Viewpoints

We can safely assume that if Washington had not engaged in a thousand shades of conspiracy against the Cuban revolution, such as by plotting to assassinate Castro dozens of times and sponsoring a proxy invasion of Cuba under JFK’s watch in 1961, then chances are the Cuban democracy would not be subjected to the limitations of an state of emergency that gripped the island nation for decades. Intent on safeguarding the social, political, and economic human rights of Cuban people striving for self-sovereignty and independence, Castro, who nationalized the US-owned companies, earned the volcanic wrath of Uncle Sam that not only failed to dislodge him but also saw the replication of Cuban revolution in a number of Central and Latin American countries such as Nicaragua and Venezuela. The struggle for the hemisphere’s independence, which began with Jose Marti two centuries ago, is still on-going and experiencing the tumults of changing times. ››read more

Phil WilaytoDuring the years of increasing tensions between the United States and Iran, there was a concerted effort to develop a tendency within the U.S. antiwar movement that was hostile to the Iranian government. This tendency developed most dangerously in 2009, in the aftermath of Iran’s presidential elections. In my own organization, the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC), there were heated arguments, at times approaching physical confrontations, between some of these groups and those of us who consider ourselves anti-imperialists. Fortunately, these groups were defeated in open debates, but it took considerable effort on the part of the anti-imperialists. Having failed at turning UNAC against the Iranian Revolution, those groups are no longer around. But the same thing is happening now with the issue of Syria. UNAC is being criticized by organizations that believe the U.S. has the right to and should intervene in Syria. ››read more

Diplomacy is not simply war by other means, it is also war-aversion and the art of possible. Crafting a 'smart diplomacy' requires skillful diplomats who combine diplomatic niceties with resolute pursuit of their respective nation's interests, often relying on a mix of shifting and evolving tactics as called for by the exigencies of the moment. ››read more

At a recent conference on nuclear energy, Ahmad Shirzad, a reformist politician who is convinced of the net harmful effect of the nuclear program, stated: "From this well (of nuclear industry) no water comes out, not even one glass of water for the country since a decade ago." Another speaker, Tehran University professor Sadegh Zibakalam, went even further and boldly claimed that the nuclear program has no contribution to make to any type of technology in Iran. Shirzad also raised alarms about the Arak heavy water reactor by comparing it to Chernobyl and adding that he is in favor of the Western proposal to switch it to a light water reactor, presumably because the latter are safer. But, all these negative judgments are questionable. ››read more

One of the ironies of the Iran nuclear negotiations is the stark contrast between the serious international attention paid to the Geneva “interim” agreement known as ‘Joint Plan of Action’ and the relatively casual, or better said insignificant, legal importance attached to it. The time to bridge this huge gap has come and that requires debunking the indefensible and faulty interpretations of the agreement. ››read more

Soon after the Iran nuclear talks were recently extended for another seven months (beyond the November 22, 2014 deadline), President Rouhani spoke with the Iranian people in a televised address in which he sought to portray the inconclusive negotiations as a diplomatic victory for Iran, as an indication that his team of negotiators “stood their ground” in the face of excessive demands by the US and its allies. ››read more

We are now in the middle of an undeclared “oil war" led by Iran's traditional nemesis in the region, Saudi Arabia, which is singularly responsible for last week's OPEC impasse over the need to curtail production. Widely interpreted in the Western media as Saudi Arabia's 'gift' to the Americans to hit Russia and Iran with it as a potent weapon in the Ukraine and nuclear crises, the so-called "oil card" has resulted in the steep decline of oil prices since June, 2014, coinciding with the Saudis' other "ISIS card" that began to wreak havoc in Iraq around the same time. ››read more

According to some Western commentators, one of the reasons for the absence of a deal by the November 24th deadline was the inability of US negotiators to convince the Iranian negotiators that President Obama could make a deal with Iran that would withstand the congressional opposition. ››read more

It is no secret that the US and Iranian positions on the final nuclear agreement are far apart. The US is effectively demanding Iran to dismantle most of its sensitive nuclear facilities, and Iran has been rightfully against this position. ››read more

According to Wendy Sherman who is the U.S. negotiator for the P5+1 group, on October 3rd at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Iran said that “… no country has the inherent right to enrich uranium.” Her position is that Article IV of Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) does not spell out enrichment specifically at all, and she does have a point, if one reviews this Article as it is written, but her conclusion is wrong. ››read more

The first and most important decision Rohani, the newly elected Iranian president, has to make is to select a capable and competent nuclear team for future discussions with P5+1. Resolving the nuclear issue will overshadow everything else that Rohani has to accomplish in the first year of his presidency. Draconian sanctions have derailed Iran’s economy far beyond any criticism one could blame on Ahmadinejad’s domestic economic policies mismanagement. According to Suri, the former manager of the South Pars project in the Persian Gulf, several phases of this gigantic natural gas facility have been delayed directly because of sanctions that have impacted acquisition of technology and equipment. ››read more

There are indications by at least one recent article [1] written by Dennis Ross, a Washington insider for
many years, that Obama with tacit support of Israel may agree to some level of enrichment in Iran.
Provided the “break out” period is very long, perhaps in terms of months or even years but not days.
Break out period is usually defined as the amount of time it takes for a country to enrich enough bomb
grade nuclear material for at least one crude nuclear weapon, after IAEA inspectors and their equipment
have been kicked out of the country. Two factors control the break out period: ››read more

In Under the Western Eyes, Chandra Talpade Mohanty criticizes homogeneous perspectives and presuppositions in some of the Western feminist texts that focus on women in the third world. More specifically, the author anchors her accounts of Western feminism in a select group of texts produced by Fran Hosken, Maria Cutrufelli, Juliette Minces, Beverly Lindsay, and Patricia Jeffery published by Zed Press in what is entitled the Third World Series. According to Mohanty, these writers draw attention to the codification of scholarly writings that discursively colonize and ghettoize non-Western, “Third World” women as the collective Other. She argues that the universal categorization of a large group of women in non-Western countries is mostly done through constructed monolithic terms and classifications. ››read more

In Under the Western Eyes, Chandra Talpade Mohanty criticizes homogeneous perspectives and presuppositions in some of the Western feminist texts that focus on women in the third world. More specifically, the author anchors her accounts of Western feminism in a select group of texts produced by Fran Hosken, Maria Cutrufelli, Juliette Minces, Beverly Lindsay, and Patricia Jeffery published by Zed Press in what is entitled the Third World Series. According to Mohanty, these writers draw attention to the codification of scholarly writings that discursively colonize and ghettoize non-Western, “Third World” women as the collective Other. She argues that the universal categorization of a large group of women in non-Western countries is mostly done through constructed monolithic terms and classifications. ››read more

It's late September 2012, and tensions between Iran and the Western powers have seldom been more intense. The Democratic and Republican presidential candidates are desperately trying to outdo each other in militaristic rhetoric against the Islamic Republic. The latest in a long series of U.S., European and U.N. sanctions are threatening Iran's ability to sell oil – by far its major revenue-generating export – in the world market. The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet is leading a threatening 30-nation naval exercise in the Persian Gulf. Canada, without any apparent provocation, has expelled all Iranian diplomats and closed its embassy in Tehran. Responding to a multi-million dollar public relations campaign, the U.S. State Department is removing the “terrorist” designation from the anti-Iranian political/military organization Mujahadeen-e-Khalq, or MKO. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is threatening to attack Iran, with or without Washington's permission. ››read more

Amid growing tensions with Iran, the US is piecing together a missile defense system across the Persian Gulf. However, writer Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich believes the US is using Iran as an excuse in its push for global dominance. ››read more

News.Az interviews Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, Reader in Comparative Politics and International Relations at the prestigious SOAS, University of London. ››read more

Almost a year ago, in a well-remembered Friday prayer sermon delivered on February 4, 2011, Ayatollah Khamenei spoke at length, in Arabic, about the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. At the time, the Egyptian people were on the streets attempting to topple the Western-backed dictator, Hosni Mubarak. In his sermon, after praising the Tunisian people, Ayatollah Khamenei spoke of how Mubarak had humiliated Egypt by becoming an American pawn and an ally of Israel. He also recalled the sharp pain that Egyptians felt when Mubarak helped implement the Western-imposed, inhuman siege of Gaza and when his regime worked in partnership with Israel and the United States during the 22-day onslaught against women, men, and children there in late 2008. ››read more

The Arab awakening has revived Western speculation about “what could have been” in the Islamic Republic of Iran if only the United States had provided more tangible support for Mir Hussein Mousavi and the Green Movement in the wake of Iran’s June 12, 2009 presidential election. Central to that speculation is an account of Iran’s election as one of the great frauds in modern political history. This account has been promulgated by agenda-driven Iran “experts” in the West, expatriate Iranians with an animus against the Islamic Republic, and major media outlets. Some of us have gone to considerable lengths to point out that the narrative does not have a single piece of hard evidence supporting it. But the myth of Iran’s “stolen” election maintains its hold over a significant percentage of American and other Western elites. ››read more

MEK is on the verge of getting off the U.S. list of terrorist organizations as a result of a multi-million dollar media & lobbying blitz. http://mekterror.com ››read more