The Iran War (was Nuclear Program) thread
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Putting Trump’s transactional foreign policy actually, extortionist foreign policy, into perspective:
"Take unilateral actions without including allies, then bully them into supporting that action," — this is how Trump's approach was described by Daniel Hamilton, a foreign policy expert at the Brookings Institution.
Adding to the irony, Trump has dismissed the one partner who rushed to offer assistance with shoring up drone defenses against Iranian attacks — Ukraine.
….”The last person we need help from is Zelensky," he said separately, instead accusing the Ukrainian leader of stalling peace talks with Russia, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin is "willing to make a deal."
Moscow, which has repeatedly rejected a ceasefire in Ukraine and continues to push its territorial demands, promptly supported Trump's criticism of Zelensky.
https://kyivindependent.com/trump-demands-aid-from-partners-snubs-the-one-offering-it/
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A rather optimistic take on the war from an unexpected source. (Use the ‘reader’ view to get rid of the annoying page artifacts)
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A rather optimistic take on the war from an unexpected source. (Use the ‘reader’ view to get rid of the annoying page artifacts)
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Wasn’t sure whether to put this here or the Iran meme section or the funny pics. All fitting.
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Oh and by the way I think we killed Larijani and the commander of the basij
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Wasn’t sure whether to put this here or the Iran meme section or the funny pics. All fitting.
Wasn’t sure whether to put this here or the Iran meme section or the funny pics. All fitting.
Why not? After all over on this side of the world we now have Golfo del loco Gringo.
Over there it’s now only fitting to rename the strait something to effect, such as: مضيق اليانكي المجنون (madiq alyanki almajnun).
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And self styled American Caesar, Trump, berates Nato and the rest of the civilised world because no one wants to be part of his war with Iran:
Kushner and Witkoff had invited Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to the Geneva talks, to provide technical expertise, though Kushner would later claim that he and Witkoff had “a pretty deep understanding of the issues that matter in this”.
Nuclear experts would later say that Witkoff’s pronouncements on the Iran nuclear programme were riddled with basic errors.
Powell has long experience as a mediator, and one source said Powell brought an expert from the UK Cabinet Office with him. One western diplomat said: “Jonathan thought there was a deal to be done, but Iran were not quite there yet, especially on the issue of UN inspections of its nuclear sites.”
A former official who was briefed on the Geneva talks by some of the participants said: “Witkoff and Kushner did not bring a US technical team with them. They used Grossi as their technical expert, but that is not his job. So Jonathan Powell took his own team.
“The UK team were surprised by what the Iranians put on the table,” the former official added.
”It was not a complete deal, but it was progress and was unlikely to be the Iranians’ final offer. The British team expected the next round of negotiations to go ahead on the basis of the progress in Geneva.”
That next round of talks was due to take place in Vienna on Monday 2 March, but never happened. The US and Israel had launched their all-out attack two days earlier.
Meanwhile…..
Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev on March 17 accused European leaders of being "anti-Trump" after they declined to support U.S. efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz during the conflict with Iran.
In a post on X responding to media reports about Europe's stance, Dmitriev said that those he called "EU warmongers" had revealed their true position by refusing to join U.S. President Donald Trump's push for allied naval deployments in the region.
"The masks are off," Dmitriev wrote. "U.K. and EU warmongers are showing how deeply anti-Trump they really are. They tried to hide it for a long time, but now everyone can see it."
https://kyivindependent.com/russia-slams-eu-warmongers-for-not-backing-trumps-war/
Is it just me or is anyone else sensing an even more disturbing and ominous pattern of political behaviour emerging here?
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Russia's doing what Russia does, playing both ends against the middle. Shamelessly I might add, but then no one ever lost by flattering Trump.
My biggest concern would be that Putin's "traditional social values" stance might be attractive enough to some more extreme MAGA followers and influencers to cozy up.
"You cannot subsidize irresponsibility and expect people to become more responsible." — Thomas Sowell
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Russia's doing what Russia does, playing both ends against the middle. Shamelessly I might add, but then no one ever lost by flattering Trump.
My biggest concern would be that Putin's "traditional social values" stance might be attractive enough to some more extreme MAGA followers and influencers to cozy up.
Russia's doing what Russia does, playing both ends against the middle. Shamelessly I might add, but then no one ever lost by flattering Trump.
I get that. What I don’t get is Washington’s ongoing folly to fall into every trap the Kremlin sets for it. Washington does not anppear to grasp that Iran is nothing to Putin whereas undisputed Russian hegemony in Europe is everything.
But then what can you expect when your chief diplomatic envoys are a financial bagman and a real estate hustler with little to no understanding of foreign policy let alone, diplomacy at any level. As the Brits pointed out they didn’t show up at the nuclear talks with a technical team. No surprise though, Witkoff didn’t show up with his own vetted interpreter last spring when he met Putin in the Kremlin. You would think he might have learned something since then. Apparently not.
My biggest concern would be that Putin's "traditional social values" stance might be attractive enough to some more extreme MAGA followers and influencers to cozy up.
That’s a valid observation and an internal problem that only the US itself can address.
My biggest concern is this latest round of chaos and mayhem appears to have been orchestrated in advance.
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I do not dispute that the state of Israel is certainly being attacked and Iran has been and is an immanent threat to the Israeli homeland either directly or through its Arab proxies.
Iran on the other hand, while being an enemy of the US, does not itself pose or present an immanent threat to the US homeland or the very existence of the USA.
Big difference. But I do agree the belligerents should be on their own in this fight.
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