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)
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)
"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."
"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)
In the closing days of 2023, the Biden Administration once again announced a large military aid package for Ukraine, this time a “mere” quarter of a billion dollars. Without a new authorization of funds from Congress, it is said to be the last bit of money left over from the more than $100 billion already authorized by Congress for the proxy war with Russia through Ukraine.
President Biden’s request for an additional $100 billion to spread around Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan was rejected by a Congress eager for its winter break, and with each passing day it looks like it’s going to be harder to push it through.
Poll after poll show that Americans are increasingly opposed to more of their money being spent on the neocon’s lost-cause war to overthrow Putin in Russia.
For example, a recent Fox News poll revealed that more than 60 percent of Republican voters do not want any more money sent to Ukraine. As we enter an election year, it’s probably safe to predict that Republican candidates will be wary of crossing the wishes of the clear majority of voters.
That is why the Biden Administration has been desperately trying to re-frame its request for more Ukraine war money as anything but a request for more Ukraine war money.
For example, they even brought back the old discredited “domino theory” used to justify US actions in the Vietnam war. If we don’t stop Putin in Ukraine, Biden said in December, then he will keep going into western Europe where we will be forced to fight him there.
On Christmas night, President Vladimir Putin attended Christmas service at the Church of the Icon of Saviour Not Made by Hands in Novo-Ogaryovo together with families of service personnel who died in the special military operation zone. (Sputnik International, 7-1-2024)
On the one hand, supporters of the Ukraine war warn that Russia is about to reconstitute the Soviet empire in Europe, while at the same time the same people tell us Russia is out of missiles and on its last leg. One more infusion of US money will end the “Russian threat” once and for all. Both of these things cannot be true at once. In fact, neither of them is true.
But still the Administration, much of Congress, and an insatiable military-industrial complex keep selling the lies.
Last month Secretary of State Antony Blinken inadvertently revealed what exactly all the spending for war is about when he stated that as much as 90 percent of the aid for Ukraine is actually spent in the United States.
The money is used “to the benefit of American business, local communities, and strengthening the US defense industrial base,” he said in an interview. In other words, the money “for Ukraine” is actually a massive welfare program for well-connected military contractors back home.
As we begin the year 2024, we need to home in on the real threat to the United States.
It is not Russia or China or Iran. The true threat is closer to home: it is a corrupt system that bleeds the country dry to fight imaginary enemies while enriching the military-industrial complex.
For the New Year, Congress should resolve to end the stranglehold of the military-industrial complex by reining in out-of-control military spending. Members should simply vote “no” on military spending bills until they are drafted to benefit the American people rather than the Beltway elite. I don’t hold out much hope of this happening in the short run, but it only takes a few dedicated Members to make a real difference.
Russian and Iranian national wealth funds are planning to establish joint investment committees for realization of different oil, gas, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, high-tech and other projects, the Iranian National Development Fund’s Deputy Director of Foreign Investment, Hossein Eivazloo, has said.
"We decided … to establish joint investment committees between the two national wealth funds of Russia and Iran and review projects under proposal … Both Iran and the Russian side will invest 50% each," Eivazloo said, as quoted by the IRNA news agency.
Tehran and Moscow have been cooperating on the issue for a long time and have held a number of meetings and exchanged agreements, the official said, adding that both countries approved models of cooperation and that Iran was waiting for the approval of the Russian National Wealth Fund’s board of trustees, according to the report.
At the same time, Eivazloo has revealed Tehran’s plans to set up joint investment funds with Oman, Saudi Arabia and African countries.
Iran has already signed agreements on joint development funds' establishment with seven of 10 member states of the Economic Cooperation Organization, Eivazloo added.
The Iraqi government is beginning the process to remove the US-led international military coalition from the country, Prime Minister Mohammed Shiaa al-Sudani’s office said on Friday.
The US keeps 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq on a mission it says advises and assists local forces trying to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State (ISIS) extremist group, which in 2014 seized large parts of both countries before being defeated.
Analysts expressed scepticism about the readiness of Iraq’s government to maintain the fight against ISIS on its own or rein in Pro-Iran militias. But pressures from Iran and its proxies seem to have become unbearable for Sudani.
Sudani’s statement came a day after a US strike killed Mushtaq Jawad Kazim al-Jawari, a leader of a faction of the Iran-backed Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), prompting anger among Iran-aligned groups which demanded the government end the presence of the coalition in Iraq.
"The US military launched Thursday’s strike in retaliation against recent attacks on US personnel", the Pentagon said.
Iran-aligned militia groups in Iraq and Syria carry out “calibrated” attacks against Israel and the US to show solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Iraqi PM Sudani has limited control over some Iran-backed factions, whose support he needed to win power a year ago and who now form a powerful bloc in his governing coalition.
A political adviser close to the Iraqi prime minister said Sudani was falling under huge pressure from powerful Shia parties close to Iran seeking to end the US presence in Iraq and his recent statement was aimed at “appeasing angry parties within the governing Shi’ite coalition against the United States”.
Still, it was unclear if Baghdad’s announcement on Friday was mainly posturing for internal, political purposes or if the newly announced committee would truly set into motion an inexorable process to end America’s military presence in Iraq, a longtime goal of Iran and groups Iran supports.
The Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment following the announcement from Sudani’s office,
Poll: Americans have no Idea what Biden Means
when he says he is a Zionist, or What Israel’s Ideology is Juan Cole 01/08/2024
Shibley Telhami and Michael Hammer have a new commentary out based on their polling at the University of Maryland’s Critical Issues Poll during the past year. One of the three issues they address is Israel/ Palestine.
They found that 62% of Americans have no idea what Zionism is.
Zionism is, of course, a form of Jewish nationalism born in Central Europe in the late 19th century, which seeks to turn the Jewish religion into a platform for a state, and which excludes non-Jews from sovereignty over territory claimed by this Jewish state.
In the case of Palestine, this ideology has produced the statelessness of Palestinians under Israeli occupation and has made citizens of Israel of Palestinian heritage into second-class citizens.
The mantra often found among US politicians, that Israel must be democratic and Jewish, reflects the ethnic supremacism implicit in Zionist thinking. What would happen, for instance, if the proportion of Israelis of non-Jewish heritage rose to become a majority?
If the state must be “Jewish,” this development would presumably require the expulsion or disenfranchisement of non-Jews. Saying that Israel must be democratic and Jewish is like saying the United States must be democratic and white or democratic and Christian.
Joe Biden says he is a Zionist, and given his behavior during the past three months, I think we have to conclude that he is an extreme sort of Zionist.
It is baffling that the overwhelming majority of Americans doesn’t even know what he means when he says this, or what the ideology is of the country that receives more US aid than any other in the world.
Interestingly, 12% of Americans have a negative perception of Zionism, and 8% have a positive one. Some 19% don’t care one way or another. Presumably this 39% comprises the bulk of those who say they know what Zionism is.
Americans who view Zionism negatively are more likely to be Democrats or Independents than Republicans, though the spread is not that great (8% are Republicans, 13% Democrats, 14% independents).
Some 15% of Americans believe that criticizing Israeli policies is a form of antisemitism (bigotry toward Jews). Only 37% say that such criticism does not constitute anti-Jewish prejudice. 48% don’t know.
The big takeaway from the University of Maryland poll for me is that the corporate news media have again failed to do their job.
Americans are not being educated about the world in which they live, which is consequential for our own democracy.
If we are simply ignorant, it is more likely that we will get policy wrong and that we will give away our birthright as a free people with a Bill of Rights.
As the longest and bloodiest Israeli war on Gaza entered its 100th day, Israel is facing growing pressure domestically and internationally to stop its most destructive war on the Palestinian territories in 75 years.
Thousands of demonstrators around the world rallied on Saturday to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, while children joined a pro-Palestinian march through central London as part of a global day of action against Israeli atrocities.
More than 23,000 casualties have been reported in Gaza since the war erupted on 7 October. Israel's relentless airstrikes and a ground offensive have resulted in unparalleled destruction, leveling entire neighborhoods. This offensive has led to the displacement of the majority of Palestinians in Gaza, the closure of over half of the territory's hospitals, and widespread hunger, according to UN monitors.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees Philippe Lazzarini said, during a visit to the Gaza Strip on Saturday, "The massive death, destruction, displacement, hunger, loss and grief of the last 100 days are staining our shared humanity."
After the Hague-based International Court of Justice heard arguments this week that accused Israel of breaching the UN Genocide Convention, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted no court or military foe could stop Israel from achieving its aim of destroying Hamas.
Iranian President Seyed Ebrahim Rayeesi said that the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip laid bare the inefficiency of several international organizations, stressing that the occupation will not bring legitimacy to the Zionist regime.
During a conference on Palestine held in Tehran on Sunday, President Rayeesi expressed regret over inaction and ineffectiveness of several world bodies, including the United Nations, the UN Security Council, the Arab League as well as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) regarding the Israeli war on Gaza which has so far killed nearly 24,000 civilians, mainly children and women.
He condemned the Zionist regime’s brutal military campaign against Gazans, adding that the Israeli regime has violated more than 400 international resolutions, treaties and statements and breached the measures passed by international bodies.
Describing the US, the main supporter of Israel in the war on Palestine, as the biggest violator of human rights, the president stressed that Washington only pursues its own objectives.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Iran’s president said "the continuation of occupation brings neither ownership, nor legitimacy".
“Which legal system and legal school of thought in the world would accept that continued occupation leads to ownership and legitimacy?” Rayeesi asked rhetorically.
He stated the only option for the struggle against the Zionist regime is resistance, a current that has prevailed in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and other parts of the Islamic world.
London is ready to support the United States in repeated airstrikes on the positions of Yemen's Ansar Allah (Houthi) rebels, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said.
"We have sent an unambiguous message: what the Houthis are doing is wrong, and we are determined to put a stop to it. We will work with allies. We wil always defend the freedom of navigation. And, crucially, we will be prepared to back words with actions," Cameron wrote in an article published in The Sunday Telegraph.
In the early morning hours of January 12, UK and UK forces attacked Houthi targets in a number of Yemeni cities, including Dhamar, Saada, Sana'a, Taiz and Hodeidah.
Cameron pointed out that London and Washington "did not rush into these strikes" and had repeatedly warned the Houthis of the consequences of attacking ships in the Red Sea.
"The Houthi contention that this is all about Israel and Gaza is nonsense. They've attacked ships from countries all over the world, heading to destinations right across the globe. Our joint action will have gone some way to degrade Houthi capabilities built up with Iranian backing. We targeted sites from which we know their attacks were launched. We will carefully assess the impact of what has been done," Cameron added.
After the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis warned that they would launch strikes on Israeli territory and would not allow ships associated with it to pass through the waters of the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait until the operation in the Palestinian enclave stopped.
The US army is reinforcing air defenses at its military bases in the Conoco and Al-Omar oilfields in northeast Syria, in response to continued attacks by the Iraqi resistance, Sputnik reported on 17 January.
According to the Sputnik correspondent, US troops have deployed a surveillance balloon over the base in the Al-Omar field and a number of anti-aircraft artillery platforms near the Conoco base.
The US army “launched a surveillance balloon equipped with high-precision surveillance technologies to detect movements in the vicinity of the base, in addition to imaging devices,” the correspondent said.
Sputnik noted that a surveillance balloon had already been set up over the Conoco base months ago.
“This time, they deployed anti-surface-to-air missile platforms, in addition to the ground-based anti-missile platforms already located in the vicinity of the base,” the correspondent went on to say, adding that these measures aim to repel drone and missile attacks.
These attacks intensified significantly following Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, after Iraqi resistance groups banded together under one coalition to attack US bases in Iraq and Syria – in response to Israel’s assault on Gaza and Washington’s support of it.
The attacks on US bases also aimed to speed up the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, which Baghdad is also attempting to facilitate diplomatically.
However, Washington has shown no intention of withdrawing its forces from either Syria or Iraq.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Monday that the way Israel is carrying out its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip is “seeding hate for generations.”
Borrell spoke ahead of separate talks EU ministers are holding Monday with Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz and the Palestinian Authority’s top diplomat, Riyad al-Maliki.
“We have in mind what Hamas is, what Hamas has done, and certainly we reject and we condemn,” Borell told reporters. “But the peace and stability cannot be built only by military means, and not in this particular way of using military means.” Borrell has been among the Western officials who have criticized the number of civilian casualties in Gaza.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says at least 25,295 Palestinians have been killed, many of them women and children. The ministry does not specify the number of civilians and Hamas fighters among the dead.
“The humanitarian situation could not be worse,” Borrell said. “There [are] no words to explain how the situation is, with hundreds of thousands without anything, without shelter, without food, without medicine and under the bombs. And every day, there is a high toll of civilian people being killed.”
The fighting in Gaza continued Monday with Israeli airstrikes targeting Hamas militants in the northern, central and southern regions. Airstrikes and fierce fighting were reported in the southern city of Khan Younis, the second-largest city in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said its ambulances were unable to reach the wounded in Khan Younis due to Israeli troops besieging the group’s ambulance center. Netanyahu on Sunday rejected a proposal by Hamas to end the war.
“In exchange for the release of our hostages,” the Israeli leader said in a statement, “Hamas demands the end of the war, the withdrawal of our forces from Gaza, the release of all the murderers and rapists. And leaving Hamas intact." "I reject outright the terms of surrender of the monsters of Hamas..." Netanyahu said that he has faced down "international and internal pressures" to change his position on Palestinian statehood.
Hamas on Sunday defended its terror attack on Israel but admitted to "faults" and called for an end to "Israeli aggression" in Gaza.
In its first public report on the attack that began the war, the militant group said it was a “necessary step" against Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, and a way to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners.
Discussing his administration's position Friday, US president Joe Biden said, “There are a number of types of two-state solutions.” Asked if a two-state solution was impossible with Netanyahu in office, Biden replied, “No, it’s not.”
"Last week's clear and repeated rejection of the two-state solution at the highest levels of the Israeli government is unacceptable," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a speech to the Security Council.
"This refusal, and the denial of the right to statehood to the Palestinian people, would indefinitely prolong a conflict that has become a major threat to global peace and security," Guterres told the meeting. Such an outcome "would exacerbate polarization and embolden extremists everywhere," he added.
Guterres called for the universal recognition of the "right of the Palestinian people to build their own fully independent state."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has drawn global condemnation in recent days -- and defied the United States, which provides Israel with billions of dollars in military aid -- by rejecting calls for a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu's office last week said Israel "must retain security control over Gaza," even after "Hamas is destroyed," days after the prime minister had also rejected Palestinian sovereignty over the occupied West Bank. Israel's allies have criticized his comments, though few seem prepared to seriously walk back support.
Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan said while "it is important" to provide aid to Gaza, Iran is "the root of the dire threat to the Middle East and the world."
Iran's hardline watchdog body has banned former pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani from standing again in an election in March for the Assembly of Experts, which appoints and can dismiss the supreme leader, state media said Wednesday. The 88-member assembly, founded in 1982, supervises the most powerful authority but has rarely intervened directly in policymaking.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is 84, so the new assembly is expected to play a significant role in choosing his successor since its members are only elected every eight years.
In a statement, Rouhani criticized the Guardian Council's ruling as "politically biased ... [one] that will undermine the nation's confidence in the system."
Close to moderates, Rouhani was elected president in a landslide in 2013 and 2017 on a promise to reduce Iran's diplomatic isolation. But the mid-ranking cleric angered political hardliners who opposed any rapprochement with the U.S. "Great Satan" after reaching a 2015 nuclear pact with six major powers.
The deal unraveled in 2018 when then-U.S. President Donald Trump ditched the agreement and reimposed sanctions that have crippled Iran's economy. Efforts to revive the pact have failed.
"There was no reason given for the Guardian Council's decision," a source close to Rouhani told Reuters, adding that "no decision has been made yet for an appeal" as Rouhani has three days to object against the ruling. "Rouhani has been a member of the assembly since 1999 for three terms. ... It will be interesting to see what the reason for his disqualification was." Moderate politicians have accused the Guardian Council of disqualifying rivals and said that excluding candidates from the race undermines the vote's legitimacy.
With Rouhani's disqualification, the Guardian Council had made it clear that hardliners intended to keep moderates away from the assembly, a pro-reform insider said.
The Palestinian Authority said the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) needs "maximum support" after some countries announced they would suspend funding over Israel's claims that some staff members of the U.N. agency were allegedly involved in the Oct. 7 attack.
"We need the maximum support for this international organisation and not stopping support and assistance to it," the Palestinian Authority's minister for civilian affairs, Hussein Al-Sheikh, said on X, formerly Twitter on Saturday. "We call on countries that announced the cessation of their support for UNRWA to immediately reverse their decision," he said. The United States, Australia, Canada, Italy, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Scotland have halted funding to the agency,
Palestinian resistance group Hamas condemned Israel's campaign against U.N. institutions on Saturday, calling it a "hollow accusation" aimed at preventing them from providing relief to people in the Gaza Strip, "who are subjected to genocide."
"The latest is the hollow accusation against the World Health Organization of what Israel called collusion with the Hamas movement, by repeating the false claim about the movement's use of hospitals in military operations," Hamas said in a statement.
The Palestinian resistance group also condemned Israel's accusations against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) with the aim of "cutting off its funding and depriving our people of their right to the services of these international agencies." Hamas called on the United Nations and international institutions "not to yield to the Israeli threats and blackmails."
The WHO on Friday rejected Israel's accusations of "collusion" with Hamas and "turning a blind eye" to the suffering of Israeli hostages in Gaza.
Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas which Tel Aviv says killed 1,200 people.
The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza's population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure was damaged or destroyed, according to the U.N.
Iran Puts 3 Indigenous Satellites into Orbit
FARS News Agency, Iran, 28-1-2024
Iran continued to develop its space program amid Western sanctions and threats, announcing on Sunday it has successfully launched three domestically-produced satellites into space simultaneously.
Iran sent three homegrown satellites, dubbed “Mahda”, “Keyhan-2” and “Hatef-1”, into orbit from Imam Khomeini Space Launch Terminal in Semnan Province on Sunday with a minimum altitude of 450 kilometers and a maximum of 1,100 kilometers above the Earth's surface. The satellites were launched by the homemade satellite launch vehicle, dubbed “Simorgh”.
Iran has taken giant strides in the field of science of technology in recent years and is among the world's top 10 states capable of building and launching satellites. Iranian officials say Tehran should access all aspects of space technology in various cultural, scientific, economic and defense fields, and no resolution prevents the country from continuing its space program.
Mahda is a research satellite designed, manufactured, assembled and tested at the Iranian Space Research Center. Keyhan-2 and Hatef-1 nanosatellites were also designed and developed for launch by Iran Electronics Industries, a state-owned subsidiary of the Iranian Defense Ministry.
Iran and Saudi Arabia plan to set up a direct shipping line between Kangan, in southern Iranian province of Bushehr, and Dammam, in Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, in a bid to boost trade between the two countries.
Governor of Bushehr Ahmad Mohammadizadeh said late on Saturday that the launch of the shipping line between Iran and Saudi Arabia was decided in a recent visit by Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy Mehdi Safari to the province as part of efforts to increase Iran's trade volume with countries in the Persian Gulf.
Mohammadizadeh also said that development projects introduced in Kangan are close to be finished, adding that large vessels can dock in the port in the near future.
Local officials give importance to the development of the maritime economy in Kangan, he said, adding that authorities plan to set up an industrial zone for knowledge-based companies in the region to serve the needs of the oil, gas, and petrochemical industries that exist in the port.
Türkiye’s head of intelligence Ibrahim Kalın was in Iraq for talks with the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) officials in Irbil, security sources said Sunday. The visit was his second to the country since being appointed head of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) last year.
He met with Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) Chair Masoud Barzani, KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, Interior Minister Reber Ahmed and local administrators, as well as Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITC) head Hasan Turan and ITC Kirkuk deputy Ersat Salihi.
Tensions have been rising between Türkiye and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the dominant parties in the KRG, since the terrorist group PKK increased its attacks on Turkish troops.
After the PKK killed 21 Turkish soldiers in the Metina region during a single month, Ankara intensified airstrikes on PKK targets and hideouts across its border, particularly in Sulaymaniyah.
The PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States, Britain and the European Union – is responsible for over 40,000 civilian and security personnel deaths in Türkiye during an almost four-decadelong campaign of terror.
Since Turkish operations have driven its domestic presence to near extinction, the PKK has moved a large chunk of its operations to northern Iraq.
Ankara maintains dozens of military bases there, and it regularly launches operations against the PKK, which operates a stronghold in the Qandil Mountains, located roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the Turkish border in Irbil province. However, the area is under de jure control of the KRG. Turkish officials have repeatedly urged Iraq, as well as the KRG, to recognize the PKK as a terrorist group, stressing that the group, which occupies Sinjar, Makhmour, Qandil and Sulaymaniyah, threatens the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq.
Wikipedia Info:
The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement which historically operated throughout Kurdistan but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq.
Since 1984, the PKK has been involved in asymmetric warfare in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict (with several ceasefires between 1993 and 2013–2015). Although the PKK initially sought an independent Kurdish state, in the 1990s its goals changed to seeking autonomy and increased political and cultural rights for Kurds within Turkey. The PKK is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the EU.
How Biden inherited the War with an Iraqi Shiite Militia
from Bush, Trump and Netanyahu Juan Cole, 01/29/2024
Three U.S. troops were killed and at least another 34 wounded Saturday night in a drone attack on their living quarters in northeast Jordan near the Syrian border, the U.S. Central Command reported. These are believed to be the first American military deaths from hostile fire during the nearly four-month-long war between Israel and Hamas militants. U.S. President Joe Biden blamed Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq for the attack in Jordan. Iran’s foreign ministry denied responsibility. (Voice of America 2024)
The “Party of God Brigades” of Iraq struck the Tower 22 US military base in the far north of Jordan on the border with Syria on Sunday, killing three US military personnel and wounding dozens more.
The Shiite militia said that it was part of its continued attempt to force US “occupation” troops out of Iraq and the region, and in sympathy with the Israeli attacks on the Palestinians of Gaza, in which the Party of God Brigades [PGB} consider the US to be co-belligerent, since they re-arm the Israelis by airlift daily. The Party of God Brigades and other Iraqi Shiite militias have launched around 150 attacks on bases housing US troops since the Gaza conflict broke out on October 7.
The Party of God Brigades were founded by Abu Mehdi al-Muhandis. The organization is not related to the Hezbollah in Lebanon, though the two have a collegial relationship. Al-Muhandis was assassinated by President Donald Trump on January 3, 2020 along with the Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani.
Ever since, the Brigades have sought to force out of Iraq the remaining 2500 US troops there and to force out of Syria the remaining 900 US troops stationed in that country.
US troops were put into those two countries by the Obama administration during the fight against the ISIL (ISIS, Daesh) terrorist organization, 2014-2018. In those years, the US was often de facto allied with Shiite militias such as the PGB and with their sponsor, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.
In 2018, Trump destroyed the Iran nuclear deal of 2015 and placed a “maximum pressure” economic siege on the Iranian economy.
That and his assassination of Soleimani and al-Muhandis set Iran and its allies, the Shiite militias of the Middle East, on an increasingly belligerent footing.
The independent Shiite site al-Khanadeq in Lebanon says that the Party of God Brigades was founded by al-Muhandis in 2003 when the US invaded Iraq, with the aim of forcing the occupiers back out. The organization became prominent in 2014 when Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani called on Iraqi young men to rise up to defend the country from ISIL, which had taken Mosul, at a time when the Iraqi Army built by the Bush administration had collapsed.
The Party of God Brigades and other Shiite militias armed themselves and went to fight, with training and support from the iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and Gen. Soleimani, against ISIL in Amerli and later in Tikrit and Fallujah. They helped ensure that ISIL was defeated.
In a historical irony, one of the reasons some Neocons around George W Bush wanted to invade Iraq was to stop it from being a danger to Israel.
Over two decades later, the PGB hit a school in Eilat with a drone, and the US, having destroyed the secular Baath Party, is at war with political Shiism in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Maybe the problem is US policy in the region, and maybe no number of wars and conquests are going to reshape the Middle East in ways really favorable to that policy?
The first United Arab Emirates ambassador to Damascus in nearly 13 years has taken up his post as Syria has been reintegrating into mainstream regional acceptance.
Syrian state media said Tuesday the country's Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad received Ambassador Hassan Ahmad al-Shihi's credentials.
The UAE embassy was reopened in Syria in late 2018 and a charge d'affaires has been in charge of the diplomatic mission since then. Al-Shihi arrived in Damascus on Monday, reported the pro-government daily Al-Watan.
Syrian President Bashar Assad visited the Gulf country in March 2022, the first Arab country to receive him since Syria's civil war erupted nearly 13 years ago. Following the Feb. 6, 2023 earthquake that killed more than 50,000 in Turkey and about 8,000 in Syria, the UAE sent dozens of planes loaded with aid to Syria.
In May, the 22-member Arab League agreed to reinstate Syria, ending a 12-year suspension and taking another step toward bringing Assad, a long-time regional pariah, back into the fold. Assad, who visited the UAE twice since 2022, took part in the Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia in May.
Al-Shihi's arrival came as Syria is in the grips of a severe economic crisis, part of it as a result of the conflict that has killed half a million people, displaced millions of others and left large parts of the country destroyed. The reconciliation between Damascus and oil-rich Arab countries is not likely to lead to a flow of money into the war-torn country because of Western sanctions, which, along with the war and widespread corruption have led to Syria's severe economic crisis. The U.S. dollar now is worth 16,000 Syrian pounds. At the start of the conflict in March 2011, the dollar was trading at 47 pounds. The United Nations estimates that 90% of Syrians in government-held areas live in poverty.
More than half the population — some 12 million people — struggle to put food on the table, the U.N. estimates.
Cameron floats prospect of UK recognition of Palestinian state
"If the last 30 years tells us anything, it’s a story of failure" Arab News, January 30, 2024
LONDON: The UK could expedite recognition of a Palestinian state in a bid to bring peace to the region, Foreign Secretary David Cameron has said.
Ahead of a visit to the Middle East, he told a reception held by the Conservative Middle East Council in Westminster that the Palestinian people need to see “irreversible progress” toward a two-state solution.
“As that happens, we — with allies — will look at the issue of recognizing a Palestinian state, including at the United Nations,” he told attendees. “That could be one of the things that helps to make this process irreversible.”
He added, though, that recognition would require a new Palestinian government with “technocratic and good leaders” to be “stood up quickly” to bring order to the Gaza Strip.
Last week, Cameron met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem in a bid to get him to consider a two-state solution to resolve the current crisis, but the latter claimed that the plan would “endanger the state of Israel” and called it an “attempt to coerce us.”
Cameron, though, hinted that the UK and others could press ahead regardless of Israel’s stance.
“Together with that, almost most important of all, is to give the Palestinian people a political horizon so that they can see that there’s going to be irreversible progress to a two-state solution and crucially the establishment of a Palestinian state,” he said.
“We have a responsibility there, because we should be starting to set out what a Palestinian state would look like, what it would comprise, how it would work and crucially, looking at the issue.”
He criticized Israel for failing to provide security to its citizens and for preventing British aid from reaching people in Gaza.
“If the last 30 years tells us anything, it’s a story of failure,” he said. “Ultimately it’s a story of failure for Israel because yes, they had a growing economy, yes they had rising living standards, yes they invested in defense and security and walls and the rest of it, but they couldn’t provide what a state most wants, what every family wants, which is security.
“And so the last 30 years has been a failure, and it’s only by recognizing that failure and recognizing that true peace and progress will come when the benefits of peace and progress are greater than the benefits of returning to fighting.”
South Africa says Israel ignoring ICJ ruling about Gaza,
calls for arrest warrant against Netanyahu AP|Ahram online, 1 Feb 2024
Israel has ignored the ruling by the U.N.'s top court last week by killing hundreds more civilians in a matter of days in Gaza, South Africa’s foreign minister Naledi Pandor said Wednesday, adding that her country has asked why an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not been issued in a case South Africa filed at the separate International Criminal Court.
Naledi Pandor said South Africa would “look at proposing other measures to the global community” in a bid to stop Israel killing civilians during its war on Gaza.
The preliminary ruling by the U.N.’s International Court of Justice in South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide against Palestinians in the territory, but stopped short of ordering a cease-fire.
It also ruled Israel must urgently get basic humanitarian aid to Gaza and submit a report on steps taken to abide by the ruling within a month.
“I can’t be dishonest. I believe the rulings of the court have been ignored,” South Africa’s foreign minister said. “Hundreds of people have been killed in the last three or four days. And clearly Israel believes it has license to do as it wishes.”
Pandor said there was a danger of the world doing nothing to stop the civilian casualties in Gaza and said similar inaction contributed to the horrific death toll in the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, when more than 800,000 people were slaughtered in the East African country. “We are allowing this to happen again, right before our eyes, on our TV screens,” Pandor said. The court’s ruling is binding on Israel, and the country could face U.N. sanctions if it is found to be breaching its orders, although any sanctions may be vetoed by close ally the United States.
South Africa filed its case against Netanyahu at the ICC in November. The ICC is the same court that issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin last year over alleged war crimes relating to the removal of children from Ukraine. Israel, like Russia, is not a signatory to the treaty that created the ICC and does not recognize the court’s authority.
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