Tag Archives: Iran

The world just got a lot more complicated. When it comes to the Middle East, China has not been shy about its recent ambitions to expand its geopolitical influence in the Gulf region: Just last week we reported that the Chinese Ambassador to Syria, Qi Qianjin, shocked Middle East pundits and observers by indicating the Chinese military may fill the void left in the wake of the collapse of ISIS - and most regional armies - and directly assist the Syrian Army in an upcoming major offensive on...

Washington’s denial to Iran of Boeing Aircraft (and Airbus planes because they contain US-made parts), means the loss of tens of thousands of highly-paid jobs in the US and Europe. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, claims he talked Trump into canceling the Iran nuclear deal and the Boeing orders. It’s hard to validate Netanyahu’s claim but it is clear that America’s ever more powerful Israel lobby and its ally fundamentalist Christian Zionists played a key role in thwarting the...

Apparently Rand Paul is very close to the president and is providing a voice of reason that Trump is listening to above the cacophony of "experts."The American ConservativeRand Paul Against the World Jack Hunter

Tucker Carlson has impeccable conservative credentials. He started out as a low-level staffer at the Heritage Foundation and now he hosts a popular show on Fox News. In between were stints at The Weekly Standard and the on-line publication he co-founded, The Daily Caller. His often contentious prime-time show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, which now occupies Bill O’Reilly’s former slot at Fox, is third in the cable news ratings war behind Sean Hannity and Rachel Maddow. When Tucker talks, the...

Trump trying same m.o. on Iran as he used on North Korea — make an offer they can't refuse. But Iran is not North Korea.Asia Times‘Tweet of Mass Destruction’ ratchets up tension on IranPepe Escobar

Top security and intelligence officials from Pakistan, Iran, Russia, and China held a meeting in Islamabad, where they stressed the need for more active involvement of regional forces in efforts to resolve the conflict in Afghanistan.This is reported by TASS. On Tuesday, a meeting of leaders of the intelligence services of Russia, Iran, China and Pakistan was held in Islamabad, at which measures were discussed to combat the threat of the reunification of ISIS fighters in Afghanistan.......

The US has a similar play book for Iran. Who knew that DJT would turn out to be HRC? Well, it turns out that regime change has been US standard operating procedure at least from the G. W. Bush administration, and "color revolution" preceded that. Venezuelanalysis US Set on Regime Change in Venezuela Shannon Ebrahim See also Politico (5 May 2018)Giuliani: Trump is 'committed to' regime change in Iran Brent D. Griffiths This would have been under Bush/Cheney and carried...

Propagandizing for "liberal" intervention in Iran. Read "imperial" instead of "liberal. Back in December a memo was leaked from inside the Trump administration showing how then-Secretary of State, DC neophyte Rex Tillerson, was coached on how the US empire uses human rights as a pretense on which to attack and undermine noncompliant governments. Politico reports: The May 17 memo reads like a crash course for a businessman-turned-diplomat, and its conclusion offers a starkly realist...

While the hard-hit Iranian economy is likely to continue reeling, driving more protesters into the streets, one shouldn’t mistake their pain for a desire to subject themselves to a totalitarian cult with hardly a fraction of the support enjoyed by the Shia clergy helming the Islamic Republic. Remember Ahmed Chalabi and the Iraqi government in exile that was supposed to lead "democratize Iraq" after the fall of Saddam? You don't? Because it never got off the ground. A similar plan is...

Backgrounder.  It's complicated. The US doesn't do nuance.Asia TimesThe Syria connection to Iran, Afghanistan and China Pepe Escobar