Posts From amarynth
South Front Democracy and liberal values are on the rise in the opposition-held part of Syria’s Greater Idlib region. On July 31, forces of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda) raided positions of the Syrian Army in the vicinity of the town of al-Ruwaihah in southern Idlib. Following the attack, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham also launched unguided rockets at army positions near the town of Maarat al-Numan. Pro-militant
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krZarOe__Ws&feature=youtu.be Description: In an interview with Afaq TV, Sa’ad al-Muttalibi, a senior member of the Iraqi State of Law Coalition says that Iraq’s prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi will fail on his imminent state visit to Washington, as US officials never treat Iraqi officials as equal counterparts and al-Kadhimi won’t be an exception. This is especially true as al-Kadhimi is tasked by the Iraqi parliament with pulling US military forces
http://middleeastobserver.net/lebanon-israel-border-fire-scandal-or-victory-for-tel-aviv/ Description: Senior Lebanese political analyst Anees Naqqash provides his analysis of the recent flareup on the Lebanese-Israeli border, an incident which is becoming the subject of many questions, theories and debates. In this interview on Al-Manar TV, Naqqash says something ‘very strange and major’ occurred in this incident, and perhaps the ambiguity will be removed in the future. However, the senior analyst, who is closely-tied to Hezbollah, affirmed that
South Front The joint Russian-Turkish patrol set to be held in southern Idlib on July 29 was delayed due to increased military tensions and the inability of Ankara to ensure the security of the patrol in its area of responsibility. And the situation does not seem to be improving. According to pro-militant sources, on the evening of July 29th and morning of July 30th, the Syrian Army launched over 500
by Pepe Escobar for The Saker Blog and originally posted at Asia Times When the Ronald Reagan and Nimitz carrier strike groups recently engaged in “operations” in the South China Sea, it did not escape to many a cynic that the US Pacific Fleet was doing its best to turn the infantile Thucydides Trap theory into a self-fulfilling prophecy. The pro forma official spin, via Rear Adm. Jim Kirk, commander
By Sayed Hasan for The Saker blog From resistancenews.org On the night of Sunday, July 19th, airstrikes hit Damascus International Airport. Though Israel didn’t claim responsibility for them, sticking to their longtime “zone of denial” policy, no one doubts they were the perpetrators. On Monday, the Syrian Army announced 7 soldiers were injured. It could have been one strike among hundreds of others, soon forgotten because of the lack of
US President Donald Trump announced on June 15 that Washington would reduce the number of US troops in Germany from 34,500 to 25,000 unless Berlin agreed to pay for their deployment and raise defense spending in accordance with NATO agreements. Trump has repeatedly demanded that all NATO countries spend at least two percent of their gross domestic products on defense. The envoy noted that the US administration’s decision on relocating
By Godfree Roberts from his newsletter : Today, moderate and nuanced views of China-US relations are less and less valued in the US. In a recent speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in California, the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo portrayed the Communist Party of China (CPC) as a tyranny and called on the so-called free world to defeat it. This could be perceived as the
South Front On July 27, fighting broke out between Israeli forces and Hezbollah along the Israeli-Lebanese contact line. This became the heaviest open confrontation between the sides in about a year. The incident occurred in an area known as Chebaa Farms, which was occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. Israeli shelling started at around 3:30 p.m. local time which lasted for about an hour and a half.
South Front The Middle East is rapidly moving towards a new round of confrontation between the US-Israeli bloc and Iranian-led Shiite forces. On July 26, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) deployed M109 Doher howitzers near the separation line with Lebanon. The deployment of howitzers became the latest in a series of broad measures employed by the IDF near Lebanon recently. Earlier, the 13th “Gideon” Infantry Battalion of the IDF’s elite
by Pepe Escobar – cross posted with Consortium News A version of this article first appeared on The Asia Times. Decades after the fact, a political earthquake that should be rocking Brazil is being met with thunderous silence. What is now described as the Banestado leaks and CC5gate is straight out of vintage WikiLeaks: a list, published for the first time in full, naming names and detailing what is
Original link: http://middleeastobserver.net/we-wont-reveal-our-response-let-israel-speculate-hezbollahs-no-2/ Description: In an interview with Al Mayadeen TV, Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General, Sheikh Naaim Qassem said that his group has decided that at this moment, the Lebanese group will not reveal what it will do exactly in response to the killing of one of its men in an Israeli airstrike on Damascus in recent days. ‘The Israelis can (understand) and calculate from (this stance) what they wish’, Qaasem
24 July 202017:52 The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Question: Can you comment on the recent statement by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the US-Chinese relations? Maria Zakharova: We noted US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s remarks on US-Chinese relations made on July 23 at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library. We were surprised by the defiant tone of Mr Pompeo’s statements, which predictably contained
Selected by Amarynth for the Saker Blog https://tass.com/politics/1181913 Also titled as The Little Mouse that Roared – and what a roar. Chechnya’s head expressed his outrage at the recent sanctions imposed against his family members GROZNY, July 24. /TASS/. Head of Russia’s Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov has banned US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from entering the region, he announced at a meeting in Grozny on Friday. On July 20, the
South Front The problem with alliances is that they ultimately either become victims of their own success, or cannot figure out what to do with themselves once the original rationale disappears. The original Cold War-era NATO was a relatively cohesive entity led by one of the two superpowers, with most of its members being the industrialized democracies of Western Europe, with West Germany being its eastern-most European member, and alliance
Chris Faure for the Saker Blog The US suddenly ordered China to end operations from its embassy in Houston, Texas (remember when they did the same to Russia). However, diplomacy is reciprocal and the Chinese so far refrained from a further provocative reaction. They are implementing a fair tit for tat measure, closing the US Consulate in Chengdu, keeping options open for further retaliation. They could have fanned the flames
Interview with the Al-Alam News channel, Iran’s former ambassador to China, Mehdi Safari, revealed his thoughts and important details about the comprehensive 25-year historic agreement currently being finalised between Iran and China. From: http://middleeastobserver.net/irans-fmr-beijing-envoy-on-comprehensive-25-year-long-deal-with-china/ Description: In an in-depth interview with the Al-Alam News channel, Iran’s former ambassador to China, Mehdi Safari, revealed his thoughts and important details about the comprehensive 25-year historic agreement currently being finalised between Iran and China.
South Front On July 19, the Libyan National Army (LNA) test-fired the Soviet-era P-15 Termit anti-ship missile near Zawiyat Zanzur, on the Libyan coast. The P-15 Termit is guided by active radar homing and equipped with an inertial navigation system. Missiles of this type have a range between 35 and 80 km depending on the variant and a top speed of Mach 0.95. The Gaddafi-era Libyan Navy had large stockpiles
South Front Late on July 20, the Israeli Air Force carried out a new wave of airstrikes on the southern countryside of the Syrian capital of Damascus. According to Syria’s state-run news agency SANA, Israeli warplanes launched missiles from the airspace over the Golan Heights at 21.48 local time. It claimed that a large portion of the missiles were shot down by the Syrian Air Defense Forces, but several hit
By Matthew Ehret for the Saker Blog The mythology of Canada’s National Policy is a multi-layered fallacy of composition which must be addressed from the standpoint of locating Canada’s struggle for nationhood as locked in the midst of a battle between two conceptions of man and law expressed in the British vs. American systems of political economy. Before entering into any proper analysis of this problem, it must be stated
