm that it will boost numbers by 2 million barrels after Trump tweet, seen as effort to maintain pressure on Tehran while keeping prices low

By APToday, 3:45 am

US President Donald Trump, left and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud gesture during a signing ceremony at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh on May 20, 2017. (AFP Photo/Mandel Ngan)

US President Donald Trump, left and Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud gesture during a signing ceremony at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh on May 20, 2017. (AFP Photo/Mandel Ngan)

BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J. — President Donald Trump said Saturday that he had received assurances from King Salman of Saudi Arabia that the kingdom will increase oil production, “maybe up to 2,000,000 barrels” in response to turmoil in Iran and Venezuela. Saudi Arabia acknowledged the call took place, but mentioned no production targets.

Trump wrote on Twitter that he had asked the king in a phone call to boost oil production “to make up the difference…Prices to (sic) high! He has agreed!”

A little over an hour later, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported on the call, but offered few details.

“During the call, the two leaders stressed the need to make efforts to maintain the stability of oil markets and the growth of the global economy,” the statement said.

It added that there also was an understanding that oil-producing countries would need “to compensate for any potential shortage of supplies.” It did not elaborate.

Oil prices have edged higher as the Trump administration has pushed allies to end all purchases of oil from Iran following the US pulling out of the nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers. Prices also have risen with ongoing unrest in Venezuela and fighting in Libya over control of that country’s oil infrastructure.

Last week, members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries cartel led by Saudi Arabia and non-cartel members agreed to pump 1 million barrels more crude oil per day, a move that should help contain the recent rise in global energy prices. However, summer months in the US usually lead to increased demand for oil, pushing up the price of gasoline in a midterm election year. A gallon of regular gasoline sold on average in the US for $2.85, up from $2.23 a gallon last year, according to AAA.

If Trump’s comments are accurate, oil analyst Phil Flynn said it could immediately knock $2 or $3 off a barrel of oil. But he said it’s unlikely that decrease could sustain itself as demand spikes, leading prices to rise by wintertime.

“We’ll need more oil down the road and there’ll be nowhere to get it,” said Flynn, of the Price Futures Group. “This leaves the world in kind of a vulnerable state.”

Other analysts were more doubtful about immediate effects.

Trump appears to be trying to “talk the market down,” said Lawrence Goldstein, who directs the Energy Policy Research Foundation. He questioned whether Trump’s words would do anything to reverse the effects on the market of declining Iranian oil production. He also noted it always takes at least two months before a change in shipping commitments affects the market.

Trump’s aim may be to exert maximum pressure on Iran while at the same time not upsetting potential US midterm voters with higher gas prices, said Antoine Halff, a Columbia University researcher and former chief oil analyst for the International Energy Agency.

“The Trump support base is probably the part of the US electorate that will be the most sensitive to an increase in US gasoline prices,” Halff said.

Trump’s comments came Saturday as global financial markets were closed. Brent crude stood at $79.42 a barrel, while US benchmark crude was at $74.15.

Saudi Arabia currently produces some 10 million barrels of crude oil a day. Its record is 10.72 million barrels a day. Trump’s tweet offered no timeframe for the additional 2 million barrels — whether that meant per day or per month.

However, Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser told journalists in India on Monday that the state oil company has spare capacity of 2 million barrels of oil a day. That was after Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said the kingdom would honor the OPEC decision to stick to a 1-million-barrel increase.

“Saudi Arabia obviously can deliver as much as the market would need, but we’re going to be respectful of the 1-million-barrel cap — and at the same time be respectful of allocating some of that to countries that deliver it,” al-Falih said then.

The Trump administration has been counting on Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members to supply enough oil to offset the lost Iranian exports and prevent oil prices from rising sharply. But broadcasting its requests on Twitter with a number that stretches credibility opens a new chapter in US-Saudi relations, Halff said.

“Saudis are used to US requests for oil,” Halff said. “They’re not used to this kind of public messaging. I think the difficulty for them is to distinguish what is a real ask from what is public posturing.”

The administration has threatened close allies such as South Korea with sanctions if they don’t cut off Iranian imports by early November. South Korea accounted for 14 percent of Iran’s oil exports last year, according to the US Energy Department.

China is the largest importer of Iranian oil with 24 percent, followed by India with 18 percent. Turkey stood at 9 percent and Italy at 7 percent.

The State Department has said it expects the “vast majority” of countries will comply with the US request.

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Several reported killed as Iranian forces open fire on protesters

July 1, 2018

Source: Several reported killed as Iranian forces open fire on protesters | The Times of Israel

Gunshots heard on videos shared on social media of demonstrators in Khorramshahr, where residents have complained of a lack of water

By TOI STAFF and AGENCIESToday, 1:42 am

A still from video shared on social media showing protests in the Iranian city of Khorramshahr on June 30, 2018. (screen capture: Twitter/BBC)

At least four protesters were reported killed in Iran as regime forces opened fire on demonstrators rallying against a water shortage in the city of Khorramshahr.

Vidoes shared on social media late Saturday night appeared to show Iranian forces opening fire on protesters in the Arab-majority city, in the oil-rich southwestern Khuzestan region.

The reporters shooting comes after several days of unrest centered in Tehran where thousands have protested the country’s economic woes, including the collapse of the Iranian rial following the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal.

The Saudi-based al Arabiya news outlet reported four people had been killed in Khorramshahr Saturday.

There was no confirmation of the death toll.

The BBC’s Persian service reported one person had been killed, citing eyewitnesses.

Video circulated by the news outlet appeared to show automatic gunfire as people protested in the streets. Fire could also be seen as well as people fleeing after tear gas was fired.

The state-run IRNA news outlet reported that protesters were ordered to disperse after throwing stones and setting fires in Khorramshahr.

Protests in Khorramshahr and other surrounding towns have continued for several days over what residents say is a lack of clean drinking water.

Protesters have blamed mismanagement for exacerbating a drought in the area, leaving little desalinated water for drinking or agriculture.

Two Iranian children look a the remains of a ship that was damaged during the Iran-Iraq war on the Karun river in the southern Iranian port city of Khorramshahr, on May 28, 2005. (AP/Hasan Sarbakhshian)

Protesters in Khoramshahr and nearby Abadan have reportedly begun chanting against the regime in the protests, including “death to Khamenei” joining demonstrators in Tehran and other towns angry over the country’s sinking financial fortunes.

Iranians have been hit by rising prices, and record levels of unemployment have left a third of under-30s out of work.

On Monday, traders at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar staged a rare strike.

People stand in the old grand bazaar where shops are closed after a protest, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 25, 2018. (Iranian Labor News Agency via AP)

At the end of last year, similar economic protests roiled Iran and spread to some 75 cities and towns, becoming the largest demonstrations in the country since its 2009 disputed presidential election. The protests in late December and early January saw at least 25 people killed and nearly 5,000 arrested.

Slogans chanted by the crowds in the recent economic protests, which have leaked out to the world via social media, show that many Iranians blame their own government’s foreign policies for the downturn.

The protests have seen unusual scenes of demonstrators chanting against continued Iranian spending of billions of dollars on regional proxy wars and support for terrorist groups, which many say has meant less investment in the struggling economy at home.

Iranian protesters in central Tehran on June 25, 2018. (AFP Photo/Atta Kenare)

In recent years, Iran has provided financial aid to Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthi rebels, and Shiite militias in Iraq. Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Tehran has poured a reported $6 billion into propping up president Bashar Assad’s government.

This week’s protests in Tehran and around the country — including economically hard-hit cities like Kermanshah in western Iran — included shouts of “Death to Palestine,” “No to Gaza, no to Lebanon,” and “Leave Syria and think of us.” Chants of “We don’t want the ayatollahs” and “Death to the dictator” were also heard at some rallies.

Iranian shops closed at the ancient Grand Bazaar in Tehran on June 25, 2018. (AFP Photo/Atta Kenare)

The protests signaled growing domestic unease in the wake of Trump’s decision to withdraw America from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers and restore sanctions on the country.

In the last six months, Iran’s currency has lost almost 50 percent of its value, with the US dollar now buying around 85,000 rials on the open market.

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US believes North Korea planning to trick West, hide nukes — report

July 1, 2018

Source: US believes North Korea planning to trick West, hide nukes — report | The Times of Israel

Intelligence officials tell Washington Post that evidence points to plans by Pyongyang to keep secret sites hidden, lie about size of arsenal

By TOI STAFF and AFPToday, 6:49 am

In this undated file photo distributed on September 16, 2017 by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, celebrates what was said to be the test launch of an intermediate range Hwasong-12 missile at an undisclosed location in North Korea. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

In this undated file photo distributed on September 16, 2017 by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, celebrates what was said to be the test launch of an intermediate range Hwasong-12 missile at an undisclosed location in North Korea. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

US officials believe North Korea has no intention of giving up its nuclear stockpile and will conceal at least some weapons despite agreeing to denuclearize last month, according to a reports over the weekend.

US intelligence has collected evidence pointing to plans by Pyongyang to deceive the West into thinking it has dismantled its nuclear program and push for sanctions relief, the Washington Post reported late Saturday.

Officials say North Korea plans to keep the US in the dark about how many warheads it has, how much fissile material is in its possession and where all of its nuclear facilities are located.

On Friday, NBC News reported that US intelligence officials believed the North had ramped up enrichment and was planning on keeping secret nuclear facilities hidden and operational.

The reports come on the heels of satellite images showing that North Korea is carrying out rapid improvements to its nuclear research facility.

The nuclear-armed North’s leader Kim Jong Un promised to “work toward” nuclearization at a landmark summit in Singapore in June with US President Donald Trump.

But the Singapore meeting failed to clearly define denuclearization or produce a specific timeline towards dismantling the North’s atomic weapons arsenal.

US President Donald Trump (R) and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un shake hands following a signing ceremony during their historic US-North Korea summit, at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore on June 12, 2018. (AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB)

Intelligence official have expressed skepticism over whether Pyongyang is being sincere in its commitment, with a Defense Intelligence Assessment after the summit concluding that North Korea was unlikely to actually denuclearize, according to the Washington Post report.

The intelligence findings stand in contrast to optimism expressed by Trump during and since the summit.

Trump has claimed the process of dismantling the nuclear program would start quickly, saying late last month that “it will be a total denuclearization, which is already taking place.”

Immediately following the summit, he declared the nuclear threat over.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been pushing for more follow-up talks to flesh out details over denuclearization, but no date has been set for when they would take place.

In May, the North blew up its aged but only nuclear test site at Punggye-ri — where it had staged six atomic tests — in a show of goodwill before the summit.

A photo taken on May 24, 2018 shows a general view of a dust cloud surrounding the area near the entrance to a tunnel at North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test facility, during a demolition ‘ceremony’. (AFP/ Dong-A Iibo / News1)

But the respected 38 North monitoring group said last week that not only were operations continuing at the North’s main Yongbyon nuclear site, it was also carrying out infrastructure works, citing recent satellite imagery.

“Commercial satellite imagery from June 21 indicates that improvements to the infrastructure at… Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center are continuing at a rapid pace,” it said.

It noted “continued operations” at the North’s uranium enrichment plant and several new installations at the site — including an engineering office and a driveway to a building housing a nuclear reactor.

But continued operations at the site “should not be seen as having any relationship with North Korea’s pledge to denuclearize,” it added.

Nuclear officials could be “expected to proceed with business as usual until specific orders are issued from Pyongyang,” it said.

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Trump lawyer Giuliani says the end is near for Iran’s rulers

July 1, 2018

Source: Trump lawyer Giuliani says the end is near for Iran’s rulers – Middle East – Jerusalem Post

“We are the strongest economy in the world … and if we cut you off then you collapse.”

BY REUTERS

JULY 1, 2018 03:32

Trump lawyer Giuliani says the end is near for Iran's rulers

Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City, delivers his speech as he attends the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), meeting in Villepinte, near Paris, France, June 30, 2018. (photo credit: REUTERS/REGIS DUVIGNAU)

VILLEPINTE, France – US President Donald Trump will suffocate Iran’s “dictatorial ayatollahs,” his close ally Rudy Giuliani said on Saturday, suggesting his move to re-impose sanctions was aimed squarely at regime change.

The former New York mayor who is now Trump’s personal lawyer, was addressing a conference of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an umbrella bloc of opposition groups in exile that seek an end to Shi’ite Muslim clerical rule in Iran.

“I can’t speak for the president, but it sure sounds like he doesn’t think there is much of a chance of a change in behavior unless there is a change in people and philosophy,” Giuliani told Reuters in an interview.

“We are the strongest economy in the world … and if we cut you off then you collapse,” he said, pointing to protests in Iran. In May, Trump withdrew the United States from a 2015 international deal to curb Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting some sanctions.

Trump supporters have spoken at NCRI events in the past, including national security adviser John Bolton, who, before taking his post at the same conference last July, told the group’s members they would be ruling Iran before 2019 and their goal should be regime change.

Bolton said in May that the administration’s policy was to make sure Iran never got nuclear weapons and not regime change.

In Tehran, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Trump would fail in any attempt to turn the Iranian peopleagainst the ruling system.

“They bring to bear economic pressure to separate the nation from the system … but six US presidents before him (Trump) tried this and had to give up,” Khamenei said on his website.

The fear of sanctions, which Giuliani said would be increased, has already seen major companies leave Iran despite Europe vowing to save the accord. Britain, France and Germany, which signed the Iran deal along with the United States, Russia and China say the agreement prevents Iran developing weapons-grade nuclear fuel.

But Giuliani said Europe should be “ashamed” of itself.

“Anybody who thinks the Ayatollahs are honest people is a fool. They are crooks and that’s what Europe is propping up … murderers and sponsors of terrorism. Instead of taking an opportunity to topple them they are now left propping them up,” Giuliani said.

The NCRI members joined the 1979 Islamic revolution but later broke from the ruling clerics. Based in Iraq in the early 1980s, their fighters clashed with U.S. forces during the 2003 Iraq war, but have since renounced violence.

“Regime change in Iran is within reach as never before … The wheels of change have started turning,” Maryam Rajavi, who heads the group, told reporters at the conference.

NCRI, also known by its Farsi name Mujahideen-e-Khalq, was once listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union but is no longer.Tehran has long called for a crackdown on the NCRI in Paris, Riyadh, and Washington. The group is regularly criticized in state media.

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