Archive for month: September, 2014

The Pentagon says the United States and its partners have resumed airstrikes against the ISIL terrorist group in Syria.

“I can confirm that US military and Arab partner forces are undertaking additional strikes today against ISIL terrorists in Syria,” Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said in a statement issued on Wednesday afternoon.

“These operations are ongoing so we will not provide additional details at this time,” he added.

On Monday, the Pentagon announced that the US and its allies started bombing ISIL in Syria. Fighter aircraft from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates took part in the airstrikes. The United States has already conducted dozens of airstrikes against ISIL targets in Iraq since mid-August.

The ISIL terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, control large parts of Syria’s northern territory. ISIL sent its fighters into Iraq in June, quickly seizing vast expanse of land straddling the border between the two countries.

A high-ranking US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the fighter jets also struck oil facilities held by the militants in Syria on Wednesday.

The ISIL terrorists have captured several oilfields in Syria and neighboring Iraq. They rely on them as a vital source of income.

According to reports, ISIL is currently in control of seven oil fields in Iraq and large amounts of the country’s wheat supplies.

The output capacity of the ISIL-held oil fields amounts to 80,000 barrels a day, said the International Energy Agency (IEA) in a monthly oil market report last month.

The potential oil flow from Iraq’s ISIL-held deposits is commensurate to about $8.4 million a day on international markets.

In an interview with Press TV last month, American political analyst Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich said the United States has raised the specter of ISIL in order to stay in the Middle East region for a long time.

She said that “America had long-standing plans to be permanently present in Iraq, and in the Persian Gulf region as a whole.  Domination of the Persian Gulf is the lynchpin of US strategy…the presence of ISIL helps them in this goal.”

“It’s very interesting that ISIL has captured towns and regions that have been vital for the US policy in the region — one is the oil-rich [region],” Ulrich said on August 11. “And the other more important aspect…, according to my perspective, is the water factor, and ISIL managed to capture the dams.”

GJH/GJH

Over 1,000 taxi drivers have blocked traffic in the British capital to protest against a boom in unlicensed minicabs and rickshaws prowling London streets.

The cab drivers argue that local regulator Transport for London is not protecting the public from illegal minicab touts and rickshaws.

The Wednesday strike was the latest in a series of protests against ridesharing services.

The protest, organized by the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association, brought traffic to a complete halt and caused chaos around Westminster.

The cab drivers say they have lost out on work due to the fact that they are not being properly regulated.

“We’ve been asking them for a long time for greater enforcement against illegal minicabs, touting,” said Steve McNamara, the head of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association.

“Every night of the week in London, there are people being attacked, robbed, assaulted by unlicensed, uninsured minicab drivers,” he added.

There are around 25,000 licensed black taxis and 60,000 licensed private hire vehicles in London. Unlicensed taxis are widely available in busy spots at night.

Licensed taxi drivers have held similar protests throughout the summer in London and several other major European cities.

DB/AS/MHB

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has censured US-led airstrikes against the ISIL Takfiri terrorists in Syria, calling the campaign an instance of military intervention.

Rouhani made the remarks among US editors and reporters in New York on Wednesday ahead of his address to the United Nations General Assembly this week.

The Iranian president said the strikes by the United States do not have “any legal standing” as the UN has not issued any mandates for intervention in Syria.

President Rouhani also made comments about relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

“Our relationship with Saudi Arabia… deserves to be warmer,” he said, adding Riyadh’s “positions are getting closer and closer to us.”

The ISIL Takfiri terrorists currently control parts of Syria and Iraq. They have threatened all communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, Christians, Izadi Kurds and others, as they continue their atrocities in Iraq.

Senior Iraqi officials have blamed Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and some Persian Gulf Arab states for the growing terrorism in their country.

The terrorist group has links with Saudi intelligence and is believed to be indirectly supported by the Israeli regime.

The US started conducting airstrikes on the ISIL only after US interests were threatened by the militants.

NT/AS/MHB

The United States uses, abuses and then throw away its partners, an American political commentator has warned the countries which have joined the US-led coalition against ISIL.

Rodney Martin, who is the director of the World View Foundations, a website, and a host at the American Nationalist Network, an internet radio station, made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Wednesday while commenting on a senior US military official’s statement in which he said that the US-led airstrikes against the ISIL terrorist group in Syria is the beginning of campaign that may last several years.

“You are seeing the beginning of a sustained campaign, and strikes like this in the future can be expected,” said Army Lieutenant General William Mayville, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The Pentagon announced on Monday that the US and its allies started bombing ISIL in Syria. Fighter aircraft from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates took part in the airstrikes. The United States has already conducted dozens of airstrikes against ISIL targets in Iraq since mid-August.

“The whole concept of long-term bombing campaign, first of all, is intellectually dishonest. The concept of long-term bombing was tried extensively in the Vietnam conflict and it failed,” Martin said.

“The concept of strategic bombing, it was called Operation [Rolling] Thunder in Vietnam, it did not defeat either the North Vietnam conventional forces nor did it defeat the guerrilla fighters operating in South Vietnam,” he added. “[It] is farcical to think that, first of all, the American public is going to buy a long-term bombing campaign in the Middle East in lieu of the magical word boots on the ground.”

“The fact of the matter is there was a great division between the civilian leaders, which are constitutionally in charge of the military in the United States, versus the former generals who actually want boots on the ground. They wanted a conventional force; they wanted an expeditionary force on the ground back in the Middle East; they did not want to leave Iraq, and they actually wanted a full-blown invasion of Syria, and quite honestly, [of] Iran in accordance with the project New American Century,” the journalist stated. “So there’s a great divide. And of course the neocons have wanted this for quite some time.”

“The concept that militarily a bombing campaign is going to dislodge ISIS, that’s not going to work,” he said, using an alternative acronym for the terrorist group whose militants were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government.

The ISIL terrorists control large parts of Syria’s northern territory. ISIL sent its fighters into Iraq in June, quickly seizing vast expanse of land straddling the border between the two countries.

“ISIS was created and funded and armed by the United States. And now the United States is in a pickle IF…ISIS really has gone rogue and is no longer receiving support [from the US],” Martin said.

“I tend to believe that ISIS was created to destabilize the government of [Iraqi] Prime Minister [Nouri] Maliki and create a new government in Iraq, which has happened, and also to create a regime change in Syria,” he stated.

“And finally there is a reason why governments like Turkey and other nations are not embracing the US policy, because historically countries are far better off to not align with the United States,” Martin pointed out.

“World leaders are looking at the historical trends, and those countries that are historically aligned with the United States, it has not turned out well for them at all. The United States is not a good partner. They use, abuse and throw away their partners. They routinely violate the sovereignty of their partners, the nation states,” he noted.

GJH/GJH

The European Parliament has held a meeting with a delegation from the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) amid the West’s silence over the regime crackdown in the Persian Gulf country, Press TV reports.

“Bahrain is considered one of the most repressive regimes in the world,” said BCHR director Nabeel Rajab on Wednesday, after he brought the delegation to the Belgian capital Brussels for a meeting with the European parliamentarians.

The activist, who has spent two years in an Al Khalifa jail, was highly critical of the European Union and the United States for failing to support the tiny country’s pro-democracy protesters.

“Bahrain has the highest rate per capita of political prisoners… (and) the second highest rate of journalists or photojournalists in jail,” said Rajab.

Since mid-February 2011, thousands of pro-democracy protesters have held numerous demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling for the Al Khalifa royal family to relinquish power.

On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates invaded the country to assist the Bahraini government in its crackdown on peaceful protesters.

According to local sources, scores of people have been killed.

“These are not abstract topics or numbers but these are individuals including Nabeel Rajab, who has been in prison for two years and who has been released, but there are many other political prisoners, and political prisoners wherever they are should be freed and that is the message that we were able to share today,” said Marietje Schaake, a Dutch member of the European Parliament (MEP).

Nabeel was under the regime’s custody in Jaw prison in eastern Bahrain since July 9, 2012.

NT/AS/MHB