Iran’s FM addresses UN Security Council on failed Russia-China draft resolution
Global Times | September 27, 2025
The UN Security Council has voted down an effort by China and Russia to extend sanctions relief to Iran for six months under the nuclear deal – formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Friday, local time. The draft failed to be passed as the number of votes in favor did not reach nine.
In his speech, Iran’s Foreign Minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, began by thanking China, Russia, Pakistan, and Algeria for supporting the resolution, which he described as a genuine effort to “keep the door of diplomacy open and avoid confrontation.” He also welcomed the decision of Guyana and South Korea not to oppose the draft, calling it a stand “on the right side of history,” according to WANA News, an Iranian news agency.
The Iranian foreign minister argued, “Today’s situation is the direct consequence of the US withdrawal from the JCPOA and the E3 (France, United Kingdom and Germany) failure to take any effective action to uphold the commitments.”
“The US has betrayed diplomacy, but it is the E3 which have buried it,” he stressed. Araghchi also said, “The E3 and the US acted in bad faith, claiming to support diplomacy while in effect blocking it.”
“Regrettably, E3 chose to follow Washington’s whims rather than exercising their independent sovereign discretion,” he said, adding “the US persistent negation of all initiatives to keep the window for diplomacy open proved once again that negotiations with the United States lead to nowhere other than dead end,” the foreign minister added.
Geng Shuang, China’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations spoke after the vote. He reminded the Council that “history has shown that resorting to force or applying maximum pressure is not the correct approach to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue,” according to the UN report.
Geng continued, “Against the backdrop of ongoing conflict in Gaza and the instability in the Middle East, a breakdown in the Iranian nuclear issue could trigger new regional security crisis, which runs counter to common interest of the international community.”
The Chinese diplomat urged the US to “demonstrate political will by responding positively to Iran’s proposal to resume talks and committing unequivocally to refrain from further military strikes against Iran.”
US, allies veto draft resolution on delaying ‘snapback’ of Iran sanctions
Press TV – September 26, 2025
The United States and its allies veto a draft resolution aimed at delaying “snapback” of the UN Security Council’s sanctions against Iran that were lifted in 2015 in line with a nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and world countries.
On Friday, the US, the UK, France, Denmark, Greece, Panama, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, and Somalia vetoed the draft measure seeking to delay imposition of the coercive economic measures for six months.
China, Russia, Algeria, and Pakistan voted in favor of the measure that had been submitted by Beijing and Moscow. South Korea and Guyana abstained.
According to the UN, “The so-called ‘snapback’ mechanism [now] remains in force, which will see sanctions rei-imposed on Tehran this weekend, following the termination of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).”
JCPOA refers to the official name of the nuclear deal that upon conclusion was endorsed by the Security Council in the form of its Resolution 2231.
The agreement lifted the sanctions, which had been imposed on Iran by the Security Council and the US, the UK, France, and Germany over unfounded allegations concerning Tehran’s peaceful nuclear energy program.
The bans had been enforced against the nation, despite the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s having historically failed to find any proof of “diversion” of the nuclear program.
The US left the JCPOA in an illegal and unilateral move in 2018 and then re-imposed those of its sanctions that the deal had removed.
In 2020, Washington went further by trying unilaterally to trigger the “snapback.”
After the American withdrawal, the UK, France, and Germany too resorted to non-commitment vis-à-vis the Islamic Republic by stopping their trade with Tehran.
The Friday vote came after the trio launched their own bid to activate the “snapback” on August 28.
The allies have been rehashing their accusations concerning Iran’s nuclear energy activities in order to try to justify their bid to reenact the sanctions, ignoring absence of any proof provided by the IAEA that has subjected the Islamic Republic to the agency’s most intrusive inspections in history.
They have also constantly refused to accept their numerous instances of non-commitment to the JCPOA.
Iran, however, began observing an entire year of “strategic patience” following the US’s withdrawal – the first serious violation of the nuclear agreement – before retaliating incrementally in line with its legal right that has been enshrined in the deal itself.
In the meantime, the Islamic Republic has both voiced its preparedness to partake in dialog besides actually engaging in negotiation aimed at resolving the situation brought about by the Western allies’ intransigence.
Tehran refused to categorically rule out talks with the European troika even after illegal and unprovoked attacks by the Israeli regime and the United States against key Iranian nuclear facilities in June, which made it impossible for the IAEA to continue its inspections as before.
The Islamic Republic’s latest goodwill gesture came on September 9, when it signed a framework agreement with the IAEA aimed at resuming cooperation with the agency, which had been suspended following the attacks.
The Friday vote came, although, Iranian officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and security chief Ali Larijani, had strongly warned the US and its allies against triggering the “snapback.”
Araghchi had cautioned that such vote would lead to termination of the agreement with the IAEA, while Pezeshkian had noted that talks would be “meaningless” if the mechanism were to be enacted.
Meeting with anti-war activists in New York on Thursday, the president had called the prospect of re-imposition of the sanctions unwelcome, but added that the coercive measures did not signal “the end of the road.”
“Iran will never submit to them,” he had said, referring to the bans, and added that the Islamic Republic “will find the means of exiting any [unwelcome] situation.”
China voices ‘deep regret,’ discourages renewed aggression
Reacting to the vote, China’s Deputy UN Ambassador Geng Shuang similarly expressed “deep regret” for the failure to adopt the draft resolution, identifying dialogue and negotiation as two of “the only viable options” out of the situation caused by the Western measures.
He urged the US “to demonstrate political will” and “commit unequivocally to refraining from further military strikes against Iran.”
Geng further called on the European trio to engage in good faith in diplomatic efforts and abandon their approach of pushing for sanctions and coercive pressure against Iran.
Russia slams US, allies for lack of ‘courage, wisdom’
The remarks were echoed by Geng’s Russian counterpart Dmitry Polyanskiy, who said, “We regret the fact that a number of Security Council colleagues were unable to summon the courage or the wisdom to support our draft.”
“We had hoped that European colleagues and the US would think twice, and they would opt for the path of diplomacy and dialogue instead of their clumsy blackmail,” he said.
Such approach, the diplomat added, “merely results in escalation of the situation in the region.”
Speaking before the vote, Polyanskiy had also told the chamber that Iran had done all it could to accommodate Europeans, but that Western powers had refused to compromise.
How pro-Israel money captured Starmer’s Labour
By Nasim Ahmed | MEMO | September 26, 2025
The UK Labour Party has been rocked by yet another scandal and is facing scrutiny over revelations that its leadership has been captured by a network of unelected funders and lobbyists with deep ties to Israel and Zionist organisations.
At the centre of the controversy is Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s powerful chief of staff, and his long-time association with billionaire businessman Trevor Chinn. Documents and leaks show that between 2017 and 2020, McSweeney oversaw Labour Together, a factional project that secretly accepted more than £730,000 (around $930,000) in undeclared donations, allegedly in breach of electoral law.
Much of this money is said to have come from Chinn, a figure whose involvement in Labour politics has for decades been bound up with the defence of Israel and the advancement of Zionist networks inside the party.
Chinn is no ordinary donor. A director of Labour Together until 2024, he has bankrolled both Conservative and Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) throughout his career. In early 2025, he was awarded the Israeli Presidential Medal of Honour by President Isaac Herzog for his services to the apartheid state. Chinn’s commitment to Israel has been described as one of his “animating concerns” over three decades of political donations.
An investigation by Jody McIntyre, who stood as a candidate for the Workers Party in the last general election, shows how deeply enmeshed Chinn became with McSweeney’s project. McSweeney reportedly concealed donations “to protect Trevor” from scrutiny, according to McIntyre’s investigation. Labour Together, however, later dismissed the failure to declare the funds as an “administrative error,” a line advised by solicitor Gerald Shamash, another Labour figure with a record of blocking debates on sanctions against Israel.
Chinn’s influence was not limited to donations. According to minutes of a 2020 meeting revealed by Electronic Intifada, Chinn and five other lobbyists set up a “regular channel of communication” with Labour MP Steve Reed, a close ally of McSweeney and vocal supporter of LFI. The leaked record illustrates the extent to which pro-Israel lobbyists were embedded in Labour’s factional leadership project.
McSweeney’s own ties to Zionism go back further than his dealings with Chinn. In his youth, he spent time living on Sarid, a Zionist settlement built on the ruins of the Palestinian village of Ikhneifis. There, he is said to have become closely acquainted with Hashomer Hatza’ir, a Zionist movement that played a central role in Israel’s settler-colonial project.
McIntyre’s research and internal documents allege that McSweeney campaigned for Steve Reed—who is known to have received funding from LFI for travel to occupied Palestine—and later worked closely with Margaret Hodge, a self-declared Zionist. Some sources also suggest McSweeney oversaw Liz Kendall’s 2015 leadership run, during which she made public statements against boycotts and sanctions of Israel—though the precise nature and funding of these campaigns remain under investigation.
By 2017, McSweeney was director of Labour Together, where Chinn sat on the board. Internal documents revealed that the group’s work included secret projects to undermine Jeremy Corbyn by inflaming the anti-Semitism crisis, planting hostile media stories, and fracturing the party’s left wing.
McSweeney, according to Double Down News, even devised a covert strategy dubbed Operation Red Shield, aimed at “burning down” Corbyn’s Labour in order to capture the party for a pro-business, pro-Israel faction.
The secret funding allowed McSweeney to commission hundreds of thousands of pounds’ worth of polling into the Labour membership. This research shaped Starmer’s leadership campaign, presenting him as a “unity” candidate who pledged to uphold policies such as public ownership and a Green New Deal.
However, once elected, Starmer rapidly U-turned on those commitments, dropping all ten of his leadership pledges. The sequence of events suggests that Starmer’s campaign positions were adopted to secure victory rather than to be implemented in government.
Starmer’s subsequent record confirmed that pattern of deception. Within months of becoming leader, he ditched all ten of his leadership pledges and moved Labour sharply to the right. On Palestine, Starmer has repeatedly echoed Israeli government narratives, refusing to condemn the genocide while expelling Labour members who criticised Israel.
While Trevor Chinn is central to this latest scandal, he is not the only pro-Israel donor bankrolling Labour. Since Starmer’s election, the party has increasingly relied on wealthy businessmen with strong ties to Zionist organisations.
One of these is Gary Lubner, the South African-born former CEO of Autoglass, who has donated more than £5 million ($6.3 million) to Labour. Lubner’s family fortune was built during apartheid South Africa, when his father and uncle were accused of helping to bust international sanctions.
Today, Lubner is a major supporter of the United Jewish Israel Appeal, a fundraising arm for Israeli causes. His son Jack is active in the Jewish Labour Movement and other pro-Israel networks.
Lubner’s uncle Bertie was a major donor to Ben-Gurion University, an institution identified by human rights groups as complicit in Israel’s apartheid system. Under Starmer’s leadership, Labour has drawn heavily on donations from pro-Israel businessmen such as Lubner, underlining the party’s financial dependence on figures with strong political and financial ties to Israel.
The cumulative effect of these revelations is stark: Labour under Starmer has been captured by a narrow, unrepresentative network of pro-Israel donors and lobbyists. Their influence was decisive in undermining Corbyn’s leadership, installing Starmer, and silencing members who demanded a just policy on Palestine.
As Israel’s genocide in Gaza has killed more than 68,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, the Labour government has aligned itself with Israeli war crimes—refusing to halt arms sales, authorising surveillance flights over Gaza and granting Israel political cover on the international stage.
Labour’s latest scandal is not simply about undeclared donations. It speaks to the hollowing out of democracy inside Labour and its subordination to interests directly tied to the Israeli state. Decisions in Labour today are shaped less by members or voters than by figures like McSweeney, Chinn and Lubner—unelected operators whose record and affiliations show a consistent commitment to defending Israel, often over the views of party members.
Digital ID UK: Starmer’s Expanding Surveillance State
By Christina Maas | Reclaim The Net | September 26, 2025
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer came into office promising competence and calm after years of alleged political chaos.
What has followed is a government that treats civil liberties as disposable.
Under his watch, police have leaned on broad public order powers to detain people over “offensive” tweets.
Critics argue that what counts as “offensive” now changes depending on the political mood, which means ordinary citizens find themselves guessing at what might trigger a knock on the door.
This is happening while mass facial recognition cameras are being installed in public places.
The pattern is clear: expand surveillance, narrow dissent, and then assure the public it is all in the name of safety and order.
Against that backdrop, a digital ID system looks less like modernization and more like the missing piece in an expanding control grid.
Once every adult is forced to plug into a centralized identity wallet to work, rent, or access services, the state’s ability to monitor and sanction becomes unprecedented.
Starmer’s Labour government is dusting off one of its oldest obsessions: the dream of tagging every citizen like a parcel at the post office.
The latest revival comes in the form of a proposal to create mandatory digital ID cards, already nicknamed the “Brit Card,” for every working adult in the country.
The sales pitch sounds noble enough: crack down on illegal work, cut fraud, plug loopholes. The real effect would be to make ordinary life a permanent identity check.
Officials want job applications, rental agreements, and other basic transactions to be filtered through a government database, accessed through an app.
This, the people are told, will finally stop the shadow economy of dodgy employers. If that logic sounds familiar, it is because it is the same rationale Labour used for its last ID card scheme in the 2000s, a project that ended up in the political landfill in 2010 after enough voters realized what was happening.
“Digital ID is an enormous opportunity for the UK. It will make it tougher to work illegally in this country, making our borders more secure,” Starmer said in his announcement. “And it will also offer ordinary citizens countless benefits, like being able to prove your identity to access key services swiftly – rather than hunting around for an old utility bill.”
Campaigners and data rights groups are not buying the rebrand.
For Liberty’s Gracie Bradley cut straight to the point: the new version “is likely to be even more intrusive, insecure and discriminatory” than the one the country already threw out a decade ago.
That does not bode well for a government trying to convince citizens this time will be different.
Rebecca Vincent of Big Brother Watch spelled out where this all leads: “While Downing Street is scrambling to be seen as doing something about illegal immigration, we are sleepwalking into a dystopian nightmare where the entire population will be forced through myriad digital checkpoints to go about our everyday lives.”
Her warning does not require much imagination. Britain has a spotty track record on protecting sensitive data.
A poll commissioned by Big Brother Watch found that nearly two-thirds of the public already think the government cannot be trusted to protect their data. That is before any giant centralized ID system is rolled out.
Privacy advocates see this as a recipe for disaster, arguing that hackers and snooping officials alike will treat the system as a buffet of personal information.
Former Cabinet Minister David Davis, one of the longest-serving critics of ID schemes, described the risks as existential. “The systems involved are profoundly dangerous to the privacy and fundamental freedoms of the British people,” he said, noting the government has not explained how or if it would compensate citizens after the inevitable breach.
Silkie Carlo, the director of Big Brother Watch, issued a blunt forecast of where the “Brit Card” could lead.
She warned it could extend across public services, “creating a domestic mass surveillance infrastructure that will likely sprawl from citizenship to benefits, tax, health, possibly even internet data and more.”
In other words, once the pipes are laid, the water does not stop at employment checks.
Labour, of course, has been here before. The last time it rolled out ID cards, in 2009, the experiment barely survived a year before being junked by the incoming Conservative-led coalition as an “erosion of civil liberties.”
Labour is leaning heavily on polling that allegedly suggests up to 80 percent of the public backs digital right-to-work credentials.
Starmer himself recently adopted that framing. Earlier this month, he claimed digital IDs could “play an important part” in tackling black market employment.
He is pushing the case again at the Global Progress Action Summit in London, noting that “we all carry a lot more digital ID now than we did 20 years ago.”
What complicates the sales pitch is Labour’s own history of skepticism. Both Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper previously raised concerns about ID systems and their potential for government overreach.
That past caution has not stopped the new Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, from becoming one of the loudest champions of the plan. She recently declared the system “essential” for enforcing migration and employment laws.
Labour-aligned think tanks are also providing cover. Labour Together released a report describing digital ID as a “new piece of civic infrastructure,” with the potential to become a routine part of life.
***
Tony Blair has reemerged as a central architect of Britain’s dystopian digital future.
Through his think tank, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, the former Prime Minister is pushing the nationwide digital ID system, pitching it as the backbone of a tech-enabled state.
With Keir Starmer now in office, Blair’s vision is no longer an abstract policy paper. It is edging into reality with a new host.
For Blair, digital ID is not about convenience. It is about rewriting how government functions and can be what he calls a “weapon against populism.”
He has argued that a leaner, cheaper, more automated state is possible if citizens are willing to give up parts of their privacy. “My view is that people are actually prepared to trade quite a lot,” he once said, suggesting that resistance will dissolve once faster services are dangled in front of the public.
This project is not limited to streamlining bureaucracy. His version of efficiency is a frictionless state that also monitors, verifies, and restricts in ways that would have been inconceivable before the digital era.
With Starmer’s government now developing a digital ID wallet and considering a national rollout, Blair’s agenda is closer to official policy than ever. Marketed as modernization, the plan points toward a permanent restructuring of the relationship between citizen and state, locking personal identity into a centralized system that future governments will be able to expand at will.
Only 36 countries back Ukraine in key UN vote

RT | September 24, 2025
A joint statement by Ukraine and the EU condemning Russia has received the backing of only 36 out of the 193 UN member states. The US notably abstained.
Presented by EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga at the UN Headquarters in New York on Tuesday, the document describes Russia’s actions vis-a-vis Ukraine as a “blatant violation of the UN Charter.” It also calls on the global community to “maximize pressure” on Moscow, and to support Ukraine’s “territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders.”
The joint statement was endorsed by the 26 EU member states, with the exception of Hungary, and also endorsed by Albania, Andorra, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Japan, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, and the UK.
Back in February, the UN Security Council rejected a resolution drafted by Kiev and its European backers that contained similar anti-Russian rhetoric. A competing resolution promoted by the US was eventually adopted, with Washington, Moscow, and eight other members voting in favor and five European nations abstaining. That version avoided branding Russia as an aggressor and called for a “swift end” to the Ukraine conflict.
Moscow’s deputy envoy to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, at the time described the outcome as a victory for common sense, claiming that “more and more people realize the true colors of the Zelensky regime.”
Moscow has consistently characterized the Ukraine conflict as a proxy war being waged against it by the West.
The Kremlin has repeatedly stated that the hostilities would end were Kiev to renounce its claims to the five regions that have joined Russia through referendums since 2014, reaffirm its neutral status, and guarantee the rights of the Russian-speaking population on its territory.
Mohammad Marandi: Iran KILLS IAEA Deal — Cairo Agreement Wiped Out After SnapBack!
Dialogue Works | September 21, 2025
Iranian parliament pushes for ‘nuclear option’ as deterrence to western threat
The Cradle | September 22, 2025
Over 70 members of Iran’s parliament on 22 September called for a reassessment of the country’s defense doctrine, pressing authorities to consider nuclear weapons as a deterrent.
In a letter addressed to the Supreme National Security Council and the heads of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, the lawmakers demanded that the issue be raised urgently.
“We respectfully request that, since the decisions of that council acquire validity with the endorsement of the Leader of the Revolution, this matter be raised without delay and the expert findings communicated to the parliament,” the statement read.
The MPs argued that while the development and use of nuclear arms contradicts the 2010 ‘fatwa’ of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei banning them, circumstances have changed.
They wrote that “developing and maintaining such weapons as a deterrent is another matter,” stressing that “in Shia jurisprudence, a change in circumstances and conditions can alter the ruling.”
“Moreover, safeguarding Islam – which today is bound to the preservation of the Islamic Republic – is among the paramount obligations.”
The push was led by Hassan-Ali Akhlaghi Amiri, a representative from the holy city of Mashhad, according to Hamshahri Online.
Lawmakers noted that the nuclear doctrine was shaped at a time when the international community was still able to restrain Israeli aggression.
They pointed to the large-scale assault launched by Israel in June, backed by the US, which included direct strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities, among them Fordow.
Iran has long stated its nuclear program is peaceful, rejecting western claims it seeks weapons capability. Tehran continues to cite Khamenei’s fatwa as proof of its intentions.
At the same time, the Supreme National Security Council announced the suspension of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after the UN Security Council imposed sanctions.
State media quoted the body as saying the move was a response to the “ill-considered steps of three European countries.”
Lawmakers warned that pressure tactics by the E3 countries will draw a “harsher and more decisive” response than before.
Britain’s industrial disaster
By John Redwood | The Global Warming Policy Foundation | September 19, 2025
High energy prices, bans on making and extracting things, changed UK tariff policies and high taxes are a toxic mix. The factory and company closures are coming thick and fast, doing grave damage to the UK industrial base and losing us many jobs.
There are the pending closures of most of the bioethanol industry. It makes fuel from grains. Both the large Redcar and Hull works are at risk, and closure has begun. Bioethanol was meant to be one of the bright spots for green growth, offering a fuel that is to be gradually introduced into petrol and into aviation spirit to cut their fossil fuel dependence. E10 petrol is 10% ethanol with more to come. Sustainable aviation fuel is promised and that could also require bioethanol. The abolition of the 19% tariff on US imports has been the final blow to an industry hit by higher energy and employment costs.
These closures put at risk domestic CO2 supply as this is also produced at one of the plants. It will cut demand for wheat and grains from UK farms damaged by government tax changes. It is another set of policies undermining UK economic security and forcing us to find the money to import more. Imports mean paying the wages and taxes of overseas countries, not our own. How do we earn our living?
We have just seen the closure of two large refineries at Grangemouth and Lindsey, making us more dependent on imported fuels and oil products. The damage at Grangemouth is not over yet, with the threat that the large olefins and polymers petrochemical plant will also have to close, driven out by high energy costs. Sabic has announced its closure of another olefins plant at Wilton with the possible loss of 330 jobs.
An industrial nation needs to produce more of its own fuel and chemicals if it is to retain the businesses dependent on these basics. The UK was an important exporter of refined oil products to the EU as well as meeting more domestic demand. Taken together with closing down of our own oil and gas production which could have fed these works, we are witnessing an industrial disaster.
The ceramics industry has been in full retreat for some time. This has also been badly hit by dear energy which it needs for its kilns. This year Royal Staffordshire and Moorcroft have closed, following on from Johnson Tiles last year. Great names of a once flourishing industry are now available for foreign producers if they want to buy or licence the brands. Most of the jobs and tax revenues pass elsewhere. Wedgwood has announced this week a 90-day manufacturing pause as it has too much product for current sales levels. High costs of energy are a problem.
Nippon Electric has decided to close its large glass fibre facility in Wigan with another 250 jobs to go. Dunbar Cement says it will stop producing 700,000 tonnes a year that is needed by the construction industry owing to cost pressures. The UK is moving over to more imports of cement, just in time for the CBAM high tariff to deter imported CO2 heavy products being introduced. This will add to UK construction costs. At Birtley the aluminium extrusion plant is being shut. Three aluminium door and window manufacturers are cutting capacity. The government wants construction-led growth, but it is casually allowing the production of building materials to pass abroad, diluting the beneficial jobs effect of more building.
Jaguar Land Rover’s car output is currently halted owing to a cyber-attack. It is also the case that the car industry is struggling to sell its new emphasis on electric cars to the non-fleet buyer, and is actively closing its substantial capacity to make petrol and diesel cars ahead of the 2030 ban.
The Government needs to wake up to the reality. This is not a series of one-offs. It is not a chain of bad luck from different sources. It is the direct result of very expensive and unreliable energy, of bans on activities and of tax changes that make it dearer and less attractive to make things in the UK.
The collapse proceeds outwards from the bad decision to wind down the UK oil and gas industry prematurely and abruptly with bans and early closures, leading to the closure of petrochemicals and other feedstock dependent businesses. Dear energy lies behind the collapse of our blast furnace steel making, our glass industry, and all other energy-intensive industrial activities.
We choose instead to buy from a China that uses masses of cheap coal, and from an EU that still uses plenty of coal and gas, with some of that gas still bought from Russia. Why is the government so mad keen on imports, and so negative about UK industry? Why the bans on making petrol cars here from 2030 when elsewhere they will still be made? Why agree to the closure of the Gryphon platform in the North Sea which could still be used to bring more oil and gas ashore? Another bizarre tragedy. Can we end this self-harm? Can we go for cheaper energy and understand that using our own gas would be so much better for jobs and taxes than turning to imports? Policy is even boosting world CO2 output at the same time. We need to make more things to help pay for the NHS and get more people back to work.
Nine out of ten patients who die as a result of surgery didn’t need their operation
By Vernon Coleman | September 18, 2025
Surgical deaths in the U.K. number around 30,000 a year. In bigger countries the number is obviously higher. Some patients die because surgeons make mistakes but anaesthetic problems are a major cause of death. Changes in medical practices because of global warming (traditional anaesthetic drugs are being abandoned in a bizarre attempt by doctors to save the planet from a none existent threat) will mean the number dying on the operating table, or immediately afterwards, will go up.
The risks of surgery are dramatically underestimated and vary, of course, according to the age and general health of the patient and the difficulty of the operation. On the whole longer ops mean more risk.
All this is important because nine out ten operations are done to improve life rather than to save it.
This means that 90% of the people who die as a result of surgery didn’t need their operation.
Little research has been done to find out if those optional operations actually do improve patients’ lives.
All this may be worth considering if you’re contemplating surgery which isn’t necessary to save your life.
SNSC says Iran will suspend cooperation with IAEA after re-imposition of sanctions
Press TV – September 20, 2025
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) says Tehran will suspend its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after the United Nations Security Council voted not to permanently lift sanctions on Tehran.
In a statement on Saturday, Iran’s top security body condemned the “ill-considered” moves by Britain, France, and Germany —known as the E3— regarding the Islamic Republic’s peaceful nuclear program.
On Friday, the 15-member Security Council failed to adopt a resolution that would have prevented the reimposition of UN sanctions on Iran after the E3 triggered the “snapback” mechanism, accusing Tehran of failing to comply with the 2015 deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Iran rejected the illegitimate move by the European troika, pointing out that the United States had already pulled out of the deal and accusing the European trio of siding with illegal sanctions instead of honoring their own commitments.
In a Saturday session, chaired by President Masoud Pezeshkian, the SNSC addressed the latest situation in the region and the Israeli regime’s adventurism, the statement said.
“Despite [Iranian] Foreign Ministry’s cooperation with the Agency and the proposals presented to settle the [nuclear] issue, the actions of European countries have effectively suspended the path of cooperation with the Agency,” the SNSC emphasized.
According to the statement, Iran’s top security body tasked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with continuing its consultations within the framework of the SNSC decisions to safeguard the national interests.
It added that Iran’s foreign policy under the current circumstances will be based on cooperation to establish peace and stability in the region.
Earlier on Saturday, Pezeshkian said Tehran can overcome any re-imposition of sanctions and will never surrender to excessive demands.
“We should believe that we can overcome obstacles and that the ill-wishers of this territory cannot block our way,” the president added.
The SNSC was formally put in charge of overseeing cooperation with the IAEA in July, following a series of illegal and unprovoked Israeli and US attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities.
The shift came after Iran’s Parliament passed legislation on July 2, requiring that all IAEA inspection requests be reviewed and approved by the SNSC.
Infiltration: A Cardinal Function of the Zionist Movement
By David Miller | MintPress News | September 16, 2025
What is the function of the Zionist movement? Let’s start with four statements that together define what the Zionist movement does by adding its functions cumulatively.
The Zionist movement creates and sustains the “Israel lobby” to extend its ideological and political reach, shaping both foreign and domestic policy in the countries where it operates. It provides material support for ethnic cleansing and genocide, funneling millions each year through charities that aid in land theft and war crimes. It grooms children and youth into ideological loyalists through a vast network of schools, synagogues, youth groups and settler recruitment programs, including Birthright tours, the Masa journey and the Lone Soldier Program. Beyond all this, the movement systematically dispatches its adherents into broader society as lifelong agents of Zionist ideology. This is not a metaphor. It is infiltration.
This concept of infiltration extends beyond the traditional intelligence model of recruiting agents for covert missions—though that, too, remains part of it. It also involves utilizing individuals who are, in a sense, sleeper agents, ready to be activated.
But it is more than that in the sense that, in many cases, the sleepers don’t need an actual tap on the shoulder to partake in a particular mission. They are already primed to act when the interests of the so-called Jewish state are threatened, or even merely imagined to be.
They are primed by their often decades-long experience of radicalization and grooming to become believing ideological Zionists. In other words, this is a multifaceted and profound level of infiltration cultivated from childhood and reinforced throughout every stage of life.
To understand how such a system came into being, we must examine the origins and evolution of the Zionist movement itself.
The Zionist movement
Even the most hardline Zionists and the most revolutionary socialists agree on one point: before 1948, the Zionist movement functioned as a coordinated political force. It organized and executed the Nakba—the ethnic cleansing and mass displacement of Palestinians—in order to establish what it called the state of Israel. Zionists, of course, reject this terminology, but the historical record is clear.
With its primary objective achieved in 1948, the movement briefly considered dissolving. However, at the World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem in 1951, delegates chose to continue and redefine new goals for the future.
This led to the creation of the “Jerusalem Program,” which formally codified the movement’s new objectives. Alongside it, the Israeli parliament enacted the World Zionist Organization–Jewish Agency (Status) Law to govern the relationship between the “state of Israel” and the Zionist movement. That law remains in effect today, shaping the global Zionist movement’s operations and responsibilities.
1951 Congress
At the World Zionist Congress held in Jerusalem on Sept. 24, 1951, the movement faced a crossroads. With the founding of the state of Israel three years earlier, delegates debated whether the Zionist movement had fulfilled its purpose and should dissolve or reconstitute itself with new goals. In practice, by a vote of 286 to 0, with the remaining 438 delegates abstaining, the Congress resolved to continue its proceedings.

David Ben Gurion speaks at the 1951 World Zionist Congress, 13 August 1951. Source | Wikimedia Commons
It adopted a new set of objectives to reorient the movement. These were defined as: the strengthening of the state of Israel, the ingathering of the exiles in Eretz Yisrael, and the fostering of the unity of the Jewish people.
This moment marked the transformation of Zionism from a settler-colonial movement into a global ideological infrastructure. It was no longer just about building a state; it was about embedding that state into the hearts, minds, and institutions of Jews worldwide.
The status of the Zionist movement
The law passed by the Knesset to formalize the relationship between the Zionist movement and the state of Israel spelled out the obligations of both parties. It designated the World Zionist Organization as the authorized body responsible for developing and settling the land, absorbing immigrants from the diaspora, and coordinating the work of Jewish institutions operating within Israel.
Crucially, the law affirmed that the state of Israel “expects the cooperation of all Jews, as individuals and groups, in building up the State.” It further stipulated that the World Zionist Organization “requires full cooperation and coordination on its part with the state of Israel and its Government, in accordance with the laws of the State.” To that end, the law mandated the creation of a formal committee to coordinate activities between the Israeli government and the Zionist movement’s executive leadership.
In other words, the state of Israel and the World Zionist Organization, as a matter of law, are required to work together, and, also as expressed in law, both bodies expect the cooperation of “all Jews.” The extent to which this expectation is met remains an empirical question.
First established at the 1951 Zionist Congress and enacted in 1953, the Jerusalem Program laid out the operational aims of the World Zionist Organization. This foundational document was later revised in 1968 and again in 2004 to reflect the movement’s evolving priorities. These revisions formalized a series of ideological commitments still in effect today, collectively referred to as the “foundations of Zionism.”
Among these are the preservation of Jewish unity and its enduring bond to Eretz Yisrael, as well as the centrality of the state of Israel, specifically Jerusalem, in Jewish national life. The program affirms support for mass aliyah from all countries and the absorption of Jewish immigrants into Israeli society. It calls for strengthening Israel as a Jewish, Zionist, and democratic state; promoting Jewish, Hebrew, and Zionist education to preserve the distinctiveness of the Jewish people; and defending the rights of Jews globally while combating antisemitism. Most revealingly, it asserts that “settling the country” remains a core expression of practical Zionism.
These principles are intended to guide Zionist activity both within Israel and throughout the world. To make the role of individual Zionists abroad absolutely clear, the movement later published a separate guide detailing their personal responsibilities outside of occupied Palestine.
Duties of the individual Zionist
The duties of the individual Zionist were first codified in a 1972 policy document “approved at the 28th Zionist Congress.” They were later adopted as an integral part of the resolutions of the 29th Congress in 1978. The resolution outlined personal obligations derived from the Jerusalem Program and from formal membership in a Zionist organization.
Among these duties was the call to make aliyah—that is, to become a settler colonist in occupied Palestine. Others included joining local Zionist federations or affiliated groups, actively promoting the movement’s ideological program, and ensuring children received Zionist, Hebrew and Jewish education designed to reinforce loyalty to Israel. Zionists were also expected to donate financially through established channels such as Keren Hayesod, the Jewish National Fund or their local branches, in order to consolidate Israel’s economy and fund its expansionist aims.
With the exception of physically becoming a settler colonist, all of these duties amount to an explicit call for infiltration of host societies. Perhaps the most direct duty, however, is “to strengthen Zionist influence within the community.” This likely refers to the “Jewish community” rather than broader society. Even so, it is still a call to expand the influence of Zionism on society as a whole.
One might reasonably ask how much attention ordinary Zionists pay to such calls. Are these dry, dead words, left to gather dust in the Central Zionist Archives in Al Quds? Or do they still animate the central activities of the movement today? Let us take a look.
Here is a 1961 report from the Jewish Chronicle about a Zionist meeting in Glasgow, which came to hand as I was writing this. I present it as an example of the movement’s thinking and practical activities. The meeting was specifically designed as an educational Zionist event and expounded a particular set of ideas.

A Zionist Federation meeting in Glasgow, reported in the Jewish Chronicle, Oct. 20, 1961, p. 14
The measures which would have to be taken if children in the Diaspora were to remain Jews were discussed by Professor Ernst Simon, of the Hebrew University, when he gave an address at a meeting held in the Central Hotel last week in connection with the Zionist Federation’s Education Fortnight. Mr. Edward Woolfson, President of the Glasgow Zionist Federation, was in the chair. Outlining a practical programme for bringing up children as Jews, Dr. Simon declared that this would have to start with the education of expectant Jewish mothers and fathers at child guidance clinics. As a result, children from their earliest years would be reared in an atmosphere where they would see all the symbols and customs of Jewish life observed. This would then be followed by the children being sent to a Jewish or Hebrew Kindergarten, and then to a Jewish day school. Another important part in the programme, Dr. Simon went on, would be the creation of a Jewish resurgence…
In this view, Zionist education required that children remain Jewish, making “Jewish education” crucial for the movement. A 1961 report reflected this, the year before the British Zionist Federation founded Scotland’s first and only Jewish school, Calderwood Lodge. Is that commitment to inculcating Zionism still present today?
A lifelong commitment to the genocidal ideology
It certainly is. Although Calderwood Lodge was taken over by the local authority in 1982, it remains a Zionist school today. It collaborates with the United Jewish Israel Appeal (UJIA), Maccabi, Mitzvah Day, the Scottish Jewish Youth Alliance (SJYA) and other Zionist groups. (The SJYA is itself a collaboration between Glasgow Maccabi and UJIA Scotland, both Zionist organizations.) The school also marks Israeli Independence Day (Yom Ha’atzmaut) and the “liberation” of Jerusalem (Yom Yerushalayim)—their term for the illegal occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967.

Celebrating the creation of the Zionist entity in Calderwood Primary School, 2025, with Shayna Conn (right) of the Scottish Jewish Youth Alliance. Source | Facebook | Jewish Telegraph
The UJIA is the U.K. outpost of one of Israel’s four “national institutions,” established to create and sustain the state of Israel. It serves as the U.K. affiliate of Keren Hayesod, which raises funds to finance settlement in Palestine. In its 2018–19 annual report, UJIA described its mission as developing a “lifelong connection” between Israel and the “diaspora” community, beginning with children as young as four. Of 12 school programs run by UJIA, nine are in primary schools, reaching thousands of pupils.

From A Lifetime of Connection: UJIA Annual Report 2018-19. Source | United Jewish Israel Appeal

“Strong British Jewry with a lifelong commitment to Israel.” Source | United Jewish Israel Appeal
Does it work?
Varying statistics suggest that between 60% and 90% of British Jews—or perhaps more—identify as some form of Zionist.
Research by Pew in the United States in 2021 found that “eight in ten U.S. Jews say caring about Israel is an essential or important part of what being Jewish means to them. Nearly six in ten say they personally feel an emotional attachment to Israel.” In the United Kingdom, a 2024 study by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research reported that “73% say they feel very or somewhat attached to the country. However, the proportion identifying as ‘Zionists’ has fallen from 72% to 63% over the past decade.”
Ultra-Zionists often claim that even more Jews identify as Zionist. For example, the so-called Campaign Against Antisemitism conducted a survey in late 2023 that produced even higher figures. It reportedly “revealed that 97% of British Jews feel ‘personally connected’ to events happening in Israel … 80% of respondents considered themselves to be a Zionist.”
It appears that the activities of the UJIA and the wider Zionist movement are proving effective. Yet after two years of livestreamed genocide, there is also growing unrest and dissent within the Jewish community, particularly among the young. A recent poll cited in the Jewish Chronicle found that “only” 57% of Jews in their twenties “identified with Zionism.”
Nevertheless, the extent of Zionist adherence is still far too large. This means there are Zionists throughout the social structure of most advanced nations, even when the Jewish population is very small, as in the United Kingdom, where it has fallen to 0.4%. In the United States, Jews make up about 2.4% of the population.
The uncomfortable truth is that the Zionist movement urges its adherents to infiltrate the societies where they live and to display their commitment to its racist ideology at every possible turn. As the UJIA examples above show, they encourage a lifelong commitment to Israel. But is that the so-called dual loyalty “trope”—the allegedly racist claim that Jews are more loyal to the state of Israel than to the countries in which they reside?
Only if we say it, if they say it, it’s fine—nothing to see here. As Pat Buchanan once remarked in a debate with Ralph Nader, “dual loyalty would be an improvement.”
The fact remains that the Zionist movement promotes commitment to both the ideology and the practice of Zionism, even when this runs counter to the interests of the host nation. In the case of the state, this is true in most instances. In the case of the citizenry, it is true in all.
Meet the Zionist Infiltrators
Some within the movement consider the term “infiltration” outdated, arguing that it implies a deliberate Zionist strategy. Yet this article has shown that such a strategy does exist. The question, however, is how conscious or deliberate it is. The evidence suggests there are different types of infiltration and different kinds of infiltrators.
We can begin with those directly or indirectly engaged in specific forms of infiltration on behalf of agencies of the Zionist entity. Their activities align more closely with the traditional sense of the term. From there, we turn to those with looser ties to the movement as a whole. In what follows, I outline six types of infiltration.
Direct Service to the Zionist Entity
The most obvious form of infiltration is direct service to the Zionist entity through collaboration with its intelligence agencies. One example is the Ofer family, which breached U.S. sanctions to deliver Mossad agents and weapons for subversion and assassination operations in Iran. Another involves activities linked to Jeffrey Epstein, who gathered sexual kompromat for Israeli intelligence.
Mossad also relies on Sayanim, its informal helpers abroad, most famously Robert Maxwell. Beyond this, thousands of Zionists work with the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and its predecessor, the Ministry of Strategic Affairs. Their operations range from propaganda and lobbying to trolling, doxxing and lawfare.
One such network is the Combat Antisemitism Movement, which has nearly 1,000 members and operates in a “joint venture” with Voices of Israel, a company run by the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs. In total, many thousands of Zionist groups are engaged in this form of activity.
Tech Start-ups as a Zionist Strategy
Service is also given directly to the Zionist entity through the creation of tech start-ups founded by former intelligence personnel. This has long been a strategy of Unit 8200, Israel’s signals intelligence agency. Today, there are hundreds of such firms in the tech industry. Some have become widely and controversially known, including Cellebrite, NICE, Toka, and the NSO Group, maker of the Pegasus surveillance product. One online listing of 28 such firms records a combined value of $208 billion.
The covert use of this vast surveillance apparatus by the Zionist regime has been widely noted. Investigative reports also show that significant numbers of Zionist infiltrators—including former occupation forces members, intelligence operatives and others—have secured senior positions across mainstream media and Big Tech. These include Google, Apple, Facebook/Meta, Microsoft, TikTok and more.
Emissaries of the Zionist Project
There is also a civilian equivalent of the Sayanim, known as Shlichim, or emissaries. The Jewish Agency—one of the four pillars of the formal Zionist movement—sends Shlichim from occupied Palestine to build what it calls “living bridges to Israel.” These emissaries are placed in schools, synagogues, JCCs, camps, universities, youth movements and Federations across the globe.
In 2021, the Union of Jewish Students, the Zionist student group in the U.K., reported hosting two Shlichim from the Jewish Agency. The recently revealed diary of Israel’s ambassador to the U.K. even records a “goodbye breakfast” she hosted in July 2024 for Shlichim returning to the Zionist entity after completing their tours of duty.
Other Zionist groups also send emissaries. The World Mizrachi Movement, for example, sent about 300 last year. The Haredi sect Chabad—described by critics as a genocidal cult—uses the same term for its global network of emissaries. According to Chabad itself, “Today, 4,900 Chabad-Lubavitch emissary families, or shluchim, operate 3,500 institutions in 100 countries and territories, with activities in many more.
Zionist Family Networks
Another form of service to the genocide comes through Zionist family networks in the West, particularly via philanthropic giving. Family foundations funnel money to Zionist organizations, all of which effectively encourage genocide.
One example is the many millions donated by Sheldon and Miriam Adelson to pro-Zionist political candidates. “I’m a one-issue person. That issue is Israel,” Adelson said in 2017. In the U.K., millions are given by the Lewis family, which owns River Island, and the Wolfson family, which owns Next, to support the genocide. Their contributions directly fund the occupation forces as well as settlement construction and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.
Millions more are spent by Zionist family foundations to spread Islamophobia—through the Policy Exchange and the Henry Jackson Society in the U.K., and through the so-called Islamophobia network in the U.S. Additional funds go toward indoctrinating Jewish children through nurseries, schools, youth groups, student groups and “Birthright” tours, which promote the racist belief that Jews have a birthright to steal Palestinian land and kill Palestinian children.
Zionist billionaire families dominate this giving, but many thousands of others also contribute through large and small Zionist charities and causes. In the U.K., there are an estimated 3,000 such organizations, and in the U.S., there are likely more than 10,000. A preliminary compilation of data on U.S. Zionist groups is available here.
Defending Zionism Over the Life Course
The final form of infiltration is tied directly to the Zionist strategy of ensuring that all Jews make an enduring, lifelong commitment to Israel. As this article has shown, this has been central to the Zionist movement since at least 1951 and remains so today. Zionists expect all Jews to act on behalf of Israel whenever called upon—or whenever they perceive Zionist interests to be under threat.
Practically, this means service to Zionism through daily professional, political and social activities, wherever Zionists find themselves: in the media, political parties, business, finance, schools, universities and civil society, including left-wing and so-called “anti-racist” organizations.
In other words, Zionists throughout the social structure are engaged in subversion and infiltration. One example is the Jewish network within the U.K. civil service. Although set up by the civil service itself, it is in practice run by and for Zionists rather than Jews. Similar patterns exist in universities, the media, the legal profession, finance, industry and other institutions across society.
When the time comes for the proverbial tap on the shoulder, how many who have passed through Zionist indoctrination will fail to respond “appropriately”? To ask the question is almost to invite disbelief. In many cases, no tap on the shoulder is even required. Across the BBC, the media, the entertainment world, the civil service, politics, finance and other commanding heights of society, there are Zionists who are ideologically committed. For them, it makes perfect sense to “do the right thing” when the moment arrives.
The fact remains that the Zionist movement encourages loyalty to its ideology and its program of action even when these run counter to the interests of the host state—or, in all cases, to the interests of its citizenry.
Can we trust Zionists?
In the end, no Zionist can be trusted. Do we imagine that they are not also infiltrating the left? The Palestine solidarity movement? The anti-war movement?
Zionism is, at its core, a racist ideology. No matter how hard “liberal,” “socialist,” or “leftist” Zionists try to disguise it, that racism always reveals itself—whether in adopting Zionist positions in their professional lives or in subverting and sabotaging pro-Palestine activism in political life.
This has historically meant that the anti-racist movement and the Palestine solidarity movement have been weak on the question of Zionism. It was a major mistake for the “left” in the U.K. and elsewhere not to confront Zionism head-on earlier. Today, we face a significant struggle to cleanse the left and the anti-imperialist movement of both Zionists and Zionist assumptions—ideas that have seeped out of the movement and into the consciousness of many non-Zionist, or even anti-Zionist, socialist activists.
This process has been underway for many decades. However, this is not the place for a detailed analysis of the Jewish left or of Zionist penetration of the non-Jewish left. A fuller exposition will be needed in another article. For now, it is enough to point to the need for a material and maximalist anti-Zionism.
Infiltration today
The traditional forms of infiltration used by intelligence services continue—covert spies, informers and, in the case of the Zionists, the widespread penetration of the tech industry by alumni of Unit 8200. In addition, the Zionist movement makes extensive use of emissaries, both through the mainstream movement and through more marginal elements such as the Chabad-Lubavitch cult, as we have seen.
But in addition to this—as this article has argued—there is an effort to recruit all Jews into a “lifelong connection” to “Israel.” In practical terms, the movement treats all Jews as potential resources. This is why so much effort is devoted to grooming and radicalization through nurseries, schools, synagogues, youth and student groups, and the wide array of Zionist lobby groups and charities.
They attempt to radicalize Jews such that they will put Israel first wherever they end up in the social structure. And given that Jews are systematically advantaged in the social structure across the West, this has the potential to be a very powerful set of relations. I submit that infiltration is a cardinal principle of the Zionist movement, and it helps to explain how Zionist individuals and ideas are so heavily embedded in political, civil, economic and cultural life in Western nations.
Knowing your enemy is the first step toward defeating them—and toward dislodging Zionism from its entrenched status and role in society.
Professor David Miller is a non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Islam and Global Affairs at Istanbul Zaim University and a former Professor of Political Sociology at the University of Bristol. He is a broadcaster, writer and investigative researcher; the producer of the weekly show Palestine Declassified on PressTV; and the co-director of Public Interest Investigations, of which spinwatch.org and powerbase.info are projects. He tweets @Tracking_Power.

