French President Macron Expands on Sahel Drawdown Plan

French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to end Operation Barkhane, the French mission to fight jihadism in the Sahel, bears some resemblance to the ongoing removal of American troops from Afghanistan.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced yesterday that Operation Barkhane, the French counterterrorism force fighting jihadis in the Sahel, will end in the first quarter of 2022. This follows a recent announcement that the French president plans to cut in half the French presence in the Sahel and reorganize what will remain as specialized regional forces, while also contributing to Task Force Takuba, the recently established EU force with a remit similar to that of Barkhane. These developments provide the occasion to look at the French military trajectory since 2013. So, too, does the fact that today is Bastille Day, the French national holiday.

Persian President Prods: Proceeding Promptly to Pact Preferred, Processing Push Possible

The outgoing president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, said Wednesday in a meeting of his cabinet that Tehran could choose to enrich uranium to weapons-grade 90% purity, but that it still wanted to revive its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. “Even if one day there is a need for 90% enrichment for a reactor, we do not have any problem and we are able,” Rouhani said, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency. Rouhani also criticized the hard-line religious establishment in Iran for not letting his government reach a deal earlier. The new president-elect, Ebrahim Raisi, is a hard-liner who, when he takes office next month, could make the negotiation of a renewed deal more difficult. According to the 2015 deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran could only enrich up to a limit of 3.67% purity, which is required to fuel a civilian nuclear power reactor. After the US, under the Trump administration, withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018, Iran cranked up its centrifuges, enriching small amounts of uranium to 60%, a short technical step from the 90% level required to build a bomb.

France to Its Citizens in Afghanistan: Happy Bastille Day, Leave the Country

The French ambassador in Afghanistan, David Martinon, in a Bastille Day speech in Kabul, urged all French citizens to immediately leave the country due to the precarious security situation. He did not mince his words: “The Taliban loot, burn, destroy buildings and energy and communication networks. They indiscriminately detain and kill civilians and attack prisons. All of this demonstrates the Taliban’s utter contempt for the rule of law,” the ambassador said. The embassy, he said, was arranging a special evacuation flight that would depart on Saturday morning, “to allow the entire French community to return to France.” The flight will be free of charge. Martinon warned those who decide to stay in Afghanistan after July 17 that the embassy would “no longer be able to provide security for your departure.” The announcement comes as most US and allied NATO troops have already left the country and the rest are due to pull out in the coming days.

Bombast in the Black Sea: the Latest British Provocation

Post-World War II British foreign policy has included a number of provocative steps that have weakened British standing; created complications in the international arena; and raised the possibility of serious confrontation. In the 1950s, the British were the ringleaders in the last gasp of European colonialism: a British-French-Israeli conspiracy to topple Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser and occupy the Suez Canal. In the 1980s, the British ended up in a war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands, projecting power over thousands of miles to save British sheepherders. In the 1990s, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher goaded President George H.W. Bush to pursue war in Iraq (“don’t go wobbly on me, George) at a time when Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was trying to arrange for an Iraqi troop withdrawal from Kuwait to prevent war. In the 2000s, Prime Minister Tony Blair was the only West European leader to enthusiastically support the U.S. invasion of Iraq, supplementing the lies and chicanery of the Bush administration to justify war. This month, the British send a destroyer into the Black Sea to challenge the Russian occupation of Crimea, which complicates Western relations with Russia at a time when Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin are moving awkwardly to end the free fall in their bilateral relations and to institutionalize a diplomatic dialogue on central issues such as arms control and cybersecurity.

Former US informants arrested as suspects in Haitian President’s assassination; media

Two men tied to the Haitian President’s Murder plot worked for US law enforcement as informants; one was said to work for the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, the suspect reached out to his contacts at the DEA. A DEA official assigned to Haiti urged the suspect to surrender to local authorities and, along with a US State Department official, provided information to the Haitian government that assisted in the surrender and arrest of the suspect and one other individual,” the DEA said, some media reported.

US military destabilizing Africa under pretext of combating terrorism

A senior US military commander recently warned of what he termed as “wildfire of terrorism” sweeping across Africa at the conclusion of massive US-led war games in the continent.

The African Lion war games, which lasted nearly two weeks, stretched across Morocco, a US ally, with smaller parts held in Tunisia and Senegal.

Meeting of MKO is disgrace to American politicians: Spox

Iran’s government spokesman, Ali Rabiei said that the gathering of the MKO (Mojahedin-e-Khalq) terrorist group was an opportunity to identify and expose hypocritical American politicians who, despite repeated slogans, have not paid little attention to the principles and history of terrorism and human rights abuses in other countries.

EU supports MKO terrorists who killed thousands of Iranian: Judiciary spox

If Europeans are honest in their human rights claims, why do they support the MKO terrorists? says Iran’s judiciary spokesman.

Gholamhossein Esmaeili, the spokesman for the Judiciary Branch in his weekly press conference, in reaction to the European Parliament’s request to the Council of Europe for imposing sanctions against Iranian officials for alleged human rights violations, said: “Nowadays, we are witnessing that the terrorist group MKO (Mojahedin-e-Khalq) who have assassinated thousands of people in Iran holding conferences in European capitals, with officials from those countries taking part.”