Friday 29th of March 2024

preparing the ground for negotiations...

deal

Pompeo is in Saudi Arabia to make sure they dance to the same tune as the USA and stop the fight with Qatar. This skirmish between the Saudis and Qatar is a fly in the ointment as the USA has its biggest military base there. It is a hindrance to the US next move: destroy the deal made with Iran. This is why the 5th and 6th Fleet are in the vicinity of the Middle East. Forget Syria: too many bloody Ruskies there... But hitting Iran? That's on the cards...

target: iran...

Here is an update on the battle plan for the USSS Truman and its fleet of destroyers, planes and rockets. The document in the sealed envelope, possibly unopened by the commander of the fleet yet, specifies the target is not Syria, but Iran. The problem with Syria is the presence of the Russians. Hitting Iran directly bypasses this annoying obstacle. The specific targets are of course all the Iranian nuclear facilities, etc. Details are very specific. As well, a very serious threat (US submarines, not mentioned in the official communiqués, but under the command of the Truman captain) is maintained on the Russian fleet in Tartus.

At this stage there is of course coordination with the Gulf US fleet and A MAJOR DISTRACTION from the Israelis who will attack something (possibly in Damascus) in Syria. Not specified exactly in this document. Busy with all this, Russia will be taken unawares and dithering on its response, BECAUSE NO RUSSIAN TARGETS WILL BE INVOLVED. At the same time, the Saudis and their mates of the Gulf States (minus Qatar) will attack Syria AND Iraq. 

The US fleet is now approaching Lebanon (though not mentioned on its website).

This plan may be a diversion in itself with the ultimate intent being to outflank the "Russian might" nonetheless... by provoking a reaction that will place the onus (and the blame) of the next step on Russia. WW3 or not. 

But the plan is principally designed to show might is right: negotiate or else.

 

May Allah be with Iran. Gus is an atheist, but on this occasion, one could not be too cautious.

 

Note: Pompeo, blowhard Haley and Bolton have bamboozled Trump on this one...

Note: if Russian assets in Iran are hit, there will be US apologies indicating that the US had no idea there was Russian assets in the designated areas.

Note: Innocent population collateral damage to be ignored as usual.

 

Read also: 

URGENT: battle plan update...

pompeo push for power play...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called for unity in the Gulf region during a visit to Saudi Arabia, his first foreign trip in his new role as the US' top diplomat.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir on Sunday, Pompeo said, "Gulf unity is necessary and we need to achieve it."

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt, cut diplomatic, trade and travel ties with Qatar nearly one year ago, accusing the country of supporting "terrorism". Doha strongly denies the charge.

 

Read more:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/04/mike-pompeo-saudi-arabia-qatar-blockade-180429054625262.html

 

The real problem is that Qatar wants to deal economically with Iran rather than fight...

gus advice to iran...

 

Gus' advice to Iran on the nuke deal...

Don't worry... Give Donald what he wants: a new deal. It won't make much difference to the outcome but it will give Trump a few more points to put in his trousers. Look at what he's doing with North Korea.

Make Trump look good. Let him get the Nobel Peace Prize. Value the "new" relationship with the USA, but watch the back door. The new deal might have even better benefits, including the "lifting of sanctions..."

Meanwhile as the West is busy with this renegotiating, live in peace and harmony. The French will have most to loose in a new deal, as you still "own" 10 per cent of their nuclear industry... Let the USA and the Europeans fight between themselves... Then renegotiate once more. Drag the process on small points... Enjoy yourself.

Remember, should the Democrat hawks win in the USA, you're cactus. Had Hillary won, you would have been bombed already...

pompeo pumps the flesh against iran...

RIYADH – New U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo underscored the need for unity in the Gulf during a brief visit to the Saudi capital on Sunday as Washington aims to muster support among allies for new sanctions against Iran.

Pompeo reassured Saudi Arabia that the United States would abandon the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, reached under President Donald Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama, unless there is an agreement in talks with European partners to improve it to make sure the Islamic Republic never possesses a nuclear weapons.

“Iran destabilizes this entire region,” Pompeo said in a joint press conference with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir. 

“It supports proxy militias and terrorist groups. It is an arms dealer to the Houthi rebels in Yemen. It supports the murderous Assad regime (in Syria) as well.”

Pompeo also addressed the rift between some Gulf countries and Qatar: “Gulf unity is necessary and we need to achieve it.”

Read more:

RIYADH – New U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo underscored the need for unity in the Gulf during a brief visit to the Saudi capital on Sunday as Washington aims to muster support among allies for new sanctions against Iran.

Pompeo reassured Saudi Arabia that the United States would abandon the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, reached under President Donald Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama, unless there is an agreement in talks with European partners to improve it to make sure the Islamic Republic never possesses a nuclear weapons.

“Iran destabilizes this entire region,” Pompeo said in a joint press conference with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir. 

“It supports proxy militias and terrorist groups. It is an arms dealer to the Houthi rebels in Yemen. It supports the murderous Assad regime (in Syria) as well.”

Pompeo also addressed the rift between some Gulf countries and Qatar: “Gulf unity is necessary and we need to achieve it.”

Read more:

https://nypost.com/2018/04/29/mike-pompeo-stresses-need-for-gulf-unity-a...

 

What a lot of hypocrisy from the USA... 

 

Mike Pompeo marked his first tour as Secretary of State by trashing a successful nonproliferation agreement and stoking tensions with Iran:

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a broadside against Iran on his first foreign trip as the U.S.’s top diplomat, calling Tehran the world’s “greatest sponsor of terrorism” and repeating President Donald Trump’s threat to pull out of the nuclear deal if it isn’t changed.

“We are determined to make sure [Iran] never possesses a nuclear weapon,” Mr. Pompeo said at a joint news conference in Riyadh with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir. “The Iran deal in its current form does not provide that assurance.”

Pompeo said elsewhere that a “substantial fix” to the deal was needed to prevent the U.S. from withdrawing, but as supporters of the JCPOA have pointed out many times there is nothing wrong with the deal that it requires fixing at all. If it doesn’t include everything that some Western governments might want, that is the result of the compromise needed to secure agreement among all the parties. Anything that the U.S. wants to add to the deal after the fact won’t be acceptable to Iran, so talking about a “fix” is just a way to deflect criticism from the U.S. for unnecessarily and irrationally scrapping an agreement that achieves the thing that the Trump administration claims to want. 

If the JCPOA doesn’t provide enough “assurance” to the Trump administration that Iran won’t develop a nuclear weapon, there is no agreement that could realistically be made that would ever be good enough for them. Iran hawks have been dead-set against this deal since before negotiations began, and they have wanted to undo it for the last three years. The pretense that they have any desire to keep a deal they hate can’t be taken seriously, and European parties to the agreement should stop trying to placate the administration’s hard-liners. The Trump administration wants to wreck the deal, and it should be the only one held responsible for its collapse.

 

Read more:

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/pompeos-contempt-for-dipl...

 

Read from top... 

white-anting "while protecting" the deal...

The leaders of the UK, France and Germany have agreed to defend the Iran nuclear deal while they work out a way to wring more concessions out of Tehran. The 2015 deal is “the best way” to keep Iran from nuclear weapons, they said.

The renewed push for the deal to stay intact came during separate phone calls between UK Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron, and May and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday. The leaders of the countries, which are all party to the landmark 2015 agreement, agreed that it was “the best way of neutralizing the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran,” the statement issued by Downing Street says.

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/425496-europe-defends-iran-deal/

 

What bullshit is this?...

the old amad again...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated on Monday that Iran is continually expanding the range of its nuclear-capable missiles. According to the statement, Israel has thousands of documents revealing how Tehran allegedly lied to the world after signing the nuclear agreement.

The Israeli intelligence service has managed to collect about half a tonne of secret materials, including 55,000 pages of text documents, proving that Iran possesses a military nuclear project, dubbed Project Amad, he specified.

"Iran lied about never having a nuclear weapons program, 100,000 secret files proved that they lied," Netanyahu said, adding that Iran hid its archives regarding the nuclear weapons in 2017. "The Iran deal, the nuclear deal, is based on lies. It’s based on Iranian lies and Iranian deception."

On July 14, 2015, the European Union and the P5+1 group of countries — China, Germany, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal, with Tehran. The accord stipulated a gradual lifting of anti-Iranian sanctions in exchange for Tehran curbing its nuclear program and allowing inspections to ensure that the nature of the program is peaceful.

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/world/201804301064039274-netanyahu-iran-nuclear-...

 

 

Slowly, all the characters in this orchestrated sad charade against Iran, play their part: the Europeans by agreeing to "revise the deal" while not revising the deal, the Saudis happy to be told to pull their socks up with the Qatari and invade something as long as there is cash and weapons coming their way to destroy the satanic Iran, the Jews with their "discreet bombing" of Syria, the USA with Trump having no clue that WW3 is on his doorsteps, Pompeo leading the charge and Bolton flogging the horse — that include the 5th and 6th Fleets of the US navy. Not a single proof, but Netanyahu, this robber Nazi Jew, has 10 tons of "proofs" in writing and we should trust him like a dozen vipers in a snake pit. Yes, the world is in the good hands of god's messengers... Meanwhile our good little Aussie Nazis fight with the blessings of the Abbott/Turnbull Russians-are-bad-Government of nutters, on the side of the Nazi government in Ukraine. Lovely:

 

When Australian former Neo-Nazi and registered gun owner Ethan Tilling flew into Brisbane this year, he was returning under the radar of Australian authorities with newfound combat experience from a brutal and forgotten war.

Key points:
  • Two Australians have been identified as joining militant groups to fight in the war in Ukraine
  • One of the men, Ethan Tilling, is a former Neo-Nazi and trainee soldier in the Australian Army and the other was an airman with the Royal Australian Air Force
  • There are no rules prohibiting Australians fighting for Ukraine

 

Mr Tilling, who was until recently a member of the Nazi group Right Wing Resistance, had spent the Australian spring in the bitter cold of Eastern Ukraine firing Kalashnikovs, rocket launchers and grenades at Russian-backed separatists.

The 23-year-old former trainee soldier from Brisbane is one of two Australian ex-Defence Force personnel identified by the ABC who have joined thousands of ultranationalists flocking from across the world to take up arms in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbass.

Mr Tilling and former Royal Australian Air Force airman Jared Bennet joined a patchwork of pro-Ukrainian militia groups taking on the Russian-backed separatists in a chaotic and stuttering conflict, which has become to right-wing extremists what the war in Syria is to jihadists.

 

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-01/foreign-fighters-return-to-austral...

 

Please note that there is nothing "neo" about these Nazis. and he did not "fly under the radar". He had been "blessed" by our own Nazi government.

meanwhile in tehran...

 

“The era of hit-and-run [strikes] has passed,” Ayatollah Khamenei said during a meeting with a group of Iranian workers on Monday. He then warned that if the US or any of its allies decide to attack the Islamic Republic or its bases, their actions will be met with a “much stronger response.”

His statements came just hours after the reports about an alleged attack on the Syrian Army’s positions in the countryside of Hama and Aleppo provinces. The Syrian state media said that the military bases were targeted in a missile strike launched by an unspecified enemy.

In the meantime, Iran dismissed reports about its military advisers allegedly being affected by the strike. No Iranian advisers were killed or injured in the incident, the Iranian Mehr News Agency said, citing some “informed” sources. It also denounced the reports about casualties among the Iranians in Syria by calling them “false.”

The commander of the Fatemiyoun Division, a Syrian pro-government Shia militia supported by Iran, also told Mehr that his unit’s base near Aleppo did not come under attack. Earlier, Sky News Arabia reported, citing rebel sources, that over 40 people might have been killed in the alleged strike. Some US and British media also said that dozens of Iranians were allegedly among those killed in the incident that occurred late on Sunday.

‘US does not want to bear costs of war with Iran, wants to shift them to others’

 

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/425539-iran-us-attack-response/

trump could not care less...

They are separated by thousands of kilometres and a generation, but when French President Emmanuel Macron is welcomed to Sydney by Malcolm Turnbull later today, it will be the many common causes, not the few differences, that will be on show.

Fresh from his trip to the US, Mr Macron seemingly achieved the impossible — receiving a warm welcome from President Donald Trump, while at the same time slamming his world view and many of his policies.

It was time for multilateral action to solve world issues. Now was not the moment to abandon Syria. There is no planet B (a dig at Mr Trump's withdrawal from the Paris climate talks) and isolationism harms everyone.

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-01/french-president-emmanuel-macron-v...

 

I expected a lot better from Philip Williams at the ABC, but the ABC is right-wing, slightly Nazi, despite what people say. Trump amused himself with Macron and after he departed "Macron's tree" has been "displaced", "misplaced" or whatever. Macron was used, as a foil in a Laurel and Hardy routine, by Trump... Trump then played the violin with Agent Merkel who said the same thing as Macron: "keep the deal with Iran intact, but fiddle with it to extract more juice." Donald loves this sort of  bullshit. He is the master of it. The only thing Trumble will learn from Macron is how not to use your sleeves when you can't find your handkerchief in your pocket, after a bad case of snort. Table manners 101.

Read from top. and other articles on this subject. Trump is a con artist with extraordinary skill at making people believe the shit he dishes out, while below decks he KNOWS EXACTLY what he's doing... Our media is asleep, paying no attention to what's happening until it has happened... The Oh Shit Moment is getting nearer... but the media will take the lifejacket: Iran bad guys, US good guys... Meanwhile people will get killed beyond expectations...

You have been advised (I don't use the word "warned". It's too hackneyed...)

Oh! And BOTH  Agent Merkel and little napoleon asked The Donald TO KEEP THE US EMPIRE GOING... The Donald LOVED it... America first? = The US empire first... Could not be better...

common colonial grounds...

 

a common colonial ground between France and Australia. See:

a bigger monument to celebrate invasion...

 

 

 

Meanwhile keeping New Caledonians happy cost France a lot of cash... May as well leave it to the tourists...

bibi is lying and the western media laps it up...

If Netanyahu's presentation is true, Iran would be in violation of its nuclear agreement with the United States and a number of other nations, known formally as the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and colloquially as the Iran nuclear deal.

"We all had our laughs, we all made fun, but to be honest with you — this was the most insulting 15 to 20 minutes for the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] that I've ever heard," Osman said. "Benjamin Netanyahu was basically saying that every inspector, investigative team that went into Iran to try to mediate the nuclear deal… is either a liar or an idiot. That's what he said."

The UN agency's Director General, Yukiya Amano, told the IAEA's 35-member Board of Governors on March 5, 2018, that "Iran is implementing its nuclear-related commitments." 

"Does he really think that with such a presentation he'll be able to wage war against Iran or against Iranian presence in Syria," Osman wondered. "Netanyahu — Israel — has been attacking Syria nonstop for the past six years, if not for the past seven years. But let's say, with documented evidence, six years, and lately, last night at 10 p.m., with new weaponry," Osman said.

Specifically, she says that the weapons used in the attack on the 47th Brigade of the Syrian Arab Army, a unit made up of Iranian forces and forces from Hezbollah, were similar to either depleted uranium or an "enhanced nuclear weapon."

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201805011064045734-Netanyahus-Iran-Cl...

when was the truth ever a good reason?

A US court has just handed down the verdict that the Islamic Republic of Iran owes the families of those who died on 11th September 2001 6 billion dollars in damages.

It behooves us to point out that no one, anywhere, ever accused Iran of being behind the 9/11 attacks for over a decade afterwards. The attempt to shift the blame to Iran has been a slow developing situation. The idea was first floated by James Woolsey, former head of the CIA, in 2015. 

The official position of the United States government is that 19 people (15 Saudi Arabians, 2 Egyptians, 2 Emiratis and a Lebanese man) hijacked the planes and flew them into their targets. Whether or not you subscribe to this view, the introduction of Iran as some kind accomplice is a massive contradiction. One that makes very little sense. 

This isn’t the first time a civil case has attempted to attribute blame for 9/11. A similar civil case was brought against Saddam Hussein, during the build up to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Hopefully this verdict doesn’t presage yet another war in the Middle East.

Perhaps the most telling part is that Saudi Arabia, the country allegedly home to 15 of the 19 people allegedly guilty of the crime, remains untouchable. No sanctions. No rebukes. They’re not on the “state sponsor of terrorism” list (Iran is). A case brought against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, filed by a different group of victims’ families and blaming them for 9/11, was thrown out of court.

Is “guilt for 9/11” simply a weapon to be deployed against anyone America deems an enemy? How much respect for the victims, or their families, does that show? How much respect for the truth?

Read more:

https://off-guardian.org/2018/05/02/us-court-finds-iran-liable-for-9-11/

bullying the EU dancers...


Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has slammed Washington for “bullying” other nations against Tehran, and condemned EU states that are dancing to the US tune over the nuclear deal at the expense of Iran.

In a statement published on Thursday on his YouTube channel, Zarif once again lambasted the US for shaking the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The minister reiterated that Iran had never shifted away from the 2015 deal, which has been repeatedly confirmed by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). However, some other signatories, and the US in particular, failed to show the same commitment to its obligations, according to Zarif.

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/425776-us-bullying-nuclear-deal/

 

Read from top.

at the merci of the weather?...

The weather forecast calls for partly cloudy skies on May 12 in Washington, D.C. The embassies of European Union member states will be welcoming the public for Open House Day and one can assume that U.S. President Donald Trump will be working in the Oval Office. In the morning, he will no doubt fire off a couple of tweets like "The Iran nuclear deal is a terrible one for the United States and the world." And at some point on this day, his secretary of state and his national security adviser will likely walk into the room and ask him the decisive question: Mr. President, are you going to sign? Yes or no?

If Trump signs, the world will breathe a sigh of relief. It would mean that the U.S. president has once again prolonged the suspension of nuclear program-related sanctions against Iran for another 120 days. It would mean that the deal with Iran is still alive.

But that is not the most likely scenario.

It is more likely that the president won't simply sign the extension. After all, he threatened as much four months ago, when he said: "Either fix the deal's disastrous flaws, or the United States will withdraw." As such, the question now is whether Trump will accept a last-minute compromise and what such a compromise might look like.

The 159-page document has a rather unwieldy name: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. But it is based on a simple idea: If Iran finally stops developing the means to build a nuclear weapon, then the world will resume doing business with the country. As such, if Trump reimposes sanctions, the nuclear deal would be badly crippled, and it seems likely that the Iranians would see it as a breach, leading to Tehran's withdrawal. Iran may then resume enriching uranium to weapons-grade levels and working towards building a nuclear weapon. That would mark the beginning of the next crisis in the Middle East. It would mean the victory of national egotism over diplomacy and would represent a difficult-to-heal rift between the United States and Europe.

Or, as former German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel says: "If we aren't careful, we could be facing another Thirty Years' War in the Middle East."

Those are the stakes.

With just days to go before Trump's decision, it remains unclear whether the crisis can be avoided. But to understand how the U.S. president might ultimately decide, it helps to go back to Jan. 12 of this year.

Two hours before Trump publicly threatened that day that he was considering killing the nuclear deal with Iran, a small group of top European diplomats was notified of his decision. Brian Hook, a senior policy advisor in the State Department, called up European officials and read them the three-page statement from the president over the telephone. Because one sentence pertaining to the Europeans was erroneous, Hook had it removed from the statement. The group on the other side of the Atlantic was pleased about the removal because it showed that Hook, their State Department contact, had influence in the White House. They were talking to the right guy. But it was just a minor victory. There was no longer anything they could do to change the nature of Trump's ultimatum.

A Particularly Bitter Moment

It was a particularly bitter moment for the Europeans. The nuclear deal had long been seen as a crowning achievement of EU diplomacy. It was regarded as proof positive that a problem like the Iranian nuclear threat could more effectively be solved through discussion and economic incentives than through military strikes and punitive actions. The world celebrated the deal -- and then Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. The same man who has blasted the agreement as "terrible," as "a catastrophe," as "insane" and "horrendous."

The task facing the Europeans became clear on Jan. 12. They had just four months to make improvements to the "worst deal ever" and to change Trump's mind.

Read more:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/trump-decision-on-iran-deal-vi...

 

This is a lot of rubbish from Der Spiegel... The Europeans will be VERY HAPPY SHOULD DONALD sink the deal. In someway WAR against Iran would kill off this annoying agreement the French did with Iran, when the Shah was in power... So Although Germany might object a little, the French are massively hypocritical by saying one thing and hoping for another. I would be very surprised if the deal with Iran is kept... Donald is going to sink it — and the EU will buckle at the knees by Trump blackmailing his friends with "tariffs" should they overtly disagree too much... though they will have no choice but go "with the flow"...

preparing the ground for war...

 

As a direct consequence of Washington's reinstatement of sanctions against Tehran, companies with operations in Iran will have to stop their business quickly. This concerns a few large French enterprises, which have relocated there.


The decision of President Donald Trump to withdraw the United States from the Iranian nuclear deal has resulted in the reinstatement of sanctions [US approved only] against US companies — but also European companies that had started trading with Tehran, including French enterprises.


US officials have insisted that European companies fully comply with the reinstatement of sanctions. National Security Advisor John Bolton has also said that the reinstatement of US sanctions was effective immediately for new contracts, saying that companies already engaged in Iran would have a few months to get out. A delay that will go according to the US Treasury from 90 to 180 days.


Total, Airbus, Renault, PSA are under threat.

In addition to the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus - as the American Boeing - the French car manufacturers Renault-Nissan and PSA will be affected, as well as the oil company Total.

 

Read more:

https://francais.rt.com/economie/50522-entreprises-francaises-sommees-pa...

 

Translation by Jules Letambour

 

Read from top.  This is an obvious warning to companies by the bully of the world, the USA, that war is coming. Only the United Nations can certify sanctions, but now with the world led by Bolton, Pompeo and Nikki, there is no need for international niceties. The Europeans will oblige for several reasons of which two of them are a) they don't want to be banned from doing business with the USA and b) the subtext is that the USA needs all the foreigners out of Iran before starting to bomb the shit out of that country.

The trap has been set, the bait is being organised by Israel that bombs Iranian positions every second day in Syria, hoping to trigger an escalation of war despite claiming to the contrary. With the biggest fleet of ships ever assembled in terms of firepower ever on this planet, by the US, Netanyahu is beaming and obliging in his role of chief baiter to Iran.

Now can the foreign enterprises in Iran defy Trump? If they don't this will clearly show that the foreign goverments such as France's are in full agreement with Trump. Not a good look in regard to Macron who "wanted to save the deal". Bullshit. Macron would be going all the way with carrying flees on behalf of the USA... Has he got any choice? YES! Fucking yes!!! Defy Trump and tell him to piss off!

The only problem as seen by Gus here, is that passed a certain point in this Israeli "baiting" and possible "bombing" of Iran by US ships, the retaliations could be far more severe than anticipated... But our lazy mediocre media will blame the Russians. Watch this space.

 

John Bolton is a nasty piece of shit. The Europeans have only the proper choice to tell him to piss orf, otherwise they look like they are part of the stint — PREPARING FOR WAR.

The line in the cartoon at top should now read: ... "We cancel "that" deal AND we destroy your country..."

the money or the box...

 

Now, it is up to Europe. U.S. President Donald Trump has decided to withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran in the most brusque possible manner. There is no waiting period, no attempts at mitigation. The marching orders are clear: the greatest confrontation possible.

For Europe, the stakes are enormous. It is no longer merely about ensuring that Iran doesn't get the bomb. Rather, the world is faced with an uncontrolled, global nuclear arms race. The already tenuous stability in the Middle East is likewise in grave danger. And finally, Europe is facing the potential loss of what has been the most important, most reliable and most beneficial constant of European foreign policy for decades: the partnership with the U.S. and the trans-Atlantic relationship.

The U.S. has chosen a path of confrontation with Europe. Neither Macron's advances nor Merkel's sternness were able to prevent Trump from taking this step. In the seven decades of the postwar trans-Atlantic relationship, there has never been such a violation of European interests, never such deep-seated discord. When France and Germany elected not to follow U.S. President George W. Bush into Iraq in 2003, the dissent came within the framework of an intact partnership. It was a serious disagreement, to be sure, but it didn't threaten the foundation of the relationship.

This time, it is different. This conflict has the potential to escalate into a real confrontation between Europe and the United States. In a worst-case scenario, Trump could force Europe to make a choice between the U.S. and Iran. If you're not with us, you are against us.

Europe finds itself facing a diplomatic challenge that is almost impossible to solve. On the one hand, Europeans must seek to prevent the Americans from further escalation. On the other, they are tasked with convincing Iran not to give up on the deal themselves.

 

Read more:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/time-for-europe-to-stand-up-to...

 

I will repeat:

This is an obvious warning to Europe by the bully of the world, the USA, that war is coming. Only the United Nations can certify sanctions, but now with the world led by Bolton, Pompeo and Nikki, there is no need for international niceties. The Europeans will oblige for several reasons of which two of them are a) they don't want to be banned from doing business with the USA and b) the subtext is that the USA needs all the foreigners out of Iran before starting to bomb the shit out of that country.

The trap has been set, the bait is being organised by Israel that bombs Iranian positions every second day in Syria, hoping to trigger an escalation of war despite claiming to the contrary, while using fake pretexts. With the biggest fleet of ships ever assembled in terms of firepower ever on this planet, by the US, Netanyahu is beaming and obliging in his role of chief baiter to Iran.

Now can the foreign enterprises in Iran, especially European, defy Trump? If they don't defy Trump, this will clearly show that the foreign governments such as France's are in full agreement with Trump. Not a good look in regard to Macron who "wanted to save the deal". Bullshit. Macron would be going all the way with carrying flees on behalf of the USA... Has he got any choice? YES! Fucking yes!!! Defy Trump and tell him to piss off!

The only problem as seen by Gus here, is that passed a certain point in this Israeli "baiting" and possible "bombing" of Iran by US ships, the retaliations could be far more severe than anticipated... But our lazy mediocre media will blame the Russians, while the Russians so far are level-headed despite the Jews do what they do best — play the victims when they are the aggressors. Watch this space.

 

John Bolton is a nasty piece of shit. The Europeans have only the proper choice to tell him to piss orf, otherwise they look like they are part of the stint — PREPARING FOR WAR.

The line in the cartoon at top should now read: ... "We cancel "that" deal AND we destroy your country..."

when the EU/US door closes, install a russian ladder...

Airbus now has 95 undelivered planes that it had hoped to sell to Iran, including 16 orders of its A350 wide-body, long-range jet airliner, and 28 for the A330neo, another wide-body that's still under development.

Boeing has been more fortunate; its conservative approach following President Trump's election means that it never actually closed its planned transaction with Iran Air on planes including the 777-300ER wide body airliner. But the company did have some $16.6 billion in contracts for 80 jets, with these orders now almost certainly void. 

Cloud With a Silver Lining?

President Trump's decision on Iran may actually be an unbelievable stroke of good fortune for United Aircraft Corporation, the Russian aircraft manufacturing holding that has made substantial efforts to revive and modernize its civilian aircraft offerings in the last four years.

The Il-96-400M, a comprehensive modernization program for the Il-96 wide-body airliner is one such project. With a seating capacity of 390 passengers and a range of 12,000 km, the plane is expected to compete directly against Boeing and Airbus for the Russian market.

UAC signed a contract with Ilyushin Aviation Complex to develop the Il-96-400M in 2017, with the aircraft expected to be ready for flight testing in 2019. If all goes to plan, the plane will be fitted with four powerful, fuel-efficient Russian-made engines and feature advanced avionics. It is also expected to be fitted with embedded ladders under the fuselage, allowing for a significant reduction in boarding and deboarding time, and savings on expenses for airport ramps.

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/business/201805091064299516-russian-airplane-bui...

remembering the past, fondly...

from dollars to euros...

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The European Union is planning to switch from US dollars to euros when paying for the oil supplies from Iran, a diplomatic source told Sputnik.

On Tuesday, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that after talks with the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Iran in Brussels that the sides had agreed to work out practical solutions in response to the US withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known as the Iran nuclear deal, within the next few weeks. In particular, the European Union and Iran would maintain and deepen economic ties, including in the area of oil and gas supplies.

 

read more:

https://sputniknews.com/world/201805161064498620-eu-dollar-iran/

packing up...

On the day Trump announced that he was ripping up the Iran deal, and that the US would impose sanctions on European companies trading with that country, the French finance minister Bruno Le Maire said that European states refused to be treated like "vassals" of the US.

At Aachen on 11 May, Emmanuel Macron effectively accused the US of blackmail.  On 17 May, the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, asked, "With friends like that (i.e. Trump), who needs enemies?" 

The temperature only rose further when the French energy giant Total announced that it would pull out of a multi-billion dollar gas deal with Iran unless European diplomacy succeeds in obtaining a specific waiver from US sanctions. Other European behemoths including Allianz and Siemens have also announced either that they will wind down operations in Iran or that they will not start any new ones.

These statements show that Trump's decision is a slap in the face for the EU politically, economically and - perhaps above all - ideologically. Politically, because both Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel made special trips to Washington to plead with Trump, to no avail whatever.  Moreover, the EU is itself a signatory to the Iran deal, which it regards as a major diplomatic triumph from which it draws credibility: its disavowal by Trump is a deep insult to the diplomatic status of the EU as such.

Economically, because of the gigantic contracts which European companies could lose. For years, following the nearly $9 billion fine imposed by the US on Paribas in 2015, European companies and banks have been terrified of engaging in any business activity likely to attract the ire of the Americans. Deals with Russia, for instance, are shunned. The effect of this latest decision could be like many Paribas situations at once.

Ideologically, because the EU draws its entire legitimacy from the belief that by pooling sovereignty and by merging its states into one entity, it has advanced beyond the age when international relations were decided by force. It believes that it embodies instead a new international system based on rules and agreements, and that any other system leads to war. It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of this belief for European leaders; yet Donald Trump has just driven a coach and horses through it.

The angry statements by European leaders might lead one to think that we are on the cusp of a major reappraisal of trans-Atlantic relations. However, the reality is that the EU and its leaders have painted themselves into a corner from which it will be very difficult, perhaps impossible, to extricate themselves.

First, the links between the EU and the US are not only very long-standing, they are also set in stone. NATO and the EU are in reality Siamese twins, two bodies born at the same time which are joined at the hip. The first European community was created with overt and covert US support in 1950 in order to militarize Western Europe and to prepare it to fight a land war against the Soviet Union; NATO acquired its integrated command structure a few months later and its Supreme Commander is always an American.

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/427116-eu-sanctions-iran-trump/

 

Why are the European firms REALLY packing up? Because they fear that iran will be bombed by the USA. They don't fear economic reprisals, but the smell of cordite is getting a bit too whiffy... though still on the maybe "event" horizon.

 

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sunflower seeds to iran...

Beijing has officially opened its new train route to Iran, as the US urges its companies to wind down their operations with the Islamic Republic.

As US President Donald Trump hardens his confrontational attitude to Tehran, tearing up the 2015 nuclear deal and calling for a new sanctions regime, China is more than ready to grab the opportunity for trade by opening a new international railroad connecting Tehran and Bayannur, a city in China's Inner Mongolia region.

The exact route of the railroad is yet to be disclosed, as there are currently several major railroad projects, some of them even including China's biggest regional rival, India. But, considering Bayannur is located near the northern border of China and there's already an international railroad to Kazakhstan there, it is likely that the new trade route goes through the territories of former Soviet republics Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

According to the Washington Post, China has sent the inaugural train from Bayannur carrying — you'll never guess — 1,150 tons of sunflower seeds, because Bayannur is China's biggest sunflower seed production area. China exports some 180,000 tons of sunflower seeds every year, supplying Middle Eastern, European and US markets, according to Xinhua.

 

Compared with ocean shipping, the train route shortens the delivery time by some 20 days, and Chinese sunflower seeds are now expected to get to Tehran in two weeks — less than half as long as before.

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/business/201805121064379680-china-iran-railway/

could not be fairer than this...

Faced with the prospect of renewed US sanctions, Iran is looking for efforts by Washington’s European allies to keep the 2015 nuclear accord alive.

Iran has promised the EU to adhere to the terms of the 2015 nuclear agreement provided that EU countries make up for the damage Tehran may suffer from US sanctions, Iran’s nuclear chief, Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters.

Over the weekend Salehi met with the European commissioner for energy and climate, Miguel Arias Canete, who had been dispatched to Tehran with a plan to stop Iran’s financial isolation and ensure its continued implementation of the terms of the nuclear accord.

“We hope that what they have presented to us, will be materialized,” Ali Akbar Salehi told Western journalists who had gathered in the Iranian capital.

He urged EU representatives to stand up to Washington’s pressure and keep the 2015 accord in place. He added that Tehran would uphold the agreement only if the EU’s effort helps offset renewed US sanctions.

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201805211064637316-iran-eu-nuclear-deal/

 

Meanwhile the USA is preparing to bomb the place... Iran that is... then Russia... then...

not "misinformed"...

Nahal Toosi reports on the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) fans with ties to the Trump administration:

Two close confidants of President Donald Trump are scheduled to speak Saturday before a controversial Iranian opposition group previously designated as a terrorist outfit, raising fresh questions about the group’s Washington influence as Trump pursues a pressure campaign against Tehran.

Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and informal adviser Newt Gingrich are listed as headliners for Saturday’s “Free Iran” conference in Paris, organized by the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq and its affiliates. 

The MEK is a deranged totalitarian cult with no support inside Iran and a record of killing Americans and committing acts of terrorism. It is an ongoing disgrace that American politicians and officials lend this group support and help them to push their dangerous regime change fantasies. It might be tempting to dismiss the MEK’s fans as disreputable opportunists out to make a quick buck (and there is some truth to that), but the problem is that their public embrace of this group has aided the MEK in selling itself as a legitimate opposition group. National Security Advisor John Bolton has been a regular attendee at these events for many years, and while he apparently won’t be attending this year there is no question that he is still on board with the MEK’s goal of regime change. 

Far too many people with close ties to the president have been and continue to be vocal shills for an awful organization that is widely loathed in Iran for siding with Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war. Pro-MEK boosterism in Washington has been a problem for years, but now that the group has the ear of some of the president’s confidants and advisers it makes it even worse. The fact that some of the president’s top advisers and allies back the MEK just confirms that this administration has nothing but contempt for the Iranian people and proves that its Iran policy is horribly misinformed.

Read more:

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/the-trump-administrations...

 

The US policy of supporting terrorism in other countries is not new. It's not even "misinformed". It is designed specifically to destroy the integrity of countries, when added to a raft of other policies, including sanctions and various diplomatic tricks that are in clear breach of the UN charter (but who cares about all this in the good top dog USA). The list of countries where terrorists have been supported by the US is long long long...

thrump did a favour to iran by cancelling "the deal"...

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran has profoundly changed his views:

- on August 13, 2018, he declared that the effect of the US sanctions on the country was attributable to internal and not external causes, that is to say to the economic management of the Rohani administration.

- On August 15, he admitted to having made a mistake by authorizing Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to negotiate the 5 + 1 nuclear deal (JCPoA) with the United States.

In March 2013, that is to say, in the last months of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency, the Supreme Leader had authorized the team of future president Rohani to conduct informal contacts in Oman with emissaries of President Obama, Jake Sullivan and William Burns. We then wrote:

"From these talks, at least two decisions emerged. First, that the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would ensure the exclusion of Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie - the former chief of intelligence of the Revolutionary Guards who became chief of staff and parent-in-law of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - from the Presidential race. In this way, Iran would tone itself down in international forums. Second, the United States would also look to tone down its anti-Iranian allies and unblock the 5 + 1 nuclear negotiations to end the sanctions. " [1]

We were then strongly criticized in Iran, accused of attributing to the Supreme Leader acts for which he was not responsible.

As we had anticipated, President Sheikh Hassan Rohani’s team did not attempt to defend Iranian interests in the negotiations, agreeing, for example, to close down all of its university nuclear physics programs, thus becoming an under-educated state again. We then revealed the payment of bribes by Austria, during the negotiations that followed quietly on the construction of a pipeline to Europe. The aftermath of these events has been the enrichment of part of the ruling class on the backs of the Iranian people.

The Supreme Leader, who was extremely ill, may not have measured the extent of the disaster when it occurred. He is now trying to put things right.

 

Read more:

http://www.voltairenet.org/article202509.html

Washington's "addiction to sanctions"...

Joining the landmark 2015 international nuclear deal may have been a mistake in the first place, the Iranian foreign minister has said. The deal is now agonizing because of what he called Washington's 'addiction to sanctions.'

Speaking to CNN, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said the US has a "disease" in that it's addicted to sanctions. Some of the American economic sanctions, suspended under the 2015 JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) agreement in exchange for Iran curbing its nuclear program, have kicked in now that US President Donald Trump has ripped up his side of the deal. But even before that, Zarif said, Washington's hands were itching to slap Tehran with economic penalties.

"Even during the Obama administration the United States put more emphasis on keeping the sanctions that it had not lifted rather than implementing its obligations on the sanctions that it lifted," Zarif toldCNN's Nick Patton Walsh.

He then mused that singing the agreement might have been a mistake on Iran's part in the first place, made in the earnest belief that the US had wised up about the effect sanctions have on Iran.

"That may have been one of the mistakes. But the problem was that we felt that the United States had learned that, at least as far as Iran is concerned, sanctions do produce economic hardship, but do not produce the political outcomes that they intended them to produce. I thought the Americans had learned that lesson. Unfortunately, I was wrong."

The Iranian foreign minister was speaking on the 65th anniversary of a US-orchestrated coup that overthrew Iran's democratically elected prime minister in favor of a Shah's monarchic rule. Just days before the anniversary, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the creation of the Iran Action Group to counter the Iranian government's "malign activity." The move was seen by many as a clear indication of intent to repeat the 1953 regime change.

"Never again," Zarif tweeted, attaching archive photos of the CIA-instigated street turmoil of the time.

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/436344-iran-nuclear-deal-mistake/

 

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