Ed.’s note: Escalation against Iran is moving quickly as the US is waging total economic war on Iran. As full sanctions set in against Iran, Americans can expect to pay around $6 a gallon for gasoline in the coming weeks. Reports are the US bombed Iranian military assets in Syria? The reports cannot be conformed or denied while the Jerusalem Post is claiming the US attacks are a rumor.
The U.S. Secretary of State, “we lie, we cheat, we steal” (vid) Mike Pompeo, set out 12 demands to Iran which sum up to demanding a total capitulation. Iran will of course not fulfill any of them. It is the U.S. which, without reason, again raised hostility against the country. Given its geography and capabilities Iran has no reason to fear any U.S. aggression.
The US is trying to force Iranian oil exports to zero to possibly force Iran’s hand to pressure Iran into “taking the first shot.” That first shot might mean curtailing shipping through the Straight of Hormuz until some type of a US-originated false flag is staged to start a shooting war. Not only pressure from the US, but from Israel as well as escalation continues. To further increase tensions in the region to start a shooting war on any pretext, once again it is being reported the White Helmets are preparing new provocations with toxic substances in Syria. This according to Russian Deputy Ambassador to the UN Vladimir Safronkov said at the UN Security Council meeting on April 24th.
As the most pro-Israel president in US history, President Trump announced Iran’s military as “terrorist organization” giving the US the “right” to attack terrorists. Iran than designated the US military as a “terrorist” group saying that Trump’s decision to name Iran’s military a “terrorist organization” was an “election gift to Benjamin Netenyahu. This comes as news appeared the aircraft carriers USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS John C. Stennis moved into the Mediterranean. Currently, there are more than 10 ships, 130 aircraft, and 9,000 Marines and sailors deployed to the region coming after Trump announced sanctions against Iranian oil. We’ve highlighted a few articles from dependable alternative news websites for readers suggesting war with Iran is coming.
Neocons Keep Pushing Iran… What if Iran Blocked the Straight of Hormuz?
U.S. Moves to Stop All Nations From Buying Iranian Oil, but China Is Defiant
Zarif warns US of “consequences” for stopping Iran’s oil sales
Henkin family files $360m. lawsuit against Iran, Syria for parents’ murder
________
Source: Consortium News
PEPE ESCOBAR: War on Iran & Calling America’s Bluff
by Pepe Escobar • April 24, 2019 • 67 Comments
Vast swathes of the West seem not to realize that if the Strait of Hormuz is shut down a global depression will follow, writes Pepe Escobar.
The Trump administration once again has graphically demonstrated that in the young, turbulent 21st century, “international law” and “national sovereignty” already belong to the Realm of the Walking Dead.
As if a deluge of sanctions against a great deal of the planet was not enough, the latest “offer you can’t refuse” conveyed by a gangster posing as diplomat, Consul Minimus Mike Pompeo, now essentially orders the whole planet to submit to the one and only arbiter of world trade: Washington.
First the Trump administration unilaterally smashed a multinational, UN-endorsed agreement, the JCPOA, or Iran nuclear deal. Now the waivers that magnanimously allowed eight nations to import oil from Iran without incurring imperial wrath in the form of sanctions will expire on May 2 and won’t be renewed.
President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran deal upheld his highest obligation: to protect the safety and security of the American people.
Why Iran sanctions are necessary: https://t.co/YQtmSA9hZX pic.twitter.com/n5r8mhZTl5
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 6, 2018
The eight nations are a mix of Eurasian powers: China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Italy and Greece.
Apart from the trademark toxic cocktail of hubris, illegality, arrogance/ignorance and geopolitical/geo–economic infantilism inbuilt in this foreign policy decision, the notion that Washington can decide who’s allowed to be an energy provider to emerging superpower China does not even qualify as laughable. Much more alarming is the fact that imposing a total embargo of Iranian oil exports is no less than an act of war.
Ultimate Neocon Wet Dream
Those subscribing to the ultimate U.S, neocon and Zionist wet dream – regime change in Iran – may rejoice at this declaration of war. But as Professor Mohammad Marandi of the University of Tehran has elegantly argued, “If the Trump regime miscalculates, the house can easily come crashing down on its head.”
Reflecting the fact Tehran seems to have no illusions regarding the utter folly ahead, the Iranian leadership — if provoked to a point of no return, Marandi additionally told me — can get as far as “destroying everything on the other side of the Persian Gulf and chasing the U.S. out of Iraq and Afghanistan. When the U.S. escalates, Iran escalates. Now it depends on the U.S. how far things go.”
This red alert from a sensible academic perfectly dovetails with what’s happening with the structure of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — recently branded a “terrorist organization” by the United States. In perfect symmetry, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council also branded the U.S. Central Command — CENTCOM — and “all the forces connected to it” as a terrorist group.
The new IRGC commander-in-chief is Brigadier General Hossein Salami, 58. Since 2009 he was the deputy of previous commander Mohamamd al-Jafari, a soft spoken but tough as nails gentleman I met in Tehran two years ago. Salami, as well as Jafari, is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war; that is, he has actual combat experience. And Tehran sources assure me that he can be even tougher than Jafari.
Please go to Consortium News to read the entire article.
________
Source: http://82.221.129.208/.wn2.html
April 24-25, 2019
An “anonymous white house source” has stated the U.S. will destroy Iran this fall
The story goes that 100 tactical nukes will be used to wipe out Iran’s military and then the U.S. will steamroll Iran after a false flag attack in the strait of Hormuz “justifies it all”.
Ok, the report is actually quite detailed and you may have seen it, or may see it. Here’s my take:
Any time a report like this makes it out, the target is so well forewarned that the attack gets called off. If the anonymous white house source actually came forward with a real plan (I think this is legit and do believe it happened) whatever was exposed won’t happen. Here’s why:
Because the tsunami bomb is a reality. And word on the street is that Russia just deployed it. If they set such a bomb off on the east coast the only thing that would save the heartland would be the Appalachian mountain range. Russia did not miss this story about an American attack on Iran in the fall No way they did. So the sympathy and justification that can be taken away from any false flag is gone already.
FACT: THE FALL OF COMMUNIST STALINIST RUSSIA WAS BULLSHIT, AND THEIR PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF WIPING OUT AMERICA STILL EXISTS. Russia won’t help Iran, but if they could use America attacking Iran with 100 nukes after a known and talked about false flag as a precedent for using that tsunami bomb, they probably will. Enter a million or so tribal cowards in New York to the equation, and war with Iran this fall is OFF THE TABLE.
Kudos to the whistleblower!
________
________
Source: The Saker
Resistance report: Trump decides not to reissue waivers while Syrian fuel crisis reaches critical stage
April 25, 2019 | by Aram Mirzaei for the Saker Blog
It has become clear by now that Washington is seeking yet another war in the region. The Zionist servants in Washington have made great efforts this year to “put pressure” on the Resistance axis. They have for months raised the stakes with their aggressive rhetoric about the “outlaw, terrorist supporting Iranian regime”.
The “maximum pressure” campaign escalated in 2019. Washington declared IRGC a terrorist organization, putting it alongside the Islamic State and Boko Haram. This designation provides Washington with a legal basis for attacking the IRGC, according to the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, a legislation originally written to provide an excuse for the invasion of Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11.
Continuing on their path from last year, with the US withdrawal from the JCPOA (Nuclear deal), “maximum pressure” campaign by the White House, Treasury Department, and State Department accelerated this week with the announcement that the United States would force China, India, Japan, South Korea, and Turkey to cease all imports of Iranian oil or face severe U.S. sanctions. The said goal is to cut to zero all of Iran’s oil exports. According to arguably the biggest and most despicable idiot in Washington, Mike Pompeo, this is aimed at forcing Iran to “behave like a normal country”. A normal country? What exactly is a “normal country?” Is that a country that has capitulated and accepted humiliation? A country that has given up on its independence and does everything and anything Washington orders them to do? Are Saudi Arabia and Israel “normal countries?” They know as well as we do that this maximum pressure campaign won’t lead to the Islamic Republic’s capitulation, but it could very well lead to war.
To support their claims, Idiot Pompeo and his friends in Washington are selling the idea that Tehran is in league with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, because they really can’t come up with other examples of HOW Iran actually supports terrorism, which it in fact isn’t. In a speech at the Heritage Foundation, Idiot Pompeo said: “Today we ask the Iranian people: Is this what you want your country to be known for, for being a co-conspirator with Hezbollah, Hamas, the Taliban, and al-Qaeda?”
It really doesn’t matter for the large and vastly ignorant population of the US that Iran is actually a Shia nation with a longstanding hostility towards Terrorist takfiri outfits such as ISIS, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Nor do they remember that Trump, the White House fool himself correctly claimed during his presidential campaign that Obama created ISIS in Syria.
Washington and its Zionist masters in Tel Aviv aim to provoke Tehran into a first strike so that they have not only legal basis for an attack on Iran but also the legitimacy to engage Iranian targets.
Tehran has threatened to block the strait of Hormuz if Iran is not allowed to use it, and Washington has vowed to respond in such a case. You can see where this is going.
Please go to The Saker to read the entire article.
________
Source: Asia Times
Syria leases Mediterranean port to Iran
Decision to lease parts of Latakia to Iran puts Iranian personnel close to Russian installations
By Sami Moubayed, Damascus | April 5, 2019
When Russia was invited to set up a fortified base in Hmeimim, in Syria’s coastal province of Latakia, and another in the port city of Tartus, it was under the assumption it would have the sole foreign military presence along Syria’s Mediterranean coast.
The Hmeimim tenure was open-ended, while the use of Tartus naval facility was granted until 2065 and renewable by mutual consent. However, from next October the Russians will no longer have the neighborhood to themselves – as Iran has leased parts of the port of Latakia.
Iran’s arrival on the scene raises serious political and security concerns for Moscow.
The lease of Latakia will not only end Russia’s exclusive presence in the coastal district, it may also put Russian troops and military vehicles at risk.
Hmeimim was subjected to a series of drone attacks between January and October of 2018 and having the Iranians so close would create a higher risk of similar operations in the area, whether by Israel, the United States, or other players on the Syrian battlefield seeking to settle old scores with the Iranians.
A permanent Iranian presence in Latakia could limit and possibly obstruct Russian surveillance and intelligence gathering, jam their radio-electronic technology, and jeopardize Russian air-defenses, aircraft, and the lives of military personnel.
Iranian request
The Syrian move comes in response to an official Iranian request, presented to Damascus last February. Realizing that they were unable to establish a permanent military presence like that of the Russians, or to illegally grab territory like the Turks, the Iranians settled for long-term economic influence in Syria in order to maintain a foothold in a crucial part of the region.
Please go to Asia Times to read the entire article.
“Mike Pompeo, set out 12 demands to Iran which sum up to demanding a total capitulation.”
JUST WHO THE F%&K DOES THIS POS BUTTWIPE THINK HE IS… ISSUING ‘DEMANDS’ TO A SOVEREIGN COUNTRY?????
The same F%&K that wants every American to sign a loyalty oath to a certain other foreign country…you know the one I mean.