Monthly archive : "February, 2013"

Kourosh Ziabari - Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 removed from power the U.S. ally Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the White House decided to impose economic sanctions on Iran to punish the Iranian people for the choice they had made. The only crime the Iranian people had committed was that they didn’t want to be under the umbrella of the U.S. imperialism anymore. However, in the recent decades, the United States intensified the sanctions on Iran and prodded its European allies to stop trading with Iran over the allegations that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. They couldn’t bring forward any evidence to substantiate their claim, but they’re tightening the grip on the Iranian people every day. In order to study and investigate the...

Kourosh Ziabari - American political analyst and radio show host believes that undermining and defeating the “arc of dominance” that stretches from Tehran to Baghdad, through Damascus and into Southern Lebanon with Hezbollah is the main reason why the United States and NATO have waged a proxy war on Syria. “This “arc of dominance” makes it impossible for the imperialists in Washington to isolate Iran and bring about their long-desired war against Tehran and the Islamic Revolution. Syria presents an impossible obstacle on the path to the destruction of Iran, so for that reason, Washington decided that Syria had to be destroyed,” said Eric Draitser. Eric Draitser is based in New York and hosts the Stop Imperialism radio show....

  Kourosh Ziabari - Much can be said about the enormous amount of sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States and its European allies. Apparently, the purpose of the sanctions is to frustrate the Iranian people and turn them against their own government, but it seems that this objective is not going to be realized, as it failed with regards to Cuba when the United States began to impose sanctions on the Latin American country in 1960. It cannot be denied that the sanctions are harming Iran’s economy at the detriment of the ordinary people who should buy foreign goods at increasingly unstable and unusual prices, but at the same time, the sanctions are igniting anti-American sentiments among the Iranian citizens who blame the...

  Kourosh Ziabari - Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 which removed from power the close U.S. ally Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the United States virtually stopped all its trade and business transactions with Iran after branding it a state sponsor of terrorism. Iran’s economy was not significantly dependent on the United States, and it could make important achievements with time, even to the extent of becoming the world’s 15th economic power in terms of nominal GDP in 2009. However, as the controversy over Iran’s nuclear program become more serious in the early 2000s, the United States used the West’s skepticism on Iran’s nuclear program as an opportunity to ratchet up the sanctions and mount pressure on Iran with the...

  Kourosh Ziabari - Pepe Escobar is unquestionably one of the world's leading progressive, anti-war journalists. He is Brazilian and has lived in several countries across the world, including the United States , France , Italy , Singapore , Thailand and Hong Kong . He runs a regular column on Asia Times Online titled “The Roving Eye” in which he writes commentaries and articles about the Middle East and Asia affairs and the U.S. foreign policy. He has been interviewed by Russia Today, Press TV, Al-Jazeera and The Real News Network. Pepe's articles have also appeared on such magazines and news websites as Huffington Post, Tom Dispatch, The Nation, Voltaire Net, Salon, Common Dreams, Information Clearing House and Antiwar.com....

  Kourosh Ziabari - The United States claims that Iran is after developing nuclear weapons, and has been repeating this allegation for nearly one decade. Although it has constantly failed to confirm its claims by presenting reliable and valid evidences and witnesses, it has imposed hard-hitting economic sanctions against Iran which have taken a heavy toll on the ordinary Iranian citizens, but interestingly haven’t demoralized them or undermined their solidarity and resistance. Hundreds of academicians, peace activists, journalists, media personalities, authors and thinkers have admitted that these sanctions are criminal and tantamount to a gross violation of human rights, but the United States officials have been relentlessly...

  Kourosh Ziabari - To get a clear insight of where the US Empire is headed to, one needs to study and explore the viewpoints of different scholars, thinkers, academicians and researchers who have looked into the political, economic, cultural and social aspects of the American life and its prospects. Why do some people in the developing world think of the United States as a dreamland in which all of their aspirations can be realized, and why do a number of scholars inside the United States believe that Washington has established a rogue police state which does not conform to any of the standards, ambitions and objectives of the Founding Fathers who wanted to make the United States a symbol of democracy and freedom? These are the...

Kourosh Ziabari - The American physician and peace activist Dahlia Wasfi believes that the U.S. government has hypocritically turned a blind eye to the suffering of the people of Bahrain under the oppression and crackdown by the Al Khalifa regime, while using the unrest in Syria to Balkanize and disintegrate the country and further its agenda for the Greater Middle East. “I think my government wins the contest for whose country’s politicians use double standards the most. US leaders turn a blind eye to the violent repression of protesters by the Al Khalifa regime because Manama, Bahrain hosts the headquarters to the US Fifth Naval Fleet and US Naval Forces Central Command. As long as the American agenda is being served, American...

  Kourosh Ziabari - It’s an almost undeniable fact that the political power which constitutes the basis of American hegemony is predominantly hinged on the economic superiority and affluence of the nation. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United States receives the highest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) among the world countries and this means that it has successfully absorbed an enormous amount of capital and resources from the other parts of the world and utilized them for the sake of its own wellbeing and prosperity. But the bitter reality for the United States is that the late-2000 economic recession, coupled with the aggressive foreign policy of subsequent administrations,...

Kourosh Ziabari - North Korea, also known as DPRK, is a mostly unknown and mysterious country. There are several preconceptions and myths about it which can be hardly debunked since it is under immense international pressure over its nuclear weapons program and its alleged violation of human rights and most of the people, at least in the Western world, have come to believe that North Korea is not a safe place for living or traveling to. Every year, only a handful of foreign tourists, journalists and media correspondents are allowed to enter the country. Sweden, for some time, was the only Western country in which DPRK maintained a diplomatic presence. The Western countries regularly lash out at North Korea over what they claim to be its...

Dave Gahary - Zionist-directed sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran, ostensibly meant to cripple the country’s fledgling nuclear power ambitions, are exacting a heavy toll on ordinary Iranians, who would most likely have a hard time explaining the process of nuclear fission, let alone understanding why it is they who are targeted by the countries that make up the New World Order. Last year, the United States toughened sanctions and coerced the European Union, Asia and Africa to stop buying oil from Iran. Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland soon followed, and the rial, Iran’s currency, continued its precipitous decline, and is “currently the world’s least valued currency unit.” Along with this came...