Resistance Forces In The ME Stronger Than Ever, But Not If You Read Western-Gulf Media

24 Nov, 2021

Source: Al Mayadeen Net

Robert Inlakesh

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.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Top Trump Security Adviser Contradicts “Imminent Attack” Claim Behind Soleimani Assassination

 October 20, 2021

By Staff, Agencies

A new book that hit shelves today by Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg reveals that the Trump administration planned the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani as part of a “disproportional” response to attacks on US troops in Iraq by Shiite resistance groups. Kellogg was then-Vice President Mike Pence’s national security adviser, and also served as executive secretary and chief of staff for the US National Security Council under Trump.

“We had always considered him a legitimate target because he was a sponsor for terrorism and was directly responsible for the deaths and maiming of hundreds of Americans,” Kellogg writes about Soleimani in “War by Other Means: A General in the Trump White House,” according to the UK Daily Mail, which received an advance copy of the book.

Solemani commanded the Quds Force, an elite formation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard [IRG], and commanded Iranian forces in Syria fighting against the Wahhabi Daesh [Arabic acronym for “ISIS” / “ISIL”] and al-Qaeda-linked terrorist groups before leading the Iranian and Iraqi fight to push Daesh out of Iraq.

Despite being sanctioned by the United States as a “terrorist”, Soleimani enjoyed enormous prestige across the Middle East as the “linchpin” who united resistance groups to halt Daesh’s advance toward Baghdad when the Americans would not commit to anything more than airstrikes against Daesh.

Because of the anti-Daesh war, Soleimani was closely linked with resistance groups in Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces [PMF], which opposed the continued US presence in Iraq. According to Kellogg’s book, an exchange of strikes in late December 2019 is what pushed the White House over line and decided to take Soleimani out.

On December 27, 2019, the Shiite resistance group Kataib Hezbollah attacked an Iraqi military base in Kirkuk where US forces were based, killing a US contractor and injuring four US service members, as well as two Iraqi service members. The next day, the US launched an airstrike on Kataib Hezbollah positions, and that evening, protests in Baghdad descended on the US embassy in the Green Zone and set fire to some of its outer structures.

Washington blamed Iran for both of those attacks, and Soleimani in particular, who they learned would be secretly traveling to Baghdad in just a few days.

“But our response had barely begun,” Kellogg wrote about the December 28 airstrikes. “We had highly reliable intelligence reports affirming that our chief enemy here was Soleimani.”

“’The Iranians had crossed our ‘red line’ by killing an American and reinforced their folly by attacking our embassy in Baghdad. We would respond. And this time our response would be disproportional,” Kellogg wrote. “We jumped up the escalation ladder. Our answer would be unambiguous. Our target would be Soleimani.”

The airstrike, carried out by an MQ-9 Reaper combat drone, hit a group of vehicles at Baghdad International Airport just after midnight on January 3, 2020, killing 10 people. Among them was Soleimani, as well as Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the leader of Kataib Hezbollah and deputy commander of the PMF.

The fury over the US attack, which was carried out without consulting the Iraqi government, led to the country’s parliament voting to ask all US forces to leave the country. However, Trump threatened to freeze Iraqi oil assets in a Federal Reserve bank account if Baghdad followed through.

“Soleimani was plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel, but we caught him in the act and terminated him,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort the day after the attacks. He would later claim that Soleimani planned on targeting a US embassy, then later increased his claim to four embassies.

After other senior administration leaders, including then-War Secretary Mark Esper, clarified that there wasn’t actually intelligence pointing to a specific attack Soleimani was allegedly planning, Trump momentarily let the mask slip by tweeting on January 13 that “it doesn’t really matter because of his horrible past!”

Then-US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo similarly claimed Soleimani was “actively plotting to “take big action” against the US. “There would have been many Muslims killed as well, Iraqis and people in other countries as well. It was a strike that was aimed at both disrupting that plot, deterring further aggression, [and] we hope, setting the conditions for de-escalation, as well,” he told Fox News on January 3.

However, Pompeo also soon said he had no specific intelligence on a specific threat posed by Soleimani, and also admitted within a week that “we don’t know precisely when – and we don’t know precisely where” the supposed attack was to have taken place.

However, by July of 2020, Pompeo had changed his tune again, aligning more closely with what Kellogg writes in his book. His response came after Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, submitted a report on Soleimani’s assassination finding it was an “arbitrary killing” that violated the United Nations charter.

“The strike that killed General Soleimani was in response to an escalating series of armed attacks in preceding months by the Islamic Republic of Iran and ‘militias’ it supports on US forces and interests in the Middle East region,” Pompeo told Fox News on July 10. “It was conducted to deter Iran from launching or supporting further attacks against the United States or US interests, and to degrade the capabilities of the Quds Force.”

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Muqtada The Conqueror gains ground in Iraqi poll

October 12, 2021

In recent elections, Muqtada al-Sadr’s popularity was confirmed, but the infighting in Iraq is just starting

By Pepe Escobar posted with permission and first posted at Asia Times

It would be tempting to picture the Iraqi parliamentary elections last Sunday as a geopolitical game-changer. Well, it’s complicated – in more ways than one.

Let’s start with the abstention rate. Of the 22 million eligible voters able to choose 329 members of Parliament from 3,227 candidates and 167 parties, only 41% chose to cast their ballots, according to the Iraq High Electoral Commission (IHEC)

Then there’s the notorious fragmentation of the Iraqi political chessboard. Initial results offer a fascinating glimpse. Of the 329 seats, the Sadrists – led by Muqtada al-Sadr – captured 73, a Sunni coalition has 43, a Shi’ite coalition – led by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki – has 41 and the Kurd faction led by Barzani has 32.

In the current electoral setup, apart from Shi’ite coalitions, Sunnis have two main blocks and the Kurds have two main parties ruling autonomous Kurdistan: the Barzani gang – which do an array of shady deals with the Turks – and the Talabani clan, which is not much cleaner.

What happens next are extremely protracted negotiations, not to mention infighting. Once the results are certified, President Barham Saleh, in theory, has 15 days to choose the next Parliament speaker, and Parliament has one month to choose a President. Yet the whole process could last months.

The question is already in everyone’s minds in Baghdad: true to most forecasts, the Sadrists may eventually come up with the largest number of seats in Parliament. But will they be able to strike a solid alliance to nominate the next prime minister?

Then there’s the strong possibility they may actually prefer to remain in the background, considering the next few years will be extremely challenging for Iraq all across the spectrum: on the security and counter-terrorism front; on the ghastly economic front; on the corruption and abysmal management front; and last but not least, on what exactly the expected US troop withdrawal really means.

The takeover of nearly one-third of Iraqi territory by Daesh from 2014 to 2017 may be a distant memory by now, but the fact remains that out of 40 million Iraqis, untold numbers have to deal on a daily basis with rampant unemployment, no healthcare, meager education opportunities and even no electricity.

The American “withdrawal” in December is a euphemism: 2,500 combat troops will actually be repositioned into unspecified “non-combat” roles. The overwhelming majority of Iraqis – Sunni and Shi’ite – won’t accept it. A solid intel source – Western, not West Asian – assured me assorted Shi’ite outfits have the capability to overrun all American assets in Iraq in only six days, the Green Zone included.

Sistani rules

To paint the main players in the Iraqi political scene as merely a “Shi’ite Islamist-dominated ruling elite” is crass Orientalism. They are not “Islamist” – in a Salafi-jihadi sense.

Neither they have set up a political coalition “tied to militias backed by Iran”: that’s a crass reductionism. These “militias” are in fact the People’s Mobilization Units (PMUs), which were encouraged from the start by Grand Ayatollah Sistani to defend the nation against takfiris and Salafi-jihadis of the Daesh kind, and are legally incorporated into the Ministry of Defense.

What is definitely correct is that Muqtada al-Sadr is in a direct clash with the main Shi’ite political parties – and especially those members involved in massive corruption.

Muqtada is a very complex character. He’s essentially an Iraqi nationalist. He’s opposed to any form of foreign interference, especially any lingering American troop presence – in whatever shape or form. As a Shi’ite, he has to be an enemy of politicized, corrupt Shi’ite profiteers.

Elijah Magnier has done a sterling job focusing on the importance of a new fatwa on the elections issued by Grand Ayatollah Sistani, even more important than the “Fatwa of Reform and Changes” which addressed the occupation of northern Iraq by Daesh in 2014 and led to the creation of the PMUs.

In this new fatwa Sistani, based in the holy city of Najaf, compels voters to search for an “honest candidate” capable of “bringing about real change” and removing “old and habitually corrupt candidates.” Sistani believes “the path of reform is possible” and “hope … must be exploited to remove the incompetent” from ruling Iraq.

The conclusion is inescapable: vast swathes of the dispossessed in Iraq chose to identify this “honest candidate” as Muqtada al-Sadr.

That’s hardly surprising. Muqtada is the youngest son of the late, immensely respected Marja’, Sayyid Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, who was assassinated by the Saddam Hussein apparatus. Muqtada’s immensely popular base, inherited from his father, congregates the poor and the downtrodden, as I saw for myself numerous times, especially in Sadr City in Baghdad and in Najaf and Karbala.

During the Petraeus surge in 2007, I was received with open arms in Sadr City, talked to quite a few Sadrist politicians, saw how the Mahdi army operates both in the military and social realm and observed on the spot many of the Sadrist social projects.

In the Shi’ite collective unconscious Muqtada, at the time based in Najaf, made his mark in early 2004 as the first prominent Shi’ite religious leader cum politician to confront the US occupation head-on, and tell them to leave. The CIA put a price on his head. The Pentagon wanted to whack him – in Najaf. Grand Ayatollah Sistani – and his tens of millions of followers – supported him.

Afterward, he spent a long time perfecting his theological chops in Qom – while remaining in the background, always extremely popular and learning a thing or two about becoming politically savvy. That’s reflected in his current positioning: always opposed to the US occupation forces, but willing to work with Washington to expedite their departure.

Old (imperial) habits die hard. Out of his status of sworn enemy, routinely dismissed as a “volatile cleric” by Western media, at least now Muqtada is recognized in Washington as a key player and even an interlocutor.

Yet that’s not the case of the Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq group, which was born of the Sadrist base. The Americans still don’t understand that this is not a militia but a party: they are branded by the US as a terrorist organization.

US occupation actors also conveniently forget that the way Iraq’s “dysfunctional” Parliament is configured, along confessional lines, is inextricably linked to the project of Western liberal democracy being bombed into Iraq.

Geopolitically, looking ahead, Iraq’s future in West Asia from now on will be inextricably linked to Eurasian integration. Not surprisingly, Iran and Russia were among the first actors to officially congratulate Baghdad for running a smooth election.

Muqtada and the Sadrists will be very much aware that the Axis of Resistance – Iran-Iraq-Syria-Hezbollah in Lebanon – is strengthening by the minute. And that is directly linked to the Iran-Russia-China partnership strengthening Eurasia integration. But first things first:  let’s get an “honest” prime minister and Parliament in place.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Iraq Elects 2021: The People’s Decision in The Spotlight!

 October 10 2021

By Mohammed Sleem

The 10th of October 2021 is the day of Iraq’s parliamentary elections. The world is watching the democratic operation as the Iraqis are on spot to elect the best choice for their country, amid severe crises on several levels, especially the economic and political ones.

Among the external ambitions, the western countries are willing to put their hands on the Iraqi territories, especially the American and British ones; and with the several pluralism views and parties taking action on the political arena, the people’s decision is the most important to set a whole new perspective, orientation, and goals for Iraq itself.

Since 2003 the country has been lacking stabilization. On the economic level, corruption is one of the main factors the people were suffering from, as they have been struggling to find different income resources for the goal of living, and of course the mismanagement of the available minerals and natural resources made things harsher; not to forget the plundering taking place by the hands of external armies who are absurdly executing the plans of the American administration and the British ones also.

Besides, the security challenges represent a vital issue to any new government emerging to power since the bombings and the impact of the terrorist organizations are still in place, leading to a huge number of casualties and financial losses.

On the elections side, several coalitions are heading towards the political process, each has their own strategy to cure what was considered a total mess.

The electoral programs are the main concern every party is looking to deliver and implement, presenting the reform plans that suit every coalition on a side and securing its strategic choices in addition.

The Popular Mobilization Units, better known by the Arabic name of al-Hashd al-Shaabi, are one of the most essential sides that several sides are looking to dissolve, since protecting Iraq from the external ambitions doesn’t match the plans of the Americans and their partners. Sheikh Qais al-Khazaali, the Secretary General of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq resistance movement stated earlier that “The United States, Britain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and ‘Israel’ want to dissolve the Popular Mobilization Units.” He added during his meeting with sheikhs and elders of the Rumaitha clans in Muthanna that “hundreds of millions of dollars were spent to weaken the front that adopts the defense of the Popular Mobilization,” describing the demand for its dissolution as “catastrophic.”

Earlier, al-Khazaali stressed that “the dimensions of the upcoming elections include key issues, such as the future of the Popular Mobilization and the fate of the Chinese agreement, and addressing the issue of energy,” adding that “external intentions are struggling and trying to outweigh cuffs on it.”

The parties backing the PMU are looking forward to protect the strategy that proved its success earlier against the takfiri groups especially when Daesh [the Arabic acronym for ‘ISIS/ISIL’ terrorist group] took over the third of the Iraqi lands back in 2015, to prevent any approaches to bring back the external ambitions, through destroying the Iraqi capabilities as a united country against all the external proxies and tools.

A recent tool the western countries are backing and depending on to implement their policies is represented by the NGOs that were active in 2019 demonstrations against the government corruption, and funded by the American administration in order to mix the papers in, and make a new ambiance to control the people’s minds and decisions.

Meanwhile, there are several parties that are calling to protect the PMU, the most important are The Fatah Alliance, which was formed in 2018 under the chairmanship of Hadi al-Ameri, the Secretary General of the Badr Organization, and which includes political wings of a number of armed factions, parties and movements, the most important of which is the Badr Organization, the Sindh rally headed by MP Ahmed al-Assadi, leader of the Popular Mobilization, and the “Sadiqoun” movement headed by Qais al-Khazaali, the Secretary General of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq movement.

The coalition, which is running with 73 candidates, also includes the Supreme Islamic Council headed by former MP Hammam Hammoudi, the Islamic Action Organization, the Jihad and Construction Movement headed by the PMU leader Hassan al-Sari and the “Sayyid al-Shuhada” Brigades.

To sum up, the Iraqi situation almost looks like the Lebanese one, external interventions, plans and ambitions facing the people of the land, and in order to prevent all what’s mentioned, the people themselves must take the decision, which should be brave enough to stand against such schemes.

• Iraqi PM Announces Capturing Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi’s Deputy

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

A Severe Blow to the CIA: Iraqi Security Captures 25 ISIS Terrorists

 OCTOBER 1, 2021

 ARABI SOURI

In a severe blow to the destabilizing and terrorism sponsored by the CIA and its affiliates, the Iraqi security forces captured 25 terrorists all from the US-sponsored ISIS terrorist organization in several provinces.

Iraqi National Security Service forces managed to arrest 25 terrorists in a security operation that lasted several days in the so-called states of Nineveh, Dajleh (Tigris), Jazira, and Salah al-Din of ISIS. The terrorist organization calls itself (Islamist State in Iraq and Sham – Levant), and calls the sectors in which it operates as states following the lead of the ‘state of Israel’.

The Iraqi official media reporting the news said that the detainees confessed to being members of the terrorist organization and that they have committed a number of crimes against the civilians and Iraqi forces, adding that ‘all the terrorists were referred to the competent legal authorities to take fair measures against them.’

As the US and Turkey are recycling their terrorists from Iraq and Syria to other new fronts like the newly opened in Afghanistan, the Iraqi security in coordination with the Iraqi PMU have intensified their counter-terrorism operations. A joint force of the Popular Mobilization Units and the Iraqi security forces carried out a pre-emptive security operation to pursue the remnants of the ISIS organization on the island of Salah al-Din, where several dens and tunnels that were used by the organization’s members to hide and move on the island were destroyed.

This comes three days after a security operation carried out by the Iraqi PMU in coordination with the Iraqi National Security Service forces led to the eliminating of two ISIS terrorists in the Tarmiyah town in the Salah al-Din governorate north of the capital Baghdad, one of the eliminated ISIS terrorists was a suicide bomber.

It’s no secret anymore that the USA created these terrorist groups starting with the ‘Mujahideen’ in Afghanistan from who Al Qaeda emerged in the 80s of last century and it created the ISIS terrorist group where it trained them in special camps in Jordan and Turkey, and smuggled them into Syria and Iraq loaded with state of the art weapons, satellite communication devices, hundreds of machine-gun mounted brand new 4 x 4 Toyota pickup trucks, and provided them with top intelligence information to effect regime change in Syria and to return to Iraq after the withdrawal of the US troops from it.

Former US Secretary of State, the dinosaur politician traveling in his private jet preaching about the dangers of climate change John Kerry put it during a meeting with the so-called Syrian opposition leaders this way: ‘We saw ISIS growing, we saw them heading to Damascus, we thought Assad will be pressured to give (us) concessions, and instead, he (Assad) brought Russia in and now it’s a different situation.

https://videopress.com/embed/QdkzfsbF?preloadContent=metadata&hd=1

We saw ISIS growing and threatening Assad, he called in Russia and it’s a different situation now.’ ~John Kerry, he’s not in prison!

Now you know why Trump killed Iranian Revered General Qassim Soleimani and Deputy Commander of the Iraqi PMU Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis?

If you want us to remain online, please consider a small donation, or see how you can help at no cost.
Follow us on Telegram: https://t.me/syupdates link will open the Telegram app.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Enduring Terror Forever: from al-Qaeda to ISIS-K

 August 30, 2021

by Pepe Escobar and first posted at AsiaTimes

It was 20 years ago today. Asia Times published Get Osama! Now! Or Else…The rest is history.

Retrospectively, this sounds like news from another galaxy. Before Planet 9/11. Before GWOT (Global War on Terror). Before the Forever Wars. Before the social network era. Before the Russia-China strategic partnership. Before the Dronification of State Violence. Before techno-feudalism.

Allow me to get a little personal. I was back in Peshawar – the Islamic Rome, capital of the tribal areas – 20 years ago after a dizzying loop around Pakistan, tribal territory, a botched smuggling op to Kunar, biding time in Tajikistan, arriving by Soviet helicopter in the Panjshir valley, a harrowing road trip to Faizabad, and a UN flight that took ages to arrive.

In the Panjshir, I had finally met “the Lion”, commander Masoud, then plotting a counter-offensive against the Taliban. He told me he was fighting a triad: the Taliban, al-Qaeda and the Pakistani ISI. Less than three weeks later he was assassinated – by two al-Qaeda ops disguised as a camera crew, two days before 9/11.

No one, 20 years ago, could possibly imagine the subsequent slings and arrows of outrageous – terror – fortune. Two decades, $2.3 trillion and at least 240,000 Afghan deaths later, the Taliban are back where they were: ruling Afghanistan. Masoud Jr in theory leads a “resistance” in the Panjshir – actually a CIA ops channeled through CIA asset Amrullah Saleh, former Afghan Vice-President.

Al-Qaeda is a harmless skeleton, even rehabilitated in Syria as “moderate rebels; the new bogeyman in town is ISIS-K, a spin-off of the Islamic State in “Syraq”.

After negotiating a stunning package deal with the Taliban, the Empire of Chaos is concluding a humiliating evacuation from the land it bombed into democracy and submitted for two decades. Once again the US was de facto expelled by a peasant guerrilla army, this time mostly consisting of Pashtuns, descendants of the White Huns – a nomad confederation – as well as the Sakas, nomadic Iranic peoples of the Eurasian steppes.

The CIA shadow army

ISIS-K, the new viper’s nest, opens multiple Pandora boxes that may lead to the new incarnation of the Forever Wars. ISIS-K has claimed responsibility for the horrific Kabul suicide bombing.

ISIS-K is apparently led by one ghostly emir Shahab al-Mujahir (no photo, no biography details), supposed to be an urban warfare expert who previously worked as a mere mid-level commander for the Haqqani network.

In 2020 media-savvy ISIS-K released one of his audio messages in Pashto. Yet he may not be Pashtun, but actually from some latitude in the Middle East, and not fluent in the language.

Even CENTCOM commander Gen Mackenzie has admitted that the US military are sharing intel on ISIS-K with the Taliban – or rather vice-versa: Taliban spokesman Zahibullah Mujahid in Kabul stressed that they warned the Americans in the first place about an imminent threat to the airport.

The Pentagon-Taliban collaboration is by now established. The perennial CIA shadow wars are a completely different ball game.

I have shown in this in-depth investigation how the top priority for the Taliban is to target the ramifications of the CIA shadow army in Afghanistan, deployed via the Khost Protection Force (KPF) and inside the National Directorate of Security (NDS).

The CIA army, as I explain, was a two-headed hydra. Older units harked back to 2001 and were very close to the CIA. The most powerful was the KPF, based at the CIA’s Camp Chapman in Khost, which operated totally outside Afghan law, not to mention budget.

The other head of the hydra were the NDS’s own Afghan Special Forces: four main units, each operating in its own regional area. The NDS was funded by the CIA and for all practical purposes, operatives were trained and weaponized by the CIA.

So the NDS was a de facto CIA proxy. And here we have the direct connection to Saleh, who was trained by the CIA in the US when the Taliban was in power in the late 1990s. Afterwards, Saleh became the head of the NDS – which happened to work very closely with RAW, Indian intel. Now he’s a “resistance leader” in the Panjshir.

My investigation was confirmed right away by the deployment of Task Force Pineapple last week, an operation carried out by CIA/Special Forces to extract the last sensitive intel assets from Kabul who were being chased by the Taliban.

In parallel, serious questions are piling up regarding the Kabul suicide bombing and the immediate MQ-9 Reaper response targeting an “ISIS-K planner” in eastern Afghanistan.

This page has been carefully tracking prime information regarding what could be described as the Abbey Gate Massacre, not surprisingly buried by Western mainstream media.

The You Tube channel Kabul Lovers, for instance, is engaging in street-level journalism that puts to shame every multi-million dollar TV network. A military officer who examined the bodies of many of the bombing victims at Kabul Emergency Hospital claimed that most were not victims of the suicide bombing: “All victims were killed by American bullets, except maybe 20 people out of 100.” The full, original report, in Dari, is here.

Scott Ritter, for his part, has emphasized the need of “perspective” on the claimed drone strike against ISIS-K “from an actual drone expert like Daniel Hale, but they put him in jail for telling the truth about how bad our drone program actually is when it comes to killing the right people.”

By now it’s established that contrary to Pentagon claims, the drone strike hit a random house in Jalalabad, not a moving vehicle, and there was “collateral damage”: at least 3 civilians.

And the civilian death toll of a subsequent missile strike on another alleged “ISIS-K planner” in a car in Kabul is already at 9 – including 6 children.

The Syria-Afghanistan rat line

The much-lauded Pentagon offensive against ISIS in “Syraq” has been derided all across the Axis of Resistance as a massive farce.

Over the years, we have had exposés coming from Moscow; Tehran; Damascus; Hezbollah; and some of the People’s Mobilization Units (PMUs) in Iraq.

Hezbollah’s secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah has repeatedly asserted how “the US have been using helicopters to save ISIS terrorists from complete annihilation in Iraq/Syria and transporting them to Afghanistan to keep them as insurgents in Central Asia against Russia, China and Iran.”

The extremely well informed Russian Special Presidential Envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, has pointed out that Russia had received the same information from local tribal leaders. Even former President Hamid Karzai – now a key negotiator forming the next Taliban-led government in Kabul – has branded ISIS-K a “tool” of the United States.

It’s important to remember that ISIS-K has become much more powerful in Afghanistan since 2020 because of what I describe as a shadowy transportation ratline from Idlib in Syria to Kunar and Nangarhar in eastern Afghanistan.

Of course there is no smoking gun – yet: but what we do have is a serious working hypothesis that ISIS-K may be just another CIA shadow army, in collaboration with the NDS.

All that, if confirmed, would point to a dark future: the continuation of the Forever Wars by other means – and tactics. Yet never underestimate the counter-power of those no-nonsense descendants of White Huns and Sakas.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Sayyed Nasrallah: Iranian Oil Ship to Set Sail in a Few Hours

 19-08-2020

Source: Al Mayadeen

By Al Mayadeen Net

Secretary-General of Hezbollah Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah vowed to retaliate if the ship is intercepted or attacked.

Sayyed Nasrallah: The ship has become linked to the pride of the Lebanese people

In a speech on the occasion of the tenth of Muharram, Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, assured the Lebanese people that the first Iranian ship loaded with diesel is bound to set sail towards Lebanon in a few hours.

Nasrallah spoke about the rationale behind Hezbollah’s decision to request Iran’s assistance, citing the embargo imposed on Lebanon as the main reason. Nasrallah confirmed that several ships will eventually follow suit as well. 

The Secretary-General warned against any attempts to intercept the ship, which will become equated to Lebanese territory the moment it sets sail, vowing to retaliate as the matter “has become linked to the pride of the Lebanese people, and we refuse to humiliate them.”

This declaration comes in the context of the Lebanese economic crisis which was fueled by foreign meddling, leading to the scarcity of ubiquitous requirements such as petroleum, diesel, and natural gas.

The ship in question is loaded with diesel, given its paramount importance in supplying electricity to vital sectors.

Nasrallah subsequently thanked Iran for its “permanent support for Lebanon and its resistance in the fight to liberate our land and repel aggression,” reminding the world of General Qassem Soleimani’s amputated hand found in the perimeters of the Baghdad airport, which has come to symbolize the sacrifices Iran is willing to make for the sake of its friends and allies.

He pointed out Iran’s lack of interference in Lebanese politics for the past 40 years, stressing that the resistance is “not a tool that serves an agenda, nor does it act as a slave, contrary to other politicians,” affirming that the resistance is undefeatable while any attempt to lure it into internal conflict will eventually fail. 

Sayyed Nasrallah closed his remarks on Lebanon by describing the thugs who are sowing fear in the hearts of people by attacking them as “demagogues who do not represent our people,” calling for the state to do “the right thing by carrying out its responsibility,” promising to offer the party’s help. 

The US Embassy in Lebanon is Behind Incitement

Regarding the US embassy in Lebanon and its role, Sayyed Nasrallah warned that it “is leading the economic and media war against Lebanon and is behind the incitement,” he added that “this embassy is not a diplomatic representation, but rather an embassy of collusion against the Lebanese people.”

He addressed Americans by saying: “Your embassy in Beirut will fail as it failed in the past,” reminding those who rely on the Americans and their embassy in Beirut to consider the Afghanistan experience.

In the same light, he announced to those dependent on the Americans that their police dogs are more valuable to the Americans than them.

The Resistance’s Top Priority is Confronting “Israel” 

On the topic of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, Sayyed Nasrallah emphasized that the top priority for the resistance is to confront the usurping Zionist entity.

“We are looking forward to the day when the Zionist invaders will leave the land of Palestine because it is the fate of the occupation and all invaders,” he said, repeating his call to stand by the Palestinians in the West Bank, the besieged Gaza Strip, al-Quds, and the diaspora as they work to regain their land from the river to the sea.

Regarding the threats to occupied Jerusalem and the holy sites, Sayyed Nasrallah called for a regional equation to preserve these sites, emphasizing that protecting the holy sites is a task delegated to the entire resistance axis, not only confined to Palestinians. 

After US Defeat in Afghanistan, All Eyes on Iraq & Syria

Touching on the situation in Iraq and Syria, Sayyed Nasrallah linked it to the US defeat in Afghanistan, describing the Iraqi decision to push US troops out of the country as “a great achievement.” He called on the Iraqi people to be wary of American advisers given their failure in Afghanistan, considering the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) as the sole guarantee in the face of ISIS and Takfiris. 

Sayyed Nasrallah went on to describe the PMF as “one of the greatest manifestations and responses to the fatwa of the religious authority in Najaf.”

Regarding the pretext of the US presence in northern Syria to fight ISIS, the Secretary-General labeled it as a “flimsy argument,” emphasizing that the region’s governments are fully capable of ending ISIS without the US’ assistance. 

“American forces facilitate the persistence of ISIS and help it move from one region to another” he said, calling on the American forces to leave east of the Euphrates, considering that the real goal of their presence is to steal Syrian oil.

Sayyed Nasrallah extended his gratitude to the Iraqi factions for expressing their willingness to protect the holy sites in Palestine, stressing that the alliance of regional resistance forces alongside the Palestinian resistance will strengthen the hope for Palestine’s liberation.

Related Videos

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

سوريا لم تنتظر دعوتها: أيّ جوار من دوننا؟

الأربعاء 18 آب 2021

قالت الخارجية العراقية إنها غير معنيّة بأيّ دعوة لا تُقدّم باسم الحكومة (سانا)

العراق

محمود عبد اللطيف

دمشق | لم يقتصر نفْي توجيه دعوة عراقية إلى سوريا لحضور قمّة بغداد على الجانب العراقي، بل إن نفياً مبطناً جاء من الرئاسة السورية نفسها، التي لم تتحدّث عن حمْل رئيس «هيئة الحشد الشعبي»، فالح الفياض، دعوة إلى دمشق للمشاركة في القمّة، بل أشارت إلى أن الفياض نقل إلى الرئيس بشار الأسد رسالة من رئيس الحكومة العراقية، مصطفى الكاظمي، حول اللقاء المزمع عقده أواخر الشهر الجاري، والمواضيع المطروحة على جدول أعماله. ويؤكد مصدر دبلوماسي عربي في دمشق، لـ«الأخبار»، أن الحكومة العراقية لم تُوجّه دعوة رسمية إلى نظيرتها السورية لحضور المؤتمر، الذي تصفه بأنه «سوريّ الفكرة بالأصل»، موضحة أنه «على الرغم من الترويج للمؤتمر على أنه الأوّل لدول جوار العراق، إلا أنه سبق وانعقد مؤتمر من هذا النوع في العاصمة السورية إبّان الحرب الأميركية على العراق»، مستغرباً أن «تنعقد هذه القمّة من دون حضور جارٍ أساسي لبغداد». ويشير المصدر إلى أن «دمشق تراقب اليوم ما قد يصدر عن هذا المؤتمر، من دون أيّ أمل في تحسّن سلوك تركيا في شمال العراق، أو حتى سلوكها تجاه ملفّ الأنهار المشتركة مع سوريا». كذلك، لا تتوقّع دمشق أن تُحدث القمّة تحوّلات في طبيعة العلاقات التي تجمع العراق مع بقيّة دول جواره، أو أن تثمر نتائج تفضي إلى تهدئة المنطقة المشحونة بعدد من الملفّات الساخنة.

ويشير الأستاذ الجامعي والكاتب عقيل محفوض، في حديث إلى «الأخبار»، إلى أنه لم تكن هناك توقّعات في الأوساط السياسية السورية بأن تُدعى دمشق إلى مثل هذا المؤتمر، لأن ذلك سيؤثّر على مواقف بقيّة الدول المَدعوّة التي لم يَزل مسؤولوها غير جاهزين للجلوس مع مسؤولين حكوميين سوريين على أيّ طاولة سياسية، على الرغم من كون هذه الدول على تنسيق أمني مع دمشق في عدد من الملفّات. ولا يَتوقّع محفوض أن يؤثّر غياب دمشق عن المؤتمر على «العلاقات الثنائية التي لم تنقطع منذ بداية الحدث السوري، والتنسيق المشترك بين الحكومتَين في الملفّات المتعلّقة بالاعتداءات الأميركية والإسرائيلية على نقاطٍ في أراضي البلدين، وتبادل المعلومات الاستخبارية في محاربة تنظيم داعش، بما يحقّق الأمن الوطني والقومي لكلّ منهما، ويضاف إلى ذلك التعاون المشترك في ملفّات ذات طابع اقتصادي، وعلى هذا الأساس لن يكون غياب دمشق عن مؤتمر جوار العراق مؤثّراً على مسار العلاقات الثنائية مطلقاً».

لم تكن هناك توقّعات في الأوساط السياسية السورية بأن تُدعى دمشق إلى مثل هذا المؤتمر

من جهته، يعتقد أستاذ القانون العام في جامعة دمشق، عصام التكروري، أن «عدم دعوة دمشق مسألة تبدو أنها ناتجة من فيتو للمحتلّ الأمريكي، لم تعارضه أو تعترض عليه أيّ من الدول المجتمعة حتى الآن، كما أن غالبية المدعوّين ليسوا جاهزين لتطبيع العلاقة مع دمشق خارج المظلّة الأميركية، وهذا يؤكد اعترافهم الضمني بالدور المحوري الذي يمكن أن تلعبه دمشق في حلّ مشاكل المنطقة، والتي يساهم عدد من الدول المجتمعة في تكريسها». ويرى التكروري، في حديث إلى «الأخبار»، أن عدم توجيه الدعوة إلى دمشق «يتجاهل الحقيقة الجغرافية المتمثّلة في أن سوريا هي أهمّ جيران العراق، وتتقاسم معه ملفّات وجودية يأتي على رأسها وجود الاحتلال الأميركي وتنظيم داعش الإرهابي في كلا الدولتين»، معتبراً أنه «في ما لو كان المجتمعون يريدون تحقيق زخم لمؤتمرهم، فكان من الضروري بمكان أن تتمّ دعوة دمشق قبل غيرها، وذلك بحُكم الجغرافيا والتهديدات الوجودية المشتركة ما بين الدولتين».

هموم مشتركة
يبلغ طول الشريط الحدودي السوري مع الجار الشرقي (العراق) نحو 599 كم، وهو شريط شهد معارك مشتركة بين الجيش السوري وقوات عراقية ضدّ تنظيم «داعش» في صيف العام 2107، انتهت بتحرير مدينة البوكمال السورية في تشرين الثاني من العام 2018، بما أفضى إلى تأمين الحدود، وإنهاء إمكانية تنقّل التنظيم بين طرفَيها. ويُعدّ قطْع طريق دمشق – بغداد من معبر التنف أحد أهمّ أسباب البقاء الأميركي في سوريا، لما يمثّله من عنصر حيوي في عملية منْع قيام طريق برّية بين العاصمتَين الإيرانية واللبنانية، تَعتبره إسرائيل تهديداً لها. وعلى هذا الأساس، اعتمد الجانبان السوري والعراقي معبر «البوكمال – القائم» في عملية انتقال الركّاب والبضائع. وتنتشر القوات الأميركية في منطقة التنف، بشكل مشترك مع القوات البريطانية التي تواصلت خلال الشهرَين الماضيَين مع الفصائل المسلّحة المنتشرة في مخيم الركبان، الواقع بالقرب من الحدود الأردنية جنوب شرق سوريا، والذي كانت دمشق عرضت غير مرّة استقبال قاطنيه، إلّا أن واشنطن عرقلت ذلك لكون الحُجّة المُعلَنة لبقائها في التنف هي تقديم الحماية لسكّان المخيم، ومحاربة تنظيم «داعش» في البادية السورية.

أمّا في ما يخصّ ملفّ الأنهار، فقد كانت الحكومة السورية فوّضت نظيرتها العراقية بالحوار مع تركيا في شأنه، في ظلّ قيام الحكومة التركية بخفْض الوارد المائي عبر الأنهار المشتركة مع سوريا والعراق، من دون تقديم مبرّرات واضحة. ويكشف مصدر هندسي، لـ«الأخبار»، عن كون الجانب التركي عاد إلى تخفيض مستوى التدفّق المائي لنهر الفرات إلى أقلّ من 350 متر مكعّب في الثانية، علماً أن الاتفاق المُوقَّع مع الحكومة التركية في العام 1987 يجبر أنقرة على الحفاظ على مستوى تدفّق لا يقل عن 500 متر مكعّب في الثانية، الأمر الذي انعكس على مستوى تخزين السدود السورية، لكون دمشق ملتزمة بالاتفاق المُوقَّع مع الجانب العراقي في العام 1989، والذي يوجب عليها تمرير ما نسبته 58% من الوارد المائي نحو الأراضي العراقية. وكان وزير الموارد المائية العراقي، رشيد الحمداني، أعلن، في أواخر الشهر الماضي عقب زيارته دمشق، أن سوريا وافقت على تفويضه بالنيابة عنها للنقاش مع تركيا حول الحصص المائية، حيث سيتمّ تزويده بكتاب رسمي عن طريق الخارجية السورية، لإصرار الجانب التركي في معظم الجلسات التفاوضية بشأن الحصص المائية على وجود الجانب السوري. واعتبر الحمداني، حينها، أن هذا التخويل سيقطع الطريق أمام حجج تركيا، وسنصل إلى تفاهمات.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!