Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is keen to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, on the grounds that the US is going to let him do so. Israeli officials, particularly military officials, are warning against one of the primary targets, the Jordan Valley.

The Jordan Valley, which connects the West Bank to Jordan, is something the Israeli right has long wanted to annex, as it would mean the rest of the Palestinian West Bank would never have a border with any nation other than Israel.

Military officials are warning that the big problem would be with Jordan itself, and that this move would further damage Israel-Jordan ties, and might force the Jordanian government to take drastic steps.

The US government announced on Thursday that it had intercepted a weapons stash which it alleges was destined for Houthi militants and delivered by Iran. This comes as the Trump administration steps up its pressure on the Iranian government.

The US government on Thursday released photos of missile parts which military officials claim to be of Iranian origin and allegedly meant to be delivered to Yemen.

Brian Hook, the US Special Representative for Iran and a senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, displayed the photos during an official briefing on Thursday.

The Israeli government has increased discretionary spending on settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory by 50 per cent over the last two years, reported the Jerusalem Post.

According to data published by settlement watchdog Peace Now, so-called “discretionary spending” “is expenditure by various ministries outside the general budget, including from the Interior, Housing, Education, and Energy and Water ministries, as well as the National Roads Authority”.

These funds are directed towards the construction of settlement housing units, as well as for roads inside the settlements, “buildings for educational, social and religious purposes, commercial centres and industrial parks”, the report added.

Tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean are rapidly rising after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an met with a Libyan official of the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA), based in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, in Ankara last week. They agreed on their own Economic Exclusive Zone that penetrates into Greek and Cypriot waters, in violation of the United Nations Convention Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) that favors Cypriot and Greek claims, a major reason why Turkey is only one of 15 UN members, out of 193, that has not signed it. Although Turkey claims it is acting within international law to enter the oil and gas-rich Greek and Cypriot waters, it never references which international law. This leads to the simple question of why Turkey has not signed UNCLOS if international law supposedly favors their claim?

Unmanned aerial systems (UASs) or drones, both armed and unarmed, have altered how states and insurgents conduct warfare in the Middle East. The widespread proliferation of these weapons, combined with the range of capabilities they confer and their potential to alter the logic of escalation between states, may cause significant inter-state conflict to occur.

Along with missile manufacturing, the country's Navy has also disclosed five other military projects it is currently involved in, including the sea-launched Pelikan drone, the Sadaf-2 naval mine, the Soren positioning system, the Balaban guided bomb, and the Loqman training vessel.

The Iranian Navy has initiated the mass production of submarine-launched Jask cruise missiles, the chief of the naval warfare service Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi said on Saturday.

According to Khanzadi the domestically-developed missile will be fitted onto all of Iran's submarines, adding that the current range of the projectile will be significantly improved further on, allowing it to hit targets across long distances.

Discussions are underway with new NATO ally Bulgaria to create a Black Sea Coordination Center in Varna. The United States is considering a ten-year roadmap for defense cooperation with Bulgaria and is eager to provide Sofia broader access to its high-end military technologies. The advanced technologies would include surveillance capabilities specifically targeting Russia.
There is also a fundamental second level of stupidity in basing such an effort in Bulgaria as the Turks, also frequently at odds with Washington, control the door to the Black Sea through the Bosporus and Dardanelles. If relations really do go sour and if demands to kick Turkey out of NATO ever do bear fruit, Ankara can make it very difficult for NATO warships transiting into the Black Sea.

According to Pentagon officials, the US has begun negotiations with Saudi Arabia on the question of cost-sharing for the ever-growing US military presence in the Saudi kingdom. Talks began with the arrival of US radar and air defense systems.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley met with the Saudi crown prince this week and brought up this matter. Milley was presenting the US presence as aimed squarely at Iran, and deterring Iran from attacking the Saudis.

Gen. Milley also intended to give the impression that this was not a short-term mission, either, saying the US wants to maintain this presence in the region as part of America’s overall regional footprint.

SOURCE: MIDDLE EAST MONITOR
The Israeli government is aiming to increase the volume of Israel’s defence exports, reported Globes, which has revealed the main points of the plan for the first time.

The project, being overseen by the Defence Ministry’s International Defence Cooperation Directorate (SIBAT) led by Brigadier General (Res.) Yair Kulas, will begin to be rolled out in early 2020.

According to Globes, the plan is based on “focused seminars for senior commanders in foreign armies”, Israeli military “assistance for promoting sales of Israeli weapons”, and “subsidising small and medium-sized defence companies seeking to sell arms around the world”.

Speaking this week, Kulas said that SIBAT favours a major expansion of agreements between countries, resulting in significant deals for the large defence companies, especially Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Rafael Advanced Defence Systems.

The Saudi-led coalition force in Yemen announced Tuesday it had released 200 Houthi prisoners. The news comes amid a large Houthi air raid on coalition forces and swirling rumors that Riyadh may finally be seeking an exit from the disastrous, four-year-long war.

Houthi Prisoners Repatriated
On Tuesday, coalition spokesperson Turki al-Malki said in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency that 200 Houthi prisoners had been released as part of the Stockholm Agreement prisoner exchange, Xinhua News Agency reported.

“The coalition leadership is keen to continue supporting efforts to resolve the crisis in Yemen and to push forward the Stockholm agreement, including the deal related to the exchange of prisoners,” Malki said. He further noted the coalition would allow flights out of Sana’a, the Yemeni capital held by the Houthis since 2014, in order to transfer those who need medical treatment out of the country.

France announced Sunday that a proposed European-led mission to patrol the Persian Gulf will be based out of a recently established French naval base in Abu Dhabi, and that the naval patrol will soon go "operational" amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington.

Paris has spearheaded efforts to get the European maritime security mission off the ground, in competition with US efforts at establishing an American-led mission, which Iran and some European allies fear could lead to war, given Iranian leaders have condemned any US efforts to "police" the vital Strait of Hormuz.

“This morning we formalized that the command post will be based on Emirati territory,” Defence Minister Florence Parly told reporters in the UAE capital.

A Kurdish senior foreign affairs official, Aldar Xelil, reported that the US has assured Kurdish forces that US troops will remain in the oilfield area between Derik and Terbespiya, in eastern Syria.

This assurance doesn’t seem to be helping the Kurds feel a lot better, however. with Xelil pointing out that this really isn’t going to do anything to prevent the Turkish offensives into northeastern Syria.

The US announced a “pullout” from Syria but ended up just redeploying around the oil, with President Trump saying the oil is the priority. Xelil says the US has no intention of staying anywhere west of Qamilshli, and for the Kurds, that’s a problem.

The US is still in Syria, but there’s about 100 km gap between Syrian-held Syria and US-held oilfield where Turkey and its rebels are not only free to invade Kurdish-held territory, but to push potentially quite deep into Kurdish territory.

The U.S. Central Command a ramping up of military operations against ISIS in eastern Syria with up to 500 troops.
President Trump initially said last December he was pulling out all troops from Syria, but later decided to a residual force in the northeastern region
Former Trump Defense Secretary James Mattis said: 'If we don’t keep the pressure on, then ISIS will resurge'
ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed by U.S. forces last month
Central Command chief: 'It is our intention to remain in that position working with our Syrian Democratic Forces partners to continue operations against ISIS down the Euphrates river valley.

Source: Moon Over Alabama

The Attorney General of Israel just indicted Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu in three cases. The announcement comes at a time of political stalemate. It might help to resolve it.

Israel had two parliament elections this year which both ended in a political stalemate. Neither Prime Minister Netanyahu of the Likud Party nor Blue and White coalition leader Benny Gantz managed to form a government. Both were unable to find enough additional votes to form a coalition and to gain a majority.

Now the parliament has 21 days to find a majority. It will likely fail and a third election seems inevitable.

Source: Moon Over Alabama

The Attorney General of Israel just indicted Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu in three cases. The announcement comes at a time of political stalemate. It might help to resolve it.

Israel had two parliament elections this year which both ended in a political stalemate. Neither Prime Minister Netanyahu of the Likud Party nor Blue and White coalition leader Benny Gantz managed to form a government. Both were unable to find enough additional votes to form a coalition and to gain a majority.

Now the parliament has 21 days to find a majority. It will likely fail and a third election seems inevitable.

SOURCE: MINT PRESS
The 9/11 Report states that “we have found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organization [al-Qaeda].” The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has used that sentence numerous times defending itself against families of 9/11 victims that are attempting to sue them for financially supporting the 9/11 attacks. 9/11 family member, September Eleventh Advocate, and Jersey girl, Kristen Breitweiser addressed the issue here.

For a long time, the U.S. Government argued that since Saudi Arabia was not on the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism, the 9/11 families couldn’t sue the Kingdom in a court of law. But in 2016, a bill called the “Justice Against Sponsors Of Terrorism Act (JASTA)” was passed allowing 9/11 families to sue, despite the formality. President Obama attempted to veto the bill but his decision was overridden by Congress.

SOURCE: MIDDLE EAST MONITOR

The Iranian armed forces today launched a major air defence drill codenamed “Guardians of Velayat’s Sky-98” in the northeastern province of Semnan, local media reported.

Air Defence Brigadier General Alireza Sabahifard said yesterday that the manoeuvres were being held across an area of some 416,000 square kilometres and will simulate a conflict in the Gulf, especially over the Strait of Hormuz.

“If the enemy intends to invade, attack or even infringe on our country’s skyline, which is one of our red lines, we can deal with it,” he said.

The manoeuvres come as tensions between Iran and the United States and Saudi Arabia persist in the Gulf region.

A Republican United States Senate member on Thursday blocked a resolution recognising the "Armenian genocide", the second time in a week that a member of President Donald Trump’s party halted the measure.

Senator David Perdue prevented a bipartisan effort to pass the resolution by unanimous consent, arguing that its passage during a sensitive period "would undermine the administration’s commitment to overcoming real challenges in our bilateral relationship with Turkey".

The move angered Senate Democrat Robert Menendez, whose effort had been rebuffed the previous week after Republican congressmen met with visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"It is amazing to me that the greatest superpower on the face of the earth just can’t speak [the] truth of history," Menendez said.

Syrian air defenses have thwarted multiple hostile targets in the Syrian capital of Damascus early Wednesday morning, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency.

Several powerful explosions were heard in Damascus as air defenses engaged several hostile targets in the city's southern region around 1:30 a.m. local time on Wednesday. Approximately 20 blasts occurred in seconds-long intervals that shortened as time passed.

Social media footage from the region shows fires that resulted from the the strikes. Unconfirmed reports say the missiles originated from the Israeli Air Force (IAF).

So much for drawing down in the Middle East. President Trump notified Congress on Tuesday that more American troops are en route to Saudi Arabia, which will bring their overall numbers to about 3,000 in the kingdom.

"These personnel will remain deployed as long as their presence is required to fulfill the missions described above," the president said in a letter.

The official White House notification of Congressional members described the American military presence there as essential in countering Iran's influence in the region.

SOURCE: ZERO HEDGE
Over the years of the war in Syria, an overwhelming amount of evidence has amassed documenting that the so-called 'Islamic State' caliphate was established after tens of thousands of ISIS and other foreign fighters were allowed to pour across Turkey's southern border into Syria.

That NATO's second largest military with the help of its allies such as the US, Britain, France, and Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar facilitated what the State Department in 2014 described as the largest mass movement of jihadist terrorists in modern history should be a scandal of monumental importance, yet the mainstream media predictably ignored it and "moved on".

And now more bombshell proof of state sponsorship behind the prior rapid rise of ISIS: below are details exposed during unprecedented on-camera interviews of imprisoned ISIS members in Syria spilling all. They confess openly that Turkish military and intelligence simply let them "just walk into Syria".

Gen. David Petraeus, the retired four-star Army general and former head of the CIA, told CNBC on Thursday that Saudi Arabia is “gradually running out of money.”

Petraeus said the Saudi’s need their initial public offering (IPO) of the state-run oil company Aramco, to be successful. In December, the Saudis plan on releasing some shares of Aramco to the public in an effort to attract outside investors.

The IPO is part of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s “Vision 2030,” his effort to diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy and reduce its dependence on oil exports. Petraeus said Saudi Arabia’s budget deficits can be “anywhere from $40 to $60 billion” each year, depending on the price of oil.

When asked about other people’s criticisms of the crown prince, Petraeus said it was in the entire world’s interest to see “Saudi Arabia succeed” and to also see it “moderate” some of its practices.

2020 presidential candidates Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Thursday condemned recent violence between Israelis and Palestinians following the announcement of a cease-fire earlier in the day.

The two candidates took to Twitter to condemn acts of violence from Palestinian militant groups accused of firing rockets at Israel, while also calling for an end to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.

"Israelis should not have to live in fear of rocket fire. Palestinians should not have to live under occupation and blockade," Sanders tweeted.

President Trump’s position on the Syrian War aims to further simplify matters. Turkey’s President Erdogan says he is worried about Turkey’s border with Syria, and President Trump sees an opportunity to contrast his own war, saying “we left troops behind only for the oil.”

In the context of US-Turkey relations, this seems very straightforward and avoids conflicts of interest. Admitting that the whole US war is for oil isn’t the panacea Trump thinks it is, however, and he’s running up against other US officials on this issue.

Lawmakers are couching the Syrian War as being about protecting the Kurds, while the Pentagon’s leadership sees it heavily built around fighting ISIS and continuing to work toward regime change in Syria. Some even suggest it’s about countering Russia.

Trump’s all-oil agenda directly contradicts everyone else, and gives the impression that the US is being deliberately evasive about its military agenda and where US foreign policy is going.

It was clear in yesterday's press briefing during President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to the White House, where he didn't actually receive much push back from either President Trump or the press (at one point Trump requested that only a "friendly" reporter from Turkey ask questions of Erdogan), that the touchy subject of Turkey's acquirement of Russia's S-400 anti-air system was front and center in closed door conversations.

But Erdogan appeared unmoved by whatever pressure he may have faced in the Oval, given he later told reporters while standing next to the US president that Turkey cannot possibly discard the S-400 due to its strategic ties wit Russia, but he also added, “I’ve told Mr. Trump that we’re ready to buy Patriots.”

Entirely to be expected, a new report in The Wall Street Journal has found that Turkish-backed Syrian forces currently fighting US-backed Kurdish groups as part of 'Operation Peace Spring' are guilty of war crimes, including summary executions of Kurdish civilians.

"U.S. military officials watched live drone feeds last month that appeared to show Turkish-backed Arab gunmen targeting civilians during their assault on Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria, attacks the Americans reported to their commanders as possible war crimes, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with the incidents," reports the WSJ.

What the report fails to mention, however, is the blatantly obvious and relevant recent history that the Islamist militants carrying out such atrocities are the very same militants which were a few short years ago funded, armed and trained by the CIA and Pentagon.

Maj. Gen. Eric Hill, addressing the arrival of more armored vehicles at the US positions in eastern Syria, says it is part of the “resetting” of the US position further east, and required the US to have more “combat power here to sustain ourselves.”

Maj. Gen. Hill says that the goal is not simply to have power to match ISIS but “the militaries of the Syrian regime, the Russians, or even militias backed by fellow NATO partner Turkey.” The focus is on how everyone is carving up territory in eastern Syria, which was once controlled by the US and its Kurdish allies.

Though the Pentagon likes to brag about its ability to project power across the world, in Syria its ability to accomplish anything has historically hinged on getting the Kurds to do it for them. Though the deployment at the oilfields is no doubt capable of inflicting some casualties if control of the fields is challenged, it’s hard to imagine that the US believes it would truly hold this ground with a few hundred troops.

Instead of reducing the number of troops as promised, Trump approved an expanded “military mission,” supposedly to “secure” Syrian oil.

Trump Expands Military Mission in Syria Aiming to Control Oil Fields https://t.co/LcPtAiBmmc

— Democracy Now! (@democracynow) November 8, 2019

The Donald is completely irrelevant.

“At a US government-funded think tank at the forefront of shaping Washington’s interventionist designs, an American official succinctly laid out the continued-regime change strategy,” writes Ben Norton for The Grayzone.

The “think tank”—the neocon infested Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is funded by clueless American taxpayers.

Though largely a civil war, Yemen's four-year-old conflict has drawn combatants from around the region, as the warring parties look to their international allies for support.

While Saudi and Emirati troops backing the government of Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi have been most prominent in the fight against the rebel Houthi movement, another country's fighters can be seen more readily on the frontline: those from Sudan.

Yemeni fighters say the Sudanese they fight alongside are some of the toughest troops in the Saudi-led coalition battling the Houthis.

However, the Houthis themselves claimed last weekend that Saudi and Emirati forces are willing to push the Sudanese to the frontline while remaining in relative safety themselves.

Whether to control the oil or flat out take the oil, US statements on the new military mission in Syria are heavily oil-themed. Other reports, however, suggest that the operation is a lot more complicated than that.

In reality, a lot of the goal is nation-building, with US forces meant to both keep the Syrian government out of this part of Syria, and try to “bring prosperity” to the region, propping up a potential territory of rebels.

This is again built around the assumption that the US can manufacture an autonomous, prosperous region, using the oilfields as the revenue source, and then steer that region toward hostility with the rest of Syria.

This will likely end up being a plan easier for the Trump Administration to sell than overt theft of oil, as it allows the US to retain its primary focus, military hostility toward Syria with an eye toward eventual regime change.

Moments ago, local Iranian news outlets confirmed the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran have shot down a drone from a "foreign country."

IRANIAN OFFICIAL CONFIRMS DOWNING OF A DRONE BY ARMY, SAYS IT BELONGS TO A FOREIGN COUNTRY - YOUNG JOURNALISTS CLUB

COMMANDER OF IRAN ARMY AIR DEFENSE SABAHIFARD SAYS THE DRONE WAS SHOT DOWN "BEFORE REACHING SENSITIVE SITES" OF THE COUNTRY - IRAN FRONT PAGE
The unidentified drone was downed near the port of Bandar-e-Mahshahr on the Gulf coast, ISNA and Tasnim, reported.

Iran Front Page's Reza Khaasteh said, "Mahshahr is home to Iran's Petrochemical Special Economic Zone (Petzone), where a major part of the country's petchem plants are located."

Reza Khaasteh
@Khaaasteh
Mahshahr is home to Iran's Petrochemical Special Economic Zone (Petzone), where a major part of the country's petchem plants are located.

Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters on Thursday that while the US continues to expand its presence in and around east Syria with an aim of protecting and controlling the oil fields, the US won’t be keeping the money.

“The revenue from this is not going to the US, this is going to the SDF,” Hoffman said, suggesting the US-backed Kurds will get all the money. That’s still entirely speculative, however, because no US company has expressed any willingness to extract the oil in the first place.

It’s also not what has been sold to the US by President Trump. Trump has insisted that the US would be keeping some of the oil for itself, telling crowds recently that it would amount to $45 million a month and that it was always his intention to “keep the oil.”

Legal questions. That’s hilarious.

I just want to remember the good old days, when they felt the need to dazzle us with yellow cake uranium fraud before they stole the oil.

Via: Military Times – AP:

President Donald Trump has approved an expanded military mission to secure an expanse of oil fields across eastern Syria, raising a number of difficult legal questions about whether U.S. troops can launch strikes against Syrian, Russian or other forces if they threaten the oil, U.S. officials said.

SOURCE: KRDO
The awkward camera angle is meant to hide the fact that the owner of the phone is filming, but there is no mistaking the outlines of the heavy cargo being deposited on the dock in the Yemeni port of Aden last week.

The distinctive shape of the US-made Oshkosh armored vehicle stands out in the early morning darkness, a piece of military hardware that is currently at the heart of a standoff between some American lawmakers and President Donald Trump’s administration.

Aden is controlled by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, whose main partners are continuing to ship American-made weapons into the country despite bipartisan outrage in Congress over the way the US is backing Riyadh in this bloody and bitter conflict.

Turkey's state-run media is reporting the United States is planning two new military bases in Syria's oil-rich Deir ez-Zor province, which are currently under construction, after US special forces convoys were seen patrolling the area in the past days.

Anadolu Agency, citing local sources, said the bases were under construction as evidenced by the influx of heavy equipment:

While the footage captured by Anadolu Agency showed that much construction equipment is being put into action, it was learnt the U.S. has sent 250 to 300 additional soldiers, armored vehicles, heavy weapons and ammunition to the region.

The reported added: “The military bases are being built in the 113th Brigade area and near al-Sur region,” according to the sources.

Syria's largest oil fields, which historically account for most of its domestic energy needs, are located in Deir Ezzor, including Al-Omar, Conoco, and Rumeilan.

Tensions are growing between Israel and Jordan just days after the 25th anniversary of the Wadi Araba peace agreement between the two countries.

On Tuesday, Jordan recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv “for consultation” in protest at Israel’s months-long detention of two Jordanians without charge or trial.

“We hold [the] Israeli government responsible for the lives of our citizens whose health conditions have severely deteriorated in illegal arbitrary detention,” Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi said, calling it a “first step.”

he senior ministers of the Israeli government met twice last week to discuss the possibility of open war with Iran. They were mindful of the Iranian plan for a drone attack from Syria in August, aborted at the last minute by an Israeli air strike, as well as Iran’s need to deflect attention from the mass protests against Hezbollah’s rule in Lebanon. The ministers also reviewed the recent attack by Iranian drones and cruise missiles on two Saudi oil installations, reportedly concluding that a similar assault could be mounted against Israel from Iraq.

The country of Yemen, known in the medieval period as “Green Yemen,” is one of the most extensively terraced areas of the world. There, Yemeni farmers transformed rugged mountain slopes into terraces and built dams like the Great Marib, a structure whose history spans long enough that it was mentioned in the Quran. During the medieval period, Yemen had one of the widest ranges of agricultural crops in all of the Middle East.

Submitted by Nauman Sadiq, an Islamabad-based attorney, columnist and geopolitical analyst focused on the politics of Af-Pak and Middle East regions, neocolonialism and petro-imperialism.

A car bomb exploded in northern Syria killing 13 and wounding 20. The blast on Saturday ripped through a crowded market in Tal Abyad, a town recently occupied by Turkish-backed militant proxies. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the blast targeted pro-Turkey fighters and civilians were also among the dead.

Even though the Turkish Defense Ministry promptly laid the finger of blame on Turkey’s arch-foe, the Kurdish YPG militia, without conducting an investigation, car bombing as a tactic for causing widespread fear is generally employed by jihadist groups and not by the Kurds.

US troops are reportedly back in military bases in northeastern Syria which they had previously evacuated ahead of Turkey's military action against Kurdish forces in the area.

Turkey's Anadolu Agency has reported that American forces arrived in the west of Syria’s northern province of Raqqa on Saturday to rebuild their military base.

A US military convoy, including a personnel carrier armored vehicle, a mine flail and a utility vehicle, arrived in Jazira base located west of Raqqa via Syria's northeastern province of Hasakah.

Authored by Matthew Ehret via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

With the transformation of the rules of the “Great Game” in the Middle East emerging out of President Trump’s recent Syrian surprise pullout and Putin’s brilliant manoeuvres since 2015, a sweeping set of development/reconstruction programs led by China now have a chance to become hegemonic across the formerly hopeless, terrorist-infested region.

The fact that the Arab states of the Middle East were targeted for destruction by western geopoliticians over the last 40 years is not un-connected to the region’s historic role as “cross-roads of civilizations” which were once the bridge between East and West along the ancient Silk Road (c. 250 BC). Today’s New Silk Road has brought 150 countries into a multipolar model of cooperation and civilization-building which necessitates a stabilized Middle East in order to function.

rom one or more illegally established airbases in Syria, as well as other other regional ones, Pentagon warplanes, attack helicopters, and drones continue terror-bombing Syrian sites at the discretion of its commanders.

US troops still occupy large parts of northern and southern Syrian territory indefinitely, including oil producing areas — looting them for private and CIA profiteering, as well as wanting Damascus denied revenues from its own resources. That’s what grand theft is all about.

All of the above are war crimes as defined under the UN Charter and other international law. The US and its imperial partners remain unaccountable for crimes of war and against humanity in all their war theaters.

The same goes for US economic terrorism against Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, Cuba, and other countries — high crimes gone unpunished.

As governments in Iraq and Lebanon stagger and stumble under huge waves of popular protest, powerful factions loyal to Iran are pushing to quash political upheaval which challenges Tehran’s entrenched influence in both countries.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri has resigned and the government of Iraq’s Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi has been pushed to the brink of collapse.

Both governments have enjoyed backing from the West. But they have also relied on the support of political parties affiliated with powerful Iran-backed Shi’ite armed groups, keeping allies of Tehran in key posts.

That reflects the relentless rise of Iranian influence among Shi’ite communities across the Middle East, since Tehran formed the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon in 1982 and after Saddam Hussein was toppled in Iraq in 2003.

Russia's foreign ministry spokesperson has accused the U.S. of "criminal activity" with regards to President Donald Trump's plan to deploy troops to guard oil fields in eastern Syria.

Maria Zakharova said Friday that the Trump administration was engaging in illegal smuggling, and estimated Washington stands to make tens of millions of dollars every month from the oil extracted in the region.

According to state news agency Tass, Zakharova said the U.S. was "bypassing its own sanctions" to take the oil—"worth over $30 million per month"—from Syria. She also suggested the U.S. forces deployed "are not going to leave these areas in the near future."

Assad's commentary on the latest White House policy to "secure the oil" in Syria, for which US troops have already been redeployed to some of the largest oil fields in the Deir Ezzor region, was the biggest pressing question. The Syrian president's response was unexpected and is now driving headlines, given what he said directly about Trump, calling him the "best American president" ever – because he’s the "most transparent."

“When it comes to Trump you may ask me a question and I’ll give you an answer which might seem strange. I tell you he’s the best American president,” Assad said, according to a translation provided by NBC.

“All American presidents commit crimes and end up taking the Nobel Prize and appear as a defender of human rights and the ‘unique’ and ‘brilliant’ American or Western principles. But all they are is a group of criminals who only represent the interests of the American lobbies of large corporations in weapons, oil and others,” he added.

“You can wake her up at 5AM, she won't complain.”

Slavery is one of many industries made more efficient by Silicon Valley, and specifically, Facebook-owned Instagram.

A new BBC investigation reveals the widespread online sale of human beings in the mideast for domestic labor. The buyers and sellers use services from Instagram, Facebook, Apple, and Google to facilitate slavery transactions.

Housekeepers and nannies are purchased and sold as slaves through Instagram, promoted using hashtags, and promoted on other apps in Google Play and Apple's App Store.

These workers live their lives in Kuwait mostly behind closed doors, invisible and with no rights to protest abuse by their employer/enslavers.

Excerpt:

After being alerted to the issue, Facebook said it had banned one of the hashtags involved.

Google and Apple said they were working with app developers to prevent illegal activity.

Here, let me try to dispel a myth peddled by the corporate media and foreign policy think tanks that the Islamic State originated from al-Qaeda in Iraq. Many biased political commentators of the mainstream media deliberately try to muddle the reality in order to link the emergence of the Islamic State to the ill-conceived invasion of Iraq in 2003 by the Republican Bush administration.

Their motive behind this chicanery is to absolve the Obama administration’s policy of nurturing the Syrian opposition against the Syrian government since the beginning of Syria’s proxy war in 2011 until June 2014, when the Islamic State overran Mosul in Iraq and the Obama administration made a volte-face on its previous “regime change” policy of providing indiscriminate support to Syrian militants and declared a war against a faction of Syrian rebel groups, the Islamic State.

SOURCE: MINT PRESS

HODEIDA, YEMEN — The country of Yemen, known in the medieval period as “Green Yemen,” is one of the most extensively terraced areas of the world. There, Yemeni farmers transformed rugged mountain slopes into terraces and built dams like the Great Marib, a structure whose history spans long enough that it was mentioned in the Quran. During the medieval period, Yemen had one of the widest ranges of agricultural crops in all of the Middle East.

The US occupation of the oil production facility at Deir Ez Zor is strategic for the US, and EU foreign policy on Syria, which depends on sanctions to keep the Syrian civilians and government from importing any necessary supplies to repair and re-build Syria, now that the war is over. Syrians are prevented from importing oil due to the sanctions, and without oil, the country cannot re-build. If the Syrian oil production facilities were to be in the hands of the legal owners, the Syrian Ministry of Oil, then repairs could be carried out and Syria would no longer need to import oil, and they could go back to being energy sufficient, as they were before 2011.

Russian Defense Ministry, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov spoke about satellite images in Syria which show the extent of past US involvement in the oil smuggling business, which was conducted with the Kurds using a US company “Sadcab”, and the profits were funneled through US private military contractors.

More than 100,000 people have died as a result of the war in Yemen, according to an explosive new report by an American NGO.

Based on data collected from a variety of sources, including the United Nations, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (ACLED) said the death toll from the four-year-long war was considerably higher than most previous estimates.

Out of the over 100,000 people estimated to have been killed since a Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen's war in 2015 against the Houthi movement, at least 12,000 civilians were killed in direct attacks, the ACLED said.

Already, 2019 has so far been the second deadliest year of the conflict, with more than 20,000 deaths reported. By 2020, ACLED estimated that 102,000 will have been killed as a direct result of violence.

Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to protect Christians threatened by the conflict in Syria, appealing to the plight of religious minorities as justification for Russia's involvement.

After a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Wednesday, Putin expressed sorrow over the persecution experienced by Christians in the Middle East, according to the Associated Press. Russian leaders have worked to develop close ties with Syria's Christian communities. Melkite Catholic Archbishop Jean-Clement Jeanbart has called Russia's intervention in the country a source of "hope for the country's Christians.

"The Middle East is the cradle of Christianity, and Christians are in peril there, facing persecution, being killed, raped, and robbed," said Putin. "Russia will do everything to protect Christians in the Middle East. We must help them restore and preserve their holy sites, preserve their congregations."

CROWN PRINCE OF SAUDI ARABIA MOHAMMAD BIN SALMAN (L) IS WELCOMED INDIAN PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI (R) WITH AN OFFICIAL WELCOMING CEREMONY AT PRESIDENTIAL PALACE IN NEW DELHI, INDIA ON FEBRUARY 20, 2019 [INDIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY/HANDOUT/ANADOLU AGENCY]
Just one year after Saudi journalists Jamal Khashoggi’s brutal murder in his country’s Consulate in Istanbul, world leaders are flocking to Riyadh to attend a flagship investor meeting known as “Davos in the desert”.
Although there has been very little progress in bringing those responsible for the grisly murder to justice, the CIA and several other intelligence agencies believe that the killing was authorised by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, the de facto ruler of the Kingdom.

Five presidents and the heads of some of the world’s biggest banks and arms manufacturers are reported to be among those heading to Saudi Arabia for the potentially lucrative event.