Palestine Cry: Sherman Skolnick Patriot: Why Sherman Skolnick had to Die?

The Jews don't hate anyone as much as they hate Jews that tell the truth about the Jews and their Sayanim and the murderous plots and betrayals of the Jews.

Palestine Cry: Sherman Skolnick Patriot: Why Sherman Skolnick had to Die?

For his articles go here.

Why Sherman Skolnick had to Die?

Note from Rayelan:

Sherman Skolnick and I had been friends since the 80s. He was a friend of my friend, Mae Brussell the reigning Queen of conspiracy.

I always had a strange feeling about Sherman dying shortly before Barack Obama announced his run for President. I KNEW that Sherman HAD to have known something about this man... and his untimely death prevented him from telling HIS side of the story while Barack was running for President.

I know that Sherman's relatives took all of his research and tossed it into a dumpster. Sadly, that's what usually happens to the work of researchers like Sherman.

Even though I googled the names Skolnick and Obama many times, I never saw this article. A friend just sent it to me.

Raye,

Maybe this info was posted already.

This was the first time I remember hearing it.

Before the 2004 election, Skolnick says he outed BO was a British agent/asset...

Skolnick died about 11 months before BO announced his presidential run.

See:

http://www.cloakanddagger.de/home%20page%20items/CLOAK%20STATE%20SECRETS%20TWO.htm

CLOAK'S EXCLUSIVE AUGUST 2005 STORY

EXPOSING OBAMA's KENYAN BIRTHPLACE

FORCES OBAMA TO SANITIZE HIS PASSPORT FILE

Insiders Report It Was Accomplished With The Assistance of the Clinton Mob [Editor note: who murdered Admiral Jeremy "Mike" Boorda in 1996 by the use of the Sayeret Matkal assassins delegated by Likudnik IsraHell for that purpose to cover up the Drugs, Guns and Snuff Porn Slavery trafficking with Mexico, by the IsraHell Jew crime cartel that another Patriotic Jew, head of the United States Navy Four Star Admiral Jeremy Boorda CNO as chief of the Office of Naval Intelligence was going to expose. Sherman Skolnick covered a great deal of the information about this. Two more dead Jews, Boorda and Skolnick, along with Jack Bernstein and others, murdered by criminal ZioNazi Jews for being truthful.]

CLOAK EXCLUSIVE!

Filed 8/28/05

BRITISH SPY FINGERED:

ACCUSATIONS CONFIRMED!

BY

SHERMAN SKOLNICK

CLOAK Co-host Sherman Skolnick prior to the 2004 Election fingered Barack Obama running in Illinois for the U.S. Senate as a British Intel agent born in Kenya. Skolnick, as a co-spy watcher unmasked Obama on his regular CLOAK program, Shop Talk From Plot H.Q. [see Note 1]

Today Russian President V. Putin ordered U.S. Senator Barack Obama who is also tight with MOSSAD, to be held in custody under suspicion of being a British operative illegally spying in Russia at off-limits secret facilities.

Spying with Obama, who was locked up, was U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, pro-Bush, was detained by Putin but unlike Obama, quickly released. [so this is the ZioNazi version of I Spy]

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar and Committee member Barack Obama at a base near Perm, Russia. This is where mobile launch missiles are being destroyed by the Nunn-Lugar program.

Lugar delegation detained for three hours in Perm after inspecting nuke weapons facility

US Senator Richard Lugar, who was briefly detained with a US delegation in Perm, Siberia, after inspecting the site, which is being dismantled with US funding.

Nils Båhmer/Bellona

A US delegation headed by Republican Senator Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was detained Sunday for three hours at an airport in the Siberian city of Perm, Russia before being allowed to leave the country for Ukraine in a diplomatically chaotic incident Sunday. Charles Digges, 29/08-2005

US officials were nonetheless anxious to downplay the incident in an apparent effort to avoid diplomatic fallout with the increasingly hard-line regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has publicly expressed dismay over a number of US-Russian disarmament programmes.

(Note from Rayelan:

Make sure you copy these articles and post them all over the internet... because info like this can quickly be scrubbed.)

Full Article at:

http://www.bellona.no/bellona.org/english_import_area/international/russia/nuke_industry/co-operation/39511

LUGAR, OBAMA DETAINED IN RUSSIA DELEGATION RELEASED AFTER STANDOFF RESOLVED

A U.S. delegation headed by Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was detained Sunday for three hours at an airport in Russia before being allowed to leave the country for Ukraine.

Russian border guards at the airport in the Siberian city of Perm demanded to search the U.S. government aircraft carrying the delegation, which also included Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who was making his first foreign trip since becoming a senator. Obama is also a member of the Foreign Relations Committee.

American officials, citing a U.S.-Russian agreement that does not allow such inspections, refused to allow the search, leading to a three-hour standoff at the airport, ...

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-14177951.html

_________________________________________________________________________________

Note 1: http://www.cloakanddagger.de/home%20page%20items/CLOAK%20STATE%20SECRETS%20TWO.htm

Filed 8/28/05

BRITISH SPY FINGERED:

ACCUSATIONS CONFIRMED!

BY

SHERMAN SKOLNICK

CLOAK Co-host Sherman Skolnick prior to the 2004 Election fingered Barack Obama running in Illinois for the U.S. Senate as a British Intel agent born in Kenya. Skolnick, as a co-spy watcher unmasked Obama on his regular CLOAK program, Shop Talk From Plot H.Q.

Today Russian President V. Putin ordered U.S. Senator Barack Obama who is also tight with MOSSAD, to be held in custody under suspicion of being a British operative illegally spying in Russia at off-limits secret facilities.

Sherman Skolnick Patriot: Why Sherman Skolnick had to Die?

For his articles go here.

Why Sherman Skolnick had to Die?

Note from Rayelan:

Sherman Skolnick and I had been friends since the 80s. He was a friend of my friend, Mae Brussell the reigning Queen of conspiracy.

I always had a strange feeling about Sherman dying shortly before Barack Obama announced his run for President. I KNEW that Sherman HAD to have known something about this man... and his untimely death prevented him from telling HIS side of the story while Barack was running for President.

I know that Sherman's relatives took all of his research and tossed it into a dumpster. Sadly, that's what usually happens to the work of researchers like Sherman.

Even though I googled the names Skolnick and Obama many times, I never saw this article. A friend just sent it to me.

Raye,

Maybe this info was posted already.

This was the first time I remember hearing it.

Before the 2004 election, Skolnick says he outed BO was a British agent/asset...

Skolnick died about 11 months before BO announced his presidential run.

See:

http://www.cloakanddagger.de/home%20page%20items/CLOAK%20STATE%20SECRETS%20TWO.htm

CLOAK'S EXCLUSIVE AUGUST 2005 STORY

EXPOSING OBAMA's KENYAN BIRTHPLACE

FORCES OBAMA TO SANITIZE HIS PASSPORT FILE

Insiders Report It Was Accomplished With The Assistance of the Clinton Mob [Editor note: who murdered Admiral Jeremy "Mike" Boorda in 1996 by the use of the Sayeret Matkal assassins delegated by Likudnik IsraHell for that purpose to cover up the Drugs, Guns and Snuff Porn Slavery trafficking with Mexico, by the IsraHell Jew crime cartel that another Patriotic Jew, head of the United States Navy Four Star Admiral Jeremy Boorda CNO as chief of the Office of Naval Intelligence was going to expose. Sherman Skolnick covered a great deal of the information about this. Two more dead Jews, Boorda and Skolnick, along with Jack Bernstein and others, murdered by criminal ZioNazi Jews for being truthful.]

CLOAK EXCLUSIVE!

Filed 8/28/05

BRITISH SPY FINGERED:

ACCUSATIONS CONFIRMED!

BY

SHERMAN SKOLNICK

CLOAK Co-host Sherman Skolnick prior to the 2004 Election fingered Barack Obama running in Illinois for the U.S. Senate as a British Intel agent born in Kenya. Skolnick, as a co-spy watcher unmasked Obama on his regular CLOAK program, Shop Talk From Plot H.Q. [see Note 1]

Today Russian President V. Putin ordered U.S. Senator Barack Obama who is also tight with MOSSAD, to be held in custody under suspicion of being a British operative illegally spying in Russia at off-limits secret facilities.

Spying with Obama, who was locked up, was U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, pro-Bush, was detained by Putin but unlike Obama, quickly released. [so this is the ZioNazi version of I Spy]

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar and Committee member Barack Obama at a base near Perm, Russia. This is where mobile launch missiles are being destroyed by the Nunn-Lugar program.

Lugar delegation detained for three hours in Perm after inspecting nuke weapons facility

US Senator Richard Lugar, who was briefly detained with a US delegation in Perm, Siberia, after inspecting the site, which is being dismantled with US funding.

Nils Båhmer/Bellona

A US delegation headed by Republican Senator Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was detained Sunday for three hours at an airport in the Siberian city of Perm, Russia before being allowed to leave the country for Ukraine in a diplomatically chaotic incident Sunday. Charles Digges, 29/08-2005

US officials were nonetheless anxious to downplay the incident in an apparent effort to avoid diplomatic fallout with the increasingly hard-line regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has publicly expressed dismay over a number of US-Russian disarmament programmes.

(Note from Rayelan:

Make sure you copy these articles and post them all over the internet... because info like this can quickly be scrubbed.)

Full Article at:

http://www.bellona.no/bellona.org/english_import_area/international/russia/nuke_industry/co-operation/39511

LUGAR, OBAMA DETAINED IN RUSSIA DELEGATION RELEASED AFTER STANDOFF RESOLVED

A U.S. delegation headed by Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was detained Sunday for three hours at an airport in Russia before being allowed to leave the country for Ukraine.

Russian border guards at the airport in the Siberian city of Perm demanded to search the U.S. government aircraft carrying the delegation, which also included Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who was making his first foreign trip since becoming a senator. Obama is also a member of the Foreign Relations Committee.

American officials, citing a U.S.-Russian agreement that does not allow such inspections, refused to allow the search, leading to a three-hour standoff at the airport, ...

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-14177951.html

_________________________________________________________________________________

Note 1: http://www.cloakanddagger.de/home%20page%20items/CLOAK%20STATE%20SECRETS%20TWO.htm

Filed 8/28/05

BRITISH SPY FINGERED:

ACCUSATIONS CONFIRMED!

BY

SHERMAN SKOLNICK

CLOAK Co-host Sherman Skolnick prior to the 2004 Election fingered Barack Obama running in Illinois for the U.S. Senate as a British Intel agent born in Kenya. Skolnick, as a co-spy watcher unmasked Obama on his regular CLOAK program, Shop Talk From Plot H.Q.

Today Russian President V. Putin ordered U.S. Senator Barack Obama who is also tight with MOSSAD, to be held in custody under suspicion of being a British operative illegally spying in Russia at off-limits secret facilities.

Europa & Palestine News « Europa & Middle East News

Europa & Palestine News « Europa & Middle East News

Sanctions Against Russia Would Be Ill Advised

Fischer und Nikolic: Sanktionen gegen Russland wären Unratsam

Austrian Federal President Dr. Heinz Fischer received on Thursday, 27 March 2014, his Serbian counterpart, President Tomislav Nikolic. This was the first visit of the Serbian President to Austria.

President Nikolic was greeted with full military and state honors and President Fischer upon his arrival at Hofburg Palace.

A press conference was held by both President Dr. Fischer and His Excellency Mr. Nikolic. Both Presidents warned against imposing sanctions against Russia in connection with the annexation of the Crimea: “Sanctions are a sharp instrument which should be handled very carefully, and one should think twice about it”, President Heinz Fischer said in a joint press conference on the occasion of Nikolic’s visit.

President Fischer pointed out that “the introduction of certain sanctions is perhaps – (unfortunately) – easier than them get away from them again. ” The long-term perspective must be, in this context ” that the different nations in Europe and at the border of Europe should live together in peace and confidence and also make their economic cooperation as smooth as possible.”

In the overall assessment of the crisis in and around the Ukraine, President Fischer said that the EU had “certainly not done everything right”, especially because in his opinion “for Ukraine there can be no ‘either-or policy’ in relation to Europe and Russia, but a policy would be right which would combine good economic relations with Russia with good economic relations with Europe from the geographical and historical position of both sides.”

“President Nikolic, whose country, had sad experiences with Western sanctions because of the consequence of the Balkan conflicts, said that great caution must be shown there.

He added that his country Serbia will not join the EU and US sanctions against Moscow, which is Belgrade’s most important ally in the fight against Kosovo’s independence.

President Nikolic acknowledge that the international law can not be determined on a case by case basis, but rather, rules are need – but rules are not always there.”

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Eric Walberg: Ukraine & Egypt: A tale of two coups

Ukraine & Egypt: A tale of two coups

Written by Eric Walberg Эрик Вальберг/ Уолберг إيريك ولبر    Monday, 03 March 2014 08:28

US plans for Egypt and Ukraine are falling apart and Russia is scrambling to pick up the pieces.

In the latest color revolution, it was not an army but a rump parliament that pulled the plug on the elected president on a wave of protest, pushing out Ukraine’s Viktor Yanukovich on 22 February. He apologized from exile in the Russian city of Rostov-on-the-Don for his weakness during the uprising, but his fate was sealed when he was disowned by his own Party of the Regions, the largest party in the fractious parliament. The rump parliament unsurprisingly ordered the release of Yanukovich’s arch rival, ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko from prison, a condition for Ukraine’s signing a European Union Association Agreement.

The collapse of authority in Ukraine led to what appears to be the breakaway of an already autonomous Crimea, now to be aligned with Russia. The frigate Hetman Sahaydachniy (the flagship of the Ukrainian Navy), on NATO maneuvers in the Gulf of Aden, refused to take orders from Kiev and raised the Russian naval flag as it returned to Simferopol. Simultaneously, Russian troops blocked three Crimean bases, demanding Ukrainian forces surrender. Residents have announced they are going to hold a referendum on 30 March to determine the fate of Crimea.

High ranking Ukrainian military and security officials swore their allegiance to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, rejecting the new government in Kiev as illegitimate. Acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov dismissed his newly appointed Navy commander Denis Berezovsky when he took the oath of allegiance to “Crimean people”, accusing him of treason. “This is actually a declaration of war to my country,” exclaimed the outraged Ukrainian interim PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk. Oh really? Is this a case of Russian aggression, or the new humanitarian justification for intervention R2P (right to protect)? Or is it something much simpler?

Russia modern, Ukraine postmodern

The post-Soviet New World Order that the West is trying to impose in Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, Ukraine, etc. requires obedient “postmodern states”, open to “free trade” (in US dollars) and “free” elections (preferably with short terms making for weak presidents), the whole process monitored by a “free” media (read: privately controlled) and western NGOs. It’s a very expensive racket—the winner is generally the best-funded and most widely advertised in the “free” media. Sometimes it’s even a military dictator, as long as he can arrange to be elected.

Occasionally things go awry—a populist like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez gets elected and re-re-elected, and must be subverted through media and NGO targeting, or a country like Iran opts out of the whole circus and survives to tell the tale. But the immense power and prestige of the empire usually asserts itself after chipping away at the offender long enough to bring the renegade’s supporters to their knees.

However, this scenario is still not the order of the day when it comes to Russia. “Foul!” cry President Obama and western politicians, unanimously buttressed by screaming media headlines, at various anti-empire moves by the Russian bear. This is the case now, with Russia’s move to fill the dangerous vacuum in Ukraine and assure its continued control of the strategic Crimean peninsula, which has for centuries been Russia’s main Black Sea outlet and is populated largely by Russians.

Ukraine has always been Russia’s twin. Long ago it was the elder twin, as in Kievan Rus, the federation of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia in the 9th–13th cc. The next seven centuries were messy ones, with the Tatar invasions, and Poland and Russia battling it out on the Ukraine’s fertile black earth. Catherine the Great put an end to the Cossack ‘Ukraine’ in 1764 (and to the Crimean Khanate in 1776), though it could hardly be called a state. ‘Ukraine’ can really only claim ‘independence’ as a modern state for a few months following the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917. In the Polish-Soviet Peace of Riga in 1921, it was shorn of its western and northern regions to Poland and Russia, and became a Soviet republic.

Ukraine’s very spotty experience as an state since is hardly much better—Stalin’s reincorporation of a very unreceptive western Ukraine following WWII, and Khrushchev’s thoughtless gift of Crimea in 1954, when Soviet borders were of no importance. The ‘independence’ ‘won’ in 1991, when Soviet-era leaders in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia secretly agreed to abandon the Soviet Union, precipitating its collapse, was a faux independence within the US-dominated ‘peaceful’ world order.

This finally reached a breaking point when President Yankovitch was given an ultimatum by the EU last year. The choice was to submit to the EU proposed association agreement (and face drastic disruption to its economic relations with Russia), or reestablish itself as part of the Russian ‘near abroad’, now being reorganized as a Eurasian customs union (where it would arguably have more real ‘independence’ than it would under the EU’s highly integrated economic, political and legal system).

EU accession—as a prelude to NATO membership—is vital to securing the rather shaky empire, which has recently suffered a string of debacles, notably in the Muslim world. The problem is that Ukrainians are evenly split on the EU vs Russia as chief partner. A Johns Hopkins Center for Transatlantic Relations study concluded, “The main obstacle” to Ukraine’s joining the organization “is not Russian opposition but low public support for membership in Ukraine itself.”

Freedom and Fatherland

So to overcome this hurdle, a coalition that would embrace right wing nationalists and Europhiles was necessary to defeat the pro-Russians, a repeat of the 2004 color revolution that brought the Europhiles to power but left Ukraine in even worse shape than it was. And because a repeat performance of 2004 would not get the same response from a jaded populus, it was necessary to allow the neo-Nazis to be at the forefront of the resistance, given their enthusiasm for violent confrontation in the name of the fatherland. Ironically, they gather under the misnomer Freedom Party, while their Europhile allies-of-convenience (ex-PM Tymoshenko and current PM Yatsenyuk) gather under the equally misnamed Fatherland Party. 

Neofascists and neoliberals are joined in an unholy alliance for ‘freedom’ and ‘fatherland’ against a weak, waffling government less pretentiously merely trying to placate conflicting groups, with the US finding itself on the side of the neofascists. Does this sound like Egypt, Syria, Libya? Writes Israel Shamir, “Liberals do not have to support democracy. They can join forces with al-Qaeda as now in Syria, with Islamic extremists as in Libya, with the army as in Egypt, or with neo-Nazis, as now in Russia and the Ukraine.” 

Even if we could believe the opposition’s rousing rhetoric of ‘freedom’ and ‘fatherland’, there is no room anymore for either in the empire. EU President Herman Van Rompuy confirmed this when he said that “the time of the homogenous nation state is over. The belief that countries can stand alone is a lie and an illusion.”  

Belarus (or Belorussia, meaning white Russia) under its stern populist Alexandr Lukashenko realized the illusory nature of the Euro offerings long ago, negotiating an unprecedented voluntary commonwealth with Russia in 1996, though putting the Eurasian Humpty Dumpty together again is proving to be as hard as the fairytale suggests, even for the stalwart Lukashenko. 

This Ukraine is not the one the EU bargained for. The new government includes Freedom (read: neofascist) Party officials in control of the armed forces, national security, the economy, justice and education. They include the “kommandant” of the EuroMaidan movement Andriy Parubiy as the new secretary of the National Security and National Defense Committee, Oleh Makhnitsky as the new prosecutor-general of Ukraine, Serhiy Kvit as the new education minister, to name a few. This no doubt gives heart to neofascists in western Europe, who are itching to join similar governing coalitions.

It is not the Ukraine Russia bargained for either. It certainly looks like Ukraine will be pulled into the EU now, and despite support for closer relations with Russia by half the population, it will be officially firmly anti-Russian (unless it splits apart). 

Russian hardball

Early fantasies by Russian liberals of joining the empire as an obedient postmodern EU member-state evaporated as the empire’s plans became clear in the 1990s, and mutual EU-Russian hostility became entrenched. Russia’s reassertion of control of Chechnya and refusal to abandon allies in Ossetia and Abkhazia, and its newly assertive policy in the Middle East and elsewhere are further proof that it will not join the empire as a subservient member. 

On the contrary, apart from Ukraine, it faces off against the West in Syria and now in Egypt. It is reestablishing a military presence in the world distinct from the empire’s, a presence which includes its traditional base in Crimea, the Syrian port at Tartus, and—the week before Ukrainian president’s resignation—a $2b arms deal with Egypt’s junta. 

Russia’s gentlemanly agreement with the previous Ukrainian government for use of Simferopol till 2042 was voided by the recent coup. Unless Russia plans to join NATO itself, the prospect of paying rent to NATO to use its own Black Sea docking facilities doesn’t make much sense. Simferopol and Tartus are stepping stones to allow Russia an international naval presence, as Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu alluded to last week when he announced the military was engaged in talks with Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Algeria, Cyprus, the Seychelles, Vietnam and Singapore for use of naval facilities.

It looks now as if the EU will have its cake—minus Crimea, but it is bound to be inedible. It has no money to spare for the gargantuan task of incorporating Ukraine as it did the neighborhood Latvias. Britain has already given the EU notice after the Polish invasion. There will be no stomach for tens of thousands of desperate Ukrainians selling their labor or whatever. Already the coup is unraveling, an unstable mix of neofascist xenophobes and neoliberal Europhiles. Rebel leader Aleksadndr Muzychko has threatened to assassinate the new interior minister after his pledge to investigate Muzychko for some of his recent actions. Sound like Libya?

Compare this ‘populist coup’ with another carried out on a wave of US-cheerled anger—in Egypt last July. There, it was by the army. In Ukraine, it was by the parliament (Ukraine doesn’t have much of an army). Both featured the standard occupation of the main square in the capital. However, in the Ukrainian protest center, western Ukraine’s Lviv, the mayor assisted demonstrators to take control of the local police station and distribute arms to create a citizen militia to replace the police. In Egypt, in contrast, the police and army actively conspired with the demonstrators to overthrow the president, making the coup a walk-over. In both cases, the demonstrators were a coalition of liberals and right-wing nationalists. 

Both coups succeeded because they were backed by the empire, but will be faced with unsolvable economic problems and a fractured, weakened state, in desperate need of handouts. The Russian response to both was neither aggression nor R2P, but rather calculated realpolitik—salvage the Crimea in Ukraine (albeit full of loyal Russians), try to wean the coup makers in Egypt from their total reliance on what is clearly a fickle US. Not a pretty picture, but there it is. Save the collapse of the EU or the empire itself, the writing is on the wall. Welcome to the world of postmodern imperialism.

Explainer: Why Is Access To Syria's Port At Tartus So Important To Moscow?

Sunday, March 02, 2014

Russia

Explainer: Why Is Access To Syria's Port At Tartus So Important To Moscow?

Sailors from Russia's nuclear-powered "Pyotr Veliky" missile cruiser line up on parade in Syria's Mediterranean port of Tartus.

By Ron Synovitz

June 19, 2012

More than its weapons sales to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russia's greatest strategic and geopolitical interest in Syria is the use of a deep-water port at Tartus. RFE/RL takes a closer look at this arrangement.

How long has Moscow been using Syria's port at Tartus as a strategic naval base in the Mediterranean?

The Soviet Navy began using Syria's deep-water port at Tartus for submarines and surface vessels under a 1971 agreement with Damascus. The Soviet Union was Syria's main arms supplier and Tartus was used to receive Soviet weapons bought by Damascus.

The Soviet Fifth Mediterranean Squadron also used the docks at the base to load its own fuel and supplies.

The Soviet Navy had similar support points in Egypt, but the Soviets evacuated the Egyptian bases in the late 1970s, sending ships and equipment to Tartus instead.

That transformed Tartus into the Soviet 229th Naval and Estuary Vessel Support Division. In the mid 1980s, Tartus was upgraded to become the 720th Logistics Support Point for the Soviet Navy. The Russian Navy continued using Tartus after the Soviet broke up in 1991.

How has Russia managed to maintain a presence at Tartus after the collapse of the Soviet Union?

By 1990, Syria had built up debts of $13.4 billion to Moscow largely due to weapons purchases by Damascus.

In May 2005, Russian Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin signed a deal with Syrian Finance Minister Muhammad al-Hussein that wrote off 73 percent of Syria's Soviet-era debt.

Russia ensured that it continued to have base rights at Tartus under the 1971 treaty as a result of the debt write-off deal, which cleared the way for Damascus to make fresh weapons purchases from Russia.

In terms of logistics, how does Russia's presence at Tartus bolster Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime?

Tartus is the receiving point for Russian weapons shipments to Syria. The port is the country's transport hub for newly purchased arms as well as for weapons that must be returned to Russia for repair, such as attack helicopters.

The port is linked inland to a well-developed network of roads and highways.

Syria's only railway passenger connection from Tartus is linked to the port of Latakia further north.

However, the national railway operator, Chimins de Fer Syriens, also operates military transport routes from Tartus to major cities across Syria.

How does Tartus serve Russia's strategic and geopolitical interests?

Even a semipermanent base at Tartus allows the Russian Navy to expand its presence in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

Russia's largest and most important military base in a foreign country is the Black Sea Fleet base in Sevastopol, Ukraine.

To deploy beyond the Black Sea, Russian warships based at Sevastopol must pass through the Bosporus Strait, which has been militarized by NATO-member Turkey.

Under the 1936 Montreux Convention, the Bosporus was deemed an international shipping lane with military restrictions. Under a 1982 amendment, Turkey now retains the right to close the Strait at its discretion in peacetime as well as during wartime.

As Russia's only Mediterranean base, that makes Tartus a vital strategic asset beyond the Bosporus.

As a deep water port, it can dock nuclear submarines.

Moscow is reportedly planning to expand the facilities so it can accommodate the Russian Navy's flagship -- the "Admiral Kuznetsov" aircraft carrier -- after 2012.

Tartus also strengthens Russia's great-power aspirations and increases its influence in regional diplomacy.

Could Russia's use of Tartus be affected by the ouster of Assad's regime?

Analysts agree that Russian vetoes of UN Security Council resolutions against Assad's crackdown on dissent, as well as Russian weapons sales to the regime, make it likely that an opposition government replacing Assad would try to strip away Russia's rights to use Tartus.

Last autumn, as popular opposition to Assad's regime was growing, Russia took steps to expand basing rights for its warships in Venezuela.

It also deployed a naval task force to Tartus, led by the "Admiral Kuznetsov" aircraft carrier, which is staying nearby for what Moscow describes as a long-term training mission in the Mediterranean and Atlantic.

Europa & Palestine News « Europa & Middle East News

Europa & Palestine News « Europa & Middle East News

Iran: Stopping Nuclear Facilities Is Not On The Table

Under the auspices of the Austrian Foreign Ministry, Iran and six world powers, namely France, Germany, UK, China, Russia and USA began negotiations at the Austria Center in Vienna today Tuesday February 18 2014, with the aim of resolving the confrontation over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. The negotiations are based on the Geneva “Joint Plan of Action.”
Under the Geneva Joint Plan of Action, whose implementation started last January 20, the six countries undertook to provide Iran with some sanctions relief in exchange for Iran agreeing to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities during a six-month period. It was also agreed that no nuclear-related sanctions will be imposed on Iran within the same timeframe.
The morning meeting lasted only 45 minutes. Afterwards, the Iranian delegation began separate discussions with the various delegations. Another plenum is scheduled to take place later today.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, who represents the six world powers in the nuclear talks, presided over the talks.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told reporters in Vienna that the opening plenum got off to a “good start.” He added that “political resolve and a good start” are essential for talks between Iran and the six powers to reach a final agreement, adding that negotiations in Vienna will be based on the Geneva “Joint Plan of Action.”
He stated that discussions in Vienna will focus on Iran’s nuclear program, and that Iran won’t agree to discuss other issues, such as its missiles program. Araqchi added that “dismantling nuclear facilities or stopping them completely is not on the table” as far as Iran is concerned.

Michael Mann, spokesperson for European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said at a press briefing that all concerns on Iran’s nuclear program will be addressed during the talks.
The meeting was attended by a broad plenum – the Iranian delegation was headed by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, the delegations of the six world powers – the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany – as well as Ashton and her team.

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• Eileen Kuch

  February 19th, 2014 at 02:47:35 · Reply

  Unlike Israel, Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has allowed UN Inspectors into its nuclear facilities. Even North Korea had allowed inspectors in, when Kim Jung-Il was in charge; but, what about Israel? Its various leaders – from David Ben-Gurion all the way to Benjamin Netanyahu – have never admitted to even possessing a nuclear arsenal. The truth is, Israel is the only nuclear power in this volatile region, and that puts neighboring nations in great danger.
  The facts that Israel not only is the sole nuclear power in the region, but also the most aggressive, also endangers the rest of the world. How many times has the Zionist Entity threatened Iran, or Iraq, or Syria with war, even nuclear war, just within 30 years? These threats alone had Iran developing its missile technology to the point now that the Islamic Republic has the latest hypersonic missiles that can evade the best radar systems. The fact that Iran has not attacked its neighbors in over 400 years is a feat in itself. Not even the US can match that, since it’s still waging war in Afghanistan and threatening war in other countries. And Israel? We all know that country’s record.
  

Europa & Palestine News « Europa & Middle East News

Europa & Palestine News « Europa & Middle East News

E3+3 - Iran Talks In Vienna

النمسا تستضيف غدا مفاوضات النووي الإيراني يخضور فرنساا لمانيا بريطانيا الصين روسيا أمريكيا وإيران 

EU High Representative Catherine Ashton, on behalf of the E3+3 (France, Germany, UK, China, Russia and USA) and Iran have asked Austria to host the upcoming round of talks between E3/EU+3 and Iran in Vienna from 18 to 20 February 2014.

Austria has provided, as part of its foreign policy, its strong support to achieve a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear issue and therefore welcomes the possibility to provide the venue for these important negotiations. The meeting in Vienna constitutes the start of talks on a comprehensive agreement between E3/EU+3 and Iran.

The meeting will be held at Austria Center Vienna (ACV), Bruno-Kreisky-Platz 1, 1220 Vienna

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