Western reports are invariably a combination of news reports and editorializing propaganda. This report is no different. I will post the actual news items, with my own editorial comments where applicable. https://news.yahoo.com/venezuela-celebrates-docking-tanker-iran-154449864.html Venezuela celebrates docking of tanker with Iran gasoline The Venezuelan government and people do have something to celebrate. These fuel deliveries will take care of fuel badly needed by Venezuela for the next few weeks, while it allows Venezuela and Iran to work on restoring Venezuela's own fuel production. Once Venezuela's fuel production begins to increase, that is when it can declare itself winning. Venezuela might not have the best management and economic policies, but I doubt any country (including the US) would ever tolerate a 5th column openly ignoring election results and working with foreign governments to overthrow its government without clamping down on them. That they have not done so already is itself amazing. I hope the two countries will find a host of other avenues to expand their relations in a way that benefits both.
Stand up to them??? The US has been an active participant in the genocide taking place in Yemen, and that was the case under Obama as well, with US forces and reconnaissance assets involved in Saudi operations. Last night I watched an Iranian movie dealing with one of the most notorious terrorists, Abdolmalek Rigi, called: When the Moon Was Full. See HERE Hollywood Reporter's Review of the Movie. The movie, directed by an Iranian female director, was riveting and very disturbing. In part, because it tells a true story, including how a young Iranian man was beheaded on live television (by a Saudi channel) with his mom called to watch her son supposedly giving an interview! The group that carried these dastardly deeds, an Al Queda affiliated group operating near the Iran/Pakistan border from inside Pakistan, was supported by the US and Israel (the latter, clearly and undeniably). The leader of the group was arrested by Iran finally, and then executed for his numerous crimes, but he spilled all the beans about US involvement and assistance to his group during this custody. Even if you ignore his comments while in custody, there was a lot of evidence that pointed to the same thing. You can read below from the Wikipedia site (and references) on US/Israel support for this groups: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jundallah_(Iran)
Thanks. I did love it. Imagine coming from nowhere on the charts and ending up among the top 5, behind only China, South Korea, USA and Japan! All that in a very short time span, mainly the past decade.
I am becoming very concerned about certain developments in Iran on the one hand, and within the neocon community that guides US foreign policy on the other hand. The latter, sensing weakness and loss of resolve in Iran from its highest authority, are beginning to move in a direction that increases the likelihood of success for their plans to bring an implosion inside Iran, with air strikes the last arsenal in the overall arsenal of weapons used to unravel Iran and undermine the authority of its government. The decision to end 'waivers' for the work being done by Europeans and others to make sure Iran's nuclear program remains civilian in nature, is basically a signal that the US/Israel are preparing the ground work for air strikes against those sites -- and want all foreign companies and nationals out of the way! This is not going to happen tomorrow, but it will almost certainly happen before November. This is particularly true since Iran's leadership has begun showing loss of nerves and lack of any appetite for continuing its resistance, even as it hasn't shown the courage to give the reigns of power to at least those who are better equipped to negotiate Iran's return to the status of an American vassal state.
I should add the following, while recalling the saying: fool me once, shame on you; for me twice, shame on me and you, fool me thrice, shame on me alone. If not for the fraud perpetuated against Iran by the JCPOA, Iran would have been able to develop, very quickly if only the decision was made, a nuclear arsenal with plenty of nukes. And the means to deliver them. Obama, and his real allies in Europe (and their agents in Iran), paved the way for those (lets call them neocons) who have never been constrained by any deals or agreements, to complete the fraud. Even if Trump wasn't elected, the result would have been the same: Hillary would have actually gone about scrapping the benefits and promises of the JCPOA for Iran by finding the many ample excuses available and unaffected by the JCPOA, while keeping the constraints from the deal against Iran intact. And then use the 'snap-back' provisions of the JCPOA to put back all the same sanctions on Iran without having to bully and arm twist the rest of the world in doing so. To be sure, I ultimately blame all of this on Iran's Supreme Leader. If I give Iran's regime some credit for some of its successes, there is no denying in my mind that the regime (and its leadership) deserve all the blame for following a course that has put Iran in a very difficult predicament today. A course that meant that Iran was neither openly crying uncle and taking its place as an obedient lapdog, nor developing the actual means to ultimately deter these folks from their dastardly agendas.
Former Tehran mayor, Ghalibaf, has been elected as the new speaker of the Iranian parliament. While Ghalibaf has been accused of corruption, his tenure as mayor of Tehran was overall one that saw the successful completion of many high profile projects. As a former member of the revolutionary guards and head of the revolutionary guards air force, as well as one time police chief of Tehran, Ghalibaf (who has run unsuccessfully for the presidency on more than a couple of occasions) has the necessary qualifications and background on paper to deal with the issues Iran faces. But since I consider the biggest challenge Iran faces today to be in the national security and foreign policy arena, I am not exactly sure the headlines which mention Ayatollah Khamenie encouraging the new parliament to focus on "economic and cultural" issues bodes well for anything useful this parliament would be able to do. p.s. I sincerely hope that my worries about Ayatollah Khamenie losing his resolve, and signalling another round of weakness that this time will culminate in catastrophic consequences for Iran if managed the way he has in mind, will prove wrong. But I am very worried.
Very interesting videos, Mani. They tell a larger story that isn't about Iran so much, as the changing balance of power in the world. And how such changes are forcing those who used to dominate the world's actual economic output, to use their control over the paper money that once reflected their share of such output (but is now only a Ponzi-scheme that has many people invested in it and not quite sure how to dis-invest without some pain), to make sure they are able to prevent the last vestiges of their hegemony and domination from being challenged.
The top oil exporters in the world are the ones in this map. Thanks to US sanctions, Iran is not among them anymore and hasn't been the past couple of years. But, historically, Iran has certainly been one of the top oil producers in the world. Here is another one that has Iran among the top 20 in the world: number of internet users.
#JusticeForGeorgeFloyd trending in Iran Feelings of anger and injustice over George Floyd’s death ripple all the way to Iran. People hold a vigil and light candles in his memory in the city of Mashad. pic.twitter.com/Wpm4qwV6Ab— Ali Arouzi (@aliarouzi) May 30, 2020 1266568109218918402 is not a valid tweet id Nationwide protests and riots. Police officers beating people in the streets. The president threatening to deploy the military and have the protesters shot. If this were happening in any other country, the United States would probably be calling for regime change by now.— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) May 30, 2020
Tell us more about our injustices! Father's beheading of 14-year-old daughter sparks outcry in ... www.haaretz.com › middle-east-news › iran › father-s-be... 3 days ago - The so-called honor killing of a 14-year-old Iranian girl by her father, ... now in custody, was apparently enraged when he killed his daughter ...
That case involving a deranged father in a small village killing his own daughter for running away with a much older, 35 year old man, and which sparked uniform outrage across Iran, quick condemnation by Iran's president and many officials from all across different political backgrounds in Iran, and led to the immediate arrest of the father, is somehow relevant or comparable to what is going on in the US with yet another case of the police murdering an African-American man, with a video showing the crime? Thankfully, regardless of attempts to feed people propaganda and use every criminal case in Iran as an opportunity to give anti-regime mouthpieces a platform to spew their nonsense, such crimes are very rare in Iran. When they do happen, as in this case, they involve people in rural villages and such. And while the criminal penalty for a father killing his son or daughter is usually not as harsh as it should be (maximum 10 years imprisonment), there are other provisions of the law that can be applied (and which are going to be used in this case) to give this deranged person something closer to the punishment he deserves for his crime. Regrettably, what happened to George Floyd is distinguishable from too many other such cases to count involving police abuse and murder in America mainly by the fact that it was caught on video. And even if the video catching his crime from start to finish might make this case a harder one than the typical cases of police abuse and murder to escape all criminal punishment, I am still willing to bet that deranged father who killed his own daughter for running away with a much older man in Iran, will be spending a lot more time in prison than Derek Chauvin.
The source of the reports you read in your propaganda networks are the media in Iran, which regardless of political orientation, have been outraged by this case. In fact, many headlines in Iranian media quoted the mother of the young girl demanding that capital punishment be applied in this case (despite the fact that the typical criminal statute in Iran providing punishment for a father killing his son/daughter does not allow capital punishment). Or, perhaps you can copy-paste this report from the media whose ownership and affiliation you had debated with me, namely MEHR news agency, and run it through google to translate for you! Or this one from ISNA: Murder of Romina at the hands of her father: the Why and Ifs? In the meantime, I post these pictures relatives gathering in this small village on the 7th day of her murder from Iranian media. Long after any of you are interested in using this case for your propaganda purposes, I will be following up to report on the punishment her father gets for his crime!
Sorry if the rules of etiquette and proper respect in the village of "Sefid Sang" (White Stone) (population 500), one of the villages in Talesh county (population 200,000) doesn't accord with your standards. I am not much into judging people for their cultural practices and less so people who are grieving. As for this village, however, this case has brought some limelight on it. This report (entitled: Where is the Village of Sefid Sang in Talesh: Lullaby of the villagers for Romina Ashrafi) is about the picturesque village where this murder occurred.
I like to change the subject and, since I need to earn my pay from Iran's "Tourism Board", post some more pictures from the county of Talesh, where the case we have been discussing occurred. The actual tourism organization in Iran (ITO) does have a site showing pictures of Talesh, especially the "Hashtpar" area which is quite picturesque. Reminds me somewhat of one of the places you had highlighted in your pictures of the natural beauty in the US. And while this may not be quite the same as what "leave peepers" (label applied by locals in that state) who visit the "Green Mountain State" find in Vermont, it is not all that dis-similar either. The biggest difference with Vermont, perhaps, is that while Talesh does get snow in the winter, it isn't nearly as cold in the winter as in Vermont. Picture below of Talesh in the winter. Unlike Vermont, which has quite a few ski resorts (most of which I have visited), I don't think there are ski resorts in Talesh yet. But not far from Talesh, you will find many ski resorts in Iran. More than you would imagine. Even the "New York Post" (which is usually focused on posting propaganda nonsense about Iran), in the days when the JCPOA had been signed, has this article: https://nypost.com/2015/07/30/10-reasons-why-jet-setters-should-skip-the-alps-and-ski-in-iran/ 10 reasons why you should skip the Alps and ski in Iran
Dude - combine your natural show-off-Iran pictorial skills with increasing Iranian leisure time and open up a ski resort. Call it Veil.
And the lord said to all the nations of the world, "let they who are without sin caste the 1st stone". Nary a stone was cast!
There will be 2 ski lifts. One for regular folk and one for government enemies that drops them off the edge of a cliff.
I like to get back to the "Veil", the covering and not the ski resort, later. For now, just take this from me: beautiful women don't need to show a lot of skin to look beautiful. But as for starting a ski resort, I think that market is saturated in Iran. For a country that has to rely primarily and overwhelmingly on its own domestic tourism industry in light of its status of as an 'international pariah' thanks to the US and company, the 32+ ski resorts that exist in Iran already are probably too many. https://www.skiresort.info/ski-resorts/iran/ Especially, since among these 32+, you have close to a dozen which are pretty decent and already can meet all the demand for skiing in the country. Here are the top 10 according to Iran's tourism organization: https://www.itto.org/iran/article/10-top-ski-resorts-in-iran/ And for accommodations, you might check this, although when I tried, the place was no longer a hotel as much as condominiums which people owned (with few willing to rent). https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/ski/galleries/the-coolest-ski-hotel-ever-has-been-built-in-iran/ The coolest ski hotel ever - and it's in Iran