Hassan Nasrallah
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As the US-led proxy war in Syria reaches a relative stalemate and with time on Damascus and its allies' side, Washington's wider agenda of using the conflict as a stepping stone toward regime change in Iran is leading into a much larger conflict.
Geopolitical expert F. William Engdahl has pointed out the means through which Western oil corporations have orchestrated global schemes to raise oil prices to make American shale oil production profitable. At the same time, the US has for years now used sanctions against Iran, political subversion in Venezuela, war in Libya, and proxy war in Ukraine to prevent Tehran, Caracas, Libya's opposition, and Moscow from benefiting long-term from higher oil prices.
For Iran, undermining its oil revenues and reintroducing sanctions and secondary sanctions on nations that refuse to recognize America's withdrawal from the so-called Iran Nuclear Deal, is done in tandem with direct, covert subversion inside Iran itself.
Together, these efforts seek to cripple Iran as a functional nation state, as well as reduce its influence through the Middle Eastern and Central Asian regions.
The plan, dubbed Operation Reciprocity, stipulated the use of US courts to prosecute Taliban commanders and their allied traffickers in Afghanistan, according to an investigation by the Politico portal released on Sunday. The group and allies account for more than 90% of the world's heroin.
The plan, proposed by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and legal advisers to the Justice Department was aimed at stopping the spread of drugs around the world and cutting off that source of funding for the Taliban.
© Jose Luis Gonzalez / ReutersA girl takes part in a protest against Donald Trump's immigration policy on June 30, 2018.
"Well, I have a solution. Tell people not to come to our country illegally. That's the solution. Don't come to our country illegally. Come like other people do. Come legally," he told reporters on the White House lawn on Tuesday.
"I'm saying this very simply: We have laws. We have borders. Don't come to our country illegally. It's not a good thing."
His comments come as lawmakers and citizens across the US are divided on how to handle those entering the country from Mexico, and after global outrage was sparked following the administration's separation of children from their parents. That policy was later reversed by Trump, who stated that his wife Melania played a role in convincing him to change course.
However, thousands of children still remain separated from their parents. And despite a court-ordered deadline which stated that 102 of those children should be reunited with their families by 10pm EST on Tuesday, the administration admitted on Monday that it would only be able to reunite just over half of them by then.
© Ezequiel Becerra / AFP
According to the New York Times, the pressure was piled on this spring in Geneva, as states gathered for the World Health Organization's World Health Assembly. Ecuador had planned to introduce a resolution which encouraged breastfeeding - but they suddenly backed out, because the US reportedly said it would impose damaging trade restrictions and cut military aid if it went through with the measure.
"The resolution had already gone through quite a few meetings and discussions with member states before the World Health Assembly started and a consensus statement was reached and everybody was happy with it," Baby Milk Action policy director Patti Rundall, who was present at the meeting in Geneva in May, told RT.
But suddenly Ecuador, which had been organizing the resolution and relevant meetings, wasn't prepared to go through with it, a move which "shocked everybody," according to Rundall. She also noted that it wasn't just Ecuador that got cold feet.
© ERR News"What's he talking about?" "The heck if I know!"
This week, the American president joins European allies at the NATO summit in Brussels, and the gathering is expected to be a bruising one. The Europeans are fearing a drubbing from Trump over financial commitments.
Last month at the Group of Seven summit in Canada, the brash US president gave his counterparts a tongue-lashing, telling them that the NATO military alliance was obsolete due to their lack of financial support.
Comment: He keeps tacking on 'because of their lack of financial support', but Trump's real thinking on it is that NATO is simply obsolete!
Holding back no punches, Trump followed up with a letter to European leaders warning if they don't shell out more on NATO then he would consider withdrawing US troops from Europe.
Comment: I.e., that's actually his goal.
Well, don't you know, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron have reportedly jumped to it, to sign off on massive increases in their countries' military budgets, in line with Trump's demands, just ahead of his arrival in Brussels this week. Other European states are also cranking up the military budgets out of fear of an ear-bashing from the man in the White House.
Comment: They stressed and fretted, planned for war...and no one came. There was no enemy. Is there hope?
© Julie Jacobson/AP/KJN
Speculation is mounting that former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is seeking to make a "comeback" and challenge Donald Trump a second time in the next U.S. presidential election of 2020. Rumors of another Clinton campaign in the works comes amid the former candidate's recent uptick in public appearances and fund-raising appeals.
Clinton's recent return to the public arena coincided with her efforts to challenge Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy, particularly the scandal caused by separations of migrant families at the U.S. border. Even though Clinton has long advocated for building a border fence and similar "zero tolerance" immigration measures comparable to those of Trump, she used the outrage to launch her return to the public eye, raising more than $1.5 million for separated families.
Comment: They'll be lucky if they get it. Donation corruption is one of Killary's personal assets.
Comment: Just say 'No', 'No' and more 'No'!
© Wall Street Journal
The Senate Intelligence Committee report, based on the findings of the FBI, CIA and NSA back in January 2017, can be summed up as follows:
Putin ordered an "influence campaign" to "undermine public faith" in US democracy, and harm Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton's "electability and potential presidency" because the Russian Government had a "clear preference" for Donald J. Trump.In other words, we Americans are simply too dumb and ignorant to make political decisions on our own. And if somehow we find a particular candidate, like Hillary Clinton, for example, unappealing as presidential material, well, it must have been due to some Kremlin-bankrolled invasion of the mind snatchers cunningly placed in adverts over Facebook and Twitter.
© Andrew Parsons/Global Look PressLeft to Right: Michael Gove • Dominic Raab • David Davis
The prime minister wasted no time in replacing the outgoing secretary of state for exiting the European Union, but who exactly is Dominic Raab? RT takes a look at the new Brexit secretary's background - and various controversies he's been embroiled in.
Background
Raab, 44, grew up in leafy Buckinghamshire, attending his local grammar school, Dr Challoners in Amersham. He then embarked on a career in law with City firm Linklaters, which is currently ranked the 10th largest law company in the world, with revenue exceeding £1.3 billion (US$1.7 billion).
In 2000, he went on to work for the foreign and commonwealth office as a diplomat, before transferring to work as chief of staff for two shadow Tory ministers in 2006 for three years, most notably for David Davis. In 2010, he became Conservative MP for Esher and Walton in Surrey.
After stints as justice minister under David Cameron and housing minister under the Tory leadership of Theresa May, Raab now has the somewhat unenviable job of picking up the UK Brexit negotiating baton from Davis, with a little under eight months till Britain is scheduled to officially leave the EU - with a 'no deal' becoming an ever more realistic prospect.
Comment: May's team is plummeting to 'second-stringers', former slap-downs and a secret supply of Novichok.
© Eric Lafforgue/Art in All of Us/Contributor/Getty Images
Iranian officials told the German Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) the money is needed "to pass on to Iranian citizens who require cash while traveling abroad, given their inability to access recognised credit cards," Bild reports.
BaFin has been reviewing the request, the media says. Senior officials in the Chancellery, Foreign Ministry and Finance Ministry have been made aware of the situation.
Tehran has accounts at the Europaeisch-Iranische Handelsbank AG (eihbank). The lender was subject to sanctions from 2010-2016, for allegedly financing the Iranian nuclear program.
US and Israeli intelligence agencies have said the money could be used by Iran to fund armed groups in the Middle East, according to the media.
"We are deeply concerned by reports that the Iranian regime is attempting to move hundreds of millions of euros in cash from a German bank to Iran. We are encouraging the German government at the highest levels to intervene to stop this," US ambassador to Germany told Bild.German officials say they have no knowledge about such plans, the newspaper wrote.
Comment: Iran's economy is feeling the pinch with US sanction strategy on the increase. A return is Germany's call to make - just as it was Obama's when the US also housed, profited from, and ultimately returned deposited Iranian funds. The funds belong to Iran.
Comment: Indeed. See: