Author Archive

« WarSclerotic home page
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Trump may mull naval blockade, no-fly zone against N. Korea: expert

May 24, 2018

Published : May 23, 2017 Korea Herald

Source Link: Trump may mull naval blockade, no-fly zone against N. Korea: expert

{Naval blockade? If this happens, I’m going to need plenty of popcorn. – LS}

The Donald Trump administration may push for naval blockades or the imposition of a “no-fly” zone against North Korea should it succeed in developing an intercontinental ballistic missile, an expert here said Tuesday.

Trump would view it as a red line for the nuclear-armed communist nation, according to Shin Beom-chul, a professor at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy in Seoul.

In case of the North’s successful development of ICBMs, “Taking military actions against Pyongyang will be the most appealing option on the table from Trump’s perspective,” he said in a paper released to media ahead of a security forum to be co-organized by Korea National Defense University and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (foundation).

The forum will be held in Seoul on Wednesday with the theme of “The New US Administration and Its Alliance Relations: Change and Continuity.” Shin plans to give a presentation at the conference.

Shin pointed out that Trump will be restrained from launching a direct military strike against the North due to concerns about massive retaliatory attacks.

“He can still create military tensions through other options without carrying out a direct military attack on North Korea,” the professor said. “That is, military operations, naval blockades, and the imposition of a no-fly zone could also escalate tensions in Northeast Asia.”

For these reasons, he added, attention needs to be paid to the US decision to keep deploying its aircraft carrier Carl Vinson (CVN 70) in the East Sea after May.

Another key question is how China and Russia will respond to such US actions if taken.

Both Beijing and Moscow may seek to avoid a direct military confrontation with the US and step up efforts to nudge Pyongyang to return to the negotiating table on its nuclear program, Shin said.

Or they may try to check such unilateral military actions by the US, creating military tensions among the regional powers and exacerbating the security situation on the Korean Peninsula, he said.

If regional players fail to manage pending risk factors, he added, Northeast Asia is likely to slide into the vortex of armed confrontations. (Yonhap)

Categories: China - North Korea sanctions evasion, China and North Korea, Military options re North Korea
Tags:

Comments: Be the first to comment

Trump cancels Singapore summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un

May 24, 2018

by By Mike Calia | May 24, 2018 CNBC

Source Link: Trump cancels Singapore summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un

Bonus Link: Donald Trump Tells Kim Jong Un: Summit Canceled — but Thanks for the Hostages

Bonus Link: Trump says U.S. military ready if North Korea’s Kim acts foolishly

{Kim scared to leave country? Who knows for sure, but I’m not surprised the meeting is off for now. Trump is positioning for more sincerity on the part of Kim Jong Un. – LS}

President Donald Trump has canceled his historic summit in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un next month.

The meeting, which would have marked the first face-to-face encounter between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader, was set for June 12.

“Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting,” Trump wrote in a letter to Kim, which was released Thursday morning.

The news came as North Korea made a show of dismantling a nuclear test site, but also on the heels of some sharp words from the North Korean government about America denuclearization demands.

Doubts had grown in recent days about whether the summit would actually happen. North Korea abruptly canceled talks with South Korea out of anger over joint military tests with the U.S. in the Korean peninsula. While Trump had repeatedly played up the historic significance of the meeting, he also often leavened his optimism with a cautious “we’ll see.”

Much of the letter was written in conciliatory terms, including praise for North Korea’s recent release of three American prisoners, Trump also appeared to issue a threat that conjured memories of his war of words with Kim last year.

“You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used,” Trump wrote in the letter.

Earlier Thursday, a top North Korean official, Choe Son Hui, called Vice President Mike Pence’s remarks likening Pyongyang with Libya “ignorant” and “stupid.”

Pence had said North Korea could end up like Libya if it doesn’t make a nuclear deal with Washington.

“As a person involved in U.S. affairs, I cannot suppress my surprise at such ignorant and stupid remarks gushing from the mouth of the U.S. vice president,” Choe said, according to KCNA.

The vice president’s comments also echoed those of Trump’s national security advisor, John Bolton, who had suggested the U.S. could pursue a Libya-style denuclearization plan with North Korea. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was eventually violently overthrown, a move the U.S. supported. North Korea’s Kim is concerned about regime change.

Trump left the door open for arranging a new meeting with Kim, however.

“If you change your mind having to do with this most important summit, please do not hesitate to call me or write,” the president wrote. “This missed opportunity is a truly sad moment in history.”

Read the full text of the letter here:

May 24, 2018

His Excellency
Kim Jong Un
Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democractic People’s Republic of Korea
Pyongyang

Dear Mr. Chairman:

We greatly appreciate your time, patience, and effort with respect to our recent negotiations and discussions relative to a summit long sought by both parties, which was scheduled to take place on June 12 in Singapore. We were informed that the meeting was requested by North Korea, but that to us is totally irrelevant. I was very much looking forward to being there with you. Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting. Therefore, please let this letter serve to represent that the Singapore summit, for the good of both parties, but to the detriment of the world, will not take place. You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that i pray to God they will never have to be used.

I felt a wonderful dialogue was building up between you and me, and ultimately it is only that dialogue that matters. Some day, I look very much forward to meeting you. In the meantime, I want to thank you for the release of the hostages who are now home with their families. That was a beautiful gesture and was very much appreciated.

If you change your mind having to do with this most important summit, please do not hesitate to call me or write. The world, and North Korea in particular, has lost a great opportunity for lasting peace and great prosperity and wealth. This missed opportunity is a truly sad moment in history.

Sincerely yours,

Donald J. Trump
President of the United States of America

 

Categories: Military options re North Korea, North Korea, North Korea - negotiations
Tags:

Comments: Be the first to comment

Iran using imprisoned British mom to con cash from U.K.

May 24, 2018

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 37, and her 22-month-old daughter, Gabriella, were detained in Iran in 2016 while attempting to board a flight to Britain to see her husband Richard Ratcliffe. File Photo courtesy of Change.org

by By Struan Stevenson | May 24, 2018 UPI

Source Link: Iran using imprisoned British mom to con cash from U.K.

{Yet another reason to put the squeeze on the Mullahs. If they can extort using this poor woman, imagine what they will extort using a nuclear arsenal. – LS}

May 24 (UPI) — The British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a 39-year-old charity worker serving a five-year jail sentence, was told in a Tehran court on Saturday that she faces new charges of “spreading propaganda against the state. ”

In a barefaced display of Iranian injustice, Judge Abolghassem Salavati, clutching a 200-page dossier, informed the young mother that she was likely to be convicted. He then dismissed her choice of lawyer as “not approved.”

The move against Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been in prison for two years, was not unexpected, as the charge of “spreading propaganda” echoes the accusations made by the Iranian regime following U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson‘s dangerous gaffe regarding her case. Johnson told the foreign affairs select committee in Westminster last November that she had been in Iran “training journalists,” a completely unfounded and ludicrous assertion.

In fact, Zaghari-Ratcliffe works for the charitable Thomson-Reuters Foundation and was on holiday in Iran, bringing her then 22-month-old daughter, Gabriella to meet her parents. She was arrested at Tehran Airport in April 2016 as she tried to board a plane for London. Charged with spying, she was found guilty following a mock 45-minute trial. Full details of the charges against her have never been revealed, even to her.

Insiders say she is being held as a bargaining-counter against an alleged £450 million arms deal debt that Britain had arranged prior to the overthrow of the shah in 1979. The Iranian regime claims the arms were never delivered and although Britain has now agreed to repay the £450 million, there is an ongoing dispute over the amount of outstanding interest accrued over the past four decades. The new false charges against Zaghari-Ratcliffe are the theocratic regime’s way of placing further pressure on the U.K.

The British mother has consistently denied that she was involved in any form of plotting against the state and certainly denies that she was in Iran to train journalists. She has always stated that she was simply in the country on holiday. But Johnson’s reckless outburst now looks set to cost this innocent woman, being held hostage by one of the most dangerous and corrupt regimes in the world, her ultimate freedom.

On Saturday, Zaghari-Ratcliffe pleaded for clemency and asked Judge Salavati to allow her “to go home and have another baby,” stating that as she is nearing 40 it may be her last chance. She told the judge that her daughter Gabriella will be 4 in three weeks, adding, “There is something called clemency. Give me that for the sake of my baby. She hasn’t seen her father for over two years now.”

It is well known that many women are in prison in Iran, guilty of nothing more than opposing the oppressive mullah’s regime, or attempting to uphold human rights. Iran, under the so-called “moderate” leadership of President Hassan Rouhani, has in fact risen to the No. 1 spot globally as the country that executes most people per capita. Over 3,500 men, women and often children have been hanged since Rouhani took office nearly five years ago.

Executions are often carried out in public, as are other medieval and barbaric sentences such as floggings, amputations and eye gouging. Since the nationwide uprising that began in late December and is still continuing in cities throughout Iran, thousands more men and women have been arrested and imprisoned. Fourteen have been tortured to death.

Iran is also the world’s godfather of terror, backing Bashar al-Assad‘s bloody civil war in Syria, the ferocious Houthi rebels in Yemen, the brutal Shi’ia militias in Iraq and the terrorist Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Iranian regime’s fingerprints are on every conflict in the Middle East. This is a country that should be openly condemned by Britain for its catalog of human rights abuse and serial misogyny. Yet Britain is standing fast behind the discredited nuclear deal dumped by the United States recently.

The U.K. and other EU countries believe that lucrative commercial contracts with the fascist Iranian regime are of more importance than human rights and the fate of an innocent young mother like Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

Her husband, Richard, has made frantic efforts to have his wife freed, disclosing that she is now ill and suffering from extreme stress, although apparently, she was allowed to phone the “new British ambassador” from prison at the weekend, the first time she had been permitted to have any contact with the embassy in over two years. She was able to update the ambassador on the new charges she faces and she apparently asked him to issue a formal diplomatic note protesting at the invented accusations.

There is no such thing as justice in Iran and it is outrageous that a young mother and British citizen could be facing a further 16 years in a hellhole prison on such trumped-up and ridiculous charges. The White House strategy of maximum pressure on North Korea led to the release of three American hostages and an agreement to hold peace talks. Instead of simpering appeasement, Britain and the EU should be pursuing a policy of maximum pressure on the pariah Iranian regime.

We need to take a firm line with the mullahs in all areas, including renewed diplomatic and trade sanctions, until innocent hostages, including Zaghari-Ratcliffe, are released.

Struan Stevenson, coordinator of Campaign for Iran Change, was a member of the European Parliament representing Scotland (1999-2014), president of the Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Iraq (2009-14) and chairman of Friends of a Free Iran Intergroup (2004-14). He is an international lecturer on the Middle East and is also president of the European Iraqi Freedom Association.

 

 

Categories: Human rights, Iran - human rights
Tags:

Comments: Be the first to comment

Hamas Leader Acknowledges Iranian Support Amid Fall-Out From Gaza Clashes

May 24, 2018

by IPT News May 23, 2018 The Investigative Project on Terrorism

Source Link: Hamas Leader Acknowledges Iranian Support Amid Fall-Out From Gaza Clashes

{A proxy love affair. – LS}

While many analysts and most of the international community refuses to acknowledge Iran’s role in fueling tensions on Israel’s border with Gaza, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar this week boasted of his organization’s “strong and warm” ties with Iran and Hizballah.

In an interview Monday with Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen TV channel, Sinwar admitted that Iran funnels “a lot of money, equipment and expertise” to Hamas’ military wing and other Gaza-based terrorist organizations,reports the Middle East Media and Research Institute (MEMRI),

For helping Hamas develop its capabilities, Sinwar thanked “first and foremost the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has provided the Al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas’ military wing) and the other factions of the resistance a lot of money, equipment, and expertise,” adding that “our ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran, with brother Qasem Soleimani and the other brothers in the IRGC leadership are very strong, powerful, and warm. Our relations with the Islamic Republic are excellent.”

In December, senior Hamas official Saleh Al-Arouri bragged about Hamas’ ties with Iran and Hizballah, and formally credited the Islamic Republic for arming Palestinian terrorist groups.

“Who supports the resistance in Gaza and Palestine? Iran. It is Iran and Hizballah that confront that entity [Israel] along with us,” Al-Arouri said in a Dec. 30 interview on Al-Quds TV.

He admitted that “the aid Iran provides to the resistance is not merely symbolic” and that “nobody but Iran gives us [Palestinian terrorist groups] any military support.”

In his latest interview, Sinwar also discussed “excellent relations” with Hizballah and revealed that both terrorist groups “coordinate and are in touch on an almost daily basis.”

This is the latest in a growing number of statements from senior Hamas and Hizballah leaders acknowledging that relations have reached new heights – to the point where Hizballah is helping Hamas build military infrastructure in south Lebanon to threaten Israel.

These connections and public admissions are ignored by Israel bashers in the West.

Prominent American Islamists, like Linda Sarsour, continue to propagate the narrative that Israel massacred peaceful, unarmed Palestinian protesters on the Gaza border in recent weeks. Even articles in respected policy outlets like Foreign Policy tow this view.

Hamas leaders, on the other hand, openly admit that they coordinated the violent demonstrations and orchestrated several attacks on the border with Israel.

“This is not peaceful resistance… so when we talk about ‘peaceful resistance,’ we are deceiving the public,” Mahmoud Al-Zahhar said in a May 13 interview with Al-Jazeera, adding that Hamas’ efforts at the border are “bolstered by a military force and by security agencies.”

Iran and its main proxy Hizballah are actively supplying Hamas with weapons and talking on a near daily basis to coordinate terrorist operations against the Jewish state.

This nuance is largely omitted from mainstream media analyses – further promoting Hamas public deception campaign, knowingly or not.

Categories: Hezbollah and Hamas, Iran and Hamas, Iranian funding Hamas and Hezbollah in Gaza, Israel and Hamas, Media and Hamas
Tags:

Comments: Be the first to comment

Report: Kim fears coup if he travels to Singapore for Trump summit

May 24, 2018

by Rick Moran May 23, 2018 American Thinker

Source Link: Report: Kim fears coup if he travels to Singapore for Trump summit

{Hotel North Korea, you can check out but you can never leave. – LS}

North Korea is far more than a run-of-the-mill dictatorship.  It is a paranoid gangster state, enormously corrupt, with various factions always at odds as they jostle for power.

This much is basically public knowledge.  But behind the scenes, even the supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, feels threatened.  And there is apparently a feeling among the top leadership in North Korea that if Kim attends the Singapore summit with Donald Trump, the military will take advantage of his absence to stage a coup.

Business Insider:

Citing sources familiar with the preparations, The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Kim was less concerned about meeting Trump than he was about what might happen at home in Pyongyang while he’s gone.

Kim is apparently concerned that the trip to Singapore may leave his government vulnerable to a military coup or that other hostile actors might try to depose him, sources told The Post.  The Kim dynasty has ruled North Korea since the country’s inception following the armistice in 1953.

Rumors of a simmering military revolt in North Korea are precisely the kind of thing that emboldened Kim to keep a tight grip on power over the years, according to some experts.

“The notion that Kim is secure in his power is fundamentally wrong,” Victor Cha, a director for Asian affairs for the National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration, wrote in a 2014 opinion column.

“Dictators may exercise extreme and draconian power like Kim, but they are also pathologically insecure about their grip on the throne,” Cha said.  “All of the public speculation about coups or interim leaders would feed the paranoid impulse of a dictator to correct that perception as quickly as possible, even if it were misplaced.”

As if to confirm those worries, Strategy Page is reporting that Kim shook up his military high command in just the last few days.

May 18, 2018: In North Korea Kim Jong Un again reorganized the senior military leadership.  This time there were not a lot of dismissals but instead, a lot of senior commanders were moved to other senior military posts.  Kim has been wary of the generals ever since he took power in 2012.  Ge was the youngest national leader ever in North Korea and many of the old timers doubted young Kim could handle it.  Kim soon executed a number of senior generals and retired many more.  …

Another sad fact is that few North Korean military personnel even remember the glory days (the 1980s) of the Cold War when Russia (as the Soviet Union) was supplying new weapons and support for older ones and the troops had fuel for training.  All that disappeared in 1991 and the North Korean military is still suffering massive deprivation.

The wild card is China.  Things are so bad in North Korea that a steady stream of refugees is crossing the border into China.  The Chinese government hardly knows what to do with these people.  There is a real fear on the part of Kim that if the refugee problem gets much worse, China will support a coup against him.  China is also tired of the brinkmanship between Kim and Trump and could support a coup to bring more stability to the peninsula.

No wonder Kim fears his own military.  At least this time, he apparently didn’t tie any of them to the barrel of an anti-aircraft gun and pull the trigger.

Washington is well aware of the situation, and the Trump administration’s public doubts about the summit taking place may have something to do with the whispers his people getting from North Korea about a fearful Kim.  But North Korea’s situation is beyond desperate, and Kim may be forced to take a risk he wouldn’t ordinarily take to save his regime from economic and social collapse.

 

Categories: Kim Jong-un, Kim regime
Tags:

Comments: Be the first to comment

Palestinians: Americans Now Legitimate Targets

May 23, 2018


Pictured: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.(Photo by Kevin Hagen/Getty Images)

Now it is official: Palestinians view the US as an enemy. Anti-US rhetoric comes from Palestinians representing all walks of life — from President Mahmoud Abbas to ordinary citizens in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Some Palestinians even see US citizens and officials as “legitimate targets” for violent assaults.

by Bassam Tawil May 23, 2018 Gatestone Institute

Source Link: Palestinians: Americans Now Legitimate Targets

{I have to ask….just how much will it cost for you to like us again? – LS}

Ultimately, it is all about money. The Palestinian Authority is desperate for US financial aid; without it the Palestinian leadership would not be able to survive. So the Palestinians are hoping to extort protection money from the Americans. It is like saying, “You see what will happen to you if you stop funding me? It could always get worse for you. I suggest that you restore my accountability-free funding, and perhaps I will see to it that you do not get hurt.”

The Americans should call the Palestinian bluff and send a warning to the Palestinian leadership that there will be consequences for their rhetoric and actions if they do not cease the incitement and brainwashing. The US should use the money as leverage to demand this from the Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority needs your money and you have the right to demand something good in return for it. There is no reason why any American should be funding the same Palestinian propaganda machine that is inciting not only against Israel, but also against the US and its citizens.

There is a new development in Palestinian hatred of the Trump administration: the Palestinian leaders’ verbal attacks on the US are now being translated into acts of violence against US delegations visiting Palestinian communities in the West Bank.

The Palestinian campaign against the US began in December 2017, when President Donald Trump made his announcement recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and escalated after he announced that the US embassy in Tel Aviv would be moved to Jerusalem.

The anti-US rhetoric has come from Palestinians representing all walks of life — from the most senior, including President Mahmoud Abbas, to ordinary citizens in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and from secular groups such as the ruling Fatah faction to extremist Islamist organizations such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

If there is anything that unites the vast majority of Palestinians, it is their hatred of the Trump administration’s representatives and policies.

It is hard to find even one Palestinian who is prepared to say a good word about the US administration or its policies, especially with respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Now, however, it is official: Palestinians view the US as an enemy. Even more worrying, some Palestinians even see US citizens and officials as “legitimate targets” for violent assaults. It does not seem to matter to these Palestinians whether the Americans they are targeting have come to help them or express sympathy with their cause.

Attacks on Americans visiting Palestinian cities in the West Bank are no longer uncommon. It is only by luck that no US citizen has thus far been hurt as a result of these assaults, which are being carried out by Palestinian activists who have been told by their leaders that the US is an enemy of the Palestinians.

The latest incident took place on May 21 in the town of Bet Jala, near Bethlehem. Activists belonging to the Palestinian Popular Resistance group attacked a US consular vehicle with eggs and shoes, forcing it to flee the town. The protesters chanted slogans denouncing the US as the “head of the snake” and carried banners which said, “US Government, You Are Not Welcome in Palestine” and “America is a State of Terror.”

A video posted on social media showed the protesters surrounding and kicking the US vehicle as it sped away. This was a rather humiliating scene for the Americans who came to Bet Jala to attend a graduation ceremony for Palestinian students who participated in a US-sponsored educational program.

“Our message to the Americans today is that there is no room for the US Government in Palestine because this Government is in collusion with Israel,” explained Mazen Al-Ezah, one of the leaders of the anti-US protest. “We love the American people, but their Government is part of the Israeli occupation of our land and people.”

Another protester, Mahmoud Brejiyeh, said that the goal of the protest was to convey to the Americans that they are “not welcome in Palestine. We are here to tell the Americans that the Palestinians no longer trust them and they can no longer play any role in the peace process [with Israel].”

This was the second incident of its kind in the Bethlehem area since the beginning of this year. In January, a group of Palestinian activists expelled an American delegation that was visiting the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce and Industry as part of a cooperative effort between Palestinian businessmen and the US Consulate in Jerusalem.

In February, Palestinian Authority (PA) policemen had to rescue an American delegation that was visiting a research center in Ramallah. The delegation, which included New York legislators and civil society groups, was pelted with eggs as Palestinians chanted, “America is the head of the snake.” Again, no one was hurt.

In addition to the violent attacks directed against Americans in the West Bank, Palestinians have also been burning effigies and photos of Trump, as well as US flags. During one protest in the Al-Aydah refugee camp near Bethlehem, Palestinian protesters staged a mock trial for Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. The verdict: a death sentence. The Palestinians then carried out the “death sentence” by hanging effigies of Trump and Pence in a public square in the camp.

All these anti-US protests have a common feature: the Palestinian activists always coordinated their moves in advance with the local media. Palestinian journalists and photographers were invited to cover the protests to make sure that their message reaches the White House and the rest of the world.

It is also worth noting that the Palestinian Authority security forces, which are partially funded and trained by Americans, did not take pre-emptive measures to stop the anti-US protests. It is hard to imagine that these security forces, which enjoy excellent intelligence information, did not know what several Palestinian journalists and photographers knew in advance about the planned protests. In fact, some Palestinians say that the anti-US protests could not have taken place without the prior approval of the Palestinian security forces.

Why should the Palestinian security forces prevent such protests when President Mahmoud Abbas and many other Palestinian officials are engaged in almost daily rhetorical attacks against the US administration and its representatives? Why should these security forces prevent such protests when the Palestinian Authority itself has been boycotting the US administration and launching scathing attacks on Trump’s “Jewish advisors” — David Friedman, Jason Greenblatt and Jared Kushner?

Hardly a day passes without the Palestinians gushing forth venom concerning the US administration. And as time goes on, the Palestinian tone gets more and more vicious. Trump and his advisors are being denounced as Zionists and settlers and accomplices in Israeli “war crimes.”

In addition, the Palestinians continue to accuse the Trump administration of “conspiring to liquidate the Palestinian cause and national rights” through the yet-to-be-announced US plan for peace in the Middle East. Under the current circumstances, it is hard to see how any representative of the Trump administration would ever be able to set foot in Ramallah or Bethlehem.

The Palestinian Authority has whipped up anti-US sentiments to a point where no American can feel safe visiting any Palestinian city. Not even an American who comes to offer help in the business or educational fields. The Palestinian Authority leadership has made it clear to Palestinians that the Americans are now the enemy, and this puts the lives of US citizens and diplomats at risk. US diplomats and officials who continue to visit Ramallah and Bethlehem with good intentions to help the Palestinians are jeopardizing their lives in order to help those who are spitting into the cup they are drinking from.

It is only a matter of time before one of the attacks on Americans in the West Bank ends in tragedy. Yet the Palestinian leadership is showing no signs of bringing down the volume of its verbal attacks on the US. On the contrary, each day brings more violent rhetoric by Palestinian leaders and spokesmen about the US administration. For some time now, Israeli Jews have been banned from entering Palestinian cities, out of concern for their safety. This ban by the Israeli authorities is not unjustified, as some Israeli Jews have been violently attacked after entering Palestinian cities.

Perhaps soon we will see such signs warning US citizens against entering Palestinian cities, out of concern for their safety. Unless someone calls out the Palestinian leadership for its incitement against the US.

Why are the Palestinians doing this? This is a bullying tactic to scare the US administration into supporting their cause and abandoning its “bias” in favor of Israel. This is a new/old tactic that the Palestinian leadership has long used to extract political support and financial aid from the world. It is like saying: Give me everything I want or I will exact revenge.

The Palestinians consider the present US administration one of the most hostile American governments in history towards the Palestinians. They are hoping that the bullying, threats and violent attacks on US citizens and officials will make the White House backtrack on its support for Israel and start appeasing them.

Ultimately, it is all about money. The Palestinian Authority is desperate for US financial aid; without it, the Palestinian leadership would not be able to survive. So the Palestinians are hoping to extort protection money from the Americans. It is like saying, “You see what will happen to you if you stop funding me? It could always get worse for you. I suggest that you restore my accountability-free funding, and perhaps I will see to it that you do not get hurt.”

The Americans should call the Palestinian bluff and send a warning to the Palestinian leadership that there will be consequences for their rhetoric and actions if they do not cease the incitement and brainwashing. The US should use the money as leverage to demand this from the Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority needs your money and you have the right to demand something good in return for it. There is no reason why any American should be funding the same Palestinian propaganda machine that is inciting not only against Israel, but also against the US and its citizens.

Bassam Tawil is an Arab Muslim based in the Middle East.

Categories: American government and Palestinians
Tags:

Comments: Be the first to comment

European Companies Flee Iran to Avoid US Sanctions

May 23, 2018

“Washington has threatened to hold anyone doing prohibited business in Iran to account.” Germany’s state-run DW News confirms

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal Tuesday, May 22, 2018 Legal Insurrection

Source Link: European Companies Flee Iran to Avoid US Sanctions

{Money talks,  political bullshit walks. – LS}

European companies are leaving the Islamic Republic of Iran in droves fearing U.S. sanctions after President Donald Trump’s decided to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal earlier this month. The regime in Tehran is “particularly concerned by the decisions of various European companies to halt their Iranian operations until the future of sanctions was clear,” several German newspapers reported on Monday.

“The cascade of decisions by EU companies to end their activities in Iran makes things much more complicated,” Iranian Foreign Minister said. The statement comes days after the French oil company Total pulled out $5 billion worth of investments from the country fearing U.S. sanctions.

The EU, backed by the governments of France and Germany, has been scrambling to save the European business interests in Iran. German and French companies had made huge investments in Iranian oil and industrial sectors since the nuclear deal eased sanction on the regime three years ago.

The EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who heads the bloc’s executive arm, proposed enacting laws to allow European companies to ignore the U.S. sanctions. This so-called ‘blocking statute’ could protect European firms from prosecution by the U.S. Treasury and other agencies.

The Trump administration has made its intentions clear to go after any foreign player found guilty of sanctions-busting in Iran. “US withdrawal and new raft of sanctions will hurt a number of European firms with connections to Iran. Washington has threatened to hold anyone doing prohibited business in Iran to account.” Germany’s state-run DW News confirmed.

German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung reported Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif’s comments that were made at a meeting with a senior EU official in Tehran:

Iran has called for EU’s support in saving the nuclear deal–primarily through more European investments.

Europe declares its political commitment to the deal, but large European companies want to pull out of the country, complained the Iranian Foreign Minister.

Iran doesn’t consider the political support from the European Union to be sufficient to save the nuclear deal. Country’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif made that clear during his meeting with the EU Commissioner for Energy, Miguel Arias Cañete. The EU needs to undertake practical measures “in order to increase investments in Iran,” Zarif said–as reported by Iran’s state-run news agency. The EU commitment to the nuclear deal is not in tune with the calls made by big European companies to leave Iran.

Several foreign companies have suspended their operations in Iran while they wait for the outcome of the talks within the EU. Last week, the French oil company Total announced its decision to end an investment project worth $4.8 billion if the company fails to get an approval from Washington. [Translation by the author]

The exodus of European investments from Iran is a diplomatic win for the Trump administration that has been urging the Western companies to end operations in Iran.

Earlier this month, National Security Adviser John Bolton announced that “it’s possible” for the European companies to face sanctions if they continued doing business with Tehran. The U.S. ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell called upon the German firms to stop trading with Iran. “US sanctions will target critical sectors of Iran’s economy. German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately,” Ambassador Grenell said.

On Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a list of demands to Tehran: calling on the regime to immediately cease its nuclear program, end military activity throughout the Middle East and release all U.S. nationals held on spurious charges. He threatened “strongest sanctions in history” if Iran fails to comply.

The reaction from Tehran shows that European investors aren’t buying the assurances being given by the EU commissars. Many of the French and German companies fleeing Iran have profitable operations in the U.S. and don’t want to jeopardize their business relations across the Atlantic just to make a quick buck in Iran. With President Trump and the members of his administration acting in unison on the issue of Iran, European companies–unlike the EU officials–seem to have grasped the firmness of the U.S. resolve.

Categories: European Union sanctions, Iran - sanctions, Iran - sanctions enforcement, Sanctions
Tags:

Comments: Be the first to comment

Iran Rejects Russia’s Call to Remove All Foreign Troops from Syria

May 23, 2018

by The Tower.org Staff | 05.22.18 4:07 pm

Source Link: Iran Rejects Russia’s Call to Remove All Foreign Troops from Syria

{On the contrary, Iran would rather everyone else get out. – LS}

Iran on Monday rejected a call from Russia to pull Iranian forces out of Syria in the event a permanent peace agreement is reached in the war-stricken country, The Times of Israel reported.

“No one can force Iran to do anything,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Bahram Qasemi said, according to the Tasnim news website. {I beg to differ. – LS}

“As long as terrorism exists and the Syrian government wants, Iran will have presence [in Syria],” Qasemi said. “Those who have entered Syria without the consent of the Syrian government should leave.”

After a meeting with Syrian regime President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that foreign powers must pull their troops out of Syria to respect any final political settlement in the country.

“We presume that, in connection with the significant victories and success of the Syrian army in the fight against terrorism… with the onset of the political process in its more active phase, foreign armed forces will be withdrawn from the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic,” Putin said, according to CNN.

Russia’s envoy for Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev, later added that Putin’s comment was aimed at Iran, Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, the United States and Turkey.

“This statement involves all foreign troops in Syria including the Turkish, American, Iranian and Hezbollah.” The envoy clarified that Russia had no immediate plans for withdrawal.

Israel has time and again demanded Iran’s withdrawal from Syria, accusing the regime in Tehran of building a permanent military infrastructure in the country and using it as a base for its expansionist behavior in the region, including direct attacks against the Jewish State.

The U.S. echoed Israel’s demand this week, when U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a speech Monday that “Iran must withdraw all forces under Iranian command throughout the entirety of Syria.” The condition was part of 12 requirements spelled out by Pompeo for a new agreement with Tehran, following the collapse of the JCPOA, that aims to put an end to the Islamic Republic’s “malign” behavior in the Middle East.

In an op-ed for The Hill published last month, TIP CEO and President Joshua S. Block, wrote that the U.S. must “make clear to Moscow” that American forces will not pull out of Syria “before the Iranians are out of the picture. Anything short of that is not up for debate.”

[Photo: Darius Bazargan / YouTube ]

Categories: Iran and Syria
Tags:

Comments: Be the first to comment

Commander says Iran’s people will punch U.S. Secretary of State in the mouth

May 22, 2018

Source Link: Commander says Iran’s people will punch U.S. Secretary of State in the mouth

Reuter’s Staff May 22, 2018

{Take your best shot, Bubba. – LS}

BEIRUT (Reuters) – A senior Iranian military commander poured scorn on U.S. threats to tighten sanctions on Tuesday, saying the Islamic Republic’s people would respond by punching U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the mouth.

Pompeo said on Monday Washington would impose new penalties if Tehran did not make sweeping changes, including dropping its nuclear program and pulling out of the Syrian civil war.

Two weeks after President Donald Trump pulled out of an international nuclear deal with Iran, his administration has threatened to impose “the strongest sanctions in history,” setting Washington and Tehran further on a course of confrontation.

“The people of Iran should stand united in the face of this and they will deliver a strong punch to the mouth of the American Secretary of State and anyone who backs them,” Ismail Kowsari, the deputy commander of the Sarollah Revolutionary Guards base in Tehran said, according to the Iranian Labour News Agency.

Limiting Iran’s missile capabilities was one of Pompeo’s main demands.

“Who are you and America to tell us to limit the range of ballistic missiles?” Kowsari said, according to ILNA. “History has shown that with the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, America is the top criminal with regard to missiles,” he added.

Qassem Soleimani, the head of the branch of the Revolutionary Guards that carries out operations outside Iran’s borders, was singled out by Pompeo as a top troublemaker in the Middle East.

Kowsari said that the Iranian people back Soleimani.

“Soleimani is not a single person. The great people of Iran support him,” Kowsari said.

Separately, Iran’s government spokesman said that the plan outlined by Pompeo would exacerbate the public’s hostility to the United States.

“Do the Americans think that the silk glove that they’ve taken out and the iron hand that they’ve extended to the people, a hand that’s backed by Israel and the [Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization], will make Iranian people think that America wants democracy?” Mohammad Baqer Nobakht said on Tuesday, according to state media.

The Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) is an exiled Iranian armed opposition group which has called for the overthrow of the Iranian government for decades.

John Bolton, the U.S. national security advisor, has been a supporter of the MKO, which the Iranian government sees as a terrorist group.

 

Categories: Iran - sanctions, Iran and JCPOA, Iran and President Trump
Tags:

Comments: Be the first to comment

Pompeo Vows to ‘Crush’ Iran’s Terror & Nuke Programs

May 22, 2018

by John Rossomando May 21, 2018 The Investigative Project on Terrorism

Source Link: Pompeo Vows to ‘Crush’ Iran’s Terror & Nuke Programs

Bonus Link: U.S. Iran Strategy Announced By Sec State Pompeo

{If I lived in Iran, I’d be stocking up on food, water, and other necessities right about now. – LS}

New sanctions are around the corner that could help “crush” Iran’s ability to fund terrorism and its nuclear program, Secretary of State Mike Pompeoannounced Monday in a speech at The Heritage Foundation. Pompeo promised the “strongest sanctions in history.” He listed12 demands that Iran would need to fulfill to have the sanctions lifted. These demands include an end to Iran’s support for terror; carte blanche inspection of Iranian nuclear sites by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); and ending ballistic missile proliferation.

“We will track down Iranian operatives and their Hizballah proxies operating around the world and we will crush them,” Pompeo said. “Iran will never again have carte blanche to dominate the Middle East.”

On May 8, President Trump announced the end of U.S. participation in the Iran deal,formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). European governments, however, say they plan to remain in the agreement.

Pompeo slammed the Obama administration, which negotiated and pushed for the deal, for failing to listen to critics who argued that releasing approximately $100 billion in frozen assets to Iran would increase its ability to support terrorism.

“Remember, Iran advanced its march across the Middle East during the JCPOA,” Pompeo said. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force chief “Qasem Soleimani has been playing with house money that has become blood money. Wealth created by the West has fueled his campaigns.”

Iran used the released money from the JCPOA to fund the IRGC, the Taliban, Hizballah, Hamas and the Houthis in Yemen, Pompeo said. Iranian backed militias under Soleimani’s leadership control a wide swath of territory between the Iran-Iraq borders all the way to the Mediterranean. Israel recently launched retaliatory strikes on Iranian targets in Syria after Iranian rockets landed in the Golan Heights.

Al-Qaida leaders also continue to be harbored in Iran.

Not surprisingly, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani rejected Pompeo’s demands, saying Iran will “continue our path with the support of our nation.”

Last week, the Trump administration sanctioned the IRGC Quds Force and imposed sanctions on the head of Iran’s central bank, which Pompeo said funded Hizballah and other terrorist organizations.

“The Iranian economy is already in free fall. That has to put a crimp in the regime’s capacity to fund surrogates. If the administration follows through there certainly won’t be more money to spread around,” James Carafano, vice president and director of the Center for Foreign Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation, told the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT).

U.K.-based exiled Iranian dissident and author Babak Taghvaee criticized Pompeo’s speech on Twitter for not including human rights as a condition for lifting sanctions.

“Iranians could have helped #US to not only achieve these twelve objectives rather more,” Taghvaee told the IPT.

Other Iranians responded by creating #ThankYouPompeo and #IranRegimeChange hashtags on Twitter.

Categories: Donald Trump and Iranian provocations, Iran - American relations
Tags:

Comments: Be the first to comment

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »