Although it seems like just talking about more talking, Beau explained last night that this was a pivotal moment for Biden's Middle East policy. He has a big vision that depends on integrating Iran more responsibly into the region, and reviving the nuclear deal is Step One. If that doesn't happen, most of the rest of his agenda is dead.
In Vienna, Iran met with the other current members of the deal — Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia, under the chairmanship of the European Union — in a grand hotel ballroom, while the American team, led by special envoy Robert Malley, worked separately in a nearby hotel. Iran has refused to meet directly with the United States, so the Europeans have been undertaking a kind of shuttle diplomacy.
The United States also wants to convince Iran to negotiate longer time limits for the accord and to begin further talks on limiting Iran’s missiles and support for allies and Shia militias through the region, including in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. Iran has said that it has no interest in considering further negotiations until the United States restores the status quo ante and rejoins the deal.
More broadly, American officials are trying to gauge whether the United States and Iran can agree on how each can come back into compliance with the nuclear deal — or, at least, work toward bridging any gaps in a mutual understanding.
So while just agreeing through intermediaries to work things through sounds like small news, it's an important step for both parties.
So in case it slipped people's attention, a leaked audio interview with Iran's foreign minister may or may not place John Kerry in hot water.
“Former Secretary of State John Kerry informed him that Israel had attacked Iranian interests in Syria at least 200 times, to his astonishment, Mr. Zarif said.”
Assuming the tape is authentic and that he's being honest, the issue is when such a disclosure took place.
If it came before Israel began publicly acknowledging such strikes in mid-2017, that would indeed be problematic. If it came between then and Israel’s acknowledgment of 200 strikes in September 2018, Kerry would at the very least have been sharing a higher number than was public knowledge — though the overall campaign wouldn’t have been a secret at all. If it came after early September 2018, Kerry would have just been saying something that was already public knowledge.
Two drones headed toward an Iraqi base hosting U.S. troops near Baghdad International Airport were shot down before they could reach their target, Iraqi security sources told Reuters Monday morning.
No injuries were reported.
The attack marks the second anniversary of a drone strike ordered by former President Donald Trump that killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in 2020.
According to Reuters, an unnamed U.S. official said the base’s defense system engaged “two fixed-wing suicide drones,” that “were shot down without incident.”
No one has claimed ownership of the drones yet, although footage that was also reportedly provided to Reuters by the coalition official showed debris from the destroyed drones, with writing on of the wing’s allegedly reading, “Soleimani’s revenge.”
"Loitering munitions" seems like what we call it if it belongs to us. "Suicide drone" seems like what we call it if we want to make the owners sound like terrorists.
"What? What?What?" -- The 14th Doctor
It's not enough to be a good player... you also have to play well. -- Siegbert Tarrasch
Things are getting crazy - Iran just attacked a US facility/consulate/base in Irbil in northern Kurdish Iraq, with ballistic missiles apparently launched from Iran, and there also may have been a drone (?) involved:
Someday the normal people of the world are going to have to go into these shitholes and dig out the puss filled parasites infesting these countries and squish them in the daylight for all to see .Stop being held hostage by them nukes or not. Cant just continue to live on a planet where little festering pockets of whaaaa whaaaaa ruin the world for the rest.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake. http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
Im a bilingual. A bilingual illiterate. I can't read in two languages.
Daehawk wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 8:55 pm
Someday the normal people of the world are going to have to go into these shitholes and dig out the puss filled parasites infesting these countries and squish them in the daylight for all to see .Stop being held hostage by them nukes or not. Cant just continue to live on a planet where little festering pockets of whaaaa whaaaaa ruin the world for the rest.
Or we could hope for enlightenment and change to come about. It wasn’t too long ago that we were mortal enemies of Japan and Germany. Now they're two of our closest allies.
Unagi wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 9:44 pm
I wouldn't be shocked if this was a Russian-influenced event. Not just oportunistic.
It'd be a good distraction.
Not if they don’t amp it up quite a bit. This seems pretty…lame if they are trying to draw us into something on this ‘cold’ front:
‘Lawk Ghafari, the head of Kurdistan’s foreign media office, said none of the missiles had struck the U.S. facility but that areas around the compound had been hit.
The U.S. defense official said it was still uncertain exactly how many missiles were fired and exactly where they landed. A second U.S. official said there was no damage at any U.S. government facility and that there was no indication the target was the consulate building, which is new and currently unoccupied.’
Of course that could be the US side being told to downplay this so as not to excite anyone (mostly US press I guess).
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Sunday it was responsible for a number of missiles fired overnight that targeted several locations in Iraq’s northern city of Erbil, including what it claimed was an Israeli “strategic center.”
A “strategic center for conspiracy and mischiefs of the Zionists was targeted by powerful precision missiles fired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps,” said a statement on Sepah News, the Guard’s official website.
According to the Guard’s statement, the attack appeared to be in retaliation for the deaths of two IRGC commanders in an alleged Israeli airstrike near the Syrian capital Damascus last week.
The Guards had already warned on Tuesday that Israel “will pay for this crime.”
"What? What?What?" -- The 14th Doctor
It's not enough to be a good player... you also have to play well. -- Siegbert Tarrasch
Unagi wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 9:44 pm
I wouldn't be shocked if this was a Russian-influenced event. Not just oportunistic.
It'd be a good distraction.
Not if they don’t amp it up quite a bit. This seems pretty…lame if they are trying to draw us into something on this ‘cold’ front:
‘Lawk Ghafari, the head of Kurdistan’s foreign media office, said none of the missiles had struck the U.S. facility but that areas around the compound had been hit.
The U.S. defense official said it was still uncertain exactly how many missiles were fired and exactly where they landed. A second U.S. official said there was no damage at any U.S. government facility and that there was no indication the target was the consulate building, which is new and currently unoccupied.’
Of course that could be the US side being told to downplay this so as not to excite anyone (mostly US press I guess).
Yeah. These were first minute impressions.
It doesn’t seem to be what I allowed my imagination to consider.
An Iranian man has been charged by the US with plotting to kill former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton.
US officials said Shahram Poursafi, a member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRG), was in Iran and wanted over the alleged plot.
They said Mr Poursafi was likely seeking revenge for the US strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, Iran's most powerful military commander.
Soleimani spearheaded Iranian military operations in the Middle East.
The 62-year-old headed the IRG's elite Quds Force. He was killed at Baghdad airport in Iraq in January 2020 in a strike ordered by President Donald Trump.
An Iranian government spokesperson told state media that the allegations were "baseless".
More:
The charges detail how the Iranian operative had asked a US resident who he had met online to take pictures of Mr Bolton, allegedly for a book he was writing. The unnamed resident had then introduced Mr Poursafi to another individual who was later asked to kill Mr Bolton and provide video evidence of the murder.
In a statement, Mr Bolton thanked the FBI and the justice department for their work.
"The justice department has the solemn duty to defend our citizens from hostile governments who seek to hurt or kill them," said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G Olsen.
"This is not the first time we have uncovered Iranian plots to exact revenge against individuals on US soil and we will work tirelessly to expose and disrupt every one of these efforts."
Mahsah Amini is the young woman who was detained by Iran's ruthless "morality police" and essentially beaten to death in custody. Her crime was "immodesty."
Once again we're reminded that Iran is an educated, urban, sophisticated Muslim society chafing under an extremist government. They deserve better.
Holman wrote: ↑Wed Sep 21, 2022 5:31 pm
Once again we're reminded that Iran is an educated, urban, sophisticated Muslim society chafing under an extremist government. They deserve better.
We will fit that definition here shortly. Hopefully someone will come to our aid.
Holman wrote: ↑Wed Sep 21, 2022 5:31 pm
Once again we're reminded that Iran is an educated, urban, sophisticated Muslim society chafing under an extremist government. They deserve better.
We will fit that definition here shortly. Hopefully someone will come to our aid.
Hyperbole much?
Just 'cause you feel it, doesn't mean it's there -- Radiohead
Do you believe me? Do you trust me? Do you like me? 😳
Holman wrote: ↑Wed Sep 21, 2022 5:31 pm
Once again we're reminded that Iran is an educated, urban, sophisticated Muslim society chafing under an extremist government. They deserve better.
We will fit that definition here shortly. Hopefully someone will come to our aid.
The United States is concerned about threats from Iran against Saudi Arabia and will not hesitate to respond if necessary, a White House spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Hope the hard lesson turns out to be a Government cleansing by hanging. The people are many...the idiots are few.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake. http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
Im a bilingual. A bilingual illiterate. I can't read in two languages.
Grifman wrote: ↑Mon Nov 14, 2022 3:59 pm
Iran says it will execute all 15,000 prisoners taken in recent protests:
No, it voted to allow executions for the "crime" of protesting. They have sentenced one to death. I think he burned down some buildings.
Theoretically they could decide to execute 15K (highly doubtful) but as it stands right now this is not what the tweet makes it out to be.
" Hey OP, listen to my advice alright." -Tha General "No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer." -Stigler's Law of Eponymy, discovered by Robert K. Merton MYT
malchior wrote: ↑Mon Nov 14, 2022 4:41 pm
FWIW he is echoing what is in the article. It's Newsweek. Maybe this person thought it was real news from a real source.
Yup.
For those not following closely, the venerable Newsweek in the past decade went through several crises of ownership and is now little more than a right-wing conspiracy voice on the level of OANN.
They'll trade on their legacy reputation as long as they can, but they're definitely no longer the light-but-unobjectionable journalism magazine they were when we were all growing up.
malchior wrote: ↑Mon Nov 14, 2022 4:41 pm
FWIW he is echoing what is in the article. It's Newsweek. Maybe this person thought it was real news from a real source.
Some googling says to me that the actual story is that Iran gave the death penalty to one protestor. Which obviously is bad, and which endangers the other ~ 15,000 protestors (as it seems semi-likely that at least a few other protestors could wind up also getting the death penalty), but it's staggeringly unlikely that Iran would execute all 15,000 protestors (as that would be stupid).
On 6 November, in blatant violation of the separation of powers, 227 members of Parliament called on the judiciary to act decisively against people arrested during the protests and to carry out punishment carrying the death penalty, experts said.
“With the continuous repression of protests, many more indictments on charges carrying the death penalty and death sentences might soon be issued, and we fear that women and girls, who have been at the forefront of protests, and especially women human rights defenders, who have been arrested and jailed for demanding the end of systemic and systematic discriminatory laws, policies and practices might be particularly targeted”, the experts said.
They'll kill people until they don't need to anymore. Will they execute 15K people? Probably not. Will it be a thousand? We don't know because it's a pretty small inner circle of despot's judgement about perceived stability that matters.
While feeding all the beasties out back I let a nice big fart. The smell followed all the way back to the house. It's like it was my baby and felt abandoned.
