Foreign Policy Category Archive

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Oh What a Lovely New War! False Flagging in the Middle East?

Philip Giraldi • May 6, 2021

• 1,100 Words • 243 Comments • Reply

There has been virtually no American media coverage of last week’s arrival of a senior Israeli delegation in Washington to discuss Iran. The delegation included the head of the Israeli external intelligence service Mossad Yossi Cohen and Israel’s National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat. Their itinerary included briefings at the Pentagon and also with national security... Read More

Vienna Shadow Play Hangs Over Iran Nuke Deal

Pepe Escobar • April 27, 2021

• 1,200 Words • 22 Comments • Reply

Few people, apart from specialists, may have heard of the JCPOA Joint Commission. That’s the group in charge of a Sisyphean task: the attempt to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal through a series of negotiations in Vienna. The Iranian negotiating team was back in Vienna yesterday, led by Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi.... Read More

Uncharted Waters

Israel Shamir • April 25, 2021

• 2,600 Words • 185 Comments • Reply

The US has been fighting two wars: with Ukraine against Russia, and with Russia against Climate. Both are very costly, both bring no profit to Americans, both are entirely unnecessary, but both are essential for the Biden regime at this time, as the Covid pandemic runs out of steam. How will matters proceed? The Ukrainian... Read More

Who Wags the Dog? Israel’s Friends in Washington Mean Constant War in the Middle East

Philip Giraldi • April 22, 2021

• 1,300 Words • 34 Comments • Reply

Biden, like presidents before him, is caught in the trap between an extremist-dominated Israel and the all-powerful domestic Israel Lobby. Donald Trump, who was elected President of the United States in 2016, may have won due to voters attracted by his pledge to end many of the “stupid” wars that the American military was involved... Read More

How Eurasia Will be Interconnected

Pepe Escobar • April 2, 2021

• 1,800 Words • 31 Comments • Reply

The extraordinary confluence between the signing of the Iran-China strategic partnership deal and the Ever Given saga in the Suez Canal is bound to spawn a renewed drive to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and all interconnected corridors of Eurasia integration. This is the most important geoeconomic development in Southwest Asia in ages –... Read More

Iran-China: the 21st Century Silk Road Connection

Pepe Escobar • March 29, 2021

• 1,800 Words • 34 Comments • Reply

Capping an extraordinary two weeks that turned 21st century geopolitics upside down, Iran and China finally signed their 25-year strategic deal this past Saturday in Tehran. The timing could not have been more spectacular, following what we examined in three previous columns: the virtual Quad and the 2+2 US-China summit in Alaska; the Lavrov-Wang Yi... Read More

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (L) meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) in Beijing, China on March 23, 2021. Russian Foreign Ministry / Handout / Anadolu Agency

Welcome to Shocked and Awed 21st Century Geopolitics

Pepe Escobar • March 23, 2021

• 1,600 Words • 177 Comments • Reply

It took 18 years after Shock and Awe unleashed on Iraq for the Hegemon to be mercilessly shocked and awed by a virtually simultaneous, diplomatic Russia-China one-two. How this is a real game-changing moment cannot be emphasized enough; 21st century geopolitics will never be the same again. Yet it was the Hegemon who first crossed... Read More

Is Biden Reenlisting in the Forever Wars?

Pat Buchanan • March 2, 2021

• 900 Words • 60 Comments • Reply

Thursday, in its first military action, the Biden Pentagon sent two U.S. F-15Es to strike targets of Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia just inside the eastern border of Syria. The U.S. strikes were in retaliation for a missile attack on a U.S. base in Irbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, which killed a contractor and... Read More

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Biden’s Journey: Change Is Imperceptible

Philip Giraldi • February 25, 2021

• 1,700 Words • 250 Comments • Reply

Biden has been a major disappointment for those who hoped that he’d change course regarding America’s pathological involvement in overseas conflicts. The new White House Team has been in place for more than a month and it is perhaps time to consider where it is going with America’s fractured foreign policy. To be sure, when... Read More

Israel Cracks the Whip

Netanyahu tells Biden how to deal with Iran

Philip Giraldi • February 2, 2021

• 1,400 Words • 215 Comments • Reply

Anyone who persists in believing that the United States is not Israel’s poodle should pay attention to the comedy that is playing out right now. Joe Biden was president for less than a week when the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu government announced that he would soon be receiving a possibly unwelcome visitor in the form... Read More

Why the US Deep State Won’t Forgive Russia and Iran

Pepe Escobar • January 28, 2021

• 900 Words • 27 Comments • Reply

In a stunning interview to the Beirut-based al Mayadeen network, Hezbollah’s secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah has outlined how Maj Gen Qassem Soleimani – assassinated by an American drone strike at Baghdad airport a litle over a year ago – was instrumental in convincing Russia to help Syria militarily in its war against Salafi-jihadis. Here is the... Read More

How Long Before Washington’s Demonization of Russia, China, and Iran Leads to War?

Paul Craig Roberts • January 27, 2021

• 900 Words

Biden, the current occupant of the White House, and President Putin of Russia have had their first telephone meeting. President Putin stressed that it is in the interest of the US, Russia, and the entire world for the tense relationship between Washington and the Kremlin to be normalized. Biden apparently, was noncommittal on this overriding... Read More

More War by Other Means: Sanctioning the Wife of Syria’s President Makes No Sense to Anyone

Philip Giraldi • January 7, 2021

• 1,200 Words • 35 Comments • Reply

More sanctions, by all means. More grief and suffering and more people around the world wondering what exactly the United States is doing. I am a recipient of regular, usual weekly, emails from the Department of the Treasury providing an “Update to OFAC’s list of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) and Blocked Persons.” OFAC is the... Read More

Soleimani Geopolitics, One Year On

Pepe Escobar • January 4, 2021

• 2,000 Words • 84 Comments • Reply

One year ago, the Raging Twenties started with a murder. The assassination of Maj Gen Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), alongside Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iraq’s Hashd al-Sha’abi militia, by laser-guided Hellfire missiles launched from two MQ-9 Reaper drones, was an act of... Read More

A New War in the New Year? Trump Again Takes Aim at Iran

Philip Giraldi • December 31, 2020

• 1,400 Words • 302 Comments • Reply

One of the most perplexing narratives presented during the waning days of the administration of President Donald J. Trump is his apparent disengagement from dealing seriously or providing leadership regarding the surging Coronavirus while at the same time continuing an activist foreign policy that in no way benefits any American. Ironically, the new administration of... Read More

Turkey Pivots to the Center of the New Great Game

Pepe Escobar • December 24, 2020

• 1,200 Words • 12 Comments • Reply

When it comes to sowing – and profiting – from division, Erdogan’s Turkey is quite the superstar. Under the delightfully named Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), the Trump administration duly slapped sanctions on Ankara for daring to buy Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile defence systems. The sanctions focused on Turkey’s defence procurement agency, the... Read More

Ignoring the War Risks of Red Lines

Pat Buchanan • December 4, 2020

• 900 Words • 34 Comments • Reply

In early August 1990, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded and occupied Kuwait and declared it to be his nation's lost 19th province. Said George H. W. Bush, "This will not stand!" Translation: Get out of Kuwait, Saddam, or we will come over there and throw you out. Six months later, after a five-week air assault... Read More

State Sponsored Assassinations Are the New Norm – It Is Gangsterism

Patrick Cockburn • December 4, 2020

• 1,200 Words • 37 Comments • Reply

I was in Israel on 4 November 1995 when a student named Yigal Amir assassinated the Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin as he left a peace rally in Tel Aviv. A video shows Amir loitering by an exit to the square for 40 minutes before Rabin appears, when his killer takes out a pistol and... Read More

A Killing in Iran: Who Gains from Yet Another Assassination?

Philip Giraldi • December 3, 2020

• 1,800 Words • 173 Comments • Reply

It is not often that one can agree with the pronouncements made by former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan, but his tweeted comment on the killing of Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh suggesting that the incident “…was a criminal act & highly reckless. It risks lethal retaliation & a new round of regional conflict.... Read More

Has Bibi Boxed Biden in on Iran?

Pat Buchanan • December 1, 2020

• 800 Words • 27 Comments • Reply

If Israel, as is universally believed and has not been denied, was behind the assassination of Iran's leading nuclear scientist, questions arise: Why would the Israelis kill him? And why would they do it now? The scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, it is conceded, was a leader in Iran's nuclear bomb program, but that program was disbanded... Read More

Gangsters Without A Code

Eric Striker • November 28, 2020

• 600 Words • 28 Comments • Reply

A respected physics professor who taught at Imam Hussein University of Tehran was ambushed by gangsters sent by Washington and Israel. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh is now the sixth Iranian scientist murdered by Jewish state actors. Fakhrizadeh was put on a hit list in 2018 when during a powerpoint presentation Benjamin Netanyahu accused him of being a... Read More

Is Trump Exiting Afghanistan -- to Attack Iran?

Pat Buchanan • November 21, 2020

• 800 Words • 43 Comments • Reply

With the Pentagon's announcement that U.S. forces in Afghanistan will be cut in half -- to 2,500 -- by inauguration day, after 19 years, it appears the end to America's longest war may be in sight. The Pentagon also announced a reduction of U.S. troop levels in Iraq to 2,500 by mid-January. In 2003, we... Read More

War à la Mode: Will a Vindictive Trump Start a War with Iran or Will He Bring the Troops Home?

Philip Giraldi • November 19, 2020

• 1,700 Words • 237 Comments • Reply

I have a crazy idea that I can’t get out of my head, that we Americans are heading for something like an Armageddon in the next several months no matter how the currently electoral imbroglio is resolved. My greatest concern is that I fear that Trump is going to attack Iran, either through some kind... Read More

Does Christ Hate Iran?

E. Michael Jones • November 13, 2020

• 1,000 Words • 37 Comments • Reply

After playing Jesus in Mel Gibson’s blockbuster film The Passion of the Christ, actor Jim Caviezel became the poster boy for Catholics who wanted to use the film to share their faith. Playing that role also got Caviezel blacklisted from Hollywood films. In 2011, Caviezel told First Baptist Church in Orlando, Florida that he had... Read More

More on the Strange Demise of The American Herald Tribune

Tony Hall • November 13, 2020

• 5,500 Words • 9 Comments • Reply

In recent days many news sites, including Unz Review, have highlighted the role of the US Department of Justice (DOJ), the FBI and the CIA in removing web sites from the Internet. For five years I have worked as Editor in Chief of one of the targeted sites that was killed as a result of... Read More

Neocons Poised to Join New Government

Philip Giraldi • November 12, 2020

• 1,300 Words • 47 Comments • Reply

Donald Trump was much troubled during his 2016 and 2020 campaigns by so-called conservatives who rallied behind the #NeverTrump banner, presumably in opposition to his stated intention to end or at least diminish America’s role in wars in the Middle East and Asia. Those individuals are generally described as neoconservatives but the label is itself... Read More

The Strange Demise of The American Herald Tribune

Another independent news source is suppressed

Philip Giraldi • November 10, 2020

• 2,000 Words • 177 Comments • Reply

Many observers would agree that the biggest loser in the recent U.S. presidential election was not Donald Trump, it was the media. The news that was presented to the American public amounted to a tsunami of negative reporting on Donald Trump buttressed by opinion polls that turned out to be poorly executed and wrong by... Read More

Iran Becomes First Country to Embrace Bitcoin as Medium of Exchange

Eric Striker • October 31, 2020

• 400 Words • 14 Comments • Reply

The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) announced Thursday that it would be utilizing legally mined cryptocurrency to pay for imports. Bitcoin, which political dissidents in the United States and beyond have been using after being locked out of banking services, will be mined by Iranians with subsidized electricity from three of the nation's power plants.... Read More

When Exactly Did the AngloZionist Empire Collapse?

The Saker • October 27, 2020

• 3,200 Words • 311 Comments • Reply

I remember one evening in distant 1991, I was sitting with a few friends in the SAIS cafeteria discussing the future of the United States with a few very smart students, including a Pakistani Army Colonel, a US captain who served on aircraft carriers and a Spanish diplomat: we all agreed that “the system” was... Read More

Iran Seeks to Confuse the United States?

Philip Giraldi • October 23, 2020

• 1,100 Words • 27 Comments • Reply

Those who have been waiting for the elusive October Surprise that will upset the apple cart on election day are admittedly running out of time. The media’s unwillingness to even consider that the antics of Hunter Biden just might constitute an embarrassment of major proportions or even something worse has done much to kill that... Read More

There Won’t be an Iran October Surprise

Pepe Escobar • October 16, 2020

• 600 Words • 3 Comments • Reply

No Washington-designed “maximum pressure” has been able to derail a crucial milestone this Sunday: the end of the UN arms embargo on Iran, in accordance with UN Security Council 2231, which has endorsed the 2015 JCPOA deal. The JCPOA - or Iran nuclear deal – was unilaterally ditched by the Trump administration. But that, notoriously,... Read More

Jews Are Enabling Genocide Against Armenian Christians In Nagorno-Karabakh

Eric Striker • October 15, 2020

• 800 Words • 61 Comments • Reply

The spiraling conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed province of Nagorno-Karabakh has suddenly intensified. Nagorno-Karabakh is technically part of Azerbaijan, but its population is 99% Armenian Christian and has its own local military, which is backed by the Armenian state. The Azeri government seeks to assert full control over the region and violently... Read More

Enemies Lists on Display at the United Nations

Philip Giraldi • September 26, 2020

• 1,300 Words • 36 Comments • Reply

The opening of the United Nations General Assembly in New York each September is generally notable for its two weeks of speeches by heads of state, foreign ministers and other government officials addressing their own fellow citizens through the medium of a world forum. This year was no exception except for the fact that the... Read More

An Indian Train Ride. Credit: Asia Times/Facebook.

India Implodes Its Own New Silk Road

Pepe Escobar • September 2, 2020

• 1,200 Words • 439 Comments • Reply

There was a time when New Delhi was proudly selling the notion of establishing its own New Silk Road – from the Gulf of Oman to the intersection of Central and South Asia - to compete with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Now it looks like the Indians have stabbed themselves in the back.... Read More

Questions for the European Dependencies

Plumbing the Colonials

Fred Reed • August 29, 2020

• 1,000 Words • 146 Comments • Reply

This admirable column gets a modest trickle of mail from European readers, for some reason chiefly in France and Italy but some from the Nordic realms. While these correspondents are intelligent and thoughtful, and sometimes translate my maunderings into their languages, they do not give a comprehensive view of what Europe thinks of the United... Read More

Let’s Talk U.S. Foreign Policy: It Is the Root Cause of Many Evils

Philip Giraldi • August 27, 2020

• 1,500 Words • 39 Comments • Reply

As the United States sinks deeper into a multi-faceted global crisis that no politician seems able or even willing to address, one hears more and more often demands for radical change in who runs the country and to what end. Of course, Donald J. Trump offered such a dramatic shift in priorities four years ago,... Read More

Pompeo’s Iran Failures Make War More Likely

Ron Paul • August 24, 2020

• 600 Words • 22 Comments • Reply

The US foreign policy establishment has for decades been dominated by neoconservative interventionists and falsely-named “humanitarian” interventionists. These people believe that because the United States is the one “exceptional nation,” no conflict anywhere in the world could possibly be solved without our butting our noses into it. One of President Obama’s few foreign policy successes... Read More

The United Arab Emirates and Israel Join Hands

Great for Trump but More Bad News for the Middle East

Philip Giraldi • August 15, 2020

• 1,100 Words • 49 Comments • Reply

The decision made this week by the United Arab Emirates and Israel to establish full diplomatic relations as part of a commitment to normalize the interaction between the two countries was characteristically announced by President Donald Trump because he is, undoubtedly, the main beneficiary. With less than three months to go until the U.S. national... Read More

Making Excuses for Trump: Where Does the Buck Stop?

Philip Giraldi • August 13, 2020

• 1,100 Words • 207 Comments • Reply

One might make the case that Donald Trump was elected president on the antiwar vote. Running against Hillary the Hawk it was, of course, relatively easy to position oneself as a critic of the endless wars started and sustained under the Bush and Obama administrations. Even though we Americans had heard similar noises from those... Read More

Armageddon with Pompeo

The Case for Liposuction

Fred Reed • August 8, 2020

• 1,600 Words • 134 Comments • Reply

Today, God save the Queen, the country is in the hands of pathologically aggressive Cold War leftovers, in particular Mr. Genghis Pompeo. In light of his desire to get America into a war with Iran, plus the acrid whiff of desperation wafting from the White House, plus increased provocations against Iran, one may wonder about... Read More

Who Profits from the Beirut Blast?

Making the case that the explosion resulted from an attack

Pepe Escobar • August 7, 2020

• 2,300 Words • 254 Comments • Reply

The narrative that the Beirut explosion was an exclusive consequence of negligence and corruption by the current Lebanese government is now set in stone, at least in the Atlanticist sphere. And yet, digging deeper, we find that negligence and corruption may have been fully exploited, via sabotage, to engineer it. Lebanon is prime John Le... Read More

People march as they take part in an anti-war protest amid increased tensions between the United States and Iran at Times Square in New York, U.S., January 4, 2020. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz - RC279E98P2J3

Turmoil at Home, Turmoil Abroad: Israel and the U.S. Escalate Their War Against Iran

Philip Giraldi • July 16, 2020

• 1,300 Words • 202 Comments • Reply

As the combined impact of the corona virus and the wholesale destruction of America’s history and culture, or at least the part of it that is white, continues, it is nice to see that other nations are getting into the game that will lead to the de facto elimination of western civilization. No one is... Read More

Barbarism Begins at Home

Pepe Escobar • July 1, 2020

• 1,700 Words • 13 Comments • Reply

Greece invented the concept of barbaros. Imperial Rome inherited it as barbarus. The original meaning of barbaros is rooted in language: an onomatopoeia meaning “unintelligible speech” as people go “bar bar bar” when they talk. Homer does not refer to barbaros, but to barbarophonos (“of unintelligible speech”), as in those who don’t speak Greek or... Read More

Why Iran Won’t be Broken

Pepe Escobar • June 26, 2020

• 1,600 Words • 70 Comments • Reply

So what’s goin’ on in Iran? How did the Islamic Republic really respond to Covid-19? How is it coping with Washington’s relentless “maximum pressure”? These questions were the subject of a long phone call I placed to Prof. Mohammad Marandi of the University of Tehran – one of Iran’s premier, globally recognized analysts. As Marandi... Read More

Washington Struggles to Manage the Crisis, But Israel Continues to Benefit

Philip Giraldi • June 13, 2020

• 1,600 Words • 21 Comments • Reply

The self-inflicted cultural defenestration of what passes for Western Civilization in the United States continues apace. As George Orwell described the process in 1984 “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process... Read More

Government Mischief in an Age of Coronavirus

Bad decision-making continues

Philip Giraldi • June 2, 2020

• 1,500 Words • 108 Comments • Reply

It is interesting to watch how the folks in Congress and the White House have been using the at-least- somewhat self-generated crisis over COVID-19 to serve as cover for legislation and other activities that many Americans just might object to. They are assuming that the public is so consumed with the virus, as well as... Read More

Trump the Peace Candidate? This President Abhors International Treaties

Philip Giraldi • May 28, 2020

• 1,300 Words • 54 Comments • Reply

Let us consider why the Donald Trump White House is currently considering detonating a nuclear weapon. It would be the first “test” of a nuke since 1992 and is clearly intended to send a message that those weapons sitting around in storage will be available for use. The testing is in response to alleged development... Read More

Did Trump Just Cancel a Potential Double-War?

The Saker • May 27, 2020

• 1,800 Words • 276 Comments • Reply

At this time of writing, it is too early to declare the danger over, but at least three out of five Iranian tankers have made it safely to Venezuela (confirmation from TeleSur and PressTV). Furthermore, while we should never say "never", it appears exceedingly unlikely that the US would let three tankers pass only to... Read More

Will Trump Really Start Two Wars Instead of "Just" One?

The Saker • May 20, 2020

• 2,400 Words • 290 Comments • Reply

Amidst the worldwide pandemic induced scare most of us have probably lost track of all the other potential dangers which still threaten international peace and stability. Allow me to list just a few headlines which, I strongly believe, deserve much more attention than what they got so far. Here we go: Military Times: "5 Iran... Read More

Toothless Congress Fails to Limit Presidential War Powers

Philip Giraldi • May 14, 2020

• 1,100 Words • 12 Comments • Reply

Some weeks ago, the world woke up to the fact that World War III had just started without anyone being invaded or shots fired. It began when American President Donald J. Trump declared himself to be a “war president” in the fight against the coronavirus, an assertion that now has been followed by a claim... Read More

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"Iran" Items Across Entire Archive

Category Classics

American Pravda: Our Coronavirus Catastrophe as Biowarfare Blowback?

Ron Unz

• 1,638 Comments • Reply

American Pravda: Mossad Assassinations

The JFK Assassination and the 9/11 Attacks?

Ron Unz

• 1,065 Comments • Reply

9/11 Was an Israeli Job

How America was neoconned into World War IV