Putin Gets Slapped Badly - By Iran!!

Russia's Vladimir Putin just suffered a major setback in the Middle East...delivered by no less than Iran's Supreme leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei.

A few days ago, there was a news story out that sent a shock through the foreign policy establishment here in the U.S. and elsewhere, that Russia would now base a squadron of its Tupolev 22M3 heavy bombers and support aircraft in Iran's Nojef airbase. This was, of course, a huge game changer and Russia's Foreign ministry proudly trumpeted the news in world media as a major sign of Russian dominance in the region.

 


Except it wasn't. The whole thing blew up in the Russian's faces, and in a particularly humiliating way.

The deal was arranged by Iran's President Rouhani, who made the mistake of forgetting his place. He summoned the national supreme military council and, without consulting with Khamenei, simply informed them of his decision to make the Nojeh air base available to the Russian air force.

Aside from being angered that Rouhani made this decision without getting an OK from him, Khamenei was reportedly upset that the Russians showed every intent of making the base their permanent turf complete with sophisticate S-300 and S-400 defense systems to protect it. The last thing Khamenei and the ayatollahs want is a base deep in Iran controlled by a foreign country.

Khamenei orchestrated major disapproval from the Majlis, Iran's version of a parliament that actually does the bidding of the Ayatollah Khamenei and his Council of Guardians. It was more than enough to kill the deal and force the Russians out bag and baggage after just three sorties into Syria.

So the Iranian defense ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi announced in a press conference August 22nd that the Russian mission is over for now, that it was always only a temporary use base on a Russian request.

And if that wasn't enough of a slap, Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan insulted the Russians openly for “showing off” over the air base in an “ungentlemanly manner” and a "betrayal of trust."

"We have not given any military base to the Russians and they are not here to stay."

But wait, there's more.

The Russians make a fair amount of badly needed cash selling weaponry to other countries,including Iran. The Ayatollah Khamenei wasn't finished with them yet. He forced President Rouhani to make amends and show who really runs Iran by forcing Rouhani to be photographed posing with an Iranian-made Bavar-373 missile defense system and to tell the press that with this new, home manufactured system, Iran won't need to purchase any more expensive Russian S-300s, "because the Bavar-373 is just as good."

The Ayatollah was not just telling the Russians that Iran wouldn't be buying any more of what they had to sell, but that Iran was going to be further hitting them in the wallet by putting out a competing, less expensive alternative to potential customers.

While I felt I understood why he was doing it, I've written before that Vladimir Putin was making a huge mistake making common cause with Iran. It's the same mistake Stalin made with Hitler,supplying him with oil and other raw materials literally until the day Hitler's armies attacked him.

What Khamenei was reminding Putin that 'You're a useful infidel at present, but you're still an infidel.'

It's as simple as that.

Con Game: Turkey's Faux Pose Of Restoring Ties With Israel

There has been a great deal of speculation about Turkey restoring ties with Israel, based on leaked details of initial meetings between representatives of the two nations that were held at Islamist Turkish leader Tayyip Erdoğan's request.

For those of you who need a quick recap, Israel and Turkey had very close ties until Erdoğan and his Islamist AKP Party took over in 2002, after which they deteriorated rapidly. The end came in 2010 when the Turkish government sponsored a 'humanitarian aid' fleet designed to break the Israeli blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza. When the Israeli navy intercepted the ships and instructed them to proceed to an Israeli port so their cargoes could be examined, they all complied without incident except one, the Mavi Marmara.

That ship was loaded with IHH terrorists who were deliberately seeking a confrontation. After refusing repeated orders to put into port, the ship was boarded only to find that the crew of the Mavi Mamara had planned an ambush and attacked the unarmed sailors with knives, iron bars, clubs and firearms.



The Israelis sent Naval commandos to board the ship to rescue the injured sailors and take over the ship. This time the results were different, with 9 of the crew of the Mavi Mamara ending up getting themselves killed when they attacked the commandos. Out of the entire flotilla of ship attempting to run the blockade, only two were found to have small amounts of what could be called 'humanitarian aid. Most of them, like the Mavi Mamara carried nothing and were simply seeking to run the blockade.

In spite of Israel's attempt to placate Turkey and resolve the matter, Erdoğan used this as an excuse to break relations completely. Even an apology to Erdoğan that US President Barack Obama arm twisted out of Israeli PM Netanyahu didn't change anything, and Erdoğan subsequently proved on many occasions that he dislikes Jews and Israel almost as much as he hates Kurds.

So what's behind the sudden attempts to kiss and make up?

Turkey's shooting down of a Russian fighter on November 24th that was in Turkey's air space for something like 17 seconds was a major overreach. Vladimir Putin made it quite clear that he regarded the attack as unprovoked aggression and that there would be significant consequences. So Erdoğan has now come scurrying back to his former friends - NATO, and Israel. Ankara is also concerned about Iran's growing power and feels it shares a common enemy with Israel there.

The original negotiations, carried out in Switzerland went something like this. Israel tentatively agreed to set up a compensation fund - unconfirmed reports put it at around $20 million (I personally doubt it was anything like that much) for the families of the 9 killed on the Mavi Mamara. Turkey would bar Hamas from Turkey, and the two countries would also exchange ambassadors.

Even more important, Turkey and Israel would collaborate on a gas pipeline to supply gas to Turkey and Europe from Israel's massive Mediterranean gas strikes.

While Israel's Hebrew press went wild over this, reality has now reared its ugly head.



Instead of distancing itself from Turkey's friends Hamas, the first thing Erdoğan and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu did was to invite Hamas politburo chief Khalid Mesha'al to Ankara for a nice cozy chat over the weekend. And then Davutoğlu gave a press conference which spelled out clearly that whatever occurred in Switzerland, the AKP's attitude towards Israel hadn't changed one bit.

“No one is more sensitive on Gaza, Palestine, than us. Our sole goal is to bring solutions to the problems of our Palestinian brothers. This is the main objective behind our talks for the normalization of our relationship with Israel. We will not take any steps that would sadden Palestine and Gaza but we won’t hesitate to take every step that would be to their benefits, no matter what they say,” Davutoğlu told his parliamentary group on Dec 22. He also exchanged views with Hamas official Khaled Meshal about Turkey’s process with Israel in a meeting over the weekend. {...}

“Turkey has become the first state to ever enjoy the honor of making Israel formally apologize over such an incident. We have not given concessions to anybody while defending our rights,” Davutoğlu said, adding that no final agreement had been reached but talks were continuing positively with Israel.

in classic Middle East bargaining style, the Turks, you see,now want something else to finalize the deal. They want Israel to break the blockade of Gaza and allow Turkey to have what some sources referred to as 'a foothold in Gaza', and to be the intermediary between Israel and Hamas.

As Netanyahu made clear, that isn't going to happen, especially since Turkey has made no move to oust Hamas, who now have their headquarters in Istanbul. The only tangible sign of that was the expulsion of Saleh al-Arouri, a senior figure in Hamas’ military arm who operated terrorist cells in Judea and Samaria from there. There's no indication that this is anything but a temporary measure, since he could return any time. In fact, at least one of my sources tells me there's a decent amount of evidence that this particular move was even arranged in advance with Mesha'al and al-Arouri. The Hamas headquarters haven't been closed down and there are still plenty of Hamas figures still in Turkey.

Even without getting rid of the Gaza Blockade, the deal is a good one for Turkey but not nearly so good for Israel. The AKP and Erdoğan are not to be trusted one iota when it comes to Israel because they will always return to their Islamist love affair with the likes of Hamas, and their innate hatred of Israel. It's in their DNA. And siding with them against Russia and Putin is a bad idea, not to mention the Israel-friendly Kurds. Additionally, the idea of a pipeline running through Turkish territory could leave Israel open to blackmail and even sabotage in the event Erdoğan decides to turn the screws. There are other customers for Israel's gas and other ways of getting it to them.

The Iran factor shouldn't be counted on too much either. Turkey was notorious for violating the sanctions on Iran, and given Turkey's poor economy, there's no guaranty they could be trusted there either. As a matter of fact, Turkey hasn't exactly been much of an ally to NATO since the AKP took over, and there's no reason Israel should expect anything better from Erdoğan's Turkey at this point.

Far better to just agree to limit this to the exchange of ambassadors and see if Erdoğan is actually serious or if he simply wants to get whatever he can out of Israel before torpedoing relations like he did the last time.

Personally, I'd bet it's the latter.

The Real Story Behind Putin And Netanyahu's Moscow Meeting - Updated

 

The recent meeting between Israeli PM Benyamin Netanyahu and Russian leader Vladimir Putin has sparked the usual nonsense in the media, usually complemented by analysis from 'experts' in academia or a former security head or two - usually affiliated with the Leftist Labor party - long out of the loop.

Here's an outline on what actually went down, according to one of my notorious Little Birdies.

The Israelis actually welcome, in a sense, the new Russian base in Syria. They see it as a stabilizing force, and they also know that Russia is chiefly interested in preserving their ally Assad and their Mediterranean access via the Syrian port of Tartous.

Israel's chief concerns are the possible build up of a new terrorist front in the Golan Heights now that Iran has all that cash courtesy of President Obama, avoiding any clashes with Russian personnel now deployed in Syria and stopping any weapons shipments going to Hezbollah. The Israelis already understand that the Russian alliance with Iran means that Russia is going to be little or no help in dealing with Iran's nuclear threat.

Contrary to what you may be reading elsewhere, Russia did not request nor did Israel agree to any formal limits on its ability to intervene in Syria to stop weapons shipments to Hezbollah or terrorist attacks on the Golan. What Israeli chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gady Eisenkot and his Russian equivalent Gen. Valery Gerasimov agreed on was the establishment of a hotline between the Russian and Israeli general staffs.

This will connect the offices of Gerasimov’s deputy, Gen. Nikolay Bogdanovsky in Moscow and Eisenkot’s deputy, Gen. Yair Golan, in Tel Aviv. It is designed to facilitate communications and clarify things during or after Russian or Israeli military operations in Syria and to avoid any unnecessary clashes between the two military forces.

Israel has a similar setup with American forces in the region to facilitate military cooperation. Since Russia is by now the dominant source of non-native boots on the ground in the region, such an arrangement only makes sense.

Other possible topics for discussion likely involved an Israeli request that the Russians not introduce certain advanced weapons systems into the area. Israel had a similar deal with Putin in the past after successful Israeli strikes on Syrian bases storing arms bound for Hezbollah. That arrangement  exploded after Putin found out that President Obama had secretly moved 1,800 US troops to the Jordan border with Syria while the two of them were supposedly working on a diplomatic solution to Syria and the EU ended an arms embargo on the rebels in what was obviously a co-ordinated move.

Much is being made of Russian S-300 missile systems, but  the last time Putin shipped S-300s into the Middle East, the Russian Ship Arctic Sea was mysteriously hijacked en route to Iran, the S-300s were removed and disappeared and it was Israel's Mossad who told the Russians where they could find their ship, which had been boarded by a mysterious group of men posing as narcotics agents off the coast of Sweden some days earlier.
The Israelis have obviously had their hands on these for some time and figured out how to deal with them. And the Russian SAMS guarding Syria's nuclear site they set up in connivance with North Korea didn't have much effect on Israel's planes either, you'll recall.

Putin will likely continue to sell arms to Syria and Iran for transfer to Hezbollah, but will turn a blind eye on Israeli interdiction of those shipments as long as he gets paid and there are no major Russian casualties. He may also have agreed to avoid introducing certain weapons systems into the region like the Kornet missiles as part of this new understanding.

Netanyahu was quoted in the Times of Israel as saying that he told Putin in “no uncertain terms” that Israel will not tolerate Tehran’s efforts to arm Israel’s enemies in the region, and that Jerusalem has taken and will continue to take action against any such attempts. “This is our right and also our duty. There were no objections to our rights and to what I said. On the contrary: there was readiness to make sure that whatever Russia’s intentions for Syria, Russia will not be a partner in extreme actions by Iran against us.”

Putin responded by saying that the Syrian army was too bogged down in its own civil war to deal with fighting against Israel.

“All of Russia’s actions in the region will always be very responsible,” Putin said. “We are aware of the shelling against Israel and we condemn all such shelling. I know that these shellings are carried out by internal elements. In regard to Syria, we know that the Syrian army is in a situation such that it is incapable of opening a new front. Our main goal is to defend the Syrian state. However, I understand your concern.”

Putin tends to keep his agreements. We'll see how this one works out.

UPDATE: As Russian leader Vladimir Putin essentially blames the Obama Regime for the chaos in the Middle East (not without reason in my opinion I might add) there's some interesting speculation going on about what the Russian forces are actually up to.

According to the Daily Beast, Russian drones and planes are concentrating on Western Syria, particularly in areas a long way from where ISIS is just now.

This is yet another sign that Russia's key mission has far less to do with fighting terrorism and far more to do with supporting combat operations designed to keep Bashar al Assad in power. ISIS no longer has any presence in Idlib province or Latakia since more moderate rebels expelled them. Instead, the Russian deployment to the area comes at a time when more moderate opponents to the Assad regime are making military gains in northwestern Syria.

Now, what could the Russians be scoping out? These guys:



These gentlemen belong to Jaish al-Fatah, or the Army of Conquest. This group of moderate rebels, as the article calls them are being funded trained and armed by the Obama Administration and Turkey just like ISIS was when they were part of the Free Syrian Army, only this time it's Saudi Arabia taking the part of Qatar as a major funder. This is a picture taken in Idlib. Guess whom most of these moderate rebels are affiliated with?

Why,Ahrar ash-Sham, an officially designated terrorist group and our old friends the al-Qaeda offshoot al-Nusrah, of course. Jaish al-Fatah has taken over large chunks of Idlib province, including the provincial capitol.

It appears that the Russians are actually preparing to take out some Islamist jihadis while bolstering their ally, Assad.

Kerry Gives Russia An Ultimatum On Ukraine - And Forgets Something

US Secretary of State John Kerry delivered an ultimatum to Russia today, warning of 'serious repercussions if Russia doesn't reverse course by Monday.'

What he wants, apparently, is for a referendum scheduled in Crimea for this Sunday over whether to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation to be canceled.

Secretary Kerry is meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Serge Lavrov in London tomorrow to discuss things further, or to be non-diplomatic about it to tell Lavrov what the U.S. and EU plan to do if the Russians don't comply.

As Kerry put it, “There will be a response of some kind to the referendum itself,” Kerry said. “If there is no sign [from Russia] of any capacity to respond to this issue ... there will be a very serious series of steps on Monday.”

While what Kerry means is remains to be seen, a few things here are a given.There's no doubt that Russia wants the Crimea back, if for no other reason than to continue to control its warm water naval base at Sebastopol. They are also obviously stage managing the referendum, although since over 60% of the Crimea's population is ethnic Russian, it's questionable whether they even need to.

It's also true that back in 1994, Bill Clinton, John Major, Boris Yeltsin and Leonid Kuchma – the then-leaders of the USA, UK, Russia and Ukraine - signed a treaty, The Budapest Memorandum, that guaranteed Ukraine's borders in exchange for Ukraine giving up its nuclear arsenal.

So on the face of it, it certainly does seem like Russia is totally in the wrong - and then, I remembered something that occurred after The Budapest Memorandum that almost certainly changed things in Russia's eyes.

Let's go back a few years...remember Kosovo?

For those of you who have forgotten, this was a mixed Muslim and Serb Orthodox enclave that became part of Serbia when Yugoslavia imploded, and was later the scene of heavy fighting between Serbia and the Saudi,Libyan and Iranian funded and armed Kosovar Liberation Army(KLA). The fighting stopped in 1999, due to heavy intervention on America's part that occurred, just by coincidence, right in the middle of President Clinton's problems with perjury and obstruction of justice. As part of the agreement that ended the fighting, Kosovo's sovereignty was likewise guaranteed in international law, UN Security Council Resolution 1244, passed in June of 1999.

That UNSC resolution stated explicitly that Kosovo would remain part of Serbia under any circumstances while allowing Kosovo a large degree of internal autonomy. It also stated that there would never be any kind of unilateral settlement enforced on the Serbs without their agreement.

Meanwhile, the ethnic cleansing of Christian Serbs in Kosovo by the Muslim KLA continued without the NATO peacekeepers doing much to stop it. And in February of 2008, Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in defiance of UNSC Resolution 1244. Both the EU and the U.S. recognized Kosovo within one day.

The Russians and Serbs were absolutely livid at America and the EU not only breaking the agreement that ended the fighting in Kosovo, but the blatant disregard for international law. As the Russians pointed out at the time, this set a horrible precedent, and they called on the UN to enforce UNSC Resolution 1244 and the 1999 treaty they had signed. They were ignored.

This cost America a huge of amount of credibility and political capital with the Russians, and affected their willingness to cooperate with us on issues like Iran. And it turned Serbia, historically an ally of the U.S. into a relatively hostile country.

When Vladimir Putin hears John Kerry talk about the sacredness of international law, Putin undoubtedly remembers what happened with Kosovo when the shoe was on the other foot.

While I don't particularly care for Putin's stage managed referendum in Crimea.I like even less what we did in Kosovo just to pander to the Saudis and GCC countries and distract from the fallout over the games Mr.Bill was up to in the Oval Office. We didn't even bother to hold a referendum in Kosovo...we just allowed the Kosovars and the KSA to ethnically cleanse the Serbs, recognized them as a country and that was that.

Anyone whom thinks that wasn't what Kosovo was about ought to take a good look at who financed most of the Clinton presidential library and examine how ex-President Clinton became a multimillionaire after he left office due to his business connections with the Emir of Dubai.

The whole idea of 'international law' tends to be fairly flexible, depending on what and who is involved and the willingness to enforce it, especially when it comes to the UN. After all, one of the foundations of any law is that it applies equally to everyone. The Israelis, who have consistently been the recipients of that kind of blatant bias could tell you quite a bit about that.

I realize that bringing this up is unpopular just now. But if we're going to talk to the Russians about breaking treaties and international law, it might be better to acknowledge, at least to ourselves that our own hands aren't exactly clean and that instead of ultimatums, some honest horsetrading might yield a better result.

UPDATE: Apparently the ultimatum tactics didn't work so well. Especially not coming from Kerry via the likes of Barack Obama.

A Must Read From An Elder Statesman - Common Sense On Ukraine

 

Ah, Dr. Kissinger! 90 years old and still razor sharp. Here's some common sense on Ukraine from a master statesman in a must read piece. The contrast between him and the buffoons currently running DC is mind boggling. Here's a slice:

Public discussion on Ukraine is all about confrontation. But do we know where we are going? In my life, I have seen four wars begun with great enthusiasm and public support, all of which we did not know how to end and from three of which we withdrew unilaterally. The test of policy is how it ends, not how it begins.

Far too often the Ukrainian issue is posed as a showdown: whether Ukraine joins the East or the West. But if Ukraine is to survive and thrive, it must not be either side’s outpost against the other — it should function as a bridge between them.

Russia must accept that to try to force Ukraine into a satellite status, and thereby move Russia’s borders again, would doom Moscow to repeat its history of self-fulfilling cycles of reciprocal pressures with Europe and the United States.

The West must understand that, to Russia, Ukraine can never be just a foreign country. Russian history began in what was called Kievan-Rus. The Russian religion spread from there. Ukraine has been part of Russia for centuries, and their histories were intertwined before then. Some of the most important battles for Russian freedom, starting with the Battle of Poltava in 1709 , were fought on Ukrainian soil. The Black Sea Fleet — Russia’s means of projecting power in the Mediterranean — is based by long-term lease in Sevastopol, in Crimea. Even such famed dissidents as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Joseph Brodsky insisted that Ukraine was an integral part of Russian history and, indeed, of Russia.

The European Union must recognize that its bureaucratic dilatoriness and subordination of the strategic element to domestic politics in negotiating Ukraine’s relationship to Europe contributed to turning a negotiation into a crisis. Foreign policy is the art of establishing priorities.

The Ukrainians are the decisive element. They live in a country with a complex history and a polyglot composition. The Western part was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1939 , when Stalin and Hitler divided up the spoils. Crimea, 60 percent of whose population is Russian , became part of Ukraine only in 1954 , when Nikita Khrushchev, a Ukrainian by birth, awarded it as part of the 300th-year celebration of a Russian agreement with the Cossacks. The west is largely Catholic; the east largely Russian Orthodox. The west speaks Ukrainian; the east speaks mostly Russian. Any attempt by one wing of Ukraine to dominate the other — as has been the pattern — would lead eventually to civil war or break up. To treat Ukraine as part of an East-West confrontation would scuttle for decades any prospect to bring Russia and the West — especially Russia and Europe — into a cooperative international system.

Ukraine has been independent for only 23 years; it had previously been under some kind of foreign rule since the 14th century. Not surprisingly, its leaders have not learned the art of compromise, even less of historical perspective. The politics of post-independence Ukraine clearly demonstrates that the root of the problem lies in efforts by Ukrainian politicians to impose their will on recalcitrant parts of the country, first by one faction, then by the other. That is the essence of the conflict between Viktor Yanu­kovych and his principal political rival, Yulia Tymo­shenko. They represent the two wings of Ukraine and have not been willing to share power. A wise U.S. policy toward Ukraine would seek a way for the two parts of the country to cooperate with each other. We should seek reconciliation, not the domination of a faction.

Read the rest here.

The UK And Iran Resume Diplomatic Relations

 

Well , that didn't take long.

According to Iran's official FARS news, Britain and Iran have now officially resumed full diplomatic relations, according to Tehran’s non-resident Charge d’Affaires in London Hassan Habibollahzadeh:

Habibollahzadeh arrived in London at the head of a consular delegation on Wednesday.

The Iranian diplomat is to discuss rendering better consular services to the Iranian nationals residing in Britain as well as promotion of level of consular services both in terms of quality and quantity with British officials.

During his six-day visit to London, the Iranian envoy is slated also to review Tehran-London relations with the officials of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) as well as other relevant bodies.

Early in December in his first trip to Britain, Habibollahzadeh entered London and headed for the Embassy in Kensington to inspect the consular services rendered to the Iranians living in Britain.

How absolutely charming! I'm sure the Brits are willing to forget about Iran kidnapping its sailors on the high seas,mistreating them and then holding them for ransom.

And of course, Iran being a state sponsor to Islamist terrorism and threatening genocide against
Israel on a regular basis is hardly even worth notice.Besides, there's trade and profit to be had and after all, one doesn't want Iran to be upset with them. Perish the thought.

Actually,this has been in the works since the agreement that wasn't really an agreement was agreed upon last November. This just solidifies it.

You sometimes wonder how much a nation can abase itself.

Obama's New Pick For Ambassador - "I'm No Real Expert On China"

'But,on the other hand, I'm a well connected Democrat senator who's retiring and knows where a few bodies are buried, so....'

Unbelievable, even in the amateur hour that is our current White House.

One of the most important ambassadorships in the world, and they want to send appoint someone with no diplomatic experience whatsoever, whose knowledge of foreign policy in general is not his strong point and who admits he knows nothing about China, where he's supposed to negotiate with the Chinese and represent our interest.

Not only is this rank stupidity, but it's an open insult to the flag and the people of the United States by the current occupant of the Oval Office.

And what's even worse is that as a member of the senatorial club, he's almost sure to be confirmed, just like Chuck Hagel was.

UK And Iran Re-Establish Diplomatic Ties

 

Britain's Foreign Minister William Hague announced that Iran and Britain have agreed to re-establish full diplomatic relations. The agreement apparent was done on the sidelines of the Geneva conference.

The British have appointed Ajay Sharma, who heads the British Foreign Office's Iran department, would take up a position as charge d’affaires with Iran. Since the UK is still afraid to re-open it's embassy at this time (the Iranians storming the place in 2011 was what led to Britain severing diplomatic relations), Sharma will visit Iran on a monthly basis, as Reuters reported, but will be a non-resident diplomat.

Iran's Mehr news agency reports that Iran will send a new charge d'affaires, Hassan Habibollah Zadeh, to London, where the Iranian embassy will be re-opened.

You sometimes wonder how low a nation can abase itself, but Britain never ceases to amaze me. After having it's sailors kidnapped on the open sea and having to ransom them,allowing Iran to force the British Navy to abrogate its commitment to patrol the Persian Gulf with its allies and having its embassy overrun by a violent mob while the Iranian 'security' stood by and watched, you would think the Brits would havehad enough of this foul, terrorist supporting regime.

Nope.They're willing to bend over even further.

Given the Ayatollahs' often expressed desire to eliminate Israel, it would be only fair if Israel was to recall its ambassador from Britain in protest, over this and other matters. That won't happen, of course.

But it's sad to see the depths to which a nation that once inspired the free world has sunk.Britain is unworthy of her ancestors.

Iran Stalls Again As Rohani Chooses A New 'Chief Nuclear Negotiator

 

Iran's President-Elect Hassan Rohani has chosen yet another hardliner to be Iran's chief nuclear negotiator with the west:

Iranian President-elect Hassan Rohani will nominate Mohammad Forouzandeh as head of the Supreme National Security Council, a position which would make him Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Iran's ISNA news agency said on Monday.

Forouzandeh is a former Revolutionary Guard, a current member of the Supreme National Security Council and head of a large and economically powerful state charitable foundation.

Here's what this really means....Iran is buying time. Every time they change 'chief nuclear negotiators' they get a free ride for at least another two months,longer if they drag things out even further before returning to 'negotiations'. Because, of course, the new negotiator needs time, lots of time to be conformed by the majlis(Iran's parliament) - after lots of debate, of course - to put his office in order, hire his staff, and take his time studying all of the past negotiations, minutes of meetings, reports...and then of course, there's the back and forth about a suitable time and place to schedule yet another pointless meeting with the gullible West.

How do I know this? Because it's the same movie we've seen before from the Ayatollahs. They may be able to string this one out six months if they're lucky.

And the West falls for it every time.

Israel Names New US Ambassador

Michael Oren is at the end of his tenure as ambassador and wants to be posted back in Israel, so the Israeli government has named a new ambassador to succeed him...and it's an exceptional choice.

American-born Ron Dermer served as Netanyahu's senior adviser for the past four years and has held previous diplomatic posts, including economic attaché at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC.

The 42-year-old Dermer was born and raised in Miami Beach, Florida and has a B.A. in Finance and Management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a Master's degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) from Oxford University. He also helped Natan Sharansky write the best-selling book The Case For Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror.

He's smart, energetic and knows the ropes and the players in DC. Israel will have an excellent advocate in Washington.