Nascent Yemen

The Shah-vestige publicly calls out to commit war crimes by promoting the destruction of public institutions and declares "legitimate [human] targets."

Pahlavi has certainly taken on the mantle of leader for himself, making grandiose proclamations on behalf of the Iranian people.

“Now, relying on your million-strong response to the calls of the past days, and with the legitimacy and popularity I have received from you, I announce another stage of the national uprising to overthrow the Islamic Republic,” he wrote in a long tweet with an accompanying Persian-language video message.

He continues to insist that revolution is at hand and urges Iranians not to give up on their struggle — presumably, their struggle to bring him to power. He also supports — no, implores President Donald Trump to take action, including military strikes, to bring about regime change in Iran.

With the mounting death toll and images of body bags in warehouses in Tehran, CBS News asked Pahlavi on January 12 if it was responsible to demand Iranians take to the streets in the face of mortal danger. Did Pahlavi, the anchor asked, bear any responsibility for the deaths of his fellow Iranians?

“This is a war, and war has casualties,” the former crown prince responded.

Yet what is unfolding in Iran now is not quite the civil war that Pahlavi is invoking. Iranian protesters had come out to streets peacefully — their grievances recognized as valid by the government — not to start a “war.” A civil war is something many Iranians have dreaded ever since witnessing the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Syria’s civil strife, which both saw destructive sectarian fighting and, eventually, the atrocities of the Islamic State.

In his long tweet, Pahlavi also got into thornier rhetoric of war. He suggested state-run media buildings were “legitimate targets,” adding, “Government employees, and the armed and security forces, have the opportunity to join the people.”

At least one state broadcaster building was torched by protesters, but this is a far cry from making “targets” out of them. What’s more, government employees who are not directly participating in hostilities are the opposite of “legitimate targets” in the context of war: Attacking civilian infrastructure, even state propaganda organs, is a war crime.

What seems clear is that very few Iranians — and hardly any activists inside Iran and inside prisons — support foreign interference in their affairs or a foreign-imposed regime change.

The Intercept full report

This calloused Shah residue does not care about human loss and suffering.

He would not take notice even if half of Persians were martyred by the zionists or in the riots.

It is unprecedented that a foreign minister in the government of a certain country grants its enemy a pretext to attack it. However, the militiaman Youssef Rajji, who has always voiced pride in being a member of the Lebanese Forces Party involved in slaughtering the Lebanese civilians and servicemen in the 1975-1990 civil war, breached all the limits and approached the role of the Zionist FM Gideon Saar.

Named by his militia’s leader Samir Geagea to be a foreign minister, Rajji has never performed professionally, yet has always taken the side of justifying the Israeli aggression on Lebanon.

Instead of condemning the Zionist attacks on Lebanon, the so-called Lebanese foreign minister has always blamed the Lebanese resistance force without even filing complaints with the United Nations Security Council in most of the cases of Israeli attacks.

In details, the ceasefire agreement, which took effect on November 27, 2024, stipulated the Israeli halt of attacks on Lebanon. However, Rajji insists on holding the Resistance responsible for the Zionist criminality hitting the Lebanese civilians.

Rajji’s grudge against the Lebanese resistance justifies all the Zionist violations and disregards even the UNIFIL statements which blames the Israeli side for numerous attacks.

In response, MP Ali Ammar, member of Loyalty to Resistance bloc, blasted Rajji’s remarks, calling on the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister to take the necessary measures against Rajji.

Rajji’s irresponsible statement and decline in discourse by an official harms the Lebanese state and further damages its image and dignity in the eyes of its people, MP Ammar added.


Source: Al-Manar English Website

Complaints about civilians killed or injured in the U.S. attack on Venezuela are instead being handled by the Pentagon directly.

U.S. Southern Command is unable to cope with the volume of civilian casualty reports stemming from the military mission to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, according to two government officials. Instead, the Pentagon itself is accepting reports directly.

After the U.S. attacked Venezuela in Operation Absolute Resolve on January 3, U.K.-based watchdog group Airwars attempted to submit documentation of civilian casualties to SOUTHCOM, which oversees military operations in Latin America, then soon learned that SOUTHCOM has no mechanism for submitting these reports. After reaching out to the Pentagon, Airwars was told to submit documentation to its Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, which is operated by the war secretary and was established to help limit unintended civilian deaths.

Airwars began sending reports of civilian harm incidents on Monday.

“A few days after the strikes, the DoD’s Civilian Protection Center of Excellence team reached out to us to understand if we had been documenting civilian harm from U.S. actions,” said Emily Tripp, the executive director of Airwars. “Until SOUTHCOM establishes their own mechanism — as CENTCOM and AFRICOM have — we will be submitting cases directly to the Center of Excellence after we publish them.”Airwars began sending reports of civilian harm incidents on Monday.

“A few days after the strikes, the DoD’s Civilian Protection Center of Excellence team reached out to us to understand if we had been documenting civilian harm from U.S. actions,” said Emily Tripp, the executive director of Airwars. “Until SOUTHCOM establishes their own mechanism — as CENTCOM and AFRICOM have — we will be submitting cases directly to the Center of Excellence after we publish them.”

The need for the Pentagon to pick up SOUTHCOM’s slack follows a deemphasis on civilian harm mitigation and corresponding budget cuts across the military as a result of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s efforts to gut programs to reduce civilian casualties. Experts and insiders say that even a small number of civilian casualty reports is now too much for SOUTHCOM to handle. Two government officials told The Intercept that personnel devoted to civilian harm tracking and mitigation at SOUTHCOM had been whittled down from four staff to one contractor.

Personnel devoted to civilian harm tracking and mitigation at SOUTHCOM has been whittled down from four staff to one contractor.

The Intercept full report

The Axis of Genocide with its internationally wanted war criminal head, including Germany’s Merz, recently signed a pact in Al Quds, formally aligning with z¿onist claims that Iran and its allies represent a regional and international threat.

“Iran and its proxies, Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis, threaten not only Israel but also regional stability and international security,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said.

“The declaration signed today anchors deep cooperation with Germany in the fields of cyber security, counter-terrorism and advanced technologies.

“zionist colony enemies should know: our eyes are on them at all times and everywhere,” the statement added.

The declaration was signed by Netanyahu and visiting German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt.

“I think Germany and zionist colony are natural partners. We’ve cooperated on the Arrow 3, we’ve cooperated in many areas,” Netanyahu said in a separate statement.

The initiative formalises a broad security partnership between the security apparatuses of both countries, the statement said.

Last month, Germany approved a $3.1 billion expansion of a contract for the Arrow 3 anti-ballistic missile defence system, which is Israeli-made and developed with US support.

The deal, originally signed in 2023, is now worth approximately $6.5 billion. zionist colony says it is the country’s largest-ever military export contract.

Earlier on Sunday, zionist Foreign Minister Gideon Saar held a meeting with Dobrindt, during which he urged the European Union to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a “terrorist organisation”.

Netanyahu held talks with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in occupied Palestine last December.

The call came as Iran has been rocked by deadly protests, initially sparked by anger over the rising cost of living but quickly evolving into a broader violent foreign-backed riot and spree of death and destruction.

The Weekly Arab report

Hezbollah saluted, in a statement, the million-strong marches that took place across various regions of the Islamic Republic of Iran in support of the Islamic regime and stability.

“These marches clearly expressed the true direction of the Iranian people, who stand united around the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran, foremost among them the Leader His Eminence Imam Khamenei (may his shadow endure), together with the government and all state institutions.”

Hezbollah maintained that the Islamic Republic of Iran is an independent and sovereign state whose people freely chose their system, laws, and constitution by their own will, adding that since the victory of its revolution in 1979, it has faced global aggression sponsored by the United States of America, aimed at undermining this ethical, popular, Islamic, and independent experience.

“Despite the economic conditions Iran endures as a result of sanctions and aggression, it remains steadfast, continues to develop its capabilities in various fields, and works to serve its people within a system based on free and fair elections,” the statement noted, “It also safeguards the people’s right to peaceful protest and expression. However, the United States insists on destabilizing Iran from within and uses the Zionist entity as a tool of crime, killing, and chaos in an attempt to overthrow the popular Iranian system.”

Images, statements, and evidence have proven that American and Israeli agents exploit small groups to infiltrate demonstrations and turn them into chaos and sabotage, including the burning of mosques, government and security centers, and the destruction of public property, according to the statement which added, “These criminal acts have no connection whatsoever to legitimate living demands or to the right to protest. Rather, Trump and Netanyahu speak in the name of the protesters due to their lack of real popular presence and internal leadership, as they are merely a handful of agents managed by those who launched a 12-day aggression against Iran aimed at toppling the system—an aggression that failed, was exposed, and collapsed in utter defeat.”

As Hezbollah affirmed its full support for the choice of the Iranian people and their leadership, it stressed that the Islamic Republic of Iran will remain steadfast, strong, and independent, by the will of Allah the Almighty.

Iran’s capital Tehran and all the other provinces witnessed on Monday million-man marches protesting recent foreign-backed riots and demonstrating support for the Islamic establishment.

Source: Al-Manar English Website

When American aircraft struck Venezuela in early January, abducting President Nicolás Maduro and killing more than a hundred people, the attack was widely framed as a unilateral act of US power. That is misleading. British industry, British diplomacy and British silence all form part of the story.

According to reporting by the British advocacy group Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), US forces used F-22 Raptors and F-35 Lightning IIs in the assault.

But those jets are not merely American.

Around 15% by value of every F-35 is made in Britain. The rear fuselage comes from BAE Systems in Lancashire; targeting lasers from Leonardo in Edinburgh; bomb-release cables from L3Harris in Brighton; lift systems from Rolls-Royce; refuelling pods from Mission Systems Wimborne.

Yes, the aircraft itself is assembled by US-giant Lockheed Martin. But the supply chain is emphatically multinational: Britain is part of that chain.

Why does this matter? Because the strike on Venezuela was a clear breach of Article 2 of the UN Charter. This prohibits the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of a state. Britain’s own export-control rules require arms transfers to be suspended where there is a clear risk of serious violations of international humanitarian law.

The government has already accepted that this legal threshold has been crossed in relation to arms exports to Israel. Yet it continues to permit the export of F-35 components to Israel, arguing that the jet’s global supply chain is too integrated to interrupt without endangering “international peace and security”.

Phrases such as that risk ringing increasingly hollow.

The US interpretation of peace and security, as CAAT notes, appears to involve the abduction of foreign leaders, the bombing of sovereign states and the open pursuit of regime change in oil-rich countries. Britain, by remaining embedded in the F-35 programme, becomes complicit in these actions.

The political backdrop is no less troubling. As Declassified UK has documented, Britain’s role in destabilising Venezuela did not begin this month. In 2002, during a right-wing coup against President Hugo Chávez, the British embassy in Caracas declined to assist him, despite appeals to help preserve his life. Officials worried instead about the reaction of Caracas’s “wealthier residents”. Chávez survived only because mass mobilisation forced his reinstatement.

More recently, Britain has aligned itself closely with Washington’s campaign to unseat Maduro. In 2019 it recognised Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s “interim president”, froze more than $2bn of Venezuelan gold in the Bank of England, and quietly established a Venezuela Reconstruction Unit inside the Foreign Office to plan for the day after Maduro’s removal.

It has been reported that such sanctions, strongly backed by London, have contributed to tens of thousands of excess deaths, even as British diplomats explored future involvement in Venezuela’s energy sector.

Against this record, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s refusal to condemn the latest US attack is not caution; it is complicity.

Yes, he has been quick to denounce Russian aggression in Ukraine, but has has been conspicuously reluctant to apply the same legal standards to America. The result is a rules-based order that functions selectively. It is an order that is enforced against adversaries and waived for allies.

This makes it no order, but something far darker.

We must acknowledge that modern warfare is not only about who drops the bomb, but also who designs the aircraft. Who forges the components, Who provides the diplomatic cover.

Britain cannot plausibly claim impartiality or a moral high-ground while its factories supply the hardware and its government backs that up with silence.

CAAT, rightly, calls on the UK to leave the F-35 programme, halt exports of its components, and open an investigation into Britain’s complicity in breaches of international law.

Those demands deserve to be taken seriously. If international law is to mean anything, it cannot stop just because it is being abused by an ally.

To fail to respond to what happened in Venezuela will make that incursion not an aberration but the beginning of an unravelling – where military aggression tied to unhidden resource extraction, justified in the bland language of security, and enabled by the British arms economy.

Britain is not a bystander to this unravelling. It is, quietly and profitably, part of the machinery.

AOAV report

On Monday evening U.S. President Donald Trump announced 25% import tariffs on products from any country doing business with Iran – a major oil exporter. Trump has also said more military action is among options he is weighing to punish Iran over the crackdown, saying earlier this month “we are locked and loaded”.

Underscoring the international uncertainty over what comes next in Iran, which has been one of the dominant powers across the Middle East for decades, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he believed the government would fall.
“I assume that we are now witnessing the final days and weeks of this regime,” he said on Tuesday, adding that if it had to maintain power through violence, “it is effectively at its end”.

About 2,000 people including security personnel have been killed in protests in Iran, an Iranian official said on Tuesday, the first time authorities have acknowledged the high death toll from an intense crackdown on two weeks of nationwide unrest.
The Iranian official, speaking to Reuters, said that people he called terrorists were behind the deaths of both protesters and security personnel. The official, who declined to be named, did not give a breakdown of who had been killed.

Reuters report

Other pro-West news networks estimate the death toll at 12000.

US President Donald Trump has urged Iranians to “keep protesting” and “take over” institutions in the country, saying he has cancelled “all meetings” with Iranian officials.’

Help is on the way,’ Trump tells Iranians as he urges them to keep protesting – Al Jazeera report.

The pedophile-billionaire’s resolve to turn average Persians’ lives miserable through evermore sanctions.

China has vowed to safeguard its rights and interests after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose an additional 25 percent tariff on countries doing business with Iran.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning made the remarks during a regular news conference on Tuesday, a day after Trump announced in a post on Truth Social that any country doing business with Iran would face a 25 percent tariff on all trade with the United States and that the tariffs were “effective immediately.”

“We have always believed that there are no winners in a tariff war, and China will resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” Mao said.

The Chinese diplomat further noted that Beijing is “closely monitoring the development of the situation,” when asked about advice for Chinese citizens travelling to Iran for tourism

“We will take all necessary measures to protect the safety of Chinese citizens,” she said.

Trump’s tariff threat comes as US-Israeli-backed rioters have failed to derail economic protests inside Iran.

Trump did not outline which countries could be affected or how the tariff would be implemented. Still, observers cited China as the most obvious target of the measure in light of the sheer size of its huge annual trade with the Islamic Republic.

The United Arab Emirates and India are also among Iran’s trading partners.

In recent weeks, shopkeepers staged peaceful protests in different cities across Iran over economic issues, but the demonstrations were steered toward violence after public statements by US and Israeli regime figures — amplified by Israeli-linked Persian-language outlets — encouraged vandalism and disorder.

Authorities have acknowledged the legitimacy of economic grievances and vowed to address them, while denouncing foreign-backed elements for exploiting people’s livelihood concerns, which are directly linked to unilateral US sanctions targeting Iran’s central bank and oil exports.

PressTV report