Sunday, 1 December 2019

Syria News: Terror Attacks, Call for OPCW Transparency

 
Syria Jarabulus car explosion Turkey terrorists in-fighting
Western colonial media currently wallows in the misery its politicians have brought to its populations while ignoring the misery it has brought to Syria. On the heels of British media erupting in righteous concern over the fate of ISIS terrorists in Syria, came the ISIS terror attack on London Bridge, complete with every imaginable quirks, including heroes with fire extinguishers and narwhal tusks, heroes in the form of a convicted murderer and a man walking from the scene carrying a clean knife.
Meanwhile, in Syria another car bomb was remotely detonated in downtown Ayn al-Arous south of Tal Abyad in Raqqa northern countryside, 30 November. The terrorist perpetrators are part of Erdogan’s mercenary gangs. SANA has reported no details, simply that at least 13 persons were killed or injured in the massive explosion.
Two children, ages 8 and 9, were murdered by a landmine while grazing sheep in the farmland of Hosh Nasri village in the Douma area of Eastern Ghouta. Landmines left behind — and frequently buried in farmland — by fleeing terrorists remains an ongoing problem. Despite an MoU signed by the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) signed in July 2018, this group’s best work involves Agnes Marcaillou keeping impressive stats on death and dismemberment, reported to the Security Council on a somewhat regular basis.
Speaking of Douma, H.E. Bassam Sabbagh addressed the 24th conference of the State Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention in The Hague, 29 November and voiced his government’s concern over the recent leaked “contents of correspondences of a member of the fact finding mission to the Office of the Director General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)…which unveil that the OPCW report misrepresented some of the facts on the alleged Douma chemical attack in Damascus countryside” 7 April 2018, which “was used as a pretext for the United States, France and Britain to launch their tripartite military aggression” against the Syrian Arab Republic.
Envoy Sabbagh called for transparency, and noted that the three countries are currently trying to keep a blackout on the leaked report.
To explain in non-diplomatic protocol, the OPCW — corrupt since its ejection of Jose Bustani, per the demand of Dick Cheney via neocon John Bolton — lied in its report on the Douma chemical hoax, in order to allow the war criminal states of the US, UK, and France to maintain their cover story for their illicit, breach of international law, bombing of Syria, based on the lies of al Qaeda terrorists who occupied Douma at that time.
One need only have looked at the video and still photographs provided by the terrorists, dutifully reported by transatlantic NATO stenographer journalists, to know that there were no chemical weapons used, that the human garbage committed a massacre of mostly women and children, so that the criminal tripartite aggressors would bomb Syria, as they had bombed Syria one year earlier, for al Qaeda occupiers of Khan Sheikhoun.


One might also note the length of time between the investigations in Khan Sheikhoun and Douma, for the OPCW findings and also that investigators were too afraid of the various factions of al Qaeda in Khan Sheikhoun to enter, instead accepting fake evidence from the terrorists, and investigators on the ground in Douma, under the protection of the Syrian Arab Army.
Syria has begun participation in the meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM), in Rome, to discuss means of combating terrorism in the region. This engagement may mean a breakthrough in return of normalized diplomatic relations between the countries; in February 2018, General Ali Mamlouk visited Rome to discuss security with top Italian officials, but this visit was not publicly acknowledged, by Italy.
SANA has announced a medical breakthrough by the neurosurgery team of the Ibn al-Nafis Hospital in Damascus, in using artificial bone created with 3D printing technology, to expand the cranium size of a patient. This was the first operation of this kind in the SAR.
Also on 30 November are reports of a Jarabulus car bomb detonation, along with its driver, euphemistically referred to as a “militant.” Jarabulus, Syria, has been under the occupation of Caliph wannabe Erdogan thugs, since late 2016.

Syria Jarabulus Turkey terrorists warlords fighting over bounties car bomb explosion
Erdogan’s terrorists killing each other in Jarabulus, Syria.
Erdogan’s warlords are fighting over bounties.
May they continue.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
— Miri Wood

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!

“IF YOU LIKED WHAT WE DID TO THE MIDDLE EAST, YOU’LL LOVE WHAT WE’RE ABOUT TO DO TO LATIN AMERICA”



“If You Liked What We Did To The Middle East, You’ll LOVE What We’re About To Do To Latin America”

Latin America in the Crosshairs

Latin America has been regarded as the exclusive stomping ground of US economic interests, US military, and US intelligence services for much of the 19th and 20th centuries, to the point that the US public has grown to view meddling in its neighbors’ domestic politics as some sort of birthright which is still faintly rooted in the 19th century “white man’s burden” racialist policies. That the majority of Democratic Party presidential candidates supports the military coup in Bolivia, the escalating repressions in Chile, and the plundering of Brazil by the Bolsonaro regime is actually unremarkable in that regard. Such policies have long been the norm.
However, if one were to take a quick survey of recent developments in the “information battlefield” in the United States, one would be struck by the rapid elevation of Latin America as a place where direct US military action is needed. It is not just Trump who, in the aftermath of an apparently cartel-related murder of an American Mormon family in Mexico, “offered” Mexico the “help” of the US military in fighting the cartels. The latest boy-wonder of the US Establishment, “Mayor Pete” Buttigieg likewise allowed he is “open” to the idea of sending US troops to Mexico. Neither of these statements was seen as in any way controversial by the mainstream media—even though the US public is broadly anti-war and skeptical of additional international entanglements, the Washington Establishment views the sovereignty of other countries as nothing more than legal fiction.
These politicians’ statements do not stand in isolation. Hollywood has long been “joined at the hip” with the US national security establishment and can be always relied upon to propagate the latest set of Washington talking points. While Russian villains remain the staple of US movies and video games, Latin America is gradually reclaiming its role as a battlefield and source of threats to the United States which it lost after 9/11. There are now at least two currently running US TV series which specifically focus on direct US interventions in Latin America. America’s favorite CIA analyst Jack Ryan (who, it should be noted, became President on the pages of Tom Clancy’s novels after the rest of the US government was conveniently eliminated by a Boeing 747 flown into the Capitol  by a suicide pilot) is now bravely thwarting Russian plots in Venezuela. Going considerably further, Last Ship’s current season actually posits the emergence of Gran Colombia, a veritable Latin American empire which launches a Pearl Harbor-style surprise air raid which destroys the just-rebuilt US Navy with the assistance of a cyber-strike. In retaliation, United States employs the full range of its conventional capabilities, starting with CIA covert operatives working with some modern equivalent of the Nicaraguan Contras whose connections to the drug cartels are not even concealed, and ending with US Marines landing on the shores of Latin American countries in order to “liberate” them from their own governments.
There are other indications US establishment is bracing for a major deterioration of the political situation “south of the border”, up to and including a major refugee crisis comparable to what Europe has experienced. While Donald Trump has been roundly condemned for his immigration policies, particularly the deportations of Latin American refugees, the construction of a major barrier on the US-Mexico border, and the efforts to transform Mexico into a holding tank for refugees seeking admission into the United States, no senior Democratic Party politician or candidate has promised to reverse these policies.

From the Shores of Tripoli to the Halls of Montezuma?

The rekindling of interest in Latin America is a logical consequences of the drift toward a global multi-polar system. It means, first, a retrenchment in the Middle East due to the demonstrated power of Russia and China which has proved sufficient to thwart not only covert US plots but also overt uses of economic and military capabilities. This power transition has meant that even long-standing US allies such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia are adopting a multi-vector foreign policy no longer wholly centered on their relationship with the United States. It certainly does not help that the United States has proved of limited utility in resolving the many international conflicts and rivalries in that region, not only the obvious Iran-Saudi Arabia one, but also the lower-intensity Saudi Arabia—Turkey one. Since Russia is literally the only international power capable to credibly negotiate with each of these three regional rivals, its reputation as an honest broker backed up by non-trivial “hard power” has elevated its standing in the region to the detriment of the United States.
The second implication is an even closer binding of Latin American states to the United States, with the remarkably compliant Organization of American States (OAS) which has never seen a military coup it did not like, serving as the overt instrument of control. Conversely, regional organizations which have proven resistant to US control such as Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America-Trade between Peoples (ALBA-TCP) and  the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), both of which actually condemned the coup in Bolivia in strong terms, will find themselves the target of US pressure. Post-coup Bolivia’s announced departure from both of these organizations is unlikely to be an aberration, particularly since it follows on the heels of Lenin Moreno’s Ecuador’s departure from ALBA in 2018. The remaining ALBA states include Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela (in addition to several small island states), all of which are continuing targets of US regime change policies.
UNASUR also appears headed for extinction. As many as six countries, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay and Peru, suspended their membership in 2018. Chile moreover launched PROSUR, an organization explicitly intended to target Venezuela, with the initial states invited to join the new organization being  Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru, Guyana and Suriname, none of which can be described as pursuing policies contrary to US wishes.

Good-bye NAFTA, Hello USMC!

Trump Administration’s regional trade war that resulted in the launch of the US, Mexico, Canada (hence the “USMC” abbreviation) intended to replace the North America Free Trade Association (NAFTA) is indicative of the future US policy course. It’s doubtful few in the region failed to note the new trade pact’s abbreviation is exactly the same as that of the US Marine Corps which has a long and dark history of invasions and occupations of Latin American states. Consistent with the plot of “Last Ship”, USMC will find itself once again the final arbiter of trade arrangements in Latin America in the #MAGA era that will not end with Trump.
Economic developments in countries that have suffered right-wing regime shifts in the last few years show the direction in which Latin America will evolve. In Brazil, Boeing was allowed to acquire the commercial aircraft division of EMBRAER which hitherto was able to compete, as an independent actor, against both Boeing and Airbus even in their own home markets. The more strengthens Boeing by making it more competitive against Airbus in certain niches it lacked, and strips Brazil of a major industrial asset. Bolsonaro also aims to privatize another of Brazil’s economic “crown jewels”, the Petrobras energy firm which is all but guaranteed to fall into the hands of Washington-favored energy firms.  US interest in the lithium reserves in Bolivia and neighboring countries has also been well documented. Preventing Morales’ Bolivia from entering into a development deal with China was one of the main motives behind the coup. Like Bolsonaro’s Brazil, Moreno’s Ecuador is pursuing plans to allow oil drilling in the Amazon region.

 The Ghost of Che

The famed Argentinian revolutionary Che Guevara suffered a heroic death in Bolivia, attempting to mobilize an indigenous rebellion against the post-conquistador elite. The inevitable backlash to the ever more evident US efforts to ruthlessly exploit Latin America in order to compensate for the loss of influence and business elsewhere in the world means that the United States will find itself with several insurgencies and refugee crises not halfway around the world but in its own geopolitical backyard, whose intensity will eclipse the Cold War-era struggles.  Should United States insist on pursuing its current course, it risks losing power and influence in Latin America in the same way as it did in the Middle East.

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!

Israel Commemorates the Assassination of Rabin with Another Massacre in Gaza

By Miko Peled
Fresh on the heels of commemorating the killing of Israeli icon Yitzhak Rabin, Israel launched a series of attacks and assassinations on Palestinians.
Jerusalem, Palestine — My short visit to Palestine in early November began around the time of the commemoration of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, went through the assassination by Israel of Islamic Jihad leader, Bahaa Abu Al-Atta and his wife in Gaza, and ended as Prime Minister Netanyahu, who should be indicted for his countless crimes against the Palestinian people, was indicted for low grade corruption (valued at about $200,000), pulling strings and lying. And as always, Palestinians continue to bury their dead as Israelis bury their heads in the sand.
In a tweet following the assassination of Al-Atta, Dr. Basem Naim, Head of Council on International Relations, correctly wrote that the Israeli leadership is “pushing the area into war to escape its internal failures.” Not long after that Israel bombed both Gaza and Syria.

Commemorating Rabin’s Death

While it is wrong to speak ill of the dead, when the deceased is a man who represented an entire nation for over half a century, it would also be wrong to allow lies about the deceased to stand uncorrected. Contrary to common belief, Rabin did not die for peace. He spent his entire life destroying Palestine and making the lives of Palestinians unliveable.
Rabin agreed to go along with the Oslo “Peace” Plan only because it all but ensured that Palestinians would never be able to establish a state of their own. The Oslo Accords secured Israeli control over the entire length and breadth of Palestine. Peace, so it was assumed, would be a by-product of this agreement.
Rabin was the iconic Israeli and he represented Israel’s privileged elite: he was Ashkenazi, he fought in 1948, became a general, lead the IDF, he was Minister of Defense and Prime Minister. Being an iconic Israeli, Rabin was despised and envied by everything that his assassin represented: Yigal Amir was not-Ashkenazi but rather an Arab Jew, non-privileged, he was part of the national-religious movement which makes up the West Bank settler community. It is a community that did not have any part in the “myth of the creation,” the legacy of 1948 and the founding of the state and the military but pushed forward the settlement project in the West Bank.
No two groups could be more different and despise each other more than these two.
Israelis like to believe that Rabin’s assassination was caused by his handshake with Yasser Arafat. That the signing of the Oslo Accords, which allowed Palestinians to govern themselves, albeit to a very limited degree, is why he was killed. That his death represents the sacrifice all Israelis were willing to make for peace. However, in reality, his assassination was not about that at all. It was a climactic point in the tension between the two groups represented by the assassin and his victim.
At the public ceremony commemorating the assassination, the only major figure who spoke was also a retired general, former IDF Chief, head of the Blue and White Party, Benny Gantz. He is the heir apparent to the Rabin legacy of liberal Zionism which promises to continue killing Palestinians while claiming to want peace.

Gaza

What can be said about Gaza that hasn’t already been said? Well, all one has to do is to listen to the commentary on Israeli television news shows to find out. Set up like CNN, a panel of mostly men, naturally all Jewish Israeli, discuss the relations between Hamas and Islamic Jihad. One expert explained how Hamas was pleased that Israel “took out” Islamic Jihad leader Bahaa Abu al-Atta in Gaza as this helped Hamas in the competition between the two.
Comments that were tweeted by Dr. Basem Naim, former minister of health and the Head of Council on International Relations, showed a different story. The assumptions made by Israeli commentators suggesting that Palestinians would see an Israeli assassination of a Palestinian fighter as a cause for relief is indicative of the ignorance and arrogance of the Israeli media.
Abu-Atta was murdered in his bed, his wife was murdered alongside him and their children were seriously injured. There is no inquiry into the legality of the assassination, the murder of Abu-Atta’s wife, or the injuries to his children. In fact, a piece in Ha’aretz, a Liberal Zionist mouthpiece, by Amos Har’el stated that “Israel had a good week,” as a result of the assassination and the massacre that followed.
The assassination was followed by a brutal attack on Gaza in which a total of 34 people were killed, including eight children. Over one hundred people were injured, among them fifty-one children. Indeed a successful week for Israel.

All Around Palestine

In order to get an understanding of the situation in Palestine, one must visit all of Palestine. In the South, Naqab Palestinian Bedouin activists are struggling under daily repression, dispossession, and arrests of activists. In a recent visit to what used to be the village of Al-Araqib, I saw Sheikh Sayagh A-Turi again for the first time since he was released from prison. With each visit, there is less and less of a village. Last time I was there at the end of 2018 there were still a few tents there. This time we sat on a blanket on the ground, under a tree.
The Israeli police have a special terrorist squad called the “Yoav Brigade.” It is a specially trained storm trooper brigade that deals with the unarmed, poor Beduin community. “They come every day and they destroy everything in sight.” I was told by village activists. “If they see a blanket they take it throwing everything on the ground, tea, coffee, water, anything they find.” The Sheikh is not permitted to be there, in his village on his land, at all.
Bedouin Israel
Sheikh Ra’d Salah, from the 1948 Palestinian town of Umm El-Fahm is known as the leader of the currently outlawed Northern Branch of the Islamic movement. Israel outlawed the organization, known as “The Northern Branch,” in 2015. A piece by Lawrence Rubin in the Brookings Press claims, “the decision to outlaw the Northern Branch seems to have been based on political calculations, not necessarily security interests.”  Middle East Monitor reports that an Israeli court “convicted Sheikh Salah for incitement to commit terrorism. Magistrates also convicted Salah of illegal incorporation, citing his role as the leader of the Islamic Movement, which Israel outlawed for allegedly engaging in “anti-Israel activities.”
From the Naqab in the South to El-Jaleel in the north, from the Jordan Valley in the East to Yafa in the West, Palestine is occupied and Palestinians are subjected to inhumane treatment by the apartheid regime known as Israel. There was never a more important time to demand that Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) be enacted against Israel, and without delay.

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!

The Empire strikes back – US incited unrest in Iraq, Lebanon and Iran is Washington’s revenge against the Islamic Republic



The Empire strikes back – US incited unrest in Iraq, Lebanon and Iran is Washington’s revenge against the Islamic Republic
Since October,riots and unrest have wrecked havoc across Lebanon, Iraq and Iran. Iraq has suffered the worst as reports suggest over 300 people have been killed in the riots. In Lebanon, the US and its vassals have been busy hijacking the people’s grievances over the massive corruption among government officials. Followers of US puppets Samir Geagea and Saad Hariri have been blocking roads in an attempt to shut down the country, and to provoke a response from Hezbollah, thus setting the stage for a new civil war. In Iran, protests over gas price hikes have been hijacked by US backed MEK terrorists and Royalists loyal to the son of the late Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, with acts of violence and thuggery as they have burned down bank offices and government buildings. Luckily, in Iran these rioters and terrorists were dealt with swiftly and decisively, with over 1000 arrests being made within days after the so called “protests” began.
To some of us, these riots were expected as the Zionist axis have made these threats since several years back. Two years ago, the eccentric psychopath Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Salman threatened to incite riots and violence inside the Islamic Republic. “We won’t wait for the battle to be in Saudi Arabia,” he said, without elaborating on policies. “Instead, we will work so that the battle is for them in Iran, not in Saudi Arabia.”
Another reason for expecting the current chaos can be found in Syria and Yemen. Only fools would believe that Washington really would just pack their bags and leave Syria without seeking revenge for the humiliation they suffered after their defeat. It’s never that easy with the Zionist Empire. So they pull out of Syria and strike back with force against the Islamic Republic’s allies across the entire region, in an attempt to break the alliance between these countries. In Yemen, Washington suffered humiliation after the Houthis destroyed half of Saudi Arabia’s oil production within hours, effectively proving that the US Patriot Missile Defence system is useless.
Washington’s hand can be found in all three of these countries who have been targeted. In Iran, the initial protests were genuine, this is a fact that even the government admitted immediately. Reducing petrol subsidies on the cheapest fuel in the region has been an issue on Iran’s political agenda for years, one that became more urgent after Washington exited the JCPOA last year and imposed sanctions on Iran again. This move was necessary, and the money saved will go to the poor and needy. Western commentators immediately spinned it into “anti-regime protests”. Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings institution declared that “Iranian protesters strike at the heart of the regime’s legitimacy,” France 24 asked if is this “a new Iranian revolution?” And multiple other western media outlets slammed Iran’s “brutal crackdown” against its people, with false reports ranging from 100 to 2000 “killed by security forces”. Even though the Internet was disabled for nearly a week, somehow videos and pictures made their way to Twitter accounts of notorious anti-Iran commentators and “analysts”. All over the cyber space, so called expat Iranians, supporters of the Washington backed MEK terrorists ran rampant with massive propaganda campaigns. Hundreds of thousands of anti-Iran tweets exploded on Twitter as so called analysts, “think tanks”, media personalities, “activists” and politicians spewed lies on top of lies. And they wonder why the Islamic Republic shut down the internet?
Washington overtly offered its support to the rioters with the ever more despicable Mike Pompeo even taking to Twitter where he asked “Iranian protestors” to send him pictures and videos of the “regime’s crimes”. A few days later, Washington sanctioned the Islamic Republic’s minister of information for the Internet blackout.
Seeing as they couldn’t intimidate Iran into submission through threats of imminent war, they placed their hopes on subversion and internal attacks. Yet again they failed because they have failed to understand the Islamic Republic for over 40 years now. This country is NOT like most other country, it is not like Bolivia where Army chiefs openly backed by Washington easily could just topple the government. It is exactly for this reason that the IRGC was created. If the Iranian Army would ever attempt a coup, the IRGC, who is much more powerful than the army would immediately crush them.
In Lebanon, Washington exposed itself and its complicity in the riots when former US ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feltmann said that ‘the demonstrations and the reactions to them by Lebanese leaders and institutions, fortunately, coincide with US interests.’ Wherever Washington “supports” protests and riots, it can be concluded that they have a hand in it. The protests in Lebanon are a bit more complicated than the rather obvious ones in Iran and Iraq.
The closure of the main roads and the deliberate inaction of the Lebanese army forces due to US pressure is not surprising. The main roads being closed have been carefully selected. They have closed the roads linking southern Lebanon to Beirut and linking Baalbek and the road to Damascus with the capital Beirut. These areas are mainly inhabited and used by Shia. The roads are being blocked mainly in certain sectarian areas controlled by supporters of the caretaker Sunni Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his Druze ally Walid Jumbblat. The closure of other roads in the Christian dominated Dbayeh and in Tripoli by followers of the Zionist and war criminal Samir Geagea, leader of the notorious “Lebanese Forces”, are to divert attention from the main aim: challenging Hezbollah.
The goal is to force Hezbollah into the streets to confront the culprits that are blocking roads. Hezbollah is aware of this and is trying to avoid responding to provocations.
The aim is not to see Hezbollah defeated by the initial clashes; the firepower, training and military organisation of Hezbollah cannot be defeated by enthusiastic mercenaries and locals. The aim is to deprive Hezbollah of its legitimacy and pay a heavy price for its “unforgivable” victories in Syria and Iraq and its support to the Palestinians and the Yemeni.
Despite what is being claimed about Lebanon’s economy, the country’s financial problems are not the primary issue. Their debt (around 35 billion dollars) is in line with what Saudi Arabia is bleeding every year in their tragic war of terror on Yemen.
Sectarian elements and foreign intervention are managing to divert attention from the real national demands that have been overwhelming the Lebanese since decades. The foreign intervention is not relying on the justified demands of protestors in its confrontation with Hezbollah. It is relying on sectarian Lebanese who want to contribute to the fall of Hezbollah from the inside. This is not surprising because Lebanon is a platform where the US, EU, and Saudis are strongly present and active against the Resistance Axis.
In Iraq, the Zionist Axis has continued on the same theme, grasping for a geopolitical angle: protests in neighbouring Lebanon and Iraq are being cast as a regional insurrection against Iranian influence. Zionist Mark Dubowitz, the CEO of the hawkish think-tank “Foundation for Defense of Democracies” shamefully claimed that the people of not only Lebanon and Iraq, but also the people of Iran, are “actively demanding their countries back from the occupying Islamic Republic”. In other words, he claims that the Islamic Republic is occupying its own country. This is the level that they stoop to.
Yet some elements among the protestors in Iraq have been attacking and torching Iranian consulates. Why is that? How will torching the Iranian consulates in Najaf and Karbala save them from poverty and disenfranchisement? Who are these people, claiming that Iran is at fault for Iraq’s misery? Have they suffered from a memory loss over what has happened these past 16 years? Who sanctioned Iraq, resulting in the death of half a million Iraqi children? Who claimed that it was all worth it on national TV? Who invaded Iraq and humiliated the country, occupied it for 8 years and stole their resources? Who dropped depleted uranium on Iraqi cities, causing children even today to be born disfigured and mutated? Who unleashed Daesh on Iraq? And most importantly, who stepped in immediately to save Iraq when Washington’s dogs were at the gates of Baghdad in the summer of 2014? It is here that it becomes clear that the Saudis and Americans are directing these thugs to attack Iran inside Iraq. Fortunately, in Iraq they have been exposed as well. The Iraqi Foreign Ministry condemned the incident in strongest terms, saying the attack had been perpetrated “by strangers … distant from the reality of demonstrations taking place in a number of Iraqi cities.”
“We believe that its purpose is clear; to harm the historical relations between Iraq and Iran and countries of the world whose missions are in Iraq,” it said in a statement.
The ministry further warned against “the entry of persons who want to divert the demonstrations with the right demands from the seriousness of legal discipline and its proper course. The consulate in Najaf has been exposed to clear evidence of their agendas that are distant from the national demands; we stress the need to secure missions and not to expose those working in them.”
Iraq’s top cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani has warned that enemies of Iraq and affiliated groups in the country are plotting to create internal strife and bring the country back to the “era of dictatorship”, an apparent reference to the former rule of Saddam Hussein.
Addressing worshippers during Friday prayers in the holy city of Karbala, the Grand Ayatollah urged protesters to prevent attacks on people and their property and distance themselves from those committing such acts.
“It is imperative on peaceful demonstrators that they separate their ranks from non-peaceful individuals and cooperate on shunning saboteurs – whoever they are – and not allow them to abuse peaceful protests to damage and attack the property of citizens,” a representative of Ayatollah Sistani said as he delivered the top cleric’s sermon.
“The enemies and their levers, in order to achieve their malicious goals, plan to spread chaos and plunge the country into internal strife and then return it to dictatorship, so everyone must work together to take away this opportunity from them,” he added.
A few months ago, the Lebanese Arabic-language daily newspaper al-Akhbar reported that Iraqi security sources have uncovered a plan seeking to install a military strongman favoured by the US by creating a power vacuum in the country.
The clear pattern seen in both Lebanon and Iraq is that this major plot is targeting the Islamic Republic.
Iran defeated the mainstream international community when it helped prevent the fall of the government in Damascus after years of war. It has effectively supported Hezbollah and the Palestinians against Israel, it has stood by Iraq and prevented terrorism from fully taking control of the country. Iran has also supported the defence of Yemen against Saudi Arabia’s pathetic and criminal war. These moves have created a lot of enemies for Iran, and they are all hell-bent on revenge for years of humiliation and failure.
This is the most important hour for the Resistance Axis, it must survive this plot, otherwise the entire region will burn and fall into Zionist hands.

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!

Dangerous Drivel from Pompeo Confirms America Is No Peace Broker



By Stuart Littlewood
Pretence not to understand 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention perpetuates Israel’s impunity
Pompeo visits the Western Wall and Tunnel with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu edfc9
Before our American friends run away with the idea that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has authority to say that planting Israeli civilian settlements in Occupied Palestine “is not, per se, inconsistent with international law”, and that the Trump Administration is only recognizing the reality on the ground, they might like to hear the authoritative opinion of John McHugo, International lawyer and Balfour Project trustee:
Article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 provides that “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”
Article 49(6) was considered by the International Court of Justice in its Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in 2004. It stated, at para. 120 of the Advisory Opinion, that Article 49(6) “prohibits not only deportations or forced transfers of population…but also any measures taken by an occupying Power in order to organize or encourage transfers of parts of its own population into the occupied territory.”
All judges of the court subscribed to this with the sole exception of Judge Buergenthal, the American judge, who is a Holocaust survivor and who lost toes to frostbite as a child in Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen concentration camps. He took the view that the Court should have declined to exercise its jurisdiction. Yet he issued his own Separate Declaration to the Advisory Opinion in which he expressly stated at Para. 9: “I agree that [Article 49(6)] applies to the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and that their existence violates Article 49, paragraph 6”. The view that Israeli civilian settlements violated Article 49(6) was thus the unanimous view of the judges.
More recently, the fact that this is the law was reiterated by the UN Security Council in Resolution 2334 of 23 December 2016 at operative paragraph 1: “The Security Council Reaffirms that the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-State solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace.”
It is not for any State, however mighty and powerful, to rewrite the rules of international law. Realities on the ground are subject to the rule of law, just as all other realities are.
For good measure Article 85(4)(a) of the 1977 Additional Protocol I provides that “the transfer by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies” is a grave breach of the Protocol. And under Article 8(2)(b)(viii) of the 1998 ICC Statute “the transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies” constitutes a war crime in international armed conflicts.
And, by the way, in 1992, in its final report to Congress on the conduct of the Gulf War, the US Department of Defence declared that it regarded the transfer of the Iraqi population into occupied Kuwait in violation of Article 49 of the 1949 Geneva Convention IV as a war crime. So, happy with the Convention then.
As usual, the US and its allies (including the UK), will observe international law when it suits them. But not if it upsets their bosom-pals in Israel.
Pompeo’s two cents’ worth follows Trump’s presidential declaration earlier this year recognizing Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, which belong to Syria. When will Washington understand that Trump’s capricious shifts in policy don’t alter international law, don’t impress other nations, and endanger world peace?
As a product of Harvard Law School Pompeo should be ashamed of his fatuous pronouncement.
McHugo points out that British government policy is to recognize Palestine as a sovereign state “when it best serves the interests of peace”. In view of Pompeo’s and Trump’s dangerous remarks that moment is now.

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!

Military Media Broadcasts Scenes of Downing US-Saudi Apache Plane in Asir



Military Media on Saturday, broadcasted scenes of downing an Apache plane, used by the US-Saudi aggression, with a surface to air missile, killing crew were in plan, in Asir.
The scenes showed the moment when the plane was targeted by the missile with a new technology that has not yet been disclosed, which led to the complete burning of the Apache plane and dropping it in one of the mountains in Asir, killing its crew consisting of the Saudi pilots, Abdul Majid Al-Omari and Saud Al-Shehri, according to Saudi tweets.
Armed Forces spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Sere’e said that the Air Defenses will address all attempts by the enemies until we reach the full protection of our sky. He pointed out that approaching the Yemeni airspace is prohibited and will not be a place for picnic for anyone.
Saudi Arabia on Saturday admitted killing two Saudi pilots after what it described as the downing of their Apache helicopter in Yemen.
The downing operation comes three months after the Yemeni Armed Forces unveiling of two types of Air Defense systems, Fater1 and Thaqib1, which entered the battle line in 2017 and managed to counter the warplanes of aggression.
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