Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.
Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guard [IRG] Quds Force, Brigadier General Esmail Ghaani said the Americans must either leave the region with humiliation or they will be forced to flee under conditions worse than what they experienced in Afghanistan.
“As already said, we once again tell the Americans that you should leave the geographical region around us … taking with you the humiliation you are facing; otherwise, you will be expelled in a way much worse than [what you experienced in] Afghanistan and you will be forced to flee,” Brigadier General Ghaani said during a commemoration ceremony in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz on Thursday.
“This is your inevitable fate,” Ghaani noted. “You should know that gone is the time when you did whatsoever you wished; the time of hit-and-run strikes is over and if you hit, you will have to wait and receive the response in the harshest way possible.”
The IRG commander said after 20 years of fighting in Afghanistan, the Americans had no choice, but to concede to negotiations and even then, they committed crimes and acts of treachery during the negotiations, and created problems for the Afghan people.
“The Americans established a government in Afghanistan in a matter of 20 years, [and created] a government that could not resist for 20 days [against the onslaught of the Taliban] and they even failed to fly their own people out of the Kabul airport,” Ghaani said.
Stressing that the US defeat in Afghanistan was the “biggest defeat” for the Americans in the last century, the senior Iranian commander said, “After the Americans… suffered defeat in Afghanistan last year, they raised many marginal and secondary issues so that the world would not realize what disgrace they experienced there.”
The US invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 following the September 11, 2001 attacks. American forces occupied the country for about two decades under the pretext of fighting against the Taliban. But as the US forces left Afghanistan, the Taliban stormed into Kabul, weakened by continued foreign occupation.
The Taliban wrested control of Afghanistan in August after a fierce offensive facilitated by a flash withdrawal of all of the United States’ forces from the country that had been announced by Washington back in April.
The government of Afghanistan rapidly collapsed on August 15, with President Ashraf Ghani fleeing the country in the face of lightning advances of the Taliban.
The group has pledged to allow the formation of a broad-based and representative government. Concerns, however, remain given its drawn-out history of violence.
The media establishment controlled by Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and Western corporate elites is attempting to mislead supporters of the regional resistance and make them turn on the groups they currently support.
As the regional ‘Axis of Resistance’ to Western hegemony in the Middle East advances on multiple fronts, a desperate attempt is being made by Western and Arab reactionary regime media outlets, to portray the alliance, led by Iran, as being on its last legs.
Iran currently leads a successful alliance of forces, including; Ansarallah in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, the PMU in Iraq, among many others. Although Washington puts on that its primary concern about the Islamic Republic of Iran is its alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons, its regional alliance is what truly bothers policymakers in the US beyond all other considerations. This regional alliance, dubbed the ‘Axis of Resistance’, is what makes Iran an impossible target for war and all attempts to weaken its cross-border presence have been tried and so far failed.
The latest in attempts to dislodge Iran from its allies is in fact coming in the form of media psyops, designed to inflame local tensions in places like Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. In Iraq, as a clear example of such attempts to stir division is the narrative that is pushed by Western, Persian Gulf regime media, that seeks to paint Iraq as shifting away from groups allied with Tehran.
One of the biggest challenges to the US, preventing it from reigning supreme over Iraq, is the Iraqi Popular Mobilisation Units (PMU). After becoming the Iraqi ground force to rid the country of Daesh and Al-Qaeda terrorists, the PMU gained huge credibility for its efforts and later began to focus its attention on expelling the US from their country, especially in the wake of the 2020 drone strikes which killed leading PMU commanders such as Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, along with Iran’s General Qassem Soleimani. A vote in the Iraqi parliament that year did in fact conclude that the US be ordered out by the government in Baghdad.
Whilst the Iraqi parliament once had a large presence of the PMU-aligned Fateh bloc, who were democratically elected by the Iraqi people, this October saw a dramatic decrease in the seats won by the Fateh Alliance; from 48 seats in 2018 to 16 seats in the recent election. This was instantly pounced upon by Western media and their allied media outlets in the Middle East. The election was called to be fraudulent by the likes of Kataeb Hezbollah and Asaeb Ahl Al-Haq, with claims being widely made of UAE interference in the democratic process.
But for the sake of argument, let’s put aside the claims of the PMU – about election rigging – and just look at what the results actually show. The Western and Arab reactionary regimes media-machine are using the dramatic drop in seats to corroborate their claims that Iraqis are shifting politically and are turning on the PMU. On the surface, 16 seats out of a 329-member parliament seem pretty damning, especially when the leading Sadrist movement won 74 seats. However, instead of delving deeper into this issue, the media of the empire stop there, because when you look at the popular votes, their narrative begins to look rather ridiculous. So, yes the PMU lost a large number of seats, but when we compare their popular vote count to that of the leading party, headed by Moqtada al-Sadr, these claims of a massive drop in support for the PMU are debunked entirely. The PMU aligned parties of the Fateh alliance won a total of 470,000 votes, meaning that they actually won the popular vote over the Sadrists who received 450,000 votes. The reason why the seats were lost was not due to a lack of support, in fact, they are the most popular in parliament, instead, it came down to the amendments made to the electoral system in Iraq.
Additionally PMU ally, Nouri al-Maliki, won an astounding victory, this is to go along with other parties who are favorable to the PMU also winning seats. So the narrative that Iran and its allies are losing in Iraq is just a lie.
Then came the attempted assassination of Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, earlier this month. Instantly, media outlets belonging to Saudi Arabia, such as al-Hadath, and other media groups operating out of the United Arab Emirates, reported in a way which would make it seem like the PMU were responsible. Although Kataeb Hezbollah and Asaeb Ahl Al-Haq have been widely blamed for the assassination attempt, using three drones to do so, they themselves have denied it and pointed to irregularities indicating an American role in the attack. Most notably, the PM’s residence is based in Baghdad’s US Embassy ‘Greenzone’, which is protected by C-RAM air defense systems and has a relatively effective siren system. It wasn’t until explosions were heard, resulting from the drone attack, that the sirens went into effect and the C-RAM systems were never used to confront the threat.
With the assassination attempt, coupled with the loss of seats for the Fateh Alliance, a stream of stories ranging from Al-Arabiya, to Politico and the Telegraph, began producing pieces on Iran’s alleged weighing influence in Iraq and the fall of support for the PMU. But as we established above, the election example is completely invalid and in the case of the PMU being accused of attempting to assassinate PM Kadhimi, there is no proof. So ultimately there is no proof whatsoever of their claims.
If we then turn to Yemen, the Ansarallah movement is rapidly gaining ground in the northern, resource-rich, Marib area. The advance of the Yemeni resistance against the Saudi-backed forces of Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi has been steady, despite deadly airstrikes from the Saudi coalition. But if you turn to Western media and the media establishment in Saudi Arabia or the UAE, you would be made to believe that Ansarallah isn’t gaining territory at all.
Furthermore, if we take the example of Hezbollah inside of Lebanon, after the mass shooting of unarmed demonstrators by the Lebanese Forces, resulting in the deaths of 7 innocents in mid-October, the group could have easily been dragged into civil war. The situation could have been very different, but Hezbollah kept the peace and despite the severe economic crisis in Lebanon, the resistance group has not buckled under the pressure. Instead of reacting irrationally, Hezbollah has provided co-ops for the Lebanese people and has brought in fuel, whilst making it very clear to the groups’ enemies that they are ready to defend themselves.
After liberating most of southern Lebanon from the Zionist army in 2000, later defeating the occupation’s military in 2006, Hezbollah has only grown in its strength and according to its Secretary-General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, now possesses a military structure of over 100,000 fully trained and armed men.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Regimes have recently attempted to squeeze Lebanon, by cutting off diplomatic ties and trade, over a comment made by Lebanon’s Minister of Information, George Kordahi, prior to him assuming office. With this, Gulf Regimes have used their media to coordinate a dis-information war against Hezbollah, after failing all other attempts to weaken it domestically.
Saudi Arabia’s broadcaster al-Hadath, owned by al-Arabiya, has also been producing outrageous propaganda, claiming that the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has kicked out the Iranian Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) Commander, Javad Ghaffari, for so-called violations of Syrian sovereignty, in order to sow division between supporters of the two-sides. Yet, Javad Ghaffari was rotated weeks prior to the claims of Saudi media and it was said to have been an Iranian decision.
In all, the media establishment controlled by Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and Western corporate elites is attempting to mislead supporters of the regional resistance and make them turn on the groups they currently support. This is simply a last-ditch attempt to attack the Axis of Resistance after a long-term failed campaign, which has only damaged the civilian populations residing in the countries of the resistance, whereas the parties and armed groups maintain their power.
The opinions mentioned in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Al mayadeen, but rather express the opinion of its writer exclusively.
OneWorld is publishing the full text of the interview that Andrew Korybko gave to Giorgio Cafiero on this topic, some excerpts of which the latter included in his recent article for Inside Arabia titled “Israel’s Working Relationship with Russia Inside Syria”.
1. What does Russia believe it can get for itself through cooperation with Israel in relation to Syria?
Russia and Israel agreed to a deconfliction mechanism in September 2015 shortly before the onset of the former’s intervention in Syria. The two sides hoped to mitigate the risk of midair incidents since Moscow bombs forces that it and Damascus regard as terrorists while Israel does the same, albeit the latter strikes Syria’s IRGC and Hezbollah allies that were invited into the country but which Tel Aviv regards as latent national security threats. Neither wants to clash with the other since that could dramatically escalate regional tensions. Moreover, Russia and Israel have excellent relations, particularly proven by the fact that Tel Aviv declined to sanction Moscow in solidarity with its Western allies all these years.
Russia officially condemns Israel’s strikes from time to time but hasn’t ever taken any action to stop them, whether directly or indirectly. The second-mentioned observation gained extra credence in recent years after Syria has thus far failed to use the S-300s that it belatedly received from Russia in late 2018 after the incident near Latakia that President Putin described as a tragic chain of circumstances. Even though Russia also officially acknowledges the legality and anti-terrorist purposes of the IRGC and Hezbollah’s presence in Syria, some argue that the Kremlin might discretely be hoping for Damascus to request their dignified but phased withdrawal (in this context, under the duress of Israeli airstrikes) as part of a compromise solution for ending the war.
2. To what extent is Russian-Israel cooperation vis-à-vis Syria problematic for Moscow’s relationship with Tehran?
Russia and Iran both fight against ISIS/ISIL/Daesh and other terrorist groups in Syria, but the first-mentioned mostly does so through the air and via the sharing of tactical intelligence to the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) while the second joins the SAA and their shared Hezbollah allies in on-the-ground battles. Moscow and Tehran therefore have the same interest in supporting Damascus, but they seemingly differ over their post-war vision for the country. The Kremlin believes that a series of mutual compromises is needed by all parties of the conflict while the Islamic Republic’s implied stance is that its Arab ally doesn’t necessarily have to concede anything to those whom it doesn’t regard as its political equals.
Even though Russia isn’t directly involved in Israel’s strikes, Iran and Hezbollah might not be happy that Moscow doesn’t ever tip them off when it’s informed of these attacks ahead of time per the reported protocol connected with their deconfliction mechanism. There might also be some questions about why Syria hasn’t yet used its Russian-supplied S-300s that were belatedly shipped to the country after the September 2018 incident for the reported purpose of deterring what was described at the time as further irresponsible Israeli behavior. Since then, Israel has continued to strike Syria, with Damascus only targeting its incoming missiles and not using the S-300s or other anti-air defense systems to strike the attacking jets themselves like many earlier expected.
3. Does Bashar al-Assad’s government believe that Russia can pressure Israel in ways which suit the interests of Damascus?
It’s unlikely that Syria seriously has those expectations, and in the off chance that it did, they’re unrealistic. The power dynamic actually seems to be the inverse: Israel believes that Russia can pressure Syria when it comes to requesting Iran and Hezbollah’s withdrawal. Moscow doesn’t want to take sides since it has great relations with both, albeit of a different nature and strategic impact with respect to advancing its interests, hence why it’s hitherto sat back and passively let everything unfold between them as it has.
Nevertheless, it’s precisely this passivity in spite of occasional condemnations of Israeli strikes that can be interpreted as tacitly advancing Tel Aviv’s interests since Moscow doesn’t do anything to stop its attacks against the IRGC and Hezbollah, not directly nor indirectly as was earlier explained. This leads some to wonder whether Russia discretely prefers for Israeli strikes to function as a form of pressure for getting Syria to request Iran and Hezbollah’s withdrawal as part of a larger regional compromise that the Kremlin might hope to broker.
4. What are Israel’s incentives to work with Russia? Is there any good reason for Israelis to believe that Russia will act against Iranian influence/power in Syria?
There’s a massive Russian diaspora living in Israel that has gradually come to command sizeable influence in society and some parts of the permanent bureaucracy, including the formulation of foreign policy. President Putin is also very well respected in Israel for his resolute opposition to anti-Semitism, fascism, and historical revisionism connected to World War II. Furthermore, as an influential Great Power that’s returned to West Asia with its Syrian intervention and is nowadays considered the kingmaker for resolving that country’s crisis, Israel has every reason to pragmatically expand its relations with Russia, especially since this could give it some leverage to better balance its historical relationship with the US.
Nevertheless, Israelis shouldn’t have any unrealistic expectations about Russia directly acting against Iranian influence in Syria. Doing so would risk undermining Moscow’s anti-terrorist campaign there as well as its bilateral relations with the Islamic Republic which are important for maintaining stability in the South Caucasus, Caspian Sea, and Afghanistan. The most that Russia is seemingly willing to do is “passively facilitate” regular Israeli strikes against the IRGC and Hezbollah by not interfering with them per the reported conditions of the September 2015 deconfliction agreement and speculatively not authorizing Syria to use the S-300s and other anti-air defense systems for targeting attacking Israeli jets (which could escalate tensions), which is still a lot.
Unsubstantiated Saudi state media claims are very specifically designed to inflame tensions and to make the supporters of Hamas, Iran and Syria doubt their leaders and what may be going on behind the scenes.
RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA — Saudi state media outlets have been found to repeatedly report information, lacking sources or supporting evidence, in order to attack their political opposition in the Middle East. This can range from stories about deserters from Hamas to the utterly absurd fictions regarding alleged assassinations of high-ranking Iranian officials, which, taken together, constitute a pro-Israel, pro-Washington psyop.
This Wednesday, Saudi state broadcaster Al-Hadath claimed that an Iranian ‘Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Commander named Seyyed Mustafa Javad Ghaffari had been kicked out of Syria by the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad, sparking speculation over a possible breakdown in relations between Tehran and Damascus. For Israeli and U.S. media, which have now taken the report at face value, it is an intriguing story. And it would be an interesting development, except for one small detail: there is not a shred of evidence to support the claims.
According to the original report on Al-Hadath, Commander Ghaffari had set up a “black market” by bypassing customs and smuggling goods into Syria; additionally, Ghaffari had allegedly admitted to storing weapons in prohibited areas inside of Syria. Later reports in Israeli media, quoted Saudi media as claiming that Assad had accused Ghaffari of violating Syrian sovereignty and hence had expelled him. In addition to this, the unnamed Saudi media source seemed to work off of the assumption that the Iranian commander was behind an attack on U.S. forces and their allies on October 20 at their al-Tanf base in Syria. According to Al-Hadath, Syria was unhappy specifically with the IRGC commander’s conspiring against the Israelis and U.S. forces that occupy their territory, owing to fears of being dragged into a regional war.
Not surprisingly, Saudi Arabia’s broadcaster used biased language, in what should have been a professional report, demonstrating instantly that the outlet, Al-Hadath, was coming at the report from the state’s propagandistic perspective. On its website, its report concludes:
The source viewed the exclusion of Mustafa Ghaffari, who is following in the footsteps of Qassem Soleimani by establishing the Syrian Hezbollah militia, as a blow to Soleimani’s vision and dream of establishing a land bridge between Iran and Lebanon.
So who is this source? We don’t have a name or even a title. All we know is that Al-Hadath calls them someone that is familiar with the Syrian senior leadership. Lacking any further information, it is reasonable to ask the following questions: How does an enemy state to both Syria and Iran manage to acquire such information first? If this source exists, they clearly chose an enemy state to leak this information to, so why not an American or Israeli media outlet with more credibility? And finally, is there really any such source?
I spoke to Seyyed Mohammed Marandi, Professor of English Literature and Orientalism at the University of Tehran, who says that the claims are “utter nonsense.” “All Iranian commanders are rotated, Hajj Javad isn’t the first,” Marandi explained. He also went on to say that “actually, the Iranian change in command happened weeks ago; if they [Saudi media] know so much why didn’t they say anything when it happened?”
A history of similar claims
Interestingly, this is far from the first time that such reports have emerged — reports that carry the potential to sow confusion and distrust amongst supporters of parties and nations that are enemies of Saudi Arabia.
On July 19, 2020, Saudi Arabia’s Al-Arabiya published claims that high-ranking Hamas officials had been caught spying on the Gaza-based movement, including a Commander of the al-Qassam Brigade’s elite naval wing, said to be named Mohammed Abu Ajwa, who they claimed fled to Israel via boat after spying for Israel since 2009. The source for these claims was again unnamed and the allegations were denied strongly by Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem, who said that “the Al-Arabiya channel is promoting rumors that serve the aims of the occupation in destabilizing the home front in Gaza.” It is now 2021 and Israel has yet to even comment on these claims officially, which is strange considering that such a propaganda win for Israel would normally be weaponized by their political establishment. In addition to this, no one in Gaza has ever heard of this alleged commander.
As with the claims made about Syria expelling an IRGC Commander, there was a minuscule grain of truth to what was claimed. In the case of Syria’s “expulsion” of Iran’s commander, Javad Ghaffari did leave Syria weeks ago; and in the case of Hamas collaborators, the movement did arrest 16 individuals on the basis of spying for Israel. In fact, the report for Al-Arabiya quoted the Ministry of Information for Hamas, to substantiate its claims of Hamas members being arrested.
The Times of Israel even claimed that it was a big deal that “Hamas admits” one of its own fled to the Israeli side, after Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzouk had stated as much, a fact already acknowledged to be true. This demonstrates the sensationalism of Israeli media at the time. During the interview quoted, conducted with Marzouk for Al-Mayadeen TV, the Hamas leader said:
They are isolated members. There is no connection between them. They are not commanders in the [Hamas military wing] Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, nor are they commanders in Hamas… What the occupation claims, that they are commando officers or senior naval officers, is absolutely false.”
The Times of Israel, along with other Israeli media, was quick to parrot unsubstantiated Saudi claims
It is important to know that Hamas regularly arrests collaborators and sentences many of them to death. This is not uncommon, nor is it out of the ordinary for members of the group to be blackmailed by Israel to work for them. To become a member of Hamas is not a difficult task and its membership is wide-ranging inside Gaza.
An Iranian commander assassinated, or not really
Another example of bogus claims made by Saudi State TV is that of an Iranian commander being assassinated in Syria’s Eastern Deir Ezzor province in November of 2020. In this case, Al-Arabiya added sketchy details to a story built on weak foundations. The alleged assassination of an Iranian Quds force commander would have had serious implications, especially as some sources claimed that it came as a result of a U.S. coalition force bombing campaign.
At the time I tracked the report to its origin, discovering that the allegations had emerged from a Syrian-opposition media group, called “Step News Agency,” which published a report on the alleged incident on November 29, 2020. The article claimed that the agency’s reporter, Abdul Rahman al-Ahmad, who was said to have been based in the Eastern Deir Ezzor province of Syria “obtained information” that indicated a vehicle belonging to Iran’s elite Quds forces was targeted and destroyed. The car was, according to this report, targeted near the Salbi area, in the Suwaiya Desert, after having crossed into Syria from a designated area for militias, near the Al-Qaim crossing. The initial report noted only that two were said to have died in the attack, also claiming that the week prior to this, unidentified aircraft – suspected to have belonged to the U.S. coalition – had launched 10 raids on pro-Iranian militia sites.
Israeli media outlets then ran with the claims despite having nothing but the word of a single Syrian opposition journalist to go on. Israel Hayom News, for instance, cited developed claims from Syrian-opposition media that instead of two Iranians having been killed, it was “a logistics officer in the IRGC’s elite Quds Force,” as well as two other Iranians, who had been assassinated.
Al-Arabiya Newsthen claimed to have obtained the identity of the commander, naming him as “Muslim Shahdan.” This was then published by the likes of the Daily Mail, which also repeated the claim made by the Turkish-based Anadolu Agency that there were now three IRGC members killed inside the car allegedly targeted in Deir Ezzor, Syria.
There was never any photographic evidence, witness testimony, approximate timing, video evidence, or any official confirmation of exactly where in Deir Ezzor this attack took place. There was no continuity through the various contradictory claims made by all the different media outlets and no one could even determine how many people actually died in the reported attack.
The story originated with Syrian opposition media groups, who have a clear anti-Iran agenda and have continued to peddle false claims of Iranian forces being killed in virtually every single Israeli attack on Syria, figures that Israel never clarifies and for which we never see proof. These groups claim to have sources in Syrian government-controlled areas, even naming those individuals occasionally. The question also must be posed in this case that if the Syrian government knows these journalists, how is it that they are still able to obtain sensitive information on military operations and casualties of individuals known only to a few to be in the country, in top-secret locations? Are we to believe that these unnamed sources are never identified and that in Syria anyone can know sensitive information about the government at any time without any questions asked? Also, how is it that these opposition journalists are the first people to report casualties, often before there is time for local medical staff to declare deaths?
There was then the story that was looped in with the alleged assassination attack, claiming that U.S. coalition forces attacked 10 Iranian sites in Abu Kamal, but according to the initial reports from Syrian opposition media, that had happened a week prior to the assassination. Israel Hayom and the Daily Mail failed to specify when the two separate attacks took place, making it seem as if it all had occurred on the same night. Again there are no specifics given here, just the repeated claims from Syrian opposition media.
The allegations that were made about weapons having been transported, in the car of the commander that was allegedly attacked, also seemed very unlikely. Why would an Iranian Quds Force commander be traveling in a car packed full of weapons and why do a weapons transfer in a regular car carrying a high-ranking commander in it? Why not just transport the weapons in trucks? These small details made the story seem less believable, especially when no one had been able to officially identify the two, three, or four Iranians said to have been killed.
As spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Saeed Khatibzadeh, later told Iran’s Mehr News that these allegations were false, yet many Western media outlets failed to publish this information. Talking to a Syrian Arab Army military source at the time, I was also informed that they were “not aware of any such attack happening”.
Saudi media playing a pro-Israel, pro-Western agenda
The examples above demonstrate a clear pattern with the media of Saudi Arabia and the way in which their “unnamed sources” are taken at face value and repeated verbatim throughout Western and Israeli media. The claims clearly serve a political agenda, but not just any agenda.
Such claims are very specifically designed to inflame tensions and to make the supporters of Hamas, Iran and Syria doubt their leaders and what may be going on behind the scenes. They play on issues that are normally dealt with behind closed doors and it is well understood that the average consumer of news will not have the time or resources to dig into such stories with the intent of uncovering the truth.
Israeli officials have now twice traveled to Saudi Arabia in the past year, that we know of, not only raising suspicions of unofficial cooperation between Riyadh and Tel Aviv, but confirming that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is warming up to the idea of openly normalizing ties with Israel, while the closeness of the United States government to the Saudis has long been apparent. Hence for Saudi state media to run media operations, as a form of psychological warfare, against their political foe, is not much of a surprise. Yet, for outlets across the world to choose to regurgitate the claims made by Saudi media, verbatim and without any critical take, is a real indictment of them and demonstrates a lack of journalistic credibility on their part.
The first two seem to point to a US realization that war against China and Russia is unwinnable and that the USA simply does not have the means to impose a global world order run by one hegemon. Some will say “well, good morning USA!” but the importance of these two events is that it appears that the USA has officially come to the realization that the international world order they attempted to impose on the planet is unachievable. The fact that top US officials admit that is a very positive development and it pushes back the risks of a major, possibly nuclear, war.
The next two are probably a side-effect of the former, that is to say that since the USA cannot simply bully Russia and/or China, they now feel the need to bully Nicaragua and treat it like Cuba and Venezuela. That is a very bad sign, as it shows that while Uncle Shmuel did have to give up his planetary ambitions, the nutcases in Congress are still bad old imperialists in the worst sense of the word, and they still think that they can, and should, bully smaller nations into submission.
Finally, there is this really weird story in the Gulf of Oman.
What actually took place here is hard for me to tell. So first, let’s watch the video as filmed by the Iranians:
First, we see what appears to be an unopposed landing of IRGC soliders on an oil tanker. Next, a number of fast attack craft led by what looks to me as a Shahid Nazeri high speed catamaran appear on the scene. Then we are shown footage of a USN Arleigh Burke-class destroyer apparently heading in the direction of the IRGC catamaran. Next, we see the oil tanker surrounded by Iranian fast attack craft which are shown delivering more personnel on the oil tanker. A quick shot appears to show the Iranian fast attack craft ahead of the USN destroyer. Then we hear what appears to be an IRGC radio message to the USN destroyer to leave the area and the USN reply that the destroyer is on “routine operations in international waters”. Next we see close footage of the destroyer which suggests that the IRGC fast craft came very close to it, possibly surrounding it on all sides. The destroyer’s hull has the number 68 which appears to belong to the USS The Sullivans. We are also shown another number, 112, which appears to show that the USS Michael Murphy was also involved in the incident.
Next, we see that one of the two USN destroyers appears to be overtaking the tanker, possibly “pushed” away from it by Iranian fast attack craft. They are then joined by the Iranian catamaran. The Iranian then get very close to the USS The Sullivans and point their heavy machine guns at it. Then we see this image:
Unless this picture was doctored we see three undeniable things:
The USN destroyed has fully stopped (no wake)
The Iranian catamaran is directly in front of the USN destroyer, facing it
Several fast attack craft are also in the immediate proximity
The USN destroyer is very close to the oil tanker, which begs the question why this destroyer ever got so near the oil tanker if it was “only” conducting “routine operations”?
In this very short shot it appears (at least to my non-trained in naval recognition eyes) that the 2nd USN destroyer is following the USS The Sullivans:
Next we see the tanker leaving the area while the USN destroyed is stopped, surrounded by Iranian vessels. The Iranian then appear to also leave while escorting the tanker. Then the various ships appear to be leaving.
The Iranians claim that the USN was trying to seize the tanker in a act of “piracy”. The US only admits that an “incident” took place, but does not explain why/how its destroyers got so close to the tanker. I see no evidence at all that any US personnel was on the tanker, yet the Iranians claim that its oil was transferred to another ship. That makes no sense to me.
But what is undeniable is this: two USN destroyers were extremely close to that tanker and that IRGC forces forced both of these destroyers to first stop and then change course and leave. That, by itself, is yet another huge slap in the face of what still remains the most powerful navy on the planet.
I would also note that the surface ships from the IRGC we see on the footage is only part of what the forces the Iranians must have had ready should a shooting incident begin: they could have had one, or several submarines nearby, and they certainly had their coastal defense missiles targeted at the USN destroyers.
The key factor here, as always, is that the Iranians were clearly willing to fight and, if needed, die for their country. The USN personnel not so much It is one thing to fire cruise missiles while being comfortably out of range and quite another to, literally, see IRGC soldiers face to face.
So I will let Roger Waters sing the conclusion to this incident:
Chief Commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard [IRG], Major General Hossein Salami, labelled the US as the manufacturer of dictatorships all over the world, while stressing that Iran represents the haven of peace in the region.
In remarks during the commemoration ceremony of the National Day of Fight against Global Arrogance, which was held in front of the former US embassy in Tehran, now referred to as the Den of Espionage, on Thursday, Salami said “The Americans are used to being defeated at the hands of the Iranian nation, but, they have yet to learn the lesson.”
Aban 13, which is reminiscent of November 4, 1979, is the day when Iranian students stood against the United States’ arrogance and hegemonic power, and seized the US Embassy in Tehran.
“Today is a day of victory for the Iranian nation and overcoming the greatest empire in history,” Salami said.
He stated that on November 4, 1979, when the United States was at the peak of its political, military and economic power and the Iranian nation had not created the great structures of its current power at the beginning of a glorious Islamic Revolution, a glorious Islamic revolution was formed under the leadership of the late Imam Khomeini.
“This courage and endurance in the atmosphere of that day in the world is one of the most amazing historical facts both for humanity and for the Iranian nation,” Salami underscored.
Addressing the revolutionary people of Tehran who participated in the massive rally, Major General Salami said that today is a great day for the Iranian nation.
Referring to the anniversary of the seizure of the former US Embassy in Iran in 1979, Salami added that on this day, the United States, which was the greatest empire in history, was defeated.
“The Americans are used defeats at the hands of the Iranian people, he added that however, they have not yet embraced a lesson,” he added.
Salami also slammed the US hegemonic moves to provoke wars in the world, saying that more than 40 major wars in 40 parts of the world are the outcome of the US politics in the world.
“The US has engaged in a war with many countries in Europe, Africa, South America, the far East, West Asia, and Russia,” Salami said, and “the US waged wars that have left more an 8 million dead in the world.”
He also noted that 750 US military bases in the world have each tried to establish pervasive political domination in the world with a circle of political influence.
The Iranian military commemorated the anniversary of the US embassy takeover by students as a symbol of the nation’s resistance against global arrogance and American hegemony, saying the developments unfolding today in the region and elsewhere in the world foretell America’s decline.
The General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces marked the National Day of the Fight against Global Arrogance, which falls on November 4, in a statement released on Wednesday.
The occasion is a symbol of the Iranian people’s “oppression-fighting, freedom-seeking, resistance and perseverance” against the greed and hegemonic policies of the criminal US regime, the statement read.
Forty two years ago on this day, Iranian students took over the American embassy in Tehran, also known in Iran as the “Den of Espionage,” less than a year after the Islamic Revolution toppled the US-backed Pahlavi dictatorship in 1979.
On the eve of the anniversary, Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard [IRG] released detailed footage of its successful seizing of an American vessel that had stolen a shipment of Iranian oil in the strategic Sea of Oman.
“Now, after over four decades of the Islamic Republic’s blessed existence, we are still witnessing repeated hostilities and inhumane conspiracies of the American terrorist regime and the fake Zionist regime against the people and the [government] of the Islamic Republic,” the Armed Forces’ statement read.
It then enumerated the crimes perpetrated by the “terrorist-nurturing” US regime and its allies against Iran, including the draconian sanctions, attempts to hamper Iran’s nuclear progress, the assassination of the country’s nuclear scientists, the assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, and the destabilization of the country by different means, such as the latest cyber-attack on gas stations.
In spite of the aforementioned hurdles, the statement went on to say, the Iranian people and government have managed to unmask the decline of the United States’ fake and evil grandeur throughout the world.
Each year, Iranians commemorate the National Day of the Fight against Global Arrogance by staging rallies across the country. Last year’s events were canceled due to an increase in COVID-19 infections, but people can attend this year’s events while observing health protocols. IRG Chief Major General Hossein Salami is expected to address the main event in Tehran.
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