Thursday, May 25, 2023

Instrumentalizing migrants for political purposes in Turkish elections

    Thursday, May 25, 2023   No comments

The pro-Kurdish parties in Turkey announced today, Thursday, the support of the opposition presidential candidate, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, in the run-off in the presidential elections next Sunday, without mentioning his name, a day after expressing their anger at his agreement with a far-right party.

Incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan finished with a comfortable lead in the first round of voting on May 14, despite the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) backing of Kilicdaroglu.

Erdogan was very close to getting the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff.

Officials from the HDP and their Green Left allies said they were seeking change in the runoff, and their position remained the same, but they did not mention Kilicdaroglu by name.

Pervin Buldan, co-chair of the HDP, said they will vote on Sunday to end Erdogan's "one-man regime".

She added, "The strange system that Erdogan and his partners established is the cause of the societal problems that we suffer from. What will be voted on on May 28 is the extent to which this strange system can continue or not."

Buldan also criticized the campaign's rhetoric in which immigrants are used for political purposes, and the practices of state-appointed trustees.

"The problem of refugees and migrants can only be solved by fighting for peace against the politics of war," Buldan said.


Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Egypt and Iran will exchange ambassadors this year as part of a process mediated by the Sultanate of Oman and an upcoming meeting between Sisi and Raisi

    Wednesday, May 24, 2023   No comments

Egyptian officials told an Emirati newspaper today, Wednesday, that Egypt and Iran are expected to exchange ambassadors within months, as part of a process brokered by the Sultanate of Oman to normalize relations between the two regional powers.

Two officials told the English-language The National that a meeting had been agreed in principle between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his Iranian counterpart, Ibrahim Raisi.

They said the meeting was likely to take place by the end of the year.

The news comes days after Oman's Sultan Haitham bin Tariq paid a two-day visit to Egypt, where he discussed with Sisi including Cairo's relations with Tehran, according to the officials.


Oman enjoys close relations with Islamic and non-Arab Iran, and has often assumed mediating roles in regional disputes or in disputes pitting Tehran against other governments, in the Arab world and in the West.

For its part, Iran has said it wants better relations with Egypt, the most populous Arab country. However, the Egyptian government has been silent on relations with Iran, but regional media have been reporting on an imminent improvement in relations in recent weeks.

The two officials said normalizing relations with Iran guarantees Tehran's goodwill with regard to Cairo's efforts to forge closer economic and trade ties with countries such as Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, where it wields significant influence.

According to the newspaper, mid-level diplomats and intelligence officials from Iran and Egypt have held closed-door consultations on normalizing relations since last March. The latest round of these talks was held earlier this month in Baghdad, whose government has close ties with Tehran.

And she continued: “In addition to bilateral relations, the talks touched on reducing tension in places where Iran exercises great influence, such as Yemen, Lebanon and Syria, by supporting allied Shiite governments or armed groups.”

She believed that "the thaw in relations between Cairo and Tehran would add a new layer to the ongoing regional realignment that is changing the political landscape in the region."

Saudi Arabia, for example, has agreed to restore diplomatic relations with Iran that were severed in 2016, thus removing a major source of tension in the Middle East. Egypt and Turkey are also working to resolve a decade-long dispute, and in the actual direction of normalizing relations.

The eight-year war in Yemen, where Iran supported Ansar Allah against the internationally recognized government, which is backed by a Saudi-led military coalition, has subsided dramatically amid diplomatic moves to end the conflict.

Syria returned to the League of Arab States this month, amidst a great Iranian welcome. President Bashar al-Assad attended the Arab Summit in Jeddah last week for the first time in 12 years.

Tehran's relations with Cairo have been fraught since the overthrow of Iran's Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

Pahlavi died in Egypt in 1980 and was buried with other members of his family, causing tension between Cairo and Tehran.

Relations deteriorated further when the Iranian government named a street in Tehran after Khaled Islambouli, the Egyptian army officer who led a team of assassins who assassinated former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat during a 1981 military parade in Cairo.

Relations also increased tension over what Cairo considers Iranian interference in the internal affairs of Arab countries such as Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

Unlike Saudi Arabia, which closed its embassy in Tehran in 2016, Egypt has maintained diplomatic representation in Iran since the Islamic Revolution. However, it has only the chargé d'affaires who manages its mission in Tehran. Iran on the other hand has a functioning embassy in Cairo.


Related to this development, the Omani news agency announced today, Wednesday, that the Sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq, will visit Iran, next Sunday, on a two-day official visit, accompanied by a high-ranking official delegation.


The agency stated, in a statement, that the visit comes within the framework of strengthening the friendship ties between the Sultanate of Oman and the Islamic Republic of Iran, consolidating fruitful relations and good neighborliness between them, and in response to the invitation extended to him by the Iranian President, Ibrahim Raisi, to Sultan Haitham bin Tariq.


The statement added that the visit contributes to consultation and coordination between the two leaderships to discuss various developments on the regional and international arenas.


At the beginning of this month, the Chief of the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Major General Muhammad Bagheri, met the Sultan of Oman, and held a round of talks with him.


Iranian media reported that the Sultan of Oman told Bagheri, "The level of cooperation in various defense and military fields between the two countries' armed forces must be raised."


It is noteworthy that Tehran and Muscat have close relations, and they signed 8 memorandums of understanding and 4 cooperation programs last May, during Raisi's official visit to Oman.


During that visit, 12 cooperation documents were signed in the fields of energy, politics, transport, diplomatic cooperation, trade and economic relations, science, the environment and sports. A joint statement was issued by both sides at the end of the visit.


After his return to Tehran, Raisi confirmed that the positions of Iran and the Sultanate of Oman are "remarkably consistent on many issues," noting that "the good relations between Iran and Oman enhance regional cooperation."


US officials to the New York Times: Ukraine most likely carried out the attack on the Kremlin carracterized by Moscow as an assassination attempt

    Wednesday, May 24, 2023   No comments

That attack that was characterized by Moscow as an assassination attempt to kill Putin is  was likely carried out by Ukraine occirding to US officials who spoke to New York Times.

On Wednesday, The New York Times quoted US officials as saying that the Ukrainians were "most likely" to have carried out the attack that took place with rallies on the Russian presidential building (the Kremlin) on May 3.


The officials said that US intelligence reached its initial assessment through intercepted communications, and that the attack was likely orchestrated by one of Ukraine's special military or intelligence units.

They also indicated that it was not clear if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky or his senior officials knew about the operation prior to its launch.


It is noteworthy that Russia had accused the United States of being behind the attack on the Kremlin, noting that it had several options for a measured and balanced response to the attack.


Russian officials also demanded the liquidation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in response to the attack.


Kiev has denied any involvement in the attack on the Kremlin, accusing Moscow of deliberately highlighting it in the media to justify any possible escalation of the conflict inside Ukraine.


Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that efforts by Kiev and Washington to deny any responsibility for the attack on the Kremlin are completely absurd, and that decisions regarding such attacks are not taken in Ukraine, but in Washington, and Kiev implements what is asked of it.


The Russian Foreign Ministry also confirmed that there is no doubt that the Kiev regime was behind the attack, noting that the actions of the Kiev regime - which it described as "criminal" - confirm its unwillingness to settle the ongoing conflict through political and diplomatic means, threatening those responsible for the attacks with strict and inevitable punishment.


ISR Weekly Review Bulletin for May 23, 2023

    Wednesday, May 24, 2023   No comments

To keep our readers informed about the most consequential events in this fast changing world, ISR researchers cull through current events news, so you don’t have to.

Manage your Subscription; invite a friend to subscribe to ISR’s Weekly Review Bulletin


Essays of the Month:

Riyadh to Washington delegates: You arrived late!

by Mohamad Kawas * Summary: During the past weeks, the United States has pushed its envoys to Saudi Arabia in a way that is almost shameful in the eyes of any American observer. It seemed that the United States was seeking to appease the Kingdom. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham visited the Kingdom in April. The Read more



Iran, Indonesia Agree on Mutual Settlements in National Currencies

    Wednesday, May 24, 2023   No comments

Iranian President Seyed Ebrahim Rayeesi said on Tuesday that Tehran and Jakarta have agreed to strengthen and expand economic relations and start trading in their national currencies in a bid to end the US dollar monopoly.

Rayeesi made the remarks in a joint press conference with his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Iran's president, who is on an official visit to Indonesia at the head of a high-ranking politico-economic delegation, stated that Tehran and Jakarta have set a goal to promote the value of their trade to $20 billion.

He stressed that the both sides are resolute on promoting exchanges using national currencies in order to set aside the US dollar.

Several countries have stressed that they no longer have trust in the US currency because it has become an unreliable financial instrument.

The Iranian chief executive added that the signing of different documents for bilateral cooperation in various sectors reaffirms both sides' will to develop relations in all fields.

In the presence of Raeisi and Widodo, senior officials of Iran and Indonesia signed 11 documents to boost cooperation in preferential trade, cancellation of visas, cultural exchanges, supervision over the pharmaceutical products, science and technology as well as oil and gas.


Tuesday, May 23, 2023

MP Geert Wilders: "The Netherlands is no longer the Netherlands"

    Tuesday, May 23, 2023   No comments

Dutch Member of Parliament and far-right politician Geert Wilders ridiculed what he said was the increase in Muslims in the Netherlands, and added that watching them perform prayers in the streets of the Netherlands expresses the stripping of the Netherlands of its identity.

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?"







Monday, May 22, 2023

Ali Akbar Ahmadian, new Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran

    Monday, May 22, 2023   No comments

The man who signed the China-sponsored diplomatic breakthrough between Iran and Saudi Arabia, but who also was close to the Iranian spy who worked for the British security agency is now out of Iran's national security council. As his resignation indicates, it is not clear if Admiral Ali Shamkhani legacy will be determined by the outcome of Saudi-Iranian deal or by the security lapse that resulted in the assassination of Iranian scientists and nuclear secrets exposures.

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