Showing posts with label Global Security. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Global Security. Show all posts

Friday, March 22, 2024

UN Security Council rejects US draft resolution on War in Gaza

    Friday, March 22, 2024   No comments

 Algeria, the country that proposed an earlier UNSC resolution to stop the war on Gaza, rejected the US-drafted resolution. It was joined by both China and Russia, whose vetoes sunk the US resolution.

Amar Bendjama, Algeria’s ambassador to the UN, said the text was inadequate and failed to address the immense suffering endured by the Palestinians. “Those who believe that the Israeli occupying power will choose to uphold its international legal obligations are mistaken,” he told the council. “They must abandon this fiction.”


Last February, it objected to the use of the term “immediate” in the draft resolution submitted by Algeria.

Since blocking the Algerian draft resolution, which calls for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire" in Gaza at the end of last February, US officials have been negotiating an alternative text that focuses on supporting diplomatic efforts on the ground for a six-week truce in exchange for the release of the hostages.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, said that children, women and men are “living an endless nightmare,” stressing that there is no effective way to distribute aid without a ceasefire.

US rejection of three previous UNSC resolutions made some members skeptical and worried that US intentions have been thus far about shielding Israel and not about stopping the bloodshed. They want to see a clean resolution that orders an immediate cease fire and the unhindered delivery of food, water, medicine, and shelter to end the starvation of civilians in Gaza. Other issues can be addressed in separate resolutions.

China insists on an immediate and unconditional ceasefire not linked to the release of the captives

China's Permanent Representative to the Security Council, Zhang Jun, said: "We voted against the American draft resolution because it does not request an immediate ceasefire, even though the Secretary-General used Article 99 of the Charter for that purpose," adding that "the Council wasted a long time and did not request a ceasefire." Fire after."

The Chinese delegate believed that “the American draft resolution is ambiguous and does not meet the aspirations of the international community,” and that it is “unbalanced because it does not explicitly oppose the attack on Rafah,” and “it does not warn of the dire consequences that could result from such an attack.”

He continued: "The Council now has before it a clear draft resolution requesting an immediate ceasefire, and China supports it," expressing his hope "that it will gain the support of member states," because it "requests an end to the conflict and the immediate release of the hostages."

The Chinese delegate also indicated that “China rejects the accusations of America and Britain” related to its positions, considering that “if the United States is serious about a ceasefire, it should support this draft resolution.”

Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the UN, offered further explanation about China's voting position and relevant considerations after the vote.

Zhang said that more than 160 days have passed since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict. In the face of this human tragedy in which more than 32,000 innocent civilians have lost their lives and has left millions suffering from famine, the most urgent action to be taken by the Council is to promote an immediate, unconditional, and sustained ceasefire, which is the universal call of the international community. But the Council has dragged its feet and wasted too much time in this regard, Zhang said.

The envoy added that the US has always evaded and dodged the most essential issue, which is a ceasefire. The final text remains ambiguous and does not call for an immediate ceasefire, nor does it even provide an answer to the question of realizing a ceasefire in the short term. This is a clear deviation from the consensus of the Council members and falls far short of the expectations of the international community. 

"An immediate ceasefire is a fundamental prerequisite for saving lives, expanding humanitarian access, and preventing further conflict. The US draft, on the contrary, sets up preconditions for a ceasefire, which is no different from giving a green light to continued killings, and thus unacceptable," Zhang noted.

Moscow said that the American draft resolution does not call for a ceasefire in Gaza.. Talk about that is a hoax

The Russian Deputy Representative to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyansky, confirmed that the American draft resolution on the situation in the Gaza Strip does not include any call for a ceasefire.

Polyansky stated that the draft resolution "does not include any call for a ceasefire, as previous drafts did not include. Rather, only a philosophical statement appeared there about its importance, while linking it to the release of prisoners."

 The Russian diplomat believed that talk about the United States including a ceasefire in Gaza in the draft resolution for the first time is “just an American trick.”

In addition, “there is practically a green light for an Israeli military operation in Rafah, while attention should be focused mainly on praising the United States’ own efforts on the ground,” according to Polyansky.

He added, "This is not what humanitarian agencies need," stressing that "no philosophy will be useful in the absence of a direct demand for a ceasefire."

Polyansky pointed out, "We should not give in to Washington's attempts to present the hope as if it were a real thing, as the United States is still not interested in a real ceasefire, and is doing everything in its power not to prevent its closest ally in the Middle East from abusing the Palestinians."

History of the American veto to protect Israel

The United States’ position on UN Security Council resolutions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is consistent with its historical use of the veto to prevent any resolutions criticizing Israel, or calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The United States, Israel's main backer, had previously used its veto power in the Security Council to prevent the international body from calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian territories.

Since 1945, one of the five permanent members of the Council - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France - has used its veto to stop 36 draft Security Council resolutions related to Israel and Palestine before. Of these decisions, the United States objected to 34 decisions, while Russia and China objected to two of them.

Security Council resolutions after October 7

The US veto blocked the resolution issued on October 18, 2023, which had demanded a “humanitarian truce” and Israel’s cancellation of its evacuation order in northern Gaza.

The US representative to the United Nations said, “Resolutions are important... but the actions we take must be based on facts on the ground and support direct diplomacy that can save lives,” according to what Reuters reported.

On February 20, the United States used its veto power again to stop another draft resolution in the Security Council, blocking a demand for an immediate ceasefire on humanitarian grounds.

13 members of the Council voted in favor of the text drafted by Algeria, while Britain abstained from voting.

This is the third American veto against a draft resolution since the start of the fighting in Gaza.

The draft resolution drafted by Algeria and objected to by the United States did not link the ceasefire to the release of the hostages, but rather demanded this separately.

Washington has opposed the use of the word ceasefire in any UN action on the war between Israel and Hamas, but the American text uses language that President Joe Biden said he used last week in a phone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

This is the second time since October 7 that Washington has proposed issuing a Security Council resolution on Gaza. Russia and China had used their veto power to stop its first attempt.

In December, more than three-quarters of the 193-member UN General Assembly voted to demand an immediate ceasefire on humanitarian grounds. General Assembly resolutions are not binding, but they reflect a global consensus on critical matters—More than 150 countries thinking that the war in Gaza should be stopped immediately to address the starvation and killing of civilians leave the US position quite exposed. Only 10 countries voted against this UNGA resolution. The global consensus, if it continues to be opposed by the US alone, will eventually degrade US standing in the world.







Sunday, February 18, 2024

Russia’s space nuclear weapon that does kill people but can paralyze global communication; what else can it do?

    Sunday, February 18, 2024   No comments

The American newspaper "The New York Times" revealed concerns within the Biden administration after intelligence reports indicating that Russia was preparing to place a nuclear weapon in space. These concerns prompted US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to ask China and India to try to talk with Russia.

The newspaper says that American spy and intelligence agencies have discovered that Russia is working on a new type of space weapon that could threaten the thousands of satellites that keep the world connected, and that a launch is being prepared from Moscow to install a “nuclear weapon” in space that would cause a global catastrophe.

It is true that this weapon will not cause the destruction of humans, such as what would happen when used on Earth, but it will destroy satellites scattered in their various orbits, which will cause the collapse of global communications systems, and make everything from emergency services to cell phones to the regulation of generators and pumps It malfunctions, according to estimates by US agencies.

The newspaper adds: Debris resulting from the explosion will spread throughout low Earth orbit and make navigation difficult if not impossible for everything from Starlink satellites, used for Internet communications, to spy satellites.

US intelligence agencies believe that even if Russia were to place a nuclear weapon in orbit, US officials agree in their assessment that the weapon would not be detonated, but would remain like a time bomb in low orbit, as a reminder from Putin that if he was subjected to pressure sanctions or military resistance to his ambitions in Ukraine or elsewhere, it may destroy the economies of countries without targeting humans on the ground, according to what was reported by the New York Times.

The newspaper said that these estimates prompted US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to talk about them with his Chinese and Indian counterparts during the Munich Security Conference, which is currently underway.

 “Blinken’s message to China and India was clear: any nuclear explosion in space would destroy not only American satellites, but also those in Beijing and New Delhi,” the newspaper reports.

 Washington is counting on Beijing and New Delhi to exert the necessary pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin, because the latter despises Washington and does not accept its intervention, especially since the escalation of tensions between the two sides since the invasion of Ukraine.

 Some intelligence officials have objected to sharing much of what the United States knows because details of the Russian program remain top secret, US officials said.

 But others argued that the United States needed to share enough to convince China and India of the seriousness of the threat.

 During the Munich meetings, the two men (the foreign ministers of China and India) took in the information, and the former repeated China's usual phrases about the importance of the peaceful use of outer space, the officials said.

 Representative Michael Waltz, Republican of Florida and a member of the House Intelligence Council, said: “Relying on our biggest adversary to deliver messages to Moscow is not a great exercise, but in this case, if the reports are true, China will have a special interest in getting the message across.”

Sunday, December 24, 2023

Spain refuses to participate in the “Guardian of Prosperity” coalition in the Red Sea

    Sunday, December 24, 2023   No comments

Spain announced that it will not participate in the international coalition to protect shipping traffic in the Red Sea from attacks by the Houthi group in Yemen, but it will not oppose participation with other European countries within the framework of a specific mission.

After several days of delay, the Spanish leftist government made clear, in a Defense Ministry statement published on Saturday evening, that it opposes expanding the mission of the European “Atalanta” operation, which has been combating piracy in the Indian Ocean since 2008.

The ministry noted that the recent resumption of piracy in the region "requires maximum investment" in this mission. She also stressed that "the nature and objectives of the Atlanta mission have nothing to do with what we aim to achieve in the Red Sea."

From this standpoint, the government of socialist Pedro Sanchez considered it “indispensable to establish a new, specific, dedicated mission” to protect commercial maritime traffic in the Red Sea.

The Ministry stressed that this special mission must have “its own scope of work, means and objectives determined by the competent bodies of the European Union,” adding that “Spain is in no way opposed to the establishment of this mission.”

In response to a question from Agence France-Presse on Sunday, the ministry spokesman explained that Spain will not participate in the current process. The ministry did not explain the reasons for this rejection, which was announced shortly after a phone call on Friday between US President Joe Biden and Sanchez.

The White House confirmed in a statement that the conversation focused specifically on "condemning the current attacks launched by the Houthis against commercial ships in the Red Sea," a topic that the Spanish government did not mention when it touched on this phone call.

Washington's maritime coalition will not affect Yemen operations

The official spokesman for Ansar Allah, Muhammad Abdel Salam, said that the Washington naval coalition that was announced yesterday will not affect the Yemeni operations, pointing, in this context, to the presence of American, French and British frigates and military bases on the other side of the Red Sea, which It could not prevent Yemen's operations supporting Gaza.

He stressed that "Washington's naval alliance in the Red Sea is to protect Israel, not to protect international waterways," noting that "it cannot be called an alliance. Rather, it is, in fact, a weak grouping, and dead before it was born."

Abdel Salam reiterated his assertion that “the international corridors bordering Yemen are safe, and there are no security or military problems.” Adding that what is being targeted are ships heading to Israel, or Israeli ships.”

 Abdel Salam pointed out that “this alliance does not include any country overlooking the Red Sea, and it comes, unfortunately, in accordance with an American desire to protect “Israel” and to give it the opportunity to continue committing massacres against the Palestinian people.”

 

He added: "If they were keen on peace and stability, they would not have opposed calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. This alliance cannot be acceptable or palatable, because its goal is the continuation of the Israeli aggression against Palestine."

Yemen said the blockade is a human action to stop the killing and starving of Palestinians; “the blockade imposed by Yemen will stop when the genocide in Gaza at the hands of Israeli Zionist occupation forces stops.”

Total bias

An opinion poll conducted by the NGO, Almustaqilla, on a sample of Arab people, the results of which were published at the end of last November, showed that only 7% of those polled believed that the United States’ role in the Israeli aggression was positive.

 20 years ago, the American invasion of Iraq damaged the reputation of the United States in the world.

 Munqith Dagher, an official at the Almustaqlila, comments that until recently, America “still represents this image of a country that embodies democracy, human rights, freedom of expression, and many values that befit the famous American dream.”

But the torrent of horrific scenes from Gaza, the massacres carried out by the occupation and the policy of collective punishment, “turned the situation upside down,” he added.

Dagher believes that this matter demonstrated to the Arabs "the United States' complete bias toward the Israelis and its lack ofrespect for human rights when it comes to the Palestinians."



Friday, October 20, 2023

State Department official resigns over Biden administration’s handling of Israel-Hamas conflict

    Friday, October 20, 2023   No comments

A State Department official in the bureau that oversees arms transfers resigned this week in protest of the Biden administration’s decision to continue sending weapons and ammunition to Israel as it lays siege to Gaza in its war with Hamas.

In his resignation letter, Josh Paul, who has been the director of congressional and public affairs for the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs for over 11 years, said the Biden administration’s “blind support for one side” was leading to policy decisions that were “shortsighted, destructive, unjust and contradictory to the very values we publicly espouse.”

“The response Israel is taking, and with it the American support both for that response and for the status quo of the occupation, will only lead to more and deeper suffering for both the Israeli and the Palestinian people,” he wrote, adding, “I fear we are repeating the same mistakes we have made these past decades, and I decline to be a part of it for longer.”

Josh Paul bio and credentials:

(Former) Director at U.S. Department of State

Previously - and for the last decade - Director of Congressional & Public Affairs, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, U.S. Department of State, with responsibility for shaping and implementing an holistic communications strategy in support of U.S. security assistance, arms transfers, and global defense partnerships. Previously - consultant for the US & UK governments in Iraq & Palestine on institutional development and security sector governance; Hill alum (Steve Israel, D-NY); stints in Army Staff (G8) & OSD Policy (ME).








Tuesday, August 15, 2023

Media Review: The Guardian says Britain must acknowledge its role in the 1953 coup in Iran

    Tuesday, August 15, 2023   No comments

A report in the British newspaper, The Guardian, spoke today, Tuesday, about "the need for the United Kingdom to recognize its role in the coup that took place in Iran in 1953, which toppled the democratically elected government of Muhammad Mossadeq, and replaced it with a military government that allowed the Shah to restore his dictatorial powers on a large scale in the country." for two and a half decades, before the Islamic Revolution overthrew him in 1979.

In the context, former British Foreign Secretary David Owen said, "The United Kingdom must finally acknowledge its role in the coup, for the sake of the credibility of Britain and the Iranian reform movement."


The United States officially acknowledged its primary role in the coup 10 years ago, after declassifying a large number of intelligence documents, which made it clear that the overthrow of the elected Prime Minister, Muhammad Mosaddegh, 70 years ago this week, was a joint endeavor between the British and American intelligence services. The CIA and MI6.

So far, the UK government's official position has been to "refuse to comment on this intelligence matter".


According to the report, the original plot, codenamed "Operation Bout" or "Ajax", was formulated by the British Secret Service after Mossadegh became prime minister and the dominant British oil company in Iran was nationalized.


The report states that "the administration of Harry Truman, the US president, did not want to have anything to do with this process, and considered Mossadegh as a bulwark against communism, but Winston Churchill, the UK prime minister at the time, was able to convince his successor Dwight Eisenhower of the importance of carrying it out."


In the spring of 1953, the CIA began joint planning with British intelligence, and the operation was renamed Ajax.


On the 70th anniversary of the start of the coup, on Tuesday, David Owen, who was foreign secretary from 1977 to 1979, told the Guardian newspaper, "There are good reasons today to recognize the UK's role with the US in 1953 in overthrowing democratic developments in Iran."


And he stressed that this must happen "by recognizing that we were wrong in doing so, and we damaged the steps that were developing towards a democratic Iran, and through this we can make reforms now more bearable," he said.


During Lord Owen's tenure at the Foreign Office, the Islamic Revolution in Iran overthrew the Shah's regime, and Owen said, commenting on that period: "I made it clear to the Shah that his style of government should give way to democratic reforms, but I wish I had known about his serious illness, and I could have The pressure was on him much earlier, in 1978, to stay in Switzerland for medical treatment."


He added, "Today, the British government will help the cause of the dissidents in Iran, and make it more likely to succeed without neglecting it, if we admit our previous mistakes in 1953, as well as the mistakes we committed in the period from 1977 to 1979."


Documentary film about the coup suppressed by Britain

The report in the "Guardian" touched on a new film entitled "Coup 53", which traces the history of the coup in Iran, and focuses on a young British spy who played a pivotal role in it, named Norman Darbyshire.


Despite receiving rave reviews and ratings, director Taghi Amirani and veteran Hollywood editor Walter Murch were unable to find a distributor for the film, a fact they attribute to the UK's continued cloak of official secrecy on the subject.


Amirani said they were subjected to “the most bizarre and sinister attempts to suppress both the contents of the film and its chances of distribution, through so many twisted turns,” while Richard Norton Taylor, author of The Secret State, a book on British intelligence and the media, said it was “sad.” It is absurd, even counterproductive, for the British government to continue to hide behind its old motto of "neither confirm nor deny" and to continue refusing to acknowledge its leading role in the overthrow of Mosaddegh.


Despite the insistence of British politicians to present the British role in Iran as a supportive role for democracy, many Western reports and books on the history of politics in the region and intelligence operations confirmed that the main goals that constituted Britain's motive in Iran are economic ambitions for Iran's oil, and political ambitions due to its strategic location in Iran. confront the Soviet Union.


Last January, Iranian intelligence arrested a high-ranking British agent, Ali Reza Akbari (61 years), former assistant to the Minister of Defense, on the grounds of his conviction of spying for Britain, of which he holds nationality, and the Iranian judiciary later announced the execution of the death sentence issued against him.

Friday, June 16, 2023

The Great Convergence: Global Equality and Its Discontents

    Friday, June 16, 2023   No comments

An article in the magazine "Foreign Affairs" talks about global income levels, within the next twenty to thirty years, and says that the number of Chinese who earn salaries equal to the salaries of middle-income Americans will be equal, which reduces American hegemony.

The current century has witnessed a significant decline in global income inequality, after falling to levels not seen in more than a century. This is the conclusion reached by Branko Milanovic, one of the world's foremost inequality researchers.


Milanovic said in an article published in the American magazine "Foreign Affairs", that "at a time when the population of the United States is only 4% of the world's population, increasing equality would be beneficial to the planet as a whole, but it heralds the end of American hegemony."


According to the author, inequality is measured using a Gini coefficient (a unit of measurement), which extends on a scale from 0 (perfect equality) to 100 (where one person gets all the income in the world).


On this measure, the inequality index fell from 69 in 2000 to 60 in 2018, and it is certainly lower today. In other words, the world is more equal now than at any time since 1875.


Recently, that number due to inequality within countries has risen slightly, and now stands at about 13, up from 7 in the 1990s. Conversely, the component decreased from a high of 63 in 1988 to only 47 in 2018 due to inequality between countries.


This is a complete reversal of what happened during most of the Cold War, when inequality between countries was increasing, but inequality within a single country was greatly reduced.


Milanovic notes in his article that "in the 1970s, India's share of global GDP was less than 3%, while the share of Germany, a major industrial power, was 7% by 2021, then these proportions reversed."


People who were poor by the standards of the United States, and other rich countries, were rich by global standards.


"People's incomes in Asia have reached unprecedented levels," adds Milanovic.


For every 100 middle-income Americans, 25 Chinese earned an equal amount.


Within the next 20 to 30 years, the number of Chinese earning salaries equal to that of middle-income Americans will be equal, and then rapidly exceed that proportion.


"This, in turn, reflects a broader shift in economic, technological and even cultural power in the world," says Milanovic.


For the global genetic coefficient (the unit of measure) to continue to decline, Africa will need to become significantly richer in the coming decades, "which is not likely to happen yet," according to Foreign Affairs.



Tuesday, June 06, 2023

US intelligence was informed of the Ukrainian plan to bomb Nord Stream.. It was carried out by Ukrainian military divers working directly under the command of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces

    Tuesday, June 06, 2023   No comments

The Washington Post reported today, Tuesday, that three months before the Nord Stream pipeline bombing, "Nord Stream", the administration of US President Joe Biden learned from a close ally that the Ukrainian military had planned the secret attack.

The newspaper quoted US intelligence information suspected of being leaked earlier this year by a computer expert who holds a job in the Air National Guard and has access to many highly classified materials.


"The Kiev authorities developed the plan after a reconnaissance operation carried out by a small team of divers who reported directly to the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Navy," it added.


The leaked documents indicated that an unnamed European intelligence agency had informed the CIA in June 2022, four months after the Russian military operation in Ukraine, that Ukrainian military divers working directly under the command of the country's commander-in-chief were planning the attack.


And the newspaper continued: “European intelligence reports were shared on the Discord chat platform, which were allegedly by US Air National Guard soldier, Jack Teixeira, and the Washington Post obtained a copy from one of his online friends.”

And she confirmed that the intelligence reports were based on information from a Ukrainian element, adding that the CIA shared the report with Germany and other European countries last June.

Specific details included numbers of operatives and attack methods, according to The Washington Post. This means that for about a year, the Western allies had a basis to suspect Kiev of sabotage. This assessment is further reinforced in recent months "when German investigators uncovered evidence that the bombing bore clear similarities to what the European service said Ukraine was planning."


A few days ago, the German newspaper "Der Spiegel" confirmed that there is new evidence in the investigation indicating Ukraine's involvement in sabotage operations targeting the two "Nord Stream" gas pipelines.

The newspaper reported that the metadata of e-mail messages, which were sent during the charter of the boat, indicated the involvement of Ukraine, pointing to the finding in the yacht of traces of the explosive “HMX” substance, which is very widespread in the west as in the previous block in the east.

Numerous underwater explosions ruptured the newly built Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines connecting Russia and Germany across the Baltic Sea on September 26, 2022.


The explosions occurred in the economic regions of Sweden and Denmark. Both countries say the bombings were deliberate, but have not yet determined who was responsible. The two countries, as well as Germany, are investigating the incident.

Washington and NATO described the incident as an "act of sabotage", while Moscow blamed the West. Neither side provided evidence of the perpetrator of the attacks.


    In related news, the attacks inside Russia and the attack on the dam might be the next crises the West will be forced to manage. 

Just like the Nord Stream explosion, Ukrainian officials denied responsibility and blamed Russia. However, for the incursions inside Russian territories, the armed group was shown to have used Western provided weapons. Western countries said that they provided these weapons on the conditions that are not used to carry out attacks inside Russia. Ukrainian officials have denied any connections. However, if it turns out that Ukraine is involved, the West will have a problem of credibility no matter how one looks at it. Either they are not insisting to Ukrainians on these conditions and don't care; or Ukrainian officials agree to the terms and violate them. In either case, NATO nation-states and Western supporters of the government in Kiev will have to decide how to manage these problems of credibility and loss of control over supplied weapons.

Russian leaders seem to take it one step at the time. The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the Belgian ambassador to Moscow.

“On June 6, Belgian Ambassador to Moscow M. Michilsen was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry, who was strongly protested in connection with the revealed facts of the use of Belgian-made weapons by sabotage groups that carried out terrorist attacks on the territory of the Belgorod Region on May 22,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.


Monday, June 05, 2023

Days before Blinken visit to the kingdom, Saudi Arabia welcomes Venezuelan President

    Monday, June 05, 2023   No comments

Maduro's visit comes as the kingdom has restored ties with both Iran and Syria, two nations that are also target of the US 'maximum pressure' sanctions campaign.

Previously, Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, the Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs, reviewed with his Venezuelan counterpart Eban Eduardo Gil Pinto, on Monday, aspects of cooperation between the two countries, and ways to enhance and develop them in various fields.


This came during their meeting in Jeddah, where they discussed intensifying joint coordination on many regional and international issues of concern to the two countries, and their efforts to establish international peace and security, and contribute to achieving global sustainable development goals.

  

US says Iran’s claimed naval alliance with Saudi, Gulf nations "defies reason"

    Monday, June 05, 2023   No comments

The US Fifth Fleet and the Combined Maritime Forces agreed on Iran's announcement of its intention to form a naval alliance with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries.

And the "Breaking Defense" website, which specializes in military news, quoted a spokesman for the US Fifth Fleet and the Combined Maritime Forces, Tim Hawkins, as saying, "The alliance that Iran announced its intention to form with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries is illogical and defies reason."


Hawkins claimed that "Iran wants to form a maritime security alliance to protect the waters that threaten it," he said.


This American fear was accompanied by an Israeli fear, as Israeli media published a report describing Iran's decision as "disturbing."

China, on the other hand, through its foreign ministry, welcomed the Iranian-Saudi-Emarati collaboration. "We welcome the alliance that includes Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson said. "We welcome the announcement of the formation of a joint naval alliance that includes Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and some other parties. This alliance enhances security and stability in the region." He added.

  

Sunday, June 04, 2023

A secret meeting of the leaders of the world's major intelligence services in Singapore

    Sunday, June 04, 2023   No comments

Five people told Reuters that senior officials from about two dozen of the world's top intelligence agencies held a secret meeting on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Security Dialogue meetings in Singapore earlier this week.

They added that these meetings are organized by the Singapore government and held secretly in a separate location, as well as the security summit for several years. These meetings have not been previously disclosed.

US Director of National Intelligence Avril Heinz participated in the secret meeting representing the United States, while China was among the countries present, despite the state of tension between the two great powers.

An Indian source said Samant Goel, director of India's intelligence service, Research and Analysis Wing, also attended the meeting.


“The meeting is an important component of the international shadow agenda,” said a person familiar with the discussions. “Looking at the group of countries involved, this is not an intelligence meeting, but rather a way to advance a deeper understanding of the intent.”

"There is an unspoken code among the intelligence services that they can talk when they find it difficult to communicate and engage in diplomacy," he said. "It's a very important factor during times of tension, and the Singapore meeting helps reinforce that."


The five sources who discussed the meetings declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.

A spokesman for Singapore's Ministry of Defense said that while attending the Shangri-La Security Dialogue, "participants, including senior officials from intelligence agencies, take the opportunity to meet with their counterparts".


He added, "The Ministry of Defense in Singapore may facilitate some of these bilateral or multilateral meetings... Participants consider that these meetings held on the sidelines of the (dialogue) are useful."


Thursday, June 01, 2023

The BRICS countries call for a “rebalancing” of the global system.. and Lavrov confirms the discussion of the issue of Saudi Arabia’s acceptance of the alliance

    Thursday, June 01, 2023   No comments

The foreign ministers of the BRICS countries, who met Thursday in the Cape, before a summit scheduled for August, whose preparations are dominated by the question of whether Vladimir Putin will come to South Africa or not, called for a "rebalancing" of the global system.

The BRICS countries include South Africa, Brazil, China, India and Russia.

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said at the start of the meeting, "The multipolar world is rebalancing and the old methods cannot handle the new situations."

For her part, South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said, "Our discussions today will focus on opportunities to strengthen and transform global governance systems."

Pretoria has long called for the BRICS countries to create balance in a world system dominated by the West.

In response to a question by journalists about the Russian president's attendance at the summit in August, the minister confirmed that "an invitation was extended to each of the five heads of state."

Pandor added that the South African government, which has not taken a position on the possible arrest of the Russian president, is studying "legal options."

Putin has been issued an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for the "deportation" of Ukrainian children as part of Moscow's attack on Ukraine.


In theory, as a member of the International Criminal Court, South Africa is supposed to arrest the Russian president if he enters its territory. But the two countries maintain close relations.

Pretoria refuses to condemn Moscow since the start of the war on Ukraine, stressing that it takes a neutral position and prefers dialogue to resolve the crisis, which raises concern in the international arena.

In April, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant for Putin put South Africa "in a difficult position".

This week, the South African government granted diplomatic immunity to officials who attended the BRICS summit, saying it was standard procedure for organizing international conferences.

On the other hand, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced today, Thursday, that the issue of accepting Saudi Arabia into the BRICS alliance had already been discussed.

Lavrov told reporters, after a meeting of the BRICS Council of Foreign Ministers, that the foreign ministers of the BRICS countries had already discussed the issue of accepting Saudi Arabia into the group.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said earlier today that "the issue of BRICS expansion will be discussed" during the ministerial meeting in Cape Town.

"There are many strong candidates to join BRICS, and Saudi Arabia is one of them," Ryabkov added.

He continued, "We support their candidacy unconditionally, and will do everything we can to ensure that the process of developing criteria for accepting new members is not delayed."

Russian President Vladimir Putin had previously announced that Russia would continue to develop relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the bilateral and multilateral levels, indicating that Moscow supports Riyadh's accession to the BRICS alliance.

During the last summit (2022), Argentina and Iran formally submitted their applications to join BRICS, a move strongly supported by Russia and China.

And the “BRICS” group is a bloc that includes Russia, China, Brazil, South Africa and India. It was founded in 2006, at a summit hosted by the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, and its name changed from “BRICS” to BRICS in 2011, after South Africa joined it. This international group aims to increase economic relations. between them in local currencies, which reduces dependence on the dollar.

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Ukraine Official: Security of the entire Middle East region cannot be resolved without the complete de-occupation of Crimea

    Tuesday, May 23, 2023   No comments

A cryptic statement linking Ukraine to the security of the Middle East, was made by the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Danilov. Here it is:

“The issue of the security of the entire Middle East region... cannot be resolved without the complete de-occupation of Crimea."


 

UK’s Special Forces have been deployed operationally in at least 19 countries since 2011, including the Muslim-majority countries of Algeria, Iran, Oman, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen

    Tuesday, May 23, 2023   No comments

Mapping of national and international credible newspapers, undertaken by research charity Action on Armed Violence, shows that, since 2011,  UK Special Forces (UKSF) have been primed to contact or surveil hostile forces in Algeria, Estonia, France, Iran/Oman (Strait of Hormuz), Iraq, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Mediterranean (Cyprus), Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen.

There are a further six sites where UKSF have trained foreign forces or where they have based themselves before launching into another country. These are: Burkina Faso, Oman, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Djibouti. There are also another seven locations, not included in the above lists, known to be used by UKSF for their own exercises and engagements. These are: Albania, Falklands, Gibraltar, Belize, Brunei, Malaysia, and Canada, although there are likely to be far more.


In addition, the UKSF operate in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. These four countries are not included.


If all countries where the UK SF were reported operational (including training and in the UK itself) were added together, there would be 36 nations where such troops have been sent.


Reported UK Special Forces (UKSF) missions in Ukraine, Syria, Yemen, the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and Oman and Libya demonstrate that British soldiers are regularly sent to engage in international conflicts without any parliamentary approval around UK involvement beforehand.


In the case of Syria, parliament explicitly voted against sending in troops in 2013. Yet there have been dozens of UKSF missions reported in the press in the past decade.


A decade of operations around the globe has thrown up some controversies.

German investigators: Ukraine blew up Nord Stream pipelines

    Tuesday, May 23, 2023   No comments

German investigators are sceptical of claims that Russian naval ships sabotaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines and are instead pursuing leads that point to the Ukrainian authorities, according to a report.

Three of the four strands of the pipelines, built to transport Russian gas to Germany on the bed of the Baltic Sea, were knocked out by underwater explosions last September, effectively severing the main energy link between the two countries.

Previously, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh blamed the US administration for the bombing of the Russian Nord Stream gas pipeline, which took place last September.

Earlier this year, the UNSC, which literally stands for the United Nations Security Council, and whose mission “is to maintain international peace and security;” failed to adopt a resolution that “would have established an international independent investigative commission into the September 2022 “acts of sabotage” committed on the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea.”

Thereafter, the US administration released its own report claiming that a pro-Ukraine group was behind the attack on the pipeline, a statement that was ridiculed by China, with Chinese official posting a reaction to the statement saying, "Is the [pro-Ukraine group] named Biden Administration?"







Friday, May 19, 2023

Chinese media reporting on the China-Central Asia Summit

    Friday, May 19, 2023   No comments

The optics are unmistakable: while the G7 meets in the Japanese city bombed by weapons of mass destruction to forces Japanese leaders to end the war to condemn China for what they see as “coercive economics”, and while Russia is battling NATO in a proxy war in Ukraine, China hosts a summit with the leaders of the Muslim-majority countries that were part of the Soviet Union to promote regional security, autonomy, and economic development. The summit with these Muslim leaders is also held in a region in China that has a Muslim majority. The dawn of the multipolar world is here. And the Chinese media and Chinese political leaders are now holding back now.

The news:

China's President Xi Jinping on Friday unveiled an ambitious plan to help elevate Central Asia to the next level of its development - from building infrastructure networks to boosting trade - while shunning "external interference" at the same time.

China stands ready to synergize development strategies with the five Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and make joint efforts to promote the modernization of all six countries, said Xi in an address at the China-Central Asia Summit in northwest China.

"The world needs a Central Asia that is stable, prosperous, harmonious, and well-connected," Xi said.

"China is ready to help Central Asian countries improve their law enforcement, security, and defense capability construction," Xi said.

The report from China:


Experts told the Global Times the grand ceremony to welcome leaders of Central Asian countries and making the "first major diplomatic event that China hosts this year" focus on Central Asian countries show Central Asian countries' growing importance in China's diplomatic agenda. 


Wang Xiaoquan, an expert from the Institute of Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that Central Asian countries' unique strategic importance to China has been highlighted by current international and regional circumstances. "Central Asia is China's strategic rear in coping with risks from the eastern side," he explained. 


When the US is rallying its allies against China, China needs a stable Central Asia, Wang explained, noting that the region's safety also has a far-fetching impact on China's Northwestern region. 


The region's importance to China is also embodied by both sides' cooperation on energy. For example, China once received 30 percent of its natural gas imports through the China-Central Asia pipeline. Residents in Beijing, Shanghai and some other cities already use natural gas from Turkmenistan. 


From the big picture, since the Russia-Ukraine crisis, camp confrontation mentality has gained momentum in international society. For China and Central Asian countries, cooperation can promote regional peace and stability, sending signal different from camp confrontation and avoid the world sliding into bigger confrontation, Zhao Huirong, an Eastern European studies expert from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.


Contrasting signals 


In another summit to be held in Japan between May 19 and 21, G7 leaders seek to hammer out a unified response to Chinese "economic coercion." The Wall Street Journal, cited sources saying that the US and its allies "are poised to increase pressure on China at this week's Group of Seven summit in Japan, with an expected joint statement rejecting use of economic retaliation against nations over policy disputes and other disagreements."


Western media began to draw parallel of the two summits, depicting China-Central Asia Summit as China's effort to counter the G7 summit. "The two meetings symbolize the calcification of a multipolar world in which Global South nations are being courted as important strategic partners," Bloomberg reported on Thursday. 


 "I don't think the convening of China-Central Asia Summit is deliberately arranged at overlapping time with G7, as high-level leaders' summit requires a long time to prepare in advance," said Wang Xiaoquan. Yet Wang opined that the two summits, held at approximately the same time and within close adjacency, send "meaningful signals" to the world. 


G7 focuses on discussion of domination of world order and monopoly of international economy; whilst China and Central Asian countries, all developing countries, seek to build a fairer and more rational world order, said Wang. The expert predicted six leaders at the China-Central Asia Summit will discuss China proposed Global Security Initiative and Global Development Initiative, in addition to the Belt and Road Initiative and other topics, which represent the trend of world development. 


Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times that China-Central Asia Summit speaks the language of openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation; and does not target any third party; whilst G7 uses the outmoded mentality of Cold War to crackdown and ring-fence certain countries. 

 Reporting by China's Global Times 



As if it were designed to respond to the G7 summit, China releases a "report unveiling dark side of US coercive diplomacy."

The report was highlighted in the Global Times again:

The G7 summit in Hiroshima will be held from Friday to Sunday. According to media reports, G7 leaders will discuss concerns about China's so-called economic coercion in its dealings abroad as part of their larger joint statement.

Li pointed out that to suppress China's development momentum for its own selfish gains, the US has continually created conflict and harmed prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region through economic and diplomatic coercion, as well as by wooing its allies. He added that what the US has done in the past 30 years across the world has clearly shown that it is the greatest source of danger and disruption to regional stability and order.

From the GT Editorial: China releases report unveiling dark side of US coercive diplomacy ahead of G7 summit

 


Monday, May 01, 2023

Iran’s Inside man who sold secret information to Britain's MI6 for power and greed

    Monday, May 01, 2023   No comments

 In April of 2008, a senior British intelligence official traveled to Tel Aviv, in addition to several European capitals, with the aim of conveying unusual information to his counterparts.

The British official said that Britain has a spy in Iran who has access to the country's nuclear and security secrets.

The identity of the spy remained unknown for many years, but at the beginning of this year, with the execution by hanging of former Deputy Minister of Defense Ali Reza Akbari, who was convicted of espionage, what had been kept secret for 15 years was revealed, as Akbari was the British spy.


In a comprehensive investigative article published by The New York Times, in which journalist Ronen Bergman, a journalist for Yedioth Ahronoth, participated, it was revealed that Akbari was responsible for delivering the most important piece of information that came from Iran, which is the existence of an underground enrichment site in Fordo, according to the “Acre” website.

Over the years, Akbari lived a double life. He was known to the Iranian public as a religious fanatic, political hawk, senior commander in the Revolutionary Guards, deputy defense minister, and later moved to London and the private sector, but he never lost the confidence of the leadership in Tehran.

  But in 2004, according to sources, he began sharing Iran's nuclear secrets with Britain's MI6 intelligence service.


European intelligence officials said Akbari provided important information, and continued to do so for years. The intelligence proved crucial to dispelling suspicions in the West that Iran was indeed seeking nuclear weapons. The information Akbari provided convinced the world to impose heavy sanctions on Tehran.

Akbari was arrested in 2019 after Iran discovered with the help of Russian intelligence that he was the one who revealed the existence of a secret Iranian nuclear program deep in the mountains near Tehran.


In addition to revealing nuclear and security secrets, Iran claimed that Akbari revealed the identity and activities of more than 100 high-ranking officials, the most important of whom was Mohsen Fahrzadeh, “the father of the Iranian nuclear program,” who was liquidated in 2020 in an operation attributed to Israel.

Britain has never publicly admitted that Akbari, who became a British citizen in 2012 and has been described by Iranian media as a "veteran spy", had spied for it.

A British Foreign Office spokesman said: "We do not comment on intelligence matters, as this has always been our policy."

The US State Department and the US National Security Council did not respond to questions on this matter.

In September 2019, The New York Times reported that the source of the intelligence about the Purdue nuclear site was a British spy.

Britain transferred that information to Germany, the United States and Israel.

Akbari was a teenager at the time of the Iranian revolution in 1979, and he joined the army and left it after six years. Akbari also advanced quickly in the leadership ladder until he was appointed Deputy Minister of Defense and worked as an advisor to the Supreme National Security Council, and he had close relations with two senior figures in Iran, namely the nuclear scientist Fahrzadeh, Ali Shamkhani, former defense minister and head of the Supreme Security Council.

In eight short videos shown on state television after his execution, Akbari is seen describing his espionage operations and how he was recruited by Britain.

The motives behind his actions remain unknown, but he said in one of the videos that he did so out of “greed and power” while denying that he was in financial difficulty.

In the videos, Akbari said he was recruited in 2004 and a year later he traveled to Britain and met his handler at MI6.

In the years that followed, Akbari opened companies in Austria, Spain and Britain to serve as a cover for his meetings with his operators, and Iran said MI6 paid Akbari $2.4 million.

Akbari retired from his official duties in 2008, but continued to serve as an advisor to Shamkhani and other officials.

Akbari's brother said that in the same year Akbari was arrested for four months on charges of spying for Britain, but several senior officials testified on his behalf and he was released on bail and the case was closed.


According to a former senior German intelligence official, in April 2008 Britain received information about the Perdue site, a uranium enrichment site built on a mountainside that was part of Iran's plan to develop a nuclear reactor.

The Perdue revelations changed the world's understanding of Iran's nuclear program and led to the development of military and cyber programs to deal with it.

In September 2009, then-US President Barack Obama revealed that Fordo is an enrichment site.

Western intelligence agencies had long known about it from satellite images showing underground construction work in Fordo but thought it was a military equipment storage facility and did not know it had become a secret nuclear site.

Akbari was a frequent traveler between Tehran and London, and in 2010 he claimed that he had a heart attack and remained living in London, and then his wife and two daughters joined him and he was subsequently granted citizenship.

During his confession, Akbari said he faked his heart attack in order to stay in Britain, and subsequently traveled to Iran at least three times.

In 2019, Akbari traveled to Iran for the last time, and this happened after the head of the Supreme National Security Council, Shamkhani, informed him that the council needed him in an urgent security and nuclear issue. A few days after his arrival in Tehran, he was summoned by the intelligence and arrested.

According to Iranian officials who spoke to the New York Times, it was the Russian intelligence services that revealed to Iran that Akbari was a spy and he was the one who revealed the secret of the Fordo enrichment site.

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Strong reaction by Medvedev to South Korea's readiness to supply Kiev with weapons: What will the South Koreans say if Russian weapons reach their northern neighbor?

    Wednesday, April 19, 2023   No comments

It would seem that Russian leader have a counter-move to every move by Western countries who are increasing or thinking about increasing their support to Ukraine. To this end, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev commented on South Korean President Yoon Sok Yul's statement of his country's readiness to supply weapons to the Kiev regime. He asked: What will the South Koreans say if Russian weapons reach their northern neighbor?

This came in a post by Medvedev on his official channel on the “Telegram” application, where he wrote: There are new people willing to help our enemies, as South Korean President Yoon Sok Yul said that this country, in principle, is ready to supply weapons to the Kiev regime.

And this is given that the South Koreans have been asserting strongly, until recently, that the possibility of supplying Kiev with lethal weapons is completely excluded.

What will the people of this country say when they see the latest Russian weapons designs in their closest neighbours, our partners from North Korea?

This is called bartering.

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that South Korea's provision of military aid to Ukraine would mean Seoul's participation in the conflict to some extent.


Here is a translation of his statement:


There are new ones willing to help our enemies. South Korean President Yun Sok-yeol said that, in principle, this state is ready to supply weapons to the Kyiv regime. 
Moreover, until recently, the South Koreans ardently assured that the possibility of supplying lethal weapons to Kyiv was completely ruled out.

I wonder what the inhabitants of this country will say when they see the latest designs.
Russian weapons from their closest neighbors - our partners from the DPRK?

What is called 
Quid pro quo…

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