Posts From The Saker
It appears that Iran is on the offensive on the question of oil prices. First, the Iranian OPEC Governor, Mohammad Ali Khatibi, has disputed that supply is the cause of high oil prices blaming “international political tensions, a weak dollar and speculation” instead. Then Iran predicted that the price of oil would reach $150 “shortly” (Goldman Sachs agreed). A couple of weeks later, Iranian President Ahmadinejad urged OPEC members to
Ha’aretz reports: Iran, acting on orders from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has withdrawn around $75 billion from Europe to prevent the assets from being blocked under threatened new sanctions over Tehran’s disputed nuclear ambitions, an Iranian weekly said. “Part of Iran’s assets in European banks have been converted to gold and shares and another part has been transferred to Asian banks,” Mohsen Talaie, deputy foreign minister in charge of economic affairs,
According to the BBC, the “Mayor of Kabul”, a.k.a Khamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan, has threatened Pakistan by warning that he would send “troops across the border” to “confront militants based in Pakistan” adding that when militants crossed over from Pakistan to kill Afghans and coalition troops, his nation had the right to retaliate in “self-defence”. There is, of course, a reason why the always elegant “Armani President” Karzai is
Interview with Franklin Lamb by Mike Whitney for Global Research Question: Between May 7 to May 10, Hezbollah took over Beirut, shut down the city’s TV and communications facilities, blocked the main highways, closed the airport, and surrounded the homes of the leading political leaders with armed gunman. The action was taken in response to Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s decision to outlaw Hezbollah’s telecommunication network and sack the head of
First, please take a look at this al-Jazeera report: First, a superficial impression: the contrast between the dignified attitude of Salah al-Obeidi (the Sadrist spokesman) and the petty bickering of the two other participants of this show. Second, listening to this conversation I think that one can only come to one objective conclusion: the only real patriots are the Sadrists. The Kurds are clearly sold to the Americans. Considering how
Press TV reports: Iraq’s influential leader Moqtada al-Sadr has announced plans to set up a new resistance group to fight US occupation in the country. “The resistance will be carried out exclusively by a special group which I will announce later,” Sadr said in a statement read out at a mosque in the holy town of Kufa. The cleric vowed to uphold resistance against the occupiers until the liberation of
The Jewish Daily Forward reports that Congress has passed a resolution demanding that Iraq recognize Israel or loose billions of dollars in US aid: To the many challenges facing the fledgling Iraqi government, Congress may soon add this: Recognize the State of Israel and establish diplomatic ties with Jerusalem, or else risk losing some of the billions in aid that Baghdad receives from the United States. A nonbinding resolution demanding
Alalam News reports: Iraq’s Premier Nuri al-Maliki said on Friday that negotiations with the US on a security agreement that extends US presence in the war-torn country beyond 2008 has reached a “dead end.” Maliki said that the talks have failed because of US demands that infringe Iraq’s sovereignty. During a visit to neighboring Jordan, Maliki told journalists: “We have reached a dead end, because when we started the talks,
Ha’aretz as published an article entitled “U.S. Army training Egyptians to find, destroy smuggling tunnels” which describes how Egyptian soldiers are trained by the US Army to prevent any tunnels being dug out of the open air prison of Gaza. Ha’aretz writes: The United States Army has begun training Egyptian soldiers to locate and destroy tunnels, in an effort to improve the Egyptian army’s ability to cope with arms-smuggling from
by Gilad Atzmon for Palestine Think Tank For more than half a century, those who have been trying to combat the forces that are behind the Israeli paradigm have been identifying Israeli policies and practice with Zionism and Zionist Ideology. I am afraid to say that they were wrong all the way along. Indeed, Zionism’s project dictates the plunder of Palestine in the name of Jewish national aspiration. It is
I just finished reading the joint US-EU summit declaration adopted today in Slovenia. After reading it words like lame, myopic, spineless, clueless, obtuse or plain stupid immediately came to my mind. I will spare you the details of the text, you can check them for yourself, but the bottom line is simple: the EU is totally and shamelessly adopting the US stance on every single issue. This total surrender to
Real News Network has recenlty began showing better and better reports about the Middle-East (Pepe Escobar’s analyses are particularly interesting). Take a look at these two: These two reports make one thing absolutely clear: there is no way in hell the USA is going to get its wish in Iraq. More importantly, if the USA persists in pushing al-Maliki to sign the US SOFA it will totally discredit him and
The big news last week was the report that Shaul Mofaz, a Lieutenant-General and former IDF Chief of Staff under no less than four prime ministers, declared that an Israeli attack on Iran was “inevitable”. Most observers understood that Mofaz, who is currently a Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transportation, made these statements as an opening shot in his campaign to succeed Ehud Olmert. Even the US immediately distanced
Press TV reports: Iraqi MPs adamant against US pact: The Iraqi Parliament wants US forces out of Iraq. The majority of Iraqi parliamentarians have written to the US Congress rejecting a long-term security deal, if US forces don’t leave Iraq. New York Times reported that Rep. William Delahunt, a Democrat from Massachusetts, released excerpts from a letter he was handed by Iraqi parliamentarians laying down conditions for the security pact
by Uri Avnery AFTER MONTHS of a tough and bitter race, a merciless struggle, Barack Obama has defeated his formidable opponent, Hillary Clinton. He has wrought a miracle: for the first time in history a black person has become a credible candidate for the presidency of the most powerful country in the world. And what was the first thing he did after his astounding victory? He ran to the conference
By Patrick Cockburn for The Independent The US is holding hostage some $50bn (£25bn) of Iraq’s money in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to pressure the Iraqi government into signing an agreement seen by many Iraqis as prolonging the US occupation indefinitely, according to information leaked to The Independent. US negotiators are using the existence of $20bn in outstanding court judgments against Iraq in the US, to pressure
Press TV reports: A senior Iranian cleric says the US should withdraw its troops from Iraq if Washington seeks to survive the quagmire in the country. The military agreement that the White House wants the Iraqi government to sign is ‘impractical’, said Tehran’s interim Friday prayers leader Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati with regards to the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) drawn up by Washington. The US echelons are currently negotiating with
Press TV reports that Maliki will travel to Tehran this Sunday for the discussion of “a further expansion bilateral ties” and that he will meet with both President Ahmadinejad and, more importantly, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. So what are they going to discuss? Opening an Iraqi chamber of commerce in Tabriz or maybe expanding cultural ties? Hardly. There is no doubt in my mind at all that what will really
Press TV reports: An Israeli deputy prime minister has claimed that the Israeli regime will attack Iran if the country continues its nuclear program. “If Iran continues its nuclear weapons program, we will attack it,” claimed Shaoul Mofaz. “Other options are disappearing. The sanctions are not effective. There will be no alternative but to attack Iran in order to stop the Iranian nuclear program,” Mofaz, also a transportation minister, told
Press TV just published the following on its website: Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has set four conditions for any security pact between the US and Iraq, top Iraqi politician says. “The cleric stressed that any long-term pact in Iraq should maintain four key terms including safeguarding Iraqis’ interests, national sovereignty, national consensus and being presented to the Iraqi parliament for approval.” leader of the largest bloc in Iraq’s parliament,
