By Zvi Bar’el, HAARETZ         Feb. 21, 2022

Last Thursday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov had a “revelation.” Russia suddenly remembered that it is a partner to the diplomatic process in Syria, and in an impressive display of political consideration, Bogdanov declared that Russia sees the participation of the Syrian Kurds in the diplomatic process as an essential element in preventing separatism and building a unified Syria.

The , who maintain a de facto autonomy in northern Syria, have been courting Russia for a long time, primarily due to fears that U.S. forces will withdraw from Syria. Senior Russian officials have of the Kurdish Autonomous Administration, but so far they have refrained from pressing for them to be included in the diplomatic process.

Read more…

“By using unmanned systems, we can just simply see more. They’re high-reliability and remove the human factor,” says Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, who leads the Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet.

By  AP and ILH Staff

US Navy Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, who oversees the Mideast-based 5th Fleet, attends the Unmanned System Exhibition and Conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 21, 2022 | Photo: AP

The US Navy’s Mideast-based Fifth Fleet announced Monday the launch of a new joint fleet of unmanned drones with allied nations to patrol vast swaths of the region’s volatile waters as tensions simmer with Iran.

Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, who leads the Fifth Fleet, said that 100 unmanned drones, both sailing and submersible, would dramatically multiply the surveillance capacities of the US Navy, allowing it to keep a close eye on waters critical to the flow of the global oil and shipping. Trade at sea has been targeted in recent years as Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers collapsed.

Read more…

T. Belman. Kotkin explains why liberalization is viewed as anathema to Communist China but it is also needed for economic prosperity.

At the same time, the liberalization of the US is destroying America because it is destroying its unity.  So the impulse to break things up must be opposed by the impulse to keep things the same.  i.e liberalization vs conservatism. must be kept in balance.

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING IS A BAD THING.

EMPIRES COME AND GO. 

PEOPLE TREND TO COLLECTIVIZATION (AMALGAMATION) AND THEN REVERSE COURSE SEEKING SMALL STATES (INDIVIDUALITY)

5 Questions for Stephen Kotkin

Washington and its allies called the Kremlin’s recognition of two separatist regions a blunt defiance of international law that risks war. A top E.U. official said Russian troops had entered eastern Ukraine, but stopped short of calling it an “invasion.”

Germany puts a stop to Nord Stream 2, a key Russian natural gas pipeline.

Here’s what you need to know:

• ‘There will be losses’: Ukraine braces for possible conflict.

• Two European officials say Russian troops entered eastern Ukraine.

• In eastern Ukraine, some aren’t waiting around to see Putin’s next move.

• Ukraine’s president says his country is committed to peace but ‘ready for everything.’

• The U.S. and other nations blast Russia at an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting.

Read more…

As Vienna negotiations enter decisive phase, US-based think tank reveals new evidence that Iran has expanded its nuclear program

By Yochanan Visser, ISRAEL HAYOM  February 22, 2022

Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei believes he has duped the West, and he might be right. Photo: EPA-EFE

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said during a session of parliament last week that Iran must make a decision now.

“We have reached a tipping point. It is now a matter of days, not weeks,” Le Drian said, adding that the six world powers negotiating a renewed nuclear deal with Iran in Vienna are now aligned on the contours of the new accord.

“Political decisions are now expected from Iran. Either they cause a serious political crisis in the coming days, or they accept the agreement that respects the interests of all parties,” said Le Drian.
Read more…

A leak of account data from Credit Suisse revealed the holdings of powerful figures across the Middle East, raising new questions about self-dealing.

NYT                  Feb. 21, 2022,

Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman, pictured in 2005, had two Credit Suisse accounts, one that held nearly $126 million in 2003 and another that held $57 million in 2015, according to the data leak.Gilles Bassignac/Gamma-Rapho, via Getty Images

By Eric Utter, AM THINKER

Taylor Dysart, a doctoral candidate at Penn, authored a column in which she claimed that the Canadian truckers’ Freedom Convoy “has surprised onlookers in the United States and Canada,” in large part “because the action seems to violate norms of Canadian ‘politeness.’“  She then opined, “But the convoy represents the extension of a strain of Canadian history that has long masked itself behind ‘peacefulness’ or ‘unity’: settler colonialism.” Huh?

Sadly, she wasn’t done. She stated, “The history of Canadian settler colonialism and public health demonstrates how both overt white-supremacist claims and seemingly more inert nationalistic claims about ‘unity’ and ‘freedom’ both enable and erase ongoing harm to marginalized communities.” Huh?
Read more…

By Isaac Teo and Limin Zhou, EPOCH TIMES      Feb 20/22

OTTAWA—As police in Ottawa escalated operations for the second day in a row against the trucker protest opposed to the government’s COVID-19 mandates, a spokesperson for the movement, dubbed the “Freedom Convoy,” called for a peaceful withdrawal, saying they are not going to be a “punching bag for law enforcement.”

Speaking at a press conference at the Lord Elgin Hotel in downtown Ottawa on Feb. 19, retired Canadian military officer Tom Marazzo said many truckers feel that the best course of action for them and their families is to withdraw in order to avoid further harm.
Read more…

By Jack Phillips, EPOCH TIMES       Feb 20/22

President Joe Biden said the U.S. national emergency that was declared in early 2020 due to COVID-19 will be extended beyond March 1, citing what he called a “risk to the public health and safety.”

In a letter released on the White House website, Biden told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that “there remains a need to continue this national emergency.”
Read more…

By Eric Mandel, MEPIN

TURKISH PRESIDENT Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets with prime minister and vice president of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in Dubai on Tuesday.

Just a few years ago, President Erdogan’s anti-Israel rhetoric and support of its enemies was in full swing. Sunnis in the Gulf, at least publicly, would have nothing to do with Israel’s economy or diplomatic initiatives. In Egypt, the cold peace remained very cold, with little reciprocity to Israeli outreach for deeper relations, except in the shared interests of security and intelligence. Despite welcoming Jewish visitors, Morocco kept at arm’s length from the Jewish state. If an Israeli aircraft flew over Saudi Arabia, the Saudis would have scrambled their F-16 fighters to confront an enemy.

Read more…

Massive three-week protest which brought Canada’s capital to a halt finally ends after PM Trudeau invokes emergency power.

Israel National News 

Truckers protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandate in OttawaREUTERS/Patrick Doyle/File Photo

Police in Ottawa cleared protesters out of the downtown area Sunday, ending more than three weeks of protests which had shut down large parts of the Canadian capital city.

Utilizing emergency powers granted them by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in an unprecedented invocation of the 1988 Emergencies Act, authorities violently evicted members of the ‘Freedom Convoy’ and their supporters, who had gathered in downtown Ottawa when the protests began on January 28th.

Read more…

Abedalelah Almaala tweeted today:

“In decision-making capitals, foreigners and Arabs are talking about the so-called “two-state solution”, but neither of them can complete the sentence explicitly, “Where is the two-state solution?” But I am completing the sentence. The two-state solution is a state whose name is the new Jordan, east of the Jordan River, and the State of Israel west of the Jordan River.”

I brought Abed to Israel in 2017 to participate in my conference at the Begin Center in Jerusalem.  He represents the biggest Beduoin clan in Jordan.

Both he and Mudar are sticking in public  to what we agreed beforehand.

The deal emerging between Biden administration and Tehran looks a lot like the one from the Obama years and focuses on suspending uranium enrichment.

By Lisa Daftari, FOREIGN DESK

Reports are growing that the West and Iran are nearing a deal to freeze Tehran’s nuclear program. Here are the five things you most to need to know about the possible deal:

1. It’s Very Similar to the Old Deal

The goal of the new Iran nuclear deal is to mirror the previous objectives from the 2015 Obama-era deal between the United States and its European counterparts. The new impending agreement resembles the 2015 deal in that it tries to restrict Iran’s uranium enrichment and other nuclear activities while also agreeing to lift sanctions against Iran’s oil production and exportation.

Read more…