Toronto Sun | The liberal narrative is in denial about Iran Toronto Sun The war of words coming out of the Islamic Republic of Iran continues to intensify. New video footage of Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan further demonstrates Iran's hostile attitude and intentions towards America and its allies. Speaking with ... |
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The liberal narrative is in denial about Iran - Toronto Sun
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Irans malignant influence is the most significant threat to Middle East security, according to the top U.S. general in the region.
The Middle East remains a highly unstable region, ripe for continued conflict, Army Gen. Joseph Votel warned the Senate Committee on Armed Services Thursday. Of the multitude of challenges in the region, Iran is the primary concern in the long term, according to the general.
We are also dealing with a range of malign activities perpetrated by Iran and its proxies operating in the region, said Votel. It is my view that Iran poses the greatest long-term threat to stability for this part of the world.
He added that Irans support of the Assad regime in Syria and exploitation of Shia Muslim population centers are parts of its malign influence.
Votels assessment comes after a significant increase in Iranian provocation in the Middle East over the last several months. Iranian naval vessels harass U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf using boat swarm tactics and the regime in Tehran continues its fiery rhetoric against the U.S. and its allies.
Iran has also continued to support various proxy groups across the Middle East, including the Houthi rebellion in Yemen, which is actively engaged against the U.S. and Saudi-supported government. The Popular Mobilization Units, a conglomerate of mostly Shia militia units backed by Iran, continue to play a major role in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq, allowing Iran to continue to entrench itself in the Iraqi government.
Since Iran cannot strike the U.S. homeland conventionally the way the United States can strike the Iranian homeland with near impunity, Tehran seeks ways to balance the deterrence equation by threatening U.S. interests worldwide through proxy terrorism and asymmetric operations, said J. Matthew McCinnis, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who specializes in Iranian strategy, while testifying before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in December.
McInnis added that Iran will likely continue to use proxy groups as a means of deterrence against the U.S., meaning Votel and the U.S. military will likely continue to face an Iranian threat for some time to come.
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Top US General: Iran Poses 'Greatest Long Term Threat' To Middle East Security - Daily Caller
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (R) and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif address a joint press conference following their meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Ankara, Turkey, Aug. 12, 2016.(photo byADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images)
Author:Mehmet Cetingulec Posted March 10, 2017
A preferential trade agreement between Turkey and Iran has proved to be a huge disappointment in its first two years, with bilateral trade lagging far behind the $35 billion target the deal was supposed to achieve. The agreement, which took effect Jan. 1, 2015, introduced tariff cuts on about 300 products with a view of tripling the trade volume. The results, however, turned far off the mark, failing to achieve even one-third of the target.
Starting from its first year, the deal led to an awkward outcome: Instead of growing, the trade volume between the two neighbors declined. At the end of 2015, Turkish-Iranian trade stood at $9.76 billion not only $25 billion short of the target, but also $4 billion below the 2014 figure of $13.7 billion.
Thus, hopes had to be extended to 2016, which came with added optimism as international sanctions against Iran were lifted in the wake of its nuclear deal with world powers. While the Iranian market whetted the appetite of global trade giants, Turkey saw itself in a highly favorable position, being an immediate neighbor with tariff cuts already in place. Yet a bigger disappointment was in store. Despite the lifting of sanctions, Turkish-Iranian trade in 2016 turned about $100 million less than the previous year, signaling the collapse of the preferential trade deal in just two years' time.
It is almost impossible not to conclude that serious political issues are snagging economic ties. Chief among them is the two neighbors' diverging policies in the Middle East, especially on Syria and Iraq. As Al-Monitor's Fehim Tastekin noted in February, political tensions between Turkey and Iran, stemming from their regional rivalry, have come to threaten economic ties.
Political discord has undermined the two countries' commerce so much that they seem headed to a point where they will trade only in natural gas and a few other urgent and compulsory items. The trade figures from the past five years offer a clear illustration of that trend.
Remarkably, Turkey and Iran traded more in the years before the preferential trade agreement. The bilateral trade volume had peaked in 2012, reaching $21.9 billion. But as the civil strife in Syria and Iraq flared, the figure began to steadily decline first to $14.6 billion in 2013 and then to 13.7 billion in 2014. To reverse the trend, Ankara and Tehran enacted the preferential trade agreement, which they had negotiated for a whole decade. Yet bilateral tensions over regional policies proved so overwhelming that even the combined trade volumes of 2015 and 2016 $9.76 billion and $9.67 billion, respectively fell short of the $35 billion target set under the agreement, which today seems reduced to a symbolic importance.
The data from the past two years offers small solace for Turkey, indicating that the balance in the shrinking trade has been changing in its favor.
In 2016, Turkish exports to Iran stood at $4.97 billion, up from $3.66 billion the previous year, while imports from Iran, including natural gas, were worth $4.7 billion, down from $6.1 billion in 2015. It was the first time in 16 years that Turkey had a trade surplus vis-a-vis Iran. Though it is a tiny surplus of only about $270 million, the fact that the balance is changing in favor of Turkey is a noteworthy development, the outcome of a steady trend over the past four years.
In 2013, Turkish exports to Iran amounted to $4.2 billion, while imports were worth $10.4 billion, meaning a trade deficit of $6.2 billion. The deficit declined to $5.9 billion in 2014 and $2.4 billion in 2015 before turning to a surplus in 2016.
Yet because of the shrinking trade volume, this rise in exports is no reason to celebrate. Turkey was able to export some $10 billion worth of goods to Iran in 2012, but now this figure has fallen to $4.9 billion despite the lifting of sanctions and booming demand in Iran. The overall picture is pessimistic, with no tangible sign that tripling the trade volume is a target within reach. In February, bilateral tensions forced Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci to cancel a visit to Tehran, where he had been expected to attend a business forum, together with a large number of Turkish entrepreneurs. This development alone undercuts any hope that things could take a turn for the better in 2017, as economic ties remain mired in the shadow of political discord.
Read More: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/03/turkey-iran-trade-deal-collapsed-in-two-years.html
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How Turkey-Iran trade deal collapsed in two years - Al-Monitor
UNITED NATIONS Iraqi U.N. Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim said on Friday there was "no evidence" that Islamic State had used chemical weapons in Mosul, where the militants are fighting off an offensive by U.S.-backed Iraqi forces.
Alhakim said he spoke with officials in Baghdad at midday on Friday and "there was really no evidence that Daesh has used this chemical weapon." Daesh is another name for Islamic State.
The United Nations said last Saturday that 12 people, including women and children, had been treated for possible exposure to chemical weapons agents in Mosul since March 1.
The United Nations Security Council was briefed behind closed doors on the situation in Mosul on Friday by U.N. aid chief Stephen O'Brien and U.N. High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Kim Won-soo.
British U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, president of the council for March, said the 15-member body believed that Iraq's investigation into possible chemical weapons attacks was ongoing.
"We expressed concern over reports of possible use of chemical weapons by Daesh and we look forward to the results of Iraq's investigation into those allegations," Rycroft told reporters after the briefing.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Sandra Maler)
JERUSALEM U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday invited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the White House, in a first phone call between the two leaders since Trump took office.
ROTTERDAM/VIENNA Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will not be allowed to campaign for votes among expat Turks during a visit to Rotterdam on Saturday, the mayor of the Dutch port said, joining a growing list of European cities that have blocked such rallies.
UNITED NATIONS Iraq is assessing what help it might need to collect and preserve evidence of Islamic State crimes, but has not yet decided whether it needs United Nations assistance, the country's U.N. Ambassador, Mohamed Ali Alhakim, said on Friday.
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Iraq says 'no evidence' of chemical weapons attacks in Mosul - Reuters
SOUTHWEST ASIA, March 10, 2017 U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, conducting 22 strikes consisting of 82 engagements against ISIS targets yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.
Officials reported details of yesterdays strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.
Strikes in Syria
In Syria, coalition military forces conducted 14 strikes consisting of 21 engagements against ISIS targets:
-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, six strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit; destroyed five barges, four wellheads and a weapons factory; and damaged an ISIS-held building.
-- Near Raqqa, 13 strikes engaged eight ISIS tactical units; destroyed four vehicles, a fighting position, a tactical vehicle, an ISIS headquarters and a vehicle-borne bomb factory; and damaged three supply routes.
Strikes in Iraq
In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted eight strikes consisting of 61 engagements against ISIS targets, coordinated with and in support of Iraqs government:
-- Near Beiji, three strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed two fighting positions, two vehicles and a weapons cache.
-- Near Huwayjah, a strike damaged a tunnel.
-- Near Mosul, six strikes engaged five ISIS tactical units and an ISIS staging area; destroyed 11 vehicles, nine mortar systems, eight fighting positions, five vehicle-borne bombs, two medium machine guns, two roadblocks, two watercraft, an anti-air artillery system, a supply cache, an ammunition cache and a recoilless rifle; damaged 15 supply routes; and suppressed 10 mortar teams.
-- Near Sinjar, two strikes destroyed a weapons storage facility and an ISIS headquarters
-- Near Tal Afar, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and an ISIS staging area.
Part of Operation Inherent Resolve
These strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The destruction of ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria also further limits the group's ability to project terror and conduct external operations throughout the region and the rest of the world, task force officials said.
The list above contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing or remotely piloted aircraft; rocket-propelled artillery; and some ground-based tactical artillery when fired on planned targets, officials noted.
Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike, they added. A strike, as defined by the coalition, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single or cumulative effect. For example, task force officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIS vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of ISIS-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined, officials said.
The task force does not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.
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Coalition Strikes Continue in Syria, Iraq - Department of Defense