Encircling Iran

Iran to ‘remove any ambiguity regarding our country’s nuclear program’

"The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, Ali Akbar Salehi, said separately Tehran could conceivably agree to allowing the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to conduct snap inspections of its facilities. Their remarks come as Iran’s new president, Hassan Rowhani, has expressed keenness to move forward quickly with serious, transparent negotiations, while not abandoning the country’s rights. Salehi said he understood international concerns, and that Iran was ready to allay them 'using every treaty, regulation and mechanism at the international level'." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIran to ‘remove any ambiguity regarding our country’s nuclear program’

Iranian Military Chief: ‘We Will Support Syria To The End’

"Iran will support Syria 'until the end' in the face of possible US-led military strikes, the chief of Iran's elite Quds Force unit was quoted Thursday by the media as saying. Iran is Syria's main regional ally and some analysts believe a wider goal of US President Barack Obama's determination to launch a strike against the Damascus regime is to blunt Tehran's growing regional influence and any consequent threat to Washington ally Israel. President Hassan Rowhani said Iran will do 'everything to prevent' an attack on the Syrian regime, according to extracts from statements he made before the Assembly of Experts published in the media." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIranian Military Chief: ‘We Will Support Syria To The End’

House Republican Claims Reagan Stood Up To Chemical Weapons Use

"Ronald Reagan did exactly the opposite. For the majority of the 1980s, Iraq under Saddam Hussein was locked in combat with the Islamic Republic of Iran in a war that killed more than 1,000,000 people on both sides. The United States explicitly backed the secular Hussein over the Ayatollah Khomeini’s government in Tehran, still smarting from the embassy hostage crisis that had only ended when Reagan took office. That backing not only included the shipment of tons of weapons to support Baghdad, but also looking the other way when Iraq unleashed its chemical weapons stockpiles — including sarin and mustard gas — against Iranian civilians and soldiers alike." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHouse Republican Claims Reagan Stood Up To Chemical Weapons Use

David Stockman: The End of U.S. Imperium—Finally!

"Next week Congress can do far more than stop a feckless Tomahawk barrage on a small country that is already a graveyard of civil war and sectarian slaughter. By voting 'no,' it can trigger the end of the American Imperium—five decades of incessant meddling, bullying, and subversion around the globe that has added precious little to national security but left America fiscally exhausted and morally diminished. Indeed, the tragedy of this vast string of misbegotten interventions is that virtually none of them involved defending the homeland or any tangible, steely-eyed linkages to national security. They were all rooted in ideology." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDavid Stockman: The End of U.S. Imperium—Finally!

AIPAC comes out for strike on Syria, mentions Iran more often than Syria

"As NJ Senator Robert Menendez said at the Kerry hearing today in the Senate, Syria is about Iran. And it is for AIPAC too. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee broke its silence today, urging a vote for the Syrian strike. AIPAC was lying low. That was what everyone said. So: Who called AIPAC? And: why does Obama need AIPAC? Could it be because AIPAC can get 70 Senators’ signatures on a napkin in 24 hours? Also, if the Tea Party is so 'isolationist,' as the media keep insisting, then why is Marco Rubio gungho on a Syria attack? Does it have anything to do with presidential ambitions?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAIPAC comes out for strike on Syria, mentions Iran more often than Syria

Israel: The missing link in Syria puzzle

"For that past four or five years, Israel has been threatening Iran with military attack almost every other day, with Washington, London and Paris nervously obliging. The American military, however, are painfully aware that there’s some truth to former Prime Minister Mahathir’s words. They don’t want to fight yet another Israeli war this time in Iran. So, they have been acting as a brake which is reflected in Obama’s increasing 'caution' regarding Iran, going so far as to dispatching his military top brass to Israel to calm Netanyahu down, trying to make sure Israel does not launch a unilateral 'preventive attack' on Iran that will drag the US into a massive conflict in the Middle East." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIsrael: The missing link in Syria puzzle

Saudi Arabia Pushes US Toward Military Strike in Syria

"Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal urged the Arab League to back a military strike against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime after the chemical attack on Ghouta in which hundreds of Syrians were killed. Away from humanitarian concerns over the Syrian victims of chemical attacks, the Saudi antagonism to Assad’s regime started in 2006, when it appeared that together with Iraq, Syria was beginning to drift even more toward the Iranian sphere of influence and away from the Saudi-led Arab position, causing discomfort in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia aims to return Syria to its fold after years of estrangement and even hostility." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSaudi Arabia Pushes US Toward Military Strike in Syria

Will Boehner Stop Our Rogue President?

"Why this rush to war? Why the hysteria? Why the panic? Syria and Assad will still be there two weeks from now or a month from now, and we will know far more then about what happened last week. Understandably, Obama wants to get the egg off his face from having foolishly drawn his 'red line' against chemical weapons, and then watching Syria, allegedly, defy His Majesty. But saving Obama’s face does not justify plunging his country into another Mideast war. Does Obama realize what a fool history will make of him if he is stampeded into a new war by propaganda that turns out to be yet another stew of ideological zealotry and mendacity?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWill Boehner Stop Our Rogue President?

David Galland: Mexico Invades Syria!

"Could the attack trigger a quick and violent sympathetic public uprising in Saudi Arabia, sending the Saud family on the run and oil prices to $200 or more? In terms of consequences of a less violent nature, what if the Russians and the Chinese, the latter being Syria's largest trading partner, decided to protest by dumping some of the massive amount of US dollars they hold? I could go on, but won't. Instead, I'll leave off by saying that, given the risks vs. the rewards of yet another Western attack on the Middle East, I personally couldn't be more opposed to it. Hopefully there are enough people in what's left of the degraded Western democracies who feel the same way." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDavid Galland: Mexico Invades Syria!

The Syria Endgame: Strategic Stage in the Pentagon’s Covert War on Iran

"Regime change in Damascus is not the only or main way for the US and its allies to prevent Syria from standing with Iran. Destabilizing Syria and neutralizing it as a failed and divided state is the key. Sectarian fighting is not a haphazard outcome of the instability in Syria, but an assisted project that the US and its allies have steadily fomented with a clear intent to balkanize the Syrian Arab Republic. Regionally, Israel above all other states has a major stake in securing this outcome. The Israelis actually have several publicly available documents, including the Yinon Plan, which outline that the destruction of Syria into a series of smaller sectarian states is one of their strategic objectives." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Syria Endgame: Strategic Stage in the Pentagon’s Covert War on Iran