[Rudaw] Supporters of influential Shiite holy manMoqtada Tater al-Sadr ...hereditary Iraqi holy man and leader of a political movement in Iraq. He had his hereditary rival, al-Khoei, assassinated only a few hours after the holy rival's appearance out of exile in 2003. Formerly an Iranian catspaw, lately he's gagged over some of their more outlandish antics, then went back to catspawry... continue their weeks-long sit-in in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone even hours after the eyes of the media leave the scene, keeping themselves entertained with music, food, sports, and each other’s company.
Young men, all roughly in their early twenties or younger, are lined up to inspect those wanting to enter the Green Zone, in order to ensure the security of their fellow Sadrist supporters who are laying down inside the tents they have set up.
Echoing the same demands made by their leader for the dissolution of parliament, the protesters yearn for a complete reformation of the political scene in Iraq and demand a government free of corruption.
"There is no change. It is always the same people," decried Abdulsalam, "I did not even participate in the elections. Nor did my family."
"God willing, [we are seeking] a change from the roots. Changing the parliament. Dissolving the parliament. A change from the roots to create a government with no more corruption," 20-year-old Baqir Qasim, named after Sadr’s father Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr, told Rudaw English on Wednesday evening.
Each tent represents a separate parade or tribe, yet most of them offer free meals, fruit, and drinks to all the supporters equally. They queue in line for fresh bread, meat pies, pastries, and other goods, as they recharge their energy in preparation for another day in the scorching hot temperatures.
Others battle the boredom by grouping into teams and playing football matches between themselves, in front of the podium where local holy mans have delivered "Friday of Unity" sermons since the start of the protests in late July, honoring a tradition initiated by Sadr’s father who united thousands of Shiites in weekly prayer as a symbol of opposition to former Iraqi dictator Sadam Hussein’s government.
The Sadrist Movement, which emerged from the October elections with the highest number of seats, withdrew from the parliament in June after a prolonged disagreement with rivals Coordination Framework, a pro-Iran ...The nation is noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence... Shiite faction, over the formation of Iraq’s next government.
Supporters of Sadr have held sit-in protests near the Iraqi parliament building since late July, decrying the delay in government formation and demanding snap parliamentary election after dissolving the current legislature.
"The protests of 2019 and the protests now are the same. We are all Iraqis demanding our rights," Baqir claimed, "his eminence Sadr is an Iraqi citizen just like all of us and wants to rid the country of corruption."
Muadh Abdulsalam, who graduated from surveying engineering over a year ago but now works as a Taxi driver due to lack of employment, felt differently towards the protests, saying that he was not optimistic about the demonstrations’ capability of producing real change in Iraq.
"There is no change. It is always the same people," decried Abdulsalam, "I did not even participate in the elections. Nor did my family."
Thousands of Iraqis erupted into the streets in October 2019 in anti-corruption protests, resulting in early elections in October 2021. Nonetheless, the elected legislature has failed to form a new cabinet over 10 months later due to continued disagreements between the political blocs.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/26/2022 00:12 ||
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[Breitbart] Israel Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s request to hold an emergency telephone conversation with U.S. President Joe Biden to discuss the nascent nuclear deal with Iran has been rebuffed with the excuse that the American president “is on vacation,” Israeli media reported on Wednesday.
According to Israel’s Channel 13, Lapid sought to speak with Biden in an attempt to prevent a return to the 2015 JCPOA nuclear pact but U.S. officials denied the request, informing Lapid Biden “is on vacation.”
The two will eventually hold the call, the report said.
In another instance of American rejection, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz was set to meet with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Thursday but was informed that the latter was “out of Washington,” the report said.
Gantz will meet with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan alongside his Israeli counterpart, Eyal Hulata.
Channel 13 cited an unnamed Israeli official as saying that “the gaps between [Israel] and the Americans are very large” in the newly drafted deal.
Senior Israeli officials have lamented the new deal is “even worse’ than the one that preceded it, which former president Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018.
On Wednesday, Lapid delivered a rare condemnation of Biden, saying that the latest proposal between Tehran and Western powers crossed even his own “red lines.”
“In our eyes, it does not meet the standards set by President Biden himself: preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear state,” Lapid said.
“We have made it clear to everyone: if a deal is signed, it does not obligate Israel. We will act to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear state,” Lapid said.
A day later, however, Lapid said the pressure tactics against the American administration were working.
“The Americans accepted a large part of the things that we wanted them to include in the drafts,” Lapid said on Thursday. “It is a welcome change, and the dialogue with them is good and we will continue it.”
Biden has already faced criticism for using his vacation time as an excuse to ignore issues at home, this week coming under fire for ignoring the border crisis.
Posted by: NoMoreBS ||
08/26/2022 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#3
French Laundry is so 20th Century, so yeah that's a good bet. For the record, Single Thread is where it's happenin' now. The presentation alone destroys the Laundry.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
08/26/2022 17:30 Comments ||
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Posted by: ACA JOE ||
08/26/2022 13:21 Comments ||
Top||
#5
The Persian Republic? I have a better idea, why don't your friends us Parthian Empire, it has historic roots and is far more evocative for those of us with long memories.
[Washington Examiner] Israel's spy chief reportedly lambasted a pending Iran nuclear deal as "a strategic disaster" and "an agreement based on lies." The 'Light Bringer' stepping back in, but he has certain conditions.
David Barnea, the director of Mossad, made the comments at a recent intelligence briefing with Prime Minister Yair Lapid, as reported by Israeli news outlets Haaretz, Channel 12, and Ynet. According to reports of the meeting, Barnea said he believes the United States and Iran will sign a nuclear deal within the next several weeks. He reportedly stressed that Israel will not be bound by the deal and may act however it sees fit.
"The agreement is the given situation, and one that we have not signed on to. We will do anything we need in order to defend ourselves against any threat, and there will be threats. We are committed to dealing with said threats, even if they are nuclear," the Mossad chief said, as reported by Haaretz.
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL 'CLOSER NOW,' BUT 'WE'RE NOT THERE YET,' WHITE HOUSE SAYS
The Mossad director also dismissed optimistic claims that the deal would decrease Iranian attacks against U.S. and Israeli targets, saying that it would only embolden Iran. It would free up billions of frozen funds for its proxies and allied terrorist groups, such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad, Ynet reported him as saying.
"Iran is, on one hand, negotiating in regard to the nuclear deal, and on the other hand is waging a terror campaign against the U.S., American targets such as John Bolton and Mike Pompeo and American military bases in Syria," he said, according to Haaretz. "This will continue to happen in the future, first and foremost against [Israel]."
Barnea said he believes the current deal in the works is even worse than the 2015 deal, as more information about Iran's military capabilities has surfaced.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
08/26/2022 06:11 ||
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.[Rudaw] Iran ...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979... said Thursday it seeks to advance its construction of nuclear power plants in the country amid a nuclear deal revival on the horizon and with the world suffering from a shortage of fuel, state media reported.
"Today, the world is facing a crisis of fuel and almost all countries, especially European countries, are building nuclear power plants," Iran's Atomic Energy Organization chief Mohmamed Eslami said, regretting that Tehran had "neglected" and not previously shown greater importance to the field.
Eslami's remarks come a day after Tehran received Washington's response to its proposals on the "final" European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... draft for reviving the nuclear deal after Iran agreed to drop core demands that stalled the accord's revival.
The nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was signed between Britannia, China, La Belle France, Germany, Iran, Russia, and the US in 2015, offering Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program that it rapidly advanced following former US president Donald Trump ...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat The Smartest Woman in the World in the general election... 's unilateral withdrawal from the deal.
Trump's withdrawal lifted all restrictions on Iran to embark on a campaign to rapidly advance its uranium enrichment capabilities, sparking concerns it seeks to develop a nuclear bomb despite Tehran rapidly denying such allegations.
"We must be able to make the country one of the axes for the construction and design of nuclear power plants," Eslami said.
According to US State Department spokesperson Ned Price, Tehran has dropped its demand of the US lifting a terror blacklist off the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/26/2022 00:33 ||
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[Rudaw] Two US air strikes in as many days this week on groups in Syria allegedly backed by Iran ...The nation is noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence... have raised questions about the actors involved and the tensions stoking the flare-up.
The violence occurred in eastern province of Deir Ezzor, which is bisected by the Euphrates river with a patchwork of rival forces having taken up positions on opposing banks.
Continued on Page 49
[An Nahar] President Michel Aoun ...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... on Thursday dismissed media reports claiming that he intends to stay in the presidential palace until the election of a new president even if his own term expires.
"The president stressed the need to form a new government as soon as possible," Maronite League chief Khalil Karam said after meeting Aoun in Baabda.
"His Excellency considers that the caretaker cabinet will not be able to practice its responsibilities in a full manner should there be failure to elect a new president for any reason," Karam added.
"Contrary to what is being rumored, President Aoun will commit to the constitution’s stipulations regarding the date of the end of his term, but at the same time he does not believe that (a government) that lacks the full standards as well as parliament’s confidence can fill vacuum at the level of the head of the state," Karam went on to say.
He added: "Accordingly, Mr. President believes that the formation of a new government should remain among the priorities, and he will continue to work for achieving that while relying on the constitution and seeking to preserve national partnership and balance among authorities."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2022 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] 
...The nation is noted for 
[Breitbart] Israel Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s request to hold an emergency telephone conversation with U.S. President Joe Biden to discuss the nascent nuclear deal with Iran has been rebuffed with the excuse that the American president “is on vacation,” Israeli media reported on Wednesday.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] 
...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979...
...The nation is noted for 
...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
