Category: Middle East
Military Conflict Between East and West Has Never Been Closer
worker | February 14, 2018 | 8:07 pm | Analysis, Israel, John Wight, Middle East, Russia, Syria, Turkey, USSR | Comments closed
https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201802141061656523-syria-east-west-conflict/
Israeli soldiers stand guard near the Israeli Syrian border next to the town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied sector of the Golan Heights

Military Conflict Between East and West Has Never Been Closer

© AFP 2018/ MENAHEM KAHANA
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John Wight
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Recent events in Syria serve to illustrate the dire consequences of a unipolar world. They also provide further confirmation that international law now belongs to the realm of fiction when it comes to Washington and its allies, for whom exceptionalism is the natural order of things.

There is compelling evidence to speculate that what is now being attempted by the US in Syria, with its occupation of a large swathe of territory in the north west of the country, is a re-run of the Balkanisation of Yugoslavia in the 1990s — a sovereign state broken up and dismembered after the collapse of the Soviet Union in service to the unipolar world that had just come into being as a result.

The break-up of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, a state born out of the carnage of the Second World War, was stark evidence that for hawks within the US political and military establishment the Cold War had not ended it had been won – won by dint of America’s divinely chosen position as the “indispensable nation”, a credo first articulated by US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright during an NBC interview in 1998.

READ MORE: Syria of Discord: Iran, US Clash Over Military Presence on Ground

Thus triumphalism abounded within the corridors of power in the land of the free, which cheered on by its willing vassals — such as Tony Blair’s UK government, and various eastern European satellites harbouring unresolved anti-Russian animus — produced an intoxication with overwhelming military power and strength, encapsulated in the eastward expansion of NATO.

The unending wars and military interventions that have been embarked by the US and its allies since the 1990s, rather than push the frontiers of democracy, have produced nothing but human misery, chaos, and instability. And on a scale hitherto absent.Syria is only the latest country and society to experience the tender mercies of Washington’s self-ordained role as the world’s policeman. It does so not with the objective of maintaining the world as a safe place or democracy or human rights, as tirelessly claimed, but so that global corporations are able to function and prosper and exploit the world’s human and natural resources unimpeded. They call it free market economics. A much more accurate name is’ disruptive unfettered capitalism’, an economic model which is no respecter of borders or cultures, no respecter of even the concept of the nation state.

The presence of US military forces in Syria is illegal. This is a fact that no amount of obfuscation or dissembling can elide. It poses a threat to the security and stability not only of Syria but the entire region. The idea that the presence of US military forces in the country, or anywhere else in the Middle East for that matter, is necessary to bolster security and stability, this is an exercise in peddling fiction. Just ask the people of Iraq or Libya, two countries laid waste by Washington and its allies, if you do not believe me.

READ MORE: Drone Captures Syrian Kurdish Militants Hit by Airstrike in Afrin (VIDEO)

Adding to the pot of instability and US-inspired mayhem in the Middle East is the news that the gargantuan US military budget for 2019 is to include $300 million for the training and equipping of the SDF, Washington’s proxy ground force in Syria, in addition to $250 million to fund the ‘border security force’ in the country that’s been mooted. By way of a reminder, as with the SDF the planned border security force will largely comprise Syrian Kurds attached to the YPG. All this, it’s worth recalling, is being undertaken in clear violation of Syria’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity. It is the very epitome of might is right, redolent of that which sustained the Roman Empire.

The seeming willingness of the Trump administration to rupture its alliance and relationship with fellow NATO member, Turkey, with its commitment to arming and training the Kurds across Ankara’s southern border is remarkable, not to mention inexplicable. President Erdogan’s government has made no bones about the fact it considers it a threat to Turkey’s security, and has pledged to act accordingly. Indeed with its Operation Olive Branch military campaign against the YPG in Afrin, northern Syria, currently underway, involving ground forces deploying across the border in the process, the Erdogan government is making good on this pledge.

The fact is that along with Israel, Turkey is now exploiting the crisis and conflict in Syria to violate its sovereignty with wilful abandon.

It requires neither an abiding love or Russia nor a burning hatred of America to understand the necessity of a world in which no one nation is able or inclined to arrogate to itself the right to exercise global hegemony. Empires are doomed by virtue of the very premise upon which they exist, which is that nations and peoples can be dominated and subjugated by other nations. They cannot. Or at least they cannot over a sustained period.

If history teaches us anything it is that those who seek to dominate only succeed in sowing dragon’s teeth, inviting blowback and backlash. The monster that is Salafi-jihadism and the ensuing spate of terrorist attacks across the world in recent years leaves no doubt of it.

The need to check the untrammelled power of Washington is self-evident. Since the Soviet Union was consigned to history in the early 1990s, the US has rampaged across the world like an out of control juggernaut of death and destruction. It has done so regardless of the administration or president occupying the White House.In Donald Trump, a man for whom subtlety is an alien concept, we have ourselves a US president who cannot seem to make up his mind whether he is a recurring character in the Sopranos or the elected leader of the world largest economy and nuclear power.

With his presidency, the sheer reckless, aggressive and capricious character of it, the time has come to pose the question: Who will save us from America?

The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.

US defends aid to Lebanon army, despite warnings from Israel
worker | February 2, 2018 | 6:28 pm | Israel, Middle East | Comments closed

In Defense of Communism: Communist Party of Israel (CPI) and Hadash strongly condemn Trump’s decision on Jerusalem

https://communismgr.blogspot.com/2017/12/communist-party-of-israel-and-hadash.html

Sunday, December 10, 2017

Communist Party of Israel (CPI) and Hadash strongly condemn Trump’s decision on Jerusalem

The Communist Party of Israel and Hadash – the Democratic Front for Peace & Equality- strongly condemn the US president’s, Donald Trump, statement concerning Jerusalem; a statement which denies the rights the Palestinian people have in the city.

This statement is  the outcome of the alliance between the US administration, the Israeli government and the reactionary Arab regimes and their escalating conspiracies against the just rights of the Arab Palestinian people- and mainly against his right to self determination: an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital according to the UN resolutions. This alliance’s stand had never been more clear and obvious in context of, both, the Palestinian case and the overall developments in the region.

Trump’s statement stresses out what we have been saying: the US is part of the problem rather than the solution. The door must open widely now for  the international community to play a key role through promoting the political process, based upon the UN resolutions as adopted by most countries and the vast majority of peoples on this planet.

This statement seems to not have an affect de-facto, it rather aims to conceal the internal and external crisis of the Imperialism, Zionism and Reactionary- and the failure of its plans in the region. Add to that, Netanyahu’s need to distract the public from the ongoing corruption investigations against him. The populist harmony in which the “opposition” forces in Israel engage with Trump and Netanyahu’s adventures – reflects, in fact, their political bankruptcy and inability to propose a genuine alternative to the occupation and settlements policy as well as it proves their rejection to a just peace.

The need of the hour is to raise the voices of protestation all around the world, against those policies and their leaders, including the voice of the true forces of peace in Israel.

CPI and Hadash call upon all anti-occupation forces, Arabs and Jews, to cooperate in promotion of the only solution that preserves the rights and bloods of both peoples: Ending the occupation and the establishment of the Palestinian independent state on the borders of 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital, alongside Israel with West Jerusalem as its capital.

* * * 

حقوق الشعب الفلسطيني أقوى من الثالوث الدنس

يدين الحزب الشيوعي الإسرائيلي والجبهة الدمقراطية للسلام والمساواة بشدّة تصريح الرئيس الأمريكي دونالد ترامب بشأن القدس، والذي يتنكر لحق الشعب الفلسطيني في المدينة.

إنّ هذا التصريح هو ثمرة تحالف الإدارة الأمريكية وحكومة إسرائيل وأنظمة الرجعية العربية وتآمرها المتصاعد على الحقوق الشرعية للشعب العربي الفلسطيني، وعلى رأسها حقه في تقرير مصيره وإقامة دولته المستقلة وعاصمتها القدس الشرقية، بمقتضى قرارات الأمم المتحدة. لقد بات هذا التحالف مكشوفًا ومفضوحًا اكثر من أي وقت مضى، في سياق القضية الفلسطينية كما في مجمل التطوّرات الإقليمية. إنّ تصريح ترامب يؤكد ما قلناه دومًا: أنّ الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية هي جزء من المشكلة، لا من الحل. ويجب أن يفتح الباب على مصراعيه أمام دور دولي فاعل لتحريك العملية السياسية، على أساس قرارات الأمم المتحدة والتي تتبناها معظم دول العالم والأكثرية الساحقة من شعوب الأرض.

وبيد أنّ هذا التصريح لا يغيّر شيئًا على أرض الواقع، فإنه يهدف لصرف الأنظار عن أزمة هذا الثالوث – الإمبريالية والصهيونية والرجعية – وفشل مشاريعه في المنطقة، وعن أزماته الداخلية، لا سيما قضايا الفساد التي تحيق بنتنياهو. إنّ التساوق الشعبوي لقوى “المعارضة” مع مغامرات ترامب ونتنياهو يعكس إفلاسها السياسي وعجزها عن طرح بديل حقيقي لسياسة الاحتلال والاستيطان ورفض السلام العادل.

إنّ مطلب الساعة هو رفع صوت الاحتجاج في كافة أنحاء العالم ضد هذه السياسة وضد أصحابها، بما في ذلك صوت قوى السلام الحقيقية في إسرائيل. ويدعو الحزب الشيوعي والجبهة جميع القوى العربية واليهودية المناهضة للاحتلال إلى أوسع تعاون لطرح الحل الوحيد الذي يضمن حقوق الشعبين ويحقن دمائهما: إنهاء الاحتلال وإقامة دولة فلسطينية في حدود العام 1967 عاصمتها القدس الشرقية، إلى جانب دولة إسرائيل وعاصمتها القدس الغربية.

* * *

TUESDAY 12 DECEMBER: DEMONSTRATION IN TEL AVIV AGAINST TRUMP’S DECISION ON JERUSALEM.

The umbrella organization that represents Arab-Palestinians in Israel has urged its followers to join the protests against President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel announced that they reached an agreement to oppose Trump’s announcement following an emergency meeting in Nazareth. “United States policy and Trump are the problem, not the solution,” said Committee Chairman and former Hadash MK Mohammed Barakeh.

Barakeh called on the Arab states not to suffice with simple condemnations, but to withdraw their ambassadors from Washington, adding that “recent developments illustrate the depth of the strategic alliance between the Trump government, the Netanyahu government and the Arab reactionary regimes, primarily Saudi Arabia against the rights of the Palestinians and against the minimum conditions for a just and lasting peace based on decisions decided by the United Nations.”

Numerous protest groups have already been demonstrating at major junctions across Israel. On Thursday, December 7, a demonstration was held by Hadash and Communist Party activists in Nazareth. A large protest took place Saturday night, December 9, in Wadi Ara.

In addition, the High Follow-Up Committee is scheduled to meet with prominent officials from the Palestinian Authority on Sunday in Jerusalem in order to coordinate their next steps. On Monday, a protest will take place during the visit of the US Deputy Secretary of State to the Knesset and on Tuesday evening, December 12, a demonstration will take place in front of the US Embassy in Tel Aviv.

Αναρτήθηκε από In Defense of Communism

The Escalating Crises Enveloping Saudi Arabia
worker | November 9, 2017 | 7:29 pm | Analysis, Middle East | Comments closed

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (File)

The Escalating Crises Enveloping Saudi Arabia

© AP Photo/ Presidency Press Service/Pool

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Though the purge and arrest of dozens of leading Saudi officials, ministers and princes by 32-year old crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman may have taken many by surprise, considering Saudi Arabia exists at the epicenter of a range of crises within the world’s most tempestuous region, it is a demarche which assumes the character of just another day.

Nothing normally ever happens in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) without a reason, which is why the death of Prince Mansour bin Muqrin, along with seven government officials, in a helicopter crash near the Yemen-Saudi border at the same time as the aforesaid purge was taking place is hard to confidently attribute to coincidence.

The official reason given for carrying out this recent frenzy of arrests, demotions and sackings has been given as anti-corruption. However only the most naive could possibly believe, given the circumstances and timing, that this is the sole or even primary motive for such a drastic and far-reaching purge of the country’s upper echelons.

At just 32 the crown prince is on course to be the youngest Saudi king in the nation’s relatively short history. Surrounded by rivals and potential rivals for his father’s throne — chief among them son of the late King Abdullah, Prince Mutaib bin Abdullah — and what with the various crises that have beset the oil-rich Sunni theocracy of late, there seems no doubt that a changing of the guard driven by not only internal motives but also geopolitical reasons with Iran in mind.

The sudden resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, a close ally of the faction of the Saudi power structure that has just been upended by Prince Salman’s purge, merely adds to the intrigue involved in this affair. Someone in no doubt as to the connection between Hariri’s resignation, which the Lebanese Prime Minister blamed on an Iranian/Hezbollah plot to assassinate him, is Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the aforementioned Lebanese resistance movement. In a recent televised address to his supporters, Nasrallah claimed, “It was not his [Hariri’s] intention, not his wish and not his decision to quit,” asserting that the decision was “imposed” on him by his Saudi backers.

That, as mentioned, Saudi Arabia is a state currently engulfed by multiple crises is putting it mildly. The war in Yemen has entered its third year with no end in sight. Indeed the recent interception of a ballistic missile, launched from Yemen and headed for the airport in the Saudi capital Riyadh, is evidence of the quagmire the war has become for the kingdom. The human toll of the conflict on the Yemeni people — and deafening silence on the part of Western governments, especially the kingdom’s closest Western allies, the US and UK, over the war crimes committed against civilians by Saudi forces — has been so egregious as to leave no doubt, if indeed there could be any, of the desperation on the part of what increasingly resembles a rogue state to neuter the power and influence of Iran in the region.

The Shia behemoth, Iran, is as everyone knows Riyadh’s most bitter regional rival and mortal enemy. It is an objective that drives the kingdom’s foreign policy and alliances, both within and without the region, and which like a rabid dog coveting a bone is an obsession that has succeeded in banishing rationality from its actions in recent years.

The failure of the kingdom’s designs for regime change in Damascus, the failure of its war aims in Yemen, the sharp fall in the price of oil and its concomitant impact on the Saudi economy, an historically high level of youth unemployment at home and clamor of condemnation internationally over the country’s deplorable human rights record — taken together with its failure to weaken Tehran, despite doing its utmost to leverage US aggression against the Iranians, and we are witnessing a country in political meltdown.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sits during an allegiance pledging ceremony in Mecca, Saudi Arabia June 21, 2017
© REUTERS/ Bandar Algaloud/Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court

What should be borne in mind is that Saudi Arabia and Iran are already in a de facto state of war, and have been for a number of years. Each heads a countervailing and antagonistic regional axis of religious, political and geopolitical rivalry, pitted in a determined struggle that evinces no sign of abating. The Saudis, backed by Washington and the West, represent a rigid sectarian Sunni vision for the region, while the Iranians — along with their close allies Hezbollah, the Assad government in Syria, and in conjunction with Russia — are a pillar of non-sectarianism and resistance to US hegemony.

The Israelis, meanwhile, share in Iran a common enemy with Riyadh. Thus the under-the-radar visit to Israel by crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in September, despite both countries sharing no formal diplomatic ties, allows us to speculate that military and intelligence cooperation when it comes to dealing with Iran is now considered of such strategic importance by both countries that it supersedes any other consideration or difference between them.

In his classic Renaissance text, The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli provides a blueprint for any prospective leader determined not only to assume power but even more importantly maintaining power.

“The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all,” Machiavelli writes.

Time will tell whether Saudi Arabia’s crown Prince Salman is, as some suggest, bent on opening the door to modernity and reform in a society that has long laboured under the stifling weight of religious sectarianism, oppression and with it corruption and hypocrisy on the part of its sclerotic elite. Whatever unfolds in the weeks and months ahead, Saudi Arabia is a state that currently exists in the cross hairs of multiple and enveloping crises of its own design.

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Sputnik.

Check out John’s Sputnik radio show, Hard Facts.

US-hatched Iran coup of 1953 reveals true colors of ‘indispensable nation’
worker | June 28, 2017 | 8:43 pm | Analysis, Imperialism, Iran, Middle East, political struggle | Comments closed

https://www.rt.com/op-edge/394331-mossadeq-us-iranian-coup/

John Wight
John Wight has written for newspapers and websites across the world, including the Independent, Morning Star, Huffington Post, Counterpunch, London Progressive Journal, and Foreign Policy Journal. He is also a regular commentator on RT and BBC Radio. John is currently working on a book exploring the role of the West in the Arab Spring. You can follow him on Twitter @JohnWight1
US-hatched Iran coup of 1953 reveals true colors of 'indispensable nation'

The recent release of a tranche of declassified CIA documents, including memos covering the period, are a timely reminder not only of the staggering mendacity of both countries in asserting the right to lecture the world about democracy and human rights, but the extent to which they have wrought so much damage and devastation throughout their respective histories.

Operation Ajax, the name by which the sordid plan to undermine and topple Muhammad Mossadeq’s government is known, was undertaken in response to Mossadeq’s decision to nationalize Iran’s oil resources with a view to husbanding the revenue for the benefit of the Iranian people, rather than allow it to continue to be sucked out of the country by the then British state-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) – forerunner of today’s global oil conglomerate BP.

Britain had been in control of Iran’s oil since 1908 when the country was known as Persia. London set up AIOC specifically with the development and exploitation of this energy bonanza in mind. The UK government taking over a controlling share of the concession that had been granted to English mining entrepreneur William Knox D’Arcy by Persia’s monarchy in 1901. It came at a point when Britain’s large navy was shifting from coal to oil-powered engines, thus making a secure oil supply of critical strategic and military importance for a country whose empire covered almost a quarter of the planet’s land surface.

None other than Britain’s future prime minister Winston Churchill affirmed the importance of control over Persia’s oil, when he wrote, “Fortune brought us a prize from fairyland beyond our wildest dreams. Mastery itself was the prize of the venture.” Note here the colonial grandeur of Churchill’s sentiments – a turgid celebration of the opportunity for enrichment that was so unabashed it would make a low-rent mafia hood blush.

The record shows that throughout the AIOC’s presence and operations in Persia (the country became Iran in 1935), Tehran received a derisory percentage of the huge revenue garnered from the oil extracted from its territory. This triggered a rise in national consciousness over Iran’s independence and dignity vis-à-vis the colonial and imperialist powers, and lifted Mossadeq into the office of prime minister in 1951.

Soon after coming to power, he nationalized Iran’s oil and confiscated the assets of the AIOC. In a speech explaining his motives, Mossadeq said, “Our long years of negotiations with foreign countries…have yielded no results thus far. With the oil revenues, we could meet our entire budget and combat poverty, disease, and backwardness among our people. Another important consideration is that by the elimination of the power of the British company, we would also eliminate corruption and intrigue, by means of which the internal affairs of our country have been influenced. Once this tutelage has ceased, Iran will have achieved its economic and political independence.”

Britain responded by making it impossible for Iran to sell its newly nationalized oil on the world market. However, this wasn’t enough and, having persuaded the Americans that Iran was ‘in danger’ of turning communist – given the popularity of the country’s Tudeh (Communist) Party – a plan to remove Mossadeq was hatched with the CIA playing the lead role.

In London, the plan was signed off by the aforementioned Winston Churchill, now Britain’s prime minister. Meanwhile, in Washington, Dwight D Eisenhower was the man in the White House who authorized the notorious Dulles brothers, Allen and John Foster, to proceed with Operation Ajax.

When Mossadeq got wind of the plan, he closed the British Embassy in Tehran and expelled its staff. He also discovered the country’s monarch, the Shah, was in cahoots with the plan and forced him to flee the country. However, by now the CIA had succeeded in bribing various army and police officers, along with key journalists and clerics, and members of the Iranian parliament, who helped to whip up an anti-Mossadeq atmosphere in the country, accusing him of being a communist, thus playing to the religiosity of a large sector of the Iranian population.

On August 19, 1953, Mossadeq was arrested along with thousands of his supporters. Upon his arrest, the Shah returned from exile to become Washington’s placeman, ruling the country with extreme brutality and corruption until he was ousted in the Iranian Revolution of 1979.

It is impossible while contemplating this despicable episode not to be filled with indignation at the hypocrisy and contemptible violation of Iran’s sovereignty and independence.

Compounding the sense of injustice is the knowledge that it is just one of many such crimes committed against governments and countries around the world in a pattern of international banditry, subversion and aggression against sovereign states which has continued all the way up to the present day under successive administrations. It proves that instead of the ‘indispensable nation’ the US arrogantly considers itself, we are dealing with a country that has long evinced the characteristics of a rogue state.

Ultimately, then, no region has suffered more at the hands of US imperialism than the Middle East. Indeed it is still suffering to this day, with Iran currently in the crosshairs of the same Washington establishment for daring to assert its independence, dignity and resistance to hegemony.

As for Muhammad Mossadeq, he goes down in history as a leader with the courage to defy the empire. His legacy lives on in the obdurate refusal of the Iranian people to submit to Washington’s writ in our time.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

Israelis Launch Aggression Against Syria as Army Battles IDF-Paid ‘Rebels’
worker | June 24, 2017 | 7:23 pm | Israel, Middle East, political struggle, Syria | Comments closed

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Israelis-Launch-Aggression-Against-Syria-as-Army-Battles-IDF-Paid-Rebels-20170624-0020.html

Israelis Launch Aggression Against Syria as Army Battles IDF-Paid ‘Rebels’

  • The attack came as rebel factions, including known Islamist extremists, battled Syria Army forces Saturday in the Quneitra province bordering the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

    The attack came as rebel factions, including known Islamist extremists, battled Syria Army forces Saturday in the Quneitra province bordering the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. | Photo: AFP – Reuters

Syria accuses the Israeli military of hitting a residential building and supporting jihadists who admit to receiving direct financing from Israelis.

In the latest act of aggression against the Syrian Arab Republic, Israeli occupation forces have targeted Syrian military outposts after 10 shells landed in the illegally-occupied Golan Heights. However, military sources in Syria have accused the Israelis of killing civilians and attempting to prop up rebels who recently admitted that they were receiving direct financing from the settler-colonial Israeli state.

RELATED:
Iran says US is Helping Islamic State Group, and Claims to have Evidence

The attack came as rebel factions, including known Islamist extremists, battled Syria Army forces Saturday in the Quneitra province bordering the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, according to Syrian state media and a Western-backed war monitor.

The Israelis launched their attacks on positions held by what it calls the “Syrian regime” after 10 projectiles landed in the illegally-held Syrian region. According to the Israeli military, the alleged position from which the projectiles were fired came under attack, while two army tanks belonging to the Syrian army also were bombed.

Syria’s military described the shellfire into the Israeli-held territory as errant fire and called it an “unacceptable breach” of sovereignty. Stray fire from fighting between the forces of Syria’s legitimate government and rebel factions are not uncommon in the contested Golan Heights.

Syrian military sources also said Israeli rocket fire had hit a residential building, causing a number of deaths and damage. The source did not mention Syrian fire into Israel but did note that the Israeli strike was in support of jihadist rebels.

Israeli seized 500 square miles of the Golan from Syria during its colonialist military campaigns of 1967 and later annexed it. The move was never recognized by the international community, yet it unofficially backed by imperialist powers, first and foremost its financiers within the United States.

Groups like the Quneitra-based 400-strong Fursan al-Joulan, or the Knights of the Golan, recently admitted that they have been receiving payment from the Israeli occupiers, who hope to create a buffer of “friendly forces” between the occupation and the Syrian government, the Wall Street Journal reported this week. The group is not backed by other U.S.-led coalition or Arab countries.

“Israel stood by our side in a heroic way,” group spokesman Moatasem al-Golani told the Journal. “We wouldn’t have survived without Israel’s assistance.” The cooperation began when the Israelis began assisting Syrian fighters, including alleged “Islamist extremists,” through medical care at Israeli hospitals, in a relationship that soon led to direct funding for fighters for salaries, ammunition and weapons.

RELATED:
Hezbollah to Saudis: Flatter Trump All You Want, He Only Cares About Israel and Money

In January 2016, former Israeli military Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon noted his preference for the Islamic State group, telling an audience “if the choice is between Iran and the Islamic State (group), I choose the Islamic State.” The former military official Yaalon last month told reporters that the Islamic State group had also recently apologized to Israeli military forces after unintentionally attacking them along the Syrian border.

According to the Wall Street Journal report, under Yaalon’s tenure as defense minister in 2013, the Golan rebels began receiving direct monetary support.

Western-funded NGO the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the rebel groups of Quneitra had launched an assault and were storming army positions near Baath City.

The Israelis have launched several unprovoked acts of aggression against Syria throughout the conflict, including assassinations and assaults on targets such as alleged “weapons caches” belonging to Lebanese Hezbollah, who are fighting alongside the Syrian government at the latter’s invitation. The Syrian Arab Republic and the Israelis remain technically at war.

Statement of the CC of the KKE regarding the latest dangerous developments in the Middle East

Thursday, June 8, 2017

Statement of the CC of the KKE regarding the latest dangerous developments in the Middle East

https://communismgr.blogspot.com/2017/06/statement-of-cc-of-kke-regarding-latest.html
Source: 902.gr / Translation: In Defense of Communism.
 
In a statement regarding the latest developments in the Middle East, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) stresses the following:
 
“Yesterday’s US bombings against forces of the Syrian army, combined with the diplomatic crisis in Qatar and today’s attack in Iran’s Parliament, consist a dangerous escalation of the imperialist interventions and competitions in the region of Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East and the Persian Gulf.
 
Precisely these interventions of the USA-NATO-EU, in their antagonism with other powers in the broader region, such as Russia, are the ones which led to the dismemberment and destabilization of countries, the support of jihadist groups like ISIS, aiming at the control of the natural resources and energy routes of the region.
The SYRIZA-ANEL government bears huge responsibility for Greece’s involvement in this carnage, under the pretext of the country’s “geostrategic upgrade”, which is in fact related with the participation of the domestic capital in the war’s prey. 
 
For the Greek people and the other peoples of the region, the dangers are immense and for that reason, the disengagement of the country from the imperialist plans must become a popular demand of struggle.”