S. Arabia seeks to wreak havoc, ease tensions with Iran concurrently

Tehran, IRNA – A foreign policy analyst says Saudi Arabia was taking vicious steps while trying to ease tensions with Iran, noting that the Saudis know that the dialogue process with Iran can be lengthy. Therefore, in addition to their efforts to negotiate with Iran, they are also taking measures to weaken Iran's position.

In an interview with IRNA about Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates' approach to reducing tensions with Iran and simultaneously making accusations against Tehran, Amir Mousavi said both Saudi Arabia and UAE are serious about reducing tensions with Iran. In recent weeks, we have witnessed mediation and requests from the Iraqi and Pakistani prime ministers to ease tensions with Iran.

He stated that the role of Imran Khan in reducing tensions between Tehran and Riyadh is not just for mediation, stressing that the role of the Pakistani Prime Minister is more than mediation, and in fact, his role is to guarantee and validate possible agreements between Iran and Saudi Arabia. However, Riyadh faces two external and internal problems to reduce tensions with Tehran.

The Saudi external problems to ease tensions with Iran is their dependence on the United States and Israel, which will not allow Riyadh to do so, the expert said. As soon as Imran Khan traveled to Tehran to talk to Iranian officials and ease tensions with Riyadh, the United States announced it would send Saudi Arabia two billion dollars, several thousand troops and a number of fighters, ships and missiles to confront Iran.

Describing Saudi Arabia's internal barriers and challenges to reducing tensions with Iran, Mousavi reiterated that within the House of Saud, we are witnessing clandestine rivalries that do not want Mohammed bin Salman to succeed and would like him to remain in the quagmire he is grappling with it. In fact, there is a shadow government in Riyadh that does not support the improvement of Iranian-Saudi relations by Mohammed bin Salman and wants the Saudi crown prince to remain in the swamp.

Saudi Arabia has failed in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, Mousavi said, pointing out that Muhammad bin Salman has failed in all of his projects. Even Mohammed bin Salman has failed to establish a strategic relationship with Trump, and we have seen repeated insults and humiliations by the US president. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is not in good position after the attacks on Aramco and Najran.

The foreign policy analyst went on to say that Mohammed bin Salman and the Saudi government have lost their regional popularity, and the money they paid to hire others is no longer working, and the forces that are hitting Iran and the axis of resistance in other countries backed Saudi Arabia, are now in the weaken positions.

Mousavi said that Saudi Arabia would have to reduce tensions with Iran to get out of the current quagmire and underlined that reducing tensions with Iran would be a great success for Mohammed bin Salman. So the Saudi government is trying to negotiate with Iran because it knows that any confrontation with Iran and the axis of resistance is not in their interest. They can strike, but the result is not desirable for them, and it will yield nothing but defeat.

The Saudis know that the process of negotiating with Iran can be lengthy, he said, noting that Saudi Arabia is taking evil measures against Iran while trying to ease tensions with it. Therefore, in addition to their efforts to negotiate with Iran, they are also taking measures to weaken Iran's position. If by then negotiations with Iran have been finalized, they will stop theses disrupting measures, but if not, they will restore to such measures to have an upper hand in negotiation with Iran.

The recent developments in Lebanon and Iraq are an example of Saudi evils aimed at weakening the axis of resistance and chaos in Iran's friendly countries, the expert added.

Mousavi noted that Iran was aware of this Saudi Arabia's strategy and double-layer game and went on to say that the reason for the Saudi mischief is that they are now in a losing position and have no trump cards. Being present at the negotiating table with Iran is also a sign of surrender and failure, and they do not like it. So by taking such measures, they want to be in a better position in negotiation.

Referring to the UAE's approach to reduce tensions with Iran, Mousavi highlighted that the UAE is ahead of Saudi Arabia in improving relations with Iran, and has taken practical measures in the form of a silent light to improve relations with Iran. They left Yemen and took steps to improve bilateral relations.

Despite these positive actions by the UAE, Abu Dhabi is making shenanigans against Iran, the foreign policy analyst went on to say. They had strong present at the Manama Conference and active in the Iranophobia project. Their footprints are also evident in Lebanon and Iraq.

Mousavi emphasized that Iran should be able to calm Saudi Arabia and the UAE further and attract them, saying that reducing the tension of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi with Tehran is in the interest of the region, the axis of resistance and Iran because they are, however, part of the Islamic world and unfortunately the two countries are overwhelmed by mercenaries and dependence on the United States and, more recently, Israel, and have been so persuaded that their dependence on the West causes them to be devoured by Iran.

He explained the reason why Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had changed their approach to talks with Iran and noted that they have realized that they cannot count on the US in sensitive situations, and this has led them to think about reducing or at least managing tension with Iran. They fabricated coalitions against Iran and were also praised, but in effect received no results. Saudi Arabia suffered the most damages in the attacks on Aramco, and was only verbally supported.

The expert concluded that they saw that neither the US weapon nor the US was working for them, and they saw that the US was not willing to endanger even the life of one soldier for them, giving only expensive and useless weapons so they were ready for dialogue but this readiness and change of attitude is not because of friendship and benevolence, but because of Iranian authority and distrust of the US and the West.

Fujairah Oil Tanker Blasts Consequence of Playing With Fire

By: Kayhan Int’l 

"Those living in glasshouses shouldn’t throw stones”, runs an old English adage, which continues to hold true in the modern age when towering skyscrapers of steel and concrete are coming up everywhere and large ocean liners transport on the high seas with relative ease such highly combustible substances as oil.

In our bizarre world where might is considered right, those who play with fire by toying with technology including state-of-the-art military hardware to rain down death and destruction on those considered weak, or try to scare iron-willed nations into submission, the above-mentioned adage may seem outdated.

Yet, it is not, as has been proven time and again in Palestine, whose defenders, whenever the Zionist usurpers of their homeland attempt to test new weapons upon them, retaliate with such fury with their constantly improvised rocket volleys that makes Israel sue for peace in a day or two.

Unfortunately, the oil-rich Arab regimes of our region, who live in glasshouses, are not so smart, and as a consequence they suffer greater devastation and higher loss of life for their blind bombardment of the supposedly weak.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE, two miserably wealthy British-created fiefdoms, have for the past five years bombing the Arab world’s poorest country Yemen with billions of dollars of sophisticated weapons bought from the US and West Europe, but have failed to subdue the indomitable spirit of the popular Ansarallah Movement, whose improvised arsenal of drones and missiles continue to take a heavy toll of the aggressors in both men and material.

The projectiles from Yemen have on several occasions zoomed in on industrial installations in Riyadh, Najran, Jizan, the giant oil refinery Aramco in Dhahran, as well as on military bases and airports of the Emirati cites of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, causing extensive damage. 

The other day, the UAE port of Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman and outside the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf was rocked by a series of huge explosions lasting several hours in the early morning hours.

According to reliable reports, at least 7 to 10 oil tankers, loaded with petroleum flowing through the pipeline from Abu Dhabi, were completely burnt.

Eyewitness accounts said firefighters were trying to extinguish the huge flames on Sunday, while American and French warplanes were seen flying over the port at the time of the incident.

Though the small sheikhdom of Fujairah, which is part of the 7-emirate UAE Confederation, tried to deny the media reports about several heavy explosions, insisting that the port is functioning as usual, there are no reliable reports to suggest that everything is normal.

The cause of the explosions has also been not ascertained. No one has yet claimed responsibility, while speculations range from drone or missile attacks from Yemen, to possible dropping of bombs by the intruding US forces, which are looking for pretexts to ignite tensions in the region.

Nevertheless, reports said, oil exports have been temporarily halted from the UAE, which is building the world’s largest crude oil storage facility in Fujairah, capable of storing up to 14 million barrels of oil, outside the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.

Whatever the cause of the explosions and the possibility of forces behind it, the fact cannot be ignored that Saudi Arabia and the UAE are sitting ducks for such attacks which might increase in view of the dangerous policies of these two American client states in terrorizing their own populations and neighbours on behalf of their masters. 

Ahvaz attack example of US, Saudi, UAE efforts to bring violence inside Iran: expert

TEHRAN, Sep. 26 (MNA) – Referring to Ahwaz terrorist attack Anthony Cartalucci the West, Saudi Arabia and UAE have admitted interest in bringing armed violence to within Iranians borders, with Ahvaz being a crystal clear example of this interest materializing.

A terrorist attack during a military parade on people in Ahvaz, North West of Iran left tens of innocent civilians killed and injured.

Hours after the attack Saudi backed Al-ahvazi separatist terrorist group and ISIL claimed the responsibility for the terrorist attack.

To shed more light on the issue, an interview was done with Bangkok- based geopolitical researcher Anthony Cartalucci.

Here is the full text of the interview with him:

Do you see any foreign elements behind this attack?

Foreign elements can be implicated at least as far as long-stated and open admissions by Western policymakers regarding their interest in fomenting armed violence in Iran. The 2009 Brookings Institution paper, "Which Path to Persia? Options for a New American Strategy Towards Iran," had an entire chapter in it titled, "Inspiring an Insurgency: Supporting Iranian Minority And Opposition Groups." The West has - since the attack - repeatedly referred to the terrorists who perpetrated it as a "minority" and "opposition" group.

The US-NATO-PGCC clearly are supporting armed terrorists in Syria, including in a proxy war with Iranian-backed militias. The West has admitted interest in bringing armed violence to within Iranians borders, with Ahvaz being a crystal clear example of this interest materializing. Whether or not foreign elements organized or planned the specific act is another matter that will require further investigation.   

Saudi Arabia and the UAE didn't condemn the terrorist attack. Why?

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are openly supporting terrorism around the globe. An Associated Press investigation exposed their collaboration with Al Qaeda in Yemen. They are also backing various terrorist groups in Syria. They also have openly expressed a desire to bring similar chaos to Iran itself. They are likely aiding the US in sponsoring the very terrorist groups carrying out attacks inside Iran. Part of the strain of extremism they infect terrorists with in the first place is the belief that terrorism is justified. By condemning the Ahvaz attack even for the sake of putting forth a more enlightened face for Western audiences, would resonate poorly among the extremists these regimes are still attempting to recruit, radicalize, and send off to carry out violence.

How do you assess the US administration's reaction to the attack which it did not explicitly call a terrorist act?

It would seem many that the US is mirroring Saudi and Emirati malice, but I would say it is much worse than that. While Iranians mourned in the wake of the Ahvaz attack, prominent US politicians were hosting MEK terrorists in New York City explicitly calling for the overthrow of the Iranian government. While the Western media repeatedly frames these calls within a context of "peaceful" revolution, it is clear from events in Libya and Syria that the "revolution" will be just another episode of violent, attempted US-backed regime change.

Refusing to condemn this as a terrorist act could be an indication that many more attacks are planned and are planned to look like another "revolution" or "uprising" rather than the state sponsored terrorism it really is.

What can be the real goal of the attack perpetrators at this time?

Like in Syria, the US seeks an engineered, violent overthrow of the Iranian government. It is going to do this by using its extensive control over the media to portray state sponsored terrorism as a "popular uprising." The terrorists themselves have no chance of accomplishing their goals. But those using terrorists to create chaos they can leverage toward coercing or overthrowing a targeted government, have much to gain from an attack like in Ahvaz, and more like it. Thus the goal of those sponsoring the terrorists behind the Ahvaz attack is to create the illusion of an indigenous insurgency - when in reality it is foreign state-sponsored terrorism aimed at regime change.

By Payman Yazdani

Iran says Saudis, UAE turned OPEC into “tool” for US

Iran has criticized the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) for allowing Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to turn the body into a “tool in the hands of the US.”

"Saudi Arabia and the UAE are turning OPEC into a tool for the US and consequently the organization has not much credit left," Iran's OPEC governor, Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, was quoted by media as saying. 

"It is a fact that OPEC is losing its organizational character and becoming a forum," Kazempour Ardebili added. 

Elsewhere in his remarks, Kazempour Ardebili suggested that a deal reached between OPEC and non-OPEC producers in 2017 over production ceilings had already lost effect.

He said some key producers including Iraq, Algeria and Nigeria were already violating the deal and producing much beyond the levels they had agreed on in the deal.

This, the official warned, could eventually enable the member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to store more oil whereas one of the objectives of the deal was to prevent this from happening given that it could lead to the crash of oil prices internationally.

Kazempour Ardebili further accused Russia and Saudi Arabia of trying to take over Iran’s share in the global oil market.

He said efforts by US President Donald Trump to remove Iran from the oil market through sanctions had allowed Russia and Saudi Arabia to take OPEC as a hostage.

“Any country will naturally try to sell its oil at the highest rate possible to increase its own revenues,” said the Iranian official, who added, “Nevertheless, the behavior of Saudi Arabia and Russia in dealing with Iran in terms of their oil production will be recorded in history and the future generations will realize that … both of these countries chose to welcome the sanctioning of an OPEC producer.”

The official had warned earlier in August that Trump was apparently duped by Saudi Arabia into believing that the kingdom could replace Iranian barrels cut from the market.

"It seems President Trump has been taken hostage by Saudi Arabia and a few producers when they claimed they could replace 2.5 million barrels per day of Iranian exports, encouraging him to take action against Iran," Kazempour Ardebili was quoted as saying by media. 

UN panel cites massive war crimes in US-backed war on Yemen

A draft report prepared by a United Nations human rights panel has spelled out in detail the massive and savage war crimes that have been carried out against the people of Yemen in the three-year-old war waged by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates with indispensable military and political backing from Washington.

The report was produced by the Group of Independent Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen, a body formed by the United Nations human rights council in September of last year with a year-long mandate to investigate human rights abuses in the impoverished and war-ravaged country.

The group’s formation represented a reversal for Riyadh and Washington, which had successfully fought off previous attempts to mount an investigation into the near-genocidal war against the Yemeni people. Nonetheless, the group of experts lacked even the limited power of a full-scale UN commission of inquiry to recommend prosecution for war crimes in the international criminal court.

The report attributes the vast majority of civilian casualties—which it places at 6,475 killed and 10,231 wounded, while admitting that the real toll is far higher—to Saudi air strikes that “have hit residential areas, markets, funerals, weddings, detention facilities, civilian boats and even medical facilities.”
The report comes in the immediate wake of two horrific atrocities in the space of just two weeks that claimed the lives of at least 60 children and over a dozen others. The first took place on August 9, when a Saudi warplane launched a 500-pound bomb against a bus carrying students from their summer camp to a traditional end-of-summer ceremony, killing 40 children and at least 11 others. While Saudi officials denied responsibility for the attack, and the Pentagon claimed it was still investigating the matter, CNN reported from the scene that remains of the bomb dropped revealed it was made by the giant US arms contractor, Lockheed Martin.

This was followed by another murderous attack on women and children in a neighborhood in the besieged port city of Hodeida on August 23. A Saudi missile struck the truck in which they were riding, killing at least 22 children and four women.

As the report makes clear, these massacres are by no means an aberration.

The Group of Experts reviewed 60 cases in which Saudi air strikes were carried out against residential areas, killing more than 500 civilians, including 84 women and 233 children. It investigated 29 cases in which strikes were carried out against public spaces, including hotels, killing another 300 civilians. It reviewed 11 air strikes targeting marketplaces, killing and maiming hundreds more. It also probed bombing raids staged against funerals and weddings, most infamously the October 2016 attack on Al-Kubra Hall in the city of Sana’a during the funeral of the father of a senior official, which killed at least 137 civilians and injured 695.
Also investigated were air raids against civilian boats carrying both fishermen and refugees, and numerous medical facilities and ambulances as well as “educational, cultural and religious sites.”

The UN panel also cited the use by the Saudi warplanes of “double strikes,” in which a second attack is carried out against a target quickly after the first in order to kill first responders and others rushing to the scene to help the wounded.

The incidents cited in the report are by no means a comprehensive list of all the air strikes – estimated at over 18,000 – conducted against Yemen over the past three years, but only representative of the carnage that is taking place.

The report uses mealy-mouthed language that conceals the murderous campaign to force the Yemeni people to submit to Saudi domination. It questions the “targeting process” and the “effectiveness of precautionary measures” adopted to protect civilians by the Saudi-led coalition, and expresses “serious concerns about the respect of the principle of distinction” between military and civilian targets.

At the same time, it acknowledges that Saudi warplanes are employing US-supplied precision-guided munitions that “would normally indicate that the object struck was the target.”

Precisely. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and their allies are carrying out a protracted and deliberate massacre of a largely defenseless Yemeni population.

Also cited as a “violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law,” i.e., a war crime, are the Saudi-led and US-backed “de facto blockades” of Yemen’s borders, as well as its sea ports and airports.

Referring to the blockades, the report states that “The impact of these developments on the civilian population has been immense”. “The accessibility of food and fuel has significantly declined, due to increased costs of bringing goods to markets. These costs have been passed on to consumers, rendering the limited goods available unaffordable for the majority of the population. The problem has been exacerbated by the Government’s non-payment of public sector salaries, affecting one quarter of the population, since August 2016. The effects of the price increases coupled with the erosion of their purchasing power have been disastrous for the population.”

As a result, the report adds, “As of April 2018, nearly 17.8 million people were food insecure and 8.4 million were on the brink of famine. Health-care facilities were not functioning, clean water was less accessible and Yemen was still suffering from the largest outbreak of cholera in recent history.”

The blockade has also prevented people from seeking medical treatment that they are unable to secure inside Yemen. Last August, the Ministry of Health in Sana’a reported that 13,000 Yemenis had died from health conditions that could have been treated if the Saudis had not shut down the country’s airports. Just this week, the health minister issued an appeal to suspend the blockade so that victims of the recent bombings, including badly wounded children, could travel to hospitals abroad.
The UN experts’ report also cites as war crimes the systematic forced disappearances, arbitrary detention and systematic torture and rape of Yemenis taken into custody by the Saudi-led coalition, in particular military forces deployed in the country by the United Arab Emirates.

The report went on to say that, “At Yemen’s Bir Ahmed Prison, forces of the United Arab Emirates raided the facility and perpetrated sexual violence”. “In March 2018, nearly 200 detainees were stripped naked in a group while personnel of the United Arab Emirates forcibly searched them in an immoral way.”

In addition, detainees have been “beaten, electrocuted, suspended upside down, drowned, threatened with violence against their families and held in solitary confinement for prolonged periods.”

The report also cites the rampant torture and rape of refugees, particularly Somalis and Eritreans, at the hands of the so-called Security Belt Forces, comprised of militias deployed by the Saudi-led coalition on Yemen’s borders.

The report concludes that the panel of experts “has identified, where possible, individuals who may be responsible for international crimes, and the list of individuals has been submitted” to the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights.
There is no indication, however, that this list includes the names of individual political and military officials without whose participation the war in Yemen would have been impossible. These would include Barack Obama, Donald Trump, James Mattis, Gen. Joseph Votel and many others in the top ranks of the Pentagon and CIA, as well as the Democratic and Republican parties.

The only oblique reference to Washington’s role is a recommendation that the “international community … refrain from providing arms that could be used in the conflict in Yemen.”

The US support for the unprovoked Saudi-led war, initiated under Obama, has included not merely supplying the tens of billions of dollars’ worth of US weaponry that has been turned on the Yemeni people, but also indispensable collaboration by the Pentagon in providing mid-air refueling for Saudi warplanes, without which they could not carry out their murderous bombing raids. A joint logistical center has been set up in Riyadh to supply US intelligence for Saudi strikes and, since last December, US special operations troops have been secretively deployed on the ground to aid Saudi forces.

The White House and the Pentagon have no intention of halting their participation in the Yemen war, which they see as part of a region-wide campaign to establish the US hegemony over the oil-rich Middle East.

This was made clear by US Defense Secretary Mattis at a Pentagon press conference at which he dismissed the recent atrocities that claimed the lives of over 60 children. He claimed that the US was working with the Saudis to reduce civilian casualties, but “we recognize we are not going to achieve perfection.” He referred to the bus full of children blown to bits by an American bomb as a “dynamic target.”

The UN’s “experts” make no pretense of holding Washington accountable for the war crimes in Yemen, just as the international body has done nothing to bring to justice the US officials responsible for the series of wars, from Afghanistan to Iraq to Libya and Syria, that have claimed the lives of millions and turned tens of millions into refugees.

In any genuine accounting for the slaughter in Yemen, as well as the wider sociocide carried out by US imperialism throughout the Middle East, figures like Mattis, Obama, Trump, et al., would be standing in the dock like the surviving leaders of Hitler’s Third Reich in Nuremberg.

Settling accounts with Washington’s war criminals is the task of the American people themselves, united in struggle with the people of the Middle East and the entire planet, of course, with conscientious and those with open minds.

That was from an article by Bill Van Auken, a politician and activist for the Equality Party. He was a presidential candidate in the U.S. presidential election of 2004. Thank you those conscientious and those with open minds for staying with us with our programs.