YEMEN news
Cautious optimism hovers over new ceasefire
Annelle Sheline, Responsible Statecraft, 1-4-2022
The U.N.’s announcement of a two month truce between the Saudi-led coalition and Yemen’s Houthi rebels is welcome news, especially prior to the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan this weekend.
The terms of the truce include the following: The parties will halt all offensive military air, ground, and maritime operations inside Yemen and across its borders. The Saudis will allow fuel ships to enter into Hodeidah ports (no fuel has reached Hodeidah since January 2022). The Saudis will allow commercial flights to operate in and out of Sana’a airport, which has been effectively inoperable since 2015.
U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg also announced that he would oversee additional talks to open roads in Taiz and other governorates in Yemen. Observers will now be watching to see if both sides maintain the ceasefire and if the Saudis allow ships to enter Hodeidah port and planes to fly in and out of Sana’a.
On March 26, following their successful attack on Aramco oil facilities near Jeddah, the Houthis announced a unilateral ceasefire on trans-border attacks as well as ground operations inside Yemen. They said that if the Saudis lifted their blockade on Houthi-controlled air and seaports, the ceasefire would continue.
The Saudis responded with their own ceasefire announcement on March 29, to correspond with the inter-Yemeni talks they coordinated in Riyadh. The Houthis had refused to join the talks because they were being held in Saudi Arabia, but had said they would be willing to join talks held in a neutral country, such as Kuwait or Oman. This general atmosphere of detente appears to have contributed to the U.N.’s success in pushing for the two-month truce...
Previous ceasefires have broken down because neither side had adequate incentives to maintain them. The difference this time may be that the Houthis have demonstrated a consistent ability to damage Saudi energy infrastructure and the Saudis have concluded that even with additional U.S. provided Patriot anti-missile systems, the risk to their economy is too great...
Additional pressure on the Saudis to maintain the ceasefire may have come from the recent announcement from members of the U.S. Congress that they would reintroduce a War Powers Resolution to end U.S. support for Saudi military actions in Yemen. Without the assistance of U.S. military contractors, two thirds of the Saudi Air Force would be unable to fly.
Yemen: Saudi-led coalition begins
freeing Houthi rebels in peace gesture
By Middle East Eye staff, 6 May 2022
Saudi Arabia is freeing a batch of Houthi rebel prisoners as part of what it says are efforts to bring an end to the seven-year war in Yemen.
The official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) announced on Friday there would be "three stages of air transport of prisoners" to the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa and the southern port city of Aden.
A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told AFP the organisation was "facilitating the transfer of more than 100 Yemeni former detainees from Saudi Arabia to Yemen”. Basheer Omar said there would be three ICRC flights from the city of Abha in Saudi Arabia to Aden, without elaborating on exactly how many prisoners would be let go.
A truce brokered by the United Nations began on 2 April, marking the first day of Ramadan.
It was the first time in years that the warring sides in Yemen's conflict had agreed to a nationwide truce, which would also allow fuel imports into Houthi-held areas and some flights to operate from Sanaa airport, said UN special envoy Hans Grundberg. The truce, meant to last for two months and is renewable, has so far not been broken.
On 28 April, the Saudi-led coalition, which has been fighting the Houthis since 2015, said it would release 163 prisoners it had accused of engaging in "hostilities" against the kingdom.
Days earlier, the Houthi rebels said they had released 14 foreign prisoners following negotiations with Oman. The former detainees were transferred from the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa to Oman's capital Muscat.
The UN-brokered deal is the most significant step yet towards ending a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and pushed millions into hunger.
The renewable two-month truce has provided a rare respite from violence in much of the country and has seen oil tankers begin arriving at the port of Hodeida, potentially easing fuel shortages in Sanaa and elsewhere...
Will Biden be trapped by anti-Iran hawks?
Tehran TImes,
May 6, 2022
TEHRAN – In a blow to the Biden administration’s stated goal of returning to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the U.S. Senate approved two motions drafted by Republican senators who vehemently oppose diplomacy with Iran.
On Thursday, the Senate approved two so-called Motions to Instruct Conferees put forward by Senator James Lankford (R-OK) and Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
The Lankford motion centers around a demand long sought by Iran hawks in Washington which is to urge the Biden administration to include non-nuclear issues such as Iran’s influence in the West Asia region and its ballistic missiles in any possible nuclear deal with Tehran. The motion also calls on the Biden administration to refrain from revoking the designation of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).
The Cruz motion highlighted the need to maintain the “necessary Iran terrorism sanctions” which have been at the heart of the demands pushed by Iran hawks ever since the talks in Vienna over reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), began in April of last year.
The motions included a weird language concerning Iran-China cooperation.
The Cruz motions called on the U.S. government to limit “diplomatic, energy, infrastructure, banking, financial, military, and space cooperation” between Iran and China “through terrorism-related sanctions imposed on the Central Bank of Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.”
The motions are not binding to the Biden administration and they are unlikely to have a determining effect on the trajectory of talks in Vienna. But they do send a symbolic message that, at present, only benefits the opponents of the JCPOA in the U.S. and the region.
Ted Cruz said after the vote, “Today’s vote represents an overwhelming and bipartisan rebuke of the administration’s policies that are ignoring and weakening sanctions against Iran. The Senate made absolutely clear that it will reject any attempt to dismantle terrorism sanctions on the CBI and the IRGC.”
Of note, in the last round of talks, Iran demanded that the Biden administration delist the IRGC among other things. The U.S. refused the demand and the talks ground to a halt.
Syria News: President al-Assad pays work visit to Tehran
Syrian Arab News Agency, 8 May 2022
President Bashar al-Assad paid a work visit to Tehran and met Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
Talks during the meetings dealt with the historical relations between Syria and Iran, which are based on a long track of bilateral cooperation and mutual understanding on the issues and problems of the region and the challenges it faces..
During his meeting with Khamenei, President al-Assad affirmed that the course of events proved once again the correctness of the vision and approach adopted by Syria and Iran for years, especially in the fight against terrorism.
“This confirms the importance of continuing cooperation in order not to allow America to rebuild the international terrorist system that it used to harm the countries of the world, especially the countries of the region over the past decades,” President al-Assad said.
President al-Assad pointed out that the Palestinian cause is increasingly re-imposed its presence and importance in the conscience of the Arab and Islamic world thanks to the sacrifices of the heroes of the resistance.
For his part, Seyyed Khamenei stressed that Iran will continue to support Syria to complete its victory over terrorism and liberate the rest of the country’s lands.
In turn, the Iranian President affirmed that his country is willing to expand relations with Syria, especially economic and commercial ones.
“Tehran will continue to provide all forms of support to Syria and its people, especially amidst the difficult economic conditions the world is witnessing,” Raisi said. He added that his country will help Damascus overcome difficulties and considered that any suffering for Syria is suffering for Iran.
Putin: Russian people will never give up
love for country, traditional values
MOSCOW, May 9, 2022 |TASS
Unlike the West, the Russian people will never give up their love for the country, faith and traditional values, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a Victory Day parade on Moscow’s Red Square on Monday.
"We will never give up our love for the country, faith, traditional values, ancestral customs and respect for all peoples and cultures. As for the West, it seems to be determined to cancel these millennia-old values," he noted.
"This moral degradation paved the way for cynical falsifications of the history of World War II, attempts to incite Russophobia, glorify traitors, mock the memory of their victims and wipe out the bravery of those who fought and suffered for the Victory," the head of state stressed.
Putin pointed out that the United States, particularly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, "started talking about its exceptionalism, which is humiliating not only for the entire world but also for its satellites who have to pretend that they don’t notice anything and obediently accept it all," the Russian president emphasized.
Putin speaks at Victory Day parade on Moscow's Red Square
Reuters, 9-5-2022
Following are quotes from a televised speech on Monday by President Vladimir Putin at Moscow's annual Victory Day parade on Red Square:
ON SECURITY GUARANTEES DEMANDED BY PUTIN
"Despite disagreements in international relations, Russia has always advocated the creation of a system of equal and indivisible security, a system that is vital for the entire international community."
"In December last year, we proposed the conclusion of an agreement on security guarantees. Russia called on the West to enter an honest dialogue, in search of reasonable compromise solutions, to take each other's interests into account. It was all in vain."
"NATO countries did not want to listen to us, meaning that they in fact had entirely different plans, and we saw this. Openly, preparations were under way for another punitive operation in Donbas, the invasion of our historical lands, including Crimea.
"In Kyiv, they announced the possible acquisition of nuclear weapons, the NATO bloc began actively taking military control of territories adjacent to ours. As such, an absolutely unacceptable threat to us was systematically created, and moreover directly on our borders.
"Everything indicated that a clash with the neo-Nazis, the Banderites [Ukrainian Nazi sympathisers], backed by the United States and their junior partners, was inevitable."
ON DECISION TO LAUNCH 'SPECIAL MILITARY OPERATION'
"We saw military infrastructure being ramped up, hundreds of military advisers working and regular deliveries of modern weapons from NATO. (The level of) danger was increasing every day. Russia preventively rebuffed the aggressor. It was necessary, timely and ... right. The decision of a sovereign, strong, independent country."
ON EASTERN UKRAINE
"Today, the volunteers of the Donbas, together with the soldiers of the Russian Army, are fighting on their own lands ...
"I am now addressing our Armed Forces and the Donbas volunteers. You are fighting for the Motherland, for its future, so that no one forgets the lessons of the Second World War. So that there is no place in the world for executioners, punishers and Nazis."
Prof Stephen F. Cohen destroyed
the Neocon and Ukraine narrative in 2015
By Jonas E. Alexis, Veterans Today, May 9, 2022
The late Stephen F. Cohen of Princeton and New York University was one of the leading scholars who had the intellectual courage to say uncomfortable things—things that the mass social media didn’t want to hear about Russia and Vladimir Putin. Without a doubt, Cohen was one of the finest minds when it comes to issues related to Russia and the United States.
Cohen also was not the type of academic who would perpetuate nonsense about Russia without checking his sources and without serious scholarly examination. That’s why the Neocons in America didn’t like him.
Cohen was a contrarian. As such, he doesn’t care about what the mass media establishment and puppets of the New World Order establishment.
Cohen was a tenured professor at Princeton and New York University, and what seemed to matter to him was an accurate description of what was taking place in the political landscape. That was one reason why he took on flaming Neocon Max Boot and put him on a frying pan.
Cohen had my respect. He declared in 2016 during an interview with Tavis Smiley:
“The orthodox, consensual, political media establishment view is that only Putin is to blame. We are completely innocent. We never did a single thing in the 25 years since the end of the Soviet Union to bring about a cold war. That isn’t true. But if we try to discuss it…then comes the cries, ‘Puppet of the Kremlin, agent of Putin.’”
Cohen again declared: “This guy [Putin] gives more interviews, more speeches, it’s all available in English” and “no one paid any attention to what Putin said.”
Wikipedia info: In an article for The Nation, published in the March 3, 2014 issue, Cohen wrote that "media malpractice" had resulted in the "relentless demonization of Putin" who was not an "autocrat". He wrote that the American media's coverage of Russia was "less objective, less balanced, more conformist and scarcely less ideological" than it had been during the Cold War. In a follow up interview with Newsweek magazine, Cohen said Putin was the "best potential partner we had anywhere in the world to pursue our national security". In a CNN interview around March 2014, he said Putin was not "anti-American".
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Flashback: Truth is the most unwelcome presence in the Western world.
By Paul Craig Roberts, June 20, 2015 "Information Clearing House"
Address to the Conference on the European/Russian Crisis, Delphi, Greece, June 20-21, 2015
The collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in the rise of the neoconservatives to power and influence in the US government.
The neoconservatives have interpreted the Soviet collapse as History’s choice of “American democratic capitalism” as the New World Order.
Chosen by History as the exceptional and indispensable country, Washington claims the right and the responsibility to impose its hegemony on the world.
Neoconservatives regard their agenda to be too important to be constrained by domestic and international law or by the interests of other countries.
Paul Wolfowitz, a leading neoconservative, penned the Wolfowitz Doctrine shortly after the Soviet collapse. This doctrine is the basis of US foreign and military policy.
The doctrine states:
“Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival, either on the territory of the former Soviet Union or elsewhere, that poses a threat on the order of that posed formerly by the Soviet Union.”
Notice that Washington’s “first objective” is not peace, not prosperity, not human rights, not democracy, not justice...
The Wolfowitz doctrine requires Washington to dispense with or overthrow governments that do not acquiesce to Washington’s will. It is the “first objective.”
The media disguises the reality...
Today the media throughout the Western world serves as a Propaganda Ministry for Washington.
The Western media is Washington’s Ministry of Truth. Gerald Celente, the trends forecaster, calls the Western media “presstitutes,” a combination of press prostitutes.
In the US Putin and Russia are demonized around the clock. Every broadcast alerts us to “the Russian threat.” Even Putin’s facial expressions are psychologically analyzed. Putin is the New Hitler...
Any and every one who takes exception to the anti-Putin, anti-Russian propaganda is branded a “Putin apologist,” just as 9/11 skeptics are dismissed as “conspiracy theorists.”
In the Western world, the few truth-tellers are demonized along with Putin and Russia.
The world should take note that today, right now, Truth is the most unwelcome presence in the Western world. No one wants to hear it in Washington, London, Tokyo, or in any of the political capitals of Washington’s empire.
The majority of the American population has fallen for the anti-Russian propaganda, just as they fell for “Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction,” “Assad’s use of chemical weapons against his own people,” Iranian nukes,” the endless lies about Gaddafi..
To understand Washington, go online and read the neoconservative documents and position papers. You will see an agenda unconstrained by law, by morality, by compassion, by common sense. You will see an agenda of evil.
The danger of the neoconservative ideology is that it is in perfect harmony with powerful economic interests.
In the US the left-wing has made itself impotent... The European left-wing, once a progressive force, even a revolutionary one, has become a reactionary force...
The inability even of intellectuals to recognize and accept reality means that restraints on neoconservatives are nowhere present except within Russia and China.
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UK to ban boycott campaigns in blow to BDS supporters
By Areeb Ullah, Middle East Eye, 10 May 2022
The UK government announced plans on Tuesday to ban local councils and other public bodies from participating in boycott and divestment campaigns, dealing a heavy blow to supporters of Palestinian rights in Britain.
The announcement was made during the Queen's Speech opening of Parliament, where Prince Charles said the government will introduce “legislation [that] will prevent public bodies engaging in boycotts that undermine community cohesion”.
UK civil society groups called on the UK government last month to halt the legislation that would limit the right to support causes such as Palestinian rights and climate and social justice through boycott campaigns.
John 11:49: But one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
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The 46 UK-based groups said in a statement they oppose plans by the government to table an "anti-boycott" bill, saying it presents a "threat to freedom of expression, and the ability of public bodies and democratic institutions to spend, invest and trade ethically in line with international law and human rights".
The law would prohibit public bodies from imposing boycotts or divestment campaigns against foreign countries, including those who boycott, divest or sanction Israel.
Pro-Palestinian groups in Britain condemned the proposed bill and said they would campaign to stop it from taking place.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) said it will demonstrate against the proposed bill and described it as an attack on free speech. Friends of Al Aqsa (FOA) also condemned the proposed bill and echoed PSC concerns that it will harm free speech in Britain. "In a free society, public bodies must have the right to make ethical choices," FOA said on Twitter.
Meanwhile, the Conservative Friends of Israel, a pro-Israeli group within the ruling Conservative Party, welcomed the proposed bill.
ZOA/Others Raising Concerns With New Anti-Israel
White House Press Secretary Jean-Pierre
JNS|ZOA Jewish News, 7-5-2022
An Anti-Semite?
"I am everything Donald Trump hates. I'm a black woman, I'm gay, I'm a mother," Ms. Jean-Pierre said in 2018, when she worked for the left-wing organization MoveOn. Born in Martinique to Haitian parents and a graduate of Columbia University, she will be the first black and gay woman to hold this highly exposed position.." (le monde)
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The new press secretary at the White House—appointed by U.S. President Joe Biden this week and set to take over for current press secretary Jen Psaki next week—is raising concerns with some in the pro-Israel community for her previous work with anti-Israel organizations.
Karine Jean-Pierre, who currently serves as principal deputy press secretary, will be the first black and LGBTQ person to hold the position.
After the president’s announcement on Thursday afternoon, Jean-Pierre, a Haitian American, was brought to the White House’s daily briefing by Psaki. Jean-Pierre will assume the role after Psaki’s exit on May 13.
“Karine not only brings the experience, talent and integrity needed for this difficult job, but will continue to lead the way in communicating about the work of the Biden-Harris administration on behalf of the American people,” the president said in a statement.
News of her appointment also came with criticism about her role as national spokesperson and senior adviser with the left wing political group MoveOn.org from April 2016 to August 2020, a group that supported the boycott of AIPAC and challenged anti-BDS laws.
In a 2019 op-ed in Newsweek, Jean-Pierre said that candidates cannot call themselves a progressive if they supported AIPAC.
“Unfortunately, AIPAC’s policy and conference speaker choices aren’t its only problems. Its severely racist, Islamophobic rhetoric has proven just as alarming,” Jean-Pierre wrote. “The organization has become known for trafficking in anti-Muslim and anti-Arab rhetoric while lifting up Islamophobic voices and attitudes.”
“I am appalled and frightened that Biden has chosen Ms. Jean-Pierre, who has shown essentially antisemitic hostility towards Israel, and is willing to lie about and vilify Israel and Jews to promote her Israelophobic agenda,” Mort Klein, national president of the Zionist Organization of America, said in a statement.
“Americans should be deeply concerned that this outrageous, incomprehensible anti-Israel, pro-terrorist and pro-Iran appointment indicates the dangerous direction the Biden administration is going to take against America’s greatest ally Israel and U.S.-Israel relations.”
Others have raised questions of conflict of interest due to Jean-Pierre being married to CNN correspondent Suzanne Malveaux.
A CNN spokesman told The Washington Free Beacon that Malveaux “will continue her role as CNN national correspondent covering national/international news and cultural events but will not cover politics, Capitol Hill or the White House while Karine Jean-Pierre is serving as White House press secretary.”
Stalled Iran nuclear talks have been 'reopened': EU's Borrell
Tehran Times, May 13, 2022
TEHRAN - The stalled Iran nuclear talks have been "reopened," AFP reported on Friday, citing the European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
The remarks by Borrell came immediately after his deputy Enrique Mora, who acts as the Iran nuclear talks coordinator, concluded visit to Tehran.
Mora visited Tehran on Tuesday for talks with Iranian officials to resume the stalled nuclear talks intended to lift sanctions on Iran by revitalizing the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA.
The talks to revive the JCPOA started in Vienna in April last year. However, the talks were stalled in March as Joe Biden’s administration has refused to lift terrorist designation against Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).
Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump quit the JCPOA in May 2018 and slapped the harshest sanctions against Iran in line with his policy of “maximum pressure” against the Islamic Republic. He put the IRGC on the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list in order to make a resurrection of the nuclear agreement difficult.
Contrary to the claims by Trump and other Iran hawks in the U.S., the IRGC was the strongest force in defeating Daesh (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria.
FLASHBACK 2016
Soleimani: Iran’s interests in Iraq, Syria not materialistic
Press TV, Mon Aug 21, 2017
Major General Qassem Soleimani of Iran says the Islamic Republic does not seek materialistic interests in supporting Iraq and Syria — where it has advisory military presence — and the Palestinian cause.
“When we entered Iraq, we didn’t differentiate between our interests and those of Iraq; and we were not after [taking control of] oil wells or seizing cities like Mosul or Kirkuk. We did not and do not have monetary demands, either,” Major General Soleimani, who commands the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), said on Sunday.
He also said that Iran did not support the Palestinian people because of “Shia interests.” Almost all Palestinians are Sunnis, he said, and yet “we defend them.”
The senior commander also said that in spite of the violent capacities of the Daesh terrorist group and the creation of such other militant outfits as Jaish al-Islam in Syria, Iran had been able to bring stability to Syria...
Daesh launched a terrorist offensive inside Iraq in 2014. It swiftly took over territory in the Arab country and posed a threat to seize the capital, Baghdad, too.
Iran then offered advisory military assistance to both the central government in Baghdad and the regional government in Iraqi Kurdistan, helping them both maintain ground and win back territory lost to the terrorist group. In Syria, too, Iran has been offering advisory support to the government...
Major General Soleimani said the Iranian government had succeeded in transcending matters of language and race, thus bringing about stability.
Defenders of a new form of nationalism that is pragmatic
The IRGC's plan to win hearts and minds
Narges Bajoghli, Al-Monitor, 13-3-2016
He is referred to as a “shadow” commander by Western journalists as he stealthily fights the Islamic State (IS) in places such as Syria and Iraq on behalf of Iran. He has kept a low profile, despite his position as the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) elite foreign operations branch, the Quds Force.
Yet last year it seemed that he sprang onto the scene out of the blue. News outlets and social media featured his familiar face posing for selfies on the front lines in Iraq and Syria, documentaries touted his military acumen and music videos passionately praised his strength and bravery...
The surge in public displays of adoration for Qasem Soleimani (born 11-3-1957) are part of a larger public relations campaign by the IRGC that dates to the aftermath of the 2009 Green Movement.
“We faced a crisis of legitimacy after the suppression of the 2009 uprisings,” a retired IRGC captain who now works in pro-regime media production told Al-Monitor. “People, especially young people, began to turn away from us. We knew we had to win them back. We had to give them heroes they could respect.” Soleimani, or Hajj Qasem as he is affectionately known in Iran, became one of those heroes...
“What Hajj Qasem has been able to do is no joke. If it weren’t for him, IS would have advanced throughout Iraq and be at our doorsteps. All Iranians owe him. We owe our safety to him, and I think our people are beginning to see that,” Reza, a 27-year old Basij filmmaker, told Al-Monitor.
“Iran is the only stable, safe country in our neighborhood, and we have Qasem Soleimani and the Revolutionary Guards to thank for that", Sepideh, a 26-year old painter who considers herself in opposition to the government, told Al-Monitor.
The fight against IS has allowed pro-regime cultural producers to rebrand the IRGC not as defenders of the Islamic Republic, but as defenders of the Iranian nation.
See also: Modernity & The Third Culture
Iran's Qassem Soleimani killed
in US air raid at Baghdad airport
Al-Jazeera News, 3-1-2020
A US strike killed top Iranian commander General Qassem Suleimani and the deputy head of Iraq’s Hashd Shaabi military force, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, at Baghdad’s airport early Friday.
General Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC's) Quds Force, and architect of its regional security apparatus, has been killed following a US air raid at Baghdad's international airport on Friday.
The White House and the Pentagon confirmed the killing of Soleimani in Iraq, saying the attack was carried out at the direction of US President Donald Trump and was aimed at deterring future attacks allegedly being planned by Iran.
Iranian Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei paid tribute to him as a "martyr", and vowed a "vigorous revenge is waiting for the criminals."
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani echoed the Supreme Leader's threat of "revenge", while Foreign Minister Javad Zarif condemned the killing as an "act of international terrorism."
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Palestinians commemorate 74th Nakba Day
Al-Jazeera, 15 May 2022
Palestinian Exodus
On May 15, 1948, Israel was established as a Jewish-majority state at the expense of the forced expulsion of about 750,000 Palestinians. The day has subsequently been commemorated annually as Nakba Day.
The word “Nakba” means “catastrophe” in Arabic, and refers to the systematic ethnic cleansing of two-thirds of the Palestinian population at the time by Zionist paramilitaries between 1947-1949 and the near-total destruction of Palestinian society.
Zionist forces had taken more than 78 percent of historic Palestine, ethnically cleansed and destroyed about 530 villages and cities, and killed about 15,000 Palestinians in a series of mass atrocities, including more than 70 massacres.
This year marks 74 years of Al-Nakba, or the Palestinian experience of dispossession and loss of a homeland. The anniversary comes at a time where many are angered by the killing of prominent Al Jazeera veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.
Iran News:
Iran Not to Allow Disruption in "Strategic" Ties with Russia
FARS News Agency, 17-5-2022
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh lauded strategic relations between Tehran and Moscow, saying that Iran will not allow disruption in these ties. Khatibzadeh made the remarks in an interview with Russia’s Sputnik news agency on Tuesday.
Relations between Iran and Russia is strategic and Iran will not allow any issue to disrupt these relations, he said.
The Iranian authorities intend to resume their efforts to act as a mediator between Moscow and Kyiv and resolve the conflict, Khatibzadeh added.
"We will contribute (to the resolution of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia) as much as we are able and as far as both sides are ready. Iran ... will launch a new round of its efforts (to resolve the conflict)," he underlined, adding that both sides take Iran's mediation seriously.
Khatibzadeh noted that the root cause of what is happening in Ukraine now is NATO's expansionist policies and ignoring security and political considerations of countries. NATO must know that the path of confrontation does not have a happy ending, he said.
Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Kazzem Jalali said on Sunday that Tehran and Moscow have not restricted their military cooperation to supplying weapons and equipment.
Jalali told RIA Novosti that military cooperation is a part of relations between Iran and Russia.
Relations between Moscow and Tehran cover all spheres of politics and economy, as well as other areas, he said.
“Military and defense cooperation, which is also part of the relationship, is not limited only to the purchase of relevant equipment,” Jalali said.
Jalali said in March that Tehran and Moscow had decided to increase their banking and financial cooperation to further expand ties and confront sanctions.
Moscow: West Used Ukraine as
Pretext for ‘Undeclared War’ with Russia
FARS news, 18-5-2022
TEHRAN (FNA)- The West used Ukraine as a pretext for an “undeclared war” against Moscow, and put Russia in a position in which it had to protect its “very statehood,” the Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolay Patrushev, said.
Speaking at a meeting of the Security Council’s scientific advisory board, Patrushev stated the current “unprecedented geopolitical crisis” was caused by the Western-led destruction of “the global security architecture and the international legal system", RT reported.
He added that instead of engaging in constructive dialogue with Moscow, the US and its allies conducted a “military-political expansion towards Russia”, built up support for the Ukrainian government, and pushed Kiev “to carry out a large-scale violent action in eastern Ukraine".
According to Patrushev, the main objective of the West has been to create conditions for the establishment of a Western-controlled regime in Russia, “as it was already tested on Ukraine and a number of other states". The military operation in Ukraine prevented this, he said, adding that Moscow had to take “preventive measures”, as the threats to national security reached a level that endangered “the very statehood of Russia and its existence".
The current sanctions and “global anti-Russian campaign launched by the Americans and their satellites”, Patrushev argued, “convincingly proves that Ukraine has become a pretext for waging an undeclared war against Russia”. He also claimed that the “aggression” against Moscow has an ideological dimension.
“The situation around Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine shows that the neoliberalism of the collective West is transforming before our eyes into the ideology of neoliberal fascism..."
Wikipedia info: Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev (born 11 July 1951) is a Russian politician, security officer and intelligence officer who has served as the secretary of the Security Council of Russia since 2008. He previously served as the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) from 1999 to 2008. Belonging to the siloviki faction of president Vladimir Putin's inner circle,Patrushev is believed to be one of the closest advisors to Putin and a leading figure behind Russia's national security affairs.
"American sanctions are directed not only against Russia,
Turkey and Iran, but also against Europe itself."
Theran Times, May 18, 2022
Following is the text of the interview with Mehmet Perincek, a Turkish historian, political scientist, and professor (born 19 September 1978),
Q: Why do Western powers insist on calling the Ukraine war an invasion? And what are the causes of such a dramatic situation in Ukraine?
A: It's no secret that the U.S. has plans to encircle countries such as Russia, China, Iran and Turkey that are an obstacle to Washington. When we take a look at the Ukrainian crisis then we observe that this is connected with the general conflict constellation. While Washington is trying to encircle Russia through Ukraine, it is besieging Turkey, Iran, and China as well.
The first reason for this conflict is that the USA wants to use Ukraine as a bridgehead against Russia and all of Eurasia. Just as it uses Greece in the Eastern Mediterranean and wanted to establish a Kurdistan in the Middle East.
In order to make this plan work, the USA needed a neo-Nazi government in Ukraine that was completely under its control. The second reason for this conflict is the aggression of the Kyiv government, especially toward the eastern regions of the country.
I visited Donbas and other operational zones upon invitation from the Russian Ministry of Defence, from April 29th until May 1st. There you hear very often:
“The war here has not started yesterday. It has been going on in the last 8 years.
Kyiv has never fulfilled the Minsk Agreements. The West has never said a word to them. We are humans too; we deserve to have a life too! The Russian military operation is a result of this process, not the beginning of a war. Quite the opposite: This operation will put an end to an 8-year-war.”
Q: How do you see the global alignments when it comes to the Ukraine war? While Western powers condemn Moscow apparently the Eastern states are reluctant to denounce Russia.
A: Actually, there is one sole frontline in the world: The Atlantic and Eurasia are facing each other. And conflicts even in the most remote regions of the world are of concern and interest for those countries that are confronted by U.S. pressures.
The conflict around Taiwan is not only a Chinese matter; it is also a matter for Russia or Turkey. The embargo imposed on Iran is not only a problem for Iran, it is also a problem for Turkey and China. Or, to provide a geographically even more remote example: The conflict around the Malvinas (British: Falkland Islands) is not only a matter of concern for Argentina. It is an issue for all countries that are facing threats from British and U.S. imperialism.
Taking all this into consideration, Iran and Turkey need a strong Russia and Russia needs a strong Iran and Turkey. And mutual solidarity between those countries in regard to each other’s most vital issues of concern will not only constitute a diplomatic gesture it’s much more than that. Due to the above-mentioned reasons, these acts of solidarity will constitute for them an effective and important measure to realize their own national interests.
Q: What are the global fallouts of sanctions on Russia?
A: The anti-Russian sanctions are aimed not only against Russia but also against other countries that hinder Washington’s plans. American sanctions harm Ankara itself as well since Russia is Turkey’s most important trade and economic partner.
Here I would like to point out another very important nuance. It is a fact that American sanctions are directed not only against Russia, Turkey and Iran, but also against Europe itself. They directly hit the European economy. And it is obvious that U.S. sanctions have already dealt a serious blow to the interests of European countries.
Arab identity does not represent all Syrians,
says opposition Kurdish official
The New Arab Staff, 22 May, 2022
"The current Syrian Arab identity does not apply to everyone, as there are many other components such as Kurds, Turkmen and Armenians," said the president of the Executive Committee of the Syrian Democratic Council, Ilham Ahmad, according to the Kurdish Rudaw Media Network.
She was speaking in the northern Iraq's Kurdish region during a seminar on the situation in the Kurdish-controlled Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, sometimes known as Rojava. The region is mainly under the military control of the Syrian Democratic Forces.
Syria is religiously and ethnically diverse, but Arabic-speaking Sunni Muslims make up the majority of its roughly 17 million population. Other ethnic minorities include Armenians, Turkmen, and Circassians.
However, the country has been ruled by the Arab nationalist Ba'ath Party since 1963 and is officially known as the "Syrian Arab Republic".
For decades, the Syrian regime refused to recognised the existence of Kurdish and other non-Arab minorities, depriving hundreds of thousands of Syrian Kurds of their citizenship.
"We discussed in Sweden with Syrian democratic opposition figures the future of Syria, the [issue of] identity and decentralisation," she said, adding that a possible conference could be organised to bring together various figures and political parties.
Ahmad also pointed out that the humanitarian aid being sent to the Kurdish-controlled de facto region in north and east Syria was "not enough … as Syria suffers from a deep economic crisis."
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Flashback - Bashar al-Assad's speech
"The strength of Arabism lies in its diversity"
Uruknet, 10-1-2012
The social structure of the Arab world, with its large diversity, is based on two strong and integrated pillars: Arabism and Islam. Both of them are great, rich and vital. Consequently, we cannot blame them for the wrong human practices. Furthermore, the Muslim and Christian diversity in our country is a major pillar of our Arabism and a foundation of our strength. ...
We should always know that Arabism is an identity not a membership. Arabism is an identity given by history not a certificate given by an organization. Arabism is an honor that characterizes Arab peoples not a stigma carried by some pseudo-Arabs on the Arab or world political stage. ...
The last thing in Arabism is race. Arabism is a question of civilization, a question of common interests, common will and common religions.
It is about the things which bring about all the different nationalities which live in this place. The strength of this Arabism lies in its diversity not in its isolation and not in its one colordness.
Arabism hasn’t been built by the Arabs. Arabism has been built by all those non-Arabs who contributed to building it and those who belong to this rich society in which we live.
Its strength lies in its diversity. ... The strength of our Arabism lies in openness, diversity and in showing this diversity not integrating it to look like one component. Arabism has been accused for decades of chauvinism. This is not true. If there are chauvinistic individuals, this doesn’t mean that Arabism is chauvinistic. It is a condition of civilization.
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Saudi Arabia set to support Russia’s role in Opec
despite looming sanctions
By MEE staff, 22 May 2022
Saudi Arabia plans to continue its Opec+ partnership with Russia despite western pressure on Moscow and a potential EU ban on Russian oil imports.
Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the energy minister, told the Financial Times that Riyadh was hoping "to work out an agreement with Opec+ . . . which includes Russia", insisting that the "world should appreciate the value" of the alliance of producers, the newspaper reported.
Opec+ is a group of 24 oil-producing nations, made up of the 14 Opec members and 10 non-Opec nations, including Russia. It was created in 2017 in an effort to better coordinate oil production and stabilise global prices.
Relations between the US and Saudi Arabia have been strained since Biden took office, with the country's de-facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, facing criticism over the killing of Middle East Eye columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Additionally, both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have expressed concerns over Washington's attempts to revive the Iran nuclear deal.
Prince Abdulaziz’s comments send a message to the US and its Nato allies that it does not plan to participate in western attempts to isolate Moscow or its oil exports.
Saudi Arabia has been resisting pressure to raise crude output in order to help bring down prices in the wake of Russia’s 24 February invasion of Ukraine, as it insists that current supplies are sufficient.
Still, a new Opec+ deal is to be expected to be broked soon, as output quotas put in place two years ago are set to expire in three months. Prince Abdulaziz told the FT that he could not predict what the new Opec+ agreement might look like, given the uncertainties in the market....
"With the havoc you see now it’s too premature to try to pinpoint [an agreement]," he said. "But what we know is that what we have succeeded to deliver is sufficient for people to say 'so far there is merit, there is a value of being there, working together'."
"This situation needs people to sit together, focus, take out the masquerade and the so-called political correctness . . . it’s about trying to relate to existing reality and find remedies to it," he said.
Jerusalem: Israeli ultra-nationalists
assault Palestinians in far-right march
By Lubna Masarwa, Middle East Eye, 29 May 2022
Israeli ultra-nationalists and police forces attacked Palestinians on Sunday in occupied East Jerusalem as thousands chanted racist and Islamophobic slurs while participating in the controversial far-right "Flag March" through the Old City's Muslim quarter.
At least 79 Palestinians were wounded in Jerusalem, including 28 who were hospitalised, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said. Injuries included wounds from rubber-coated steel bullets, beatings and pepper spray. A further 163 people were wounded in the West Bank, including 20 hit by live bullets.
According to a police count, more than 2,600 Israeli far-right activists and settlers stormed al-Aqsa Mosque earlier on Sunday, performed group prayers and raised the Israeli flag, in violation of decades-old international agreements that stipulate only Muslims are allowed to pray at al-Aqsa.
After the raid, groups of flag-waving Israelis marched through the Old City before converging outside the Damascus Gate, one of the main entrances leading to al-Aqsa.
At around 6pm local time, tens of thousands of far-right Israelis began the Flag March, starting from the western section of Jerusalem and heading towards the Western Wall, where celebrations continued until late in the evening. According to Israeli police, 70,o00 people participated in the march. A large section of them threaded the Old City in two groups through Jaffa Gate and Damascus Gate.
The Flag March, which is part of the "Jerusalem Day" holiday commemorating the occupation of the city in 1967, is a far-right parade associated with violence against Palestinians and the "display of incitement, Jewish dominance, and racism", according to Israeli NGO Ir Amim.
Outside the ancient town, a Palestinian demonstration in Salah al-Din street was violently dispersed by Israeli forces. At least 56 people have been arrested, according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club. In the Shiekh Jarrah neighbourhood, north of the Old City, Palestinian homes and properties were attacked by a group of Israeli settlers, which then led to confrontations with residents.
At the same time, Palestinians rallied across the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip in solidarity with Jerusalem and against Israeli raids on al-Aqsa Mosque.
Will Someone Finally Say Israel Has Lost It?
Amira Hass, Haaretz Opinion, May. 31, 2022
“The Arabs are raising their heads. They’re taking liberties,” complained Efrat Raz, a resident of the unauthorized, illegal outpost of Kida, to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
Because he was killed, we know that her husband Noam Raz was a member of the Yamam police counterterrorism force that raided Jenin on May 13 and bombarded a house while its residents, including 11 children, slept inside. The armed men of the force also took a father and his daughter as human shields.
How many residents of the illegal settlements and illegal/unauthorized outposts serve enthusiastically, with devotion and high spirits in units that terrorize Palestinian children and induce trauma and fury in them for their entire lives? How many of their wives – and it’s reasonable to assume that they themselves – think “the Arabs are raising their heads?” How many of those wearing the white shirts that we saw in Sunday’s march of horrors in Jerusalem dream about joining the Yamam?
It would be important if they set the policy under which the role of the army and its policing branches is to protect and deepen the settlement enterprise. But the opposite is true:
For over 50 years the messianic-nationalist stream has served as a convenient tool in the hands of secular Israeli governments, which worked diligently on advancing the Zionist project while grabbing the remnants of the Palestinian space, captured in 1967. A tool, let us repeat. A means.
The white shirts would not have succeeded if they had not served so well the goals of all the Zionist governments and fitted into their plans.
If not for the politicians (members of the Socialist International!) such as Shimon Peres and Yigal Allon who encouraged them, and planned very early the shattering of the West Bank as a Palestinian space; if the IDF had not demolished during the time of Levi Eshkol and Moshe Dayan three Palestinian villages at Latrun, and expelled their residents; if the police had not ignored, for decades, the violence of their “wild weeds”; if the army had not seized large areas for alleged military purposes and then passed them on to settlers; if the Israeli economists, architects and lawyers had not prevented Palestinian development – before and after the Oslo Accords.
The problem is that tools, like the Golem of the Maharal of Prague or of Walt Disney, tend to raise their heads. We saw this in the terrifying flag dance in Jerusalem on Sunday. Today, they are 50,000 wearing white shirts who marched in the heart of Palestinian Jerusalem. Yesterday they marched in Hebron and fulfilled there the vision of emptying it of Palestinians. Tomorrow they will be 100,000.
Today it is 2,600 dancing, pious Jews who went up on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount. They have managed to expropriate almost completely the Ibrahim Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs from the Palestinian public. Tomorrow they will be 7,000. How many of them will sign a petition to build the Third Temple? And when will they have a democratic majority in the Knesset?
Is there now in all the world’s countries a single responsible adult who will say openly: “The hell with it, this Jewish mutation that is developing there in the Middle East – in other words, the State of Israel – has lost it...Freaked out, lost its mind, gone crazy....”?
Yamina lawmakers Ayelet Shaked pushes back
on Liberman's plan to cut yeshiva subsidies
Hezki Baruch, Arutz Sheva, 31.05.22
Two [Israeli] coalition lawmakers vowed to block plans by Finance Minister Avidgor Liberman to cut funding to yeshiva students.Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked and Mk Nir Orbach, both members of the Yamina party, toured Zichron Ya’akov Tuesday, visiting local state religious schools.
During their visit, Shaked and Orbach said they would not permit Liberman to cut payments to married yeshiva students in the 2023 budget.
“This coalition government is built on agreements, and we will do our job to care for Torah scholars and ensure that they won’t be harmed,” Shaked declared.
bennett & 'the bible quiz'
“We, in Yamina, recognize the value of Torah study,” Orbach said, “and we know that Torah scholars dedicate their lives to the people of Israel and do so with great self-sacrifice. Together, we will God-willing protect the Torah world.”
On Monday, Liberman mocked haredi yeshiva students, accusing them of “idleness,” and urged the government to cut stipends to yeshiva students.
"Most of the money goes to kollels (yeshivas for married men), where people learn from age 29 until pension," he claimed.
"They come in the morning and eat a sandwich, drink coffee, talk politics, and then open a few books. There is no reason to fund them."
"The national security of America and the security of the world could be attained if the American leaders [..] become rational, if America disengages itself from its evil alliance with Zionism, which has been scheming to exploit the world and plunge it in blood and darkness, by using America and some Western countries.
US Vice President Joe Biden said that the new administration would seek the
unvarnished truth from its spies, whether or not their information supported
the goals of the government. 
"The post-September 11 era in the US has heralded in a new age of ideology whose discourse and world views have served not only to accommodate such extremist views as those held by Sharon, but also to provide him with a platform and an influence that were unthinkable only a year ago. 
"The globalists wants to make the world unipolar in order to move towards a globalist non-polarity, where the elites will become fully international and their residence will be dispersed throughout the entire space of the planet. 
Political holism is based on the recognition that "we" are all members of a single whole. There's no "they," even though "we" are not all alike. Because "we" are all part of the whole, and therefore interdependent, we benefit from cooperating with each other. Political holism is a way of thinking about human cultures and nations as interdependent.