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Showing posts with label UN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UN. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Nikki Haley No More US Ambassador to UN


US President Trump accepted Nikki Haley’s resignation as UN ambassador. Haley had wanted some time off and discussed her resignation with Trump last week at the White House.
In announcing her resignation, Trump said on Tuesday that Haley first broached the subject six months ago, when she told the president that she wanted to take some time off at the end of the year. Trump said that he hopes Haley will one day return to his administration, and told her “you can have your pick” of positions within it.
Haley will depart at the end of the year, and Trump said that he “will be in constant touch” with her afterwards.
“I think that it’s just very important for government officials to understand when it’s time to step aside,” Haley said on Tuesday. “The truth is I want to make sure that this administration has the strongest person to fight.”
Haley had held her post since Trump’s inauguration in January 2017. Since then, she echoed Trump’s tough line towards the United Nations, and oversaw the US’ withdrawal from the UN Human Rights Council, which she called the UN’s “greatest failure.”
After the publication of an anonymous op-ed in the New York Times in September, which described a concerted effort by officials to thwart the president’s plans, Haley denied involvement, and said that she openly disagrees with Trump when necessary.
“I don’t agree with the president on everything. When there is disagreement, there is a right way and a wrong way to address it. I pick up the phone and call him or meet with him in person,” she said. She later called rumors that officials were planning on trying to remove Trump from office for unfitness via the 25th Amendment “absurd.”
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

Thursday, October 4, 2018

USA's diplomatic isolation deepens

US seeks to avoid dispute resolution with Palestinians
Seeking to avoid complying with the consequences of previously-signed treaties, the US announced that they are outright withdrawing from multiple agreements today. This included the 1955 Treaty of Amity with Iran, and the 1961 Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, Concerning the Compulsory Settlement of Disputes.
The 1955 Treaty of Amity was a little known treaty signed by the US and Iran after the 1953 CIA coup. The treaty was cited in an Iranian lawsuit aiming to prevent parts of US sanctions being enforced, and Iran won that lawsuit on Wednesday.
It is unclear if the 1955 treaty was really that big of a part of the court ruling, which merely said the US has to exempt humanitarian goods from the sanctions. The US decision to withdraw from the treaty will, however, likely be used to claim the ruling doesn’t apply anymore.
The Vienna Convention, by contrast, is a far-reaching diplomatic agreement, which the US was an early signatory of. The protocol the US withdrew from on Tuesday was one in which disputes between nations are to be resolved peacefully on the international stage.
US officials aren’t keen on that, because it might require them to settle disputes instead of just endlessly escalating them with new sanctions and other measures. The Palestinians are seeking redress of disputes with the US centering on the relocation of the US Embassy to Jerusalem.
Though the US was an early signatory to this provision, according to John Bolton their real objection is that the Palestinians were allowed to sign at all. The State of Palestine signed the protocol earlier this year, but the US doesn’t recognize them as a state, and considers them to have no rights to resolve such disputes in international courts.
Bolton argued further that Iran is politicizing the International Court of Justice, and that the US views the court as ineffective and is moving away from complying with ICJ rulings in general

Saturday, September 29, 2018

Trump Addresses UN – The World Laughs


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28.09.2018 
For years, US presidents have regaled the UN General Assembly with rosy and ridiculous rhetoric about America allegedly doing great things for world peace.
Notwithstanding such criminal barbarities as the US genocidal wars in Vietnam, Iraq and elsewhere, the UN has tended to be a silent forum while American leaders indulged in fantasies about their nation’s “virtuous greatness”. That silence was either from fear or bamboozlement by American phony rhetoric.
This year, however, the assembly burst out in laughter at President Trump’s vain claims of greatness. It’s about time too. American claims have always been wildly overblown. This year’s disbelieving reaction among delegates was not only appropriate. It also shows that the world openly views US claims as ridiculously disconnected from reality.
The rampant contradictions articulated by President Trump in his address to the 73rd United Nations General Assembly are too many to condense here.
He called for the world to “choose peace and freedom over domination” – that from a leader of a nation that has waged scores of wars in flagrant violation of international law during the seven decades since the UN was established following the Second World War.
Trump claimed the US has defeated terrorists in Syria and Iraq, when in reality American illegal wars, covert and overt, have unleashed these same terrorist as proxies for its regime-change machinations.
There were so many other absurd contradictions in American self-righteousness as enunciated by Trump. But perhaps the most glaring was this: Trump was calling on the nations of the world to join in America’s campaign of aggression against Iran over the latter’s alleged “sponsorship of terrorism” – when it is the US that is the biggest sponsor of terrorism.
Trump’s unilateral abrogation of the international nuclear accord with Iran earlier this year is a brazen violation of international law. Yet, this American president demands that all nations indulge his government’s transgression against an international treaty to satisfy Washington’s obsession for regime change in Tehran.
American conduct of illegal wars and regime change in the Middle East and beyond has undermined international law and gravely incited tensions.
The spectacle of President Trump bullying the world to comply with US rogue-state behavior with regard to Iran is a contradiction too far – and no wonder the world is confounded by Washington’s absurd arrogance.
How can anyone have the slightest respect for American self-proclaimed leadership when it is in fact a rogue state that has no respect for international law and rules?
That has always been the case, despite florid, vainglorious rhetoric about American probity. But under Trump the contradiction between rhetoric and reality of American munificence and misconduct has become too stark to ignore. The only appropriate response is to laugh.
Trump extols the principle of “sovereignty” of nations. Yet, in his threats delivered at the UN this week, Trump has no respect for sovereignty of nations that do not kowtow to Washington’s diktat.
This American president has open contempt for multilateral accords, the Iran deal in particular. It is the US which has shown bad faith and criminal disregard towards the 2015 nuclear accord ratified by the UN. This violation of the accord is leading to tensions and instability in the Middle East, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pointed out to the UN Security Council this week.
Still, Trump tries to make a virtue of this American vice, and what’s more, to lay down ultimatums to the rest of the world to acquiesce to American bullying, or else face retribution with punitive sanctions.
The American leader is a leader in the most nefarious sense. Leading the world into lawlessness and certain conflict that accompanies such lawlessness.
Trump’s platitudes about “sovereignty” are nothing other than a license for American rogue-state conduct unfettered by international law and global accountability. In reality, American power is degenerating into an embrace of the kind of fascistic licentiousness that prevailed in the 1930s which led to world war.
It surely is a sign of the times when an American president stands up in front of the world and gratuitously exults in his nation’s contempt for global law, order and peace. All delivered with smug self-righteousness. No wonder the world is laughing. The disconnect from reality is too much to bear.
But it is no laughing matter. America is accusing everyone of malfeasance – Russia and China in particular – when the barefaced reality is that Washington is the scourge of world peace. America’s trashing of international order is only matched by its trashing of reason and any possible dialogue to uphold international order.
America claims to have led the establishment of the United Nations out of ashes of the Second World War in 1945. That war and its fascist protagonists were the outgrowth of a failing capitalist system. The system is failing again and producing the same conditions for nation-state-led rivalry and war.
History seems to be coming back to that same point. Trump’s ridiculous and reckless ultimatums delivered to the world this week at the UN shows how the causes of war have never been solved. American rhetoric is breaking down from its preposterous pretense of being a law-abiding “leader of the free world” to reveal, ominously, the same fascistic tendency for war.
We may indeed chuckle at Trump’s clownish claims. But the deadly serious issue is how to prevent this rogue state from inciting another world war.
As the great German playwright Bertolt Brecht once wrote: “War is a bastard, but the bitch that bore him is on heat again.”
America’s complete disregard for international order and compliance, as expressed by President Trump this week at the UN, is the evidence of war on the horizon once again due to capitalist chaos in the world order. US failure as the world’s foremost capitalist power is manifest in Trump’s bullying and boorish exultation of lawlessness.
On one hand, the breakdown is hilarious, absurd, risible. On the other hand, it is gravely alarming.

Thursday, September 27, 2018

Trump’s General Assembly Dissembling and Rage

Virtually all politicians lie. The Clintons, Bush/Cheney, and Obama were serial liars.
They never let facts interfere with their domestic and geopolitical agendas, Trump a more congenital liar than his predecessors. 
Habitual or compulsive lying is part of his makeup. It’s so extreme he may be unable to distinguish between truth and falsehoods, especially since he relies on rubbish fed him by hardline neocon advisors and Fox News, his favorite TV channel.
Nearly straightaway in his Tuesday UN address, he turned truth on its head claiming “(i)n less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.”
Laughter by attending world leaders and diplomats followed, then silence as DJT recited a litany of one Big Lie after another, along with taking credit for deplorable policies he called major achievements.
They include his war on humanity at home and abroad, extreme corporate favoritism, JCPOA pullout (breaching an international treaty), refusing to sign the Global Compact on migration, withdrawing from the UN Human Rights Council, unlawfully moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem (a UN-declared international city), along with imposing greater hardships on long-suffering Palestinians he doesn’t care a hoot about, along with much more.
His disdain for ordinary people at home and abroad is undeniable, harming them to serve privileged interests exclusively, wanting social justice in America eliminated, his claims otherwise a gross distortion of reality.
His destructive record is indisputable. He lied claiming “the United States is stronger, safer, and a richer country than it was when I assumed office two years ago.”
He lied saying “(w)e are…standing up for our citizens and for peace loving people everywhere” his regime ruthlessly exploits and grievously harms.
He lied claiming he “honor(s) the right of every nation in this room to pursue its own customs, beliefs and traditions,” adding: 
“The United States will not tell you how to live, work, or worship. We only ask that you honor our sovereignty in return.”
Republicans and undemocratic Dems seek dominance over all other nations, pressuring, bullying and bribing allies to bend to their will, waging naked aggression on sovereign independent countries, wanting them transformed into US vassal states.
His outreach to North Korea is all about getting its government to comply with US demands in return for hollow promises – fooling no one in Pyongyang, why respecting its sovereignty, formally ending Harry Truman’s war, and stepping back from the brink on the peninsula is unattainable as it’s always been for nearly 70 years.
Claiming the Saudis and other despotic Gulf states are working with the US “to identify…track, and (combat regional) terrorist networks” ignores their support for this scourge, used as imperial proxies wherever their fighters are deployed.
Calling US/UK-orchestrated, Saudi-led naked aggression in Yemen “civil war” is a bald-faced lie. 
So is saying the Saudis and allied Gulf states “pledged millions of dollars to aid the people of Syria and Yemen” – their funding and other aid going to ISIS, al-Nusra, and other ruthless terrorists alone, their terror-bombing and other destructive tactics harming ordinary people in these countries most of all.
Washington fundamentally opposes peace, stability, equity, and justice everywhere – notions Republicans and undemocratic Dems consider anathema.
Their record, especially since the rape of Yugoslavia, speaks for itself, endless war on humanity and all sovereign independent states, wanting all nations transformed into ruler-serf societies – unsafe and unfit to live in.
Like many times before, Trump turned truth on its head claiming credit for “driving…bloodthirsty killers known as ISIS…from the territory they once held in Iraq and Syria.” 
Just the opposite is true. Washington and its imperial partners support the scourge of terrorism they pretend to oppose.
War on terrorism in Syria is waged by government forces, Russia, Hezbollah, and Iranian military advisors alone – a campaign Washington, NATO, Israel, the Saudis and UAE oppose.
Threatening Syria like many times before, Trump said “the United States will respond if chemical weapons are deployed by…Assad” – US-supported terrorists alone responsible for numerous CW attacks, no evidence government forces ever used them throughout years of war.
Trump focused his harshest venom on Iran, a nation supporting world peace and stability, involved in combating terrorism in Syria, a righteous mission.
Trump: “Iran’s leaders sew (sic) chaos, death and disruption. They do not respect their neighbors, borders, or the sovereign rights of nations.” 
“Instead, they plunder the nation’s resources to enrich themselves and to spread mayhem across the Middle East and far beyond.” 
“The Iranian people are rightly outraged that their leaders have embezzled billions of dollars from the treasury, seized valuable portions and looted the religious endowments to line their own pockets and to send their proxies to wage war.” 
“Iran’s neighbors have paid a heavy toll for the agenda of aggression and expansion.”
Fact: The above hostile remarks are a litany of bald-faced lies, fooling no world leaders and others in the General Assembly Hall, obvious to everyone hearing them, including savvy global audience viewers where Trump’s address was televised.
Fact: What Trump calls a “horrible 2015 Iran nuclear deal” is an international treaty.
It’s strongly supported by other signatory countries and the world community – other than Israel, the Saudis, and perhaps a few other despotic regimes hostile to sovereign Iran. 
The Islamic Republic threatens no other nations. Its nuclear program is entirely legitimate.
It has no military component, repeatedly confirmed by the IAEA, along with stressing that Iran fully complies with JCPOA provisions.
The Trump regime’s pullout flagrantly breached international law, a US specialty time and again, respecting might over right alone, deploring what all just societies cherish most.
Ruthlessly dangerous hardliners in Washington want dominion over planet earth, its resources and populations.
They’re waging endless wars of aggression to achieve its aims, risking a nuclear holocaust if things are pushed too far.
The Trump regime’s pressure and  threats against other nations to support its hostile Iran agenda is a colossal failure. Russia strongly supports Iranian sovereignty. 
China, Turkey and India intend to keep purchasing Iranian oil and/or gas. According to Oil Price.com:
“Given the mixed signals over compliance with Washington’s desire for India to cut Iranian oil and with Iran offering even more advantageous procurement incentives to Indian refiners, it appears that India will continue to buy Iranian oil above 2017 levels.”
China could buy all Iranian oil if it wishes. It currently buys about one-fourth of its oil exports. It rejected US demands to halt purchases. So did Turkey. Japan and South Korea may cut but not cease buying Iranian oil.
Trump: “We cannot allow the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism to possess the planet’s most dangerous weapons.”
Fact: The dubious distinction applies to Washington, Israel, and their imperial partners, not Iran, forthrightly combating the scourge these countries support.
They represent humanity’s greatest threat, Trump a front man for dark forces infesting Washington.
His UN address was an affront to what responsible governance is all about, a notion he and regime hardliners reject.
They resemble what Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called “extremist nationalism and racism and through xenophobic tendencies resembling a Nazi disposition.”
Peace and freedom-loving people everywhere tremble because of potential horrors they may unleash next.
Their extremism risks nuclear armageddon.  
By Stephen Lendman
Source

Sunday, September 23, 2018

Iran demands Israel be forced to join NPT

ISRAEL NUKES DIMONA

SPUTNIK – Iran’s permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) issued a biting response to his Israeli counterpart’s claim that Iran and Syria posed “significant proliferation threats” to the Middle East and the world.

Iranian IAEA Ambassador Kazem Gharibabadi urged the international community to pressure Israel to sign onto Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), saying that doing so would be the only way to bring peace to the Middle East.

Speaking at the 62nd Annual Session of the ongoing IAEA General Conference in Vienna, Gharibabadi charged Israel with threatening its neighbors, pointed to its possession of nuclear weapons, and chastised the IAEA for giving in to Israeli pressure and not following up on what he said were the country’s “dangerous” nuclear activities.

According to the ambassador, little progress has been made on nuclear disarmament, one of the NPT’s major stated objectives, in the fifty years since the treaty was signed. Gharibabadi also pointed to the Middle East Nuclear Weapon Freeze Zone idea, a UN project dating back to 1970s aimed at prohibiting nuclear weapons in the region, and how this proposal too has suffered from a “lack of political will.”

Gharibabadi’s remarks came on the heels of comments at the conference by Israel Atomic Energy Commission chairman Ze’ev Snir, who also called on the international community to take action against alleged Iranian and Syrian nuclear activities. The two countries, he said, “pose significant proliferation threats to the region and the world.”

Snir warned about an “outrageous threat” by Iran [to] attack Israeli nuclear sites, and called Tehran a threat to “regional peace and security.” The Israeli ambassador called on the IAEA to conduct a thorough verification of Iran’s activities, saying the country’s nuclear weapons ambitions were “a documented fact.”

Israel, which has a policy of neither admitting or denying the existence of a nuclear weapons program, is presently believed to be the only country in the Middle East to possess nuclear weapons, with estimates that it has anywhere between 80 and 400 warheads deliverable by a variety of air, sub and missile platforms.

Iran, an NPT signatory under observance by the IAEA over compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal, is barred from the creation of nuclear weapons. The fate of the 2015 deal, which was signed by the Iran, the United States, Russia, China, and several European countries, was put into question after Washington withdrew from the deal in May 2018 and vowed to impose unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Last month, during a visit to an Israeli nuclear facility, Israeli Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu made what has been widely interpreted to have been a veiled warning about Israel’s nuclear capabilities and their possible use if the country was ever attacked. Iranian Foreign Minister called the remarks hypocritical and “beyond shameless.”

Signed in 1968 and stepping into force in 1970, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is tasked with preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and furthering the goal of eventual global nuclear disarmament. Under the treaty, Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, France and China are recognized as nuclear weapons states. Non-signatories include Israel, India, Pakistan and South Sudan. North Korea withdrew from the NPT in 2003.

SOURCE

Thursday, September 20, 2018

How the U.N. Joined America’s War Against Syria

September 20, 2018 Information Clearing House  America has been at war to transfer control of Syria over to the Saud family, who own Saudi Arabia; and America has been trying to do this ever since the first of the CIA’s coups against Syria failed in 1949. But only during the U.S. Presidency of Barack Obama did the United Nations become a tool in this American enterprise. Obama entered the White House in 2009 secretly hoping to be able to overthrow Syria’s Government; and when the CIA-assisted “Arab Spring” uprisings in the Arab world started flowering in 2011, the U.S. Government had the important U.N. operatives fully on-board assisting the U.S. Government to assist this overthrow — to hand Syria to the Sauds (the Sauds being America’s most important international ally, and the world’s richest family) to control.
By the time of June 2011, the Obama State Department, under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was already deep into planning the overthrow not only of Syria’s Government (planning the international recruitment of jihadists to do that), but of Ukraine’s Government (planning international recruitment of nazis to do that).
Although the common view is that America’s main allies are European, that viewpoint is no longer true. Today’s America is allied mainly with the Sauds, and with Israel, which latter is the Sauds’ chief lobbying arm both in North America and in Europe, because Christian-majority populations are far more sympathetic to Jews than to Moslems. For a politician to be publicly sympathetic to Jews is much better for a politician than for him/her to be publicly sympathetic to Muslims. So, Israel carries the Sauds’ lobbying water, not only their own.
On 3 December 2011 (near the end of the year when the “Arab Spring” started), the independent investigative journalist Sibel Edmonds headlined “US Media: Distorters of Reality & Gravediggers of Truth”, and she reported:
Follow Up — The Continued Blackout on West’s Secret Training & Support Camp in Turkey for War on Syria
12 days ago, on November 21, here at Boiling Frogs Post, I reported on the ongoing joint US-NATO secret training camp in the US air force base in Incirlik, Turkey, which began operations in April-May 2011 to organize and expand the dissident base in Syria. I had received the information for that story from multiple sources including highly credible insiders in Turkey and government insiders here in the US. …
I immediately started checking our infamous US mainstream media sites — still nothing on this significant information. I then contacted one of my high-level sources and asked why he had come to me with his documented report instead of going directly to the big guys. With several credible insiders as his corroborators and a high-level official in Turkey, he would have no problem getting their attention. And his response? Well here it is minus a few expletives:
“Who said we didn’t go to MSM [Main Stream Media] first? We got them the info back in October. First they were interested and drooling. At least the reporters. Then, they disappeared.”
I was the last resort. … This goes down as one more example of very many cases of intentional, willful censorship by the US mainstream media and their so-many-times-proven role as distorters of reality and gravediggers of the truth.
Keeping the “MSM” on-board was likewise something that went back as far as the CIA’s “Operation Mockingbird” had started in 1948 with the cooperation of all of the United States’ mainstream ‘news’-media, and of virtually all of the ‘alternative’ news-media. (The case against the latter, the ‘alternative’ media, was documented by Stuart Jeanne Bramhall here and here; and by me here; with both of us relying heavily upon the encyclopedic researches from Bob Feldman, who is the major historian of the corruptness of almost all of America’s ‘progressive’ ‘news’ media — the present medium being obviously among the few exceptions that actually is progressive, and this article is simultaneously distributed to all media, so all media have been invited to publish it.) (The corruptness of self-declared conservative ‘news’-media is virtually automatic, since their chief function is to aggrandize the aristocracy — doing that is what defines them; they are clearly doing what they are paid to do, whereas the non-conservative media need to use subterfuges to do it, in order for them to seem to be supportive of the poor, which conservative media don’t even pretendto support.)
Right and left, America’s ‘news’-media are loaded with rot — especially regarding foreign countries, including Syria. Here are a few CIA documents from 2012 showing how obsequiously American ‘journalists’ respect and adhere to their CIA minders. 
Aristocrats everywhere do business internationally and have much more of a personal interest in foreign relations than does the average person; so, lying about international relations is especially important to them, in order to control the masses on these matters, matters which aristocrats are especially determined to control. The aristocracy are the people who determine which nations are “allies” and which nations are “enemies.” The public don’t control that.
This is why the CIA, which is an agency of the U.S. aristocracy, has at least all of the mainstream ‘news’-media trumpeting their lies on foreign affairs. Aristocrats control their country’s foreign policies. Their international corporations demand this control, and tell the politicians what to do in foreign matters. The ‘news’-media provide the back-up for the politicians’ lies. They’re all on the same team, the aristocracy’s team. They all are agents for the aristocracy, against the public — and not only against whichever foreign aristocracies are labeled “enemy” nations (i.e., as being suitable targets for the given aristocracy’s military — places where the U.S. aristocracy’s weapons-manufacturing corporations such as Lockheed Martin don’t sell their wares but instead upon which those wares are to be used, as targets, the opposite end of the international weapons-trade from the “allies,” which are the markets-side, instead of the targets-side). 
International relations is relations between aristocracies. The publics are ignored. 
So, if democracy exists anywhere or at all, then it exists only in regards to domestic issues. However, studies have shown that even on domestic issues, the U.S. Government ignores the U.S. public — the U.S. is totally an aristocracy; it’s no democracy at all, not even on domestic issues, such as Medicare-for-all.
That’s the reason why Sibel Edmonds found herself to be a “last resort.” That was a euphemism referring actually to a dead-end for the important news — for the type of news that would have contradicted the Obama Administration’s infamous joyous lie-based “We came, we saw, he died!”(the Libya case), and now the follow-on invasion and destruction of Syria. (Trump continues Obama’s aggressions; he doesn’t end them. It doesn’t make much difference whom the occupant of the White House is, at least not regarding foreign relations, because the same aristocracy remains in control of U.S. foreign relations, even though that might be a different faction of this aristocracy — Obama representing the liberal billionaires, and Trump representing some of the conservative ones, but they are different segments of the same aristocracy; nobody in such a Government representsthe public).
Here’s how psychopathic the U.S.-and allied aristocracies are:
A video shows at 2:18 that it was taken on “27/11/2012,” and it’s titled, “EMIR OF QATAR AND PRIME MINISTER OF TURKEY STEAL SYRIAN OIL EXCAVATORS – ENGLISH SUBTITLES”.
Both Qatar’s Emir and Turkey’s Prime Minister are enormously wealthy individuals, but they wanted still more. Both were there using their being heads-of-state so as to assist not only their own wealth but America’s and Europe’s aristocracies to steal and sell oil and oil-well equipment from the Syrian public — from Syrians’ Government — for the benefits not only of those aristocrats but also of Al Qaeda and of ISIS (two jihadist groups trying to overthrow Syria’s Government). As Syrian News reported this, on 28 November 2012,
“Emir of Qatar & Muslim Brotherhood Prime Minister of Turkey send their Al Qaeda FSA terrorists to Syria to destroy the country, kill the people and destroy whatever they can of its infrastructure so their companies would have jobs in the future to rebuild as they think they will win the war against Syria.”
Syrian News headlined on 5 September 2015, “What Did Syrians Do to Deserve the Hatred of the Whole World” and commented: 
Syrians stood by each oppressed nation in the planet, all liberation movements from the colonial powers had their main offices in Syria, including South African anti-apartheid party…this is how the colonial powers revenge.It is beyond kafkaesque to realize that virtually the entire world chants its enmity against the Syrian people, and their country, and that the rest have not even noticed.
On 2 September,
“greatest psy op of the last century,” al Jazeera, degraded a photo of a drowned Syrian boy, into an emoticon, to use for a new round of imperial malfeasance against the SAR [that being an acronym for Syria’s Government]. It seems to be of no importance, that al Jazeera (renamed “al Khanzeera,” “the pigsty,” by Libyan patriots, during the destruction of their country), is owned by the absolute monarchy Qatar — “pronounced ‘gutter’”), the little Gulfie gas station that has spent over 3 billion dollars in looting and bombing Syria. Twenty-four hours later, a Google search of “drowned Syrian boy” yielded over 10 million ‘hits’ (a number which has jumped to over 14 million, 48 hours later), reports which neglect to mention there was no Syrian refugee crisis before the mass-murderers of the colonial powers, and their Levant and Gulfie rabid dogs decided to “arab spring” Syria. …
On Sunday, 23 August, the city of Damascus came under massive mortar and missile attacks by the Obama-Cameron moderate death squads. Seven days later, the Syrian Arab Army [Syrian Government’s Army] Facebook page posted the following:
“The city of Damascus had 4.5 to 5 million inhabitants in 2011. Today and due to the war there are over 8.5 million inhabitants in the city; most of which were forced outside of their homes by the “moderate rebels” backed by NATO in general specifically the U.S. Turkey and France; also backedand financed by the terrorist nations of the Gulf. …
The cacaphony of murderous silence among the Vichy [nazi] media and sham activists and NGOs[charities that are funded by U.S.-and-allied aristocracies] has increased, exponentially, in perverse rhyme, with the increase in the bombings of the villages of Kafraya and al Foua, in Idlib countryside. In mid-August, the Syrians of these villages had been the beneficiaries of more than 1,500 missile attacks — from moderate rebel mass murderers — that have destroyed 60% of their houses. …
The punishment of the Syrian people for refusing the Obama plan of regime change cannot be missed in this organized ongoing assault by NATO and stooges for the past 4.5 years. …
On 28 February 2018, Syria News bannered “Deep State Hyenas Flaunt [Flout] Law, Ravenous for More Syrian Blood” and opened:
The globalist deep state hyenas have reached a new low in delirious frenzy against Syria. While screaming international law! they flaunt [flout] it, and flaunt their insatiable lust for Syrian blood. The mania of the terrorists in suits is so out of control that they appear to have abandoned their chemical conspiracy planned for Idlib. Instead, they scream in unison for the preservation of serial killers occupying eastern Ghouta.  Savages they would call by rightful names in western countries are converted to innocent women and children [in Western media]. These hyenas ignore more than 1,000 terrorist mortars and missiles fired by Ghouta terrorists into Damascus. They hold the Goebbels Big Lie proudly over their heads, knowing their elite club is one of destruction, that none of its members will speak the truth. …
The deep state hyenas introduced the foreign-armed, foreign-paid, and foreign takfiri [jihadists] of al Ghouta onto the world stage in August 2013. The stupid, inbred, savages accidentally slaughtered many of their own, and thus ratted out having been given chemical weapons by Prince Bandar, because he neglected to give them proper instruction on their use. The admission was of no matter to the perpetual warriors, including Nobel Peace Laureate cum war criminal, POTUS Obama. Nor was concern voiced by the humanitarian bastards that several of the dead Syrians were recognized as having been kidnapped in Latakia countryside (similarly, the hyenas were too sedated to report on the moment long awaited, when 58 Syrian women and their children abducteeswere released in exchange for imprisoned terrorists of al Qaeda). 
On 21 February, UN High Commissioner on Human Rights [sic] Zeid Ra’ad al Husseini frothed at the mouth over the “monstrous annihilation” in Eastern Ghouta.  He tossed words like international humanitarian law, and war crimes about [against the Government].
That article has a lengthy section which opens:
THE UN:  HYENAS LEADERSHIP
Animals running in packs require leadership.  Who is better qualified to lead beasts known to take advantage of other animals’ kills for easy prey, devouring every part including bones, than the well-manicured and polished diplomats of the United Nations?
All of that is true, and it even understates the reality. For example, though the article documents that Jordan, next door to Syria, is a key part of America’s effort to overthrow Assad, it fails to note that Zeid Ra’ad al Husseini, that cited high U.N. official on Syria, is a Jordanian Prince. He’s doing what the royal family of Jordan do. Otherwise, that article is an excellent description of the U.N. Administration’s extreme prejudices in favor of the U.S. game-plans for conquest, especially for their conquest of Syria.
However, on 3 March 2018, Syria News revealed that an even more important U.N. official on Syria has also been working secretly with the U.S. to assist overthrow of Syria’s Government. Headlining “Rotten, Secret Diplomatic Meeting that Launched UN Frenzy against Syria”, they reported that, 
In possession of a diplomatic telegram [TD], Pan Arabic al Akhbar gave a detailed report 24 February on the nefarious, colonialist plot:
In a somewhat familiar but precise English, Benjamin Norman – a diplomat in charge of the Middle East at the British Embassy in Washington – reports in a confidential diplomatic telegram of the first meeting of the “Small American Group on Syria” (United States, Great Britain, France, Saudi Arabia and Jordan), held in Washington on January 11, 2018.
In this five-page TD, he reveals the details of the “Western strategy” in Syria: partition of the country, sabotage of Sochi, framing of Turkey and instructions to the UN Special Representative Staffan de Mistura who leads the negotiations of Geneva. A Non Paper (8 pages) accompanies this TD in anticipation of the second meeting of the “Small Group”. It was held in Paris on January 23, mainly devoted to the use of chemical weapons and the “instructions” sent by the “Small American Group” to Staffan de Mistura.
In fact, Trump is now protecting both Al Qaeda and ISIS in order to conquer Syria. And he has the U.N.’s backing in this. On Friday, 7 September 2018, America’s Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty headlined “UN Syria Envoy Warns of ‘Perfect Storm’ for Disaster in Idlib” and reported that: 
The U.N. envoy for Syria warned Friday that all the ingredients exist for a “perfect storm” of a humanitarian catastrophe if the Syrian government, backed by Russia, carries out a large-scale military offensive on the northwestern province of Idlib.
“The dangers are profound that any battle for Idlib could be — would be — a horrific and bloody battle,” Staffan de Mistura told U.N. Security Council members via videoconference. “Civilians are its potential victims.”
As I have documented at the link here:
Idlib has consistently been showing as being, by far, the most-pro-jihadist of all of Syria’s Governates, in the annual polls that the British polling organization, Orb International, has taken since 2014, throughout Syria. Idlib has been showing there as being over 90% in favor of jihadists and of jihadism — and specifically in favor of organizations such as Al Qaeda and ISIS.
Staffan de Mistura and Prince Husseini refer to this matter as instead a “humanitarian catastrophe” if Syria, Russia, and Hezbollah, do what they will need to do in order to end the invasion of Syria by U.S., Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UAE, Kuwait, and Israel (and the jihadists they hire). The U.N. officials are treating this matter not as a thoroughly illegal invasion and military occupation of the sovereign nation of Syria, but instead as what will be a “humanitarian catastrophe” if Syria and its allies attack the area of Syria whose current residents are over 90% jihadists and supporters of jihadists. Syria and its allies are to be blamed for invading that jihadist cauldron, while U.S. and its allies are to be held immune from prosecution for their having used those jihadists, during the past 7 years — used them to invade and occupy not only Idlib but other parts of Syria. 
Thus, the U.N. is not only holding U.S. Presidents and other international invaders above international law, but it is now positively assisting them under the fake rubric of “humanitarian” concerns, so as to support the U.S. alliance’s invasions and military occupations. The U.N., which was supposed to have been opposing international aggression is now assisting it when ‘the right leaders’ do it. This is no organization supporting democracy — it is the opposite: an international scheme to back the U.S. alliance’s invasions and military occupations. War is ugly. Apparently, the U.N. has become even uglier than that — supporting the invaders and military occupiers of a sovereign nation.
This is the reason why Syria and its allies have placed on-hold their planned elimination of the jihadists in Idlib and will create a DMZ between Idlib and the adjoining areas of Syria. Further details and context on that can be seen here. Perhaps now, the high U.N. officials who have been claiming that the elimination of those jihadists would produce a “humanitarian catastrophe” will change their tunes and publicly acknowledge that it would instead be a practical necessity.

Iran urges UN to censure israel’s (apartheid state) nuclear threat, make it respect intl. rules

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a ceremony in the Dimona nuclear facility in the Negev Desert on August 29, 2018.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a ceremony in the Dimona nuclear facility in the Negev Desert on August 29, 2018.
Tehran has written to the United Nations, calling on the world body to condemn Israel for threatening Iran with a nuclear attack and bring the regime’s atomic weapons program under its supervision.
Standing right beside the Dimona nuclear facility late last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Iran as a “threat” to the region and said Tel Aviv has the means to destroy its “enemies” in a veiled reference to Tel Aviv’s nuclear arsenal.
“Those who threaten to wipe us out put themselves in a similar danger, and in any event will not achieve their goal,” he said. “But our enemies know very well what Israel is capable of doing. They are familiar with our policy. Whoever tries to hurt us – we hurt them.”
In a letter addressed to the UN on Thursday, the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the world body said Netanyahu’s belligerent remarks poses “a serious threat to international peace and security.”
It also urged the UN to make Israel abide by international rules and the UN Charter.
The letter also highlighted Israel’s long history of aggression, occupation, militarism and state terrorism among other international crimes, urging the world community to take a firm position on the Zionist regime’s “unbridled actions and nuclear threat.”
In the letter, Iran further demanded that the UN condemn Israel’s anti-Iran threat, make the regime join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and bring its nuclear program under the supervesion of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
It also reminded the UN that Iran is itself a victim of weapons of mass destruction, particularly chemical weapons.
The UN member states should not turn a blind eye to Israel’s threat and make efforts towards to the elimination of its entire nuclear stockpile, the letter read.
Responding to Netanyahu’s highly aggressive comments, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif slammed the premier as “warmonger” and said the threat was “ beyond shameless.”
“Iran, a country without nuclear weapons, is threatened with atomic annihilation by a warmonger standing next to an actual nuclear weapons factory. Beyond shameless in the gall,” Zarif tweeted.
Israel is the only possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, but its policy is to neither confirm nor deny that it has atomic bombs. The Tel Aviv regime is estimated to have 200 to 400 nuclear warheads in its arsenal.
Unlike Iran, the regime is not a member of the NPT — whose aim is to prevent the spread of nuclear arms and weapons technology – in defiance of international pressure.

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

UN Mladenov: 'israel's (apartheid state) actions are contrary to international law'


BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nikolay Mladenov, expressed his concern on Sunday at the intention of Israeli authorities to demolish the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar, east of Jerusalem.
Mladenov said in a statement “I am concerned at the intention of the Israeli authorities to demolish the Bedouin village of Khan Al-Ahmar, a community of 181 people, over half of which are children.”

He also called on the Israeli authorities not to proceed with the demolition and to “cease efforts to relocate Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank.”
Mladenov concluded “Such actions are contrary to international law and could undermine the chances for the establishment of a viable, contiguous Palestinian state.”

Mladenov’s statement comes after the Israeli High Court had rejected an appeal against the demolition of the village and approved its demolition and evacuation of its residents.
Since July, Khan al-Ahmar has been under threat of demolition by Israeli forces. The residents of the village have been since then subjected to threats, assaults, closures, and other forms of Israeli attempts to displace its residents.

The demolition would leave more than 35 Palestinian families displaced.

Israel has been constantly trying to uproot Palestinian Bedouins from the east of Jerusalem area to allow settlement expansion in the area, which would later turn the entire eastern part of the West Bank into a settlement zone.

Sunday, September 16, 2018

USA unable to live with International Law but that doesn’t mean it’s going away

We will let the ICC die on its own – U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton
Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.
In a speech to the Federalist Society September 10th National Security Adviser John Bolton announced the U.S. will not cooperate in any way with the International Criminal Court. Speaking for the President and Trump administration Mr. Bolton says the U.S. considers the International Criminal Court illegitimate, and he threatens its judges with denial of entry to the States, and impounding their financial assets, and with arrest, if they pursue cases which might “unjustly” place in jeopardy U.S. citizens. This threat extends to those assisting the Court.
The policy presents an attempt to shield from prosecution “by any means necessary,” U.S. Armed Forces personnel, intelligence agents, and government officials such as himself. By placing these above the law Bolton is threatening the American people with the Trump administration’s impunity. While the policy may allow war crimes and crimes against humanity in U.S. client states, it will also encourage the 123 nations who subscribe to the ICC to view the U.S. as a rogue state and fascist entity
North Americans concerned with prevention of genocide will note that Bolton’s wish to “let the ICC die” would remove a primary international legal mechanism for calling U.S. leaders to account for crimes such as genocide, aggression, torture. Without the resistance available at least on paper from the ICC, governments such as the Trump administration would have a much freer hand in alleged crimes such as torture in Afghanistan, in black operations sites throughout the world, as well as implication in the use of death squads by U.S. client states or what might be considered the kidnapping of migrant children at American borders.
American law if honestly applied has little to fear from international law so the Trump administration’s further severance of the U.S. from the ICC points up the administration’s exception to the global consensus on a decent standard of human rights. Bolton’s revelations express a movement within U.S. extreme right-wing circles which finds burdensome an ongoing struggling tradition safeguarding American human rights (ie. The Bill of Rights).
The thinking which initiated the presidential killing list under George W. Bush, continues to gain strength, asserting itself at this point due to an ICC investigatory report suggesting that war crimes have been committed in Afghanistan, primarily in 2003-4, where Afghan security forces, U.S. forces and CIA personnel are allegedly implicated.
Afghanistan is a member state of the ICC and the ICC has jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed there. To quote CTV News:
The 181-page prosecution request, dated November 2017, said “information available provides a reasonable basis to believe that members of United States of America (US) armed forces and members of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) committed acts of torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, rape and sexual violence against conflict-related detainees in Afghanistan and other locations, principally in the 2003-2004 period.”
During three months (November and December 2017 and January 2018) allegations of 1.7 million war crimes were sent to the ICC from European and Afghan organizations. There is only a slight chance the Trump administration would not consider ICC prosecution of Americans responsible for these crimes, “unjust”. There is no indication that any of the 1.7 million complaints have been addressed by the U.S. system of justice.
Bolton has made a point of assuring Israelis the same protections as American citizens: the ICC is currently considering whether to prosecute Israel’s alleged war crimes against the people of Gaza. The Palestinian request to the ICC for an investigation is given as the reason for the U.S. recent closure of Palestinian Liberation Office in Washington D.C..
Despite these threats the ICC intends to continue its work.
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This article was originally published on the author’s blog site at  Night’s Lantern 
Partial Sources Online
“US threatens sanctions against International Criminal Court, will close PLO office in Washington,” Elise Labott and Hilary Clarke, Sept. 11, 2018, CNN;
“John Bolton threatens ICC judges with sanctions,” Sept. 10, 2018, Al Jazeera;
“Rights groups warn against U.S. flouting international court,” Kathy Gannon (AP), Sept.11, 2018, CTV News;
“John Bolton threatens war crimes court with sanctions in virulent attack,” Sept. 10, 2018, The Guardian;
“ICC will continue ‘undeterred’ after US threats,” Sept. 11, 2018, The Guardian;
“Israel lodges official protest to International Criminal Court,” Barak David, Aug. 14, 2018, Channel 10 News.
Featured image is from Julie Maas.