In this mailing:
- Khaled Abu Toameh: How
Iran Is Encircling the Gulf and Israel
- Burak Bekdil: Justice,
Erdogan Style
How Iran
Is Encircling the Gulf and Israel
by Khaled Abu Toameh
• January 27, 2015 at 5:00 am
With
bases in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq, Iran has surrounded all the oil
fields of the Persian Gulf. This encirclement can be comfortably backed
with Iran's ongoing nuclear weapons program.
The
Iranians already have Hezbollah sitting on Israel's northern border. All
they need now is another terror group sitting in Gaza to the south, in
order to create a similar encirclement. And they are working hard to
achieve that goal.
"We
welcome any party that supports the Palestinian cause." — Osama
Hamden, Hamas leader.
Iran
is not interested in the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. The only thing
Iran is interested in there is turning Hamas into another Iranian-backed
army that would be used to attack Israel.
A ballistic missile on display in Iran. (Image
source: Fars News)
|
As U.S. President Barack Obama continues to seek a negotiated deal
on Iran's nuclear program, the Iranians have been working hard in recent
weeks to infiltrate the Palestinian arena and re-establish ties with
their erstwhile ally, Hamas.
Emboldened by Obama's obsession with the nuclear negotiations, which
are set to resume next month, Iran's leaders apparently trust that the
Obama Administration is prepared to turn a blind eye to whatever they do.
So the Iranians are apparently feeling free to meddle once again in
the internal affairs of the Palestinians, to strengthen their hand still
further in the Middle East.
With bases in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq, Iran has surrounded
Saudi Arabia and all the oil fields of the Persian Gulf. This
encirclement can be comfortably backed with Iran's ongoing nuclear
weapons program.
Continue Reading Article
Justice,
Erdogan Style
by Burak Bekdil
• January 27, 2015 at 4:00 am
Turks
facing a serious legal case would probably be better off hiring, instead
of the best attorney in town, a senior official of the ruling AKP party.
The appearance this month of the "16 warriors"
that guard Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his palace led to
much mocking and derision in social media. Dr. Hasan Herken, a
professor of medicine and university dean in western Turkey, was
threatened and forced to resign after jokingly referring in a tweet to
one of the warriors wearing a bathrobe. (Image source: RT video
screenshot)
|
Shortly before parliamentary elections in 2011, a prominent
opposition deputy visited Sakarya, a province not far away from Istanbul.
Muharrem Ince, from the main opposition Republican People's Party [CHP],
hopped on a minibus and made a speech to locals for about 15 minutes.
Later, Ince would learn that a prosecutor had charged him with
"blocking the city traffic by speaking on a minibus and attempting to
wear down the government." The prosecutor was asking parliament to
remove his immunity so that he could stand trial.
That never happened, but the indictment against the opposition
deputy was the precursor to how Turkey's justice system would evolve and
become an instrument to suppress any kind of dissent.
Continue Reading Article
|
No comments:
Post a Comment