Posts tagged : "U.S. foreign policy"

Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: Afghanistan has not been a safe and stable country for several decades, and its security conditions have deteriorated gravely after the first American and NATO troops set foot into its cities. The U.S. war on Afghanistan, which was launched by former President George W. Bush with the purported aim of eradicating terrorism from the country, has so far failed to realize the dream of ultimately defeating the Taliban and Al-Qaeda insurgents. Despite all the failures and setbacks that Afghanistan has experienced over the recent years, especially following the 2001 U.S. invasion of the country, and notwithstanding the widespread economic insufficiency and corruption that have taken over Afghanistan, it can...

Kourosh Ziabari: An American singer and songwriter who has composed several songs in solidarity with the people of Palestine says that Israel is conducting a campaign of slow genocide in the Gaza Strip. David Rovics believes that the Israeli regime kills the Palestinian people with impunity and no country in the world dares to take military action to prevent it from carrying out its project of mass killing in the Occupied Territories. The Oregon-based singer, who has been called an anti-Semite by the Israeli-allied media in the United States for his outspoken criticism of Israel says the truth should be stated regarding the nature of this regime: "I have been branded as anti-Semitic for stating the obvious many times. But it is most...

Kourosh Ziabari: Professor Diana Ralph, a retired Canadian university professor and prominent social worker says, there's little doubt that the United States was involved in the 9/11 attacks. Prof. Diana Ralph believes that the 9/11 attacks played into the hands of the US government and Israel to launch a long-awaited global war on the Middle East and Central Asia, dominate the regional countries' extensive energy resources and create a foothold for a permanent presence in the region. "The 9/11 pretext served the interests of all those who benefit from military sales and oppressing people. It effectively derailed the rising anti-globalization movement worldwide, including the 2001 World Conference Against Racism, by turning Western...

Kourosh Ziabari: Mathias Broeckers, a German author and journalist, is of the opinion that 9/11 attacks were carried out with the foreknowledge of the US government and the complicity of Israel to pave the way for launching the imperial agenda of dominating the Middle East. Mathias Broeckers says that the 19 hijackers who are said to have been recruited by Osama Bin Laden to crash the American Airlines and United Airlines planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center and Pentagon were being closely monitored by the CIA while they were in the United States, but for unknown reasons, the federal police were prevented from taking legal action against them. On the wars launched by the United States and its NATO allies against...

Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: Although Iran and the group of six world powers (Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States) that have been working for several years to find a solution to the controversy over Iran's nuclear program failed to meet the self-imposed July 20 deadline for reaching a comprehensive agreement after concluding an interim accord on November 23, 2013, the fact that the time limit for the negotiations have been extended for another 4 months leaves room for great optimism and hope that the decade-long dispute can finally be settled, though with difficulty and intricacy. A former NATO official and high-ranking U.S. Navy officer believes that the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1...

Kourosh Ziabari: Prominent international lawyer Gilles Devers says that Israel is an occupying power and according to the principles of international law, it has a responsibility to protect the civilian population under its rule. Gilles Devers believes that Israel's blockade against the Gaza Strip constitutes a form of collective punishment and should be lifted as part of its obligations to ensure the protection and safety of the besieged people of the tiny coastal enclave. The French lawyer stated that Israel is not only failing to do enough to help the people of Gaza, but is also exacerbating the conditions of their daily lives. Expressing his surprise that Israel is not taking any action to improve the living conditions of the...

Kourosh Ziabari: An Iranian-American professor of Islamic studies believes that the world is waking up to the atrocities and cruelties of the Israeli regime and this is manifested in the mass rallies being held in condemnation of Israel across the world. According to Prof. Omid Safi, although the Western governments have been mostly silent on the carnage of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, the people in different countries, from France to Brazil and from Malaysia to Argentina have strongly stood by the people of Palestine and held massive demonstrations to voice their support for them. "The latest studies indicate that now a majority of younger people in America are no longer supportive of Israeli policies," said Prof. Safi...

Kourosh Ziabari: A world-renowned Canadian philosopher argues that the United States holds the world record of illegal killings of unarmed civilians and extrajudicial detention and torturing of prisoners who are detained without trial. Prof. John McMurtry says that the U.S. government is a gigantic mass-murdering machine which earns profit through waging wars, and is never held accountable over its unspeakable war crimes and crimes against humanity. He also believes that the U.S. has become a police state, which treats its citizens in the most derogatory manner. “I have travelled alone with only backpack possession through the world, and have found no state in which police forces are more habituated to violent bullying, more likely...

Kourosh Ziabari: Prof. George Bisharat, a renowned Palestinian-American professor of law, is of the opinion that without the US moral support, the Israeli regime would not have been able to massacre the Palestinian people so ruthlessly. "The United States’ veto power in the United Nations Security Council is the single most important factor in enabling Israel’s decades long impunity from international law," Prof. Bisharat said in an exclusive interview. Prof. Bisharat whose commentaries on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict regularly appear on the academic publications and major newspapers in the United States says that there's no elctoral advantage for the politicians to criticize Israel for its war crimes, instead, they can raise...

Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: Jack Straw is not an unknown or unfamiliar politician to the Iranians. When the current President of Iran Hassan Rouhani was the country’s lead nuclear negotiator with the EU3 (Britain, France and Germany) under President Mohammad Khatami, Jack Straw traveled to Iran several times as the British Foreign Secretary and conferred with him on a number of occasions. Straw is a veteran politician who has experienced working at the different administrative and law-making levels in the British politics. From 1987 to 1992, he was the Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Science and for the next two years, he served as the Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment. From May 1997 until June 2001, he...

Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: As the people of Afghanistan gear up for electing a new president, their security concerns for the future of the war-torn country also grow. In the recent decades, Afghanistan has gone through consecutive ups and downs and there have been few moments of peace and tranquility in the landlocked country which has been long coveted by the Eastern and Western powers because of its strategic and geopolitical importance. Afghanistan, which has begun striding on the path of democracy, is now rising from the ashes of the dark years of tyrannical rule by the Taliban fundamentalists who had turned the lives of the Afghan citizens into a state of constant trepidation and anxiety throughout the years they were in...

  Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: Although Iran and the United States have not had close diplomatic relations for more than three decades, and despite the fact that the two countries have been at loggerheads over many grievances, academic and cultural exchanges have usually brought the two nations closer together and created opportunities for increased mutual understanding between the two peoples that in spite of their greatness and magnificence, have usually failed to take note of each other’s concerns and sensitivities. It’s possible to remove the acrimonies of the past in the Iran-U.S. relations through constructive and meaningful dialog and negotiations. Academicians, scholars, intellectuals and media people can play...