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Latakia’s burning coast: Sectarian purge masked as ‘wildfire’ under Syria’s new government

Syria’s new rulers exploit wildfire and war to reshape the coastal region

By Abdullah Suleiman Ali | The Cradle | July 12, 2025

Less than four months into its rule, Syria’s interim government is under mounting pressure, as each crisis—natural or security-related—casts doubt on its ability to govern and maintain control.

The recent wildfires that tore through northern Latakia were no seasonal accident. They broke out as sectarian killings escalated and suspicions of state complicity grew.

The blaze behind the purge

Never before in Syria had an armed group claimed responsibility for a natural disaster. That changed when Saraya Ansar al-Sunna announced it was behind fires that spread through the Qastal Ma’af region, explicitly stating that the arson attack “led to the fires spreading to other areas, forcing the Nusayris [Alawites] to flee their homes, and causing a number of them to suffocate.”

The statement came just three days into the blazes and only weeks after the same group had claimed responsibility for the 22 June bombing of Mar Elias Church in Damascus’ Douweila neighborhood.

That attack had sparked a rare public dispute between the Interior Ministry and Saraya Ansar al-Sunna. While the ministry blamed ISIS and paraded an arrested cell, the group named a different perpetrator, Muhammad Zain al-Abidin Abu Uthman.

Despite vowing to release confessions to back its version, the ministry has remained silent.

Anas Khattab—former Al-Qaeda commander and Nusra Front co-founder, now serving as interior minister—only deepened the contradictions during his visit to the fire zone. He insisted there was “no evidence” of arson, even as his own ministry investigated suspects.

Khattab’s refusal to acknowledge Saraya Ansar al-Sunna suggests that Damascus still considers it a phantom—a position reinforced when ministry spokesman Noureddine al-Baba publicly dismissed it as “imaginary” during a press conference after the church bombing.

At the same time, some Alawites believe that Interior Minister Khattab is using Saraya Ansar al-Sunna to carry out attacks against Alawites, Christians, and other minorities, while maintaining plausible deniability.

Coordinated chaos and forced displacement 

In Latakia’s coastal hinterlands, fear was already running high. Many villages had yet to recover from the violence of March, when security raids and sectarian killings devastated entire communities, leaving behind charred homes and mass graves that remain under-reported by official channels.

Only months ago, bloody confrontations claimed 2,000 lives across the region. Locals, mainly from the Alawite community, saw these events as the culmination of a systematic purge under the new regime. A wave of targeted killings, kidnappings, and violence had left communities deeply scarred.

Just days before the fires erupted, the murder of two brothers working as grape leaf pickers, along with the kidnapping of a girl, sparked widespread protests in the Al-Burjan and Beit Yashout areas in the Jableh countryside.

These demonstrations, amplified by diaspora voices, coincided almost to the hour with the first outbreaks of fire, feeding widespread suspicion that the flames were a diversion or smokescreen. On the same day this call was issued, the spread of fires in the Latakia countryside forests began to attract media attention.

The Qastal Ma’af fire—the most intense and destructive—was explicitly claimed by Saraya Ansar al-Sunna. Although the group declared it aimed to displace Alawites, some affected villages housed significant Sunni Turkmen populations. Later, the group issued a cryptic clarification: “The burning of Sunni villages is attributed to Nusayri groups, and this is in the context of the ongoing, raging conflict.”

Local sources tell The Cradle that the fire consumed large swaths of forest and farmland, displacing entire communities. Despite the government’s dismissals, few believe this was a coincidence.

Denial and deception by Damascus

Rather than confront the threat, the Interior Ministry downplayed the human hand in the fires. Observers suggest this was a deliberate choice to avoid validating Saraya Ansar al-Sunna’s claim—and to prevent inflaming sectarian tensions.

But some in the Alawite community accuse Ahmad al-Sharaa’s government of weaponizing fire as a tool of demographic engineering. They point to circulating videos of security forces, Sunni Bedouin groups, and even Turkish-plate vehicles setting fires to Alawite lands.

One Alawite source explains to The Cradle:

“The Alawites rely on their land and employment, while Sharaa seeks to bring about a demographic shift in the coastal region. His aim is to strangle the Alawites and kill them, forcing them either to flee the country or remain amid ongoing cases of murder, abduction, and arson. The objective is clear: displacement and the destruction of every source of livelihood.”

The source adds that on 9 July, in the town of Al-Haffa in Latakia, a small fire broke out.

Thirty young men rushed to extinguish it—all around 21 years old—including nine Alawites. After the fire was put out, the nine Alawite young men were arrested and mysteriously disappeared.

When their families asked the local authorities regarding their whereabouts, the only response they received was: “We transferred them to Latakia.”

Demographic warfare under the cover of fire

Many Alawites believe Turkiye seeks to effectively annex parts of the Syrian coast to seize maritime gas reserves, and that attacks by Turkmen and Uighur militants loyal to Damascus are designed to provoke pleas for Turkish protection.

Historically, arson has not been random in Syria. In 2020, the former government arrested 39 individuals for setting coordinated fires across Latakia, Tartous, Homs, and Hama—allegedly financed by a “foreign party.”

Last year, vast fires scorched Wadi al-Nasara in Homs and later spread to Kasab near the Turkish border. Then-Governor Khaled Abaza admitted, “The multiplicity of fire outbreaks strongly suggests that they were intentional, as between 30 and 40 fires broke out in a single day in various areas of the governorate, especially those rugged areas that are inaccessible to vehicles.”

He continued, “A search was launched for two vehicles believed to belong to the arsonists.”

The pattern of politically timed arson is now impossible to ignore. Every major fire in the past five years has coincided with key political milestones such as regime transitions and outbreaks of sectarian unrest, pointing to a deliberate strategy masked as environmental catastrophe.

While poverty and illegal logging are the usual explanations for Syria’s seasonal fires, deeper motives have taken shape. Intelligence services are reportedly scouring Latakia’s forests for buried weapons stockpiles.

Foreign militaries are surveying the terrain for future base sites. Coastal land developers are eyeing scorched villages for luxury tourism projects. And behind it all, Israel remains a constant agitator, stoking sectarian flames for its own expansionist agenda and to further undermine the Resistance Axis.

If anything, the ministry’s insistence on ruling out human involvement in this year’s fires has further eroded public trust. In a country exposed to endless covert operations, the official version of events cannot withstand scrutiny.

In Latakia, what’s burning isn’t just land—it’s the last hope that post-Assad Syria might survive this transition intact.

July 12, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , | Leave a comment

US envoy warns Lebanon: ‘Disarm Hezbollah or risk Syrian occupation’

The Cradle | July 12, 2025

Lebanon risks being invaded and occupied by Syria and Israel unless Beirut acts to disarm Hezbollah, US special envoy Thomas Barrack warned on 12 July.

Speaking to The National, Barrack, who is the US special envoy for Syria and ambassador to Turkiye, stressed Lebanon faces an existential threat” from the two US allies on its borders, while urging Beirut to act quickly to disarm Hezbollah.

“You have Israel on one side, you have Iran on the other, and now you have Syria manifesting itself so quickly that if Lebanon doesn’t move, it’s going to be Bilad Al Sham again,” he said, using the historical name for greater Syria, which included Lebanon and Palestine.

“Syrians say Lebanon is our beach resort. So we need to move. And I know how frustrated the Lebanese people are. It frustrates me,” he added.

In December, the former Al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) conquered Damascus, bringing Syria under US, Israeli, and Turkish influence.

Syria’s new government, led by former ISIS commander Ahmad al-Sharaa, has reportedly demanded it be given the Sunni-majority city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon while relinquishing the Golan Heights as part of a peace deal with Israel.

Last month, Barrack presented Lebanese officials with a proposal that calls for reconstruction aid and an end to Israel’s attacks if Hezbollah gives up its weapons.

The war between Israel and Hezbollah ended in November with a US-brokered ceasefire. But Israel continues to carry out air strikes and assassinations throughout Lebanon. Israeli ground forces also occupy five points in the south of the country.

In response to the proposal, Lebanese authorities submitted a seven-page document calling for a full Israeli withdrawal from occupied Lebanese territory, including the Shebaa Farms, and pledging to dismantle Hezbollah’s arms in south Lebanon, but not nationwide as Israel is demanding.

When The National asked Barrack why Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has not publicly committed to a disarmament timetable, Barrack said: “He doesn’t want to start a civil war.”

“We don’t have the soldiers on the ground for the [Lebanese Armed Forces, LAF] to be able to do that yet because they don’t have the money. They’re using equipment that’s 60 years old,” he said.

“Hezbollah is looking at it saying, ‘We can’t rely on the LAF. We have to rely on ourselves because Israel is bombing us every day, and they’re still occupying our land,’” Barrack added.

On 6 July, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said the Lebanese resistance movement will not disarm or back down from confronting Israel until it ends its air strikes and withdraws from southern Lebanon.

“We cannot be asked to soften our stance or lay down arms while [Israeli] aggression continues,” Qassem told thousands of supporters gathered in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday.

He was speaking during religious gatherings for Ashura, which commemorates the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Imam Hussein, in 680 AD in Karbala, Iraq.

Lebanese President Aoun stated on Friday that Lebanon has no intention of normalizing relations with Israel.

US President Donald Trump is pressuring both Syria and Lebanon to sign the Abraham Accords, which saw the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco normalize relations with Israel in previous years.

July 12, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Another Week in Washington to Remember

Or perhaps to forget

By Philip Giraldi • Unz Review • July 12, 2025

If one thinks that arming Ukraine against Russia or having Israeli soldiers and also American contractors slaughter Gazan civilians are not supportive of any United States actual interests, last week could easily be written off as yet another descent into Hell on the part of the United States. Americans and others should have the right to criticize how the Israelis wage war without being denounced and criminalized by governments that have been corrupted from the inside, most often by money, but that is exactly what is going on in the US and in select countries in Europe. Watching children being targeted for killing and complaining about it does not make one an anti-Semite even though the Israeli government exploits that issue precisely as a tool to avoid any consequences for its horrific behavior. Here in America, it’s past time for the White House and Congress to rid themselves of their obscene and unseemly obsession with judging overseas developments using the optics of Israel loyalty tests. There is an appreciable difference between hating Israel reflexively based on its religion and acting like a member of a cheering gallery on steroids every time Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu comes to town.

There were three major developments during the week. The first was the passage through Congress and the signing by President Donald Trump of the “big, beautiful budget bill” which establishes by law the national government’s spending projections for 2026. The fiscal year begins on October 1st. The government has long exploited alleged foreign threats to national security to boost spending to enhance America’s military power. This tendency has been largely unchallenged since 9/11, when President George W Bush announced that he and the US now represented “a new sheriff in town” and would be waging war against terrorists worldwide. In 2025 Pentagon costs were budgeted at the $895 billion level. Now, however, President Donald Trump has topped even that with his bill, adding $150 billion to the military budget for 2026, which will exceed in theory for the first time more than $1 trillion.

Interestingly, however, the reality is that the US has for some time exceeded $1 trillion due to the way the government handles its war costs through unfunded material transfers and extra expenses that are approved outside the budget process itself, combined with the fact that the Pentagon’s several components and poor money management make it impossible to be successfully audited. Based on the $895 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), US national security spending for 2025 is, for example, expected to actually reach about $1.77 trillion. The difference partly derives from military-related spending from other government agencies not funded by the NDAA, such as the Department of Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security as well as from the national security share of the interest accrued on the US debt.

In September 2024 the Government Accounting Office reported that the Defense Department “remains the only major federal agency that has never been able to achieve a clean audit opinion.” And the numbers are astonishing. In fiscal year 2024, which ran from October 1st, 2023 to September 30th, 2024, the Pentagon could not account for at least 44% of its assets, nor for at least 68% of the money allocated by Congress.

The biggest addition to actual defense spending is the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, with a new front recently opened in Iran, that the US is supporting off-budget, meaning that they are being paid for “out of pocket” and the money is printed up by the Federal Reserve and is added to the government debt, where it increases through the accumulation of interest to bill and bond holders. The Federal debt is now $37 trillion and Trump’s bill is expected to add at least $3 trillion more to it. Foreign nations that have invested in the debt by buying Treasury Bills might soon figure out that it is a bad investment and will stop doing so and the dollar will plummet.

And then there is the visit to Washington, the third by Benjamin Netanyahu since Trump became president six months ago, which was memorable in its own way. Netanyahu was in America again due to the fact that he wanted something. The larger issue is to get US direct support to renew an attack on Iran and the second objective being to speed up the resupply of weapons as Israel had de facto lost the conflict with the Iranians having run through its defensive weapons. What arrangements have been made vis-à-vis Iran have not yet been completely revealed, but it has been reported that multiple transport plane loads have been making their way filled with weapons drawn from US reserve stocks that are on their way to Tel Aviv as a gift from the US to Israel. And then there was the comedy routine provided by Netanyahu proposing Trump as recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, possibly the first time when a head of a state that is openly carrying out a genocide plus mass deportations and is about to create concentration camps endorses the country leader who enables the mass murder taking place. While in Washington Netanyahu also carried out the usual sucking up to Congress and vice versa as well as the closed-door meeting with the Jewish billionaires that have so effectively corrupted the US government.

The third performance of comic opera took place over Ukraine. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth apparently halted the shipment of new weapons to Kiev as a means of disengaging from the conflict with Russia. While it is clear that the US has no interest to be fighting a proxy war with Moscow, Trump had proven unable to end the fighting on his first day in office, which he had promised pre-election. To everyone’s actual surprise, Trump did not appear to know about the decision and reversed it, exhibiting some actual confusion during a press conference over what had happened. It was reminiscent of last week’s bizarre development over the disappearance of Israeli spy Jeffrey Epstein’s “client list” possibly to avoid embarrassing Israel and also, it has been suggested, to eliminate any speculation regarding Donald Trump’s relationship with Epstein in Florida back prior to 2019. It might be reasonable to assume that the whole episode amounts to one more big lie and cover-up coming out of the clownish ensemble that constitutes the Trump cabinet.

Finally, there is one other story that I consider a pure product of the ignorance and downright stupidity that characterizes the Trump regime. The United Nations Human Rights Council has what they refer to as a Special Rapporteur and investigator over developments in Israel and Palestine, to include the Israeli occupied territories on the West Bank. Francesca Albanese, an Italian, is an experienced bureaucrat of demonstrated integrity who has focused on human rights issues. She has been under intense pressure from both the United States and Israel to forego on reporting Israel’s atrocities, particularly in Gaza, but those who have actually interacted with her claim that she has recorded developments honestly and accurately. This past week, coinciding with the Netanyahu visit, Washington decided to move against her with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announcing sanctions against her.

This is how Rubio described the case to be made to justify the sanctions: “Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt [International Criminal Court] action against US and Israeli officials, companies, and executives… Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated. We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.”

One begins to wonder if Rubio is as totally ignorant and stupid as his boss. The US has previously called on the UN to replace Albanese and a week before the sanctions were issued a warning from Washington suggested that something was coming. “The United States once again expressed its grave concerns to UN Secretary-General António Guterres about the continued activities of Francesca Albanese … and again called upon the Secretary-General to condemn her activities and call for her removal,” the US UN mission said in a statement on July 1. The US has characteristically accused Albanese of “virulent antisemitism” for her criticism of Israel, a smear on Albanese also made by President Joe Biden’s administration after she last year produced a report accusing Israel of genocide. One might observe that in February the US also used the sanctions tool against the justices of the International Criminal Court (and their families) after the court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and the Israel’s former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of genocide.

Wish that were all, but there is one more story about what a fine place “America’s best friend and closest ally” Israel actually is. A twenty-year old Palestinian American from Tampa Florida, Seif al-Din Muslat, was visiting family in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, on Friday. In town, he was confronted and beaten to death by rampaging Israeli settlers. Another Palestinian teen Mohammad Shalabi was shot dead in the same incident. The US Embassy apparently was informed of the killing by the boy’s family but as usual it will take no action and will defer to the so-called Israeli justice system to investigate. That means that the scum Settlers, largely expat Americans from places like Brooklyn, will in no way be punished and will walk free to kill more Palestinian children. There have been an increasing number of instances where Israeli settlers in the West Bank ransack Palestinian neighborhoods and towns, burning homes and vehicles and destroying crops and businesses in attacks. And they feel free to kill any Palestinian who crosses their paths or who tries to intervene. Thank you Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump for your loyalty to murderous Jews. It does you proud, or at least it demonstrates what you are made of!

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is inform@cnionline.org.

July 12, 2025 Posted by | Corruption, Deception, Militarism, Wars for Israel | , , , , | Leave a comment

‘Global War on Terror’ is Over. Terror Won.

By Daniel McAdams | Ron Paul Institute | July 10, 2025

On Sept. 16, 2001, five days after the attacks on New York and Washington, DC, President George W. Bush declared, “This crusade – this war on terrorism – is going to take a while. And the American people must be patient. I’m going to be patient. But I can assure the American people I am determined.”

Four days after that, President Bush declared the “war on terror” to be primarily against al-Qaeda. “Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda,” he said in an address to Congress and the nation, “but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated.”

He described the enemy thus:

This group and its leader — a person named Osama bin Laden — are linked to many other organizations in different countries, including the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.  There are thousands of these terrorists in more than 60 countries.

Bush was correct in his assessment of the group.

One of those countries into which al-Qaeda jihadists implanted themselves was Syria, where from 2011 – with the support of the Obama Administration – they attempted to overthrow the secular leader, Bashar al-Assad, using terrorist tactics they had been well-trained in.

They soon changed their name – but not their stripes – and became the Al-Nusra Front, headed up by an experienced jihadist who fought against US troops in Iraq by the name of Abu Mohammad al-Jolani. His group was known for chopping off heads. Perhaps even American heads.

Last December Jolani’s jihadists – with support from the US, Turkey, and Israel – finally brought down the Assad government and quicker than you can say “Washington PR makeover” he clipped his beard, switched out his tactical military watch for a $90,000 Patek Philippe World Time Chronograph, and declared himself president.

The “civilized world” cheered the re-emergence of democracy in Syria!

At their first meeting earlier this year in Saudi Arabia, President Trump praised jihadist Jolani as “a young, attractive fellow” and “a tough guy, a fighter, with a very strong background. He has a lot of potential, he’s a real leader.”

This was a US-designated global terrorist with a $10 million bounty placed on his head by the US authorities. His “wanted” poster STILL remains on the X account of the US Embassy in Syria!

This week, President Trump “removed sanctions on Jolani’s Syria at (Israeli Prime Minister) Netanyahu’s request,” and just yesterday Secretary of State removed Jolani’s old al-Qaeda affiliate (which had gone from al-Nusra to HTS over the years) from the US terrorist list.

As one observer on X quipped:

The history of the GWOT (Global War on Terror) began in 2001 with the US invading Afghanistan to dig out Al Qaeda. It ends twenty-four years later with the US recognizing an AQ affiliate as the new ruler of Syria.

According to Brown University’s Cost of War Project, the “Global War on Terror” cost the American people at least eight trillion dollars. It also took the lives of perhaps a million people.

And what did we get for all this blood and treasure? In Afghanistan, the Taliban were after 20 years of US military action replaced by the Taliban, and in Syria a fierce opponent of al-Qaeda was replaced by…al-Qaeda!

As Jake Sullivan, then right hand to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, wrote to the Secretary in 2012, “al-Qaeda is on our side in Syria.” He wasn’t joking!

That was the shot…here’s the chaser:

In the same week the United States removed sanctions on al-Qaeda ruled Syria, it placed sanctions on…UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese!

Who is Albanese? She is the fearless defender of human life in a Gaza where it is slowly being extinguished by Israel with the backing (and weapons) of the US government.

In hitting UN human rights defender Albanese with sanctions, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote:

Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt @IntlCrimCourt action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.

Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated. We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.

The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare and protect our sovereignty and that of our allies. (emphasis added)

What might those “whatever actions” be? Clearly it is a physical threat against Albanese for speaking out against a mass murder happening in real time, observable for all who wish to do so on our own computer screens.

So that is it. The “Global War on Terror” is over. Terrorists have been elevated by the US government to be heads of state and those who speak out against state terrorism are threatened with “whatever actions we deem necessary” to shut them up.

July 11, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Israel lobbies Washington to restart war on Yemen: Report

Sources told Hebrew media that Tel Aviv is calling for the formation of a new coalition against Sanaa

The Cradle | July 11, 2025

Israel is pressuring the US to restart its campaign against the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) and Ansarallah movement in Yemen, according to reports in Israeli media.

According to Israel’s Broadcasting Corporation (KAN), Yemeni attacks on vessels headed to Israeli ports “can no longer remain solely an Israeli problem.”

Sources told the outlet that Tel Aviv has been calling for “more intense combined attacks against Houthi regime targets – not just [Israeli] air force fighter jet strikes, but also a renewal of American attacks and the formation of a coalition including additional countries,” an informed source told KAN.

Another anonymous security official said that “a broad coalition is needed to convey to the Houthi regime that it is in danger.”

The report comes after the YAF sunk two Greek-owned, Liberian-flagged vessels which were en route to Israeli ports.

Yemen had briefly refrained from attacking commercial vessels headed to Israel following a ceasefire that ended the US campaign against the country in May. However, it never rescinded the blockade it imposed after the start of the war in Gaza, and is now escalating its enforcement.

It has also continued to target Israel with ballistic missiles in support of the people and resistance in Gaza.

The YAF announced on 10 July that it targeted Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport with a ballistic missile. The attack came hours after Sanaa released footage of its second operation targeting a commercial ship within 24 hours. The Eternity C vessel was headed to the southern Israeli port of Eilat in violation of the Yemeni naval blockade.

The attack took place on Monday, with the ship finally sinking on Wednesday. Yemeni forces captured footage of the operation. Several crewmembers were reportedly killed, and others remain missing. The YAF said it evacuated some of the crew for medical treatment.

A day earlier, on Sunday, Yemen targeted and sank the Magic Seas vessel – also releasing footage of the operation.

Friday’s KAN report coincides with anticipation for a potential Israeli escalation against Yemen.

On 7 July, Israel carried out widespread attacks on Yemen. Tel Aviv said its latest attack on Yemen marked the start of a military operation against the country, dubbed Operation Black Flag. The YAF announced a large-scale missile and drone attack on several Israeli targets that day in response to heavy Israeli airstrikes.

Following the start of Yemen’s naval campaign in 2023, Washington attempted to muster up a coalition to stop Sanaa’s operations.

The US formed an international naval coalition under the name Prosperity Guardian, which gained little traction and failed to deter Sanaa from continuing its attacks.

Very few nations offered to contribute warships, and others only deployed a mere handful of staff officers.

An EU military mission in the Red Sea called Operation Aspides also suffered a similar failure.

“We didn’t necessarily expect this level of threat. There was an uninhibited violence that was quite surprising and very significant,” the commander of a French warship said in April 2024 after running out of munitions and being forced to turn tail and exit the Red Sea.

Last year, US Navy officials acknowledged that confrontations with Yemeni forces marked the most intense naval combat Washington had faced since the Second World War.

During US President Donald Trump’s latest campaign against Yemen, which killed an unprecedented number of civilians, Washington burned through around $1 billion in munitions and failed to significantly impact Yemeni military capabilities, sources have confirmed to western media.

July 11, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , , , | Leave a comment

US must rebuild trust for diplomacy to resume, says Iran’s FM

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi
Press TV – July 8, 2025

Iran’s foreign minister has issued a call for the United States to revive diplomacy following a breakdown in indirect talks, warning that further engagement will only be possible if Washington demonstrates a genuine commitment to a fair resolution.

“Iran remains interested in diplomacy, but we have good reason to have doubts about further dialogue,” Abbas Araghchi wrote in an article published by the Financial Times. “If there is a desire to resolve this amicably, the US should show genuine readiness for an equitable accord.”

The foreign minister referred to his five rounds of talks with US special envoy Steve Witkoff, saying that the two sides had made progress in those meetings.

According to Araghchi, discussions covered sensitive issues, including Iran’s uranium enrichment program and a potential end to US sanctions, with proposals from both sides and mediation by Oman.

The talks, he suggested, could have laid the foundation for an economic partnership potentially worth trillions, offering Iran development opportunities while addressing US President Donald Trump’s ambitions to revive struggling US industries.

But, Araghchi said, hopes for a breakthrough were shattered when Israel launched an unprovoked assault on Iran just 48 hours before a planned sixth round of talks in a move to derail diplomatic progress.

“Israel prefers conflict over resolution,” he wrote, arguing that the bombardment was not about stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons but about sabotaging dialogue.

Araghchi reaffirmed that Iran remains committed to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and operates under UN monitoring.

He warned that while Iran seeks to prevent a wider regional war, its restraint should not be mistaken for weakness.

“We will defeat any future attack on our people,” he said, cautioning that Iran would reveal its true defensive capabilities if provoked again.

Araghchi placed the blame for the collapse of the talks on “an ostensible ally of America” and on Washington for its “fateful decision” to join in the strikes, thereby violating international law and the NPT framework.

While noting recent messages from US intermediaries suggesting a possible return to the table, Araghchi questioned whether Tehran could trust any future American overtures, citing the US withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal and Iran’s experience of being attacked during active negotiations.

“Negotiations held under the shadow of war are inherently unstable, and dialogue pursued amid threats is never genuine,” he wrote.

Still, Araghchi stopped short of closing the door entirely.

Iran, he insisted, remains interested in diplomacy, but only if it is based on mutual respect and free from external sabotage.

The top diplomat warned that Washington’s continued alignment with Israel risks dragging the US into another costly and avoidable conflict in the region.

“The American people deserve to know that their country is being pushed towards a wholly avoidable and unwarranted war by a foreign regime that does not share their interests,” Araghchi wrote, in reference to Israeli influence in Washington.

He ended with a stark choice for the United States: “Will the US finally choose diplomacy? Or will it remain ensnared in someone else’s war?”

July 8, 2025 Posted by | Economics, Wars for Israel | , , , , | Leave a comment

What Trump Should Tell Netanyahu

By Ron Paul | July 7, 2025

A few weeks ago I urged President Trump to make a deal with Iran that would satisfy his stated goal of no nuclear weapons production and would allow Iran to continue its lawful pursuit of civilian nuclear energy. The deal on the table, as described by the Iranian foreign minister himself, was a win-win “update” of Obama’s JCPOA “nuclear deal” that he could have avoided a costly and counter-productive war with Iran.

Unfortunately, the negotiations were cut short by an Israeli sneak-attack on Iran that led to a 12-day war that did not turn out as Israel imagined. This often happens in war, especially wars of aggression. After a day or so, Israel found itself overwhelmed by an Iran that proved to be more than capable of defending itself and Netanyahu called up Uncle Sam begging for assistance.

The resulting US bombing run on Iran’s nuclear sites did not lead to the end of that country’s capabilities, but to the expulsion of the UN monitoring organization and the emergence of Iranian “strategic ambiguity” regarding its program. In short, the bombing has blinded the world to what Iran may do in the future. That is not a win for Trump.

In a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, the Iranian president confirmed what most people understood at the time: President Trump promised Iran that while they were engaged in negotiations the United States would not allow Israel to attack the country. With the sixth round of negotiations just two days away, however, Israel thumbed its nose at the United States and launched an attack on Iran anyway.

Considering that Israel’s “military capabilities” are almost entirely provided by the United States, this betrayal of its benefactor will surely go down as one of the most brazen acts of ingratitude of all time.

This week Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington DC for the third time in Trump’s short second term in office. While we do not know what President Trump is telling him this time around, this might be the time to finally give Israel some “tough love” that many parents practice with their teenagers.

Donald Trump may be the most “pro-Israel” president we’ve ever had, but if he really wanted to help Israel he would make clear to Netanyahu that US support does Israel no favors. Continuing to spend tens of billions of dollars a year financing Israel’s war machine and backing up Israel’s attacks on its neighbors has not produced peace or security – much less prosperity – for Israel.

In fact, as soon as Israel attacked Iran so many Israelis tried to leave the country that Tel Aviv forbade its own citizens from leaving the country. Israelis are desperate to escape the wars of their own government’s making.

If President Trump really wanted to help Israel he would inform Netanyahu this week that not another US dollar would be sent to prop up his government. Not another missile or bomb would be sent. Not another American bullet would be available for Israeli soldiers to attack their neighbors or to shoot Palestinian civilians.

If Israel had to face the hard reality that it must learn to live with its neighbors instead of attacking them, the country may actually start seeing some peace and prosperity. Whatever the case, it is not our responsibility to finance the war machine of any foreign country. Time to put America first.

July 7, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , , | Leave a comment

The IAEA and OPCW – How International Organisations Became Tools of War

21st Century Wire | July 2, 2025

Dr. Piers Robinson is a political scientist, a former professor at the University of Sheffield, as well a research director at the International Center for 9/11 Justice, whose recent article on Substack is titled, “The IAEA and OPCW: Watchdogs for Peace or Propagandists for War?” looks at the IAEA’s questionable operations in Iran, and the similarities to the abused OPCW in Syria, and in general the role of “lying through institutions”, and plying war-propaganda through third-party institutions.

Recent events in Iran have all but exposed how these supposed ‘watchdog’ institutions have been coopted and used by US and British intelligence in order to fabricate another case for war.

Pascal Lottaz, host of Neutrality Studies, talks with the co-director for the Organisation for Propaganda Studies, Dr Piers Robinson, about this, as well as the broader geopolitical implications at play here. Watch:

July 6, 2025 Posted by | Deception, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Video, Wars for Israel | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Benjamin Netanyahu Is Coming to Town Again

Will Donald Trump surrender or will Bibi resort to a false flag?

By Philip Giraldi • Unz Review • July 4, 2025

Benjamin Netanyahu is on his way for his third visit to Washington during the first six months of the second term of President Donald Trump. Bibi requested the visit because he clearly wants something and he never likes to hear anyone tell him “No!” The American Jewish community and the state of Israel working together are already mustering their substantial resources to give the Prime Minister anything he wants, whatever that might be. If necessary, the so-called Israel Lobby, which controls many aspects of what is referred to colloquially as the United States Government, has a unique ability to lay down a serious guilt trip on anyone who tries to interfere with their prerogatives. Their ability to persuade is frequently based on repeated invocations of a semi-mythical event called the “holocaust,” which has been and will continue to be a burden on all the rest of humanity forever.

Many Jews have consequently successfully turned themselves into something like caricatures, where they are always the victims of an irrational hatred and therefore are entitled to extraordinary measures to protect themselves. Indeed, it all means that whatever happens that involves either Jews or Israel will ipso facto grant a “license to kill” in response to ensure that there will be “never again.” South African journalist Ilana Mercer describes the current process succinctly: “Israel’s ‘strategic perspective’ requires everywhere and always an enemy. This designated enemy will be tarnished by a blood libel, an abstraction: he, she or they will be said to be antisemitic, baying for Jewish blood. This blood libel ignores the truth, because when facts and reality are scrutinized, it’s Arabs that are being exterminated daily en masse, with western grants of government privilege, not Israelis. You have to hand it to Israel. It has positioned itself as the world’s cross, a curse that every individual not Jewish-Israeli is born into and must carry like an albatross.”

It is too bad that Netanyahu will be landing in Washington, where his arrival will no doubt be protected by the battalions of soldiers brought into the Capital two weeks ago to march down Constitution Avenue in their celebration of Vietnam War draft dodger Donald Trump’s birthday. If Bibi were to land in New York he just might be arrested on the warrant issued by the International Criminal Court. The Democratic candidate for New York mayor Zohran Mamdani has the Israeli Lobby and assorted Jewish identity groups hounding him relentlessly in part because he is a Muslim but also because he declared that if he is elected mayor he would arrest Netanyahu if/when he showed up in the city. The declaration had me and others cheering but we also wished that there were some mechanism for also arresting Genocide Joe Biden and Antony Blinken. Presumably Donald Trump, another genocide enabler, is untouchable except by impeachment as he is in office, which is a shame as he and his own batch of war criminals to match those around Biden richly deserve a bit of hard time.

Some journalists are speculating that while at the White House, Trump will pressure Netanyahu to agree to a new sixty day truce in Gaza, but Bibi is unlikely to have asked for the meeting if he thought he might be trapped into stopping the killing of Palestinians. I have my own theory about why Netanyahu will be in Washington and apart from the part where he has his butt kissed by Trump and four hundred bought-and-paid-for congressmen, it won’t be pretty. You see, Bibi wants to establish Israeli hegemony “from the rivers to the sea,” which means from the Euphrates, Litani and Nile rivers and all along the seafront with the Mediterranean. That will require regime change in Iran eliminating that nation as an adversary but the recent short war against the Iranians has made it clear that Israel cannot do it alone unless it goes nuclear, which would do possibly fatal damage to Tel Aviv’s ability to deal with the rest of the world and could easily mean the de facto end of the Jewish state. So he has to convince a gullible Donald Trump to do it for him and is prepared to lie effusively about the threat posed by Iran to make that happen.

Obviously, the problem confronting Netanyahu is that Iran really does not pose any threat to the United States or, indeed, even to Israel if the Israelis were willing to cease their quest for dominance and regional expansion. So he will have to make something up, which admittedly he has a great deal of experience in doing. But what will happen if Trump does not take the bait, whatever that will turn out to be? Will Trump Riviera Resort Gaza be enough to sway the New York Real Estate man who is pretending to be the President of the United States? I rather think that Netanyahu will have several possible schemes in reserve if he runs into a wall in Washington, including false flag operations plausibly blamed on Iran that will kill a lot of Americans to get across the message that the Iranians pose a real danger to the United States.

To be sure, Israel has demonstrated that it is not shy and will not hesitate to kill Americans when its own interests suggest a need for extreme measures, witness the deliberate killing of 34 US Navy sailors on the USS Liberty in 1967 and the recent deaths of US citizens in Gaza which the American government has done nothing about. Israel knows it can get away with murder, both figuratively and literally, and even though the American people might be sick of the slaughter of Palestinians the Israel Lobby knows that it has the support of both Congress and the media no matter what it does.

I rather think that what Israel will do will rely on the White House’s apparent belief that renewing war with Iran will result in attacks on some of the many US bases in the Persian Gulf region. As Iran is not likely to want to carry out that kind of escalation, Israel might decide to do the job itself but leaving evidence behind that it was Iran or an Iranian proxy that carried it out. Israel has many active agents run by Mossad throughout the region, as was evident in the assassinations of senior Iranian government officials and scientists together with their entire families back when the first phase of the so-called “twelve day war” began with an Israeli attack back a month ago. So Israel will blow up an American base or two and then loudly proclaim that the deed was done by Iran to get revenge for the US bombing of the Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow nuclear facilities.

Or if one really wants to explore options on the dark side, Israel might decide to really float the false flag, so it just might use one of its own nukes to do the job, embellishing the tale by pointing out that the blast was clear evidence of the claim that Iran had and still has a secret nuclear weapons program. Clowns in congress like Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz will immediately take up the cry and loudly call for revenge. Trump will be unable to resist, or at least that is what Netanyahu will be thinking, and if a nuke was used on an American base the willingness to reciprocate in kind will be overwhelming in Washington. As both Bibi and the Donald have several times recommended that the 10 million plus folks living in Iran’s capital Tehran should evacuate their homes, it is, in my opinion, quite possible that both Israel and the US have in any event been thinking of going nuke for some time. So, if all goes well for Bibi they will get what they want, i.e. regime change in a devastated Iran and the end of the Iranian challenge to Israel. Let us hope that instead of that outcome, Trump will be listening to his better angel, if he has one, and Netanyahu will be rebuffed and will go home with his tail between his legs next week!

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is inform@cnionline.org.

July 6, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, False Flag Terrorism, Wars for Israel | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is fed up with U.S. support for Israel and more wars

If Americans Knew | July 3, 2025

Marjorie Taylor Greene, aka MTG, is a MAGA Republican and the U.S. representative for Georgia’s 14th congressional district since 2021.

Excerpts taken from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s appearance on The Tucker Carlson Show (June 27, 2025):    • Marjorie Taylor Greene: AIPAC, NYC’s Futur…  

July 5, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Militarism, Video, Wars for Israel | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sy Hersh Says Lack of Radiation Means Iran Moved Uranium Before US Attack

Sputnik – 05.07.2025

No signs of radioactive contamination have been detected since US airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June, suggesting that enriched uranium may have been removed from key sites before the attack, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh says.

Veteran US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh says Iran moved highly-enriched uranium from key sites before attacks ordered by US President Donald Trump.

The US Air Force and US Navy targeted deeply-buried Iranian nuclear sites, including those in Fordow and Isfahan, in the June 22 operation codenamed ‘Midnight Hammer’.

Trump and his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth both claimed the targets had been “obliterated.” But Hersh’s sources say Iran had already removed large quantities of uranium enriched to up to 60% of the fissile isotope U235.

“450 pounds of enriched uranium had been moved from Fordo to the reprocessing site at Isfahan prior to the US attack there” Hersh wrote on his Substack blog.

The attack on Isfahan — a site believed to be involved in further uranium enrichment and processing — used cruise missiles launched from a US Navy submarine.

While the official objective of the strike was the “complete dismantlement” of Iran’s nuclear program, Hersh argues it was merely aimed at a temporary disruption and the destruction of critical infrastructure.

His sources say the destruction of Fordow and Isfahan has set Iran’s nuclear development back by several years, but did not eliminate the program entirely.

“Results? Glass is half-full,” Hersh writes. “a couple of years of respite and uncertain future. Critics? Half-empty. Reality? Half-full. There you are.”

He stresses that Israel was the main beneficiary of the operation, while the risk remains that Iran could restore its nuclear infrastructure and eventually resume the program.

July 5, 2025 Posted by | Wars for Israel | , , | Leave a comment

Time for Qatar to review its hosting of US Al Udeid military air base

By Thembisa Fakude | MEMO | July 3, 2025

The assassination of one of the highest-ranking Generals and the Commanders of Al Quds Force – part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) – Qasem Soleimani, opened an unprecedented form of conflict in the Gulf region. Soleimani was killed in Iraq on 3 January 2020 by an US drone strike in Iraq, while travelling to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi. Iran retaliated by targeting the US military facilities in Iraq, it fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles at two Iraqi air bases housing US forces days after the assassination. According to The Times of Israel, Israel helped the US in that operation.

The leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh was killed by Israel in Tehran after attending the inauguration of the President of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian. Another pure violation of the sovereignty of Iran and international law. The killing of Haniyeh in July 2024 came on the heels of the attack and killing of a number of Iranian diplomats at the embassy of Iran in Damascus, Syria on 01 April 2024. Israel – with the support of the US – has continued to assassinate Iranian officials at will inside Iran.

Qatar had joint military operations with the US during the Operation Desert Storm in Iraq in 1991. After the operation, Qatar and the US signed a Defence Cooperation Agreement. The agreement was expanded in 1996 to include the building of Al Udeid Military Air Base at a cost of more than $1 billion. The Al Udeid Military Air Base is the largest US military base in the Middle East. Iran attacked Al Udeid in retaliation to the US’s attacks of Iranian nuclear sites in Fordo, Natanz and Esfahan in Iran in June 2025. Although the retaliation strikes were downplayed by the US and Qatar, the attacks seemed to have been carefully choreographed, exposing a new fault line in US-Qatar military cooperation.

The question in the minds of most Qataris is; what will happen next time when the US decides to attack Iran, will Iran retaliate by attacking Qatar again? Notwithstanding the repeated mantra of “a friendly, brotherly love and appreciation” between Qatar and Iran, the biggest threat to Qatar’s security and political stability now and in the near future is a possible war between Israel and the US against Iran. The targeting of Iran by Israel and the US presents a new security threat in the region.

Al Udeid has served as “a symbol of protection for the State of Qatar against potential attacks and other forms of hostilities”. However, when put to the test, Al Udeid has failed to meet those expectations. Besides the recent Iran attacks of the US military installations in Al Udeid; when Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt led a blockade against Qatar in 2017, there was no forewarning from the US notwithstanding Al Udeid’s superior military intelligence. According to the Qatari Defence Minister, Khalid al Attiyah, “Actually it was not a mere intention. There was a plan to invade Qatar”. The “plan was set into two phases, imposing the siege with the aim of creating an overall state of panic, which would have a direct impact on the Qatari street, then executing a military invasion”.

The possible future conflicts involving the US and Iran have raised serious concerns about the safety of US assets and personnel in the region. It has also triggered a debate, particularly within the US media, of the viability and rationale of the country’s continued involvement in Israel’s wars in the region. The Make America Great Again (MEGA) leading supporters such as the executive chairman of Breitbart News, Stephen Banon and right-wing journalist and social media influencer Tucker Carlson have questioned “the US continuing blind support Israel’s wars in the Middle East”. Tucker Carlson a known Trump supporter and a right-wing voice has been the loudest. He has been “urging the US to stay out of Israel’s war with Iran”. Bannon and Carlson are part of a broader effort to overturn the “GOP’s hawkish consensus on Israel”. Notwithstanding his unwavering support of Israel, Trump has been critical of Benjamin Netanyahu war mongering strategy in the region. Trump has entered into lucrative business relationships with countries in the Arab/Persian Gulf recently; Netanyahu stands to disturb that relationship. The US and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have agreed to turn Abu Dhabi “to a site of the largest artificial intelligence campus outside the US”. The US will allow “the UAE to import half a million Nvidia semiconductor chips, considered the most advanced in the world in the artificial intelligence products”. According to The Guardian, Saudi Arabia struck a similar deal of semiconductors, obtaining the promise of the sale of hundreds of thousands of Nvidia Blackwell chips to Humain, an AI start-up owned by the Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund. Indeed, given these interests and the strengthening relationship between the US and the Gulf countries, the US has much more to lose if it continues to blindly support Israel’s wars.

The relationship between Iran and the State of Qatar is very strong, both countries share gas exploration sites in the South Pars/North Dome. They are the gas condensate fields located in the Arabian/Persian Gulf. They are by far the world’s largest natural gas fields. There is also the people to people relationship between Qatar and Iran dating back to time immemorial. The next attack of Iran by the US or Israel could escalate and spread the war to Qatar. Although the US managed to move its assets from Al Udeid to other locations in Qatar before Iran’s attacks last month, the question remains. What guarantees do Qatar have that in future Iran would not target those locations? There is a possibility that if attacked Iran will once again retaliate. What will happen then? The retaliatory attacks could go beyond a mere violation of Qatar’s airspace and sovereignty; it could also cost Qatari lives. The State of Qatar has to take serious decisions regarding Al Udeid if it wants to maintain its future relationship with Iran and other countries in the region. It must close Al Udeid. It has more valid reasons to do that now. The threat has morphed in the region. Consequently, new defence infrastructure needs to be considered by Qatar. Al Udeid presents more political and diplomatic challenges than opportunities.

July 3, 2025 Posted by | Militarism, Wars for Israel | , , , | Leave a comment

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