Saddam's Death, 118 (may 2018)
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Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was born April 28, 1937 and died December 30, 2006. He was the fifth President of Iraq, holding that position from July 16, 1979 until 9 April 2003. He was one of the leading members of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party, and afterward, the Baghdad-based Ba’ath Party and its regional organization Ba’ath Party, Iraq Region, which advocated ba’athism, an ideological marriage of Arab nationalism with Arab socialism. (Patricia Ramos, july 2013)  
"The despot thinks he is just as God... What a nadir and mean fate!
"...To be a human being among human beings, and remain one forever, no matter what misfortunes befall, not to become depressed, and not to falter - this is what life is, herein lies its task." Fyodor Dostoevsky (to his brother Mikhail, Dec. 22, 1849) “All mankind is from Adam and Eve. An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over black nor a black has any superiority over white except by piety and good action.
Jews must ditch Zionism, now
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"Holism is the most fundamental discovery of 20th century science. It is a discovery of every science from astrophysics to quantum physics to environmental science to psychology to anthropology. About political holism
Political dualists consider political holists unpatriotic for questioning the necessity to defeat "them." In times of impending war, political dualists tend to measure patriotism by the intensity of one's hostility to the country's immediate enemy. Desmond Tutu & Ubuntu
"A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, based from a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Iran welcomes normalization of ties between two Koreas
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"The national security of America and the security of the world could be attained if the American leaders [..] become rational, if America disengages itself from its evil alliance with Zionism, which has been scheming to exploit the world and plunge it in blood and darkness, by using America and some Western countries.
A person with a God Complex may refuse to admit the possibility of their error or failure, even in the face of irrefutable evidence, intractable problems or difficult or impossible tasks.
Political holism is based on the recognition that "we" are all members of a single whole. There's no "they," even though "we" are not all alike. Because "we" are all part of the whole, and therefore interdependent, we benefit from cooperating with each other. Political holism is a way of thinking about human cultures and nations as interdependent. 
- Moderator: What specific steps do you think would ease the tensions between the two countries.
Quran & Emotional Intelligence
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Wael Farouk: The Arabic root aqala (from which the word aql, or reason, is derived) appears 49 times in the Quran, and every time except once it appears in the form of a verb conjugated in the present tense, most of the time in the plural, as taaqiloun, yaaqiloun, and so on. 
* 1. Emotional intelligence begins with what is called self- and social awareness, the ability to recognize emotions (and their impact) in both yourself and others.Netanyahu: Don't Stop Propaganda!
says has proof of secret nuclear weapons program
Al-Arabya|AFP, Monday, 30 April 2018
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday he had new "proof" of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons programme, as the US considers whether to quit a landmark atomic accord that Israel opposes.
The Israeli premier, who has repeatedly called for the accord between world powers and his country's main enemy Iran to either be altered or scrapped, gave a presentation live on television including videos and slides allegedly exposing Iran's nuclear dossier.
He said Israel had obtained tens of thousands of files "a few weeks ago in a great intelligence achievement".
"Tonight we're going to reveal new and conclusive proof of the secret nuclear weapons programme that Iran has been hiding for years from the international community in its secret atomic archive," Netanyahu said.
"We're going to show you Iran's secret nuclear files."
Netanyahu alleged Iran's leaders repeatedly lied about their nuclear ambitions. He claims the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement does not prevent Tehran from eventually obtaining nuclear weapons and says the lifting of sanctions has increased Tehran's ability to finance proxy militants in the Middle East.
US President Donald Trump has a May 12 deadline to decide on whether or not to walk away from the deal, which he has derided as "insane" partly because its restrictions on Iran's nuclear activities begin expiring in 2025.
Most world powers however say the nuclear deal is working as intended for now and is the best way to keep Iran from acquiring the bomb.
Senator Lindsey Graham 22-2-2018:
“Iran needs to pay a heavier price – they are encircling our Arab allies and the State of Israel.”
Abbas Araqchi: "Israeli PM Netanyahu playing baseless childish game"
Press TV, 30-4-2018
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is playing a baseless childish, naive game.
"What we saw from Netanyahu was nothing but a childish and ridiculous show," Araqchi told Press TV on Monday, adding that it was also a repeat of Netanyahu's speeches in the past.
Earlier in the day Netanyahu delivered a televised address in which he accused Iran of violating the JCPOA. “That is just not an acceptable situation. They’re not sitting back idly. They’re setting off missiles, which they say are for television purposes. I don’t think so,” he said.
Netanyahu also alleged that Iran had intensified its efforts to hide its "secret files" and that it took them to a highly secret location in Tehran.
Araqchi added that such allegations against Tehran have already been proven wrong by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Since the JCPOA Implementation Day in January 2016, the IAEA has been monitoring Iran’s compliance with its nuclear-related commitments under the nuclear deal and has consistently verified the Islamic Republic’s compliance.
The Israeli PM is trying to affect US President Donald Trump's upcoming decision about the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA.), he said. He further noted that Iran does not care about Netanyahu allegations.
Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – the US, France, Britain, Russia and China – plus Germany signed the nuclear agreement on July 14, 2015 and started implementing it on January 16, 2016.
Netanyahu: "A notorious warmonger"
Juan Cole, 1 may 2018
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, a notorious warmonger, serial liar and supremacist racialist who used to lead the closest thing Israel has to a fascist party until parties even more extreme got elected to parliament, is attempting to bamboozle the clueless Trump into getting on a war footing with Iran.
Netanyahu’s breathless announcement that there was a potential weapons aspect to Iran’s nuclear enrichment program has been known for a decade and a half.
Netanyahu even seems to have provoked the White House to issue a communique falsely stating that Iran has a weapons program presently, which it promptly had to retract. The incident is so scary because it shows how easy it is to manipulate the erratic Trump and his not-ready-for-prime-time staff.
Netanyahu instanced no evidence at all that Iran is out of compliance with the 2015 deal, and UN inspectors continually have affirmed that Tehran *is* in compliance. So why try to put Iran on the front burner of American war-making?
It is a desperate attempt on Netanyahu’s part to divert world attention from the ongoing Israeli Apartheid discrimination against the stateless Palestinians, which it militarily occupies (directly with jackboots and colonial settlers on the West Bank, indirectly with military encirclement and the sniping of innocent protesters in Gaza).
In recent weeks, Israeli snipers have used live ammunition to kill some 40 and wound hundreds of Palestinians who were unarmed and peacefully protesting their imprisonment in the Gaza Strip (70% of their families were kicked out of their homes in Israel and now live in squalid refugee camps while European Israelis took over their houses and farmland and are living it up).
Shooting unarmed people who pose no threat is a war crime, and doing it systematically amounts to a crime against humanity. So too is the crime of Apartheid described in the Statute of Rome as a “crime against humanity,” and Israel manifestly and robustly practices Apartheid against the Palestinians under its military heel.
The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s civilian nuclear enrichment program (to make fuel for reactors generating electricity) was designed to prevent Iran from weaponizing the program. The Iran deal was designed to keep Iran from making high enriched uranium (HEU).
Iran destroyed its stockpile of uranium enriched to 19.5% for its medical reactor. It has no enriched uranium higher than 5%, useful for its three reactors at Bushehr.
Iran benefits from nuclear energy because it burns oil for electricity generation, cutting into the money it could make from instead selling it on the open market.
In 2007, the National Intelligence Estimate of the CIA assessed that Iran did some experiments with military significance in 2003 but then halted them ever after. The 2011 NIE repeated the conclusion that Iran did not have a weapons program at that time and had not decided to pursue one.
Israel sees survival reliant on demonizing others: Iran
Press TV, Tue May 1, 2018
Sentence First. Netanyahu's Wonderland
 "I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked. "Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad." "How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here." (Lewis Carroll: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) |
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has denounced the Israeli premier’s “ridiculous” and “shameful” show, during which he tried to persuade the world that Tehran has a “secret” nuclear program, saying the regime sees its survival dependent on demonizing others. Standing in front of a large screen at the Israeli ministry for military affairs, Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday used props, video and slides to claim that Iran is lying about its nuclear program. He showed documents and scores of CDs, which he said were “evidence” of Iran’s “secret” activities. The premier, however, did not go beyond making claims and refused to unveil the content of the materials he was presenting as alleged proof.
On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said Netanyahu’s presentation was a repetition of Israel’s “futile” and “shameful” shows against Iran. He referred to Netanyahu as a “lying and scandal-hit bankrupt,” who has “nothing to offer but rumormongering and deception.” Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s theatrics at Munich Security Conference on Sunday a “cartoonish circus.” |
More serious adults can read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as a satirical commentary on life. In this quotation man's tendency to want to punish even before making sure of guilt is satirized:
"Let the jury consider their verdict," the King said, for about the twentieth time that day.
"No, no!" said the Queen. "Sentence first–verdict afterward."
"Stuff and nonsense!" said Alice loudly. "The idea of having the sentence first!"
"Hold your tongue!" said the Queen, turning purple.
"I won't!" said Alice.
"Off with her head!" the Queen shouted at the top of her voice. Nobody moved.
"Who cares for you?" said Alice. (She had grown to her full size by this time.) "You're nothing but a pack of cards!"
Workers’ Day report: Syrian industrialists persevered during the crisis,
kept “Made in Syria” label in local and foreign markets
Syrian Arab News Agency, 1 May 2018
Throughout the crisis in Syria, a number of factories persevered and managed to maintain production, proving that Syrian industrialists can surmount all difficulties with their resourcefulness despite the economic embargo imposed on Syria. Thanks to these industrialists’ efforts, the “Made in Syria” label remained present in foreign markets in spite of those who wanted to see Syria ruined.
On Workers’ Day, SANA met with some of these industrialists and talked about their experience during the crisis.
Industrialist Mahmoud Khorsheed, who owns an ice cream factory, told SANA’s reporter during a tour of Adra Industrial City that his factory began production in 2009 and hasn’t stopped since, despite all difficult conditions.
He pointed out to the government’s efforts for stabilizing and protecting Syrian industry, particularly the Electricity Ministry that worked hard to provide power during the years of the war.
Production manager at al-Huda factory Mohammad Usama Tarfan told SANA that after years of work, the company moved to a 32000 square meters facility adjacent to the Industrial City, equipped with high-tech machines manned by over 600 workers.
Tarfan said that the company’s products won many quality awards and were sold across Syria and exported to many countries, but all this hard work turned to ashes when terrorists sabotaged the area.
Industrialists Jihad al-Esh from al-Kamal company that produces electricity generators said that his company provides generators to companies both in the public and private sector, and even exports its products to several countries.
aleppo looted by fsa rebels
After being sabotaged and looted by terrorists, the city resumed its activities after it was liberated by the Syrian Arab Army.
Hassan Zou’a, manager of a textiles factory, said that their facilities were destroyed by terrorists, particularly thread spinning mills whose engines were stolen and taken to Turkey.
Zou’a said that they had difficulties at first following the liberation of the area due to the lack of workers, but things are improving gradually...
Guy Who Hurled Shoes at George W. Bush Running for Iraqi Parliament
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We used to be a nation in which the Arab would share with the Turkman and the Kurd and the Assyrian and the Sabean and the Yazid his daily bread.
Now, with both feet planted firmly back in his shoes, he is running for parliament in elections set for 12 May.Pat Buchanan Blasts Bibi: He's "Been Crying Wolf For Decades"
by Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge, Tue, 05/01/2018
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In this 2002 clip Netanyahu all but guarantees that Saddam was putting all his energy into creating a nuclear bomb, and he talks repeatedly about “washing machine” sized centrifuges being surreptitiously moved around Iraq to evade the watchful eye of weapons inspectors. |
Buchanan pulled no punches in his criticism, exclaiming that the Israeli PM has been "crying wolf for decades" about Iran and that "Bibi Netanyahu, with due respect, wants the United States to fight a war with Iran on Israel's behalf."
"I don't want my country getting into another war," Buchanan said about Netanyahu's revelation. "The reason Iran doesn't have a bomb is because they don't want it. They could have built a bomb."
"Don't rely on him. Don't act on second-hand documents and a press conference from Bibi Netanyahu."
"What are we going to do, rely on a press conference from Bibi Netanyahu to go to war?"
And Buchanan is not alone in his disdain for Bibi's historic warmongering and lies.
Liberty Blitzkrieg's Mike Krieger notes that this isn’t the first time Netanyahu aggressively pitched the U.S. on war in the Middle East. He did the exact same thing, using the exact same playbook, in the run up to the Iraq war.
Fortunately, we have video evidence of his 2002 testimony to Congress, during which he hyperventilated and exaggerated about Iraq’s grave threat to the world as a result of its non-existsent WMDs.
One of the more memorable claims he made back then was when he proclaimed: “If you take out Saddam, I guarantee, it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region”
Morocco cut diplomatic ties with Iran
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Western Sahara & the Polisario Front
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UN Security Council calls on Morocco, Polisario Front
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Polisario denies has received financial, logistical support from Iran
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Gulf countries back Morocco's decision to cut ties with Iran
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The Polisario Front proclaimed the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) in 1976, with a government in exile in Algeria.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain said they supported Morocco’s decision to cut diplomatic ties with Iran, which has been accused of delivering weapons to the separatist Polisario Front in Western Sahara.Kurdish ministers present plans to Iranians at Erbil commerce conference
Rudaw News, 2-5-2018
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A high-level Iranian delegation led by the country’s business minister arrived in Erbil on Wednesday to take part in a conference aiming to strengthen joint trade ties.
PM Barzani floats 'free-trade zone' at Iran border crossing
Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister in the Kurdistan Region, spoke at the conference on Wednesday, encouraging stronger economic relations between the KRG and Iran's industries and teasing the idea of "free-trade zones."
He added they would work to “build a free-trade zone at the Parvizkhan border.” “The government has for this purpose made some practical steps and designated some areas for it. Yet more practical steps need to be made by both, the KRG and the Iraqi government,” Barzani added. He hoped the conference “will lay the groundwork” for the project to start work.
The humanitarian crisis in Yemen reached unprecedented levels during the first half of 2017, with no political solution in sight and an acute protection crisis sweeping the country.
But before we do, I want to anticipate my conclusion. I’m going to argue that for an empathy-based approach to lead to a lasting peace, Israeli will have to take the initiative, for three (3) reasons:
The empathy-based approach to the Israel-Palestine conflict builds on an assumption, which is that during a conflict, whether between two individuals or two communities, both parties can lose their empathy for the person or community they feel attacked by.
Empathy has great potential for conflict resolution, because empathy can do 3 things.
“I feel Libya, indeed, has no other solution apart from the umbrella of the tribe,” the prominent Tunisian activist Sophia Al-Hamami, who attended the meeting, told Asharq Al-Awsat.
If you don’t think we live in a crazy world, here is Netanyahu, accusing Abbas, the front man chosen by Washington and Israel as Palestine’s leader, of being a Holocaust denier.
What was the Holocaust? According to zionists, the Holocaust was National Socialist Germany’s elimination of 6 million Jews by first gassing them and then cremating the bodies.
The Holocaust occurred about 75 years ago. Norman Finkelstein and other Jewish scholars have explained how the Holocaust has been used to deflect criticism of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.
Holocaust revisionists are “whistleblowers”
What is not addressed in any depth here is the major reason for why people believe in the hoax.
John Weir, The Holocaust as Myth: Betraying the Public Trust
The Holocaust is a deeply anchored belief even in people who know very little about it.
The Syrian army is currently engaged in flushing out the remaining jihadist militants holed up in Damascus’ neighborhoods and suburbs.
DAMASCUS, SYRIA (2:05 P.M.) – Having fully recaptured the southern part of ISIS enclave in southern Damascus, the Syrian forces turned attention to oust the terror state from the northern flank.
With President Donald Trump’s May 12 deadline for withdrawing from the P5+1 nuclear deal looming, the Israeli government is pushing hard. According to analysts, this is less about the deal itself than about what killing the deal would lead to.
“The development of assistance in all fields including industry and reconstruction between Iran and the Kurdistan Region has been there and we intend to develop them further,” Mohammed Shariatmadari, Iran’s Minister of Industry, Mines and Business, told Rudaw.
“We hope this conference will become a factor for bolstering the economic ties between the Region, Baghdad and Tehran and help find solutions to the existing problems,” PM Barzani said.
Barzani described the conference as “very important” for Iran, the Kurdistan Region, and also Iraq.
“The Kurdistan Region has always worked to develop and diversity its economic relations with Iran,” Barzani voiced, adding the Iraq-Iran trade volume is $6.5 billion.
Barzani explained 67 percent of automobiles are imported into the Kurdistan Region through Iran. He said 359 Iranian companies and 135 factories operate in the Kurdistan Region.
“They have made hundreds of job opportunities in the Kurdistan Region,” Barzani said of the Iranian firms.
“We are also seizing this conference as an opportunity to ask the both sides’ entrepreneurs, businessmen, and investors to work together. And the Kurdistan Region will fully facilitate facilitation in these regards,” he added.
He described the Iran and the Kurdistan Region’s as historically rooted neighbors. “During hardship, they opened their doors to the Kurdistan Region's refugees,” Barzani said.. Barzani added Iran came to the aid of the Kurdistan Region during the fight against ISIS, saying they would not forget that...
Aoun Urges Saudi, UAE, Egypt to Help Return Syrian Refugees Home
by Naharnet Newsdesk, Lebanon, 2-5-2018
President Michel Aoun on Wednesday urged Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt to help in returning Syrian refugees in Lebanon to their country, in talks with the envoys of the three Arab nations.
“Lebanon is keen on having the best relations with Arab countries and it cannot be an arena for interfering in the affairs of any Arab nation,” Aoun said in Baabda, in a meeting with Saudi charge d'affaires Walid al-Bukhari, UAE Ambassador Hamad al-Shamesi and Egyptian Ambassador Nazih Naggari.
The National News Agency said talks tackled “the developments in Lebanon and the region and ties between Lebanon and each of the UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.”
“Lebanon has always called for the unity of Arab brothers and their solidarity,” Aoun told the ambassadors, reminding them of his speeches at the last two Arab League summits where he called for a round-table dialogue aimed at reaching “common denominators that preserve the unity of the Arab stance as well as solidarity and cooperation.”
The president also lauded “the role that Lebanese are playing in the Arab Gulf countries and Egypt, especially in terms of contributing to developing the economy of the three countries.”
Separately, Aoun asked the three Arab envoys to urge their countries to help in repatriating Syrian refugees in order to “stop their suffering and put an end to the repercussions that this refugee crisis is causing to Lebanon at the social, economic, educational and security levels.”
Almost one million Syrians are registered as refugees in Lebanon, though many expect the real number is much higher.
Idlib, now under Turkish protection
Turkey stabilised the province under the Astana deal
Middle East Eye, 2-5-2018
From Homs, Aleppo and Eastern Ghouta, they came in their hundreds of thousands, many of them expelled from areas besieged and routed by Syrian government forces, many arriving in the green buses that have become emblematic of their forced exodus.
Now seven years into Syria's war, 2.5 million Syrians are thought to be living in the northern Syrian province of Idlib after their evacuations from all corners of the country.
The province is a so-called de-escalation zone, agreed by Iran, Turkey and Russia last May in Astana. But in recent months, residents have endured repeated government air strikes and in-fighting among rebel groups that control the area...
Residents say Turkey's control is steadily increasing in Idlib, creating a pocket of eerie normalcy, but also fears that there is a new dictatorship in town.
Turkey entered Idlib last October, ostensibly to oust al-Qaeda-linked militants, although analysts at the time told MEE that it was Ankara's attempt to establish a sphere of influence before any serious negotiations to end the war began. In Idlib, Turkey is able to cut off Kurds in northern Syria from gaining a clear path to the Mediterranean....
But Erdogan more recently has said that the Idlib mission, along with Turkey's Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, also sets the stage for 3.5 million Syrian refugees to return.
"We will solve the Afrin issue, the Idlib issue and we want that our refugee brothers and sisters return to their country," he was quoted as saying in the Daily Sabah in February.
Since October, Turkey has set up six observation points around the province – but residents say in fact Ankara's imprint on the area is much more substantial.
"Flour and fruits, everything is made in Turkey..." said Dames, who fled Aleppo with his wife, Jamila, and two young sons, in December 2016 when the government took back control of the city. "They are controlling all of the services from water, phones, electricity, fuel prices," he said.
"No one is allowed to work freely,"Belal al-Ali, said. "Everything should pass through Turkey's authorities and no one is allowed to work unless he gets the Turk's blessing."
Iran striving to end crisis in Yemen
Mehr News, Fri 4 May 2018
TEHRAN, May 04 (MNA) – Senior Adviser to Iranian Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Hossein Jaberi Ansari, who is currently leading an Iranian delegation in talks with four European states on Yemen crisis in Italy, said that ending crisis in Yemen is one of the regional policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Iran’s senior negotiator in talks on regional crises made the above remark after a meeting with the Secretary General of the EU diplomatic service, Helga Schmid, and director general of the Italian, German, French and British foreign ministries for political and security affairs and said, “the meeting was mainly centered on developments in Yemen.”
Main goal behind the talks between Iran and four European states was to explore avenues to end Yemen crisis and find a way out of the situation in the impoverished states, Jaberi said, describing Thursday’s discussion on Yemen as good.
“Yemeni crisis has taken up terrible humanitarian dimensions, as we witness a widespread human catastrophe and the silent death of a nation,” he said, reiterating Iran’s endeavors to bring the crisis to an end.
This was the second such a session held after a meeting on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on February, 2018, focusing on political and humanitarian situation in Yemen.
Participants in the meeting agreed to hold the next round of the talks in Brussels in following the fasting month of Ramadhan in the second half of the June.
UNHCR: Humanitarian crisis in Yemen
The conflict has left 20.7 million people, three quarters of the population, in need of humanitarian or protection assistance.
Escalation of hostilities, disruption of basic services and destruction of infrastructure, compounded by severe economic deterioration, threat of famine, an outbreak of cholera, along with continued violations in international humanitarian law, has resulted in Yemen becoming the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.
As of July, close to two million people, across 21 governorates, were forced to flee their homes, with 84 per cent of them displaced for more than a year. (UNHCR News)
"Tough and empathetic"
The women behind the Iran nuclear deal
By Maïa de La Baume, Politico, 7-7-2015
A corps of women played crucial roles in the long process of forging a deal, including Helga Schmid, Mogherini’s deputy; Wendy Sherman, a top U.S. State Department official; and Catherine Ashton, the previous EU foreign policy chief.
“Schmid has been a linchpin in these negotiations. It is Schmid who negotiated the agreement itself as well as the five annexes,” said a senior western diplomat.
“Sherman coordinated the resolution of the Security Council, and played a major role in bilaterals between Iran and the U.S.”
Federica Mogherini won praise for her role, and along with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was the one to announce the accord to the world on Tuesday. But diplomats in Brussels also hastened to acknowledge Schmid’s work.
“She [Schmid] was the real negotiator, the key person in the negotiations alongside Sherman and Abbas Araghchi [Iran’s deputy foreign minister],” said an EU official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Schmid “had the technical knowledge, while Mogherini had more of a political one,” the official said.
Schmid, an elegant 54-year-old diplomat who speaks impeccable French and English, studied humanities at Munich University and the Sorbonne in Paris. As a negotiator, she has a reputation for being both tough and empathetic.
Empathy in the Israel-Palestine Conflict
Why Might some people choose this as a new approach to peace?
Simon Baron-Cohen, Empathy for Peace website, 15-10-2017
Some of us met at the UN in Vienna, in early October to discuss an alternative empathy-based approach to the Israel-Palestine conflict, which is now 100 years old.
Under what conditions might some Israelis and Palestinians who previously believed in using armed weapons to resolve the conflict turn to an empathy-based approach? I’m going to argue that there are at least four (4) different conditions under which someone might choose the empathy route.
First, shared grief, that is, realizing that the grief you are feeling is the identical grief the enemy is feeling.
The second is personal ethical discomfort, that is, feeling uncomfortable at treating a person as someone potentially dangerous or as someone who must be subjugated or attacked.
The third is a rational approach to building a more inclusive society.
And the fourth is a reflective phase of questioning after bitter experience of seeing how armed conflict has failed.
"Settlement can develop under the protection of a force
that is not dependent on the local population, behind an iron wall
which they will be powerless to break down."
First, because of the power-imbalance (Israel controls the West Bank and Gaza and Israel has deprived Palestinians of many basic human rights in the process);
Second, because if the Palestinians feel they are the occupied and Israel is the occupier, even if Israel tries to use clever legal arguments to avoid calling it an occupation, if Palestinians feel occupied, that’s what needs to be addressed;
and finally, because one cannot reasonably expect someone who feels occupied to empathize with the occupier. As one Palestinian friend said to me “It’s hard to empathize with someone when you are looking up the barrel of their gun.”
And when you lose your empathy, the result is that you can act towards them with at best disinterest or self-interest, and at worst cruelty. Under conditions of conflict, each side de-humanises the other.
You don’t see the young man as a 22 year old called David or Ahmad, somebody’s son and brother, with his own vulnerability and dreams. Instead, he becomes the oppressor, he is demonized as the enemy, and can be treated with prejudice, as less important than your own group.
This happens in many conflict zones, and has happened in Israel and Palestine: Two peoples, living in fear and hatred, who have lost their empathy for one another, locked into a cycle of violence.
Empathy-based approaches have to ‘treat’ this psychological state by re-humanizing the other.
First, empathy allows each side to listen to the other.. Second, empathy means that apologies can be offered to those who have been hurt.
And finally, empathy means that each side stops dehumanizing the other side, and instead starts to get to know the person in the other community as a person..
Empathy is a key necessary step for truth and reconciliation... If we recognize that finding peace will require empathy, we should do all we can to accelerate this process.
Libya: Kufra tribes gather for peace and
vow support to the Libyan National Army
By Jamal Adel, Libya Herald, 2-5-2018
At Kufra’s Taj Conference Hall yesterday morning, Kufra’s tribes gathered with the town’s officials, including the head of Kufra Municipality, Abdulrahman Agoub and commander of Kufra Military Zone, Brigadier Belgasim Al Abaj, to congratulate the arrival of Khalifa Hafter to Libya and to look to strengthening social cohesion and enforce security in the town.
It is almost seven years that all of Kufra’s tribal figures and officials sat on the same table stressing the necessity for peace and stability in the town, following a series of deadly communal fighting that killed and wounded hundreds of people between the Arab majority Zuwai tribe and ethnic minority of Tebus since December 2011.
During the meeting the gathered warned against “corrupt media” that aim to divide Libyans and endanger the future of the country and jeopardize national unity and togetherness.
Kufra’s Military Zone Commander, Brigadier Belgasim Al Abaj had arrived in Kufra on 16 April and held a series of meetings with the town’s tribes and elders.
Al Abaj who is also from the Kufra Zuwai tribe, had been warmly received and welcomed by Tebus on 23 April at Kufra’s Tebu Gaderfay neighbourhood, where he had pledged to resolve the long Tebu-Zuwai standoff in the town.
Flashback: The help of the tribes
Abdul Sattar Hatita, Albawaba July 16th, 2014
Amid the continuing violence in the country, another focal point of political power also appears to be forming in the shape of Libya’s tribes.
Almost 2,000 tribal leaders met in a conference in the town of Warshefana, south of Tripoli, on Tuesday.
She said: “A tribe is like a social contract. It is different from Tunisia, where the social contract has been signed by [political] parties, the Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT), the government, and the presidency, among others.”
According to senior Libyan security sources who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat on the condition of anonymity, Haftar has been coordinating with the tribes since the start of the year in a bid to build a united front against Islamists.
Haftar seems to have realized that he cannot fight Islamists without the help of the tribes, and a deal for their assistance is believed to have been brokered by former Libyan officials in exile, the source said.
Morality, Truth, Facts Have Exited From The West
Paul Craig Roberts, May 3, 2018
In the account I read, Abbas says nothing about the Holocaust. He says that the European prejudice against Jews resulted from European’s experience with their sharp financial practices, not from some sort of religious hostility.
This is, of course, consistent with numerous historical accounts predating the Israeli colonial occupation of Palestine.
It is unclear how Germany managed this feat when all of its limited and dwindling resources were employed, unsuccessfully as it turns out, on the Russian front.
Photos demonstrating the Holocaust include dead skeletal-like bodies. But these are not people gassed and cremated. These are deaths from typhus and starvation. The disintegrating German state had no food or medicines for Germans and often not for its own soldiers. Concentration camp inmates were on the bottom of the totem pole.
We know very little about the Holocaust, because no one is allowed to study it.
Anyone in Europe who studies it and makes the slightest correction to the zionist narrative is arrested and imprisoned as a Holocaust denier.
The Holocaust is not a subject that can be studied or investigated. It is an occurrence handed down by zionists that cannot be examined or modified and certainly not questioned.
We must take it on faith alone. If a scholar does not, he is a Holocaust denier and, if European or captured in Europe, he is imprisoned.
Before our eyes the Israelis are committing holocaust against the Palestinians, and nothing is done about it. You are not even permitted to protest.
South Carolina has recently passed a law making it illegal to criticize Israel for anything, no matter how egregious. The bill purports to be combating “anti-semitism,” but the definition of anti-semitism is criticism of Israel or support for boycotts against Israel.
In other words, in South Carolina it is illegal to sanction Israel or to criticize its inhumane policies toward the Palestinians. But Russia, Iran, and North Korea can be sanctioned on the basis of false accusations alone...
Holocaust Revisionism Weblog, 27-1-2015
People believe wrongly that the “Holocaust” is based on an enormous body of “irrefutable evidence.” Those who deny it happened must be either insane, or nearly insane—and driven by only the foulest of motives.
The exact opposite is the case. It is the Holocaust claims which are, in fact, driven by a fanatical campaign of systematic and wholesale lying—and hardly any evidence at all. What little “evidence” there is turns out to be bogus or totally irrelevant.
Holocaust revisionists are the true “whistleblowers” who deserve the greatest respect for what they continue to endure in their pursuit of Truth.
America pretends to care about “human rights” but has no problem with the imprisonment of revisionists in Germany and elsewhere, even of revisionists who were in the US seeking political asylum...
My guess is that people believe the hoax because they want to believe. It fills some deep emotional need—perhaps to overcome a sense of inferiority compared to the Germans, or to somehow join the dominant group in society.
The exact answer is beyond any understanding of this writer—but it is an enormously important question nonetheless in the same way that one should try to understand why people believe in religion.
Holocaust belief is a kind of new religion — as irrational and ridiculous as any other religion but enormously appealing.
We can see that not only does disbelief in the Holocaust myth threaten modern Jewish identity as shaped by political Zionism, but for others it brings into question the credibility of those in authority who told everyone it was true: the state, the churches, the schools, and media of every kind.
These sources are the same ones people trust and depend on every day for information.
If these trusted authorities are wrong about the Holocaust, what else are they wrong about? What other dishonesties are they promoting?”
Syrian Army Cuts Daesh Stronghold South of Damascus in Two
Sputnik News, May 4, 2018
Units of Syrian government forces advanced into the city of Al Hajar Al Aswad, located to the south of Damascus on Thursday, dividing the Daesh terrorist militants into two isolated groups.
According to Syria's official SANA news agency, government units moving from the south joined forces with army units advancing from Damascus effectively carving up the militant-held city into two parts.
The government troops also severed the militants’ supply chains, and continued their advance toward the nearby Yarmouk refugee camp.
Despite heavy air and artillery support, intense fighting continues in the area with the urban environment and underground tunnels slowing down the army’s advance.
A part of the Yarmouk refugee camp and surrounding villages are the terrorists’ last remaining strongholds in the entire Damascus suburb.
Military operations are expected to continue until the Syrian army regains control over southern Damascus, securing the neighborhood, which is being shelled by terrorists.
Syrian Army squeezes ISIS in southern Damascus
By Zen Adra, Al-Masdar News, 5/05/2018
Fierce battles broke out in the northern half of ISIS pocket which consists of parts of Yarmouk Camp and Hajar Aswad neighborhood, whereby the government troops scored fresh advance by liberating the Electric Station Building, Quds School along with all surrounding buildings; all located to the north of the Hajar Cemetry area.
The Syrian Army, backed by Palestinian fighters and National Defense Forces, are squeezing ISIS militants from multiple axes. The terror group are suffering huge losses but still refuse to surrender.
Israel's Push for Trump to Withdraw From Deal
Part of Long-Term Plan - Jason Ditz, May 4, 2018
Israel believes that if the nuclear deal is killed, it will be damaging to Iran, and in the long run could lead to a regime change.
Israel has been hoping for a regime change in Iran for decades, and seems to see this as their best bet.
It’s not clear how this is supposed to work. A generation of ever-mounting sanctions failed to ever substantially weaken the Iranian government’s hold on power.
It’s not clear that the US killing the nuclear deal, at Israel’s behest, would lead to a backlash against Iran. Quite the contrary, the Russian government is envisioning trying to establish closer ties to Iran if the US kills the deal. It’s likely they aren’t the only ones, as many European nations also have business interests in Iran centered on the sanctions relief.
Israel is constantly making vague allegations that Iran is doing something untoward. In reality, Israel is going to great lengths to track Iranian activities, and hasn’t come up with anything.
This is likely to convince most of the world that the collapse of the nuclear deal has nothing to do with Iran, and everything to do with Israel’s regional ambitions.
Avi Gabbay: "Israel will lead the Middle East"
Al-Jazeera, 5-3-2018
Avi Gabbay, the leader of Israel's Labour Party, declared that Israel must separate itself from the Palestinians by establishing a demilitarised Palestinian state on parts of the occupied Palestinians territories in the West Bank and Gaza.
Echoing one of AIPAC's signature lobbying efforts this year, Gabbay said the Palestinian National Authority must first stop its economic support of families of Palestinian imprisoned and detained by Israel for their activism against the Israeli occupation...
On the issue of the illegal settlements that Israel is building in the occupied territories, Gabbay's views did not vary from the standard line of the current Likud-led government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Gabbay's only objection on the Israeli settlement project inside the occupied territories was over "hill-top posts" that were built by enterprising Jewish settlers without government sanction.
I believe that peace will ensure the long-term security of Israel and with this peace, Israel will not just be a part of the Middle East but will lead the Middle East.”
Ali Khamenei: Iran won't be told what to do in the Middle East
Al-Jazeera, 8-3-2018
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Iran, which is also called Persia or the Islamic Republic of Iran, is located in western Asia. Iran is the 18th largest country in the world with a population estimated at 82.01 million in 2018, which ranks 17th in the world. 
Iran is one of the oldest civilizations in the world dating back to 3200-2800 BC. |
Iran will not negotiate with the West over its presence in the Middle East, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, days after France's visiting foreign minister raised Tehran's role in regional conflicts. 
"European countries come [to Tehran] and say we want to negotiate with Iran over its presence in the region. It is none of your business. It is our region. Why are you here?" Khamenei was quoted as saying by his official website on Thursday. |
Trump committed to 'regime change' in Iran, his lawyer Giuliani says
RT Russia, 6 May, 2018
Donald Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, says the president is committed to regime change in Iran and will most likely tear up the nuclear deal before he begins supporting protesters to oust the supreme leader from power.
“We got a president who is tough, who does not listen to the people who are naysayers, and a president who is as committed to regime change as we are,” former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani – US President Donald Trump’s personal friend and a long-time supporter – said in a speech to the Iran Freedom Convention for Democracy and Human Rights in Washington.
Giuliani, who is not part of the government, believes the president will tear up the agreement – despite the insistence of European allies to preserve the milestone accord – and Trump’s so-called “war” cabinet will help him do the job.
“With Secretary of State Pompeo now on his right hand and his national security advisor John Bolton… on his left side, what do you think is going to happen to that agreement, that nuclear agreement?” Giuliani asked, smiling and indicating to the crowd that Trump will simply rip it up and spit on it...
Giuliani also said in his speech that once the deal is gone and “sanctions [are] back, we have a real chance of escalating these protests,” referring to series of public protests in various cities throughout Iran beginning in late December 2017 and continuing into early 2018.
The White House has yet to comment on Giuliani’s statement, but it seems to be in line with the president’s views.
“TIME FOR CHANGE!” Trump tweeted at the height of recent protests in Iran, adding that “the great Iranian people have been repressed for many years.”
While the US government was quick to claim the protests were anti-government in nature, they might have missed the point.
According to a poll conducted by the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland and IranPoll, only 0.3 percent of Iranians chose “lack of civil liberties” as the most important problem or challenge facing the country. “Injustice” was also low on the list (1.4 percent).
Unemployment came in first at 40.1 percent, followed by inflation and high cost of living (12.5 percent), and youth unemployment (9.4 percent).
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John Pilger: "I've never known journalism so distorted |
The US State Department has been forced to publicly distance itself from the US President's old friend and new lawyer, Rudi Giuliani. He stirred controversy last weekend by saying the US leader is planning regime change in Iran.
"[Giuliani] speaks for himself and not on behalf of the administration on foreign policy," State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert told AP on Monday.
Giuliani, who was hired by Trump last month to tackle the Mueller probe, has become a source of increasing concern for Washington due to his offhand remarks on matters that are far beyond his area of responsibility. (RT Russia, 8-5-2018)
Hezbollah, allies make major gains in Lebanon elections
Press TV, Mon May 7, 2018
Preliminary unofficial results from Lebanon’s parliamentary elections have showed that the Hezbollah resistance movement and its political allies secured more than half the seats.
Hezbollah as well as groups and individuals affiliated to it have won at least 67 seats in Lebanon’s 128-member parliament, according to the results cited by politicians and campaigns and reported in Lebanese media on Monday.
Hezbollah's allies include the Amal Movement led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and the Christian Free Patriotic Movement founded by President Michel Aoun.
Lebanon's first parliamentary elections in nine years was held on Sunday, with over 500 candidates vying for seats. Turnout was 49.2 percent, according to officials.
Israel reacted to the results with typical animosity, with the regime's education minister Naftali Bennett saying Hezbollah's gains showed that the state is indistinguishable from the group and that Tel Aviv should not distinguish between them in any future war.
"Hezbollah = Lebanon," Bennett said on Twitter on Monday. Israel "will not differentiate between the sovereign State of Lebanon and Hezbollah, and will view Lebanon as responsible for any action from within its territory," he wrote.
The unofficial results also showed that Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri would emerge as the Sunni leader with the biggest bloc in the parliament, making him the frontrunner to form the next government even though he lost seats.
Under a power-sharing agreement that ended the 1975-1990 civil war in Lebanon, prime minister must be a Sunni Muslim, president a Maronite Christian and parliament speaker a Shia Muslim.
An anti-Hezbollah alliance led by Hariri and supported by Saudi Arabia won a majority in the Lebanese parliament in 2009, but it has since disintegrated.
Russia becomes top foreign ally for Arab youth, says survey
Frank Kane, Arab News, May 08, 2018
It is the first time the US has been outside the top five “friendly” countries in the survey, falling to 11th position The survey showed that nearly three quarters of young people polled saw the election and presidency of Donald Trump as having a negative impact on the region.
DUBAI: There has been a dramatic shift in the perception of America by young Arabs over the past two years, with a solid majority — some 57 percent — now regarding the US as an enemy rather than an ally.
Instead, Russia is increasingly regarded as the top non-Arab ally by young people in the region, with 20 percent seeing it as the region’s best friend outside the countries of the Middle East and North Africa.
That is one of the key findings to come out of a face-to-face survey of 3,500 Arabs between the ages of 18-24 across the region earlier this year.
The ASDA’A Burston-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey, now in its 10th year, is the largest sample of public opinion among young people — the biggest demographic — in the Middle East and North Africa.
It is the first time the US has been outside the top five “friendly” countries in the survey, falling to 11th position.
Antipathy toward America is most pronounced in the Levant, with 31 percent favoring Russia compared to 15 percent for the US. But Vladimir Putin’s country is viewed more positively than Donald Trump’s America in both the Arabian Gulf and North Africa too.
In 2016, 25 percent of young Arabs surveyed said the US was their top non-Arab ally, compared with only 9 percent in favor of Russia.
The survey showed that nearly three quarters of young people polled saw the election and presidency of Donald Trump as having a negative impact on the region. Only 7 percent saw it as positive. Trump’s election was more negatively regarded than the decline in oil prices and the war in Yemen...
Young Arabs increasingly believe that Daesh is getting weaker, with 78 percent agreeing with that proposition, and 68 percent confident in their government’s ability to deal with the terrorist organization.
Some 58 percent said that Daesh and its ideology would be fully defeated, while 18 percent thought that it would lose territory, but remain a significant terrorist threat.
  
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Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev (18 March 1874 – 24 March 1948) was a Russian Christian universalist mystic (personalist) and Christian anarchist political philosopher.
In Berdyaev's view, the only way of escape from the many forms of slavery (spiritual, economic, political) lies in the fuller realization of personality, as he defines it. 
Don't confuse the concept of person with the concept of individual
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Trump Withdraws US From Iran Nuclear Deal
Says deal 'only guarantees survival of Iranian regime'
Jason Ditz, antiwar.com, 8-5-2018
President Trump announced that he is withdrawing the United States from the P5+1 nuclear deal. He’s been condemning the deal for years, and is moving to reimpose US sanctions on Iran. This would put the US in violation of the pact.
Trump set a May 12 ultimatum demanding changes to the deal, and threatening to withdraw if he didn’t get them. While the European Union offered him myriad concessions to try to keep him placated, Trump ultimately was unsatisfied.
He went on to complain that the deal will only guarantee the survival of the “Iranian regime.”
He said the deal was “a great embarrassment to me as a citizen, and to all American citizens.” He cited Israel’s allegations of Iran’s pursuit of nuclear arms.
Trump claimed the whole world was in agreement on the “threat” posed by Iran, despite materially the entire world remaining committed to the deal.
He talked up working with American allies to force a large number of new concessions out of Iran.
While there had been some warnings that the deal could not survive without the US, Iran and all other signatories to the P5+1 deal have said they will remain in the pact.
It is only the US that is in violation, and the rest of the world intends to keep the deal going as best they can without America’s support, which even at the best of times was only half-heated.
There is little reason to suggest new negotiations could happen, with Trump conceding if he was Iran he wouldn’t negotiate either. At the same time, he threatened Iran with much bigger problems if they didn’t.
Trump concluded that he had made America “much safer” by withdrawing from the deal.
In reality, he’s likely to provoke a major diplomatic backlash for disavowing a treaty signed just a few years ago.
National Iranian American Council : This is not America first
Trita Parsi, antiwar.com, 8-5-2018
Washington, DC – NIAC President Trita Parsi issued the following statement in response to reports that President Trump declared he would snap back all nuclear-related sanctions under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iran nuclear deal, and impose new sanctions:
“Donald Trump has committed what will go down as one of the greatest acts of self-sabotage in America’s modern history. He has put the United States on a path towards war with Iran...
“This is not America first, this is Trump leasing out America’s foreign policy interests to the highest bidder. The only parties applauding this move are Benjamin Netanyahu and Mohammed Bin Salman, who have consistently chosen to undermine regional security to advance their own shortsighted political fortunes.
Trump’s reckless decision is a betrayal of the national interests of the United States of America that could haunt us for generations.
“Perhaps the most absurd aspect of President Trump’s Iran policy is his attempt to claim solidarity with the Iranian people, even as he bans Iranians from the US and his top advisors openly support the MEK terrorist group that is universally reviled by Iranians.
The Iranian people overwhelmingly supported the nuclear deal, at least until the sanctions relief that was promised failed to materialize, and will be the party most impacted by Trump’s decision...
“It is our profound hope that the Europeans, Russians and Chinese are able to sustain the nuclear accord in spite of Trump’s decision – though we recognize that this is a tall task given the effect of US sanctions.
Trita Parsi is the 2010 recipient of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order and an award-winning author. He is the president of the National Iranian American Council and teaches at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. His latest book is Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy.
UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain welcome Trump’s exit from Iran nuclear deal
Joyce Karam, The National (UAE), May 9, 2018
The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain announced their support for US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, with Riyadh’s ambassador to Washington blasting Tehran’s malicious behaviour in the Middle East.
The Emirates, according to a statement released by the official news agency WAM, issued its support for Mr Trump’s decision, and called upon the international community and parties in the Iran nuclear agreement to “heed Mr Trump’s call for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.”
In addition, the UAE's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash tweeted in support of Mr Trump’s decision:
“Iran’s rhetoric & aggressive regional actions were the background to a flawed deal. The veneer of Tehran’s compliance contradicted its bellicose policies. President Trump’s decision is the correct one”. He added that the problem was Iran interpretation of the deal “as concurrence of its regional hegemony.” “An aggressive Iran was emboldened as a result & its ballistic missile program became both offensive & exportable” the senior UAE diplomat warned.
Both Saudi Arabia and Bahrain also issued statements welcoming Mr Trump’s decision. Riyadh’s statement, which came less than an hour after Mr Trump’s decision, said it “supports and welcomes” the US decision.
In Washington, Saudi ambassador Prince Khalid bin Salman reiterated the support, and said the nuclear deal “has fueled Iran’s malicious expansion driven by its extremist ideology.”
“As I said before with regards to the deal, we are on auto pilot heading towards a mountain. The deal has fueled Iran’s malicious expansion driven by its extremist ideology. It provided Iran with a financial windfall that it used to further sectarian strife/chaos in the region”, he tweeted:
Egypt closely follows up Iran deal developments - Foreign Ministry
By: Egypt Today, Wed, May. 9, 2018
CAIRO – 9 May 2018: Egypt is closely following up a decision taken Tuesday by US President Donald Trump to exit the Iran deal, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Egypt understands the US keenness to address all regional and international concerns related to the nuclear deal with Iran and Iran's interference in the internal affairs of the Arab countries, the ministry added.
Egypt renewed its firm stance on the need to preserve the security and stability of the region and the safety of its peoples.
The statement voiced Egypt's deep concern about any policies aimed at expanding the influence in the Arab world and the negative impact on the national security of Arab countries.
Egypt called on all regional powers, including Iran, to stop adopting policies or actions aimed at harming the security of the Arab region.
Trump Warmonger moves on Iran are from Iraq Playbook
Juan Cole 05/09/2018
I teach a lot of 18 year olds, so I am keenly aware that a whole generation has come up who did not live through the Bush propaganda campaign against Iraq of 2002-2003. And, of course, a lot of people who did live through it have forgotten its details or how complicit corporate media were in amplifying the campaign.... Here is how the 2003 war was gotten up against Iraq:
1. Conspiratorial groups were formed, like the Project for a New American Century (which included then Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney and Israel Lobby uber-hawks like Bill Kristol, Bob Kagan, Paul Wolfowitz, Elliot Abrams and Frank Gaffney)...
The Project for a New American Century and other cells began trying to put pressure on the Clinton administration to take a belligerent stand against Iraq, in hopes of provoking an Iraqi counter-strike that could then escalate.
2. Other governments were enlisted. A 1996 white paper,”A Clean Break,” was prepared by Neoconservatives for incoming Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu that urged getting up a war on Iraq, re-installing the Hashemite monarchy there, and then using the Hashemites to influence Lebanon’s Shiites toward a more pro-Israeli stance.
3. Expatriate Iraqis were enlisted for dirty tricks and disinformation campaigns. Someone called “Curveball” was given to German intelligence, who appear to have fallen for him. Ahmad Chalabi, angling to come back to Iraq as its US-installed supreme leader, misled journalists, intelligence officials, State Department officials, Congress, and virtually anyone he could get hold of.
4. Once Bush came to power, members of the cell like Douglas Feith (someone with ties to Israeli settlers and ideologically aligned with the Israeli Likud Party) were put in positions of power in the government and used their position to establish intra-governmental black ops units like the Office of Special Plans... I was widely attacked by the Neocons for saying that having a Likudnik as the third man at the Pentagon was a nightmare for US national security.
5. PNAC and other hawks pressured Clinton to bomb Iraq in 1998. Clinton told UN weapons inspectors to withdraw before the strikes. They were never sent back in. The US press, whether from incompetence or malice or being secretly bribed, continually thereafter said that Saddam “kicked out” the inspectors, which was an unadorned falsehood.
6. The Iraq War clique glommed on to George W. Bush, especially once the latter unwisely made Cheney vice president, and inserted themselves into the 10 key political positions in his government, then gradually pushed him toward a war.
7. The Neoconservatives and others who wanted to break Iraq’s legs blamed the al-Qaeda attacks of September 11 on the secular socialist anti-fundamentalist government of the Iraqi Baath Party, and managed to convince most Americans of the completely ridiculous charge.
8. They made a case for regime change over Iraq’s human rights record or its regional role, though countries like Saudi Arabia or Israel with similar profiles were exempted from criticism.
9. Bush, Condi Rice, Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld tried to scare Americans that Saddam was 2 years or less from having an atomic bomb (he had no program). This campaign convinced Congress to vote for a war.
Flashback: Architects of the push to get Saddam Hussein
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From the outset, the chief architects of the push to get Saddam Hussein have been Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, who, as chairman of the Defense Policy Board, is not technically a member of the Bush administration. As prize students of arch-hawk, Albert Wohlstetter in the 1960s, the two men have been comrades-in-arms in a series of crusades against détente, arms control, and any multilateral effort that might constrain Washington's freedom of action to do what it wants, where and when it pleases, dating back to the early 1970s.
Douglas J. Feith, the new Undersecretary of Policy at the U.S. Department of Defense, believes in “good” versus “darkness” duality.A European 'axis of resistance'?
Europe must make Trump pay for wrecking the Iran nuclear deal
Simon Tisdall, The Guardian, Wed 9 May 2018
Donald Trump’s torpedoing of the Iran nuclear deal on highly specious and misleading grounds is an act of wanton diplomatic vandalism fraught with dangers.
While the 2015 agreement may not yet be wholly sunk, it is holed below the waterline. Many in Tehran will see the sweeping reimposition of US sanctions as a declaration of war. As for Trump, he has once again proved himself the master of chaos.
This aggressive bid to further isolate Iran appears designed to ultimately enforce regime change.
In the short-term it will destroy remaining mutual goodwill, undermine pro-western Iranian opinion, empower hardliners, trigger an oil price crisis, and increase the risk of conflict centred on Syria and Israel...
Yet Trump’s short-sighted folly, far from being unprecedented, is entirely consistent with a long history of similarly disastrous Middle East policy missteps by previous US presidents.
The region is littered with the corpses of momentously misconceived and wrong-headed US policies, spawned by the same noxious mix of ignorance and arrogance now permeating the White House. In this respect, Trump is no different from many of his predecessors.
In the decades after the Suez Crisis in 1956, when Britain and France were shoved aside, successive US administrations war-gamed the Middle East as part of a bigger strategic contest with the Soviet Union. If that meant propping up pro-western dictators such as Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and the Saudi and Gulf monarchs, then so be it.
Yet as Condoleezza Rice, the former secretary of state, conceded in Cairo in 2005, it was a self-defeating policy. “For 60 years, my country, the United States, pursued stability at the expense of democracy in this region, here in the Middle East, and we achieved neither,” she said.
In another famous Cairo speech, in 2009, Barack Obama promised a “new beginning”. The US had treated Middle East countries as either proxies or enemies, he said... Not much changed in the Obama years. Only the Iran deal marked a clear shift – until Trump wrecked it.
The European allies must, by all available means, undercut, circumvent and subvert Trump’s attempt to wreck the Iran deal. Closer ties should be pursued with Tehran, while escalating, punitive diplomatic and economic sanctions are levelled at Washington. Joint action should also be taken to censure the US at the UN. A price must be paid for perfidy.
Theresa May can make a start by withdrawing her ill-judged invitation to Trump to visit Britain. With his Middle East warmongering, as with his climate change denial and his other dangerous and divisive policies, Trump threatens British interests and international peace and security. It is no longer enough simply to complain and condemn. The moment for active resistance has arrived.
US can't be 'economic policeman of the planet', France says
The Local (France), 9 May 2018
French government ministers reacted with anger and defiance on Wednesday to US president's Donald Trump's decision to pull his country out of the nuclear deal with Iran.
The foreign ministers of France, Britain and Germany will meet Iranian representatives next week, Paris said Wednesday after President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of a landmark nuclear deal with Tehran.
"We will meet with my British and German colleagues on Monday, and also with representatives of Iran, to consider the entire situation," French
Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told RTL radio.
Le Drian insisted the Iran nuclear deal was "not dead". "There is a US withdrawal from the agreement, but the agreement exists," the minister said.
French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said separately on France Culture radio that the decision was "an error" not just for international security but from an economic point of view.
It was "not acceptable" for the US to be the "economic policeman of the planet", he said.
Trump defied European pleas to stay in the pact, which curbs Iran's nuclear program, and reimposed crippling sanctions which will come into effect within six months.
The decision marked a stark diplomatic defeat for Europe, whose leaders, repeatedly and in person, had begged Trump to think again.
Le Maire pointed out that the withdrawal gives European firms doing business in Iran the "very short time of six months" to wind up investments -- or risk US sanctions.
"In two years, France has tripled its trade surplus with Iran," he said. Le Maire said this would lead to "consequences" for major French companies, such as Total, Sanofi, Renault and Peugeot. He said he would have speak with US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin by the end of the week to "explore what the possibilities are" to avoid the sanctions, including possible exemptions.
On Wednesday the US ambassador to Germany warned German companies to cease trading in Iran "immediately".
Trump’s New Ambassador to Germany, Known for Trolling,
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Richard Grenell, the new U.S. ambassador to Germany, formally took up his post in Berlin on Tuesday and immediately got to work as Donald Trump’s representative by offending the German people with a tweet.28 Israeli jets fired about 60 rockets in overnight strikes on Syria
RT Russia, 10-5-2018
Some 28 Israeli aircraft fired around 60 air-to-surface rockets in a massive overnight strike in Syria, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. Syrian air-defense systems managed to intercept more than half of the missiles.
A total of 70 projectiles, including 60 air-to-surface rockets and more than 10 surface-to-surface missiles, hit Iranian military targets and Syrian air-defense systems near Damascus and in the south of the country on Thursday morning, the Russian military said in a statement.
“28 Israeli F-15 and F-16 planes were involved in the attack,” the ministry said. “Syrian air-defense systems shot down more than half of the rockets as they repelled the Israeli attack.”
Israeli forces bombed the Syrian territory for two hours between 1:45am and 3:45am local time on Thursday. The attack was carried out under the pretext of allegations that Iranian forces had earlier hit Israeli targets in the Golan Heights.
The damage inflicted on Iranian military and Syrian civilian infrastructure by the airstrikes is being evaluated.
“Iran will need a lot of time and resources to rehabilitate its operational, military and intelligence infrastructures we hit tonight,” an IDF spokesman said, according to Ynet, warning that “any other attempt” to hurt Israel will “pay even more.”
A map of the military targets provided by the Israeli army shows multiple sites near Damascus and also near the Syria-Israel border. Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman claims “all the Iranian infrastructure” in the Arab republic was hit.
While claiming that Tel-Aviv is not seeking further escalation, the IDF says that “the Syrian regime will be held accountable for everything happening in its territory,” and has warned against any retaliatory attack.
President al-Assad to Greek Kathimerini newspaper:
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-- Question: Let me ask you first of all, you know, there’s been accusation by the US and the Europeans about the use of chemical weapons, and there was an attack after that. What is your response to that? Was there a chemical attack? Were you responsible for it?
-- President Assad: First of all, we don’t have any chemical arsenal since we gave it up in 2013, and the international agency for chemical weapons made investigations about this, and it’s clear or documented that we don’t have....
Second, use of mass destruction armaments in a crammed area with a population like Douma – the supposed area, it’s called Douma and they talk about 45 victims- when you use mass destruction armaments in such an area, you should have hundreds or maybe thousands of victims in one time. 
-- Question: Now, there was some criticism lately, because you apparently have a law that says that anybody that doesn’t claim their property within a month, they cannot come back. Is that a way to exclude some of the people who disagree with you?
Iraq captures five ‘most dangerous’ ISIS leaders
By Rudaw, 10-5-2018
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraqi forces have captured “five most dangerous leaders of ISIS/.
According to the coalition, the operation was done in coordination between Iraqi forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) across the border.
“The arrest is a significant blow to Daesh,” coalition spokesperson Col. Ryan Dillon tweeted on Wednesday, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS. He said it “demonstrates close coordination” between the Iraqi security forces and the SDF across the border.
Initial reports indicate ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is not among the five captured though a senior aide of his recently came into Iraqi custody.
Baghdadi, who declared himself ruler of all Muslims in 2014 after capturing Iraq’s main northern city Mosul, is now believed to be hiding in the Iraqi-Syrian border region after losing all the cities and towns of his self-proclaimed caliphate.
In February Ismail al-Eithawi was captured by Turkish authorities and handed over to Iraq. He is a direct aide to Baghdadi and was responsible for international money transfers for the extremist group. Iraqi authorities were able to use an app on Eithawi’s cell phone to trap four ISIS commanders: Saddam Jamal, a Syrian and ISIS governor of the eastern Euphrates region, and field commanders Syrian Mohamed al-Qadeer, Iraqi Omar al-Karbouli, and Iraqi Essam al-Zawbai.
The SDF, with coalition backing, launched earlier this month a campaign against ISIS in two remaining pockets in eastern Deir ez-Zor province, east of the Euphrates. The SDF is coordinating with Iraqi forces and Iraqi jets have carried out strikes against ISIS on the Syrian side of the border.
Flashback 2013: FSA, Al-Qaeda & Isis working together in Northern Syria
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Flashback: Being a Neocon Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry
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"[Israel] must see the sword as the main, if not the only, instrument with which to keep its morale high and to retain its moral tension. Toward this end it may, no - it must - invent dangers, and to do this it must adopt the method of provocation-and-revenge... |
Zionism and Legal Skepticism
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No. 1: Shamelessness
In Israeli Prime Minister Moshe Sharatt's personal diaries, there is an excerpt from May of 1955 in which he quotes Moshe Dayan as follows:
Writing in the Guardian of London on March 21, 2003, under the title, "Thank God for the Death of the UN", just as the American invasion of Iraq was getting underway, Richard Perle, member of the Pentagon's Defense Advisory Board, said of Saddam Hussein: Zoek onderwerpen, thema's, woorden en begrippen op mijn webpagina's