Tag Archives: Iran

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s death is a defining moment, but it will not end the war

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By Ian Parmeter, Australian National University. Published 10-17-2024 by The Conversation

Yahya Sinwar, the former Palestinian leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Screenshot: Al Jazeera

The death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, one of the masterminds behind the group’s horrific October 7 2023 attack on southern Israel, is no doubt a consequential moment in Israel’s year-long war against Hamas.

But is it a turning point?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sinwar’s killing – long a major objective of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) – would signal the “beginning of the end” of the war. But he made clear the war is not over.

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Leaked US Intel on Iran Attack Plans Also Confirms Israeli Nuclear Weapons

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Another of the alleged documents, which multiple outlets have been told appear authentic, confirm U.S. spying on Israeli military forces and shows “a strike on Iran” is “almost certainly” coming.

By Jon Queally. Published 10-20-2024 by Common Dreams

A detail portion of one alleged U.S. intelligent document made available on the internet this week which U.S. agencies are said to be investigating.
 (Photo: Screengrab)

“We have not observed indications that Israel intends to use a nuclear weapon.”

That sentence is the concluding line from an allegedly leaked (or hacked) U.S. intelligence document posted online this week and later reported on by Axios, CNN, and other outlets.

As Axios reported on Saturday, “U.S. officials are extremely concerned about a potentially major security breach after two alleged U.S. intelligence documents about Israel’s preparations for an attack on Iran were published by a Telegram account affiliated with Iran.”

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US Deploys B-2 Stealth Bombers to Attack Yemen Without Congressional Approval

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“Why is the U.S. bombing Yemen—with a B-2 bomber no less—with zero congressional authorization?”

By Jake Johnson. Published 10-18-2024 by Common Dreams

Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit – Stealth Bomber. Photo: Jonathan Cutrer/flickr/CC

The Biden administration on Wednesday deployed B-2 stealth bombers to launch multiple airstrikes on Yemen, attacks that underscored the United States’ deep involvement in a deadly regional war that is threatening to engulf the entire Middle East.

The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement that the strikes targeted “numerous Iran-backed Houthi weapons storage facilities within Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen that contained various advanced conventional weapons used to target U.S. and international military and civilian vessels navigating international waters throughout the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.”

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Alarm as Pentagon Confirms Deployment of US Troops to Israel

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“Netanyahu is as close as he has ever been to his ultimate wish: making the U.S. fight Iran on Israel’s behalf,” wrote one journalist.

By Jake Johnson. Published 10-13-2024 by Common Dreams.

Pentagon Press Secretary U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder conducts a press briefing at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., March 8, 2024. Photo: U.S. Secretary of Defense/flickr/CC

The Pentagon confirmed Sunday that it has authorized the deployment of an advanced antimissile system and around 100 U.S. troops to Israel as the Netanyahu government prepares to attack Iran—a move that’s expected to provoke an Iranian response.

Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, press secretary for the U.S. Defense Department, said in a statement that at President Joe Biden’s direction, the Pentagon approved the “deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and associated crew of U.S. military personnel to Israel to help bolster Israel’s air defenses” in the wake of Iran’s ballistic missile attack earlier this month.

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Does the US actually want to de-escalate the Middle East war?

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Unwavering military and political support for Israel means US is embroiled in war – even if it doesn’t want to be

By Paul Rogers. Published 10-11-2024 by openDemocracy

Screenshot: CNN

One year into the devastating war in Gaza, and the conflict has spread far beyond Gaza itself, including not only Iran, Lebanon and other countries in the Middle East region – but also, arguably the US, given its unwavering support – both verbally and materially – for Israel and its actions.

While much of Gaza lies in ruins with most houses, universities and hospitals destroyed, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced multiple times and an official death toll of 42,000 – there is now scarcely a whisper about even a pause in the fighting, yet alone a ceasefire.

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NATO Announces Nuclear Drills as Nobel Goes to Atomic Weapon Abolitionists

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Disarmament advocate Beatrice Fihn stressed that the exercise is practice for “wiping out hundreds of thousands of civilians” with weapons that would also “flatten cities and poison survivors.”

By Jessica Corbett. Published 10-11-2024 by Common Dreams

B-52 bombers. Photo: Public domain

The NATO military block announced Friday that its annual nuclear exercise is set to begin next week—news that arrived just as Japanese atomic bomb survivors who advocate for disarmament received the Nobel Peace Prize.

“There is bad timing, there is dropping a brick… and then there is this. Nice work,” the Geneva Nuclear Disarmament Initiative said in response to NATO Spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah on social media.

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80+ Groups Have Message for Biden: ‘No War With Iran!’

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“It is not in the national interest for the U.S. to be led into a war with Iran,” the groups stressed.

By Brett Wilkins. Published 10-3-2024 by Common Dreams

Anti-war demonstrators gathered at The White House in a National Day of Action on January 4, 2020. Photo: Susan Melkisethian/flickr/CC

On the same day that President Joe Biden said his administration and Israeli leaders are “discussing” an attack on Iranian oil infrastructure, a coalition of over 80 advocacy groups on Thursday implored the U.S. leader to “halt Israel’s march toward regional war.”

The National Iranian-American Council (NIAC) led the groups in a letter to Biden asserting that “it is not in the national interest for the U.S. to be led into a war with Iran” by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhu’s far-right government.

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Barred From Israel, UN Chief Warns Middle East ‘Fast Becoming an Inferno’

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“This deadly cycle of tit-for-tat violence must stop. Time is running out,” said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.

By Jake Johnson. Published 10-2-2024 by Common Dreams

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. Photo: Faces Of The World/flickr/CC

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday reiterated his urgent call for an end to violence and a diplomatic resolution in the Middle East shortly after Israel’s foreign minister declared that the U.N. chief was barred from entering the country, a move that drew international condemnation.

“The raging fires in the Middle East are fast becoming an inferno,” Guterres told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, denouncing Israel’s “relentless airstrikes across Lebanon,” devastation of the Gaza Strip, and obstruction of a cease-fire agreement that could pull the region back from the brink of all-out war.

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US is unlikely to stop giving military aid to Israel − because it benefits from it

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By Dov Waxman, University of California, Los Angeles Published 8-22-2024 by The Conversation

Protesters step off for final permitted march of Chicago DNC. Screenshot: ABC 7 Chicago/YouTube

The Democratic National Convention has been packed with prominent speakers and musical interludes that all focus on unity and moving forward into a more hopeful future.

But this cheerfulness is shadowed by a split within the Democratic Party related to Israel’s war in Gaza. There have been calls by some delegates for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris to support a halt in U.S. military aid to Israel.

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United States and Iran Help China Push Global Executions to 10-Year High

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Lawmakers in southern U.S. states accused of demonstrating “a chilling commitment” to state-sponsored murder alongside “a callous intent to invest resources in the taking of human life.”

By Jon Queally. Published 5-29-2024 by Common Dreams

Photo: AFSC/CC

The number of executions worldwide hit a nearly 10-year high in 2023 thanks to a surge in state killings by Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, and the United States.

A new global report published by Amnesty International documents that the death penalty was imposed on 1,153 people last year, though the total is believed to be significantly higher due to the secrecy surrounding China’s penal system. The international human rights group believes “thousands” of people were executed by the Chinese government, but the exact figure is not known.

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