Russia, China FM attend high-level conference on Afghanistan

AssociatedPress

April 13, 2023

The top diplomats from Russia, China, Iran and Pakistan attended a conference Thursday that focused on ensuring regional security in light of the situation in Afghanistan.

From Forever to Eternal War

KarenJ. Greenberg

April 12, 2023

“It is time,” President Biden announced in April 2021, “to end the forever war” that started with the invasion of Afghanistan soon after the tragic terror attacks on this country on September 11, 2001. Indeed, that August, amid chaos and disaster, the president did finally pull the last remaining U.S. forces out of that country.

90 Seconds to Midnight: The Doomsday Clock and Me

Frida Berrigan

April 11, 2023

I’m not a TikTok person. I’m too old. But when I finally ventured onto that popular but much-maligned app, which traffics in short videos and hot takes, I was surprised to find many videos about the Doomsday Clock. It’s nothing like a conventional timepiece, of course. It’s meant to show how close humanity has come to nuclear Armageddon — to the proverbial “midnight.”

Vladimir Pozner: Why was Russia's EU & NATO bids rejected?

https://youtu.be/rfGJjrb3fZ8

Jan 26, 2023

148 views • Jan 26, 2023

Vladimir Vladimirovich Pozner is a French-born Russian-American journalist and presenter. He is best known in the West for his television appearances representing and explaining the views of the Soviet Union during the Cold War

The Hypocrisy of the Christian Church

Chris Hedges

April 6, 2023

This is a talk I gave on April 6 at a protest at Princeton Theological Seminary demanding the removal of hedge fund billionaire Michael Fisch as chair of the seminary's trustee board.

We are not here to debate the moral squalor that defines the life of the hedge fund billionaire and chair of the seminary’s trustee board, Michael Fisch.

Analysis: Will Azerbaijan-Iran tensions lead to war?

Maziar Motamedi

April 8, 2023

Tehran has warned it cannot ignore what it considers a security threat emanating from growing Azerbaijan-Israel ties.

Iran installs cameras in public to crack down on women refusing to wear headscarves

GeorgeStyllis

April 8, 2023

Cameras are being installed in Iran to catch and punish women walking in public without a headscarf, as the regime in Tehran cracks down on those defying strict dress codes.

How has the Saudi-Iran divide affected the Middle East?

Story by Al Jazeera Staff

April 7, 2023

Saudi Arabia and Iran have agreed to follow up on arrangements to reopen their diplomatic missions to Tehran and Riyadh respectively and to discuss resuming flights between them.

Azerbaijan expels four Iranian diplomats amid rising tensions

Al Jazeerah

April 6, 2023

Azerbaijan said it would expel four Iranian diplomats over “provocative actions” in the latest deterioration of relations between the neighbours.

The Poisonous Atmosphere That Pervades Iran

RoyaHakakian

April 6, 2023

In late November, a journalist named Ali Pour-Tabatabaie reported that 18 girls from an arts academy in the city of Qom, Iran, had fallen sick, apparently from the effects of poison. The story got little attention at the time, as the country was consumed with the protests that had begun after the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody. The 22-year-old woman had been arrested by the morality police on grounds of not wearing the hijab, or mandatory headscarf, properly. Two weeks after that first report of poisoning, 51 students were hospitalized in Qom. By the end of December, a dozen more cases of suspected mass poisoning of students, most of them female, were reported in states around the country. The timing of these incidents, occurring within weeks of the nationwide anti-regime protests led by women and girls, has raised suspicion for many Iranians that the attacks are a form of retribution for dissent.

Fascism Denial American Style: Exceptionalism in the Ivory Tower

AnthonyDiMaggio

April 5, 2023

It borders on cliché the number of times historians lament how “fascism” is an over-used term. But Sinclair Lewis, writing about the specter of fascism a century ago, understood something most historians don’t – that U.S. intellectual culture is loathe to acknowledge fascist undercurrents in this country. I attribute this hostility to intellectuals’ belief that their nation is an exceptionalist democracy – hence fascism “can’t happen here.”

As Tax Day Approaches: Is the Federal Budget Moral or Immoral?

H.Patricia Hynes

April 4, 2023

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment) – April, the month tax filings are due, prompts us to ponder what our income taxes pay for.  Are they used to provide all citizens sufficient resources and public goods for human security and well-being – the core of our national security?

Western News Media Downplay Ukraine War Crimes

Ted Galen Carpenter

April 4, 2023

In late March, the United Nations issued a new report on war crimes being committed by both Russian and Ukrainian forces. The document provides a shocking litany of brutal behavior on the part of both militaries, although the investigators concluded that Russian units have committed the majority of offenses. Given the extent of Western pressure and the UN’s own biases, it is hard to determine the accuracy of that conclusion. However, the evidence cited of Ukrainian abuses is far from trivial.

Iranian media claims naval forces warned US Navy aircraft against entering its airspace

BradfordBetz

April 2, 2023

Iranian media on Sunday reported that the country’s naval forces had warned off a U.S. Navy reconnaissance aircraft from entering Iran’s airspace over the Sea of Oman.

Iran arrests women for not wearing hijab after man threw yogurt on them

AdamSchrader

April 2, 2023

Authorities in Iran have arrested two women at a store in the city of Shandiz after a man was seen throwing yogurt at them Thursday, officials said.

Partnering With Neo-Nazis in Ukraine: An Inconvenient History

Ted Snider

March 31, 2022        

Volodymyr Zelensky defeated Petro Poroshenko in the 2019 election on a platform that included making peace with Russia and signing the Minsk Agreements. The Minsk Agreements would have granted a degree of autonomy to the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of the Donbas that had voted for independence from Ukraine after the 2014 US backed coup put a government in power that was handpicked by the US and that was pro-West and anti-Russian. It was intense pressure from the far right wing ultranationalists that bent Zelensky from a Minsk backer into the shape of a Minsk rejecter. Under that pressure from neo-Nazi parties that have large power that is disproportionate to their small support, Zelensky abandoned his campaign peace promise and refused to talk to the leaders of the Donbas and implement the Minsk Agreements.

Milley Says the US Should Attack Iran’s IRGC Quds Force

Dave DeCamp

March 30, 2023

Direct US attacks on the Quds Force could spark a full-blown war with Iran

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told Congress on Wednesday that the US should be targeting Iran’s Quds Force, a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), following a drone attack in Syria that killed a US contractor.

Iran denies it had plans to invade the Kurdistan region of Iraq

SETH J. FRANTZMAN

Pro-regime media in Iran published an article over the weekend saying that Iran’s Ambassador to Iraq has denied claims that Iran sought to invade northern Iraq.

U.N. court rules U.S. must compensate Iran over frozen assets but leaves $1.8B on ice

Darryl Coote

March 30, 2023

Both the United States and Iran are claiming victory after the U.N.'s World Court ordered Washington to pay compensation over freezing Iranian assets though it is allowing nearly $2 billion to remain out of reach of Tehran.

UN court rejects Iran’s claim to £1.6bn assets frozen by US authorities

MikeCorder

March 30, 2023

The United Nations’ top court has rejected Tehran’s legal bid to free up some 2.0 billion US dollars (£1.6 billion) in Iranian central bank assets frozen by US authorities.