TFF Blog

  Part 1. Preface – Background and forthcoming book on Iran   By Farhang Jahanpour September 1, 2018   Background I am a British national of Iranian origin. I was born in Shiraz, near Persepolis, the capital of Pars Province in Iran, which gave its name to Persia and to two ancient Persian Empires, the Achaemenid and the Sassanian. Shiraz is famous as an Iranian cultural centre, being the birthplace of two of Iran’s greatest poets, Hafiz and Sa’di, and many philosophers, saints and scholars. My former tutor at the University of Cambridge, the late Professor A. J. Arberry, who was one of the greatest experts on Iran and Islam wrote a fascinating book on “Shiraz, the Iranian City of Saints and Poets”. I studied Persian literature at Shiraz University, and as I graduated with the highest grades in my year, I was given a scholarship to continue my studies...

The evidence that has come out from the UN and NGOs makes clear, without any reservation or ambiguity, that on August 9th dozens of school children on a bus in Yemen were killed by a Saudi Arabian air-strike, and that American supplied weapons had been used, and probably British too. Criticism of Saudi Arabia and its partner in crime, the United Arab Republic, has been increasing over the last year. The US is not a partner in the actual fighting but, started by President Barack Obama and continued on a larger scale by President Donald Trump, the US doesn’t only provide weapons it has provided intelligence, warplane refueling and guidance technology for missiles and bombs. This is reminiscent of when the US supported Saddam Hussein’s war against Iran, some years before Saddam himself became the West’s opponent. Although Saddam used a weapon of mass destruction – chemicals – the US,...

By David Krieger Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, NAPF August 2018 Nuclear weapons pose a grave threat to the future of civilization. As long as we allow these weapons to exist, we flirt with the catastrophe that they will be used, whether intentionally or accidentally. Meanwhile, nuclear weapons skew social priorities, create imbalances of power, and heighten geopolitical tension. Diplomacy has brought some noteworthy steps in curbing risks and proliferation, but progress has been uneven and tenuous. The ultimate aim of abolishing these weapons from the face of the earth—the “zero option”—faces formidable challenges of ignorance, apathy, and fatigue. Yet, the total abolition of nuclear weapons is essential for a Great Transition to a future rooted in respect for life, global solidarity, and ecological resilience. This will require an emboldened disarmament movement working synergistically with kindred movements, such as those fighting for peace, environmental sustainability, and economic justice, in pursuit of...

  By Miko Peled July 23, 2018        

By David Swanson TFF Associate David Swanson delivers, in his usual crystal clear and well-documented manner, the arguments against higher U.S. military spending and illustrates how much better it would be for the U.S. itself and for the world to reduce the military expenditures and allocate even just a fraction of these incomprehensibly huge sums to constructive purposes. TFF is proud to inform you that David has been awarded the US Peace Memorial Foundation’s 2018 Peace Prize. Congratulations, David! So well deserved.

  TFF launches a new educational series on regime change in the Middle East to help prevent a repetition on Iran – #NotIranToo   TFF is about to publish a series of articles on regime change in the Middle East over the last few decades. The series has a special focus on Iran because it is now abundantly clear that the U.S. under Trump’s formal administration – but perhaps more under the elites that make up the Deep State underlying it – seems bent on building up to at least a political, psychological and economic war on Iran and – in the worst of cases – also to some kind of military action too. The series consists of sections of Chapter 12 in a forthcoming book by eminent scholar and TFF Board member, Farhang Jahanpour, Oxford University. In a comprehensive preface, he explains his own intellectual path and journalistic work...

Everything gets said, nothing gets done. When President Donald Trump met President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki last month we were promised all sorts of goodies- progress in reconciliation in Ukraine and Syria, and not least nuclear disarmament. If there is progress behind the scenes it’s not noticeable to the naked eye. People talk about Trump being in Putin’s pocket yet when, soon after Trump became president, Putin suggested major cuts in nuclear weapons Trump turned him down. This would have been a fantastic way to start his presidency. He could have upped Barack Obama’s achievement of getting the arsenal down to 1550 warheads each. In nearly everything else he wants to destroy Obama’s legacy or minimize it. This would have been a way to do it. This doesn’t sound to me like Putin, the supposed puppet master, was pulling the strings on his marionette, Trump. Let that be, maybe we’ll...

  By Jan Oberg Commenting on Iran’s global PressTV why the US sanctions against Iran are one big violation of international law and why other countries should resist all pressures from the US and its threat of imposing its secondary sanctions on them – remember Trump’s tweet that anyone who does business with Iran will not do business with the US. This behaviour – including the attempt to suffocate 85 million innocent Iranian citizens – is an unacceptable type of policy as well as a gross violation of human rights. Decency, ethics and simple fairness should compel the world to tell the US that on this one it stands alone. The burden here is very high on the Euopean Union. In passing, let me say that I am happy to work with PressTV. I’m always being treated with respect and gratitude and over the years not one attempt to manipulate...

  Two mistakes, committed on President Barack Obama’s watch, were the triggers for the end of the long post-Cold War period of good relations with Russia. They were the attack on Libya by the US, France and the UK and the subsequent killing of its long-time dictator, Muammar Gadhafi. The second was the crisis in Ukraine. Russia was very angry about the first. Having been persuaded by Western diplomacy that the reason for their would-be intervention was essentially humanitarian to forestall any more mass killing in the Libyan civil war, the US and NATO double-crossed Russia. After having gained Russia’s abstention in a UN Security Council vote on a resolution authorizing military intervention the Western powers set about hunting Gadhafi. With the second, Ukraine, Russia felt undermined. This was the result of the twin policies of NATO expansion up to Russia’s border – which the US, Germany, France and the...

By Farhang Jahanpour, TFF Board member August 13, 2018   In an interview with Tehran Times, professor Farhang Jahanpour, part-time tutor on Middle Eastern affairs in the Department of Continuing Education, University of Oxford, and a member of Kellogg College says that he does not believe that Arab NATO is “a viable military alliance.” Former Senior Research Scholar at Harvard adds that “Many earlier U.S. attempts to develop a formal alliance with Arab monarchies have failed and, at the moment, there is even less unity among various PGCC members than ever before.” Professor Jahanpour suggests that President Trump should be invited to Iran to see the destruction wrought on her people thanks to Saddam Hussein’s Western-supported invasion of Iran and then he should visit all the other places the US has helped destroy and meet the victims there. Following is the full text of the interview which was published by...

Photo: US President George Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev at the Moscow Summit 1991 By Peter Turnley/Corbis/VCG/Getty Images Over the last four month, ten articles about the new Cold War have been published on the TFF Associates blog. And on our social media you’ll find hundreds of brilliant, informative posts written by others. While this new Cold War is certainly different from the first Cold war that ended in 1989, we are not in doubt that there is a new such tragic war and that the risk of military confrontation between Russia and NATO countries in Europe has increased. We also happen to think it could have been avoided. This Cold War has to do with, among many other things, NATO’s counterproductive expansion since 1994, the way Yugoslavia broke down and was broken up, with Ukraine and now Syria as well as – perhaps surprisingly to some – the...

  On the occasion of the Summit in NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Outdated/Obsolete. Here the 8 main arguments. Please share if you like! The Western media will not raise these critical questions, the rest of us must… Here the original link at Facebook Live with all comments and viewer statistics