Is prisoner exchange a beginning for U.S.-Iran negotiation?

*By Mohammad Ghaderi

Dr. Massoud Soleimani, an Iranian scientist who had been held in the U.S. for 14 months, was finally exchanged by a Chinese American spy named Xiyue Wang and released last week.

The swap took place in Zurich, Switzerland. The two prisoners were released simultaneously.

The United States, which has not softened its hostile stance on Iran, seeks an opportunity to set in motion a show at the international stage for dialogue with Iran. Washington tried to refer to the prisoner swap as a ground provided for the U.S.-Iran negotiations to gain more votes for Trump in the 2020 polls. A look at successive tweets by Trump, Mike Pompeo and Brian Hook regarding the issue shows that they have made every effort to open negotiations with Iran.

This kind of position taken by U.S. officials coupled with their efforts to open talks has at least two important dimensions:

First, an analysis of the U.S. politicians’ behavior over the past 40 years, and even earlier, suggests that they have offered to negotiate whenever they have reached a deadlock. However, the Americans change their approach as soon as they find a chance for hostility, like what happened during the recent riots in Iran.

Second, given the experience obtained due to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran believes that there is no need for re-negotiation. There are preconditions for a possible negotiation. First, the return of the U.S. to the JCPOA and lifting all of previous and new sanctions. Second, a complete halt to the maximum pressure campaign. However, the White House has explicitly rejected these conditions.

In fact, Iran did not accept the prisoner exchange to begin a new phase of negotiations. Rather, Iran agreed to it merely because of humanitarian issues. The exchange took place while Professor Masoud Soleimani was not a criminal. According to Donald Trump, Soleimani was held hostage despite having an official visa to visit the United States.

However, Xiyue Wang, who came to Iran as a Princeton University graduate student, was transferring an archive of the Iranian confidential documents to the Mossavar-Rahmani institution, a partner of U.S.-Israel organizations. Wang was arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence and charged with espionage.

* Author: Mohammad Ghaderi , Tehran Times editor in chief 

Netanyahu-Pompeo Meeting Solidifies War Plan on Iran

Finian CUNNINGHAM

Ratcheting economic sanctions, military force encirclement, inciting seditious violence and relentless war rhetoric. This all by the US and its allies over the past year towards Iran, yet it is Iran which is portrayed as posing “potential threats” to American interests.

The hastily arranged meeting last week between Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had the hallmarks of a war-plan summit amid a peak in renewed media provocation against Iran.

In the last weeks there has been a flurry of US media reports claiming that Iran is secretly moving ballistic missiles into Iraq and elsewhere across the region. As usual the media credulously cite anonymous intelligence and Pentagon officials on those claims.

Here’s CNN quoting one administration official: “There has been consistent intelligence in the last several weeks,” the official said, referring to “a potential Iranian threat against US forces and interests in the Middle East.”

Last month, the head of US CentCom made a similar dire forecast of Iranian intentions. General Kenneth McKenzie said: “I would expect that if we look at the past three or four months, it’s possible they [Iran] will do something that is irresponsible.”

Notice how General McKenzie tacitly acknowledges the background of the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign of economic sanctions and US military force buildup against Iran as if that is somehow normal international conduct. Then he turns all that US aggression on its head by accusing Iran of possibly doing “something that is irresponsible”.

There are worrying signs that the US and Israel are redoubling the pressure of war against Iran. This pressure has to be seen in the context of a formidable deployment of US military forces – troops, warplanes and warships in the region since May this year. The earlier buildup was announced on the basis of unfounded claims that Iran was preparing to launch offensive operations against American interests. Then came a series of mysterious attacks on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf over the summer which Washington blamed on Iran without evidence.

Street protests in Iran since mid-November over fuel-price increases appear to be hijacked by subversive elements. President Trump and other US officials have openly called for the protests to destabilize the Iranian government.

Fresh claims that Iran is sending ballistic missiles to neighboring countries appear to be setting the stage for justifying a pre-emptive US attack on Iran.

No doubt the Iranian government is under severe pressure from the economic hardship that the US has re-imposed unlawfully since Trump dumped the international nuclear accord in May 2018. No doubt too Iran is apprehensive about the relentless military threats against it from Washington and its Israeli ally. Almost certainly, Iran will have mobilized forces in the reasonable calculation that it may come under attack at any moment.

But, perversely, US intelligence and military officials are interpreting Iranian defensive moves as “indications of a potential threat” to American “interests”.

The meeting last week between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signals a foreboding development. Recall that this is in the context of US media reports of Iranian ballistic missiles being deployed and of reports that the Trump administration is considering a doubling of troop levels in the Middle East to 28,000, as well as sending more missiles and warplanes.

Netanyahu met Pompeo in Lisbon, Portugal, on Wednesday, December 04. The meeting was called urgently and was unscheduled. Netanyahu – who is fighting for his political survival over corruption charges – tried to arrange discussions with Pompeo on the sidelines of the NATO summit near London, but according to Israeli media reports there was not enough time for security logistics to be put in place by the British. That indicates the Israeli leader was trying to meet Pompeo in a hurry.

When Netanyahu met with Pompeo in Lisbon, he said at the start of their discussions: “The first subject that I will raise is Iran. The second subject is Iran, and so is the third. And many more.

The Israeli premier added: “We have been fortunate as President Trump has led a consistent policy of exerting pressure on Iran. Iran is increasing its aggression in the region as we speak, even today, in the region. They are trying to have staging grounds against us and the region from Iran itself, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and Yemen and we are actively engaged in countering that aggression.”

Netanyahu also gloated that the “Iranian empire [sic] is tottering… let’s make it totter even more.”

For several months Iran has steadfastly refused to take the bait of war laid down by the Trump administration. But with pressures mounting both within the country and externally, it would be imperative for the Iranian authorities to marshall their defenses.

US intelligence and military officials are using contorted logic to accuse Iran of posing a threat, and the American corporate media are ably assisting in the propagation of this oxymoron.

Netanyahu’s hasty meeting with Pompeo last week suggests that the US and Israel are putting the final touches to their malignant masterpiece for provoking a war with Iran.

Finian CUNNINGHAM

Former editor and writer for major news media organizations. He has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages

Target… Iran!? 74,000 U.S. Troops in the Middle East

By Steve Brown

In June of this year we examined why the United States will not attack Iran subsequent to raised tensions in the region. Six months later on the cusp of 2020, the United States has not attacked Iran militarily … yet. However, Defense Secretary Esper just threatened to deploy 14K more US mercenary[1] troops to the Middle East. So, let’s examine current US / Israeli intent regarding Iran again by looking at individual tactical elements which may contribute to an overall strategic picture.

One case in point is al Tanf in southeast Syria which lies near the Jordanian and Iraqi borders. The US illegally occupies al Tanf in its claim to prevent resurgence of the ‘caliphate’ – an ISIS construct indirectly created by the United States by proxy – and the truth is quite otherwise.

Pompeo states,

“We’re watching the space once occupied by this fraudulent caliphate like a hawk. That’s why we’re maintaining our residual presence at Tanf, in southern Syria, and our capacity to conduct air operations”. But that’s not true.

Israel’s Netanyahu gives the true reason for the US occupation of al Tanf:

“We have been fortunate that President Trump has led a consistent policy of pressure against Iran. Iran is increasing its aggression as we speak even today in the region. They’re trying to have staging grounds against us and the region from Iran itself, from Iraq, from Syria, from Lebanon, Gaza and Yemen, and we are actively engaged in countering that aggression.”

The irony is as apparent as the falsity of Pompeo’s assertion, the truth being that the United States is opposing Iran here – not ISIS. Especially ironic since Iran has been forced to fight the ISIS monster that the United States created in Syria and in Iraq.

Thus, Netanyahu admits the true purpose for US troops being present in al Tanf: to prevent Iran from holding the Anbar region that Iran cleared subsequent to the destruction wrought by the United States and its ISIS proxy there.

Even though the US /Israeli-led attempt to change the regime in Syria failed by 2016, the long-delayed US decision to remove US troops from the Northeast corridor remains a mystery. A number of theories about the withdrawal exist, most likely being US cooperation at the request of Mr Erdogan. However, the bloodbath in the northeast envisaged by Washington pundits did not occur and the situation has remained relatively stable there subsequent to the cease fire.

Now enter the strange coincidence of renewed unrest in Iraq – mainly from Sadr City, where the surprising turn of the US screw was the turning of Muqtada al-Sadr for Saudi, the United States CIA, and for Israel in Iraq.

The split seems to have occurred since 2009 when the Mahdi army was militarily defeated in Iraq. Armed militias such as Asaib Ahl al-Haq, instrumental in defeating ISIS in Anbar, and aligned with Iran, openly fought Sadr’s men at times. The result was that al Sadr was forcibly set adrift by Iran and it appears Sadr chose to preserve his own hide rather than preserve his honor. According to an expert in impressive tradecraft, Sadr was “for rent”.

Subsequent to his visit with Saudi Crown Prince bin Salman in the summer of 2017, the influential al Sadr reinvented himself as a friend to Iraqi Kurds and to the Saudi pocketbook while lately invoking his troops to protest the “corrupt regime” in the capital.

After inciting the riots, al Sadr demanded an end to them by removal of Prime Minister Abdul Mahdi as the titular head of Iraq’s corrupt government. Al Sadr’s move and the departure of al Mahdi is mission accomplished for US State, where the United States demands that the failed states it creates remain failed.

A successful Iraq is not acceptable to US State since the predilection for a failed State in Iraq is Israel’s goal too, since Israel has been at war with Iraq for as long as it has been at war with Syria.

Besides the US-inspired chaos in Iraq, the US withdrawal from northeast Syria — as forced by its NATO ally Turkey — has exposed Iraq’s Anbar and the Iraqi Kurd flank to Russian and Syrian cooperation, potentially compromising three secret Israeli intelligence bases which operate out of Erbil, and the US military intention to maintain a covert presence in Iraq.

US Troops to Deploy to… Iraq??

Approximately 14,000 more troops will elevate the overall US total in the Middle East and Eurasia to about 74,000. Not so covert, and making no bones about the re-direction in US State policy, on December 5th the United States did indeed announce its true goal in the Middle East is to confront Iran.

US State’s aim is not to stabilize the region, or to fight ISIS, or even to protect US interest. It seems the ISIS menace has gone and the “new” enemy is Iran… even if the United States (like Israel) has been at war with Iran in some form since 1979. Interestingly, articles about the proposed troop deployment  do not speculate about where the troops might go.

Kurd Erbil is the logical choice since Iraq’s government is in a state of chaos and cannot resist an influx of new US troops there. But sending troops to the Kurdish region will only highlight US State’s true ambition to wipe Iran off the map and may provoke reaction in Anbar, and will certainly look bad for the ever-dimming “light on the hill”.

But first, one must consider where the push for more troops in the Middle East is coming from. From Mr Trump? Possible, if unlikely. So… the majority of the people of the United States wish to attack Iran? No. And even Macron has offered to mediate between the US and Iran, however Macron significantly kept quiet about this effort at the December 3rd NATO get together. So, who or whom is pushing for war with Iran?

The recent NATO debacle looked more like an airing of Days of Our Lives than a meeting of world leaders and provided an interesting insight. Netanyahu, nebulous and presumed leader of Israel, was evidently desperate to meet with Mr Pompeo at the NATO meeting on the 3rd of December. But to no avail.

Rumours abound regarding Netanyahu’s subject for discussion, whether annexing the West Bank and Jordan Valley or a “secret plan” to get the US to confront Iran on Israel’s behalf, according to one source. That such a plan to militarily confront Iran in Iraq would coincide with Esper’s announcement regarding more US troops to the Middle East, does lend credence to the report. The fact that Netanyahu insisted on personally meeting with these leaders gives weight to the idea that the game is afoot — at least where Israel’s militarists are concerned.

Iran Protests

The protests in Iran – based on Iran’s “own goal” in raising petrol and fuel prices – also lend credence to the theory that Israel and Elites believe now is the time to strike Iran.

But as in Hong Kong, no matter how deep the Deep State reaches, US State just cannot pull off the coup it intends; whether in Syria, Libya, Venezuela, Iran, Yemen or with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Now the United States appears almost as humiliated in the Middle East as it appeared at the end of the Vietnam war. US State desperately needs a “win” in the Middle East to maintain face, and the voices from US State exhorting a strike – like Israel’s – are louder than ever. Meanwhile the unrest in Iran appears to continue to abate.

Concluding Remarks

The above is intended to shed light on an extremely complex collage of issues especially in Iraq and Iran, ever-developing, and seen here through the prism of the US-Israeli Axis.

Washington is convinced that its role and only its role as hegemon matters, all else in the world be damned. Israel is frustrated too that its wish to see Iran destroyed by the west has not been granted. These Deep State goals may seem unachievable right now but the perceived threat to Iran is greater now than in June, and possibly greater than it has ever been before, whether from within or without.

Interestingly, this week may be the first ever that the EU Blocking Statute gets a chance and one INSTEX transaction actually takes place. That INSTEX may actually become functional and pose a challenge to the global hegemonic has certainly outraged Bloomberg and the US Treasury.

Meanwhile the hedge fund managers who own and operate the west are beating the drums for war, ever louder. The only one apparently not listening is Mr Trump. However with impeachment, Ukrainegate, Russiagate and every other kind of gate, the Rulers of the Planet have made it clear that they want to see not just Iran annihilated, but the evolutionary clock of Civilization turned backward regardless of the will of the people or even rational thought.

*Steve Brown is the author of “Iraq: the Road to War” (Sourcewatch) editor of “Bush Administration War Crimes in Iraq” (Sourcewatch) “Trump’s Limited Hangout” and “Federal Reserve: Out-sourcing the Monetary System to the Money Trust Oligarchs Since 1913”; Steve is an antiwar activist, a published scholar on the US monetary system, and has appeared as guest contributor to The Duran, Fort Russ News, Herland Report, Lew Rockwell Report, The Ron Paul Institute, and Strategika51.

Note

[1] These troops are not ‘protecting’ the former United States from any threat to the United States thus a mercenary force paid for by the US government just as Rome employed mercenary forces.

Big US, Israeli lies and deception about Iran

Islamic Republic of Iran promotes regional peace and stability in contrast to apartheid Israeli genocidal persecution of innocent Palestinians, attacks on neighboring countries, targeted assassinations, wars at its discretion, and contempt for virtually everything just societies hold dear.

Iran’s peaceful “nuclear project” with no military component fully complies with the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action   (JCPOA) provisions but Zionist regime is a longstanding nuclear outlaw. It maintains stockpiles of chemical, biological, radiological, and other banned weapons.

The following is an article in this regard by 'Stephen Lendman', Chicago-based Author, Research Associate of the Center for Research on Globalization, and host of The Progressive Radio News Hour, under the heading: "Big US, Israeli lies and deception about Iran." The article was taken from the website of Iran's English language TV network, Press TV.

Since its 1979 Islamic Revolution, ending a generation of US-installed fascist tyranny, the Islamic Republic of Iran never preemptively attacked another country.

It’s the region’s leading proponent of peace, stability, and mutual cooperation among nations – threatening none, except in self-defense if attacked, its fundamental right under international law.

Throughout Islamic Republic history, it’s been assaulted by endless disinformation, big lies, and fake news, truth-telling about the country suppressed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) a key disseminator of mass deception.

It illegally operates as an unregistered foreign agent for Zionist regime of Israel, breaching the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), accountability never forthcoming because Israel partners with US aggression and other high crimes.

Serving as its most prominent propaganda mouthpiece in the US, the organization supports its apartheid viciousness, ignores its high crimes, anti-Iran hate-mongering big lies and deception, one of its specialties.

AIPAC claims: Iran “prioritizes regional aggression and attacking Israel over the welfare of its own people.”

But the fact is that: Iran promotes regional peace and stability in contrast to apartheid Israeli genocidal persecution of Palestinians, attacks on neighboring countries, targeted assassinations, wars at its discretion, and contempt for virtually everything just societies hold dear.

AIPAC claims: Iran “spends an inordinate amount of money on furthering its nuclear project, promoting terrorism, and destabilizing countries throughout the region.”

But the fact is: 

1. All of the above are US, NATO, Israeli specialties, waging war on humanity at home and abroad.
2. Iran’s peaceful “nuclear project” with no military component fully complies with NPT and JCPOA provisions.
3. Zionist regime of Israel is a longstanding nuclear outlaw. It maintains stockpiles of chemical, biological, radiological, and other banned weapons.
4. What AIPAC conceals is most important to know.

AIPAC claims in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Gaza, Iranian forces are attempting to surround Israel with increasingly advanced weaponry, preparing for the next large-scale conflict against the so-called Jewish state.

But the fact is that:  All of the above are bald-faced big lies — what everyone paying attention knows. Lying machine AIPAC supports what demands denunciation, falsely blaming others for Israeli high crimes of war and against humanity.

AIPAC claims Zionist regime has already been forced to act to prevent highly sophisticated weaponry from reaching terrorist adversaries along its illegal borders.

But the fact is: 

1. The Zionist regime is one of the staunch supporters of Takfiri terrorists in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. It’s an apartheid regime, a fascist police entity, contemptuous of peace, equity and justice — a fantasy democracy like the US and other Western nations.
2. Its Prime Minister Netanyahu was just indicted for bribery, fraud, and breach of the public trust.
3. Israel is one of the world’s most ruthless regimes. It’s a rogue entity, spurning UN Charter provisions, other international law, major treaties, and its own Basic Law.
4. It gets away with mass murder and much more because the world community does nothing to hold its criminal class accountable.
5. Separate and unequal is official Israeli policy. The same goes for neoliberal harshness. Wealth, power and privileged interests run Israel for their own benefit exclusively.

Corruption is deep-seated. Haaretz earlier reported that Israel ranks among the Western World’s most corrupt regimes.

As long as Israel exists, along with a US regional military presence, peace and stability in West Asia remains unattainable — notions both countries abhor.

On all things Iran, bipartisan US hardliners and establishment media are lying machines about the country — congenital liar US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo worst of all.

In a bald-faced big lie, he roared recently: “The reason for the challenges to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s economy aren’t the American sanctions,” adding, "They’ve sent young Iranian kids off to fight in wars and die”, a US, NATO, Israeli specialty. Iran is at peace with its neighbors, at war with no other countries.

Pompeo claimed: “We’re working to make sure that every Iranian has their human rights respected.”

But the fact is: 

1. The US is the world’s leading human rights abuser on a global scale over a longer duration than any other nation in world history.
2. It’s contemptuous of what just societies hold dear, smashing nations to control them, responsible for countless millions of casualties and appalling human misery in the post-9/11 era alone.

On Saturday, US CENTCOM Commander General Kenneth McKenzie warned of a nonexistent Iranian threat claiming: “My judgment is that it is very possible they will attack again.”

Iran never attacked another country. Not a shred of credible evidence suggests it intends a strike on any other nation now or ahead.

Time and again, sovereign independent nations on the US target list for regime change are falsely blamed for offenses committed by their accusers — notably the US, UK, other NATO countries and Israel.

Claims by hardline US officials like Pompeo and McKenzie are completely in opposite of the truth about nations free from US control.

Along with its rogue allies, the US under both right wings of its war party is the greatest threat to world peace, stability, and humanity’s survival.

Flood of People Drowns Rioters

IRGC Chief: Iran to Destroy Whoever Crosses Its Redlines

TEHRAN (Kayhan Intl.) – Hundreds of thousands of Iranians rallied in Tehran on Monday, condemning the United States and the occupying regime of Israel for instigating violent riots recently in the Islamic Republic.

General Hussein Salami, the chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), warned the United States, the Zionist regime and Saudi Arabia not to push Tehran into devastating retaliation over their support for rioters.

"We have shown restraint...We have shown patience towards the hostile moves of America, the Zionist regime and Saudi Arabia against Iran,” Salami told demonstrators in Tehran’s Revolution Square.

Addressing the enemies, he said, "You have already tested us in the battlefield and have been slapped hard in the face without being able to answer. Some of those slaps have been seen by the world and some have not been seen… If you cross our redlines, we will destroy you.”

Crowds chanted "Death to America,” and "Death to Israel” in response to Western statements of solidarity with rioters.

"I recommend they (foreign countries) look at the marches today, to see who the real people in Iran are and what they are saying,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said.

Citing the Iranian people as the Islamic Republic’s source of energy, General Salami said, "If this accumulated energy is released, no enemy will be safe and secure in any part of the world."   

"Today, the final was delivered to the enemy. The sedition which occurred in the recent days was the spin-off of all major fiascos that the Muslim Ummah and the Iranian nation have inflicted on the enemy in different fields over the last 40 years, particularly over the past eight months," Salami said.

He said the enemies have been defeated and are not able to do anything against the country, but still "we will not leave any move unanswered and will get even".

Earlier in the day, Mousavi said measures are being taken to counter U.S. officials’ intervention in the recent unrest which was triggered by the Iranian government’s decision to hike gasoline prices.

The decision was part of Iran’s belt-tightening in the face of U.S. sanctions which have hit ordinary Iranians the hardest. While U.S. officials said they supported the protesters, they imposed new sanctions on Iran last week.
"We think these statements and interventions are made not out of friendship and goodwill with the Iranian people, but aim to stoke up tensions,” Mousavi told reporters here.
On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted: "As I said to the people of Iran almost a year and a half ago: The United States is with you."

Pompeo was referring to the time when he curiously said Washington’s tough sanctions were aimed at giving the Iranian people a chance to have better lives.

Pompeo had earlier told BBC Persian that Iranian officials must listen to Washington "if they want their people to eat."
On Sunday, Mousavi denounced Pompeo’s new tweet. "Iran's noble nation knows well that such hypocritical statements are completely void of sincere sympathy," the spokesman said.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Pompeo’s tweet "left us puzzled since most of the things that sparked the discontent and other processes that are taking place in Iran were actually brought upon the Islamic Republic by the U.S.’ own actions.”
Iran has been trying to take the sanctions in its stride, working through a raft of measures which could ease up the pain for the most needy families.
The Iranian government this month raised gasoline prices which still remain the cheapest in the world. The decision triggered peaceful protests which turned ugly when "saboteurs” went on a violent rampage, torching banks and gas stations, while armed assailants targeted police and security forces.
Mousavi said Monday, "We recognize the right to peaceful assembly. In recent years, similar incidents have happened where people had certain grievances and were able to express them.”
"However, more unsavory than the recent events was the meddling of foreign countries which we condemn, because Iran regards protests as the right of the people and this is stipulated in the Constitution,” he added.
Mousavi said Iran makes a distinction between peaceful protesters and the armed groups which have taken advantage of the situation to cause mayhem.
Most countries involved in the unrest did so willingly, for which they should accept responsibility, he said, adding terrorist groups also engaged in certain acts which the judiciary and security agencies are investigating.
Mousavi also took aim at Pompeo asking Iranian protesters to send the US any photos or videos of violent protests, with a pledge to use the evidence as the basis for new sanctions.
"I am surprised by certain countries whose foreign secretary and foreign policy spokesman has come to such a low as to ask for videos and pictures from riots and arson,” he said.
Pompeo made the request on Thursday night on Twitter, in both Farsi and English, directing protesters to a "secure messaging service” to send any documentation of protests.

Finian CUNNINGHAM

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this week announced yet another radical shift in Washington’s policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, by way of saying that the United States “was accepting realities on the ground”.

What the mendacious and cynical Pompeo omits to add is that the Trump administration has been dramatically fueling the change in “realities” – specifically the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory and the demolition of Palestinian homes.

This week the top US diplomat declared that Washington would no longer adopt the international consensus position, backed by several UN resolutions, that Israeli settlement-building and occupation of Palestinian territory was a violation of international law. Washington is henceforth recognizing Israeli settlements as legitimate.

The move overturns more than four decades of official US policy which adhered to the UN-backed position of condemning Israeli occupation in the Palestinian West Bank and in East Jerusalem as illegal and a violation of the Geneva Convention.

Since the 1967 Six War, successive Israeli governments have overseen a relentless process of annexing Palestinian territory. Over that period, Palestinian lands have diminished and become increasingly fragmented with little contiguity that would be normal for a future state. There are estimated to be around 200 Israeli new-build settlements of towns and villages with a population of 600,000 Jewish settlers who have usurped Palestinian land and properties. The UN has repeatedly condemned the annexation and occupation as illegal, to no avail.

The latest move by the Trump administration is a flagrant repudiation of UN resolutions and international law. It follows previous declarations by President Trump recognizing Israeli claims to Jerusalem as its capital, as well as Israel’s annexation of Syrian territory in the Golan Heights.

“Calling the establishment of civilian settlements inconsistent with international law has not advanced the cause of peace,” said Pompeo on Monday. “The hard truth is that there will never be a judicial resolution to the conflict, and arguments about who is right and who is wrong as a matter of international law will not bring peace.”

That is an astounding dereliction of international law by the American government. The “hard truth” that Pompeo ignores is that US administrations have constantly undermined “judicial resolution of the conflict” because they have, to varying degrees, over the decades pandered to Israeli criminal occupation of Palestinian lands.

What the Trump administration is doing is not entirely unprecedented. Successive American presidents have merely paid lip service to a supposed peace process between Israelis and Palestinians, declaring their support for a “two-state solution” and presenting Washington as some kind of “honest broker”. The reality is that Washington has consistently undermined Palestinian national rights by its systematic bias towards Israel, indulging the latter’s criminal policies of occupation and military aggression towards Palestinian population.

However, Trump and his coterie of Middle East aides have taken the American bias and complicity with Israel to naked levels. Part of that is no doubt payback for the multi-million-dollar funding of Trump’s 2016 election campaign by Jewish-American billionaire and arch-Zionist Sheldon Adelson.

Israeli peace groups have recorded a surge in Israeli expansion of settlements across the West Bank and East Jerusalem over the past three years of the Trump administration. Demolition of Palestinian homes by Israeli bulldozers are at a record high.

There is an imperative business reason for this. President Donald Trump has personally invested in Israeli settlements, as have his ambassador to Israel David Friedman, and the White House’s special envoy to the region, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.

One of those settlements is at Beit El which is described as “one of the most aggressive” in terms of expansionist scope. It overlooks the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the West Bank which is supposed to be the administrative seat of the Palestinian Authority.

Trump, Friedman and the Kushner family have in the past funneled millions of dollars into Beit El and other Israeli settlements. In return, Israeli financial companies have made huge investments in Jared Kushner’s family real-estate business back in the US. For example, Menora Mivtachim, a pension and insurance firm, invested $30 million in apartments in Maryland owned by the Kushner family.

Jared Kushner officially stepped away from his family’s property conglomerate when he was appointed by his father-in-law as special envoy on the Middle East “peace process”. But few would believe his future wealth will not benefit from investments in and from Israel. He is still a beneficiary of trusts that have holdings in Kushner properties, notes Haaretz newspaper.

It seems incredible given this blatant conflict of interest that Kushner has been tasked with producing a “peace plan” for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which Trump had previously boasted about as being the “deal of the century”. That plan has since wilted to non-existence. The media don’t even talk about its expected publication, so far off the radar is it.

The latest move by the Trump administration to effectively reward and accelerate further Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory has American self-interest and profit written all over it. It mirrors Trump’s declaration in March this year recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, where there is irrefutable evidence that Trump and the Zionist clique in the White House have major business interests in oil exploration and production in that contested region.

Russia warned this week that Washington’s policy is inflaming further conflict amid an intensification of air strikes by Israel on Gaza where more than 30 people have been killed over the past week, including one Palestinian family of three adults and five children. The bloodshed makes Pompeo’s announcement all the more repulsive.

The Arab League and the European Union have also condemned the unilateral rejection of international law by the US. Jordan, Egypt and other Arab states said the United States has forfeited its right to act as a peace broker in the region.

The “reality on the ground” – to use a talking point favored by Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu and now Mike Pompeo – is that the US is an accomplice in Israel’s illegal occupation and war crimes. Even more heinous, the US policy is being driven by Trump’s family business profits.

Finian CUNNINGHAM

Former editor and writer for major news media organizations. He has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages