The EU Still Appeasing the Mullahs

by Majid Rafizadeh • April 15, 2019 at 5:00 am

Despite Iran's destructive behavior, such as support for terror and militia groups across the region, the European Union has chosen to help the ruling mullahs of Iran, ostensibly to maintain the flimsy, illegal, never-signed, unratified "nuclear deal" -- but possibly even more as an embarrassingly transparent attempt, if the EU could be embarrassed, to navigate around US economic and political pressure and continue doing business with the regime.
If the EU does not change its position and continues its support of Iranian leaders and the nuclear deal, Tehran's aggressive policies in the Middle East will persist, and Tehran will keep on pursuing its subversive agenda of attacking Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States via Yemen, Israel through Syria and Lebanon, and the US via Venezuela.
While President Donald Trump may have his critics, his hard-line sanctions are the only kind of political message the Iranian leaders can understand.

The Trump administration's decision to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization is part of its tougher stance towards Iran's dark and hegemonic ambitions. Meanwhile, the European Union has chosen to help the ruling mullahs of Iran. Pictured: IRGC "ground commandos". (Image source: Tasnim/Wikimedia Commons)

The European Union, in an unfathomable move, has been taking the side of the Iranian government, and turning its back on its old transatlantic partner, the United States, which recently announced plans to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), reportedly to take effect this week.

The Trump administration has taken a tougher stance towards Iran's dark and hegemonic ambitions. Meanwhile, despite Iran's destructive behavior, such as support for terror and militia groups across the region, the European Union has chosen to help the ruling mullahs of Iran, ostensibly to maintain the flimsy, illegal, never-signed, unratified "nuclear deal" -- but possibly even more as an embarrassingly transparent attempt, if the EU could be embarrassed, to navigate around US economic and political pressure and continue doing business with Iran's regime.

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Germany: Talk of 'European Army' was Meant 'Allegorically'

by Stefan Frank • April 15, 2019 at 4:00 am

Since taking office in 2013, German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen has done little to alleviate the problems in the military. The best-known projects during her tenure were kindergartens for the soldiers' families; the procurement of flat screen television sets and mini-fridges for the barracks; the announcement of efforts to make the German army "more attractive for gay, lesbian and transgender people"; buying uniforms for pregnant soldiers, and making battle tanks suitable for pregnant soldiers. As worthwhile as these efforts may be, they do little to address the core problems.
"Apparently the readiness of the Bundeswehr is so bad that the public should not be allowed to know about it." — Tobias Lindner, a Greens Party member, serving on the budget and defense committees.

The German government recently revealed that when German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in November that she wanted to "create a real, true European army", she was only speaking "allegorically" -- not about instituting a new military project, but merely diplomacy between European countries. Pictured: Soldiers of the Franco-German brigade, a military unit founded in 1989, jointly consisting of units from the French Army and German Army. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

"We are committed to the emergence of a European army", German chancellor Angela Merkel pledged in January, backing a plan first launched by French president Emmanuel Macron in 2017. Merkel thus confirmed a position she had voiced in November 2018, when, speaking to the European parliament in Strasbourg, she said: "We have to look at the vision of one day creating a real, true European army."

Members of the opposition Free Democratic Party (FDP) in the German federal parliament (Bundestag) wanted to know what was meant by the term "European army" and submitted this question to the government.

In early March 2019, Die Welt reported the answer and voiced surprised about how long it had taken the government to reply:

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