Saddam's Death, 196 [march 2023]
attempt to destroy political holism in the middle east

See also: Page 195: feb 2023 and Page 197: april 2023


Israel & The Temple Revolution & Unesco & the Temple
Regime Change in Iraq - Overview 2002/2003 - Trump & the Pisces Messiah - Kennedy Speech 1961 - Eisenhower's Social Gospel - "I Have, I Rule and I will Destroy" - Iran & the dialogue of civilizations - Netanyahu & Infantilization of Israel - Jesus & Pophet Muhammed: "Be a stranger in the world" - Ideological Warfare Center - Jewish fundamentalism in the State of Palestine - Palestinian Martyrs and Jewish Heroes - The Balfour Declaration - Trump's move on Jerusalem (2017) - Abbas & Trump's "slap of the century" - John Bolton, prominent war hawk, National Security Adviser to President Trump - Lies & Provocations: France, UK and USA show their dark face - Trump, the 'deal-breaker' - Explaining America’s economic might - Netanyahu & The Survival of the Fittest - Bush’s ‘Axis of Evil’ Is Now Pence’s ‘Wolf Pack of Rogue States’ - Mike Pence & antisemitism - Amnesia of the US Foreign Policy Establishment - Israeli Elections 2019 - Was Jesus a Palestinian? - Labor disappears from Knesset - Settlers from the White House - NO to International Law - Israel & The Three Central Dilemmas - Netanyahu & Neo-Zionism - Secularism & 'Jewish' identity - Pompeo & Christian leadership - Jeremy Corbyn & Jewish Witch Hunt - Trump's Deal of the Century - Netanyahu & the Moongod Abraham - Gantz' betrayal - Trump's sanctions against ICC officials - The Ceasar Act - The Turkey-Armenia conflict - Joe Biden's Running Mate - The UAE-Israel-deal - The Sudan-US-Israel-deal - Robert Fisk Articles" - Joe Biden elected president - The return of Victoria Nuland - Putin 2014: New Rules or a Game without Rules - Alexander Dugin & The Great Awakening - Bennett is an 'evil' and 'wicked' Reform Jew, say haredi MKs - The Taliban enter Kabul - UAE leaders receive Syrian President Assad - Lapid & the Palestinian state - Yusuf al-Qaradawi died in Qatar - Israel heading toward a fascist theocracy - Ukraine is now a failed state:


Index Page - Start

Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was born April 28, 1937 and died December 30, 2006. He was the fifth President of Iraq, holding that position from July 16, 1979 until 9 April 2003. He was one of the leading members of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party, and afterward, the Baghdad-based Ba’ath Party and its regional organization Ba’ath Party, Iraq Region, which advocated ba’athism, an ideological marriage of Arab nationalism with Arab socialism. (Patricia Ramos, july 2013)


How the National Security State Manipulates the News Media
Ted Galen Carpenter, antiwar.com, March 09, 2021

An especially dangerous threat to liberty occurs when members of the press collude with government agencies instead of monitoring and exposing the abuses of those agencies. Unfortunately, collusion is an all-too-common pattern in press coverage of the national security state’s activities. The American people then receive official propaganda disguised as honest reporting and analysis.


"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.
What the American peoples need mostly is someone who tells them the truth, courageously and honestly as it is.
They don’t need fanfares and cheerleaders, if they want to take a lesson from the (sept. 11) event so as to reach a real awakening, in spite of the enormity of the event that hit America.
But the world, including the rulers of America, should say all this to the American peoples, so as to have the courage to tell the truth and act according to what is right and not what to is wrong and unjust, to undertake their responsibilities in fairness and justice, and by recourse to reason..."

Saddam Hussein, INA 15-9-2002


Joe Biden & Truth - 2009

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 Vice President's address was greeted with loud cheers by the several hundred CIA employees who gathered for the swearing in ceremony in the foyer of the Agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
Standing before the wall of 89 stars representing the CIA staff who have died in the line of duty, Mr Biden said:
"We expect you to provide independent analysis, not to engage in group think. We expect you to tell us the facts as you know them wherever they may lead, not what you think we want to hear." (Tim Shipman. 20-2-2009)

"We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people …
The wave of the future is not the conquest of the world by a single dogmatic creed but the liberation of the diverse energies of free nations and free men. …
Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind." John F.Kennedy


“Human beings are members of a whole,
In creation of one essence and soul.
If one member is afflicted with pain,
Other members uneasy will remain.
If you have no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you can not retain.”

Saadi Shirazi
(Persian poet & humanist, born in Shiraz, Iran, c. 1210)


Flashback- Hanan Ashrawi 2002:
The New Age of Ideology

"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.
Thus while the American President is busy devising a new Manichean universe of absolute good and absolute evil, pronouncing policy on the basis of a simplistic polarization of the world, and unilaterally defining the terms while categorizing state and non-state actors accordingly, Sharon’s Israel has maneuvered itself into a position of even greater power on the world stage provided explicitly by the US."


"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.
Accordingly, for the salvation of people, peoples, and societies, the Great Awakening must begin with multipolarity.
This is not just the salvation of the West itself, and not even the salvation of everyone else from the West, but the salvation of humanity, both Western and non-Western, from the totalitarian dictatorship of the liberal capitalist elites.
And this cannot be done by the people of the West or the people of the East alone. Here it is necessary to act together. The Great Awakening necessitates an internationalization of the peoples’ struggle against the internationalization of the elites.
Multipolarity becomes the most important reference point and the key to the strategy of the Great Awakening.

Alexander Dugin & The Great Awakening

Index Page


"Holism is the most fundamental discovery of 20th century science. It is a discovery of every science from astrophysics to quantum physics to environmental science to psychology to anthropology.
It is the discovery that the entire universe is an integral whole, and that the basic organizational principle of the universe is the field principle: the universe consists of fields within fields, levels of wholeness and integration that mirror in fundamental ways, and integrate with, the ultimate, cosmic whole...."
"For many thinkers and religious teachers throughout this history, holism was the dominant thought, and the harmony that it implies has most often been understood to encompass cosmic, civilizational, and personal dimensions. Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Lord Krishna, Lao Tzu, and Confucius all give us visions of transformative harmony, a transformative harmony that derives from a deep relation to the holism of the cosmos."

About political holism

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.
Political holists search for solutions other than war to settle international disagreements. Their model of the world is one in which cooperation and negotiation, even with the enemy, even with the weak, promotes political stability more than warfare.
In an overpopulated world with planet-wide environmental problems, the development of weapons of mass destruction has rendered war obsolete as an effective means to resolve disputes.

Political dualists consider political holists unpatriotic for questioning the necessity to defeat "them." In times of impending war, political dualists tend to measure patriotism by the intensity of one's hostility to the country's immediate enemy.
Naturally, they would view as disloyalty any suggestion that the enemy is not evil, any call for cooperation with the enemy, any criticism of one's own country.
To political dualists, cooperation with the enemy means capitulation, relinquishment of the nation's position of dominance.
At its extreme, political dualism is essentially tribalism. (Betty Craige, 16-8-1997)


Desmond Tutu & Ubuntu

"A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, based from a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed."
"We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World.
When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity." (Ubuntu info)

News | Russia-Ukraine war
UAE is 'country of focus' as US looks
to target Russia's economic partners
By Sean Mathews, Middle East Eye, 2 March 2023

The UAE is a "country of focus" as the US looks to choke Russia's ties to the global economy, a senior US official said on Thursday, in some of strongest comments yet that Washington is ramping up pressure on its Gulf ally over its ties to Moscow.
"We are specifically concerned about increases in trade with Russia in the kind of goods that can be used on the battlefield and those who are aiding designated Russian entities," Elizabeth Rosenberg, the assistant Treasury secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes, said at an event on Thursday.
The comments come amid growing concern in the West that the UAE, along with countries like Turkey, is providing a critical economic lifeline to the Kremlin, which could help its war effort. Many of the missiles and drones deployed by Russia rely on western component parts.
As recently as December, the UAE was still exporting drones to Russia, according to Russian government data analysed by the Washington DC-based Free Russia Foundation. The group lists the UAE, along with Turkey, Cyprus and China, as countries that have "dramatically expanded" exports to Russia.

There is evidence that Washington is growing increasingly frustrated with the UAE's business model. Rosenberg said that countries will have to choose between western states that have rallied to Ukraine's side amid the invasion, and the rest of the world.
"You can do business with the countries that constitute more than 50 percent of the world’s GDP, and its most convertible and stable currencies, or do business with those who facilitate Russia's war," she said.
US sanctions carry heft because the US dollar dominates global trade. The Swift financial messaging system that facilitates money transfers also relies on banks in the US. Some analysts and sanctions experts are predicting that the war in Ukraine will accelerate a push by countries like the UAE to insulate themselves from the knock-on effects of western sanctions.

Wikipedia Info:
Elizabeth Rosenberg is an American government official who serves as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing in the Biden administration, having been confirmed on December 18, 2021, by the United States Senate.
After earning her master's degree, Rosenberg worked as an energy policy correspondent for Argus Media. She then joined the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes, working as a senior advisor to the assistant secretary.
From 2013 to 2021, Rosenberg was a fellow at the Center for a New American Security. In January 2021, she became the counselor to United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury,

In June 2009 The Washington Post suggested, "In the era of Obama... the Center for a New American Security may emerge as Washington's go-to think tank on military affairs."
Later, press critical of US foreign policy described CNAS as a think tank that has "long pushed Democrats to embrace war and militarism."
CNAS advisors have included John Nagl, David Kilcullen, Andrew Exum, Thomas E. Ricks, Robert D. Kaplan, and Marc Lynch.
CNAS was formerly led by CEO Victoria Nuland, who serves as Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs in the Biden administration's State Department.


US News: House Expected to Vote on
Syria War Powers Resolution
by Dave DeCamp, antwar.com, March 6, 2023

The House is expected to vote on a War Powers Resolution this Wednesday introduced by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) that would order President Biden to withdraw all US troops from Syria.
The US currently has about 900 troops stationed in eastern Syria and backs the Kurdish-led SDF in the region, allowing the US to control about one-third of the country.
Gaetz’s resolution would give President Biden 180 days to end the US military occupation, which is opposed by Damascus.
The text of H.Con.Res.21 reads: “That, pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution (50 U.S.C. 1544(c)), Congress directs the President to remove the United States Armed Forces from Syria by not later than the date that is 180 days after the date of the adoption of this concurrent resolution.”

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley made a rare visit to Syria over the weekend to justify the continued US presence.
He said the fight against ISIS was worth the risk of keeping the operation going. But the Syrian government and its allies are also sworn enemies of ISIS, so if the US withdrew from the country, the fight against the terror group would continue.
The occupation is also part of Washington’s economic war against Damascus, as the US controls the area where most of Syria’s oil fields are located.


Iran, Saudi Arabia agree
to resume relations, re-open embassies
Press TV, Friday, 10 March 2023

Iran and Saudi Arabia have reached an agreement in the Chinese capital of Beijing to restore their diplomatic relations and re-open embassies and missions, seven years after their ties were broken off over several issues.
The agreement was struck on Friday after several days of intensive negotiations between Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani and his Saudi counterpart in Beijing. It was officially announced in a joint statement by Iran, Saudi Arabia and China.
The statement was inked by Shakhani, Musaid Al Aiban, Saudi Arabia’s national security adviser, and Wang Yi, the director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party.
Shamkhani has been involved in intensive talks with his Saudi counterpart in Beijing since Monday to find a final solution to the issues between Tehran and Riyadh. The negotiations followed a meeting between Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing last month.
“As a result of the talks, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia agreed to resume diplomatic relations and re-open embassies and missions within two months,” the joint statement said. It added that the Iranian and Saudi foreign ministers will meet to “implement this decision and make the necessary arrangements for the exchange of ambassadors.”

According to the statement, Iran and Saudi Arabia highlighted the need to respect each others’ national sovereignty and refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of one another. They agreed to implement a security cooperation agreement signed in April 2001 and another accord reached in May 1998 to boost economic, commercial, investment, technical, scientific, cultural, sports and youth affairs cooperation.
Iran, Saudi Arabia and China expressed their firm determination to make their utmost efforts to promote regional and international peace and security, it emphasized.
Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic relations with Iran in January 2016 after Iranian protesters, enraged by the execution of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr by the Saudi government, stormed its embassy in Tehran.
Speaking after signing the agreement, Shamkhani said the negotiations between the two countries were “frank, transparent, comprehensive.”
“Clearing up the misunderstandings and looking to the future in Tehran-Riyadh relations will definitely lead to the development of regional stability and security and the increase of cooperation between the countries of the Persian Gulf and the Islamic world to manage the existing challenges,” he said.

Saudi Arabia and Iran agree to reestablish
diplomatic relations in China-brokered deal
Arab News, AP, AFP, Friday 10 Mar 2023

Iran and Saudi Arabia on Friday agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations and reopen embassies after years of tensions between the two countries in a deal that was brokered by China.The foreign ministers of both countries will meet to activate the agreement, arrange the exchange of ambassadors, and discuss ways to strengthen relations.
In Friday's statement, Iran and Saudi Arabia said they "thank the Republic of Iraq and the Sultanate of Oman for hosting the talks held between the two sides in 2021 and 2022 as well as the leaders and government of the People's Republic of China for hosting and supporting the talks held in that country."

Shortly after the news broke, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett took to his official Twitter account on Friday to express his concerns regarding the renewal of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Bennett said: "The renewal of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran is a serious and dangerous development for Israel and is a political victory for Iran. This is a fatal blow to the effort to build a regional coalition against Iran."

Reactions to Iran and Saudi Arabia resuming ties
Webinfo, 10-3-2023


-- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the deal and praised China, Oman and Iraq for promoting the talks. "Good neighbourly relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia are essential for the stability of the Gulf region," UN spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement. "The Secretary-General reiterates his readiness to use his good offices to further advance regional dialogue to ensure durable peace and security in the Gulf region," he said.
-- Chief Negotiator of Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi Movement, Mohammed Abdulsalam "The region needs the resumption of normal ties between its countries for the Islamic nation to reclaim its lost security as a result of foreign interference."
-- Hezbollah: The Head of Lebanon's powerful armed group said the resumption of ties between its backer, Iran, and long time rival, Saudi Arabia, was a "good development".
-- Hamas Movement welcomed in a statement the resumption of relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia. "Such a move serves the Palestinian cause..."
-- Oman Foreign Minister, Badr Albusaidi: "This is a win-win for everyone and will benefit regional and global security. We hope, in the longer term, there's also potential for increasing economic benefits for all."
-- Anwar Gargash, Diplomatic Adviser to United Arab Emirates President: "We welcome the agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran to resume diplomatic relations, and we hail the Chinese role in this regard," he tweeted. "The UAE believes in the importance of positive communication and dialogue among the countries of the region..."
-- Qatar: Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, who also acts as Foreign Minister, called the foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia to welcome the deal.
-- Iraq State News Agency: Iraq welcomes "turning a new page" between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
-- Egypt Foreign Ministry: We hope that the agreement will contribute to easing of tension in the region.
-- The Bahraini, Algerian, Turkish, Lebanese and Sudanese foreign ministries all released statements welcoming the agreement.
-- The Muslim World League issued a statement voicing its welcoming of the agreement late on Friday. Hussain Ibrahim Taha, Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation said the agreement would contribute to “strengthening the pillars of peace, security and stability in the region” and would “give a new impetus to cooperation” among the member states of the OIC, SPA said.

-- Israeli-Jewish reactions: The Saudi-Iran deal is a dangerous development that strips Israel of its regional defensive wall against Iran, former prime minister Yair Lapid said on Friday. “The agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran reflects the complete and dangerous failure of the Israeli government's foreign policy.”
"The deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia is extremely bad for Israel," Israeli Knesset member and the head of the Knesset Foreign Relations Committee Yuli Edelstein said. "It is time to sit down, talk, and resolve our disputes so we can go back to being united in the face of the existential threat we are facing; only that way will we be victorious."
-- The Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA): “Unfortunately, the deal is further evidence of the damage being done to US interests by President Biden’s misguided Middle East policies,” John Hannah, the Randi & Charles Wax Senior Fellow at JINSA, said. “A pattern of exhibiting weakness toward our enemies and contempt toward our friends has generated a predictable effort by countries like Saudi Arabia to fend for themselves any way they can. [..] It’s a significant blow both to US efforts to isolate and contain Iran, but perhaps more importantly to Washington’s larger great-power competition with a rising China determined to undermine the U.S.-led order—not just in East Asia but across key regions of the world, especially the Middle East.”

The Middle East frees itself from the West
by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network | France,| 14 March 2023

The reconciliation between Saudi Arabia, leader of the Sunni Muslim world, and Iran, leader of the Shiite Muslim world, finally makes possible an era of peace in the Middle East.
It was made possible by Russia, ally of the two enemy brothers, and negotiated first in Iraq and Oman before being concluded by China, Iran’s millennial ally, acting impartially.
This agreement closes eleven years of wars and Western influence.
It was a momentous event, the importance of which is not perceived outside the Middle East: Saudi Arabia and Iran reconciled... in China. Three signatures at the bottom of a document reshuffle all the cards in this region.

Since the 19th century, the Arab world was first dominated by the United Kingdom and France on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire, then by the United States.
These powers brought both freedom and oppression. The United Kingdom excelled in dividing the actors in the region and manipulating them against each other so as to exploit the region’s wealth with minimal military involvement.
France was divided between the worst kind of colonizers and the most enlightened decolonizers. The United States has always had an imperial vision of the region, with the exception of a few years at the end of the Second World War when it supported the nationalists.

This period has just ended with the arrival of China. As always, China has watched for a very long time and acted slowly, with unwavering perseverance. These agreements were preceded by long negotiations, first in Iraq and then in Oman..
For 7 years, the Middle East has been paralyzed. No conflict can evolve because it always opposes the two sides of Islam. This is exactly what the West wanted and what Israel has maintained. It is not surprising, therefore, that the only people who have been outraged by the Saudi-Iranian peace are Israelis.
The agreement just signed was negotiated by China on the basis of non-interference in internal affairs...
The international relations that Beijing and Moscow are promoting are based on mutual respect and not on confrontation. To the division and wars of the West, they oppose exchanges, trade and collaboration.


Israel News - The Occupation
Has Defeated the State of Israel
Gideon Levy, Haaretz, Mar 12, 2023

The occupation is at the root of most of the evils Israelis are now demonstrating against.... It is the root of all evil.
If not for it, Israel would be a better place; if not for it, many of the forces of destruction would not be so strong. That is why it is time to admit that the occupation and the settlements have defeated the State of Israel. They won, and it collapses under them. What began in the June 1967 Six-Day War and the April 1968 Passover seder at the Park Hotel in Hebron reached the very heart of the country, settled in it, ate it from the inside and caused it to rot....

If there is no occupation, there are no settlements – and if there are no settlements, there is no Bezalel Smotrich, no Itamar Ben-Gvir and no Simcha Rothman. Simple as that. If there is no occupation, there are not so many kippa wearers in every nexus of power. If there is no lust for annexation and greed for territory, there is no Yariv Levin. If there was no occupation, there would still be racism, but less. Maybe even Benjamin Netanyahu would have been different. All of Israeli politics would have been different, had maintaining the occupation not become its main goal.
The occupation gave birth to the new, generic Israeli wheeler-dealer: a bully, accountable to no one. Aggressive, usually ignorant. Dismissive of law and order, of the world. Everything is permitted, including lying, for the sake of the Land of Israel.


See also: Gideon Levy's Struggle

If not for the occupation, there would be no judicial coup. Yes, it’s that extreme. The judiciary – not the worst system in Israel’s government – was chosen as a target for the upheaval mainly because it is the last check on the final release of the reins. Even with the legal system as it is, it’s possible to do nearly anything in the territories, but its elimination will loosen the last restraint.

My message to Benjamin Netanyahu: stop your coup
Yuval Noah Harari, The Guardian 7-3-2023

Don’t let anybody fool you: what this government is carrying out is not a judicial reform, it is an anti-democratic coup.
Coups are not always carried out with tanks in the streets. .. History is full of dictatorships established by people who first came to power through legal means. It’s the oldest trick in the book: first you use the law to gain power, then you use your power to distort the law. When examined together, the laws this government is currently legislating have one simple meaning (and you don’t need a PhD in law to get it): if these laws are passed, the government will have the power to completely destroy our freedom.
Sixty-one members of Knesset [the Israeli parliament, with 120 members] could pass any racist, oppressive and anti-democratic law they think of; 61 members of Knesset could also change the electoral system, to stop us from replacing the regime.
When we ask the leaders of this coup what will keep the power of the government in check under the new regime, and what will protect basic human rights, they only have one answer: “trust us”.


Syria’s Assad arrives in Russia for talks with Putin
Al-Monitor Staff, March 14, 2023

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flew to Russia on Tuesday (march 14), where he will be meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time in two years.
The Assad-Putin meeting will take place in Moscow on Wednesday, Russia’s official news agency, Tass, reported. The talks will focus on political, trade and humanitarian cooperation, as well as the situation in Syria, according to Reuters.
Assad and Putin last met in 2021 — also in Moscow. Assad also visited Russia in 2015, 2017 and 2018. Putin visited Assad in Syria in 2017 and 2020, per Tass.

Why it matters:
Russia is hosting Syrian and Turkish diplomats on Wednesday as part of its efforts to further thaw relations between the two countries. Turkey backs various rebel groups in Syria fighting Assad’s government, and relations were severed in 2012.
However, Turkey has begun to recalibrate its position now that Assad has retaken most of the country with Russia’s help. In December, the Turkish and Syrian defense chiefs held a meeting in Russia. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also said that month that he would like to meet with Assad.
Wednesday’s meeting between the Turkish and Syrian diplomats in Moscow was announced earlier, but Assad’s visit was not.


ICC issues arrest warrant against Putin
as part of US-NATO propaganda campaign for regime change
Joseph Kishore, World Socialist Website, 18-3-2023

On Friday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, for alleged war crimes.
The arrest warrants specifically allege “the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”
The official filing of warrants were approved by judges in the ICC and announced by Karim A. A. Khan, a British lawyer and the ICC’s chief prosecutor. It follows months of propaganda, spearheaded by the Biden administration, alleging “crimes against humanity” and “genocide” on the part of the Russian government.
While the existence of the warrants was made public, the supposed evidence underlying them was not. The specific claims of the “unlawful deportation” of children have been promoted in the US media, including the New York Times, based on unsubstantiated allegations by the Biden administration and the Ukrainian government....

As with the previous charges of war crimes, the US-led campaign is characterized by a staggering level of hypocrisy.
By any objective standard, every US administration in recent memory is guilty of crimes far worse than any that have been alleged against Putin: From the nuclear obliteration of two Japanese cities at the end of the Second World War; to the leveling of North Korea between 1950-1953, to the point where not a single building was left standing; to the mass slaughter and pyrochemical incineration that was the US-led Vietnam War; through the thirty years of unending and expanding war that followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
The state leading the campaign for war crimes charges against Putin is responsible for torture at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, the bombing of wedding parties and other civilian gatherings in Afghanistan, the Guantanamo Bay prison, and drone assassination.
Since the issue of the mistreatment of children is raised in the arrest warrants, we should recall the infamous statement by then US ambassador to the United Nations, Madeleine Albright, who declared in 1996, in reference to half a million dead children from US-backed sanctions against Iraq, “We think the price is worth it.”

The United States does not even recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC out of concern that it could at some point be used to indict and prosecute American government officials.
While the Rome Statute, under which the warrant against Putin has been issued, was signed by Bill Clinton, he never sent it to the Senate for ratification. In 2002, as his lawyers were drawing up memoranda intended to justify “preemptive war” and torture, President George W. Bush informed the UN that the US no longer intended to ratify the statute.
In 2020, the Trump administration announced that it was placing economic sanctions and travel restrictions on ICC investigators after they began looking into charges of war crimes, including torture, rape and sexual violence, by the US military in Afghanistan and at CIA torture centers in Eastern Europe. The ICC’s new prosecutor, Khan, dropped the investigation of US torture in 2021, shortly after he was appointed.

The charges of war crimes are part of an effort to brand the Putin government as an outlaw regime, justifying a war for regime change, which has as its aim the dismantling of Russia.
The New York Times, which functions as a channel for US intelligence agencies, wrote in its article on the warrants (”Arrest Warrant From Criminal Court Pierces Putin’s Aura of Impunity”) that they put “Mr. Putin in the same ranks as Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the deposed president of Sudan, accused of atrocities in Darfur; Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian leader imprisoned for abuses during the Balkans war; and the Nazis tried at Nuremberg after World War II.”
The message is that whatever the immediate impact of the charges, they are intended as a signal, not only to Putin but also to Xi, that the war will be escalated until Putin ends up with a similar fate as Milosevic.

None of this implies support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine or the actions of the Putin government... But the United States systematically provoked the war and now, more than one year after it began, is preparing a massive and catastrophic escalation.


President al-Assad arrives in UAE on an official visit
accompanied by Mrs. Asma al-Assad
SANA [Syria], 19 March، 2023

President Bashar al-Assad arrived on Sunday at noon in the United Arab Emirates on an official visit, accompanied by the First Lady Mrs. Asma al-Assad.
Upon his arrival at the presidential airport in Abu Dhabi, he was received by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Upon entering the UAE airspace, President al-Assad’s plane was accompanied by several warplanes, welcoming his visit.
Later, President al-Assad headed to Qasr Al Watan to start talks with Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates.
Mrs. Asma al-Assad will meet with the “Mother of the Emirates”, Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Chairwoman of the General Women’s Union (GWU), President of the Supreme Council for Motherhood & Childhood, Supreme President of the Family Development Foundation.

President al-Assad is accompanied by a delegation that includes Dr. Samer al-Khalil, Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade, Mansour Azzam, Minister of Presidential Affairs, Dr. Boutros Hallaq, Minister of Information, Dr. Ayman Sousan, Assistant Foreign and Expatriates Minister, and Dr. Ghassan Abbas, Chargé d’affaires of the Syrian Embassy in Abu Dhabi.

Time for Syria to return to Arab fold,
UAE president tells Assad during visit
by Hashem Osseiran, March 19, 2023

The UAE's president on Sunday told his Syrian counterpart it was time for diplomatically isolated Damascus to be reintegrated into the wider Arab region during a meeting in Abu Dhabi, state media reported.
The trip by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad -- his second to the oil-rich United Arab Emirates in as many years -- comes after a visit to Oman last month, his only official engagements in Arab countries since the start of Syria's war in 2011.
It coincides with amplified engagement by Arab states towards the Damascus government which has been politically isolated in the region since the start of Syria's war and was expelled from the Cairo-based Arab League in 2011...
"Syria has been absent from its brothers for too long, and the time has come for it to return to them and to its Arab surroundings," Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan told Assad during a meeting at the presidential palace, according to the official WAM news agency.
The Emirati president called for efforts to facilitate the repatriation of Syrian refugees and endorsed engagement between Damascus and Ankara, which is now working towards a rapprochement with Assad after years of supporting rebels fighting his government, according to WAM...
During Sunday's meeting, Assad praised the UAE's role in strengthening relations between Arab countries..
The Syrian president criticised the policy of severing ties between Arab states as an "incorrect principle in politics", arguing that relations should be "fraternal"...


Israel News: Smotrich in Paris:
There is no such thing as a Palestinian people
Arutz Sheva [Israel], Mar 20, 2023

[Israeli] Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich spoke at an event in Paris on Sunday night, during which he stated that "the Palestinian people are an invention that is less than 100 years old."
Speaking at a tribute event in memory of Likud activist Jacques Kupfer, Smotrich said, "Jacques' truth must be told with all our might and without confusion, he said there is no such thing as Palestinians - because there is no such thing as a Palestinian people. We need to tell the truth without bowing to the lies and distortions of history, and without succumbing to the hypocrisy of BDS and the pro-Palestinian organizations."
Smotrich noted the rules of international law and said that "the rules have five characteristics that define a nation - history, culture, language, currency and historical leadership. Who was the first Palestinian king? What language do the Palestinians have? Has there ever been a Palestinian currency? Is there a Palestinian history or culture? There isn’t any."
"There are Arabs who are in the Middle East and who arrived in the Land of Israel at the same time as the Jewish Aliyah and the early days of Zionism.

After 2,000 years of exile, the people of Israel are returning home, and there are Arabs around who do not like it. So what do they do? They invent a fictitious people and claim fictitious rights in the Land of Israel just to fight the Zionist movement," added the Minister of Finance.

"This truth should be heard here in the Elysee Palace. This truth should also be heard by the Jewish people in the State of Israel who are a little confused, this truth should be heard in the White House in Washington. The whole world needs to hear this truth, because it is the truth - and the truth will win," said Smotrich



Jordan Foreign Ministry slams Smotrich
over 'Greater Israel' map - I24NEWS | YNet, 20-3-2023

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry on Monday condemned Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for his appearance in Paris the night before where a map of "Greater Israel" was presented that included the West Bank and the Kingdom of Jordan within Israel's borders.


Bezalel Smotrich and a 'Greater Israel' map that includes Jordan

A spokesperson for the Jordanian Foreign Ministry called the Israeli treasurer's presentation “incitement” and a violation of the peace agreement between Israel and Jordan.
"We also condemn the racist, inciting, and extreme statements of the extreme Israeli minister against the Palestinian people and their right to exist. These are dangerous statements. The Israeli government must express a clear position towards this extreme conduct and against these inciting statements,” the ministry’s statement said.
In an apparent act of damage control, the Foreign Ministry had to issue a statement clarifying that Jerusalem was committed to the peace agreement with the neighboring monarchy.

America’s moment in the Middle East
Could US hegemony in the Middle East be coming to an end?
Ahmed Mustafa, Ahram online [Egypt], 21 Mar 2023

As an old adage goes, what goes up must come down. This is also the conclusion that has been drawn by many analysts regarding the US role in the Middle East. While this is not a new line of thinking, for many years it has been confined to niche circles.
However, the recent Chinese mediation between Iran and Saudi Arabia has revived talk of the dwindling role of the US in the Middle East region.
China’s proactive diplomacy has targeted a strategic foothold in a region traditionally known to be under US hegemony, and it coincides with Russia’s mediation in bringing Turkey and Syria together.

The US Biden administration has made it clear that its priority is to face up to China and Russia.
In doing so, it hopes to create a “wider Western alliance” led by Washington. One of the leading campaign lines from US President Joe Biden before he was elected and from his Democratic Party was that then Republican president Donald Trump had damaged the US global position.
Yet, today Russia and China seem to be making good progress on ending the post-Cold War world order of a single superpower in the shape of the US.
While it is far from certain that the path being taken by Moscow and Beijing, along with other rising powers, has yet born fruit, the trend that began at the turn of the century, with blocs like the group of emerging BRICS economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has been pushing for a multi-polar world.

Theories like those of US political scientist Francis Fukuyama’s “end of history” scenario put forward in the 1990s have proved to represent a kind of philosophical euphoria. “The universalisation of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government” has not materialised as Fukuyama then suggested.
Instead, the US embarked on vast military interventions, often in the Middle East region, in order to galvanise its world leadership. Most of these interventions ended in failure, and the New World Order that was supposed to be enforced by the US and the West was never established...
The last decade has witnessed a sort of paradigm shift in the region, with regime change in many countries and the rise of a new generation of leaders almost free of the tradition of looking up to Washington...
National-interest based alliances have become a new trend.
The oil-rich Arab Gulf States have started to forge stronger relations with China, Russia, India, South Africa and other emerging economies. The initial motive was economic, but it was inevitable that there would also be some level of overlap in political affairs....

Most Arab capitals successfully ignored the pressure from the US over the Ukraine war, and while they did not directly show support for Russia, they refused to take part in the economic strangulation of Moscow enforced by the US and its Western allies. This was a golden opportunity for China to step in as a major player in the region and to secure a reliable energy source to support its accelerated economic development...
The US is still an important ally, in part due to a web of mutual interests that go back decades. But the US no longer has a monopoly of the region, and its grip has loosened.

BRICS News
Algeria's Membership, March 22, 2023

The BRICS association is currently working on development of criteria for admission of new members, and decision on new members will be made by all five countries, Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko told reporters.
"BRICS member states [Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa], the five, agreed that they will develop common clear mechanisms of admission of other states to this structure. This also indicates the seriousness of the organization: not to [admit] everyone at once under unclear principles. Such work on development of criteria for expansion of BRICS is underway. It will be decided by the five BRICS member states," Matviyenko said.
The Speaker called Algeria’s membership application a reputable one.
"Among the countries that would also like to join, I would call it [Algeria’s application - TASS] a rather strong and leading one," Matviyenko noted, adding that Algeria has all chances to become one of the first states to join the association’s work.
Earlier, Matviyenko said after her meeting with the President of Algeria Abdelmadjid Tebboune that Russia will support Algeria’s intent to join BRICS.
Algeria, which attended the last BRICS summit in June 2022 as an invited member, argued that its application was based on the need to open up commercially to other states seeking "parity and equality".
In late September 2022 Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with his Algerian counterpart, Ramtane Lamamra, in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session, and said he supported Algeria "in its role as the rotating president of the Arab League and the smooth running of the Arab summit, and welcomes its accession to the BRICS family".


Saudi Arabia to invite Syria's Assad to Arab League summit:
By Middle East Eye staff, 3 April 2023

Saudi Arabia plans to invite Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to an Arab League summit in Riyadh in May, a move that could cement Assad’s return to the Arab fold after a decade of isolation.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan is expected to travel to Damascus in the coming weeks to personally deliver a formal invitation to Assad, according to Reuters, which first reported the news.
The Arab League summit is scheduled for 19 May. The Syrian leader’s visit would coincide with Saudi Arabia and Syria's plans to reopen their embassies after the holy month of Ramadan at the end of April, Reuters reported earlier.
The uptick in talks between Saudi Arabia and Syria follows Riyadh’s move in March to re-establish ties with Iran, one of Damascus’ main backers.
Diplomatic efforts have also picked up in the wake of the two massive earthquakes in Turkey and Syria in February. Saudi Arabia sent aid to government-controlled Aleppo in the first such flight in 11 years.
Reviving ties with Saudi Arabia would be a major breakthrough for Assad, who has been on a diplomatic blitz of the region. He visited Oman in February for the first time since his country’s civil war erupted. The following month he travelled to the UAE, accompanied by his wife Asma.
The kingdom has suggested that Syria’s reentry to the Arab League could be an end goal of closer engagement. Prince Faisal previously called the status quo in war-ravaged Syria “untenable”.
Egypt, the historic leader of the group, is working with Saudi Arabia to facilitate Damascus’ return, according to Reuters. On Saturday, Syria's foreign minister met his Egyptian counterpart in Cairo for the first such visit in more than a decade.


flashback - 'arab spring': us-qatar-cooperation-2011|13

Assad is still viewed as a pariah in much of the West... The US remains opposed to normalisation. Regional powers like Qatar have also ruled out normalising ties with Assad...

The reintegration of Syria
Hussein Haridy (former assistant foreign minister)
Ahram online, Tuesday 4 Apr 2023

In June 2012, then Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi announced the severing of Egypt’s diplomatic relations with Syria before a huge gathering fewer than 48 hours after a tweet issued by the late preacher Youssef Al-Qaradawi in which he requested the Egyptian government to take this step.
In parallel with this highly regrettable decision, Morsi asked the Egyptian Military to train recruits in the rag-tag “Free Syrian Army,” in reality nothing but a Muslim Brotherhood armed militia.
The misplaced fervour to install Islamist regimes in two key Arab powers, Egypt and Syria, reached a high point in 2012 when western, regional, and Arab support for the so-called Syrian Revolution was at its height.
Turkey had hosted meetings of the intelligence services of some Western countries in addition to their Arab counterparts with a view to providing arms to the armed militias in Syria to help them topple the Syrian government.

Eleven years later, and after a decade that saw the successful overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt in June-July 2013 and then the direct military intervention in Syria to bolster the Syrian government in September 2015, the Middle East is now a different place.
The enemies and adversaries of yesterday have opted for the return of the status quo ante before the autumn of the Arab world that started in 2011 and lasted until the Arab Summit meeting in Algiers last November that finally met after a hiatus of three years.

The Arab League Charter stipulates that regular Arab Summits should convene once a year.
The three years in which there was no summit meeting should be seen as the result of the Arab world crossing a treacherous and dangerous decade in which the very concept of the nation-state was threatened by foreign-backed Islamists of every stripe, from those who claimed that they eschewed violence, like the Muslim Brotherhood, to those that did not, like Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) group.
From the second half of 2013 until 2017, the so-called “Islamic State” group held sway in a vast expanse of territory that stretched from the eastern part of Syria to areas north of the Iraqi capital and to Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq. Had the Syrians and the Russians not agreed on military cooperation in 2015, Syria would also most probably have fallen into the hands of a terrorist organisation...

History, geography, and the winds of change on three levels, the international, the regional, and the Arab, have now pushed for a reassessment of Arab political and diplomatic relations with Syria..
The most interesting recent development has been the restoration of Saudi consular services in Damascus and, on the basis of reciprocity, Syrian consular services in Saudi Arabia last week. This was a welcome decision that came after the Chinese-brokered agreement on 10 March between Saudi Arabia and Iran to resume their diplomatic relations, severed in early 2016, after a period of two months...
It will not come as a surprise if Egypt and Syria announce the resumption of their bilateral diplomatic relations in the next few weeks prior to the next Arab Summit meeting in Saudi Arabia. This will also be a prelude to righting the destabilising and historic wrong of suspending Syria from the Arab League. In all honesty, Egypt should have opposed this decision or at least abstained from it...

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