{"id":170063,"date":"2018-05-13T07:02:44","date_gmt":"2018-05-13T07:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=170063"},"modified":"2018-05-17T04:51:52","modified_gmt":"2018-05-17T04:51:52","slug":"on-the-brink-of-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=170063","title":{"rendered":"On the Brink of War"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mark Almond<\/strong>
\nfor The Daily Mail<\/em>, May 11<\/h1>\n

Abridged by Lasha Darkmoon — Darkmoon.ca<\/a> <\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cWe are now closer to open war between Iran and Israel than we have ever been.\u201d<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"how<\/a><\/p>\n

For much of this year the world has been fixated by fears of nuclear Armageddon erupting over\u00a0North Korea. But over the past 48 hours, alarming developments in the Middle East remind us of the even greater likelihood of conventional warfare on a cataclysmic scale in the region. Now that its heavyweights \u2014\u00a0Israel\u00a0and\u00a0Iran\u00a0\u2014 have traded blows for the very first time, we ignore that threat at our peril.<\/strong><\/h5>\n
After 20 Iranian rockets were fired from\u00a0Syria\u00a0at military positions held by the Jewish state on the Golan Heights, Israel responded by launching dozens of missiles at Iranian forces in Syria early yesterday.<\/h5>\n
They hit a radar station, air defences and an ammunition dump \u2014 killing at least 23 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which is based in the UK.<\/h5>\n
Iran\u2019s rockets \u2014 fired by the Quds Force, a wing of the Revolutionary Guards \u2014 either fell short of their targets or were knocked out by Israel\u2019s \u2018Iron Dome\u2019 defence system.<\/h5>\n
This is not all-out war, but it certainly takes us to the brink.<\/h5>\n
\u2014\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a7\u00a0 \u00a0\u2014<\/h5>\n
In the Middle East<\/strong>, two major conflicts have been simmering side by side for years \u2014 the Arabs versus the Israelis, and the Shi\u2019ite Muslims against the Sunni Muslims.<\/h5>\n
This week\u2019s events seem about to drag them together into a gigantic and highly unstable flash point.<\/h5>\n
Iran, which is not an Arab nation, is the chief Shi\u2019ite power. Since the revolution of 1979 which over threw the pro-Western, modernising Shah and imposed the harsh religious rule of the Ayatollahs, it has been spreading radicalism. The regime detests the West: it refers to America as the Great Satan, and Britain as the Little Satan.<\/h5>\n
Iraq is dominated by Shi\u2019ites, as indeed is Lebanon after Hezbollah, the para-military party allied to Iran and which loathes Israel, won this month\u2019s general election.<\/h5>\n
The Ayatollahs in Iran back the Syrian government of Bashar al- Assad. Surrounded by hostile pro-Western nations, Iran needs all the allies it can find to help protect its regional interests.<\/h5>\n
Support for Syria also allows it to station forces far to the West of its own borders \u2014 closer to the Mediterranean, in fact, than it has been since the days of the Persian empire 1,400 years ago.<\/h5>\n
Those forces, as we are seeing, are within easy striking distance of Israel. But that\u2019s only half the story. Tensions are also at breaking point between Shi\u2019ite Iran and Saudi Arabia, the leading Sunni country. The two nations have been fighting a proxy war in Yemen, with the Iranian-backed forces enjoying most of the success.<\/h5>\n
However, it is Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states which control a majority of the region\u2019s colossal oil resources. Now, many hardliners in Tehran are saying that, with Iran\u2019s superior military power, it could seize those oilfields if they wanted.<\/h5>\n
And the ultra-hardliners in Tehran, who are even more numerous, welcome that plan because it would inevitably bring America and its allies (including Britain) into a war they know we wouldn\u2019t have the stomach to fight. With such immense conventional forces arrayed on both sides, Iranian military planners believe the result would, in all probability, be a stalemate. While Iran would be prepared to take hundreds of thousands of casualties, they are betting that the Western allies would not.<\/h5>\n
That, bizarrely, would be seen in the Middle East as a win for Iran. If the Great Satan cannot overcome its enemy, its enemy is victorious. <\/strong><\/h5>\n
\u2014\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a7\u00a0 \u00a0\u2014<\/h5>\n
The idea of provoking more conflict<\/strong>, and giving Tehran an excuse to restart its experiments with enriched uranium, seems wilfully reckless.<\/h5>\n
But Trump has a rationale for his action. He argues that his aggressive tactics over North Korea have forced dictator Kim Jong-un to the negotiating table, and kickstarted a process which might even bring about the reunification of the two Koreas.<\/h5>\n
Absurd as it may seem, suggestions that Trump\u00a0 is a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize should not be dismissed lightly.<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\u00a0\"trump<\/a><\/p>\n

MAN OF PEACE, DONALD TRUMP,<\/strong>
\nCANDIDATE FOR NOBEL PRIZE<\/strong>,<\/strong><\/strong>
\n\u201cmost unlikely nomination since Stalin<\/a>\u201c<\/strong><\/h4>\n
When President Obama began talks with Iran to persuade them to abandon their nuclear programme, much was made of an \u2018Axis of Evil\u2019 \u2014 a loose alliance of Iran, North Korea and other rogue states, intent on global mayhem.<\/h5>\n
But what Trump has proved in his face-off with \u2018Little Rocket Man\u2019 Kim is that Obama\u2019s evil axis is an illusion. North Korea isn\u2019t interested in Iran. Dictators don\u2019t do solidarity.<\/h5>\n
Trump hopes that by reimposing sanctions, he will force the Ayatollahs back to the table \u2014 and this time they will agree not only to cancel their nuclear weapons programme but also to cut back their conventional military forces and to withdraw from Syria.<\/h5>\n
That\u2019s the goal, but the difficulties with the plan are twofold. Firstly, with America ending the trade deal, in economic terms Iran has nothing left to lose.<\/h5>\n
In theory, it can still deal with Europe (which continues to support the 2015 deal): in practice, it can\u2019t buy any items that rely on U.S. digital technology, such as the Airbus planes it dearly desires, and it can\u2019t borrow from international banks that have dealings with America (which means all international banks).<\/h5>\n
Secondly, Iran is not a one-man dictatorship. Power is shared between religious, political and military leaders, all of whom are competing to prove they are more hardline than the next, all of them convinced America isn\u2019t prepared for a ground war fought to the last man.<\/h5>\n
It\u2019s true that the U.S. does not want to commit ground troops. Israel, too, is anxious to avoid fighting with tanks and assault rifles against an enemy with long experience of guerrilla warfare.<\/h5>\n
That\u2019s why the Israeli response to Iran\u2019s failed missile attack was so swift and emphatic: \u2018If it rains on us, it will storm on them,\u2019 warned Israel\u2019s defence minister Avigdor Lieberman. Iran is promising to respond, though this does not necessarily mean an all-out missile attack. Reprisals could take the form of terrorist attacks, either in the Middle East or further afield.<\/h5>\n
Whatever happens, we are closer to open war between Iran and Israel, with the Saudis and U.S. potentially being drawn in virtually from the start, than we have ever been.<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Is there any chink of hope? Curiously, there is and it comes from an improbable source. Russia, which has been so belligerent over Ukraine and Syria, does not want to see Iran dominate the Middle East where it now has significant interests.<\/h5>\n
So President Vladimir Putin may hold the balance of power here. It\u2019s worth remembering that the monstrous Russian dictator Josef Stalin was the West\u2019s vital ally in World War II. Significantly, the Israeli PM was in Moscow to mark the Russian victory over the Nazis on Wednesday.<\/h5>\n
Strange as it may seem, because he can talk to all sides, Putin could be the leader who can avert a Third World War.<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\u00a0\"putin-new-world-order-pedophilia-700x350\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So how about a Nobel Peace Prize for Putin?<\/strong>
\nIf you think Trump is a worthier candidate, step forward!\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Source<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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