Showing posts with label Imperialism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Imperialism. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 03, 2024

British documents: Britain conducted a secret dialogue with Hezbollah and then sought to exploit Hariri to dismantle his military capabilities

    Wednesday, January 03, 2024   No comments

British documents reveal that British Prime Minister Tony Blair's government sought twenty years ago to use Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri to dissolve the military wing of Hezbollah, which was a pressing American-British goal.

According to the documents, which were recently declassified, Britain conducted a “useful” secret dialogue with Hezbollah, and insisted on continuing this dialogue despite its failure to convince the party to limit itself to political work.

In early July 2003, Blair invited Hariri to visit London after a month of talks between the British Prime Minister and French President Jacques Chirac.

Chirac described Hariri as "a visionary" and "an intelligent commentator on the peace process, especially with regard to the thinking of (Palestinian leader Yasser) Arafat," advising Blair to listen to him, as British Prime Minister's documents indicate.

Despite Hariri's invitation to visit 10 Downing Street (the seat of the British government), the British Foreign Office's assessment concluded that "there is no doubt that Hariri has any special insight into Arafat's motives."

However, the State Department's view was that Hariri "is worth listening to because he is deeply involved in regional politics. At the same time, because of his enormous wealth, he is a semi-independent observer of them." She added, "It is worth exploring what he has, especially with regard to Syrian intentions and (Syrian President) Bashar."

The Foreign Ministry also agreed with Blair's advisors on the need to benefit from Hariri "to determine what the United Kingdom wants from Lebanon." The offices of Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw focused on the issue of ways to deal with Hezbollah... 

Source: BBC

Monday, August 28, 2023

Macron admits the Western dominated global order is being challenged, calls for revised strategies

    Monday, August 28, 2023   No comments

In his annual address to French ambassadors, French President Emmanuel Macron admits the Western dominated global order is being challenged, calls for strengthening of France's diplomatic on Monday.

Macron stated that: "The situation in the international arena is becoming more complicated, which threatens the risk of weakening the West and, in particular, Europe. We need to take a sober approach to this, without falling into excessive pessimism ... There is a revision of the world order, its principles, various forms of its organization, where the West has occupied and occupies a dominant position.”

France needs to consolidate its diplomatic strategies as the international context has become more “complex”, Macron told French ambassadors at a meeting in Paris on Monday.

“Our international order is being challenged,” said Macron. “War has returned to European soil, anti-French sentiment is rife, fueled by anti-colonialism or a perceived anti-colonialism that a double standard is being employed,” he said.

“We need to be clear, without being excessively pessimistic,” he said, citing the rise of “new forms of protectionism” and democratic backsliding due to a rise in illiberal powers.

Faced with these risks, Macron said France’s diplomatic efforts should focus on security policy in the context of the war in Ukraine and in bolstering European independence and strategic interests.

The French president also stressed the need to “avoid partitioning the world” over the Ukraine war, at a time when many countries from the Global South have refused to condemn Russian aggression. We must “avoid a narrative that claims, ‘this is Europe’s war, it doesn't concern us’”, he said.

France also seeks to be a “trusted partner” on the geopolitical front, “our diplomatic efforts should keep it simple. We should protect our interests. We should also stand for our principles and our values, which are universal,” said Macron.

 

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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.

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

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.

Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Secret documents reveal for the first time.. Bush and Blair were certain of Iraq's inability to develop weapons of mass destruction two years before the war

    Tuesday, February 21, 2023   No comments


Britain recently released documents to the British Cabinet that reveal information about the US-British lies that the two countries told before the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The documents revealed that London was confident that the allegations of Iraq's possession of any ability to obtain weapons of mass destruction or long-range missiles, at least two years before its invasion, were false.


And the “BBC” considered that these documents are the first of their kind that “proves that the British Prime Minister (at the time) Tony Blair knew that Iraq was devoid of any capabilities to possess prohibited weapons in accordance with United Nations resolutions issued before and after the removal of the Iraqi army from Kuwait in February. 1991, in the aftermath of Operation Desert Storm.

Twenty years after the start of the war, the documents confirm that "the policy of containment and the strict international sanctions imposed on Iraq after the liberation of Kuwait from the occupation of its army in 1991 achieved its goal of preventing Saddam Hussein from developing weapons that were not permitted."


The documents refer mainly to the effectiveness of British military, arms and technological sanctions in the context of a review conducted by the Blair administration in 2001 of the US-British policy on Iraq, and this review was agreed upon during the first visit of the British Prime Minister to Washington after the inauguration of George Bush Jr., as US President.

The documents confirm that (at the time) Britain offered the Bush administration a new policy called “a contract with the Iraqi people” aimed at obtaining support, especially from the countries and peoples of the Arab region, for the US-British policy in dealing with Iraq.

The review clearly confirmed, according to the documents, that “without the containment policy that we follow, it was likely that Iraq would now possess a long-range missile capable of reaching Britain and Europe, as well as chemical, biological and nuclear warheads for such a weapon (the missile).”

She pointed out that the United Nations ban on Iraq manufacturing missiles with a range not exceeding 150 kilometers "is a major restriction that prevents it from developing such a missile."

The documents say that "the Blair administration sought to communicate effectively with the French to persuade them to include elements of the contract with the Iraqi people in any statements issued to promote our new approach at the United Nations."

The review suggested that “we may inform major Arab countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait about the new approach in order to issue supportive statements.”


Thursday, November 03, 2022

The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly, 185 to 2, Thursday to condemn the American economic embargo of Cuba

    Thursday, November 03, 2022   No comments

The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Thursday to condemn the American economic embargo of Cuba for the 30th year, with the Biden administration continuing former President Donald Trump’s opposition and refusing to return to the Obama administration’s 2016 abstention.

For the second year in a row, the vote in the 193-member General Assembly overwhelming--185 countries supporting the condemnation, the United States and Israel opposing it, and Brazil and Ukraine abstaining.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said before the vote that since 2019, the U.S. government “has escalated the siege around our country, taking it to an even crueler and more humane dimension, with the purpose of deliberately inflicting the biggest possible damage on Cuban families.” 

US disregard to the will of the global community was mirrored by the absence, bias, or blunt Western press coverage of the event. 

Here is a sample, for reference purposes.





Vote from previous years:




 

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