William R. Polk June 5, 2019 Despite appearances of random, off-the-cuff decisions, rendered on tweets and without, or even in opposition to, the advice of foreign policy specialists, I am going to posit a rationale behind the warlike actions and pronouncements of Messrs. Trump, Bolton and Pompeo. To do so, I will try to put […]
Hotel Abbasi, Isfahan, Iran © Jan Oberg By John Scales Avery May 31, 2019 On Monday, 13 May 2019, the New York Times posted an article with the title “White House Reviews Military Plans Against Iran, in Echoes of Iraq War”. Besides the aircraft carrier and other naval forces already sent to the Persian Gulf, […]
Lund, Sweden, May 27, 2019 HE Secretary-General of the United NationsAntónio GuterresUnited NationsNew York NY REGARDING: Request for action in accordance with the UN Charter Article 99 to seek to prevent war between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The relation between the USA and Iran has been tense for […]
May 20, 2019 By Jan Oberg Remember President Trump’s tweet and accompanying statements by the Trump administration officials concerning Iran – as reported here by CNN on May 19, 2019. Trump’s statement amounts to a de facto declaration of war on Iran. Objectively speaking, it is a lie that Iran threatens the US. It is […]
By Esfandyar Batmanghelidj and Nicholas Mulder April 16, 2019 Financial wars damage and disfigure economies as much as military ones. Countries ravaged by sanctions need reconstruction, too. The sanctions just keep on coming. The reactions were swift when the Trump administration designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization, in a move […]
April 4, 2019 By Medea Benjamin Trump’s economic strangulation is having devastating people on the Iranian people. On a recent delegation to Iran, we experienced first-hand the legendary Iranian hospitality. Iranians are particularly thrilled to meet Americans, but as we discovered, our government’s policies are hurting the very people who want to be our friends. […]
By Jonathan Power March 12, 2019 The long war is almost over in Syria. Tyranny has won. Violence has won. Most have suffered, many unspeakably. For too long all sides were stalemated by each others’ brutality. Now the government of Bashar Al-Assad has come out on top, aided by Russia and Iran. What to do […]
Photo: Shutterstock By Jim Lobe March 6, 2019 The ongoing war in Yemen, called the world’s “worst humanitarian disaster” by the United Nations and independent aid agencies since early last year, received a grand combined total of 20 minutes of coverage on the ABC, NBC, and CBS weekday evening news programs in 2018. That compared […]
By Jonathan Power March 6, 2019 After the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70 the Jews were thrust into the outer world – many into Arab countries, later to become Muslim, where they were extended protection, and later into the Roman and then Christian world where they were accepted for many centuries. […]
A conversation with Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif February 20, 2019 By Jan Oberg The Western mainstream press hasn’t done much to enlighten their audiences to the plain fact that there is more than one side to a conflict between at least two. The Transnational is happy to make available some other views, particularly since […]