We had thought that in the context of the global pandemic these sanctions would be weakened; instead, the U.S. has tightened its sanctions against Iran and Venezuela, hitting these countries hard with a full spectrum attack on their medical institutions and their welfare institutions.
The Trump administration’s overuse of the “ Iranian terrorist designations” has now further threatened the entry of humanitarian aid in Iran, which is supposed to be exempted from sanctions.
Soleimani’s assassination clearly has no basis in any rhetoric of “self-defense” from the Pentagon. He was another casualty in an effort by the US to exert political control in the region, and assert dominance over its sphere of influence.
“Trump thinks that a war with Iran will work in his favor. He overestimates US capacity and grossly underestimates global resistance to US imperialism.”
by MARK WEISBROT International Commondreams.org Posted by Bulatlat.com In a visit to Qatar and Saudi Arabia this week, Hillary Clinton said that Iran “is moving toward a military dictatorship,” and continued the administration’s campaign for tougher sanctions against that country. What could America’s top diplomat hope to accomplish with this kind of inflammatory rhetoric? It…
By DILIP HIRO commondreams.org International Posted by Bulatlat.com While the tone of the Obama administration is different from that of its predecessor, and some of its foreign policies diverge from those of George W. Bush, at their core both administrations subscribe to the same doctrine: Whatever the White House perceives as a threat — whether…
The point of all this is that there’s no point in social media comparing itself to the news media, let alone proclaiming that Twitter can do a better job than CNN in bringing news to the masses of the world.
Regardless of its flaws, the news media remains the only institution capable of performing the very important task of verifying the flood of information let loose by social media, and to put all of it in context.
By ANTHONY DiMAGGIO Counterpunch Posted by Bulatlat It is worth reflecting on one central question regarding Iran: why does the recent election enjoy so much attention in the U.S.? My research on Iran suggests that Americans’ attention to Iran revolves around two issues. More superficially, much of the Iran focus is motivated by the conflict…
Turning to the future, what can we realistically expect of an Obama administration? We have two sources of information: actions and rhetoric. The most important actions to date are selection of staff. The first selection was for vice-President: Joe Biden, one of the strongest supporters of the Iraq invasion among Senate Democrats, a long-time Washington…
BY THE INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE OF PEOPLES’ STRUGGLES London, England DEMOCRATIC SPACE Posted by Bulatlat.com Vol. VIII, No. 28, August 17-23, 2008 News coming from Iran indicates an alarming rise in the number of executions and an intensification of the suppression of the progressive popular movements of workers, students and youth, women, national minorities, journalists, intellectuals…