Archive for month: September, 2014

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says “the danger of extremism” has spread across the globe.

“The innocent people of the Middle East are now facing savage terrorists… The danger of violence, extremism and terrorism is currently felt across the world,” Rouhani said at a press conference on the sidelines of the 69th annual session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday.

Referring to the ISIL Takfiri terrorists committing atrocities in the Middle East, Rouhani said certain countries must stop supporting the Takfiris in the region.

“The violence has no connections with any holy religions,” Rouhani further added.

“The terrorists’ financial resources must be cut off. The countries that have assisted them financially… must feel the burden of this responsibility and stop financial assistance to terrorist groups,” Rouhani noted.

“Terrorism will not be destroyed by bombardment of a few locations. Since 2001, thousands of aerial bombardments have been carried out under the rubric of fighting terrorism, but we see that those airstrikes have resulted in the spread of terrorism,” he added.

The ISIL terrorists currently control parts of Syria and Iraq. They have carried out heinous crimes in the two countries, including mass executions and beheadings of people.

The United States and its partners began targeting Takfiri militants in Iraq last month and expanded the air raids into Syria earlier this week. Syria has warned that any military action inside its territory must be coordinated with Damascus.

Referring to Iran’s nuclear energy program, President Rouhani said “brave decisions” need to be made in order to resolve the West’s dispute with Iran over the issue.

Rouhani reiterated that Iran will never stop its peaceful nuclear activities, which have always been under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and within the framework of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

“Iran will never give up its peaceful, legal (nuclear) activity. Uranium enrichment will continue in Iran. Any agreement in which enrichment on Iranian soil is not considered will not be acceptable to us.”

He also said that “substantial progress” has been made since last year in nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group – the United States, Britain, Russia, China, France and Germany.

The Iranian president went on to say that Tehran is pursuing “a win-win agreement” that guarantees that the rights of the Iranian people will be respected.

He also said that the nuclear negotiations have created the opportunity to prove Iran’s resolve in pursuing a negotiated solution to the nuclear issue.

Rouhani added that “progress (in nuclear talks) has been very slow,” therefore all sides must move faster to try to reach a comprehensive agreement as soon as possible.

Regarding a possible deal on Iran’s peaceful nuclear program, Rouhani said, “Not only will the agreement benefit Iran and the P5+1 group but also the stability and security of the entire region.”

Referring to the US-led international sanctions against the Islamic Republic, the Iranian president said that they are harming both the countries that imposed them and the Iranian nation.

“The sanctions must be lifted fully. Any agreement in which the lifting of sanctions is not mentioned explicitly is not acceptable to the Iranian people,” he stated.

Iran and the six world powers are currently in talks to work out a final accord that would end the dispute over Tehran’s civilian nuclear program.

On Thursday night, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and US Secretary of State John Kerry held a meeting in New York to discuss progress made during the ongoing nuclear talks and to confer on how to proceed with the negotiations. Zarif leads the Iranian negotiating team while Ashton represents the P5+1 group.

The two sides clinched an interim deal in Geneva, Switzerland, last November. The agreement took effect on January 20 and expired six months later. In July, they agreed to extend the negotiations until November 24 amid differences over a number of key issues.

MSM/MAM/MHB

Taliban militants have beheaded dozens of Afghan civilians and burnt their homes in the country’s eastern province of Ghazni.

Ahmadullah Ahmadi, the provincial deputy governor of Ghazni, said on Friday that the militants beheaded the civilians, including women and children, in four villages across the province.

He also said that contact was lost with police in the villages and that around 70 houses were burnt down in the region.

Ahmadi added that over 100 people had been killed since an estimated 700 Taliban militants stormed the Ajrestan district five days ago. 

“We have asked repeatedly for helicopters to evacuate the wounded, but so far nothing has been done,” Ahmadi said.

The Taliban militant group has been making advances in Ghazni in recent months. The province serves as a key link to the southern and southeastern parts of the war-torn country.

Over the past months, militants have stepped up their attacks against Afghan government troops, foreign forces and civilians.

They have vowed to escalate the assaults on Afghan forces and US-led troops, their bases, diplomatic missions and vehicle convoys before the drawdown of the US-led foreign soldiers by the end of the year.

The United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban militant group from power, but insecurity continues to rise across the country, despite the presence of tens of thousands of US-led troops.

There are currently more than 41,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, including some 29,000 US troops.

SRK/MAM/MHB

Now that U.S. bombs are falling in Syria, will Islamic extremism be stopped in its tracks? Such a question is an insult to the intellect, yet it’s the dominant theory in Washington D.C., where years of Middle East war have taught politicians nothing. 

Bombing yet another Middle East country will create yet more extremists, while broadening an already-existing proxy war in Syria between regional rivals. Obama’s strategy to combat ISIS purposely excludes key players that, if included, could actually help stop the fighting. The strategy of exclusion will thus intensify the regional proxy fight, leading to the likelihood of even deeper U.S. involvement in the Syrian war and a broader conflagration.

Iran, Syria, and Russia were not invited to join the war against ISIS, since the broader regional proxy war is a war between the U.S. and its allies versus Syria, Iran, Hezbollah and Russia.

Syria cannot join the anti-ISIS coalition even though Syria has been fighting ISIS for over two years. Obama’s reason is that the Syrian government has “no legitimacy.” But Obama’s “coalition” of Gulf states are composed of totalitarian dictatorships that, in comparison, make Syria look like the bastion of democracy.

Equally hypocritical is that Obama’s Arab bombing partners are the states most responsible for ISIS’ creation. Saudi Arabia and Qatar are especially guilty of sending money, weapons, and extremist fighters into Syria to topple the Syrian Government, which directly helped transform ISIS from a fledgling group of fanatics into a regional power.  

While Saudi Arabia and Qatar were exporting jihadism to Syria, Obama looked the other way, so pleased was he to have an army of foreign mercenaries to help topple Assad. These extremists dominated the Syrian battlefield for nearly three years, and only now is Obama using a couple of beheadings to flood the emotions of the American public.

Obama’s “coalition of the willing” is largely a mirage, since it’s composed of Gulf state monarchies that are completely dependent on U.S. aid, supplying these dictatorships with enough fire power to protect them from their own citizens, who would otherwise topple their “royalty” in minutes. 

Further enraging the Gulf state population is their governments helping the U.S. bomb another Arab country; the U.S. is disliked as much as the hated dictatorial monarchies.

To complicate matters more, there are large sections of support in the Gulf states for groups like ISIS, since these governments give institutional support to religious institutions that hold an extremist interpretation of Islam. 

In fact, the only thin base of popular support for these dictatorships is religion, which is why these theocratic regimes cannot wage a real war on Islamic extremism — their thin political base will not support their monarchy bombing familial-religious offshoots. Thus, Obama’s coalition of regional lackey dictatorships cannot give too much support — or support such a war too long.

The real danger of bombing Syria is expansion. Once the first bomb explodes the logic of war takes over, usually creating a dynamic of expansion. The U.S. military uses the sanitized term “mission creep” to explain this phenomenon. And the war is already starting to creep; Obama has bombed non-ISIS targets that have enraged some Syrian rebels.

An even larger “mission creep” is easily predictable because Obama’s main strategy to fight ISIS is to arm the rebels who are fighting the Syrian government. The rebels are more interested in fighting Assad than fighting their ideological cousins.

The New York Times recently confirmed this, as they mentioned that Syrian rebels dislike ISIS, but “…ousting Mr. Assad remains their primary goal, putting them at odds with their American patrons.”

Obama himself finally admitted in his U.N. speech that targeting the Syrian government was at least half of his intention by funding the Syrian rebels:

“Together with our partners, America is training and equipping the Syrian opposition to be a counterweight to the terrorists of ISIL and the brutality of the Assad regime.”

Of course, no politician tells the U.S. public that funding the Syrian rebels is being done to attack the Syrian government.

The above New York Times article also mentioned that the U.S. is currently paying the salaries of 10,000 fighters in northern Syria. This is a mercenary army, and thus a manufactured war. The U.S. is paying 10,000 fighters while Saudi Arabia and Qatar have long been paying “rebels” to fight the Syrian government. This cash-flush Syrian mercenary army has artificially expanded the catastrophic Syrian war that Assad would have otherwise won long ago, with tens of thousands of lives spared in the process.

The likelihood of “mission creep” was also recently discussed by legendary Middle East journalist Robert Fisk:

    “How soon… before a missile explodes in a Syrian regime weapons depot — by “mistake”, of course — or other government facilities? Since the US has decided to fund and train the so-called “moderate opposition” to fight Isis and the Syrian regime, why should it not bomb both sets of enemies?”

Fisk is of course correct; investing in the Syrian rebels is likely an investment in a longer-term war against the Syrian government. Now that the U.S. Congress approved $500 million in funding for the Syrian rebels, the U.S. is more likely to “come to their defense” if they engage in a large battle with the Syrian government. 

The U.S. politicians understand that the intended outcome of funding the Syrian rebels is regime change, while they tell the American public that ISIS is the only target. The real agenda is quite simple: keeping the Middle East under U.S. control by any means necessary.

AGB/AGB

Russia says that according to international law US-led airstrikes against the ISIL Takfiri terrorists in Syria should be coordinated with the central government in Damascus.

“We believe that any action taken globally, including use of force, to overcome terrorist threats should be done in accordance with international law,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the remarks on Friday, while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the 69th annual session of the United Nations General Assembly.

“It’s very important that such cooperation with Syrian authorities is established even now that it’s an accomplished fact,” Lavrov said, adding, “Excluding Syrian authorities from the struggle that is taking place… not only goes against international law but undermines efficiency.”

The Russian foreign minister also reiterated Russian President Vladimir Putin’s remarks made before the airstrikes.

During a phone conversation with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Putin had said that the offensive should not be conducted without the permission of Damascus.

The US has extended its air operations that started in Iraq last month to Syria, with the support of Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. 

The US and its Arab allies began pounding ISIL positions in Syria on Tuesday.

In recent months, the Syrian army has been liberating a corridor of territory from Damascus to the Mediterranean coast, recapturing towns and villages along the main north-south highway and in the mountainous al-Qalamoun region along the border with Lebanon.

Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since 2011. More than 191,000 people have been killed in over three years of fighting in the war-ravaged country, says the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), calling the figure a probable “underestimate of the real total number of people killed.”

SRK/MAM/MHB

Israeli forces have clashed with Palestinian worshippers at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

The clashes broke out following Friday prayers.

Earlier in the day, Israeli forces had barred men under 50 and Palestinians living in the West Bank from entering the holy site.

The restrictions forced hundreds of worshipers to pray outside the mosque. Israeli police claimed that the restrictions were meant to prevent violence following the Friday prayers.

No casualties were reported, but Israeli forces made a number of arrests.

On Wednesday, more than a dozen Palestinian protesters were injured after Israeli forces shot rubber bullets and stun grenades at them during clashes around the mosque.

In recent months, Israeli troops have escalated their raids on the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam’s third-holiest site after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

Almost on a daily basis, Israeli troops force their way into the ranks of Palestinian worshippers, triggering scuffles.

Israeli authorities are systematically acting to change the identity and character of several Palestinian cities.

A report published by the al-Aqsa Foundation in October 2013 said the Israeli regime is planning to build a synagogue at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound as part of its efforts to further Judaize the occupied Palestinian territories.

Over the past decades, Israel has tried to change the demographic makeup of al-Quds by constructing illegal settlements, destroying historical sites and expelling the local Palestinian population.

MSM/MAM/MHB