From the Strategic Culture Foundation
War hawks in Israel and Washington have been quick to denounce Iran’s nuclear power ambitions for years with the repeated excuse that “Iran has so much oil that nuclear energy is irrelevant for them- unless they wanted to build an Islamic Bomb!”
As leaders from all around the world gathered to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of a war meant to end all wars, the aftermath of the bloody conflict nevertheless continue to resonate in many parts of the globe today.
Author and researcher Hanief Haider traces some of the trends and maneuvers from the pre-World War I era, such as Great Britain’s use of religious fervor to influence affairs in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), which persist today.
Authored by Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org…
Recent Iranian trade figures suggest that the United Arab Emirates, a strong backer of US efforts to squeeze Iran economically, could emerge alongside China as the Islamic republic’s foremost lifeline in seeking to blunt the impact of harsh sanctions. Russia and Oman rather than Europe are emerging as runners-up in possibly enabling Iran to circumvent sanctions.
Trump’s constant hostility to Iran has made it politically impossible for anyone in the Iranian government to consider negotiating with the U.S.:
The Russian and US delegations led by Putin and Trump met for a working lunch in Helsinki, Finland on July 16, 2018 [PPIO]
Russian President Vladimir Putin has hailed his summit with US President Donald Trump as a first step to clearing tensions between their two countries and denied any role in the 2016 presidential election.
“Of course, numerous problems persist, and we have failed to clear the backlog in full, it was impossible to do this, but I believe we have made the first important step in that direction,” he told reporters.
Putin and Trump met at the 25th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Vietnam in November 2017 [PPIO]
Russian president Vladimir Putin met his US counterpart Donald Trump with a slight advantage in Helsinki, Finland on Monday.
That would be a World Cup advantage.
Putin was in attendance at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow where in a dramatic finale to what many agree has been the most successful World Cup in years, France defeated Croatia 4 to 2.
In their opening sit-down in front of the press in Helsinki, Trump reiterated his tweet from the previous evening:
Analysis (MES) — Conventional wisdom has it that China stands to benefit from the US withdrawal from the 2015 international nuclear agreement with Iran, particularly if major European companies feel that the risk of running afoul of US secondary sanctions is too high.
Much has been said about US President Donald Trump leaving the Iran deal: that this is in blatant disregard of basic rules of the international law on treaties and that this is the behavior of the bully, profoundly disrespectful towards the other partners in the treaty – France, Great-Britain, Russia, China and Germany.
And last, but not least, that this comes down to a declaration of war against Iran.
In many ways this is indeed a historical setback.
The consequences of Trump’s decision will be felt for decades to come.
(ANTIWAR.COM) — While previous reports have indicated that there was little interest in talking about a new nuclear deal with Iran, the withdrawal of the US from the existing deal appears to have changed things. Now, Russia, China, and the European Union are to hold talks on a major revision of the deal later this week. This new deal […]
