Monthly Archives: April 2017

Russia wants Iran to receive full membership in a geopolitical organization designed as a partial counterweight to NATO and other western pacts, a move that would likely deepen the economic and military ties between the two governments.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called for Iran's speedy accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a group of Central Asian states dominated by Russia and China that fosters military and economic cooperation between the members. He issued the call within days of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson signaling a desire to impose sanctions that former President Barack Obama lifted under the terms of the recently-negotiated nuclear deal.

"Iran has settled the problem of the UN Security Council sanctions and hence fully meets the SCO membership criteria," Lavrov said. "We hope that during their June summit in Astana the heads of our states will be able to discuss the possibility of launching the procedure for admitting Iran into the organization as a full member."

That would give Iran formal ties to Russia and China, the two leading powers in an organization often regarded as "a counterbalance to the Western-dominated international institutions that have held sway since the end of the Second World War," as Newsweek put it. SCO nations cooperate militarily and economically, although the organization doesn't guarantee mutual defense the way NATO does.

The economic appeal of the group is growing with the accession of India and Pakistan. "The SCO will account for 43 percent of the world's population and 24 per cent of global GDP," as Lavrov noted.

Membership of such a league would have political and military benefits for Iran. "Iran has been angling for quite awhile to get into the SCO just for the benefits of being closer to what it calls, in its parlance, the eastern powers China and Russia," Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior Iran analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Washington Examiner. "Iran has expressed interest in joining them because it sees these guys as a natural counterweight to American and the west, American counterweight and hard power and its Iran saying, 'you want to divest us of western markets, then we can go east."

Those relationships will be especially valuable to Iran when bans on conventional weapons and ballistic missile sales expire in 2020 and 2023, respectively. "Russia and China will likely be the two biggest arms markets for Iran," Taleblu said. "The SCO process would provide a much broader international cover for these arms relationships."

The timing of Lavrov's statement underscores how Iran can factor into disagreements between Russia and the United States. President Trump's team announced days earlier a new effort to punish Iran for supporting terrorist groups and other destabilizing moves, a crackdown that might include walking away from the deal and reimposing economic sanctions that were lifted through the nuclear deal. "The Trump administration has no intention of passing the buck to a future administration on Iran," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday.

Originally posted here:
Russia pushes for Iranian membership in NATO counterweight group - Washington Examiner

The Jamestown Foundation

NATO: Assessing the Alliance's Counter-Terrorism Efforts The Jamestown Foundation NATO's counter-terrorism efforts have been the focus of much attention in recent months. Faced with a U.S. ultimatum that Washington might moderate its commitment to the Alliance, member states have sought ways to demonstrate that the organization ...

See the article here:
NATO: Assessing the Alliance's Counter-Terrorism Efforts - The Jamestown Foundation

Attack on the Champs-Elysees, 20 April 2017.

At the beginning of 2017, we were informed that jihadists were preparing actions which were intended to force France and Germany to postpone their elections. It was not easy to discern: whether the aim was to postpone the French Presidential election (April-May), or the French parliamentary elections (June), or both; whether France was a target in itself, or if the actions in France were a preparation for future actions against Germany.

Among the candidates for the Presidential election, only Franois Fillon and Marine Le Pen have criticised the support offered by France to the Muslim Brotherhood. Fillon has even made it one of the recurring themes of his campaign.

We alerted our readers that the Press campaigns and the legal affairs launched against Donald Trump in the United States, and against Franois Fillon in France, were commanded by the same groups. We wrote that according to Messrs. Trump & Fillon, it will not be possible to restore peace and prosperity without first putting an end to the instrumentalisation of Islamic terrorism, without freeing the Muslim world from the ascendancy of the jihadists, and without attacking the true source of terrorism: the Muslim Brotherhood. [1]

At that time, the French, believing wrongly that the Muslim Brotherhood was just a movement within the Muslim religion, did not react. Later, I published a book , Right Before our Eyes. From 9/11 to Donald Trump, whose second part describes in detail, and for the first time, how this secret organisation, created and controlled by MI6, is run by the British secret services. It is this Brotherhood which, since the Second World War, has been attempting to transform Sunni Islam into a political instrument. All the leaders of jihadist groups without exception came from the Brotherhood - from Oussama Ben Laden to Abou Bakr al-Baghdadi.

On 26 February, without explanation, Franois Fillon published a communiqu which was widely criticised: We find ourselves in an unprecedented situation: less than two months from the Presidential election, we are in a state of quasi civil war which is disturbing the normal course of the campaign () I say again that we are in a state of emergency, and yet the government does nothing () Today, in my rle as ex-Prime Minister, as an elected member of the Nation, I solemnly accuse the Prime Minister and the government of failing to guarantee the conditions for a serene exercise of democracy. They have a very heavy respnsibility in allowing a state of almost civil war to develop, and which can only profit the extremes () Whoever the candidates are, they must have the right to express themselves, and the government must take the necessary measures so that the rioters and the enemies of democracy cease disrupting the Presidential campaign [2].

On 17 April, the Police Nationale informed the four main candidates that there were threats to their security, and reinforced their protection.

On 18 April, M. (29 years old) and Clement B. (23 years old) were arrested while they were preparing an attack during a meeting in support of Franois Fillon.

On 20 April, a policeman was killed and two others seriously wounded during an attack on the Champs-Elyses.

Franois Fillon and Marine Le Pen cancelled the journeys they had planned for the 21 April. Following the movement, and althought here was no real threat to him at all, Emmanuel Macron did the same.

The security of the French people will be a central issue for the next five-year Presidential term. This question is all the more complex in that the recent terrorist attacks perpetrated on French soil have implicated three of Frances NATO allies the US deep state, the United Kingdom, and Turkey.

I have widely covered the question of the attacks in Paris (13November 2015) and Brussels (22March 2016).[3]. In my latest book, I indicate that while the responsibility for these attacks was claimed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoan and his Press, they were carried out by independent commandos, with the exception of a common operator, Mohammed Abrini of MI6 (p. 231)[4].

For years, the successive governments of Nicolas Sarkozy and Alain Jupp, and also the government of Franois Hollande and Laurent Fabius, have hidden their criminal activities from the French people, and the consequences for which they are responsible - terrorism intra muros.

It is absurd to believe that al-Qada and Daesh could be in possession of so much money and weaponry without the support of major states. It is absurd to believe that France could have participated in the remodelling operations in the Greater Middle East without suffering the counter-attacks. It is absurd to believe that it will be easy to fight international terrorism when it is commanded by our own NATO allies.

See the rest here:
France caught up in terrorism, victim of her own NATO allies - Voltaire Network