Tailors busy stitching Russian flags to meet rising demand in Bamako, the capital of Mali, December 26, 2021On Friday, Mali’s transitional government has clarified that it is engaged with Russian military trainers even as French troops are drawing down. So, it is official that Russian security personnel are deployed to Mali.
14 November 2018 — Voltaire Net
After Emmanuel Macron’s failure to solve the Libyan crisis, it’s now Giuseppe Conte’s turn to take a shot at it. It’s true that Rome is better placed than Paris, insofar as it enjoys the support of the White House. However, there is little chance that any progress of any sort will be made, since these « fairy godmothers » are in fact the big bad wolves who recently devoured Libya. Continue reading
19 September 2018 — Strategic Culture Foundation
There is one thing that Israel fears more than anything else in Syria. The loss of its ability to fly its F-16’s with impunity and hit whatever targets it wants claiming defensive measures to stop Iran, their existential enemy.
Israel finally admitted to carrying out over 200 such missions over the past 18 months, only a few of which ever made any kind of international media, recently.
18 September 2018 16:12 — William Bowles
New security system to be established in Idlib — Russian defense chief
http://tass.com/defense/1022145
Turkey: Civilians to stay in Idlib, ‘terrorists’ to be removed
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/09/turkey-civilians-stay-idlib-terrorists-removed-180918112856499.html
18 September 2018 — Moon of Alabama
Yesterday Turkey and Russia agreed on a further de-escalation in Idelb province in Syria (see the update here). This agreement takes away the chance of an imminent wider war in which the U.S. and some of its allies would use a fake ‘chemical attack’ as a pretext to launch missiles against a large number of Syrian government targets and military positions.
20 November 2017 — Global Research
Through its top official, Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS), Saudi Arabia continues a wave of internal arrests, having seized nearly $800 billion in assets and bank accounts. A few days later, MBS attempted to demonstrate his authority by summoning Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri to Saudi Arabia, where he was forced to resign on Saudi state TV. Trump tweeted support for Bin Salman’s accusations against Iran and Hezbollah, and the future Saudi king even obtained Israel’s secret support. Iran, meanwhile, denies any involvement in Lebanon’s domestic affairs or involvement with the ballistic missile launched by Houthi rebels towards Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport a few days ago. Meanwhile, Trump, Putin and Xi met recently and seem to have decided the fate of the region in an exercise of realism and pragmatism.
3 July 2016 — TRNN
Dimitri Lascaris says so-called leftist or socialist governments throughout the EU are engaging in self-immolation by embracing austerity, and then become wildly unpopular with the electorate (inc. transcript)
13 January 2014 — Global Research
On December 5th, yet another war led by foreign powers broke out in Africa, and like the one in Mali, it was led at the helm by the French. The UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution which authorized the deployment of French and African troops in the Central African Republic. At the same time, Chad, Cameroon, South Africa, Angola, Morocco, Burundi, Rwanda, the Republic of Congo, and other African countries, sent troops. Other countries like the UK, Germany, Spain, Denmark and Poland provided logistical support, while Belgium and the US provided air support by transporting the peacekeeping troops.
13 January 2014 — Global Research
On December 5th, yet another war led by foreign powers broke out in Africa, and like the one in Mali, it was led at the helm by the French. The UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution which authorized the deployment of French and African troops in the Central African Republic. At the same time, Chad, Cameroon, South Africa, Angola, Morocco, Burundi, Rwanda, the Republic of Congo, and other African countries, sent troops. Other countries like the UK, Germany, Spain, Denmark and Poland provided logistical support, while Belgium and the US provided air support by transporting the peacekeeping troops.
7 January 2014 — Silent Crow News
France’s intervention in the West African nation of Mali under Operation Serval drove Islamic groups associated with Al-Qaeda out of Northern Mali in February 2013. When the Tuareg rebellion occurred in early 2012, it was against the Malian government led by the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) for the independence of Northern Mali also known as Azawad.
19 December 2013 — Global Research
On December 16 a section of the South Sudanese army backed by politicians angry with the policies of President Silva Kiir, attempted to seize power from the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) government in Juba. The Republic of South Sudan is the newest nation recognized by the United Nations and the African Union (AU) which gained its independence after three decades of civil war between the south and north of the central African state in July 2011.
21 November 2013 — Voltaire Network
What has been happening in Syria for the past three years? According to NATO and GCC media reports, the “regime” has shed blood to suppress a democratic revolution. However this version is contradicted by the current support for the government estimated at, according to sources, between 60 and 90 % of the population. The truth is quite different: NATO and the GCC have successively lost a war of succession and a fourth generation Nicaraguan-type war. It is they, and they alone, who organized and financed the death of 120,000 Syrians. Continue reading
15 November 2013 — IPS
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov revealed a crucial detail Thursday about last week’s nuclear talks with Iran in Geneva that explains much more clearly than previous reports why the meeting broke up without agreement.
14 November 2013 — Alan Hart
Netanyahu
His own explanation was that he wants to avoid or minimise the prospects for an “unnecessary confrontation” with the international community, for which read President Obama and the European leaders who would follow his lead (with the arguable exception of the French whore).
15 October 2013 — Dissident Voice
11 October 2013 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal
Front de Gauche leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon addressed the fete of left newspaper L´Humanité in Paris on September 15, 2013. In this six-part video Mélenchon discusses French foreign policy in relation to Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, the colossal failures of “Chicago School” [neoliberal] economics, the attacks of the European Union, the Front de Gauche’s program when elected, religion and politics, and the front’s opposition to militarism. Continue reading
7 October 2013 — The Hampton Institute
In the first part of this essay series on ‘Empire Under Obama,’ I will aim to establish some fundamental premises of modern imperialism, or what is often referred to as ‘international relations,’ ‘geopolitics’, or ‘foreign policy.’ Specifically, I will refer to George Orwell’s writing on ‘political language’ in order to provide a context in which the discourse of imperialism may take place out in the open with very little comprehension on the part of the public which consumes the information; and further, to draw upon Noam Chomsky’s suggestion of understanding international relations as the application of ‘Mafia Principles’ to foreign policy. This part provides some background on these issues, and future parts to this essay series will be examining the manifestation of empire in recent years.
13 September 2013 — Counterpunch
Laurent Fabius: Disgracing France and confirming once again that social democrats are bankable traitors. Public opinion is overwhelmingly against war in France but France is no longer a democracy, either.
With almost pathological haste, Western governments have moved to undermine Russia’s sensible proposal for Syria to hand over its chemical stores, thus avoiding the needless carnage being proposed by the United States. In an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley not hours after the proposal gained the tentative acceptance of the Syrians, Obama grudgingly conceded it was a positive development, but quickly added that it would never have been possible without “a credible military threat,” and sounded all the appropriate reservations. Hillary Clinton also warned that the initiative, however hypothetically, cannot be, “another excuse for delay or obstruction.”
9 September 2013 — williambowles.info
Any student of history knows that many of the problems the Middle East and Africa are now experiencing stem from the Great Powers having parceled up the land, drawn borders where none had existed and put into power various friendly leaders in the aftermath of World War I. That includes the failures of Western actions in Iraq and Libya, and the ongoing failure of Syria, the West’s refusal to accept a popular President in Bashar al Assad and its efforts to undermine him, resulting in a horrific humanitarian mess.
9 September 2013 — Voltaire Network
Both the United States and France are busy with preparations for the bombing of Syria, although such action corresponds to no strategic objective for either state. Russia and the Axis of Resistance are therefore preparing their riposte. The major difficulty consists in transforming this agression into a regional war while avoiding the Third, (and final?) World War. Whatever happens, if they engage in war, the Western world will have to deal with a long and wide-ranging conflict like nothing they’ve experienced since Vietnam.
The New Dark Age 