MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : THE UNITED STATES, ISRAEL, AND THE IRANIAN NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Featuring Dennis Ross, Ray Takeyh, and Ariel Levite – Decision Points, Season 3 Ep. 1
June 15, 2021
World attention has focused on the prospects of the United States and Iran finding terms that enable them to return to their 2015 nuclear deal. Yet what does this mean for all the unanswered challenges that President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken say are essential to address in a “longer and stronger” follow-on agreement? How will the United States preserve its leverage for such a second round? What incentives will Iran have to engage in negotiations after a Vienna deal is reached? And what does this mean for Israel and the rest of the Middle East?
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS RESULTS : Erdogan says held ‘fruitful, sincere’ talks with Biden
afp / MESOP BRUSSELS,— 15 June 2021 – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday he held a “fruitful and sincere” meeting with his US counterpart Joe Biden on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Brussels.
“We believe there is no problem that cannot be resolved in Turkey-US relations,” Erdogan added after holding his first meeting with Biden since his election.
Relations between the two NATO allies nosedived after Turkey’s purchase of a Russian S-400 missile defence system that the US believes can be used to spy on Western defences.
Erdogan announced no progress on the S-400 dispute. Washington imposed sanctions on Turkey’s military procurement agency for the purchase last year.
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : EUROPES PKK BOSS STATEMENT IN BRUSSELS – PKK ‘ready for dialogue’ with KDP: KCK board member
Karwan Faidhi Dri @KarwanFaidhiDri RUDAW
On June 5, two teams from a Peshmerga mine-clearing unit were traveling in the Amedi region of northern Duhok province. They came under attack and five were killed in possible rocket fire. The Peshmerga ministry blamed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), saying their teams had fallen into a PKK trap on Mount Metina. The president of the Kurdistan Region called for a “limit” on the PKK in the Kurdistan Region.
The PKK denied they fired the fatal strike, but admitted to firing into the air, warning shots as the Peshmerga neared their position. The PKK is engaged in clashes with the Turkish army which launched two military operations against the PKK in northern Duhok province in April.
Relations between the PKK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the ruling party in Duhok, have been tense for decades. The five Peshmerga deaths was the latest incident stoking fears of an intra-Kurdish war.
A senior official in a PKK umbrella organization said the group is “ready for dialogue” with the KDP.
“We want all the issues between Kurdish parties and organizations to be resolved through dialogue,” Zubeyir Aydar, a member of the board of directors of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), told Rudaw in an interview two days before the Peshmerga were killed.
War between Kurds “is a red line,” he said.
The following is a translation of the full interview conducted on June 3, 2021. weiterlesen / click to continue
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS AFTER BIDEN : LIRA = DOWN DOWN DOWN !
Turkish lira falls after Erdoğan tells Biden position on S-400s unchanged
- Ahval Jun 15 2021 10:05 Gmt+3 – Turkey’s lira fell against the dollar after talks between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and U.S. President Joe Biden appeared to dash hopes that Turkey was prepared to relinquish S-400 air defence missiles purchased from Russia.
The lira fell 1.1 percent to 8.55 per dollar in Istanbul, adding to losses of 0.9 percent on Monday.
Speaking after the meeting at a NATO summit in Brussels, Erdoğan signalled that Turkey’s position had not changed on a political impasse that has led to U.S. sanctions on its defence industry.
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : HENRYK M. BRODER & HAMED ABDEL-SAMAD – Rassismus ist inzwischen ein Modebegriff“
Wo kommt Rassismus her, wo fängt er an? Welche Rolle spielen dabei die identitätspolitischen Debatten? Darüber und über Götz von Berlichingen sprechen Henryk M. Broder und der Politikwissenschaftler Hamed Abdel-Samad. (Video mit Transkript)
„Unter Rassismus wird inzwischen alles subsumiert“
Henryk M. Broder: Du schreibst in deinem Buch auf Seite 117: „Rassismus ist eine anthropologische Konstante.“
Ich fürchte, du hast damit recht. Ich glaube, dass der Rassismus ohne die negative Konnotation unser täglicher Wegbegleiter ist. Ich hab‘s erlebt, wie gebildete, feine West-Juden über die blöden primitiven Ost-Juden reden. Ich habe erlebt, wie polnische Juden über rumänische Juden reden. Ich glaube, das gehört dazu. Die Westfalen schimpfen über die Rheinländer, die linksrheinischen Kölner über die rechtsrheinischen. Worüber regen wir uns auf? Dass Menschen Menschen nicht mögen, ist Teil des Menschseins.
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : ‘Authoritarian’ Turkey must take precedence over Russia, China in NATO summit – analyst
Jun 14 2021 07:52 Gmt+3 – AHVAL NEWS REPORT –
During Monday’s NATO summit, members of the alliance will most likely discuss, among other things, how they can deal with challenges posed by authoritarian powers like Russia and China. However, they must first deal with Turkey, an authoritarian state within NATO, wrote Blaise Misztal in The National Interest on Sunday.
Throughout his 19 years in power, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan convinced three U.S. presidents that his country was “crucial to achieving U.S. interests in the Middle East,” wrote Misztal, vice president for Policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA).
The Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations consequently came to believe that Erdoğan was a valuable partner for everything in the Middle East, from democracy promotion, helping fight the Islamic State, and countering Iran.
MESOPOTAMIAN NEWS :US Haley: Biden’s return to Iran nuclear deal a disgusting spectacle
“You cannot be friends with Israel, and you cannot say thank you to the Arab countries who want to be friends with Israel, by getting back into the Iran deal,” former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley says in Jerusalem. – By Erez Linn 06-15-2021 12:19 – ISRAEL HAYOM
Former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Monday continued her visit to Israel together with Evangelical leader Pastor John Hagee, a day after touring Israel’s southern communities hard-hit by rockets.
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : NATIONALIST RIGHT WINGERS MARCH AGAIN – Jerusalem braces for clashes as flag march nears
Route of the procession will not go through Damascus Gate and Muslim Quarter as in previous years, but through the Jaffa Gate skirting the Muslim quarter and into the Western Wall plaza.
By JEREMY SHARON, LAHAV HARKOV, ZACHARY KEYSER – JUNE 15, 2021 13:50 JERUSALEM POST
The controversial flag march event has been given the go-ahead for Tuesday, against a background of threats of renewed violence by the Hamas terror group over the route of the march. The event was scheduled, as in every year, for Jerusalem Day which fell on May 10 but was cancelled due to severe tensions in the capital which resulted in the recent conflict in Gaza after Hamas fired rockets at Jerusalem later that day.
New Public Security Minister Omer Barlev said on Monday afternoon that the police were well-prepared for the march, against a background of ongoing tensions in east Jerusalem and calls from Hamas for Arab Israelis and east Jerusalem residents to confront the procession.
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : WAKE UP ! SLEEPY JOE ! THE MEDITERRANEAN SHOULD BE ON JOE BIDEN’S MIND WHEN HE MEETS PUTIN
by Anna Borshchevskaya 19FortyFive June 14, 2021
Despite its consistent rhetoric toward Moscow, the administration has not yet demonstrated its strategic understanding that ceding too much operating space to Russia will hurt U.S. efforts to confront China.
As President Joe Biden is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 16 in Geneva, there will be no reset, nor even a joint press conference. No doubt the latter bothers Putin, who uses these events as symbolic elevation of his status. It would appear the Biden administration has absorbed key lessons from his predecessors, Democrat and Republican alike, who sought to improve relations with Russia only to walk away disappointed. Yet the reality is less encouraging.
First, even without a joint press conference, a meeting is still a reward for Putin after a muted response to a series of Russian cyber intrusions and Kremlin-proxy aggression as domestic repression in Russia continues to grow. Despite bipartisan Congressional outcry, Biden gave up critical leverage by waiving sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Putin’s main geopolitical project in Europe. More fundamentally, however, Biden’s aim for a “stable, predictable relationship” with Russia, so he can focus more energy on China, suggests a misunderstanding of the Kremlin and its strategic calculus.
Putin prefers a degree of confrontation and conflict with the West to a stable relationship as it seeks accommodation and recognition as a great power with a “privileged” sphere of influence. But there is a deeper issue driving these demands. Putin rejects Western liberalism and seeks erosion of the US-led global order. To that end, he is looking not only to Europe but also the Mediterranean and the Middle East—what Russian rulers historically saw as a “vulnerable” southern underbelly. For the first time since 1972, Russia now has a major military base on the Mediterranean, and Moscow will continue to upgrade its regional military posture as part of Putin’s strategic global calculus of deterring the West.
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : DIE LEFT WING MADARINE / WOKISM
Sei wachsam, und grenze alle aus, die es nicht sind: wenn Woke zur Staatsräson wird
Einst verfügte der totalitäre Staat Sprache und Denken. In der Demokratie läuft es nun umgekehrt. Der Staat kopiert, was eine angeblich kulturhoheitliche Klasse diktiert. Jüngste Beispiele aus der neuen braven Welt – und ein kleiner Aufruf zum Widerstand. Josef JOFFE – NEUE ZÜRCHER ZEITUNG – 15 Juni 2021
Anders als in China liefert im Westen eine Klasse ohne Amt und Armee die Vorgaben, die das Denken und Handeln formieren sollen.
Geschichte ereigne sich zweimal, dozierte Karl Marx in einer seiner klügsten (und lesbarsten) Schriften, dem «18. Brumaire»: erst als «Tragödie», dann als «Farce». Der Totalitarismus des 20. Jahrhunderts war die Menschheitstragödie schlechthin. Sein kleiner Cousin – der Wokismus des 21. – ist aber kein Possenspiel, auch wenn er von Gulag und Geheimpolizei so weit entfernt ist wie die Platzpatrone von der MG-Kugel.
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