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US mulls over whether it will help Saudi regime capture Yemen's port which is lifeline for 80% of people in need of aid


RT
Mon, 04 Jun 2018 09:01 UTC
Hodeidah
© Abduljabbar Zeyad / Reuters
Red Sea port of Hodeidah
The Saudi-led coalition is reportedly seeking direct US support to recapture the port city of Hodeidah in Yemen. The battle for the humanitarian lifeline would spell disaster for the locals, human rights agencies warn.

For nearly a week, the Saudi-led coalition forces have been preparing to launch a large-scale offensive on Hodeidah, the fourth-largest city in Yemen, with a population of 400,000 people, in an effort to recapture the city's port which currently serves as one of the remaining humanitarian lifelines in the war-stricken country. However, before cutting what they call the "vein that the Houthis are benefiting from," the coalition decided to seek US support, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday.

Comment: Judging by the actions of the US elsewhere, it's probably only a matter of time before they come to the aid of the sadistic Saudi regime:

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Clipboard

Head of IAEA confirms accesses to all needed nuclear sites in Iran


PressTV
Mon, 04 Jun 2018 18:07 UTC
Yukiya Amano IAEA
© iaea.org
IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano delivers his introductory statement to the Board of Governors' meeting in Vienna on June 4, 2018.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reaffirmed the agency's accesses to all the required nuclear sites in Iran, calling on Tehran to ensure "timely and proactive cooperation" with inspections under a 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers.

The IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano made the remarks in Vienna on Monday while speaking at the first meeting of the agency's Board of Governors since US President Donald Trump's move to withdraw from the landmark nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
"As stated in my latest report to the Board [of Governors], the agency has conducted complementary accesses under the Additional Protocol to all the sites and locations in Iran which we needed to visit," Amano said in his introductory statement to the Board of Governors.
"Timely and proactive cooperation by Iran in providing such access would facilitate implementation of the Additional Protocol and enhance confidence," he added.

In a speech to a quarterly meeting of the agency's Board of Governors in Vienna in March, Amano once again confirmed Iran's compliance with the 2015 nuclear agreement, warning that any collapse of the deal would be a "great loss."

Comment: See also:

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Light Sabers

Turkish FM meets with Pompeo over US support of Kurdish rebels


RT
Mon, 04 Jun 2018 16:51 UTC
Pompeo Cavusoglu Turkey US meeting
© Leah Millis / Reuters
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Washington, DC, on June 4, 2018.
Turkey's foreign minister met with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington, amid growing tensions between the two nations on issues ranging from the US embassy in Jerusalem to Ankara's purchase of Russian arms.

Cavusoglu described his meeting with Pompeo as "very successful," with Turkish media even reporting that Ankara believed progress had been made towards reaching an agreement over the disputed status of Syria's Kurdish militias.

Mevlut Cavusoglu arrived in Washington on Sunday for a two-day working visit - and there was plenty of work to be done. The foreign minister warned on Saturday that Turkey's relationship with the United States had reached a critical juncture.
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Chess

US about to slap disobedient European firms with sanctions over Nord Stream 2 project


RT
Mon, 04 Jun 2018 18:43 UTC
US President Donald Trump
© Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
The White House is on the verge of introducing penalties against companies engaged in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which will deliver Russian natural gas to the EU across the Baltic Sea.

The US government is planning to sanction European corporations that joined the pipeline project, which is led by Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom, three sources close to the issue told Foreign Policy news magazine. Apart from Gazprom, the project is being undertaken by German energy firms Wintershall and Uniper, French multinational Engie, British-Dutch oil and gas giant Royal Dutch Shell, and Austrian energy company OMV.

"They will stop at nothing to block Nord Stream," one of the sources told the media, referring to key figures in the current White House administration.

Comment: See also:

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Yoda

Putin signs law applying counter-sanctions to US and its vassal states


RT
Mon, 04 Jun 2018 16:25 UTC
Putin
© Mikhael Klimentyev / Sputnik
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law stipulating implementation of counter-sanctions against the US and its allies.

The legislation is to be applied to any state or person for "hostile actions" against Russia. It allows Russian authorities to cut international cooperation with foreign states, and to impose import and export restrictions among other countermeasures. Trade embargos will not extended to certain goods, however, that are imported by Russian citizens for personal use.

Contrary to public fears, the countersanctions do not apply to imported essential items, for which no replacements are produced in Russia or other countries.
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Snakes in Suits

'Pardon me?' Trump claims power to pardon himself, but insists he's done nothing wrong


RT
Mon, 04 Jun 2018 14:58 UTC
President Donald Trump
© Leah Millis / Reuters
President Donald Trump
Donald Trump has declared that, as the US President, he could pardon himself if Robert Mueller's 'Russiagate' investigation were to find him guilty of crimes. Talk of pardoning, however, is not playing well with Republicans.

"As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong? In the meantime, the never ending Witch Hunt, led by 13 very Angry and Conflicted Democrats (& others) continues into the mid-terms!" Trump tweeted on Monday.

Trump's tweet comes hot on the heels of the publication of a 20-page document sent to Special Counsel Mueller from Trump's legal team earlier this year. The document outlines the president's legal strategy and argues that Trump cannot be indicted, subpoenaed or found guilty of obstruction of justice because he is the nation's "chief law enforcement officer."The document also argues that Trump "could, if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon if he so desired."

As Mueller's investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016 fruitlessly drags on, Trump was not the only one to tout the President's power of pardon. His personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, said on ABC's 'The Week' on Sunday that Trump "probably does" have the power to pardon himself, as the constitution "doesn't say he can't."
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Network

Pepe Escobar: Why India is brushing aside US sanctions and sticking with Iran

Pepe Escobar
Asia times
Sun, 03 Jun 2018 15:16 UTC
Iran oil
Pay very close attention to what India's External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj, said after meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif earlier this week in New Delhi:

"Our foreign policy is not made under pressure from other countries ... We recognize UN sanctions and not country-specific sanctions. We didn't follow US sanctions on previous occasions either."

After fellow BRICS members China and Russia, India left no margin for doubt. And there's more; India will continue to buy oil from Iran - its third top supplier - and is willing to pay in rupees via state bank UCO, which is not exposed to the US. India bought 114% more oil from Iran during the financial year up to March 2018 than in the previous term.
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Cell Phone

A look at why Israel wants to ban filming of Israeli soldiers

C J Werleman
The New Arab
Wed, 30 May 2018 00:00 UTC
Palestinian w phone
© AFP
Palestinian uses mobile phone to record Israeli soldiers in Israeli-occupied West Bank village of Ain Shibil.
Israeli lawmakers have concocted a typically anti-democratic strategy to combat the rise of citizen journalists

Israel has carried out three military wars against the besieged Palestinian population in Gaza in the 13 years since it disengaged from the embattled enclave in 2005.

There was Operation Cast Lead in 2008-09, which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, including 926 civilians, while destroying more than 4,000 homes and displacing 50,800 residents. Then came Operation Pillar of Defense three years later, which killed 105 Palestinian civilians and injured more than 1,000.

In 2014, however, Israel launched the siege to end all sieges, Operation Protective Edge, a merciless form of collective punishment meant to break the will of Palestinian resistance forever and eternity.

Adopting an "open fire policy", which gave Israeli soldiers unprecedented freedom to fire upon civilians, the Israeli military killed 2,200 Palestinians, including more than 500 children, along the way to destroying at least 10,000 homes and displacing nearly a quarter of Gaza's 2 million people.

One element that made the 2014 siege of Gaza different to the two the preceded it, at least in the court of world opinion, was that it was the first to take place in the age of ubiquitous social media.

Comment: 'Israel' is a construct - a fabrication for the public - a con job. And as such, it doesn't happen to like others sussing out the truth of it in any way, shape or form.

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Star of David

Israel creates new, 'one of a kind' apartheid wall to choke Gaza with a triple-layered sea barrier

Elliot Gabriel
MintPress News
Thu, 31 May 2018 00:00 UTC
Wall walker
© Mahmoud Illean/AP
Student wrapped in Palestinian flag walks over Israel's apartheid wall between the West Bank and Israel in Abu Dis.
Unimpeded by an international community that remains largely silent over Israeli crimes, Tel Aviv has subjected the people of Gaza to numerous novel and experimental tools of repression and weapons delivery systems, including new unmanned systems and militarized methods of spatial control.

Whatever one's opinion may be about the ongoing Israeli dispossession of the people of Palestine and the crippling siege of the Gaza Strip, one can't fault Tel Aviv for lacking originality.

Such unique means of choking off the Palestinians' ability to live as normal human beings will be on full display with a new $833 million sea barrier being erected: it will include a submarine barrier, a stone wall, and a layer of barbed wire that will be surrounded by an additional fence.

Hardline Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman described the barrier as a "one of a kind in the world" measure that protects the occupation "with power and sophistication" and prevents the people of Gaza from entering Israeli-controlled territory by sea.

Comment: Any other occupying force that did what Israel has done - and continues to do in increasing intensity to the Palestinians - would have been toast by now.

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Arrow Up

Russia's the big winner in European gas war

Tim Daiss
Oilprice.com
Mon, 28 May 2018 02:00 UTC
Gazprom
© Oil and Gas People
There's been a lot of talk on both sides of the Atlantic about the U.S. pivot and efforts at locking in natural as market share in Europe. Much of this comes amid President Donald Trump's so-called American energy independence push as well as both U.S. and several EU members thrust to wean Europe off of geopolitically charged Russian gas.

In fact, Trump has pushed for U.S.-sourced LNG to become so much of the EU's energy security that several European states, particularly Germany, have accused the president of playing energy geopolitics, cloaking American concern for European energy security under the guise and to the benefit of U.S. LNG producers.

Now, however, Trump and U.S. LNG exporters will have an even harder time convincing key EU members to offset overreliance on Russian piped gas with U.S. LNG.

Comment: As the world grows colder, gas commodities, as well as any other means to mitigate temperature change, will be front and center for all countries in those zones - petty projects and ideas of monopoly aside. See also:

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