US Openly Threatens Russia with War: Goodbye Diplomacy, Hello Stone Age
By Peter KORZUN | Strategic Culture Foundation | 04.10.2018
US Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison is a highly placed diplomat. Her words, whatever they may be, are official, which includes the ultimatums and threats that have become the language increasingly used by US diplomats to implement the policy of forceful persuasion or coercive diplomacy. Bellicose declarations are being used this way as a tool.
On Oct. 2, the ambassador proved it again. According to her statement, Washington is ready to use force against Russia. Actually, she presented an ultimatum — Moscow must stop the development of a missile that the US believes to be in violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty). If not, the American military will destroy it before the weapon becomes operational. “At that point, we would be looking at the capability to take out a (Russian) missile that could hit any of our countries,” Hutchison stated at a news conference. “Counter measures (by the United States) would be to take out the missiles that are in development by Russia in violation of the treaty,” she added. “They are on notice.” This is nothing other than a direct warning of a preemptive strike.
It is true that compliance with the INF Treaty is a controversial issue. Moscow has many times claimed that Washington was in violation, and that position has been substantiated. For instance, the Aegis Ashore system, which has been installed in Romania and is to be deployed in Poland, uses the Mk-41 launcher that is capable of firing intermediate-range Tomahawk missiles. This is a flagrant breach of the INF Treaty. The fact is undeniable. The US accuses Moscow of possessing and testing a ground-launched cruise missile with a range capability of 500 km to 5,500 km (310-3,417 miles), but there has never been any proof to support this claim. Russia has consistently denied the charges. It says the missile in question — the 9M729 — is in compliance with the provisions of the treaty and has never been upgraded or tested for the prohibited range.
This is a reasonable assertion. After all, there is no way to prevent such tests from being detected and monitored by satellites. The US could raise the issue with the Special Verification Commission (SVC). Instead it threatens to start a war.
This is momentous, because the ambassador’s words were not a botched statement or an offhand comment, but in fact followed another “warning” made by a US official recently.
Speaking on Sept. 28 at an industry event in Pennsylvania hosted by the Consumer Energy Alliance, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke suggested that the US Navy could be used to impose a blockade to restrict Russia’s energy trade. “The United States has that ability, with our Navy, to make sure the sea lanes are open, and, if necessary, to blockade… to make sure that their energy does not go to market,” he said, revealing that this was an option. The Interior Department has nothing to do with foreign policy, but Mr. Zinke is a high-ranking member of the administration.
Two bellicose statements made one after another and both are just short of a declaration of war! A blockade is a hostile act that would be countered with force, and the US is well aware of this. It is also well aware that Russia will defend itself. It’s important to note that no comments or explanations have come from the White House. This confirms the fact that what the officials have said reflects the administration’s position.
This brings to mind the fact that the Interdiction and Modernization of Sanctions Act has passed the House of Representatives. The legislation includes the authority to inspect Chinese, Iranian, Syrian, and Russian ports. Among the latter are the ports of Nakhodka, Vanino, and Vladivostok. This is an openly hostile act and a blatant violation of international law. If the bill becomes law, it will likely start a war with the US acting as the aggressor.
Trident Juncture, the largest training event held by NATO since 2002, kicks off on October 25 and will last until November 7, 2018. It will take place in close proximity to Russia’s borders. Russia’s Vostok-2018 exercise in September was the biggest seen there since the Cold War, but it was held in the Far East, far from NATO’s area of responsibility. It’s NATO, not Russia, who is escalating the already tense situation in Europe by holding such a large-scale exercise adjacent to Russia’s borders.
Russia is not the only country to be threatened with war. Attempts are being made to intimidate China as well. Tensions are running high in the South China Sea, where US and Chinese ships had an “unsafe” interaction with each other on Sept. 30. A collision was barely avoided. As a result, US Defense Secretary James Mattis had to suspend his visit to China when it was called off by Beijing [*]. The security dialog between the two nations has stalled.
Perhaps the only thing left to do is to give up on having a normal relationship with the United States. Ambassador Hutchison’s statement is sending a clear message of: “forget about diplomacy, we’re back to the Stone Age,” with Washington leading the way. This is the new reality, so get used to it. Just shrug it off and try to live without the US, but be vigilant and ready to repel an attack that is very likely on the way.
It should be noted that Moscow has never threatened the US with military action. It has never deployed military forces in proximity to America’s shores. It did not start all those unending sanctions and trade wars. When exposing the US violations of international agreements, it has never claimed that the use of force was an option. It has tried hard to revive the dialog on arms control and to coordinate operations in Syria. But it has also had to issue warnings about consequences, in case it were provoked to respond to a hostile act. If the worst happens, we’ll all know who is to blame. Washington bears the responsibility for pushing the world to the brink of war.
* China says Washington canceled military talks, not Beijing
Press TV – October 4, 2018
China has rejected an allegation by the United States that Beijing has canceled security talks with Washington planned for this month, saying that US officials have “distorted the facts.”
An unnamed US official had told Reuters on Sunday that China had canceled the security meeting between American Secretary of Defense James Mattis and his Chinese counterpart, alleging that China had been unable to make its defense secretary available for the scheduled talks.
On Wednesday, Beijing effectively said that that assertion was a lie. … continue
UAE recruiting Africans for Saudi-led war: Report
Press TV – October 3, 2018
The United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia’s key partner in the ongoing Riyadh-led invasion of Yemen, has reportedly been recruiting tribesmen from northern and central parts of Africa to fight in the war.
The campaign features Emirati envoys “seducing” the tribesmen across a vast area spanning southern Libya as well as entire Chad and Niger, who earn a living by herding as well as human and material smuggling, the Middle East Monitor (MEMO) press monitoring organization reported on Wednesday.
“This campaign is supervised by Emirati officials who gained material profits in collaboration with human traffickers,” the report added.
An awareness campaign has been launched by Chadian activists, led by campaigner Mohamed Zain Ibrahim, to warn the tribesmen against joining the Saudi-led war.
“The Arabs of the [Persian] Gulf region, especially the UAE and Saudi Arabia, have never bothered to get to know the Arabs of the desert, and today they are asking for their support and seducing them to fight by their side in Yemen!” MEMO cited Ibrahim as telling pan-Arab Arabi21 electronic newspaper.
The envoys offer potential mercenaries such incentives as sums ranging from $900 to $3,000, in addition to acquiring UAE citizenship in return for their applying for jobs in Emirati security companies.
Ibrahim said the job opportunities were “an actual military recruitment campaign to gather mercenaries for the Yemeni war and use them to fight the people of Yemen, who are Arabs and Muslims as well, and all that for a bunch of dollars.”
“A delegation of Emirati people in business visited Niger in January 2018, where they met Arab tribal leaders and recruited 10,000 tribesmen living between Libya, Chad, and Niger,” MEMO said.
The Emirates has been contributing heavily to the 2015-present war, which seeks to reinstall Yemen’s former Saudi-allied officials.
In addition to their own forces, both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have deployed thousands of militants across the violence-scarred country to intensify the invasion.
The Emirati side began beefing up its contribution in June, when the coalition launched a much-criticized offensive against al-Hudaydah, Yemen’s key port city, which receives the bulk of its imports.
Elderly man killed by Israeli gunfire east of Gaza
Palestine Information Center | October 2, 2018
AL-MAGHAZI – An elderly Palestinian man was killed on Tuesday evening by Israeli tank fire east of al-Maghazi refugee camp in the middle area of the Gaza Strip.
The PIC reporter said that Ibrahim al-Arrouqi, 78, was hit with a 250-mm bullet fired by an Israeli tank stationed on the Israeli side of the border fence east of Gaza.
He added that al-Arrouqi was shot while sitting in front of his house which is relatively far from the border fence.
As Saudis Defend Against War Crimes Allegations, Saudi Airstrike in Yemen Kills Entire Family
Locals walks among the rubble of Hussein al-Hajouri`s brick and mud home which was destroyed by a Saudi airstrike on October 3, 2018. Photo | Ahmed AbdulKareem
By Ahmed Abdulkareem | MintPress News | October 2, 2018
HAJJAH, YEMEN – Saudi Arabia, backed by the United States, carried out an airstrike targeting a displaced family in the Mustaba district in the province of Hajjah, southwestern Yemen early Tuesday morning. A man, his wife, and their nine-year old only-daughter were killed in the strike, along with 10 others.
A 30-year-old witness told MintPress News :
Two airstrikes targeted Hussein al-Hajouri`s house at 2 a.m., killing Hussein and his wife and daughter. We found some parts of their bodies 100 meters from the house that was bombed; some of it is still under the rubble.”
Rescue efforts were complicated by fear of additional strikes, as Saudi warplanes continued to circle the area after the initial strikes. Saudi Arabia has been known to use double-tap strikes in Yemen, carrying out an initial airstrike and then circling back to target rescuers.
The latest attack comes just hours after Saudi Arabia admitted that its forces have committed what it called “certain mistakes” in Yemen, after increasing pressure from international bodies and human-rights groups that accuse the kingdom of carrying out war crimes in the country.
Saudi Defense Ministry spokesman Osaiker Alotaibi told a panel of 18 independent experts on Monday that a coalition investigation had uncovered “the existence of certain unintentional mistakes in a number of these operations,” adding that “the task force recommended that perpetrators should be held to account and victims should enjoy redress.”
In her response to the Saudi Defense Ministry, the panel’s chairwoman, Renate Winter, wondered why schools and hospitals had been targeted repeatedly:
You say it’s an accident. How many such accidents can you bear and how many such accidents can people in Yemen bear?”
Last month, investigators launched an international inquiry into war crimes in Yemen and found evidence of such crimes committed in the country. Their August 28 report said Saudi airstrikes had caused most of the documented civilian casualties.
Since the war began in 2015, the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition has repeatedly targeted displaced civilians. In the most recent such attack before today, airstrikes targeted displaced families near the port city of Hodeida on August 24, killing or wounding 31 people, 24 of whom were children. Many of the victims of the strike belonged to a single family.
More recently, at least two Yemeni civilians were killed and three others wounded when Saudi warplanes struck a vehicle in the city of Abs in Hajjah, on Tuesday.
This week, one person was killed and a number of others sustained injuries after Saudi fighter jets conducted an airstrike on Munirah city in Hodeida, western Yemen. Saudi jets also conducted an airstrike on the residential area of Ghaferah in the Dhahir district in the northern province of Saada, killing a child and wounding several others.
Over 600,000 civilians have been killed or injured in Yemen since the Saudi-led coalition began its attacks in 2015, according to Yemen’s Ministry of Human Rights based in Sana’a. The U.S.-backed coalition’s blockade on Yemen has also triggered an epidemic of disease and famine across the country.
Ahmed AbdulKareem is a Yemeni journalist. He covers the war in Yemen for MintPress News as well as local Yemeni media.
‘We’d take out Russia’s nukes,’ US NATO envoy says, claiming ‘banned’ missiles are being developed
RT | October 2, 2018
The US would look into ways of “taking out” new Russian missiles if they become operational, the US envoy to NATO said, accusing Moscow of developing a weapon that “violates” the Soviet-US nuclear arms treaty.
US Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison didn’t miss an opportunity to fire a warning shot in the direction of Russia when accusing it of building new nuclear missiles that would allegedly be pointed at Europe. Should such missiles be completed, she said at the Tuesday briefing, “at that point, we would be looking at the capability to take out a [Russian] missile that could hit any of our countries.”
Hutchison then doubled down on the threat, saying: “Counter measures [by the United States] would be to take out the missiles that are in development by Russia in violation of the treaty.” She added: “They are on notice.”
Hutchison was referring to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), which bans the use of all nuclear and conventional missiles, as well as their launchers, that have ranges of between 500km and 5,500km. The US has claimed that Moscow is not complying with the INF treaty, an accusation that Russia has repeatedly rejected.
“We have been trying to send a message to Russia for several years that we know they are violating the treaty, we have shown Russia the evidence that we have that they are violating the treaty,” Hutchison maintained.
The Russian Foreign Ministry blasted the statements made by the US envoy as “aggressive and destructive,” adding that they will get a detailed response from Russian military experts. NATO doesn’t understand the degree of its responsibility and the danger posed by such aggressive rhetoric, the ministry said.
Hutchison’s comment came several weeks after President Donald Trump signed the US National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2019. The document contains, among other things, allegations that Moscow violated the INF Treaty.
Moscow, in turn, accuses the US and “some of its allies” of knowingly violating the INF by deploying Mk-41 launching systems close to Russian borders. These can be easily repurposed for firing banned ground-based cruise missiles, it says, while Washington denies the accusations.
Under the 2019 NDAA, US legislators allocated $58 million to counter Russia’s alleged non-compliance with the INF Treaty. The measures to counter the alleged activities include a “research and development program on a ground-launched intermediate-range missile,” which, somehow, should not itself violate the treaty.
Russian lawmakers have also promised countermeasures. “If the missile announced by Congress indeed makes it into the American arsenal, we will have to develop and adopt the same thing. Russia has the military and technical capacities for that,” Viktor Bondarev, the head of the defense committee of Russia’s Federal Council, has said.
Bolivia: Morales Seeks New Relationship With Chile After Ruling
teleSUR | September 29, 2018
Bolivia’s President Evo Morales hopes to start a “new era” in his nation’s relationship with Chile once the International Court of Justice rules on Bolivia’s demand for sea access on Monday.
The new age will take “advantage of our potentialities, promoting integration for the well being of our peoples,” Morales said. “It’s necessary to cure injuries from the past.”
After a years-long process, the court will decide whether the Chilean government must negotiate a sea exit for Bolivia. La Paz issued the demand in April 2013.
Morales said he values peaceful solutions for international disputes, based on international law.
“Bolivia will never give up in its cause, that’s why the Bolivian people will gather on October 1 without divisions, without difference around our three-color flag, our wiphala and our sea claim flag,” he said. “Our reunion with the sea is not only possible, but inevitable.”
He also asked the people of Chile to understand the demand shouldn’t be considered an “unfriendly act,” but rather an opportunity.
Bolivia demanded the court declare Chile must negotiate an exit for the Pacific Ocean, based on diplomatic evidence it has previously agreed to do so.
Chile is denying any negotiation based on a 1904 treaty between both countries, giving up 120,000 square kilometers of territory, including 400 shore kilometers, to Chile.
The treaty was a result of the War of the Pacific, in which Bolivia and Peru fought against Chile between 1879 and 1883.
The UN’s International Court of Justice is legally binding but it has no means to enforce its rulings over the states.
US could use Navy for ‘blockade’ to hamper Russian energy exports – Interior Secretary
RT | September 30, 2018
The US could use its Navy to prevent Russia’s potential energy supplies to the Middle East, Internal Secretary Ryan Zinke said, Washington Examiner reports.
The blockade would actually mean an “act of war,” a Russian Senator fired back.
Zinke alleged that Russia’s engagement in Syria – notably, where it is operating at the invitation of the legitimate government – is a pretext to explore new energy markets.
“I believe the reason they are in the Middle East is they want to broker energy just like they do in eastern Europe, the southern belly of Europe,” he has reportedly said.
And, according to to the official, there are ways and means to tackle it. “The United States has that ability, with our Navy, to make sure the sea lanes are open, and, if necessary, to blockade … to make sure that their energy does not go to market,” he said.
Zinke was addressing the attendees of the event hosted by the Consumer Energy Alliance, a non-profit group which styles itself as the “voice of the energy consumer” in the US.
He went on to compare Washington’s approaches to dealing with Russia and Iran, noting that they are effectively the same.
“The economic option on Iran and Russia is, more or less, leveraging and replacing fuels,” he said, while referring to Russia as a “one trick pony” with an economy dependent on fossil fuels.
Zinke’s statements provoked an angry response from Moscow, which equated a potential maritime blockade to an “act of war,” while calling the interior secretary’s assumptions “nonsense.”
“A US blockade of Russia would be equal to a declaration of war under international law,” Russian Senator Aleksey Pushkov said, commenting on Zinke’s words. Russia does not currently export any energy to the Middle East, which itself is a major oil exporting region. The whole idea is an “absolute nonsense,” the Senator argued.
The comment from the US Interior Secretary come as the Trump administration has been on a mission to boost the export of its liquefied natural gas to Europe, replacing Russia, the far cheaper option for European consumers. To that effect, the Trump administration officials, including US President Donald Trump himself, try to persuade Germany to pull out of the “inappropriate” Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, which according to Trump, made Berlin Moscow’s “captive.”
Moscow has repeatedly stressed that the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is set to double the existing pipeline capacity to 110 billion cubic meters, is a purely economic project. The Kremlin argues that Washington’s fervent opposition to the project is simply driven by economic reasons and is an example of unfair competition.
“I believe we share the view that energy cannot be a tool to exercise pressure and that consumers should be able to choose the suppliers,” Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak said following a meeting with US Energy Secretary Rick Perry in Moscow in September.
The US stance has drawn a backlash from Germany, which has reaffirmed its commitment to the project.
Germany’s leading organization for industry, the Federation of German Industries (BDI), has called on the US to stay away from EU energy policy and the bilateral agreements between Berlin and Moscow.
“I have a big problem when a third state interferes in our energy supply,” Dieter Kempf, head of the Federation of German Industries (BDI) said following a recent meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Syrian FM Accuses Israel of Supporting Terrorists in Country’s South
Sputnik – 30.09.2018
UNITED NATIONS – Israel supported terrorist groups in southern Syria through “direct military intervention” and repeated attacks against the Arab republic, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Saturday.
“Israel even supported terrorist groups that operated in southern Syria protecting them through direct military intervention and launching repeated attacks on Syrian territories,” Muallem said, addressing the 73rd UN General Assembly.
During his speech, he also reiterated Damascus’ determination to fully liberate the Israel-occupied Golan Heights up to the line of June 4, 1967, “just as we liberated southern Syria from terrorists.”
Muallem called on the international community to compel Israel to abide by UN Security Council resolutions, including the one on the Golan Heights.
The diplomat also urged the international community to “help the Palestinian people establish their own independent state with Jerusalem as its capital and facilitate the return of Palestinian refugees to their land.”
He also characterized as null and void Israel’s “racist” nation state law and the US decision to relocate its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Israel took control of the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War of 1967, while the Israeli parliament later announced that the territory belonged to Israel. However, the United Nations urged Israel to leave the land. Some of the territory was later returned to Syria.
Moscow Warns Tel Aviv against Potential Strikes On Lebanon
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
Al-Manar | September 29, 2018
Russia warns the Zionist entity against any potential strikes on Lebanon, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday, stressing that this would be a gross violation of international law.
“This would certainly be a gross violation of international law and we would be very much against such any action,” Lavrov said.
“We warn against any violation of the [UN] Security Council resolutions, and attack and actually even the use of Lebanese air space is a violation of the resolutions of the UN Security Council,” the diplomat stressed.
UN: one child dies every 10 minutes in Yemen
A malnourished baby receives medical treatment at al Sabeen Maternal Hospital in Sanaa, Yemen [Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu Agency]
MEMO | September 26, 2018
At least one child dies every ten minutes as a result of the conflict in Yemen, a senior UN official said.
The United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, Lise Grande, warned at the end of a high-level meeting held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that ten million more Yemenis will face pre-famine conditions by the end of this year if the status quo does not change.
She explained that three quarters of Yemen’s population need some form of protection and assistance.
For his part, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, said the humanitarian situation in Yemen has reached extremely dangerous levels. “I will ask you for resources to cover our humanitarian operations, so that the suffering of the Yemeni people will not continue,” he said.
The United Nations has launched an appeal to donor countries and institutions to increase financial support to cover what it has termed the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
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The Crusades – colliding narratives
Ashes of Pompeii | June 13, 2026
They say history is written by the victors, but the Crusades offer an interesting historical contrast: a two-century collision that produced not one history, but two parallel, irreconcilable realities. The dates and the battles are identical in both accounts, but the moral axis is entirely flipped.
In the traditional Western narrative, the Crusades are framed as a heroic, if tragic, epic. The First Crusade is a pious pilgrimage; the knights are romanticized figures of chivalry in shining armor, bravely holding the line in a hostile, exotic land. The eventual loss of the Holy Land is mourned as the “fall of Outremer,” a tragic retreat of European civilization. In this telling, the East is often reduced to a passive backdrop, its inhabitants viewed through a lens of mystique or backwardness, mere obstacles to a divine mandate.
But cross the Mediterranean, and the exact same timeline reads like a chronicle of foreign invasion and eventual, hard-won restoration against the barbarous northerners. The dates do not change, but the adjectives do. Here is the history as it is remembered in the Levant… continue
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