Interviews

  Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: Syria has become a battlefield for the face-off between the forces of government, Al-Qaeda terrorists and foreign-backed mercenaries that are hell-bent on removing President Bashar al-Assad from power. So far, more than 100,000 Syrians have been killed in the civil war which has extricated the Arab country. After a chemical attack in the Ghouta district of Damascus killed around 1,400 people, as claimed by the United States, the White House announced that it intends to launch a “surgical”, “limited” military strike against Syria, and that the attack would certainly take place. It later postponed its plans after the Russian government presented a proposal that would demand Syria to...

  Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: More than two years after the outburst of conflict and violence in Syria, the government of President Bashar al-Assad is being accused of killing its own citizens and using chemical weapons against the rebels. Although these claims haven’t been substantiated with credible evidence yet, the United States and its allies are ratcheting up their war rhetoric against Syria and lobbying to ensure a UN Security Council resolution that will permit them to launch limited, surgical attacks against Syria’s military and government sites and perhaps lead to the removal of President Assad from power. The crisis in Syria has embattled the country in a complicated and unusual situation which sounds...

Kourosh Ziabari: The United States has seemingly lost the battleground in Syria by ashamedly retreating from its war threats against the Arab country; however, there are still extremist neo-conservatives in the US administration and the Congress who persistently call for a new costly military adventure in the Middle East. American author Douglas Valentine says that the United States does not abide by any of its international obligations and its calls for war against Syria violate the international law and the UN Charter. "The US has threatened about 50 nations with military attack. Warmongers on the Left and Right claim this right on the basis that America is an "exceptional" nation. That means the US has an exception to all laws. It is...

Kourosh Ziabari: American author and political commentator Paul Gottinger believes that the United States has become stunningly isolated after it failed to build up international support for attacking Syria, and now the global public overwhelmingly oppose his hawkish rhetoric against Syria, even in such countries as France and the UK. "The Obama administration was almost completely isolated on its position towards Syria. The US population strongly opposed the attack, and even the US military personnel opposed the attack by three to one. When the British Parliament voted not to play their usual role as faithful servant to the US, it surprised the Obama administration," said Paul Gottinger. Elsewhere in his remarks, Gottinger underlined...

Kourosh Ziabari: Prominent American author David Swanson believes that the world nations should strongly stand up to protest at the US warmongering policies in the region and its illegal calls for war against Syria which is a violation of the UN Charter and Kellogg-Briand Pact that prevent the world countries from unilateral use of force against another sovereign state. David Swanson also believes that the United Nations should impose sanctions against the United States because it has violated the UN Charter by threatening a military strike against Syria. “I think the United Nations needs to speak up as clearly as it can against any assault on Syria and needs to propose sanctions on the United States for such an action. I think that...

Kourosh Ziabari: Prominent American author and political scientist Sheldon Richman underlined his opposition to a US strike on Syria, saying even if the US could prove its allegations about the use of chemical weapons by the Damascus government, there would still be no way to justify a U.S. military action against the crisis-hit Mideast country. “For some time, American presidents have assumed the prerogative to launch or enter wars unilaterally and imperialistically. This has been done to achieve the geopolitical and economic objectives of a ruling elite. Congress, shirking its responsibility, has refused to stand in the way, but that is because most members of Congress share the ruling agenda. The results have been tragic for the...

  Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: The U.S. drum beating for war against Syria over the allegations that the government of President Assad has used chemical weapons against the civilians in the Ghouta district of Damascus has raised many eyebrows across the world as few people expected the seemingly pacifist and peace-loving President of the United States to call for a new war in the Middle East, especially now that there’s no threat posed to the U.S. national security or national interests. A possible unilateral U.S. war on Syria, if approved by the Congress, while it has not been sanctioned by the UN Security Council, will be another sign of Washington’s inattention to the international law and its fervent attempts to...

  Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: The new round of peace talks between the representatives of the Palestinian Authority and Israel has started around two weeks ago, and the international community is awaiting the results of the sensitive talks, despite the fact that the painful developments in Syria and Egypt and the intervention of the foreign powers in these countries have mostly distracted attentions from the peace talks between the occupier and the occupied. Peace talks in order to find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have been held over the past 6 decades including the 1970-1972 Rogers peace plan, Madrid Conference of 1991, 1993 Oslo Accords, Hebron Agreement and Camp David 2000 Summit, but unfortunately, no...

Kourosh Ziabari: Prominent American investigative journalist and political commentator Jeremy R. Hammond says that the sanctions imposed against Iran by the United States and its European allies are illegal and criminal and represent some kind of collective punishment aimed at paralyzing the Iranian government and the livelihood of the Iranian citizens. According to Jeremy R. Hammond, even the US intelligence community has confirmed and verified that Iran’s nuclear program is peaceful and there has not been any single IAEA report indicating diversion in Iran’s nuclear activities; however, the United States and some EU members are adamantly insisting that Iran has a plan to develop nuclear weapons, while they have no evidence to...

  Kourosh Ziabari - The election of Dr. Hassan Rouhani as Iran’s 7th president renewed hopes around the world that a new era of interaction and cooperation between Iran and the international community will begin soon. The government of “prudence and hope” promised to improve Iran’s foreign relations and find a negotiated solution to Iran’s nuclear stalemate after almost one decade of confrontation and dispute. Iran has had no official ties with the United States for nearly 3 decades, and relation with the U.S. has always been a controversial and contentious point in Iran’s foreign policy. President Rouhani has pledged to find a way for settling the disputes with the United States, if the officials in the White...

  Nile Bowie - After a turbulent eight-year tenure of outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the people of Iran have made their voices heard in recent presidential elections by electing a reformist who will undoubtedly take a very different approach to pressing national issues. Though many hoped to see meaningful diplomatic engagement between Iran and the United States when U.S. President Barack Obama came to office, ties between Tehran and Washington remain as tense as ever, with Iran subjected to a crippling economic sanctions regime over its disputed nuclear program. Although leaders in Israel and the United States repetitively insist that Iran is edging closer to the threshold in being able to create a nuclear weapon,...

Kourosh Ziabari - Captain Joe Cortina is a former airborne special operations officer and U.S. Army Training Center commander. He subsequently embarked on missions as intelligence investigator and anti-terrorist advisor and traveled to different countries in the Middle East and Central America. His visit to Israel was an opportunity for him to realize the anti-American atmosphere governing the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the feeling of resentment and antipathy the Israeli citizens have toward the United States despite the all-out military, financial and political support and backing which Washington offers to Tel Aviv. Joe Cortina attended the University of Miami, University of Tampa Spring Hill College and Florida Southern...