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  • One Year in, Biden’s Nuclear Policies Look a Lot Like Trump’s

    President Joe Biden sits at a desk

    Speaking at a New Hampshire campaign event in 2019, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden told the crowd, “We don’t need more nuclear weapons, period.” After the bluster and apocalyptic theatrics of Donald Trump, many voters hoped Biden’s decades of nuclear arms control experience would bring restraint and stability to the United States’ nuclear policies.

    In Biden’s own words, “If you want a world without nuclear weapons, the United States must take the initiative to lead the world,” and yet, one year into his presidency, Biden has continued many of the nuclear weapons programs that began or advanced under Trump.

    Currently, the U.S. is pursuing a nuclear weapons modernization program that was launched by the Obama-Biden administration that is expected to cost at least $1.7 trillion by 2046. This includes large spending increases on a controversial low-yield smaller nuclear warhead, the total replacement of the intercontinental ballistic missile force, new B-21 strategic bombers, B-52 upgrades, more destructive nuclear warheads, as well as other programs.

    Additionally, on December 27, Biden signed into law the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, a nearly $770 billion military bill that includes almost $28 billion for nuclear weapons. As of September 2020, the U.S. had a total inventory of 5,600 stockpiled nuclear warheads which, together with Russia, represent approximately 91 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons.

    Below, eight analysts, activists and nuclear specialists offer Truthout their assessment of Biden’s first year of nuclear policies.

    Increased Transparency

    Compared to his predecessor, Biden has been more transparent in disclosing nuclear budget, stockpile and dismantlement figures, says Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists. For his increased transparency, the extension of a major arms treaty, and for initiating strategic talks with Russia and China, Kristensen gives Biden a grade of “B.”

    With respect to the incomplete disclosure and slowing rate of dismantling retired nuclear warheads, however, he gives Biden a “C.” Furthermore, he’s concerned Biden’s forthcoming Nuclear Posture Review might not adopt a no-first-use nuclear weapons policy.

    “[Biden’s] general military strategy and foreign policy are beefing up offensive capabilities and posturing in response to Russia and China,” Kristensen told Truthout. “Many see that as necessary to deter those countries, but it may also work to stimulate their activities further.”

    Saving New START

    On the plus side, Biden earned widespread praise for extending the New START Treaty, which limits U.S.- and Russian-deployed long-range nuclear weapons, before it was set to expire two weeks into his presidency. Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, called the extension an “important and common-sense step.” John Tierney, a former congressman and executive director of the nonprofit Council for a Livable World, described the treaty’s extension as “one bright spot” in Biden’s first year, which he said was a “serious disappointment” otherwise.

    “On the whole, the Biden administration has rubber-stamped every major big-budget nuclear weapons system produced under the Trump administration,” Tierney told Truthout. He further criticized Biden for failing to miss “low-hanging fruit,” including opportunities to cancel a new “unnecessary and wasteful” submarine-launched ballistic missile nuclear warhead, a life-extension program for the outdated B-83 megaton gravity bomb, and “more useable” nuclear weapons.

    “At the moment,” Tierney said, “We must give [Biden] a ‘C-minus’ — a passing grade, but only barely.”

    Grassroots movement Beyond the Bomb’s executive director, Cecili Thompson Williams, told Truthout that even though Biden has stated support for a no-first-use policy, a more rational nuclear posture has not been a Biden administration priority.

    “Without that leadership, nuclear hawks at the Department of Defense are once again succeeding in their resistance to common-sense changes to make our nuclear policy safer,” Thompson Williams said. Also giving Biden a “C-minus,” she called his first year “disappointing but with potential to improve.”

    In September, 29 members of Congress wrote to Biden to implore him to reduce excessive spending and over-reliance on nuclear weapons. This was followed by a letter to the president sent in December and signed by almost 700 scientists and engineers calling for a reduction in the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. national security.

    In Search of Strategic Stability

    When Biden became president one year ago, he inherited four major international nuclear challenges: Russia, China, North Korea and Iran. Vowing to rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, better known as the Iran nuclear deal, from which Trump unilaterally withdrew in 2018, Biden said the U.S. was “prepared to return to full compliance if Iran does the same.”

    Assal Rad, a senior research fellow with the National Iranian American Council, tells Truthout that despite high hopes that Biden would reverse Trump’s actions which helped drive the U.S. and Iran dangerously close to all-out war in 2019-20, in many ways, the Biden administration has continued the Trump administration’s “maximum-pressure” policy.

    The continuation of sanctions that are devastating Iran’s citizens and its economy, Rad says, has only hindered efforts to revive the deal. She criticizes Biden for failing to act swiftly during the window of opportunity he had in his first five months as president to seek progress with Iran’s previous, more engagement-friendly Hassan Rouhani administration before staunch conservative Ebrahim Raisi was elected in June.

    “The Biden administration now finds itself in a much more challenging position to restore the deal,” Rad said. “Now, more than ever, we need diplomatic resolutions to global issues and an even-handed approach on nuclear proliferation.” On Biden’s Iran nuclear policy, Rad gives the president a “C” for not “succeeding to accomplish anything but not yet entirely failing by escalating tensions further.”

    A Dangerous Status Quo

    After whiplash diplomacy in which Trump threatened to “totally destroy North Korea,” only to later fawn over “beautiful letters” he received from Kim Jong Un, Northeast Asia analysts were hopeful the Biden administration would lead to a less erratic, more substantive phase of nuclear diplomacy.

    Although Biden said he shares South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s stated goal of “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Christine Ahn, executive director of Women Cross DMZ, tells Truthout, “much of this is rhetoric,” and the Biden administration has not changed what she called the “failed policies of sanctions, military exercises and the travel ban.”

    “The U.S. will continue these militaristic policies until North Korea makes progress on denuclearization, which won’t happen as long as the U.S. continues its hostile policies,” Ahn said. She gives Biden a grade of “D” because “he hasn’t done anything to improve relations with North Korea [including declaring an end to the Korean War], which will be pivotal to advance denuclearization.”

    Strategic Stability

    After Russia and the U.S., China is the third-largest nuclear weapons state. While China is expanding its nuclear capabilities, its arsenal remains a fraction of the other two countries. Tong Zhao, a senior fellow at the Nuclear Policy Program of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, tells Truthout that Biden understands the importance of direct engagement on nuclear matters with China’s President Xi Jinping.

    Writing from Beijing, Zhao noted that Biden achieved “some success” by prompting Xi to acknowledge the importance of discussing strategic stability at their first virtual meeting in November, something Xi previously did not acknowledge.

    In its broadest sense, Zhao said, “strategic stability” refers to the maintenance of generally stable bilateral [U.S.-China] relations. More narrowly, it refers to a stable nuclear relationship by mitigating a nuclear arms race or the use of nuclear weapons.

    Zhao called the Biden administration’s nuclear policymaking “pragmatic” for his willingness to start with less-difficult issues such as crisis prevention and confidence-building measures. Zhao gives Biden an “A-minus.”

    The Good, the Bad and the Incomplete

    Arms Control Association Executive Director Daryl G. Kimball, told Truthout that Biden’s first year of nuclear policy has been a mix of good (New START); bad (an enormous nuclear budget); and incomplete or mixed (Iran, North Korea). “It’s not a simple answer that can be boiled down to a letter grade,” Kimball said.

    In July, the association published an issue brief which details why Biden’s 2022 nuclear budget is “very unhelpful,” what Kimball described as an “excessive and extremely costly plan to upgrade all major aspects of the nuclear weapons arsenal.” Exactly what the role and purpose of nuclear weapons is in Biden’s national security strategy will be detailed in the forthcoming Nuclear Posture Review, expected in early 2022.

    “The jury is still out on whether the president will follow through on his pledge during the campaign, and in his interim national security strategy, to reduce the role of nuclear weapons and to restore U.S. leadership on nuclear arms control and disarmament,” Kimball said. “I have my deep concerns about whether this Nuclear Posture Review will do that.”

    The one area where Kimball gives Biden an “F” is for his failure to speak about the importance of reducing growing nuclear competition and the need to pursue a world without nuclear weapons. “I think it’s a failure of leadership in his first 12 months not to have delivered a major or even a minor policy speech on the subject,” Kimball said.

    If Biden choses to do so, he can change that when the Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons commences in New York on January 4.

    Nuclear Weapons Are Now Illegal

    One of the most notable nuclear developments of Biden’s first year in office occurred just two days after he was sworn in as president. On January 22, the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) entered into force, making nuclear weapons illegal under international law. Adopted and ratified by at least 58 countries, the U.S. and the other eight nuclear-weapons-possessing nations oppose the ban.

    As Arms Control Association’s Kimball points out, the TPNW contributes to a common goal shared by nuclear-armed states and non-nuclear-armed states, which is the pursuit of a world without nuclear weapons. The TPNW also reinforces the taboo against the possession and use of nuclear weapons.

    Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, notes that when Biden took office, he inherited a disarmament situation that was “in tatters,” but says the TPNW created a bright spot. “Instead of embracing this, the Biden administration has aggressively attacked the TPNW and relentlessly pressured allies to abandon the treaty.”

    Biden’s disarmament policy, Fihn told Truthout, is a “D-minus” — “not the leadership that can save us from nuclear disaster.”

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Iran Is Spearheading A Geopolitical Sea Change In West Asia

    Since Iran finalized its Comprehensive 25 Year Cooperation Plan with China on 27 March, a completely new geometry has arisen in Southwest Asia, which is evolving at breakneck speed.

    An ancient civilization serving as the third foundational pillar supporting the Greater Eurasian Partnership, and  the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on 17 September, Iran has finally emerged as a leading driver for stabilization and progress.

    The post Iran Is Spearheading A Geopolitical Sea Change In West Asia appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Eighth Round Of JCPOA Revival Talks Begin

    The eighth round of talks in Vienna aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal began on Monday, just days after the seventh round ended. Earlier this month, US posturing that Tehran’s sincerity was dubious nearly torpedoed the talks, which could defuse a four-year showdown in the Middle East.

    The post Eighth Round Of JCPOA Revival Talks Begin appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • United States and Israeli Intransigence vis-à-vis Iran

    In 2015, the United States signed what is popularly referred to as the JCPOA (the joint comprehensive plan of action) a deal involving Iran and the P5+1 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) designed to limit the capacity of Iran to develop nuclear weapons. In exchange for their signature, the sanctions that has been applied to Iran were meant to be lifted. That did not happen, and in 2019 the Trump administration cancelled the United States involvement in the agreement.

    The new Biden administration, which took office in early 2021 had promised during the election campaign to re-join the JCPOA. This has not happened. In fact, the Americans have issued fresh demands seeking to limit Iran’s development of other missiles that it sees is essential for its defence. The various parties have been meeting in Vienna, but the new Iranian government, notably more hard-line that its predecessor, has been reluctant to amend the terms of the original deal. Frankly, who can blame them.

    The purpose of the negotiations is ostensibly to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapons capacity. Their current level of uranium enrichment puts them within a very small margin of achieving a nuclear capacity. This is a development that has caused considerable concern in the Middle East, not least among members of the Israeli government.

    It is one of the great hypocrisies of the present situation that Iran, which is under constant attack by the Israelis, including the murder of nuclear scientists, is expected to remain silent in the face of that constant Israeli attack, and do nothing to protect yourself from the ongoing Israeli onslaught.

    The other great unmentionable in this whole scenario is the fact that there is already a nuclear armed state in the Middle East, and that is Israel. It is one of the enduring mysteries of Middle Eastern politics that one is supposed to see a potentially nuclear armed Iran as a threat to peace and stability, yet ignore completely the fact that a nuclear armed Israel is able to blindly continue its murderous policies.

    Israel has not signed any nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and officially does not acknowledge the fact that it is a nuclear armed nation. It presumes to itself the right to criticise Iran, indeed take active steps against that country, without ever acknowledging the truth of its own position. The word hypocrisy does not seem strong enough to convey the reality of this situation.

    If Iran does not sign a new deal and promise, inter alia, not to develop nuclear weapons, then there are many commentators that see at least one inevitable consequence of that refusal being a United States (and Israeli inspired) attack upon Iran. Such an attack, apart from its obvious Israeli self-interest, would be completely illegal.

    Even the concept that the United States and/or Israel would be entitled to take matters into their own hands and attack Iran beggars’ belief. That such an attack would lead to a massive Iranian counter-attack is without question. Even without nuclear weapons, the Iranian Armed Forces are well equipped with the conventional means of inflicting huge damage on United States and Israeli assets throughout the Middle East.

    Neither the United States nor Israel is well equipped with assets in the form of friendly states throughout the Middle East. It is difficult to see that any attack on Iran would enhance that circle of friends, and indeed it is likely to have the opposite effect.

    Iran on the other hand has powerful friends in the region and beyond. It can count on the support of Lebanon, Iraq and Syria for starters and it is difficult to see even Saudi Arabia willingly joining the Americans/Israelis in an attack on Iran. The Saudis and Iranians have recently been having talks and Saudi Arabia’s association with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which Iran recently joined as a full member, has been a factor in that rapprochement.

    The other major factor in this equation is the position of both Russia and China. Both countries have recently made significant financial investments in Iran and neither are likely to sit idly by in the face of a United States and/or Israeli attack upon Iran. This is one of the most important factors in the changing balance of power in the Middle East. It is surprising that it has received so little attention from other commentators, yet in my view it is the single most important factor affecting the balance of power in the region.

    Of course, such an analysis assumes that people will behave rationally. Such an assumption cannot be made about either the Israelis or the current United States administration. The former has literally gotten away with murder in recent years, and its defiance of international law is unparalleled in the region. One has only to cite the example of the stolen Syrian Golan Heights to make the point.

    Numerous United Nations resolutions have been simply ignored as Israel has simply felt that it had United States backing, regardless of how egregious its actions. The former United States president Donald Trump only emphasised the point when he recognised Israeli control of the Golan Heights making it Israeli territory.

    It is also a fact that the current United States foreign policy is firmly in the hands of the neo-con element within the Washington power structure. The animosity of this group to Iran (and indeed Russia and China) needs no reiteration. Their failure to recognise the realities of fading United States power could be a mistake that leads us all to a nuclear war. Russia and China’s support for the Iranian government makes that prospect more likely.

    One would like to say that the prospects for a peaceful resolution of the Iran situation is likely. Unfortunately, that view would betray a failure to understand that the combination of Israeli arrogance and United States unwillingness to accept that the world is changing to its disadvantage is a reality we must all learn to live with. The failure to realise that reality could literally be fatal.

    The post United States and Israeli Intransigence vis-à-vis Iran first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Global jailed journalists surge by 20% to 488 – 60 of them women, says RSF

    Pacific Media Watch

    The Paris-based global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned three “dictatorial regimes” — Belarus, China and Myanmar — for their role in a global surge in the jailing of journalists doing their job.

    According to the RSF annual round-up, a record number of journalists — 488, including 60 women — are currently detained worldwide, while another 65 are being held hostage.

    Meanwhile, the number of journalists killed in 2021 — 46 — is at its lowest in 20 years.

    RSF said in a statement that the number of journalists detained in connection with their work had never been this high since the watchdog began publishing its annual round-up in 1995.

    RSF logged a total of 488 journalists and media workers in prison in mid-December 2021, or 20 percent more than at the same time last year.

    This exceptional surge in arbitrary detention is due, above all, to three countries — Myanmar, where the military retook power in a coup on 1 February 2021; Belarus, which has seen a major crackdown since Alexander Lukashenko’s disputed reelection in August 2020; and Xi Jinping’s China, which is tightening its grip on Hong Kong, the special administrative region once seen as a regional model of respect for press freedom.

    RSF has also never previously registered so many female journalists in prison, with a total of 60 currently detained in connection with their work – a third (33 percent) more than at this time last year.

    China world’s biggest jailer of journalists
    China, the world’s biggest jailer of journalists for the fifth year running, is also the biggest jailer of female journalists, with 19 currently detained. They include Zhang Zhan, a 2021 RSF Press Freedom laureate, who is now critically ill.

    Belarus is currently holding more female journalists (17) than male (15). They include two reporters for the Poland-based independent Belarusian TV channel Belsat — Daria Chultsova and Katsiaryna Andreyeva — who were sentenced to two years in a prison camp for providing live coverage of an unauthorised demonstration.

    In Myanmar, of the 53 journalists and media workers detained, nine are women.

    “The extremely high number of journalists in arbitrary detention is the work of three dictatorial regimes,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.

    “It is a reflection of the reinforcement of dictatorial power worldwide, an accumulation of crises, and the lack of any scruples on the part of these regimes. It may also be the result of new geopolitical power relationships in which authoritarian regimes are not being subjected to enough pressure to curb their crackdowns.”

    Another striking feature of this year’s round-up is the fall in the number of journalists killed in connection with their work — 46 from 1 January to 1 December 2021. The year 2003 was the last time that fewer than 50 journalists were killed.

    This year’s fall is mostly due to a decline in the intensity of conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen and to campaigning by press freedom organisations, including RSF, for the implementation of international and national mechanisms aimed at protecting journalists.

    Journalists deliberately targeted
    Nonetheless, despite this remarkable fall, an average of nearly one journalist a week is still being killed in connection with their work. And RSF has established that 65 percent of the journalists killed in 2021 were deliberately targeted and eliminated.

    Mexico and Afghanistan are again the two deadliest countries, with seven journalists killed in Mexico and six in Afghanistan. Yemen and India share third place, with four journalists killed in each country.

    In addition to these figures, the 2021 round-up also mentions some of the year’s most striking cases. This year’s longest prison sentence, 15 years, was handed down to both Ali Aboluhom in Saudi Arabia and Pham Chi Dung in Vietnam.

    The longest and most Kafkaesque trials are being inflicted on Amadou Vamoulké in Cameroon and Ali Anouzla in Morocco.

    The oldest detained journalists are Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong and Kayvan Samimi Behbahani in Iran, who are 74 and 73 years old.

    The French journalist Olivier Dubois was the only foreign journalist to be abducted this year. He has been held hostage in Mali since April 8.

    Since 1995, RSF has been compiling annual round-ups of violence and abuses against journalists based on precise data gathered from 1 January to 1 December of the year in question.

    “The 2021 round-up figures include professional journalists, non-professional journalists and media workers,” RSF explains.

    “We gather detailed information that allows us to affirm with certainty or a great deal of confidence that the detention, abduction, disappearance or death of each journalist was a direct result of their journalistic work. Our methodology may explain differences between our figures and those of other organisations.”

    Reporters Without Borders and Pacific Media Watch collaborate.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Iran Nuclear Talks Falter as Biden Administration Squanders Window for Diplomacy

    The United States is continuing talks with Iran over its nuclear program after President Trump withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2015. With a new Iranian administration after April’s controversial election, many worry that if talks fail, tensions between the two countries could turn into military escalation fueled by pressure from Israel. “The new hard-line team has been coming in to the negotiation table with more demands than the previous administration,” says Iranian American journalist Negar Mortazavi. “They want sanctions relief from the U.S. in exchange for them scaling back part of their nuclear program.”

    TRANSCRIPT

    This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

    AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

    Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday the Biden administration is preparing alternatives in case the U.S. fails in its efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that Trump withdrew the U.S. from. Indirect negotiations between the United States and Iran are underway in Vienna after a five-month break in efforts to revise the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. On Tuesday, the chief of Iran’s civilian program insisted Iran will refuse to allow U.N. inspectors to access a sensitive centrifuge assembly plant. Last week, CIA Director William Burns said he’s concerned about Iran’s nuclear program during an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

    WILLIAM BURNS: Based on the results of the new round of nuclear negotiations, you know, with the so-called P5+1, the international partners and the Iranians, you know, the Iranians are not taking the negotiations seriously at this point. It was a pretty discouraging result then. You have the reality of, you know, the Iranians essentially dragging their feet on the nuclear negotiations, and at the same time, as you pointed out, Jerry, making steady advances in their nuclear program, particularly enrichment to 60% now, as well.

    AMY GOODMAN: In recent days, Israeli officials have been urging the United States to take military action against Iran, suggesting the U.S. should either directly strike Iran or attack an Iranian base in Yemen. Israel insists that regardless of the outcome of the nuclear talks in Vienna, it reserves the right to attack Iran.

    Well, for more we’re joined in Washington, D.C., by Negar Mortazavi, Iranian American journalist, political analyst, host of The Iran Podcast.

    Thanks so much for joining us, Negar.

    NEGAR MORTAZAVI: Great to be here.

    AMY GOODMAN: If you can talk about the significance of what’s happening in Vienna right now? And what are these so-called alternatives to the Iran nuclear deal that Trump pulled the U.S. out of?

    NEGAR MORTAZAVI: Sure, Amy. So, as your audience may know, there are nuclear negotiations ongoing in Vienna. It’s been the site of this gathering of not just Iran and the United States, but really the world powers, all of the other parties to the nuclear deal. Sometimes we tend to forget that the nuclear deal was not just between Iran and the United States. There were other parties involved: European powers, Russia and China.

    The seventh round of negotiations — can you hear me?

    AMY GOODMAN: We hear you fine.

    NEGAR MORTAZAVI: OK, great. The seventh round of negotiations is — which has happened, is essentially the first round of negotiations with Iran’s new administration. There has been a change of presidency in Iran in June. And the new hard-line team has been coming in to the negotiating table with more demands than the previous administration.

    And this really goes back to what myself and some other Iran watchers had been warning, that President Biden, when he first started his administration, had a window of opportunity, really a golden window of opportunity, with Iran’s previous administration, a moderate administration, who was involved in the negotiations initially and the making of the JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal agreement, to go back to the JCPOA and do these negotiations while the moderates were still in power in Tehran. That window closed in June. Iran had a presidential election. Now a new team is in. They started in August. And they obviously — they are the hard-liners in Iran’s political faction. They’ve always been very skeptical of the West, of the U.S., of the nuclear negotiations, of the JCPOA. They were vocal critics of the JCPOA. So, this team is going to do things differently, and I think that’s what the Biden administration is also starting to realize, that things are going to be more complicated and difficult with the hard-liners in Iran.

    I don’t think we’re at the end of the road yet or at a point of no return. I still think, even with the hard-line team, that Iran wants a nuclear deal, wants this nuclear deal or a deal with the United States. They want sanctions relief from the U.S. in exchange for them scaling back part of their nuclear program. But I think the negotiations ahead are going to be difficult. And if they fail, if diplomacy fails, then the absence of diplomacy means more escalation, potentially in the form of sabotage attacks and military escalations, which won’t just be bound to Iran. It will be spread across the region and can easily get out of hand.

    JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Negar, can you talk about the role of one nation that is not a party to the negotiations but has major influence, Israel? Israel’s defense minister and Mossad chief are in Washington this week meeting with senior members of the Biden administration. And, of course, Israel has been involved in repeated attempts at assassinations, or actual assassinations, of scientists in the nuclear program in Iran, as well as sabotage of Iran’s nuclear energy program. What is Israel trying to do with the Biden administration right now, from what you can tell?

    NEGAR MORTAZAVI: That’s a great question. You know, actually, Iran’s nuclear program, it’s not a nuclear weapons program to this point. But if Iran — the reason Iran is seen as a threat is because it can be a potential threat to U.S. allies in the region. Iran is not a threat to U.S. soil. So, as you were saying, Israel and other U.S. partners in the region are very key elements in all of these sort of perceptions of threat and also the negotiations and U.S. sort of posturing towards Iran.

    We know that the previous Israeli government, Bibi Netanyahu, was very much opposed to the JCPOA. He fought against the negotiations and the deal when President Obama was doing diplomacy with Iran, but he didn’t succeed. Then, later, he succeeded in really pushing President Trump to pull out of the JCPOA. And now, interestingly, we’re hearing from former Israeli officials, some from Bibi Netanyahu’s own previous government, that this was actually a mistake, that Israel opposing the JCPOA and eventually pushing President Trump to pull out of the deal was a mistake. That was a good deal because Iran had essentially agreed to put limit on its nuclear program. And now that those limits are gone and Iran is expanding the program, it’s really escalating the situation. There’s no better deal to replace it.

    And as you mentioned, and Amy, there are talks of Israeli officials now really trying to push the United States to take military action against Iran or potentially target Iranian nuclear sites or Iranian interests across the region. I’m not sure how much of an appetite there is in the White House for that form of direct military attack on Iran by the United States, and I’m not so confident that Israel, on its own, would carry out an attack like that without U.S. greenlight. Now, the situation can always change. And I said you can stumble into a conflict, and it can escalate and get out of hand in this volatile region that is the Middle East. But so far I’m not sure if the Israelis have succeeded in sort of convincing the United States, because this is something they’ve always wanted, as well as the U.S. partners in the Persian Gulf, Arab countries in the Persian Gulf, to not themselves take military action against Iran but sort of push the United States to do it for them, and they haven’t succeeded under President Obama, President Trump. And so far I haven’t seen that really succeeding with the Biden administration. I think they’re still trying to give diplomacy a chance, although I think the U.S. side has to make more serious compromises to meet Iran halfway.

    AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you, Negar Mortazavi, for joining us, Iranian American journalist, political analyst. She is host of The Iran Podcast. And, of course, we’ll continue to cover this issue.

    After break, we go to Chile, where voters are headed to the polls Sunday to choose a new president in a tight runoff between a far-right candidate and a leftist former student leader. Stay with us.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Interview With Iran’s Chief Nuclear Deal Negotiator Dr. Ali Bagheri

    Richard Medhurst sits down with Iran’s chief negotiator Dr. Ali Bagheri for an exclusive interview during the 7th round of Vienna talks.

    Medhurst and Bagheri discuss how the talks are progressing, Iran’s recent draft proposals, threats and intimidation by Israel, and whether Iran can trust the Americans not to break the deal again.

    The post Interview With Iran’s Chief Nuclear Deal Negotiator Dr. Ali Bagheri appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Iran Threatens Sanctions Against US Over Treatment Of Black Americans

    The Iranian government vowed today to impose sanctions on the United States over racial and policing issues.

    Secretary-General of Iran’s Human Rights Office Kazem Gharibabadi said the Islamic Republic will publish a list of American entities and individuals involved in human rights abuses. They will then be subject to sanctions from Iran, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

    The post Iran Threatens Sanctions Against US Over Treatment Of Black Americans appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • Israel’s Hard-Line Position Is Sabotaging US-Iran Negotiations

    U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley (left) participates in an enhanced honor cordon to welcome Israeli Chief of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister Benny Gantz (second from the left) at the Pentagon on June 21, 2021n in Arlington, Virginia. Gantz was in Washington for talks with officials at the Pentagon.

    After a five-month hiatus, indirect negotiations between the United States and Iran resumed last week in Vienna in an attempt to revise the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA). The outlook isn’t good.

    Less than a week into negotiations, Britain, France, and Germany accused Iran of “walking back almost all of the difficult compromises” achieved during the first round of negotiations before Iran’s new president, Ebrahim Raisi, was sworn into office. While such actions by Iran certainly aren’t helping the negotiations succeed, there is another country — one that is not even a party to the agreement that was ripped up in 2018 by then president Donald Trump — whose hard-line position is creating obstacles to successful negotiations: Israel.

    On Sunday, amid reports that the talks might collapse, Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett called on the countries meeting in Vienna to “take a strong line” against Iran. According to Channel 12 news in Israel, Israeli officials are urging the United States to take military action against Iran, either by striking Iran directly or by hitting an Iranian base in Yemen. Regardless of the negotiations’ outcome, Israel says that it reserves the right to take military action against Iran.

    Israeli threats aren’t just bluster. Between 2010 and 2012, four Iranian nuclear scientists were assassinated, presumably by Israel. In July 2020, a fire, attributed to an Israeli bomb, caused significant damage to Iran’s Natanz nuclear site. In November 2020, shortly after Joe Biden won the presidential election, Israeli operatives used remote control machine guns to assassinate Iran’s top nuclear scientist. Had Iran retaliated proportionately, the United States might have backed up Israel, with the conflict spiraling into a full-blown US–Middle East war.

    In April 2021, as diplomatic efforts were underway between the Biden administration and Iran, sabotage attributed to Israel caused a blackout at Natanz. Iran described the action as “nuclear terrorism.”

    Ironically described as Iran’s Build Back Better plan, after each of Israel’s nuclear facility sabotage actions, Iranians have quickly gotten their facilities back online and even installed newer machines to more rapidly enrich uranium. As a result, American officials recently warned their Israeli counterparts that the attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities are counterproductive. But Israel replied that it has no intention of letting up.

    As the clock runs out to reseal the JCPOA, Israel is sending its top-level officials out to make its case. Israeli foreign minister Yair Lapid was in London and Paris last week asking them not to support US intentions to return to the deal. This week, Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Israeli Mossad chief David Barnea are in Washington for meetings with US defense secretary Lloyd Austin, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and CIA officials. According to the Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, Barnea brought “updated intelligence on Tehran’s efforts” to become a nuclear country.

    Along with verbal appeals, Israel is preparing militarily. They have allocated $1.5 billion for a potential strike against Iran. Throughout October and November, they held large-scale military exercises in preparation for strikes against Iran and this spring they plan to hold one of their largest strike simulation drills ever, using dozens of aircraft, including Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet.

    The United States is also readying for the possibility of violence. A week prior to the negotiations resuming in Vienna, the US’s top commander in the Middle East, General Kenneth McKenzie, announced that his forces were on standby for potential military actions should the negotiations collapse. It was reported Wednesday that Israeli defense minister Benny Gantz’s meeting with Lloyd Austin would include discussing possible joint US-Israeli military drills simulating the destruction of Iran’s nuclear facilities.

    Stakes are high for the talks to succeed. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed this month that Iran is now enriching uranium up to 20 percent purity at its underground facility at Fordo, a site where the JCPOA forbids enrichment. According to the IAEA, since Trump pulled the United States out of the JCPOA, Iran has furthered its uranium enrichment to 60 percent purity (compared with 3.67 percent under the deal), steadily moving closer to the 90 percent needed for a nuclear weapon. In September, the Institute for Science and International Security issued a report stating that, under the “worst-case breakout estimate,” within a month Iran could produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon.

    The US exit from the JCPOA has not only led to the nightmarish prospect of another Middle East country becoming a nuclear state (Israel reportedly has between eighty and four hundred nuclear weapons), but it has already inflicted enormous damage on the Iranian people. The “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign — originally Trump’s but now under Joe Biden’s ownership — has plagued Iranians with runaway inflation; skyrocketing food, rent, and medicine prices; and a crippled health care sector.

    Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, US sanctions were preventing Iran from importing necessary medicines to treat such illnesses as leukemia and epilepsy. In January 2021, the United Nations released a report stating that US sanctions on Iran were contributing to an “inadequate and opaque” response to COVID-19. With more than a hundred thirty thousand officially registered deaths so far, Iran has the highest number of recorded coronavirus deaths in the Middle East. Officials say that real numbers are likely even higher.

    If the United States and Iran are not able to reach an agreement, the worst-case scenario will be a new US–Middle East war. Reflecting on the abject failures and destruction wrecked by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, a war with Iran would be catastrophic. One would think that Israel, which receives $3.8 billion annually from the United States, would feel obligated not to drag the United States and their own people into such a disaster. But that doesn’t seem to be the case.

    Though teetering on the brink of collapse, talks resumed again this week. Iran, now under a hard-line government that US sanctions helped bring into power, has shown that it isn’t going to be an acquiescent negotiator, and Israel is hell-bent on sabotaging the talks. This means it’s going to take bold diplomacy and a willingness to compromise from the Biden administration to get the deal resealed. Let’s hope Biden and his negotiators have the will and courage to do that.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Israel Pushes Hardline in Iran Nuclear Talks

    After a 5-month hiatus, indirect negotiations between the U.S. and Iran resumed last week in Vienna in an attempt to revise the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA). The outlook isn’t good.

    Less than a week into negotiations, Britain, France, and Germany accused Iran of  “walking back almost all of the difficult compromises” achieved during the first round of negotiations before Iran’s new president, Ebrahim Raisi, was sworn into office. While such actions by Iran certainly aren’t helping the negotiations succeed, there is another country — one that is not even a party to the agreement that was ripped up in 2018 by then President Donald Trump —whose hardline position is creating obstacles to successful negotiations: Israel.

    On Sunday, amid reports that the talks might collapse, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called on the countries in Vienna to “take a strong line” against Iran. According to Channel 12 news in Israel, Israeli officials are urging the US to take military action against Iran, either by striking Iran directly or by hitting an Iranian base in Yemen. Regardless of the outcome of the negotiations, Israel says that it reserves the right to take military action against Iran.

    Israeli threats aren’t just bluster. Between 2010 and 2012, four Iranian nuclear scientists were assassinated, presumably by Israel. In July 2020, a fire, attributed to an Israeli bomb, caused significant damage to Iran’s Natanz nuclear site. In November 2020, shortly after Joe Biden won the presidential election, Israeli operatives used remote control machine guns to assassinate Iran’s top nuclear scientist. Had Iran retaliated proportionately, the US might have backed up Israel, with the conflict spiraling into a full-blown US-Middle East war.

    In April 2021, as diplomatic efforts were underway between the Biden administration and Iran, sabotage attributed to Israel caused a blackout at the Natanz. Iran described the action as “nuclear terrorism.”

    Ironically described as Iran’s Build Back Better plan, after each of Israel’s nuclear facility sabotage actions, Iranians have quickly gotten their facilities back online and even installed newer machines to more rapidly enrich uranium. As a result, American officials recently warned their Israeli counterparts that the attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities are counterproductive. But Israel replied that it has no intention of letting up.

    As the clock runs out to reseal the JCPOA, Israel is sending its top-level officials out to make its case. Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid was in London and Paris last week asking them not to support US intentions to return to the deal. This week, Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Israeli Mossad chief David Barnea are in Washington for meetings with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and CIA officials. According to the Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, Barnea brought “updated intelligence on Tehran’s efforts” to become a nuclear country.

    Along with verbal appeals, Israel is preparing militarily. They have allocated $1.5 billion for a potential strike against Iran. Throughout October and November, they held large-scale military exercises in preparation for strikes against Iran and this spring they plan to hold one of their largest strike simulation drills ever, using dozens of aircraft, including Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet.

    The U.S. is also readying for the possibility of violence. A week prior to the negotiations resuming in Vienna, the US’s top commander in the Middle East, General Kenneth McKenzie, announced that his forces were on standby for potential military actions should the negotiations collapse. Yesterday, it was reported that Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s meeting with Lloyd Austin would include discussing possible joint US-Israeli military drills simulating the destruction of Iran’s nuclear facilities.

    Stakes are high for the talks to succeed. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed this month that Iran is now enriching uranium up to 20 percent purity at its underground facility at Fordo, a site where the JCPOA forbids enrichment. According to the IAEA, since Trump pulled the US out of the JCPOA, Iran has furthered its uranium enrichment to 60 percent purity (compared with 3.67% under the deal), steadily moving closer to the 90 percent needed for a nuclear weapon. In September, the Institute for Science and International Security issued a report that, under the “worst-case breakout estimate,” within a month Iran could produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon.

    The U.S. exit from the JCPOA has not only led to the nightmarish prospect of another Middle East country becoming a nuclear state (Israel reportedly has between 80 and 400 nuclear weapons), but it has already inflicted enormous damage on the Iranian people. The “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign — originally Trump’s but now under the ownership of Joe Biden — has plagued Iranians with runaway inflation, skyrocketing food, rent, and medicine prices, and a crippled healthcare sector. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, US sanctions were preventing Iran from importing necessary medicines to treat such illnesses as leukemia and epilepsy. In January 2021, the United Nations released a report stating that U.S. sanctions on Iran were contributing to an “inadequate and opaque” response to COVID-19. With more than 130,000 officially registered deaths so far, Iran has the highest number of recorded coronavirus deaths in the Middle East. And officials say that real numbers are likely even higher.

    If the U.S. and Iran are not able to reach an agreement, the worst-case scenario will be a new U.S.-Middle East war. Reflecting on the abject failures and destruction wrecked by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, a war with Iran would be catastrophic. One would think that Israel, which receives $3.8 billion annually from the U.S., would feel obligated not to drag the U.S. and their own people into such a disaster. But that doesn’t seem to be the case.

    Though teetering on the brink of collapse, talks resumed again this week. Iran, now under a hard-line government that U.S. sanctions helped bring into power, has shown that it isn’t going to be an acquiescent negotiator and Israel is hell-bent on sabotaging the talks. This means it’s going to take bold diplomacy and a willingness to compromise from the Biden administration to get the deal resealed. Let’s hope Biden and his negotiators have the will and courage to do that.

    • First published in Jacobin

    The post Israel Pushes Hardline in Iran Nuclear Talks first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Biden Keeps Trump’s Crushing Sanctions Yet Blames Iran For Nuclear Impasse

     At the Vienna talks on restoring the Iran nuclear deal, the US and EU are accusing Iran of refusing to compromise. Mohammad Marandi, a University of Tehran professor advising the Iran delegation in Vienna, says that the compromise was the nuclear deal itself, and the problem is the US refusal to abide by its […]

    The post Biden Keeps Trump’s Crushing Sanctions Yet Blames Iran For Nuclear Impasse appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Foreign secretary admits £400m owed to Iran from the 70s is a legitimate debt

    Liz Truss has said the £400m that Britain owes Iran is a “legitimate debt” that the government wants to pay.

    A long time coming

    The foreign secretary was asked about the amount at a Chatham House event on 8 December, where she set out her foreign policy aims. Truss said the government was going to “work night and day to prevent the Iranian regime from ever getting a nuclear weapon”. But she said they were also working to “resolve the issue” over the debt. It relates to a cancelled order for 1,500 Chieftain tanks dating back to the 1970s. And it’s been linked to the continued detention of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other UK-Iranian dual nationals held in Iran.

    Truss said:

    We do want to pay this debt, we recognise it’s a legitimate debt.

    But of course, there are lots of issues, which I’m sure you are quite well aware of.

    She added that she had spoken to her Iranian counterpart, but said of paying back our debts:

    It is not simple, for various reasons.

    She added:

    I’m also pressing for the return of our unfairly detained British nationals, including Nazanin.

    Iran nuclear deal

    Truss also warned Iran that a meeting in Vienna on 9 December was the country’s “last chance” to revive a nuclear deal. The foreign secretary previously said a meeting at the end of November was the country’s last opportunity to agree to the original JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, known as the Iran nuclear deal).

    Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe detained
    Richard Ratcliffe held a hunger strike outside the Foreign Office (Aaron Chown/PA)

    On 8 December, she said:

    This is really the last chance for Iran to sign up, and I strongly urge them to do that, because we are determined to work with our allies to prevent Iran securing nuclear weapons.

    So they do need to sign up to the JCPOA agreement. It’s in their interest.

    Iran has ramped up its uranium enrichment since the US, under former president Donald Trump’s leadership, withdrew from the landmark nuclear agreement between world powers and Iran in 2018.

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • How Israel’s Actions Against Iran Are Rooted in Cecil Rhodes’s 1877 Plan

    There has been much speculation about why Israel was allowed in 1967 to intentionally bomb the USS Liberty and slaughter 34 American soldiers on that ship which the U.S. Government has covered-up. And there also is much speculation about why, as reported to Congress by the Congressional Research Service on 7 August 2019, “Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II. To date, the United States has provided Israel $142.3 billion (current, or noninflation-adjusted, dollars) in bilateral assistance and missile defense funding. Almost all U.S. bilateral aid to Israel is in the form of military assistance.” (That “noninflation-adjusted”  figure might be closer to a trillion dollars in today’s money. For example, a billion dollars in 1971 is worth $6.83 billion today. This means that in 1971, $146.4 billion was worth the same as a trillion dollars is worth in today’s money. So: in today’s money, what U.S. taxpayers have donated to Israel in order for it to pay for U.S. missiles, etc., was almost a trillion dollars, and that’s been a gift to U.S. armaments-firms — to the people who own those firms — for them to sell (and U.S. taxpayers to pay for) to Israel. Nowadays, Americans donate $3.8 billion annually to Israel. $3.3 billion of that is for U.S.-made weapons. Why? It’s to subsidize America’s billionaires. And look at how phenomenally profitable such subsidies have helped to make their investments! In other words: merely by misrepresenting “foreign aid” as if it were something that it overwhelmingly is not (and closer to being the very opposite of “charitable”), the U.S. aristocracy become further-enriched by (and they purchase — with taxpayer-money — the alliance, the backing, from) other nations’ aristocracies (such as Israel’s). Some gang-of-thieves!

    75% of Americans approve of Israel. Only 30% approve of the “Palestinian Authority” that  represents the people whom the Israelis conquered. Obviously, America’s ‘news’-media are strongly favorable toward Israel, and portray Israel’s victims in as-negative-a-light as is possible to do — and they portray opposition to Israel as being necessarily ‘anti-Semitic’. Certainly in the Palestinian case, it’s not that — it is against evil (by Israel).

    Americans aren’t outraged that their Government donates to Israel’s constant war against Palestinians (to crush them), but instead blame the Palestinians for Israel’s decades-long ethnic-cleansing of Palestinians — it’s ethnic-cleansing to retain Israel’s ‘democracy’ of Jewish rule against Muslims. Americans are imperialists; but, in this particular instance, they are for imperialism by Jews (especially the wealthiest of them) in that land, against Muslims (especially the poorest of them) there, instead of being by Americans against Cubans, or by Americans against Venezuelans, or by Americans against Ukrainians (the normal type of attempted or achieved takeover by America’s billionaires — which group the U.S. Government represents).

    The main people among the American public who oppose “foreign aid” are misinformed conservatives, who think it’s stupid idealism; and the main supporters of “foreign aid” among the American public are misinformed liberals, who think it’s a policy to benefit the people in poor countries; but, overall, 49% of Americans say that “U.S. Is Spending Too Much On Foreign Aid,” and only 13% say that the U.S. is spending “too little” on it. Only very few Americans know that foreign aid is mainly to buy U.S. weapons. It is a subsidy to firms such as Lockheed Martin. It is a secret (“off-the-balance-sheet”) addition to America’s ‘defense’-budget. (Even on-budget — or Pentagon — U.S. ‘defense’-spending constitutes 37% of the entire world’s military expenditures.) And that is defense only for the aristocracy of the given recipient-nation, in order to keep them in power so that the U.S. aristocracy can control foreign Governments by getting the misinformed American public to pay for those foreign regimes, which are more like the opposite of charity — it is U.S. imperialism. And those foreign regimes are U.S. vassal-nations. So: though the total American public are buying this ‘aid’, it’s actually for the investors in firms such as General Dynamics. And the owners of those firms are also in control over all of America’s major ‘news’-media, which promote those weapons-sales by pretending that foreign aid is mainly charitable (though perhaps ‘misguided’, not intentionally evil — which it is).

    In the case of Israel, the origin of the arrangement goes all the way back to the late 1800s, when the very concept of today’s Israel was merely a dream for some biblically inspired and highly ethnocentric Jews (Zionists).

    Here’s how that happened:

    In 1871, the well-connected young prospector, Cecil Rhodes (son of an Anglican clergyman), got his start. “In October 1871, 18-year-old Rhodes and his 26-year-old brother Herbert left the colony for the diamond fields of Kimberley in Northern Cape Province. Financed by N M Rothschild & Sons, Rhodes succeeded over the next 17 years in buying up all the smaller diamond mining operations in the Kimberley area.” And then, starting in 1877, Rhodes drew up his will, to create a “secret” organization, for the UK empire to take over (“take back”), by means of subversion, first the U.S. Government, and then (with that force behind it) take control over the entire rest of the world, so that secretly the U.S. would become the chief enforcer, globally, for, actually, England’s aristocracy.

    Part of this plan was for an “Israel” to come into existence and serve as the English aristocracy’s enforcer over the entire Middle East.

    Franklin Delano Roosevelt, as U.S. President just prior to Israel’s formation, opposed the creation of any “Jewish state.” He was as opposed to that as he was to any theocracy, and especially because this one wouldn’t be able to be brought about or function except by means of an ethnic-cleansing in order to make Jews the majority there (if a democracy was intended there) or else the controlling minority (if an outright and clear-cut dictatorship there was the intention there). But, as I shall document fully in my book to be published in 2022, AMERICA’S EVIL EMPIRE, President Truman, who succeeded him on 12 April 1945, soon came entirely under the influence and control of — and surrounded himself by other supporters of — Churchill and other Rhodesists, and this included support for the new state of Israel, though Albert Einstein and many other leading progressive U.S. Jews opposed it, and especially  opposed Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, who ended up becoming leaders of Israel. Truman and Churchill were Rhodesists, and Judaism was not actually much involved in their advocacy for Israel and against the “natives” or Palestinians; imperialism was involved, and this Israel was to be a part of this Rhodesist empire.

    In fact, Truman was the very first world-leader to recognize the Jewish state, on 14 May 1948 — little more than a month after the extermination-phase of the ethnic-cleansing there had already begun. And it kept on coming. David Ben-Gurion privately described to his son on 5 October 1937 the plan for the ethnic-cleansing, but it couldn’t be carried-out until it had the U.S. Government’s support. Truman was key, and he was assisting there — as throughout his international policies — the Rhodesist agenda. This was to be a British operation, fronted by the U.S. Government. They knew what they were doing — that the U.S. Government was fronting for Britain’s Government. And, actually, the forced evacuations of Arabs, and emptying-out of entire Arab towns, was planned to start in, and did start in, December 1947; so, Truman and his British masters had to have known what they were endorsing. And Israel was fronting for them. All subsequent U.S. Presidents were also Rhodesists, except Kennedy, who had been but was abandoning them shortly before he mysteriously became assassinated.

    So, here’s additional background for how that is playing-out today:

    As everybody knows, Britain had controlled Iran (to extract its oil) before 1953, until Mohammad Mossadegh came to power there by popular acclaim, despite the British attempts to prevent that. And then America’s CIA operated a 1953 coup to remove the progressive Mossadegh and replace him by the Shah, who subsequently became famous for his prisons and their tortures (so that, this time, it would be U.S. oil firms that would be doing the extractions instead — this was acceptable to the Brits because they received a cut; and, furthermore, UK depended now upon America’s military might, so, this was part of their “Special Relationship”). But, then, in 1979, Iranians overthrew their dictatorial Shah, and installed their own Shiite Islamic, socialistic, but largely theocratic (and therefore at least partially dictatorial) Government. It was/is populist, instead of like the U.S.-&-UK-backed Arab Governments, which were (and are) monarchical and totally aristocratic (hereditary) dictatorships. The U.S. regime has, ever since, tried to reconquer Iran. (The monarchical Arab Governments also fear Iran because Iran is — after overthrowing the Shah — populist, anti-monarchical. Therefore, the Arab regimes rely largely upon the U.S. regime in order for them to be able to stay in power.)

    Iran, because of its populism, is strongly supportive of the Palestinians. Therefore, it is ideologically at war against Israel — not because of its Judaism, but because of its ethnic-cleansing of fellow-Muslims. Israel — not Judaism — is what Iran is opposed to. Iran, because of Iran’s past long history of being exploited by, first, British, and then American, imperialism, is passionately anti-Rhodesist. Consequently, the U.S. and UK regimes want to destroy Iran — and Israel is their chosen Rhodesist entity that fronts this U.S./UK/Israel operation.

    And, therefore, we now have the present situation:

    On December 2nd, Israel’s Jewish Chronicle (or “JC”) headlined “EXCLUSIVE: Mossad recruited top Iranian scientists to blow up key nuclear facility: 90 per cent of the plant’s centrifuges were destroyed” in that 2 July 2020 explosion. The same day they also headlined “Israel to hit ‘head of octopus’ in covert attacks on Tehran.” Already on November 29th they had headlined “UK and Israel foreign ministers vow to work ‘night and day’ to stop Iran developing nukes: Liz Truss and Yair Lapid sign agreement to take UK-Israel relations into a ‘bold new era’.” These are Rhodesist operations, just as America’s operations to destroy Iran have been and are. There is no change under Biden. He, too, is Rhodesist, as his predecessors have been.

    On December 3rd, the New York Times bannered “Iran Nuclear Talks Head for Collapse Unless Tehran Shifts, Europeans Say: In Vienna talks, the new hard-line Iranian government has staked out positions that are incompatible with the 2015 deal, European negotiators say.” It lied to imply that “the new hard-line Iranian government” was any different in its negotiating position than its predecessor’s, which was: Iran was demanding that the U.S. Government, which had broken the Agreement by cancelling its commitments under it, must first rejoin that Agreement, before Iran would make any concessions that would be in addition to that Agreement; and any such additional concessions by Iran (such as Trump and then Biden were demanding) would then be made ONLY in trade for additional concessions becoming simultaneously made by the U.S. Government. The EU (which essentially had been part of that existing Agreement the U.S. had abandoned) is a Rhodesist vassal entity, and Biden is just as much of a Rhodesist as was Trump before him, and even more than Obama was before Trump. America’s billionaires get the U.S. Presidents that they’ve bought (which is all of them post-1944), but it’s all actually part of the restored UK empire, in accord with Cecil Rhodes’s plan. That is the U.S. Deep State, and the UK Deep State, and the Israeli Deep State. And the Deep State in all of the vassal-nations.

    The post How Israel’s Actions Against Iran Are Rooted in Cecil Rhodes’s 1877 Plan first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Magnitsky Human Rights Award 2021 to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe detained in Iran

    Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has won an award in London for her bravery, as her detention in Iran continues. The West Hampstead mother received the Courage Under Fire prize at this year’s Magnitsky Human Rights Awards. For more on this award, see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/48a2fd20-eb63-11e8-a208-f9dcc4e84560

    Redress, an NGO campaigning for the return of Nazanin, says the award “recognises the injustice Nazanin has suffered as a pawn of international diplomacy”.

    It comes after ended his second hunger strike, this time for 21 days, to try and break the political impasse to bring Nazanin home.  

    “Nazanin was very pleased to hear of this award, for herself but also for all the others detained in Iran that you don’t get to hear about,” her husband Richard Ratcliffe said. “The Iranian regime gets away with terrible crimes that thrive in darkness where accountability should be.” 

    He added: “All our family are very proud of this award.”

    Since Richard’s hunger strike, Boris Johnson has said it is “worth considering” paying a £400m historic debt to Iran by sending a plane full of cash to Tehran.

    Nazanin, 43, mother of a seven-year-old girl, was arrested in Tehran in 2016 after being accused of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government – charges always denied and widely refuted. 

    William Browder, head of the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign, said: “Nobody should ever be put in a situation like this, but in spite of the pressure, she has proven how powerful she can be even in the most powerless situation.  Her hostage takers should understand that their crimes won’t go unpunished.” 

    Accepting the “courage under fire” award on her behalf at the event in London on Thursday evening, Gabriella read her mother’s words.

    https://www.impartialreporter.com/news/national/19727498.nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffes-daughter-makes-award-speech-behalf/

    https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-wins-bravery-award-8500754

    This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.

  • The Russia-China-Iran Alliance

    NATO, the U.S. Government, and all other “neoconservatives” (adherents to Cecil Rhodes’s 1877 plan for a global U.S. empire that would be run, behind the scenes, by the UK’s aristocracy) have been treating Russia, China, and Iran, as being their enemies. In consequence of this: Russia, China, and Iran, have increasingly been coordinating their international policies, so as to assist each other in withstanding (defending themselves against) the neoconservative efforts that are designed to conquer them, and to add them to the existing U.S. empire.

    The U.S. empire is the largest empire that the world has ever known, and has approximately 800 military bases in foreign countries, all over the planet. This is historically unprecedented. But it is — like all historical phenomena — only temporary. However, its many propagandists — not only in the news-media but also in academia and NGOs (and Rhodesists predominate in all of those categories) — allege the U.S. (or UK-U.S.) empire to be permanent, or else to be necessary to become permanent. Many suppose that “the rise and fall of the great powers” won’t necessarily relate to the United States (i.e., that America will never fall from being the world’s dominant power); and, so, they believe that the “American Century” (which has experienced so many disastrous wars, and so many unnecessary wars) will — and even should — last indefinitely, into the future. That viewpoint is the permanent-warfare-for-permanent-peace lie: it asserts that a world in which America’s billionaires, who control the U.S. Government (and the American public now have no influence over their Government whatsoever), should continue their ‘rules-based international order’, in which these billionaires determine what ‘rules’ will be enforced, and what ‘rules’ won’t be enforced; and in which ‘rules-based international order’ international laws (coming from the United Nations) will be enforced ONLY if and when America’s billionaires want them to be enforced. The ideal, to them, is an all-encompassing global dictatorship, by U.S. (& UK) billionaires.

    In other words: Russia, China, Iran, and also any nation (such as Syria, Belarus, and Venezuela) whose current government relies upon any of those three for international support, don’t want to become part of the U.S. empire. They don’t want to be occupied by U.S. troops. They don’t want their national security to depend upon serving the interests of America’s billionaires. Basically, they want the U.N. to possess the powers that its inventor, FDR, had intended it to have, which were that it would serve as the one-and-only international democratic republic of nation-states; and, as such, would have the exclusive ultimate control over all nuclear and other strategic weapons and military forces, so that there will be no World War III. Whereas Rhodes wanted a global dictatorship by a unified U.S./UK aristocracy, their ‘enemies’ want a global democracy of nations (FDR named it “the United Nations”), ruling over all international relations, and being settled in U.N.-authorized courts, having jurisdiction over all international-relations issues.

    In other words: they don’t want an invasion such as the U.S. and its allies (vassal nations) did against Iraq in 2003 — an invasion without an okay from the U.N Security Council and from the General Assembly — to be able to be perpetrated, ever again, against ANY nation. They want aggressive wars (which U.S.-and-allied aristocracies ‘justify’ as being necessary to impose ‘democracy’ and ‘humanitarian values’ on other nations) to be treated as being the international war-crimes that they actually are.

    However, under the prevailing reality — that international law is whatever the U.S. regime says it is — a U.N.-controlled international order doesn’t exist, and maybe never will exist; and, so, the U.S. regime’s declared (or anointed, or appointed) ‘enemies’ (because none of them actually is their enemy — none wants to be in conflict against the U.S.) propose instead a “multilateral order” to replace “the American hegemony” or global dictatorship by the U.S. regime. They want, instead, an international democracy, like FDR had hoped for, but they are willing to settle merely for international pluralism — and this is (and always has been) called “an international balance of powers.” They recognize that this (balance of powers) had produced WW I, and WW II, but — ever since the moment when Harry S. Truman, on 25 July 1945, finally ditched FDR’s intentions for the U.N., and replaced that by the Cold War for the U.S. to conquer the whole world (and then formed NATO, which FDR would have opposed doing) — they want to go back (at least temporarily) to the pre-WW-I balance-of-powers system, instead of to capitulate to the international hegemon (America’s billionaires, the controller of the U.S. empire).

    So: the Russia-China-Iran alliance isn’t against the U.S. regime, but is merely doing whatever they can to avoid being conquered by it. They want to retain their national sovereignty, and ultimately to become nation-states within a replacement-U.N. which will be designed to fit FDR’s pattern, instead of Truman’s pattern (the current, powerless, talking-forum U.N.).

    Take, as an example of what they fear, not only the case of the Rhodesists’ 2003 invasion of Iraq, but the case of America’s coup against Ukraine, which Obama had started planning by no later than 2011, and which by 2013 entailed his scheme to grab Russia’s top naval base, in Crimea (which had been part of Russia from 1783 to 1954 when the Soviet leader transferred Crimea to Ukraine). Obama installed nazis to run his Ukrainian regime, and he hoped ultimately for Ukraine to be accepted into NATO so that U.S. missiles could be installed there on Russia’s border only a five-minute missile-flight away from Moscow. Alexander Mercouris at The Duran headlined on 4 July 2021, “Ukraine’s Black Sea NATO dilemma”, and he clearly explained the coordinated U.S.-and-allied aggression that was involved in the U.S.-and-allied maneuvering. U.S.-and-allied ‘news’-media hid it. Also that day, Mercouris bannered “In Joint Statement Russia-China Agree Deeper Alliance, Balancing US And NATO,” and he reported a historic agreement between those two countries, to coordinate together to create the very EurAsian superpower that Rhodesists have always dreaded. It’s exactly the opposite of what the U.S.-and-allied regimes had been aiming for. But it was the response to the Rhodesists’ insatiable imperialism.

    To drive both Russia and China into a corner was to drive them together. They went into the same corner, not different corners. They were coming together, not coming apart. And Iran made it a threesome.

    So: that’s how the U.S. regime’s appointed ‘enemies’ have come to join together into a virtual counterpart to America’s NATO alliance of pro-imperialist nations. It’s a defensive alliance, against an aggressive alliance — an anti-imperialist alliance, against a pro-imperialist alliance. America’s insatiably imperialistic foreign policies have, essentially, forced its ‘enemies’ to form their own alliance. It’s the only way for them to survive as independent nations, given Truman’s abortion of FDR’s plan for the U.N. — the replacement, by Truman of that, by the U.N. that became created, after FDR died on 12 April 1945.

    The post The Russia-China-Iran Alliance first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband hails Iran meeting as ‘breakthrough’

    The husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has described talks between UK government officials and Iran’s deputy foreign minister as a “breakthrough”. The meeting on Thursday comes as Richard Ratcliffe endures his 19th day on hunger strike outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in London.

    Ratcliffe began his demonstration last month after his wife lost her latest appeal in Iran, saying his family is “caught in a dispute between two states”.

    Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe detained
    Richard Ratcliffe outside the Foreign Office in London (Aaron Chown/PA)

    A “breakthrough” meeting

    Iranian deputy foreign minister Bagheri Kani is due to meet officials from the FCDO, and Ratcliffe will meet Foreign Office minister James Cleverly afterwards. Ratcliffe told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme:

    I’ll be meeting him just after he’s met with the Iranian deputy foreign minister, so essentially it will be to find out what’s happened, where are we.

    I guess I’m looking for some kind of a breakthrough. The point of a hunger strike is you hope to sort of shake things up and move things forward, so fingers crossed.

    Ratcliffe said it is a “breakthrough” in itself that Iranians are coming to the capital. Speaking ahead of the meeting between government officials and the Iranian diplomat, he said:

    That’s a breakthrough, really. I think it’s been many years since an Iranian minister has come.

    This is the chief negotiator for Iran who is coming. Obviously our case is associated with all the wider manoeuvrings around the nuclear deal and everything else.

    Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe detained
    Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been in custody in Iran since 2016 (Free Nazanin Campaign/PA)

    In custody because of the UK’s £400m debt to Iran?

    Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian dual national, has been in custody in Iran since 2016 after being accused of plotting to overthrow the government.

    She was taking the couple’s daughter, Gabriella, to see her family when she was arrested and sentenced to five years in jail, spending four years in Evin Prison and one under house arrest.

    According to her family, she was told by Iranian authorities that she was being detained because of the UK’s failure to pay an outstanding £400m debt to Iran.

    Asked if he is in any doubt that the UK government thinks the country should pay the debt owed to Iran, Ratcliffe told Today:

    The prime minister, back in the day when he was foreign secretary, promised he would pay it.

    He also, when we met him behind closed doors a couple of years back now, was certainly keen to try and get Nazanin home and said ‘We’ll leave no stone unturned’.

    I’ve had clear conversations with the Foreign Secretary, had letters from the Defence Secretary, so there is a sort of a head scratching as to ‘Well, how come it’s not been solved?’

    Asked what his hunch is, he said:

    We asked Liz Truss, Foreign Secretary, but she wouldn’t say to us. My fear is – and it’s the fear from that new sentence that was given to Nazanin – the Iranians aren’t persuaded and they’re ready to show their claws.

    “This is a debt. An international court has said so”

    Meanwhile, former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt said the UK should pay its debt to the country. Speaking on the Today programme, Hunt said:

    We have contracts with countries all over the world, some of them nicer, some of them nastier, and we are a country that pays our debts.

    If this was ransom money I would be saying we should not pay it, and I’ve said that to Richard, however painful that sounds, because you just encourage more hostage-taking.

    But this is not ransom money. This is a debt. An international court has said so. The Defence Secretary has said so.

    We should pay it because it is an irritant to relations and, whether or not it should be linked to Nazanin’s case, the Iranians certainly do make that linkage.

    Hunt said it is “practically challenging” to pay the money to Iran, adding:

    There are practical issues with sanctions, but those are things that you can sometimes get around, if you, for example, gave £400 million worth of medicines or something like that.

    There are also political considerations, you know, the reactions of people like the United States, but given that President Obama did pay America’s debts to Iran in exactly the same situation, I think it’s unlikely that we would have the same objections from President Biden than we might have had from President Trump.

    Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe detained
    Labour leader Keir Starmer, deputy leader Angela Rayner and Labour MP Tulip Siddiq meet Richard Ratcliffe and his mother, Barbara, outside the Foreign Office (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

    His second hunger strike

    Ratcliffe is on his second hunger strike in two years.

    Previously, he camped in front of the Iranian Embassy for 15 days, a move he said had resulted in getting his daughter home.

    During his latest demonstration he has been visited by supporters including Strictly Come Dancing co-host Claudia Winkleman, writer and presenter Victoria Coren Mitchell, and Labour leader Keir Starmer.

    Ahead of Thursday’s meeting, a Foreign Office spokesman said:

    We will urge Iran to take the opportunity to swiftly conclude the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) deal on the table.

    We will also be using this opportunity to again press firmly for the immediate release of our unfairly detained British nationals.

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Disappointing silence on Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe | Letter

    Rebecca Durant wrote to her Conservative MP about Richard Ratcliffe’s hunger strike, but received only a vague reply

    On 2 November, I wrote to my Conservative MP about Richard Ratcliffe. I explained how he was camping outside the Foreign Office, on hunger strike (Growing concern for Richard Ratcliffe 17 days into hunger strike, 9 November). I asked my MP to visit Richard and find out what it is like for him and his family to manage their lives knowing that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, his wife, will be held in Tehran for another year. Perhaps he could reassure Richard that the Foreign Office was doing everything in its power to secure her release. I received a reply shortly afterwards, but my question was unanswered.

    There was no mention of Richard. There was no mention of his daughter, Gabriella. There was no mention of his desperateness, his anguish or his frustration. In fact, it was a generalist reply telling me about the history of Nazanin, which I already knew. I was disappointed.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Ahmadreza Djalali honored with 2021 Courage to Think Award

    Scholars at Risk (SAR) announced on 9 November 2021 that Dr. Ahmadreza Djalali is the recipient of its Courage to Think Award for 2021. Dr. Djalali, a prominent scholar of disaster medicine sentenced to death in Iran, is being recognized for his struggle for academic freedom and connection to the international academic community. For more on the Courage to Think Award see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/165B4CC5-0BC2-4A77-B3B4-E26937BA553C.

    Dr. Djalali’s wife, Vida Mehrannia, will accept the award on Dr. Djalali’s behalf at SAR’s virtual symposium, Free to Think 2021, on December 9. Information and registration for the free, online event is available here <https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/event/free-to-think-2021-and-courage-to-think-award/> .
    Dr. Djalali is an Iranian-Swedish scholar who has held academic positions at Karolinska Institute, in Sweden; the Università del Piemonte Orientale, in Italy; and Vrije Universiteit Brussel, in Belgium. In December 2020, he was awarded a Scholars at Risk Fellowship at Harvard University, in the United States.
    “The continued imprisonment, extreme sentence, and mistreatment of Dr. Djalali in custody should be of grave concern for anyone who cares about the ability of scholars to work safely,” said Rob Quinn, executive director of SAR. “No scholar should face a death sentence, solitary confinement, and withholding of medical care for their academic or scientific work.”
    Not only has Dr. Djalali helped the development of the field of disaster medicine at higher education institutions, but he has also put his expertise into practice by supporting communities impacted by crises. Dr. Djalali provided medical aid, health services, and education to communities impacted by floods, earthquakes, and other disasters in Iran, including the 2003 Bam earthquake. While at the Center for Research and Training in Disaster Medicine, Humanitarian Aid, and Global Health (CRIMEDIM), in Italy, Dr. Djalali dedicated his research to resilience and performance of health systems, hospitals, and medical and rescue staff, and trained hundreds of humanitarian and medical staff around the world.
    Dr. Djalali was arrested in April 2016 during a trip to Iran to participate in a series of academic workshops. It is strongly believed that he was targeted because of his ties to the international academic community, and the belief that he might trade his freedom in exchange for working for the Iranian intelligence service. On October 21, 2017, Dr. Djalali was sentenced to death for “corruption on earth,” based on unsubstantiated allegations that he had provided intelligence to a foreign government. Dr. Djalali was denied the right to appeal the conviction and sentence and has suffered from torture, ill-treatment, and a growing number of medical complications while in state custody.
    On November 24, 2020, Iranian authorities moved Dr. Djalali to solitary confinement in preparation to carry out his death sentence. Dr. Djalali spent five nightmarish months in solitary confinement, awaiting imminent execution, until April 14, 2021, when authorities transferred him to a multiple-occupancy cell. See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2020/11/26/as-iran-prepares-to-execute-ahmadreza-djalali-the-world-reacts/
    For years, Dr. Djalali has been denied access to appropriate medical care for numerous health complications that worsened while he was in solitary confinement. These include leukemia, severe weight loss, chronic gastritis, low heart rate, and hypotension, gallstones, partial paralysis of the right foot, indirect inguinal hernia, hemorrhoid and fissures, low blood cell count, low levels of calcium and vitamin D, malnutrition, dyspepsia, and depression.
    Authorities continue to deny Dr. Djalali access to his lawyer and his family in Iran, and from making calls to his wife and children in Sweden.

    Ahmadreza Djalali honored with 2021 Courage to Think Award

    This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.

  • The Rise of Iran Poses Both Opportunities and Dangers

    In 2015 the Obama administration signed what is popularly referred to is the Iranian nuclear deal, under which Iran pledged not to acquire nuclear weapons. In exchange, the punitive sanctions on Iran were to be lifted. The Trump administration cancelled United States participation in the deal, which in any case had not resulted in the lifting of United States sanctions.

    The new Biden administration had made promises during the United States presidential campaign that it would re-join the deal. In the event, the new Biden administration not only made no attempt to return to the deal, but in fact inserted new demands that Iran should cease development of modern conventional weapons.

    In this endeavour, the United States was strongly urged by Israel for whom intransigence towards Iran is part of its DNA. In all the discussions about Iran becoming or not becoming a nuclear power, the western media entirely overlooks the fact that Israel is in fact a nuclear armed state. Its consistent refusal to admit the fact, or to join any treaty aimed at limiting the spread of nuclear weapons does not remove this singular fact from the equation. It is therefore the height of hypocrisy by Israel to be making demands about Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program.

    The Israeli antipathy to Iran goes much further however than supporting any attempts to limit Iran’s nuclear development. That development, the Iranians insist, consists only in the development of peaceful energy projects.  Although the Islamic Republic did have a policy of developing a nuclear weapons capability at the time of its confrontation with Iraq in the 1980s, there is actually no evidence at all that such a program has been developed this century. This has not stopped the Israelis who for at least the past 30 years have been warning of the dangers supposedly attached to Iran ever acquiring a nuclear weapons facility.

    What motivates this Israeli hostility is not entirely clear. While there is certainly no love lost between Israel and Iran, the latter has never directly threatened Israel, nor made any serious attempt to limit Israel’s influence in the region, with the exception of supporting Syria which is constantly under attack by the Israeli air force. That this latter fact also escapes the criticism of western nations is yet another pointer to the charmed existence that Israel enjoys in the region.

    Iranian self-restraint is also significant when one considers that Iran and its forces have been the object of overt hostility by the Israelis. In this, the Israelis have been supported by the United States which never finds within itself the capacity to criticise Israel’s clearly illegal military attacks upon its neighbours. These attacks include the assassination of key Iranian scientists.  It was however, the United States that carried out the assassination of top Iranians general Qasem Soleimani in January 2001, a fact that United States president Donald Trump actually boasted about. He has not been held accountable for this blatant murder.

    It Is unlikely that this relatively low level of warfare against Iran will cease any time soon. The big question among many commentators however, is whether this will escalate to a full-blown attack. There are some signs that this is being planned by the Israelis.  In this they have the undoubted support of the United States.

    There are however, some strong signs that such an attack will not happen. Those signs can be detected and inferred from some recent developments in Iran’s situation. The first is that Iran has very recently become a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, becoming its ninth full member. This organisation contains, inter alia, Russia and China as members. Interestingly, Saudi Arabia has also recently upgraded its status within the SCO and is now an associate member. There has been a notable thawing of the Saudi-Iran relationships this year, with the two countries having a number of bilateral meetings.

    A second major factor has been the progressive movement of Iran’s economic interests away from Europe and towards the Asian market. Asian countries have generally been more tolerant of Iran and reluctant to join the United States sanctions, unlike their European counterparts. Although major European countries were signatories to the JCPOA in 2015, their actions towards the Iranian government remain at best rather chilly.

    The third factor is the role of China, long a supporter of Iran which was nonetheless constrained by its obligations under the 2015 JCPOA, a deal to which it was a signatory. The transition period envisaged by the JCPOA has not expired, and member states of the United Nations are free to develop closer ties with Iran.

    Of those countries, the charge has been led by China, represented most substantially by a $400 billion deal signed between Iran and China in Beijing in 2020. This deal will have an enormous impact on the Iranian economy. It is undoubtedly a harbinger of further future deals between the two countries. It marks a significant shift in Iran’s exports to the Asian market.

    The Russians have also been active in the Iranian market. In the past two weeks there have been separate visits in Moscow by Iran’s defence minister General Mohamad Bagheri, the foreign minister Hossein Annerababdallahian, and the Parliamentary speaker Bagher Ghalibaf. The talks between the top Iranian officials and their Moscow counterparts are expected to lead to major arms purchases by the Iranians. Although there is no doubting the bravery and competence of the Iranians armed forces, they have had to deal with often antiquated equipment, of which the air force is the worst example.

    This combination of an upgraded military, plus the political and economic support of the two Eurasian superpowers make Iran a formidable opponent. If the United States and the Israelis are stupid enough to directly attack Iran, they risk a war that could quickly escalate out of control. As disappointing as the Biden administration has been in their foreign policy options, it is unlikely that they are so stupid as to risk a war with Iran in the modern geopolitical and military situation in which the country is rapidly developing.

    Unfortunately, it is not always the wisest heads that prevail in the United States. This is especially so when they are at one with the Israelis who often give the impression of being prepared to fight to the last American. One sincerely hopes that wiser heads will prevail, but given the recent history it would be a brave person who would bet on continued United States and Israeli restraint.

    The post The Rise of Iran Poses Both Opportunities and Dangers first appeared on Dissident Voice.


    This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by James O’Neill.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Iranian President Asks US To Lift Unilateral Sanctions To Show Seriousness In Vienna Talks

    The talks in Vienna between Iran and the remaining signatories of the nuclear deal stopped after six rounds following the election of Ebrahim Raisi in June. Iran said that it wanted to review the outcome of the rounds held so far

    The post Iranian President Asks US To Lift Unilateral Sanctions To Show Seriousness In Vienna Talks appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Internet Censorship 2021: A Global Map of Internet Restrictions

    On October 12 I referred the report Freedom on the Net [see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2021/10/12/report-freedom-on-the-net-2021/ and on 24 April to the latest RSF report [see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2021/04/24/world-press-freedom-index-2021-is-out/]. Now my attention was drawn to another tool to measure internet censorship:

    Nearly 60 percent of the world’s population (4.66 billion people) uses the internet. It’s our source of instant information, entertainment, news, and social interactions.

    But where in the world can citizens enjoy equal and open internet access – if anywhere?

    In this exploratory study, our researchers have conducted a country-by-country comparison to see which countries impose the harshest internet restrictions and where citizens can enjoy the most online freedom. This includes restrictions or bans for torrenting, pornography, social media, and VPNs, and restrictions or heavy censorship of political media. This year, we have also added the restriction of messaging/VoIP apps.

    Although the usual culprits take the top spots, a few seemingly free countries rank surprisingly high. With ongoing restrictions and pending laws, our online freedom is at more risk than ever.

    We scored each country on six criteria. Each of these is worth two points aside from messaging/VoIP apps which is worth one (this is due to many countries banning or restricting certain apps but allowing ones run by the government/telecoms providers within the country). The country receives one point if the content—torrents, pornography, news media, social media, VPNs, messaging/VoIP apps—is restricted but accessible, and two points if it is banned entirely. The higher the score, the more censorship. https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/IBnNS/3/

    The worst countries for internet censorship

    1. North Korea and China (11/11) – No map of online censorship would be complete without these two at the top of the list. There isn’t anything either of them doesn’t heavily censor thanks to their iron grip over the entire internet. Users are unable to use western social media, watch porn, or use torrents or VPNs*. And all of the political media published in the country is heavily censored and influenced by the government. Both also shut down messaging apps from abroad, forcing residents to use ones that have been made (and are likely controlled) within the country, e.g. WeChat in China. Not only does WeChat have no form of end-to-end encryption, the app also has backdoors that enable third parties to access messages.
    2. Iran (10/11): Iran blocks VPNs (only government-approved ones are permitted, which renders them almost useless) but doesn’t completely ban torrenting. Pornography is also banned and social media is under increasing restrictions. Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are all blocked with increasing pressures to block other popular social media sites. Many messaging apps are also banned with authorities pushing domestic apps and services as an alternative. Political media is heavily censored.
    3. Belarus, Qatar, Syria, Thailand, Turkmenistan, and the UAE (8/11): Turkmenistan, Belarus, and the UAE all featured in our “worst countries” breakdown in 2020.  But this year they are joined by Qatar, Syria, and Thailand. All of these countries ban pornography, have heavily censored political media, restrict social media (bans have also been seen in Turkmenistan), and restrict the use of VPNs. Thailand saw the biggest increase in censorship, including the introduction of an online porn ban which saw 190 adult websites being taken down. This included Pornhub (which featured as one of the top 20 most visited websites in the country in 2019).

    https://comparite.ch/internetcensorshipmap

    This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.

  • British Government ‘does not deal with problems until they become crises’

    The husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has criticised the government’s handling of his wife’s case, stating that it “does not deal with problems until they become crises”.

    Crisis point

    Richard Ratcliffe said he held a strategy meeting with the Foreign Office on 15 October as he was concerned something would happen to his wife’s appeal during the autumn.

    The next day, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was informed her appeal had been rejected, meaning she could now be sent back to prison at any point to serve a sentence of one year imprisonment plus a one-year travel ban for “spreading propaganda against the regime”.

    Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
    Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the Britsh-Iranian woman jailed in Iran (Free Nazanin Campaign/PA)

    Ratcliffe said he had urged the government to take quicker action over trying to get Zaghari-Ratcliffe home in their meeting as he was concerned about the outcome of her appeal. He told the PA news agency:

    The longer we waited, the more chance of bad news. I didn’t expect the next day to get bad news, but we did. That’s [the rejection of the appeal] the Iranians signalling they’re not prepared to wait forever and they will do what they need to do.

    Is this going to be a wake-up call for the Government? Maybe, maybe not. One of the challenges I find with this Government is that it doesn’t deal with problems until they become crises. This is Iran threatening a crisis. One hopes that the Government takes it seriously.

    Ratcliffe, who has been campaigning for his wife’s return home since her original incarceration in 2016, said he was left surprised by the update on 16 October.

    He said he thought her appeal would have ended up being rejected in November after a “drawn-out court process” as Iran was “always going to confirm guilt, regardless of whether there is any”.

    Liz Truss
    Foreign secretary Liz Truss has called for Nazanin’s permanent release (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

    “Anger”

    In a statement on 16 October, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the nation’s decision to proceed with the “baseless” charges against the mother-of-one was an “appalling continuation of the cruel ordeal she is going through”.

    She added:

    We are doing all we can to help Nazanin get home to her young daughter and family and I will continue to press Iran on this point.

    Speaking on 16 October, Labour MP Tulip Siddiq said:

    This is yet another piece of devastating news for my constituent, her family and the millions around the world who care about her. For Nazanin to face a return to prison after the ordeal she’s been through is nothing short of a catastrophe. It seems that every time we dare to hope that Nazanin might soon be free, there is another dreadful setback that puts freedom out of sight. Whatever the Prime Minister has been doing to free Nazanin is clearly not working.

    It’s time for the UK Government to pay the debt we owe to Iran, stand up to their despicable hostage taking and finally get Nazanin home.

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe ‘loses latest appeal in Iran’

    Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has lost her latest appeal in Iran, meaning she could be sent back to prison “at any time”, her MP has said.

    “The PM must act now”

    Labour MP Tulip Siddiq said Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s sentence of one year plus a one-year travel ban has been “upheld with no court hearing”. The Hampstead and Kilburn MP has urged prime minister Boris Johnson and his government to intervene in the case.

    Siddiq said:

    This is yet another piece of devastating news for my constituent, her family and the millions around the world who care about her. For Nazanin to face a return to prison after the ordeal she’s been through is nothing short of a catastrophe. It seems that every time we dare to hope that Nazanin might soon be free, there is another dreadful setback that puts freedom out of sight. Whatever the Prime Minister has been doing to free Nazanin is clearly not working.

    It’s time for the UK Government to pay the debt we owe to Iran, stand up to their despicable hostage taking and finally get Nazanin home.

    Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian dual national, has been in custody in the country since 2016 after being accused of plotting to overthrow the government. She was taking her daughter Gabriella to see her family when she was arrested and was sentenced to five years in prison shortly afterwards, spending four years in Evin Prison.

    Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe detained
    Richard Ratcliffe and his daughter Gabriella hold signs in Parliament Square, London (Kirsty O’Connor/PA)

    She spent the final year of her sentence under house arrest in Tehran, but after her release this year she was then convicted of “spreading propaganda against the regime”.

    Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her family have reportedly been told by Iranian authorities that she is being detained because of the UK’s failure to pay an outstanding £400m debt to Iran. She is one of several people with British or dual-British nationality detained in Iran.

    “Terrible news”

    Her husband Richard Ratcliffe, Siddiq, and Amnesty International have been campaigning for her release for several years. Amnesty International UK chief executive Sacha Deshmukh said:

    This is terrible news and is just more torment on top of five-and-a-half years of suffering for Nazanin and her family. Nazanin was subjected to a deeply unfair original trial, was rushed through a farcical second court process and is now confronted by more time behind bars – it’s absolutely excruciating to see this happening.

    We’ve said repeatedly that Boris Johnson, (Foreign Secretary) Liz Truss and others in Government need to genuinely step up on Nazanin’s case and other cases where British nationals are being persecuted in Iran.

    We want to see action urgently, and this must include the Government setting out a clear strategy for securing the release of all British nationals unlawfully held in Iran.

    Last month, Truss met with her Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian at the United Nations General Assembly, where she “pressed” him on the issue and vowed to “continue to press” him until Zaghari-Ratcliffe returns home.

    The Foreign Office has been contacted for comment.

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Tehran Warns Israel Against ‘Military Adventure’

    Delivered on Thursday and printed in Iran’s Tasnim News Agency, the letter comes as Iran makes preparations to return to Vienna for negotiations on reviving the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) next week. “We warn the Zionist regime against any miscalculation or military adventure targeting Iran and its nuclear program,” wrote Majid Takht Ravanchi, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, referring to Israel.

    The post Tehran Warns Israel Against ‘Military Adventure’ appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Why Does Congress Fight Over Childcare But Not F-35s?

    President Biden and the Democratic Congress are facing a crisis as the popular domestic agenda they ran on in the 2020 election is held hostage by two corporate Democratic Senators, fossil-fuel consigliere Joe Manchin and payday-lender favorite Kyrsten Sinema.

    But the very week before the Dems’ $350 billion-per-year domestic package hit this wall of corporate money-bags, all but 38 House Democrats voted to hand over more than double that amount to the Pentagon. Senator Manchin has hypocritically described the domestic spending bill as “fiscal insanity,” but he has voted for a much larger Pentagon budget every year since 2016. 

    Real fiscal insanity is what Congress does year after year, taking most of its discretionary spending off the table and handing it over to the Pentagon before even considering the country’s urgent domestic needs.

    The post Why Does Congress Fight Over Childcare But Not F-35s? appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Iron Dome: Don’t be deceived, US aid to Israel is not about saving lives

    Battles in the US Congress that erupted again this week, holding up an extra $1bn in military funding for Israel, underscored just how divorced from reality the conversation about US financial aid to Israel has become, even among many critics.

    For 48 hours last month, a small group of progressive Democrats in the US House of Representatives succeeded in sabotaging a measure to pick up the bill for Israel to replenish its Iron Dome interception missiles. The Iron Dome system was developed by Israel, with generous financial backing from successive US administrations, in the wake of the 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Today, it ostensibly serves to protect Israel from short-range, largely improvised rockets fired intermittently out of Gaza.

    Supplies of the Iron Dome missiles, each of which cost at least $50,000, were depleted back in May, when Israel triggered widespread confrontations with Palestinians by intensifying its settlement of Palestinian neighbourhoods near Jerusalem’s Old City and violently raiding al-Aqsa Mosque. Palestinian militant groups fired large numbers of rockets out of Gaza, which has been blockaded by Israel for the past 15 years. Iron Dome intercepted the rockets before they could land in Israel.

    The group of progressive Democrats, known popularly as the Squad, scotched an initial move by their congressional leadership to include the $1bn assistance to Israel in US budget legislation. But the money for Iron Dome was quickly reintroduced as a stand-alone bill that passed overwhelmingly, with 420 votes in favour and nine against. Two representatives, one of them the prominent Squad member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,  voted “present” – counting effectively as an abstention.

    This week, the furore moved to the Senate when Rand Paul, a strong Republican critic of US foreign aid, refused to nod through the bill and thereby give it unanimous assent. It will now need to go through a more complicated legislative process.

    The latest funding for Iron Dome comes in addition to the $3.8bn Israel receives annually from the US in military aid, which has made Israel the biggest recipient, by far, of such largesse. Putting the new tranche of Iron Dome aid into perspective, it is twice what Washington contributes annually to Nato’s budget.

    The previous administration, under former President Donald Trump, turned US funding for Nato into a big domestic controversy, arguing that the US was shouldering too much of the burden. But there has been barely a peep about the massive military bill the US is footing for Iron Dome.

    Debate stifled

    The Squad’s main achievement in launching its brief blocking move was to force out into the open the fact that the US is paying for Israel’s stockpile of missiles. Like the House leadership, the Israel lobby had hoped the money could be transferred quietly, without attracting attention.

    What little debate did ensue related to whether Israel really needs US military assistance. A few commentators asked why Washington was kitting out one of the richer countries on the planet with missiles in the midst of a pandemic that has hit the US economy hard.

    But the lobby quickly stifled a far more important debate about whether the US should be encouraging Israel’s use of Iron Dome at all. Instead, US funding for the interception missile system was presented as being motivated solely by a desire to save lives.

    In attacking Paul’s decision to block the bill, the biggest pro-Israel lobby group in Congress, AIPAC, argued this week that his move would “cost innocent lives, make war more likely, and embolden Iran-backed terrorists”.

    It was precisely the claim that the Iron Dome is defensive that appeared to push Ocasio-Cortez, usually seen as one of the few US politicians openly critical of Israel, into a corner, leading to her abstention.

    Images from the House floor showed her tearful and being given a hug by another representative after the vote. She later attributed her distress in part to how Iron Dome funding had a polarising effect at home, noting that the House bill was a “reckless” move to “rip our communities apart”.

    That was an apparent reference to factional tensions within the Democratic Party between, on one side, many Jewish voters who back what they see as Israel’s right to defend itself and, on the other, many Black and Hispanic voters who think it is wrong for the US to financially support Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.

    Some saw her indecision as evidence of her ambitions to run for the Senate, where positions critical of Israel would be more likely to damage her prospects of success.

    Expiring in silence

    In Israel, and in Jewish communities beyond, the conversation about US support for Iron Dome is even more detached from reality. The nine US representatives who voted against were roundly castigated for willing the deaths of Israelis by voting to deny them protection from rockets fired from Gaza. In predictable fashion, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, called those who voted against “either ignorant or antisemitic”.

    But some liberals took the argument in a different, even more fanciful direction. They called the Squad “hypocrites” for voting against the $1bn funding, arguing that Iron Dome missiles not only save Israelis, but Palestinians too. One Haaretz commentator went so far as to claim that Palestinians were actually the main beneficiaries of the Iron Dome system, arguing: “The fact Israel has a defensive shield against rocket attacks makes a wide-scale military operation with thousands of – mainly Palestinian – casualties less likely.”

    Of course, there is the small question of whether Israel has indeed been “forced” into its attacks on Gaza. It is precisely its military superiority – paid for by the US – that has freed it to carry out those massive attacks, in which large numbers of Palestinians, including hundreds of children, are killed, rather than negotiate an end to its decades-long occupation.

    Just as in life, bullies resort to intimidation and violence because they feel no need to compromise. But even more to the point, Iron Dome is central to Israel’s efforts to keep Palestinians imprisoned in Gaza, entirely subjugated and stripped of any power to resist.

    With Israel patrolling tiny Gaza’s land borders and coast, sealing off the enclave from the rest of the world, Palestinians have few options to protest their slow starvation – or to gain attention for their plight. Israeli snipers have fired on Palestinians staging unarmed, mass protests at the fence caging them in, killing and wounding thousands. The Israeli navy fires on or sinks Palestinian boats, including fishing boats, in Gaza’s waters if they stray more than a few kilometres from the shore.

    Iron Dome, far from being defensive, is another weapon in Israel’s armoury to keep Palestinians subdued, impoverished, corralled and silent. For those claiming to want peace in Israel-Palestine, the extra funding for Iron Dome just made that prospect even less likely. As long as Palestinians can be made to slowly expire in silence – their plight ignored by the rest of the world – Israel is free to seize and colonise yet more of what was supposed to become a future Palestinian state.

    Systems of domination

    But there is another reason why Ocasio-Cortez should have voted against the Iron Dome resupply, rather than tearfully abstaining – and that is for all our sakes, not just the sake of Palestinians.

    The US foots the bill for Iron Dome, just as it does for most of Israel’s other weapons development, for self-interested reasons: because it helps its own war industries, as Washington seeks to maintain its military dominance globally.

    With western populations less willing to sacrifice their sons and daughters for the sake of modern wars, which seem less obviously related to defence and more transparently about the control of key resources, the Pentagon has worked overtime to reframe the public debate.

    It is hard to disguise its global domination industries as anything but offensive in nature. This is where Israel has played a critical role. Not only has Israel helped to develop weapons systems like Iron Dome, but – despite being a nuclear-armed, belligerent, occupying state – it has leveraged its image as a vulnerable refuge for the long-persecuted Jewish people. It has been able to make more plausible the case that these domination systems really are defensive.

    In recent decades, Israel has developed and tested drone technology to surveil and assassinate Palestinians, which has proved invaluable in the US and UK’s long-term occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. Israel’s latest “swarm” technology – making drones even more lethal – may prove particularly attractive to the Pentagon.

    Israel has also been the ideal partner for the Pentagon in testing and refining the battlefield use of the new generation of F-35 fighter planes, the most expensivemilitary product in US history. Uniquely, Israel has been allowed to customise the jet, adapting its capabilities in new, unforeseen ways.

    Bowing to US hegemony

    The F-35’s ultimate role is to make sure major rival airforces, such as Russia’s and China’s, are elbowed out of the skies. And Israel has been at the forefront of developing and testing a variety of missile interception systems, such as Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow, which are intended to destroy incoming projectiles, from short-range rockets to long-range missiles.

    Last December, Israel announced it had successfully launched Iron Dome interception missiles for the first time from the sea. Reports noted that the US arms maker Raytheon and the US defence department were involved in the tests. That is because, behind the scenes, the US is not only paying for the development and testing of these systems; it is also guiding the uses to which they will be put. The Pentagon has bought two Iron Dome batteries, which, according to Israeli media, have been stationed in US military bases in the Gulf.

    The US has its own interception systems under development, and it is unclear which it will come to rely on most heavily. But what is evident is that Washington, Israel and their Gulf allies have Iran in their immediate sights. Any country that refuses to bow to US global hegemony could also be targeted.

    US interest in these missiles is not defensive. They are fundamental to its ability to neutralise the responses of rivals to either a US military attack, or more general moves by the US to dominate territory and control resources.

    Just as Palestinians have been besieged by Israel for 15 years, the US and Gulf states may hope one day to deal a knockout blow to Iran’s oil exports. Washington would be able to ignore current concerns that Tehran could retaliate by firing on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz or on hostile Middle Eastern capitals. If Iran’s missiles can be intercepted, it will be incapable of defending itself against increasing economic or military aggression from the US or its neighbours.

    Less safe world

    Following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan this summer, there has been plenty of naive talk that the US is seeking a diminished role in the world. Nothing could be further from the truth.

    Ultimately, the US is seeking global dominance at arm’s length – through a combination of long-range military power, cyber warfare, robotics and artificial intelligence – that it hopes will lift the restraints imposed by American casualties and domestic opposition.

    Israel’s playbook with regards to Palestinians is one that elites in Washington trust can be exported to other corners of the globe, and even outer space. Interception missiles lie at the heart of that strategic vision, as a way to neutralise and silence all resistance. This is why no one who cares about a less violent, exploitative and dangerous world should be indifferent to, or neutral on, congressional funding for Iron Dome.

    Missile interception systems are the face not of a more defensive, safer world, but of a far more nakedly hostile, aggressive one.

    • First published at Middle East Eye

    The post Iron Dome: Don’t be deceived, US aid to Israel is not about saving lives first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Ferocious winds, heavy rain as Cyclone Shaheen hits Oman

    Web Desk:

    According to Reuters, Tropical Cyclone Shaheen slammed into Oman on Sunday with ferocious winds and heavy rain, flooding streets, prompting evacuations from coastal areas, and delaying flights to and from the capital, Muscat.

    The death toll from the cyclone rose to five on Monday while other fishermen from Iran remained missing as the storm moved further inland into Oman and weakened.

    Photo Courtesy: Reuters

    Authorities in Oman said they found the body of a man who disappeared when floodwaters swept him away from his vehicle. On Sunday, as the storm made landfall, they said a child similarly drowned and two people died in a landslide.

    When its eye crossed land, the cyclone was carrying winds of between 120 and 150 km/h (75 to 93 mph), Omani authorities said. It was throwing up waves of up to 10 meters (32 feet). Up to 500cm (20 inches) of rain was expected in some areas, raising the risk of flash floods.

    Photo Courtesy: Reuters

    Cyclones steadily lose their power over land and Shaheen was downgraded to a tropical storm after it cleared the ocean, the meteorology service said on Twitter.

    The national emergency committee said the power supply would be cut in al-Qurm, east of the capital, to avoid accidents. Aid agencies transferred more than 2,700 people to emergency shelters. Authorities said roads in the capital would be open only to vehicles on emergency and humanitarian work until the storm dies down.

    Photo Courtesy: Reuters

    In Iran, state television said rescuers found the body of one of five fishermen who went missing off Pasabandar, a fishing village near the border with Pakistan.

    Omani state television broadcast images of flooded roadways and valleys as the storm churned deeper into the sultanate, its outer edges reaching the neighboring United Arab Emirates which has issued warnings to residents that the storm was coming.

    Photo Courtesy: AFP

    Police in the United Arab Emirates were patrolling near beaches and valleys where torrential rains were expected to ensure the residents’ safety.

    Government and private-sector employees in al-Ain, on the border with Oman, were urged to work remotely on Monday and authorities called on residents to avoid leaving home except for emergencies, the Abu Dhabi Government Media Office said.

     “Authorities are working proactively around the clock to evaluate residential units in expected affected areas and transport families to safe locations until it is safe to return,” it said.

    Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defence authorities called for caution in several regions from Monday to Friday in expectation of high winds and possible flooding, the state news agency reported.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • New Report Exposes the US’ Brutal and Illegal Economic War

    NOTE: In April of this year, my family had a medical emergency that required most of my time and attention. The result is that I am now the sole legal and physical guardian of two young children with significant needs. I hope to return to writing a regular newsletter now that they are in school. There is a lot going on and a lot to do. Solidarity, Margaret Flowers

    This month, the Sanctions Kill coalition (Popular Resistance is a member) released its report: “The Impact and Consequences of US Sanctions.” The 35-page report was written in response to the Biden administration’s January call for a review of the US sanctions to determine if they ‘unduly hinder’ the ability of targeted nations to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

    To date, there is no word on whether that review has been conducted, but given that the State Department and Treasury are tasked with conducting it, the same institutions that impose sanctions, the Sanctions Kill coalition had no confidence their report would challenge the US’ current foreign policy path of escalating economic war on 39 countries, or a third of the world population.

    The Sanctions Kill report found that sanctions, which are being increasingly imposed by the United States in lieu of or in addition to military aggression, cause tremendous suffering and death, violate international laws, harm US industries, place the US in a position of civil and criminal liability and are isolating the US from the community of nations. The corporate media are silent on these harmful effects and criticism of sanctions.

    Venezuelan UN Ambassador Samuel Moncada described the impact of sanctions this week at The People’s Forum (view the event here):

    Sanctions are killing us…. They are homicidal. One of the awful effects of sanctions as a weapon, because it’s a kind of war, is that you don’t feel it here. You don’t even realize that sanctions are acting abroad…. You don’t feel it in any way. But we feel them…. That’s why they are so insidious and dangerous. [The US] is waging economic war against millions of people.

    The sanctions imposed by the United States include restrictions on financial transactions, trade and travel, blockades on foreign loans and aid and the seizure of assets. The Sanctions Kill report found these measures violate the human rights of people in affected countries because they block access to basic necessities such as food, medicines and fuel and they prevent maintenance of important infrastructure such as water services, power generation and transmission and transportation. The so-called humanitarian exceptions that are supposed to prevent sanctions from blocking food and medicine don’t work – banks won’t allow the sales and shipping companies won’t transport the goods.

    Technically what the United States is doing are not sanctions but are unilateral coercive measures (UCMs), which violate international law because they operate outside the structure provided by the United Nations. Legal sanctions are used as a punishment after a legal process determines a country violated a law. Unilateral coercive measures are imposed by the US and its western imperialist allies based on lies and without due process in order to effect a desired political outcome, such as regime change or retaliation.

    For example, following the failed US-backed coup attempt in 2018 against Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega, the United States Congress passed the NICA Act, which began an economic war against socialist Nicaragua. With presidential elections being held this November, the United States has ramped up both a propaganda campaign against the popular Ortega, who is expected to win, and Congress is in the process of passing the RENACER Act, which will impose more UCMs against Nicaragua.

    Here is what US activists are saying about the RENACER Act and what you can do to stop it. If you want to learn more, BreakThrough News recently interviewed Jill Clark-Gollub of Friends of Latin America about the RENACER Act.

    The Sanctions Kill report also found that the US is imposing secondary sanctions on countries that do business with sanctioned countries, another violation of international law, and is using sanctions to target business people, such as Meng Wanzhou of Huawei, and diplomats, such as Alex Saab. Saab is being held in Cabo Verde where he stopped last year on his way to Iran to negotiate the purchase of food and medicines for Venezuela. The US is working to extradite him while international support for Saab, whose imprisonment violates the Vienna Convention, is growing. Clearing the FOG spoke earlier this year with Roger Harris of Task Force on the Americas after he traveled with a delegation to Cabo Verde to visit Alex Saab. Click here to take action.

    In front of the United Nations after the People’s Mobe rally and march.  (September 2019. By Yuka Azuma)

    Clearing the FOG spoke with two of the authors of the report, international lawyer John Philpot and Latin American solidarity activist David Paul. Philpot predicts a day of reckoning is coming for the United States because the UCMs violate multiple international laws, including the United Nations charter. They are a form of collective punishment, which is a crime against humanity.

    As the United States’ status as a global hegemon declines, targeted countries are finding ways to work together to resist the brutal economic wars being waged by the US and build power. For years now, countries have worked on alternative financial instruments to bypass US sanctions in order to do business. One example is INSTEX, a trading mechanism developed by European nations and Iran.

    One of the first major acts of defiance against US UCMs was in the spring of 2020 when Iran sent four tankers of oil and equipment to Venezuela despite a large US military presence in the surrounding waters. Recently, Iran defied US UCMs again when it sent a convoy of oil trucks through Syria to Lebanon, which is suffering greatly from an economic crisis and fuel shortage.

    Cuba has been under a US economic blockade for more than 60 years but it continues to be a model of international solidarity, especially during the pandemic. Henry Reeves Medical Brigades have been sent to numerous countries to assist them in caring for COVID-19 patients. Now Cuba is in need of aid and Mexico is stepping up to provide it using its naval ships since commercial ships face many barriers due to the UCMs. People and organizations outside Cuba also worked to supply millions of syringes so Cubans can receive vaccinations against COVID-19.

    Mexico was the host of the recent CELAC (the community of Caribbean and Latin American states) meetings where leaders openly criticized the Organization of American States as a tool of US imperialism and called for its reform or the creation of a new body. CELAC countries are working on ways to practice greater solidarity in the face of the pandemic, climate crisis and debt.

    Similarly, the first African/CARICOM summit was held virtually earlier this month. A third of the countries being targeted by the US’ economic war are in Africa. In fact, almost all of the countries being sanctioned by the US are majority black or brown. Don Rojas covered the summit for Black Agenda Report, writing:

    “The Summit was also a recognition of the political and economic imperative that the governments of Africa and the Caribbean must succeed in restructuring if our black and brown people and nations are ever going to assume their rightful place in the world.”

    And this week, during the United Nations general assembly meetings, the foreign ministers of 18 countries met as the Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations and released a statement pledging to work together. They wrote, “…we convey our support to nations and peoples subjected to unilateral and arbitrary approaches that violate both the purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and the basic norms of international law, and renew our call for the full respect to the inalienable right of peoples to self-determination, as well as the territorial integrity and political independence of all nations.”

    By Medea Benjamin

    Those of us who live in the United States and its allied imperialist nations that enable these serious violations of human rights and international law have a responsibility to act to stop the use of economic warfare through unilateral coercive economic measures. Global power is shifting and we face multiple worldwide crises. It is imperative that imperialist nations change their foreign policy from death and destruction to diplomacy, solidarity and cooperation.

    An important step is education so people understand that UCMs are as lethal as bombs and that they affect the whole world, including people living in countries that wage economic war. The SanctionsKill.org website contains numerous resources to help with this including a toolkit that provides you with a power point and script so anyone can give a presentation on sanctions. The toolkit informs about what UCMs are and the specific harms they do.

    You can also send the new Sanctions Kill report to your members of Congress and demand they end them now or publicize the report in any way you can – use social media, local or independent media outlets, your organization’s website, etc. We must break through the media blockade and demand the truth be told about the illegality of UCMs and their devastating impact on people in targeted countries. Write letters to the editor when you see articles about sanctions.

    Take action to stop the RENACER Act and join the call to free Alex Saab. There are many solidarity organizations that are working to support people in countries attacked through economic measures. One example is the Saving Lives Campaign, a joint effort by people in the US and Canada to provide aid to Cuba.

    Ending sanctions will save millions of lives and move us forward on the path toward a world of cooperation, peace and solidarity. Nations like the United States use sanctions because their deadly impacts are not as visible as dropping bombs. We must expose this brutal economic warfare and demand an end to it.

    The post New Report Exposes the US’ Brutal and Illegal Economic War first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Iran ready for nuclear talks at ‘early date’ says EU.

    Web desk,

    The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Wednesday Iran’s top diplomat had assured him at their first meeting that Tehran was ready to restart talks on the nuclear deal soon news agency reported.

    EU-mediated negotiations began in Vienna in April aimed at reviving a 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers an accord left hanging by a thread after former US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew in 2018 and ramped up sanctions.

    The discussions, which involve the remaining parties seeking to persuade Washington to rejoin the deal and Iran to return to its nuclear commitments, have been stalled since June, when ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi was elected as Iran’s president.

    An EU statement said Borrell “underlined once again the great importance of a quick resumption of the Vienna talks” at a meeting Tuesday with Iran’s new top diplomat Hossein Amir-Abdullahian on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

    “The Iranian Foreign Minister assured of the willingness to resume negotiations at an early date,” the statement said.

    Raisi voiced support Tuesday in his international debut for reviving the nuclear accord, even as he berated the United States.

    “The Islamic Republic considers useful talks whose ultimate outcome is the lifting of all oppressive sanctions,” Raisi said in a recorded speech to the UN.

    Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said he expected a resumption of the talks “in the coming weeks”, without giving an exact date.

    The 2015 nuclear agreement offered Iran a reduction of UN sanctions in return for strict limits on its nuclear program, but Tehran has progressively stepped away from its commitments in the wake of Trump’s withdrawal and imposition of sanctions.

    Trump’s successor Joe Biden has signaled a willingness to return to the deal, which was negotiated when he was Barack Obama’s vice-president and under Iran’s moderate President Hassan Rouhani.

    Hopes of a revitalized deal were kept alive earlier this month by Iran agreeing with the UN nuclear agency on a new compromise regarding surveillance of its nuclear sites.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • Husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe to stage event marking her 2,000th day in prison

    The husband of British detainee Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe will be appealing to MPs from a giant snakes and ladders board on the 2,000th day of her imprisonment in Iran.

    Richard Ratcliffe is planning to stand on the board with his daughter Gabriella at Parliament Square in central London on Thursday to symbolise the feeling of being “caught in a game between two governments”, Amnesty International has said.

    This comes as Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is due to meet her Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.

    ‘Hostage-taking’

    Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe detained
    Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, with his daughter Gabriella (Ian West/PA)

    Ratcliffe has urged Truss to impress on Iran that “hostage-taking” is an “unacceptable practice”, and will invite MPs to join him on the colourful games board opposite the Houses of Parliament during his demonstration.

    Ratcliffe said:

    Since Nazanin was taken 2,000 days ago, we’ve had five foreign secretaries, three prime ministers, a referendum that changed the country, a US presidency that changed the world, and a pandemic that changed life for all of us.

    And yet we remain – caught in a game between governments.

    We live the ups and downs of our lives, as they roll their dice, and make their diplomatic moves.

    With all its broken promises and false dawns, and the countless threats of more bad days to come, it is far too long to keep living like this.

    We have been clear with the Prime Minister, he needs to be a lot braver in dealing with Iran’s hostage diplomacy.

    The 10ft games board designed by Amnesty International, a group supporting Ratcliffe, features “ladders” including the UK granting Zaghari-Ratcliffe diplomatic protection status and Dominic Raab saying her treatment in Iran amounted to torture.

    Meanwhile, the “snakes” symbolise events like her second jail sentence being handed down earlier this year.

    Others also held in Iran

    Amnesty International’s UK chief executive, Sacha Deshmukh, said:

    People’s lives shouldn’t be treated like a game by governments – it’s excruciating to see how Nazanin and her family are being made to suffer like this.

    We’re hoping Liz Truss will make the job of securing Nazanin’s release a major priority as Foreign Secretary.

    The Government urgently needs to set out a clear strategy for securing the release of all British nationals unfairly held in Iran.”

    Zaghari-Ratcliffe is one of several people with British or dual-British nationality detained in Iran.

    She was held in Tehran in 2016 while taking daughter Gabriella to see her family, as authorities made widely refuted allegations of spying.

    Amnesty International has said the family of another detainee in Iran, Anoosheh Ashoori, are also expected to attend the event, which is due to begin at 11am.

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on The Canary.