TFF Blog

Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif and the EU Foreign Policy chief Frederica Mogherini UPI writes that the European Union issues sanctions on Iran over assassination plots on January 8, 2019. And US Secretary of State, Pompeo, fully supports them. The move puts the Iranian individuals and intelligence unit on the EU terrorist list – freezing their financial assets. It’s a brilliant example of Matthew 7:3-6: “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” Which, it seems, is now a standard operating policy by the Western world. Or, one may say, an example of psycho-political projection of the West’s own dark sides onto this enemy today and that enemy tomorrow. Here some arguments in support of that – perhaps to some – provocative statement: 1) It should be clear from contemporary history’s records that countries...

Dr Jake Lynch, former BBC newsreader, political correspondent for Sky News and Sydney correspondent for the Independent, is the director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney and one of the most published authors in the field of Peace Journalism. His debut novel, Blood on the Stone: An Oxford Detective Story of the 17th Century, is published by Unbound Books. Jake has spent 20 years developing and researching Peace Journalism, in theory and practice. He is the author of seven books and over 50 refereed articles and book chapters. His work in this field was recognised with the award of the 2017 Luxembourg Peace Prize, by the Schengen Peace Foundation. He served for two years as Secretary General of the International Peace Research Association, having organised its biennial global conference in Sydney, in 2010. Before taking up an academic post, Jake enjoyed a 17-year...

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman remains at large, the unapologetic murderer (according to the CIA) of the respected dissident journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. Even though President Donald Trump came close to accusing him of the deed, he has pulled back, citing Saudi Arabia’s importance as an oil producer and arms buyer. The prime minister of the UK, Theresa May, is too preoccupied with Brexit to want to give up an important market. President Emanuel Macron of France is silent after an initial outburst. Now pressed by the demands of the demonstrators, he also wants to keep sources of revenue that come from sales of jets. Last week King Salman stepped into the crisis. Whatever admonishment he may have given his son, he is clearly not prepared to sideline him from his seat of power. Instead he has compromised by merely reshuffling the cabinet. The acceptance of the status quo must be...

The general election has been postponed yet again. Will this country, the largest and potentially the richest in Africa, ever escape from its continuous dictatorship, and its propensity to civil war? It’s not so long ago that Susan Rice, then the US’s Ambassador to the United Nations, was talking about the Congo as the site of “Africa’s First World War”. Has the UN at long last really pacified this country that has been continuously in a state of unrest since the Belgian colonisers, after effectively looting the country, fled in 1960, turning the country over to a hastily improvised African government? Today we can say that the fighting that has consumed the Congo is within sight of being over, apart from some localized violence in Kivus and Kasai provinces. But, given the history of the most turbulent of all African countries, we should say, let’s wait and see. Nevertheless, it...

I have long believed that the three red lines in Washington that no elected president can significantly transgress without being ejected from the Oval Office are unwavering support for the priorities of Wall Street, the Pentagon, and Israel. With the announced withdrawal of American troops in Syria (and their 50% cut in Afghanistan), transgressed one of these red lines. What is more, he upset what the mainstream media has been calling ‘the last adult in the room,’ the Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, who made the country critically ponder Trump’s transgression by his thinly veiled rebuke in the form of a letter of resignation that has been treated as scripture by such hegemonic media outlets as CNN and the NY Times. It has become clear that Trump transgressed two of the three red lines, a reality further aggravated by the Christmas shutdown of the Federal Government and his babyish tantrum...

After a long period of relative silence, Reza Pahlavi, the son of the deposed Iranian Shah who has lived in the United States for more than 40 years, recently made a rare public appearance, calling for a U.S.-backed regime change in Iran. Speaking at the pro-Israel Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Friday, December 14, he called for “non-Military actions” in support of Iranians to replace the Islamic Republic with a secular democracy. Since coming to office and even during the 2016 election campaign, President Donald Trump has adopted a very hostile attitude towards Iran and the landmark nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA) negotiated under President Barack Obama. Some of the more hawkish members of his team have received huge fees speaking at the annual meetings of the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) that are held outside Paris, and have openly called for regime change in...

In the Western world, there is a constant debate about democracy. In the US the Democrats charge quite correctly that the House’s constituencies are gerrymandered against them. Then there’s the insoluble issue of the Senate’s anti-democratic bias where its numbers are tilted against the Democrats by the fact that rural, less populated, states which tend to be conservative, elect two senators, just as do the Democratic-inclined, heavily populated, states. In Britain, the country is riven by the Brexit debate. A referendum was held two and a half years ago when voters were given the choice of “Remain” or “Leave”. The “Leavers” won by a small margin and the country has been in political turmoil ever since. Now with Prime Minister Theresa May’s exit plans on the rocks the debate has become vitriolic. There are calls for a new referendum to reverse the previous vote. It’s likely to happen since Mrs...

The whole debate about Brexit has had a weird quality about it from beginning to end. Prime Minister Theresa May voted in the referendum two and half years ago to remain in the European Union but then as a quid pro quo for being made prime minister she has led the charge to implement Brexit.  Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Party, voted to remain but has made it clear that he too prefers out, albeit keeping the UK in the Customs Union. Mrs May muddied the waters even further when in a radio interview she was asked how she would vote if there was a second referendum replied that she didn’t know. Yesterday at the eleventh hour she postponed a parliamentary vote on whether to approve or not the treaty negotiated with the EU on Brexit. The former prime minister, Gordon Brown, writing in the Financial Times, has...

I have to admit that the most unforgiving relationship I hold is the one with the media. This may not come as a surprise as one doesn’t need to look further than a front page of any media platform to see that the media has become an increasingly hostile and contradictory arena. We seem to be living in times of linguistic austerity and compassion depravity. We are faced with more and more undeniable evidence that the media is creating an increasing social divide and psychological crisis in our society today. Sadly, this is not something new. If one learns from history and observes the present carefully, it is evident that the media has a critical role in perpetuating and exaggerating conflict. For example, the media has had a single role as a dividing factor and driving force in triggering and perpetuating the Yugoslav wars in the Balkans, by using ethnic...

Today the Universal Declaration of Human Rights turns 70. All reason to celebrate. Without the norms embedded in this extremely important document, humankind would be much worse off. Because normativity is important even though it is only words. It enables us to make those who violate human rights accountable. And that is, in general terms, an extremely important aspect of the UN and its Charter. So too the norm expressed in its Article 1 – that peace shall be established by peaceful means and only when all such means have been tried an found in vain, can the UN member states take to violent means. As a last resort. That said, the only two problems I have with the human rights philosophy and concept are: One could also formulate it this way: Human beings have duties vis-a-vis those whose rights are not embedded in any declaration, i.e. other living creatures,...

Sverige borde klippa banden med den västliga militäralliansen Nato. Dessutom ska vapenexporten till USA, Saudiarabien och andra krigförande länder stoppas, skriver fredsaktivisten Ola Friholt. Vi 55 deltagare vid utdelningen av ”Folkets fredspris i enlighet med Nobels testamente” till Agneta Norberg yrkar härmed att Sveriges riksdag och regering snarast avvecklar sitt förstuckna engagemang och öppna samröre med Natostaternas upptrappade militära angrepp, bland annat i krigen mot Serbien, Afghanistan, Irak och Libyen, med flera miljoner direkta och indirekta dödsoffer. Det är en skam för Sverige att olaglig vapenexport till krigförande länder ogenerat tillåts även i dag. Vi uppmanar regering och riksdag att omedelbart avbryta vapenexporten till USA, Saudiarabien och övriga inblandade. Läs hela artikeln i Dagens Nyheter 8:e december 2018 Foto: Gunnar Svedenbäck

How interesting! President Trump tweets on December 3, that he believes that the present level of military expenditures are ‘crazy’ – and he wants to talk with China and Russia about reducing them. I was asked by Russia Today to comment on that and here is what I said – being granted long enough time to deliver the longer argument which is unusual in most media today. Russia Today then asked me some more questions and here are the answers: