Month: April 2018
Please cut our budget! Montana State’s Faculty Senate votes down center to be funded by Koch Foundation
Montana State’s Faculty Senate narrowly votes down proposed economics research center to be funded by an active Charles Koch Foundation grant.
— Read on www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/04/27/montana-states-faculty-senate-narrowly-votes-down-proposed-economics-research-center
Arab opinion: Korean events bad news for Khamenei!
Interesting linkage between events in Korea and the Gulf. If, if, Kim is serious, such a move will greatly increase the pressures on an isolated Iranian regime.
Let’s assume that what we have heard from him reflects a new policy, and that North Korea has decided to become a peaceful country without nuclear weapons and to reconcile with its sister South Korea. What would happen to Iran? What would happen would be a huge political coup and a great international affair, and its effects would reach distant areas, including our region.
There are two countries in the world that have kept the international community busy and been a threat to peace: North Korea and Iran. With Pyongyang’s withdrawal, Tehran would be alone, and it would be easy to put pressure on it, forcing it to stop its nuclear project and adjust its bad regional behavior. The news alone would weaken Iran and strengthen the United States and its allies.
Fars does mention the attack
But no Iranians killed! And no accusations against Israel.
No one has yet admitted the responsiblity for the attack, but militants’ news outlets and social media networks said the US has fired the missiles from Al-Tanf border crossing in Eastern Syria.
Some other sources said that the missile attacks were carried out by the US and in response to the Syrian army’s advances East of Euphrates against the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Other sources said that Israel that had previously targeted the T4 airbase in Homs province where the Iranian troops had been stationed has been behind the missile attacks.
There is yet no official confirmation on the origin of the missile launches.
Nothing on the IDF strike currently (0839 EST) on the webpage of the Islamic Republic News Agency
I guess it’s a bit of an embarrassment.
Some context for the Israeli strike
Hours after a mysterious “earthquake” — 2. 6 on the Richter scale — registered on the devices of the European Mediterranean Seismological Center, the circumstances behind the series of explosions that shook Syria overnight Sunday-Monday are starting to become clear.
An increasing number of media organizations associated with the Syrian regime and Hezbollah are hinting that Israel was responsible. According to a report in the Al Akhbar newspaper, identified with Hezbollah, bunker buster missiles, which do not explode on impact but rather deep in the ground, hit bases in the Hama and Aleppo areas. Hence the “earthquake.”
First and foremost was the sheer power of the attack. The pictures and the sounds, and the large number of casualties, point to an incident of larger scale than those to which we have become accustomed. We are not talking here about just another strike on another Hezbollah convoy, but rather what would appear to be a new step in what is now the almost-open warfare being waged between Iran and Israel in recent weeks on Syrian territory. The same player that earlier this month attacked the T-4 airbase, from which an Iranian attack drone was launched into Israel in February, apparently struck again overnight Sunday-Monday, taking the gloves off and moving into a new level of military confrontation.Third, the latest strike was carried out at a time when the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is visiting the region, and just a few hours after he held talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The two of them used the opportunity to issue no shortage of threats and promises to thwart Iran’s aggression and nuclear ambitions.
Late Sunday, news also broke of a phone call between Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump. Israel’s Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman has been meeting with his US counterpart James Mattis in Washington. And less than a week ago, Gen. Joseph Votel, the head of the US army’s Central Command, or CENTCOM, whose sphere of responsibility includes Syria and Iran, made a largely unpublicized visit to Israel.
THE ABYSS BECKONS! 