Posted by seumasach on January 11, 2014
M.K.bhadrakumar
8th January, 2014
The stunning occupation of the Iraqi cities of Fallujah and Ramadi in Anbar province by the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and Lebanon over the weekend carries grim warnings for Afghanistan. Yet, it is important that the lessons learnt should be the correct ones.
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Posted by seumasach on January 11, 2014
11th January, 2014
The Iraqi security forces along with local Sunni tribesmen have cleared parts of the flashpoint city of Ramadi from al-Qaeda-linked militants as the UN Security Council voices support for their operations.
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Posted by seumasach on December 16, 2013
Thierry Meyssan
15th December, 2013
On the eve of the Geneva 2 Conference, the American organisers no longer have any puppets to play the role of Syrian revolutionaries. The sudden disappearance of the Free Syrian Army shows those who believed in it that it was a fiction. There has never been a popular revolution in Syria; just foreign aggression staged by mercenaries and billions of dollars.
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Posted by seumasach on December 16, 2013
M.K.Bhadrakumar
15th December, 2013
Take a deep breath and stand back and recall what Lysander told us in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream – the course of true love never did run smooth. True, momentarily it seemed that the nascent, highly fragile P5+1 and Iran interim pact on the nuclear issue met with a blight and a conspicuous wilting of the expert-level negotiations at Vienna becomes inevitable in the downstream of the the US’ unilateral decision to impose sanctions on select firms which traded with Iran that were acts violative of Washington’s sanctions regime.
Posted in Iran | Tagged: Geneva agreement on Iran | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on December 12, 2013
12th December, 2013
In anticipation of the Geneva II conference, which has been delayed until late-January 2014, the Saudi-backed Syrian opposition launched a series of campaigns against regime forces, but failed to make any gains on several fronts.
Posted in Global peace process, Syria | Tagged: Geneva II conference, middle east peace settlement | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on December 10, 2013
In preparation for the Geneva II talks on Syria it has been necessary to lay aside extravagant claims that Assad was responsible for the Ghouta chemical weapons attack. Seymour Hersch questions the case against Assad.
Seymour Hersch
8th December, 2013
Barack Obama did not tell the whole story this autumn when he tried to make the case that Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons attack near Damascus on 21 August. In some instances, he omitted important intelligence, and in others he presented assumptions as facts. Most significant, he failed to acknowledge something known to the US intelligence community: that the Syrian army is not the only party in the country’s civil war with access to sarin, the nerve agent that a UN study concluded – without assessing responsibility – had been used in the rocket attack. In the months before the attack, the American intelligence agencies produced a series of highly classified reports, culminating in a formal Operations Order – a planning document that precedes a ground invasion – citing evidence that the al-Nusra Front, a jihadi group affiliated with al-Qaida, had mastered the mechanics of creating sarin and was capable of manufacturing it in quantity. When the attack occurred al-Nusra should have been a suspect, but the administration cherry-picked intelligence to justify a strike against Assad.
Posted in Global peace process, Syria | Tagged: ghouta | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on December 8, 2013
“The president criticized Netanyahu for believing that the constant mounting of pressure will ultimately lead the Iranians to halt their nuclear energy program, including enrichment-related activities.”
8th December, 2013
US President Barack Obama defends nuclear diplomacy with Iran, saying talks can achieve greater peace for Israel and the United States than could military action.
Posted in Global peace process, Iran | Tagged: Geneva agreement on Iran, Obama's realist turn | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on December 5, 2013
25th November, 2013
We are publishing below an editorial from the Turkish daily Today’s Zaman. The columnist points to the defeat of the Syrian Contras which, in her view, spells out a defeat for Turkey who has given them all out support. While adopting the Atlanticist misrepresentation of the facts, she warns her country against a foreseeable exodus of extremist fighters who will not fail to seep into neighboring countries.
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Posted by seumasach on December 5, 2013
Jim Lobe
5th December, 2013
WASHINGTON – Ten days after the signing in Geneva of a groundbreaking deal on Iran’s nuclear program, the agreement appears safe from any serious attack by the strongly pro-Israel US Congress, at least for the balance of 2013.
Posted in Global peace process, Iran, Multipolar world | Tagged: Geneva agreement on Iran, Iran-US co-operation, Iranian diplomacy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on December 4, 2013
M.K.Bhadrakumar
4th December, 2013
The Iranian Foreign Ministry statement on Tuesday advising Kabul not to proceed with the signing of the proposed status of forces agreement [SOFA] with Washington leading to the establishment of the American and NATO military bases in Afghanistan comes at a defining moment.
Posted in Afghanistan | Tagged: End of empire, Iranian diplomacy, Russian diplomacy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on December 4, 2013
4th December, 2013
Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations says many Saudis who have been either sentenced to death or life in prison are released to fight against the Syrian government.
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