Month: June 2022

Russian and African leaders meet, one needing allies, the other grain.

A meeting on Friday between the head of the African Union and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia highlighted the acute needs each one hopes the other can fill: Africa needs food, and the Kremlin needs allies.

Russia’s blockade of Ukraine, ordinarily a major exporter of grain, has worsened food crises in Africa and the Middle East, and the African Union chief, President Macky Sall of Senegal, said the grain should be freed up.

Who needs a hegemon?

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991, the US has been able to exert tremendous influence on other nations through its military and economic power. The world no longer was bipolar with the US and the Soviet Union competing for leadership. Instead, it has been a unipolar world under US hegemonic leadership.

NATO opens Northern front in war against Russia

On May 16, Sweden and Finland announced an end to decades of neutrality, proclaiming their intention to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and its escalating conflict with Russia.

Less than three weeks later, Stockholm, Sweden’s capital, has been turned into a naval garrison with the arrival of a US amphibious assault battle group, consisting of the assault ship USS Kearsarge, the dock landing ship USS Gunston Hall, the guided-missile destroyer USS Gravely and the command ship USS Mount Whitney.

Iran official says Iran won’t replace Russia in Syria

Iranian leader warns “Zionist regime” that Tehran will strike back

Vahid Jalalzadeh, the chairman of Iran’s Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, gave an interview to Al-Alam TV saying that the Islamic Republic would continue to support the Syrian regime but that reports it was replacing Russians in Syria were mistaken.

Iranian scientist who died this weekend showed Rouhani around oil company – report

Dr. Ayub Entezari, who died over the weekend, reportedly showed former Iranian president Hassan Rouhani around a turbine factory in 2019.

Iranian scientist Dr. Ayub Entezari, 35, who died on Saturday after reportedly suffering from food poisoning, met with former Iranian president Hassan Rouhani in 2019, Middle East analyst Jason Brodsky and Iranian Al-Arabia journalist Hiwa Molania claimed over the weekend.

Iranian dissident journalist disappears in Ankara – report

Mohammad-Bagher Morad fled Iran nine years ago after receiving a five-year prison sentence for “colluding against national security” after criticizing the regime.

An Iranian dissident journalist under asylum in Turkey disappeared on May 30 and is suspected of being kidnapped by Iranian agents, according to Iran International, a news agency associated with Iranian opposition forces.

Iran crossing nuke uranium enrichment threshold ‘cannot be avoided’ – IAEA

The nuclear agency vote could lead to a UN Security Council vote and snap back global sanctions against Iran, which could impact even Russia and China.

Not only has Iran failed to reduce concerns about its violations of the nuclear nonproliferation safeguards agreement, it also will eventually cross the uranium enrichment threshold, International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi said Monday.

American spy agencies review their misses on Ukraine, Russia

The question was posed in a private briefing to U.S. intelligence officials weeks before Russia launched its invasion in late February: Was Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, made in the mold of Britain’s Winston Churchill or Afghanistan’s Ashraf Ghani?

Russia hits Kyiv with missiles; Putin warns West on arms

Russia took aim Sunday at Western military supplies for Ukraine, launching airstrikes on Kyiv that it claimed destroyed tanks donated from abroad, as Vladimir Putin warned that any Western deliveries of longer-range rocket systems would prompt Moscow to hit “objects that we haven’t yet struck.”