2nd U.S. carrier strike group steaming towards Persian Gulf
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Kastor
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Hmm, interesting, but I think Iran has called their bluff, they don't want war.....why would they? They're trying to starve Iran economically, why get into a war for nothing. It's near election time, Trump doesn't need the headache. We need to drive up the price of oil....that's the only way to fight. If Trump wins reelection then we need to prepare for war then, because he will have nothing to lose then.
its not really trump who will be making the call of war alone. The military and the deep state have to want it as well. The US has never gotten into a military conflict in its history without its military leaders actively supporting it.
American generals have outright explicitly said they will ignore illegal orders. and there are interesting articles about how mattis would tone down trump rhetoric. for example when trump wanted military options against Syria after their fake chemical weapons charade. He only gave him 1. limited cruise missile strike against some Syrian targets.
just enough to save American face, but nothing resembling a real shot. or anything that can alter the balance of power which would invite Russian/Syrian retaliation and dangerous escalation that no sane person wants.
trump is a clown who talks big.
925boy
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Iraq vows to stand with Iran amid US-Iran tension
Iran and Iraq have close ties through trade, culture and religion. But Iraq relies o
n US to combat the threat of ISIL.
by Rob Matheson
26 May 2019
MORE ON MIDDLE EAST
Foreign Minister Mohamed Ali al-Hakim made the pledge following talks with his Iranian counterpart.
Al Jazeera's Rob Matheson reports from Baghdad.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/iraq-vows-stand-iran-us-iran-tension-190526153054539.html
Well, Iraq has chosen Iran's side in this conflict. So we now know its formally US vs Iran+Iraq. This is getting interesting.
Iran and Iraq have close ties through trade, culture and religion. But Iraq relies o
n US to combat the threat of ISIL.
by Rob Matheson
26 May 2019
MORE ON MIDDLE EAST
- Fourth French ISIL member sentenced to death in Iraqtoday
- 'Grave concern' as Al Jazeera journalist remains jailed in Egypttoday
- Gulf crisis sees ballooning borrowing coststoday
- Is the US media beating the drums of war on Iran?today
Foreign Minister Mohamed Ali al-Hakim made the pledge following talks with his Iranian counterpart.
Al Jazeera's Rob Matheson reports from Baghdad.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/iraq-vows-stand-iran-us-iran-tension-190526153054539.html
Well, Iraq has chosen Iran's side in this conflict. So we now know its formally US vs Iran+Iraq. This is getting interesting.
Kastor
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It takes a solider with some grey hairs to see this escalation for what it is, what surprised me is that it's on Fox News which is usually a Neocon, Pro-Israeli mouthpiece.
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13980307000147
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13980307000147
Arminkh
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Well, they say if you want to get the words to Trump you should do it through FOX news. Hopefully he is listening.
Using proxies is the reason to avoid a direct confrontation correct? Many people attack U.S. embassies without fear of war. When was the last time we went to war over an attack on an embassy?
925boy
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NOw US is asking for a meeting with Iran and Iran doesnt need it. Game don changed!
STRAIT OF HORMUZ
JUNE 5, 2019
Iranian soldiers take part in National Persian Gulf Day in the Strait of Hormuz on April 30, 2019. There is concern about a blockade of the Strait and the disastrous impact that could have on the price of oil and world financial markets. Photo: AFP / Atta Kenare
Why Trump now wants talks with Iran
If Tehran blocks the Strait of Hormuz it could send the price of oil soaring and cause a global recession
ByPEPE ESCOBAR
Unlike Deep Purple’s legendary ‘Smoke on the Water’ – “We all came out to Montreux, on the Lake Geneva shoreline”, the 67th Bilderberg group meetings produced no fire and no smoke at the luxurious Fairmont Le Montreux Palace Hotel.
The 130 elite guests had a jolly good – and theoretically quiet – time at the self-billed “informal discussion forum concerning major issues”. As usual, at least two-thirds were European decision-makers, with the rest coming from North America.
The fact that a few major players in this Atlanticist Valhalla are closely associated with or directly interfering with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel – the central bank of central banks – is of course just a minor detail.
The major issue discussed this year was “A Stable Strategic Order”, a lofty endeavor that can be interpreted either as the making of a New World Order or just a benign effort by selfless elites to guide mankind to enlightenment.
Other items of discussion were way more pragmatic – from “The Future of Capitalism”, to “Russia”, “China”, “Weaponizing Social Media”, “Brexit”, “What’s Next for Europe”, “Ethics of Artificial Intelligence” and last but not least, “Climate Change”.
Disciples of Antisthenes would argue that these items constitute precisely the nuts and bolts of the New World Order.
The chairman of Bilderberg’s steering committee, since 2012, is Henri de Castries, former CEO of AXA and the director of the Institut Montaigne, a top French think tank.
One of the key guests this year was Clement Beaune, the European and G20 counselor to French President Emmanuel Macron.
Bilderberg prides itself for enforcing the Chatham House Rule, according to which participants are free to use all the precious information they wish because those who attend these meetings are bound to not disclose the source of any sensitive information or what exactly was said.
That helps ensure Bilderberg’s legendary secrecy – the reason for myriad conspiracy theories. But that does not mean that the odd secret may not be revealed.
The Castries/Beaune axis provides us with the first open secret of 2019. It was Castries at the Institut Montaigne who “invented” Macron – that perfect lab experiment of a mergers and acquisitions banker serving the establishment by posing as a progressive.
A Bilderberg source discreetly let it be known that the result of the recent European parliamentary elections was interpreted as a victory. After all, the final choice was between a neoliberal/Green alliance and Right populism; nothing to do with progressive values.
The Greens who won in Europe – contrary to the US Greens – are all humanitarian imperialists, to quote the splendid neologism coined by Belgian physicist Jean Bricmont. And they all pray on the politically correct altar. What matters, from Bilderberg’s perspective, is that the European Parliament will continue to be run by a pseudo-Left that keeps defending the destruction of the nation-state.
Just like Castries and his pupil Macron.
The derivatives clock is ticking
The great Bilderberg secret of 2019 had to do with why, suddenly, the Trump administration has decided that it wants to talk to Iran “with no preconditions”.
Image: Wikipedia
It all has to do with the Strait of Hormuz. Blocking the Strait could cut off oil and gas from Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Iran – 20% of the world’s oil. There has been some debate on whether this could occur – whether the US Fifth Fleet, which is stationed nearby, could stop Tehran doing this and if Iran, which has anti-ship missiles on its territory along the northern border of the Persian Gulf, would go that far.
An American source said a series of studies hit President Trump’s desk and caused panic in Washington. These showed that in the case of the Strait of Hormuz being shut down, whatever the reason, Iran has the power to hammer the world financial system, by causing global trade in derivatives to be blown apart.
The Bank for International Settlements said last year that the “notional amount outstanding for derivatives contracts” was $542 trillion, although the gross market value was put at just $12.7 trillion. Others suggest it is $1.2 quadrillion or more.
An Iranian Navy warship is seen in the Strait of Hormuz on April 30, amid talk that Tehran may block the Strait if relations with the US plunge further. Photo: AFP / Atta Kenare
Tehran has not voiced this “nuclear option” openly. And yet General Qasem Soleimani, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Quds Force and a Pentagon bête noire, evoked it in internal Iranian discussions. The information was duly circulated to France, Britain and Germany, the EU-3 members of the Iran nuclear deal (or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), also causing a panic.
Oil derivative specialists know well that if the flow of energy in the Gulf is blocked it could lead to the price of oil reaching $200 a barrel, or much higher over an extended period. Crashing the derivatives market would create an unprecedented global depression. Trump’s former Goldman Sachs Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin should know as much.
And Trump himself seems to have given the game away. He’s now on the record essentially saying that Iran has no strategic value to the US. According to the American source: “He really wants a face-saving way to get out of the problem his advisers Bolton and Pompeo got him into. Washington now needs a face-saving way out. Iran is not asking for meetings. The US is.”
And that brings us to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s long, non-scheduled stop in Switzerland, on the Bilderberg’s fringes, just because he’s a “big cheese and chocolate fan”, in his own words.
Yet any well-informed cuckoo clock would register he badly needed to assuage the fears of the trans-Atlantic elites, apart from his behind-closed-doors meetings with the Swiss, who are representing Iran in communications with Washington. After weeks of ominous threats to Iran, the US said “no preconditions” would be set on talks with Tehran, and this was issued from Swiss soil.
China draws its lines in the sand
Bilderberg could not escape discussing China. Geo-poetic justice rules that virtually at the same time, China was delivering a powerful message – to East and West – at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
The Shangri-La dialogue is Asia’s top annual security forum, and unlike Bilderberg, held like clockwork at the same hotel in Singapore’s Orchard Road. As much as Bilderberg, Shangri-La discusses “relevant security issues”.
A case can be made that Bilderberg frames the discussions as in the recent cover story of a French weekly, owned by a Macron-friendly oligarch, titled “When Europe Ruled the World”. Shangri-La instead discusses the near future – when China may be actually ruling the world.
Beijing sent a top-of-the-line delegation to this year’s forum, led by Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe. And on Sunday, General Wei laid down China’s unmistakable red lines; a stern warning to “external forces” dreaming of independence for Taiwan, and the “legitimate right” for Beijing to expand man-made islands in the South China Sea.
By then everyone had forgotten what Acting US Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan had said the day before, accusing Huawei to be too close to Beijing and posing a security risk to the “international community”.
General Wei also found time to rip Shanahan to shreds. “Huawei is a private company, not a military company… Just because the head of Huawei used to serve in the army, does not mean his company is a part of the military. That doesn’t make sense.”
Shangri-La is at least transparent. As for Bilderberg, there won’t be any leaks on what the Masters of the Universe told Western elites about the profitability of pursuing the war on terror; the drive toward total digitalization of cash; total rule of genetically modified organisms; and how climate change will be weaponized.
At least the Pentagon has made no secret, even before Shangri-La, that Russia and China must be contained at all costs – and the European vassals must toe the line.
Henry Kissinger was a 2019 Bilderberg participant. Rumors that he spent all his time breathlessly plugging his “reverse Nixon” – seduce Russia to contain China – may be vastly overstated.
https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/06/article/why-trump-now-wants-talks-with-iran/
STRAIT OF HORMUZ
JUNE 5, 2019
Iranian soldiers take part in National Persian Gulf Day in the Strait of Hormuz on April 30, 2019. There is concern about a blockade of the Strait and the disastrous impact that could have on the price of oil and world financial markets. Photo: AFP / Atta Kenare
Why Trump now wants talks with Iran
If Tehran blocks the Strait of Hormuz it could send the price of oil soaring and cause a global recession
ByPEPE ESCOBAR
Unlike Deep Purple’s legendary ‘Smoke on the Water’ – “We all came out to Montreux, on the Lake Geneva shoreline”, the 67th Bilderberg group meetings produced no fire and no smoke at the luxurious Fairmont Le Montreux Palace Hotel.
The 130 elite guests had a jolly good – and theoretically quiet – time at the self-billed “informal discussion forum concerning major issues”. As usual, at least two-thirds were European decision-makers, with the rest coming from North America.
The fact that a few major players in this Atlanticist Valhalla are closely associated with or directly interfering with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel – the central bank of central banks – is of course just a minor detail.
The major issue discussed this year was “A Stable Strategic Order”, a lofty endeavor that can be interpreted either as the making of a New World Order or just a benign effort by selfless elites to guide mankind to enlightenment.
Other items of discussion were way more pragmatic – from “The Future of Capitalism”, to “Russia”, “China”, “Weaponizing Social Media”, “Brexit”, “What’s Next for Europe”, “Ethics of Artificial Intelligence” and last but not least, “Climate Change”.
Disciples of Antisthenes would argue that these items constitute precisely the nuts and bolts of the New World Order.
The chairman of Bilderberg’s steering committee, since 2012, is Henri de Castries, former CEO of AXA and the director of the Institut Montaigne, a top French think tank.
One of the key guests this year was Clement Beaune, the European and G20 counselor to French President Emmanuel Macron.
Bilderberg prides itself for enforcing the Chatham House Rule, according to which participants are free to use all the precious information they wish because those who attend these meetings are bound to not disclose the source of any sensitive information or what exactly was said.
That helps ensure Bilderberg’s legendary secrecy – the reason for myriad conspiracy theories. But that does not mean that the odd secret may not be revealed.
The Castries/Beaune axis provides us with the first open secret of 2019. It was Castries at the Institut Montaigne who “invented” Macron – that perfect lab experiment of a mergers and acquisitions banker serving the establishment by posing as a progressive.
A Bilderberg source discreetly let it be known that the result of the recent European parliamentary elections was interpreted as a victory. After all, the final choice was between a neoliberal/Green alliance and Right populism; nothing to do with progressive values.
The Greens who won in Europe – contrary to the US Greens – are all humanitarian imperialists, to quote the splendid neologism coined by Belgian physicist Jean Bricmont. And they all pray on the politically correct altar. What matters, from Bilderberg’s perspective, is that the European Parliament will continue to be run by a pseudo-Left that keeps defending the destruction of the nation-state.
Just like Castries and his pupil Macron.
The derivatives clock is ticking
The great Bilderberg secret of 2019 had to do with why, suddenly, the Trump administration has decided that it wants to talk to Iran “with no preconditions”.
It all has to do with the Strait of Hormuz. Blocking the Strait could cut off oil and gas from Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Iran – 20% of the world’s oil. There has been some debate on whether this could occur – whether the US Fifth Fleet, which is stationed nearby, could stop Tehran doing this and if Iran, which has anti-ship missiles on its territory along the northern border of the Persian Gulf, would go that far.
An American source said a series of studies hit President Trump’s desk and caused panic in Washington. These showed that in the case of the Strait of Hormuz being shut down, whatever the reason, Iran has the power to hammer the world financial system, by causing global trade in derivatives to be blown apart.
The Bank for International Settlements said last year that the “notional amount outstanding for derivatives contracts” was $542 trillion, although the gross market value was put at just $12.7 trillion. Others suggest it is $1.2 quadrillion or more.
An Iranian Navy warship is seen in the Strait of Hormuz on April 30, amid talk that Tehran may block the Strait if relations with the US plunge further. Photo: AFP / Atta Kenare
Tehran has not voiced this “nuclear option” openly. And yet General Qasem Soleimani, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Quds Force and a Pentagon bête noire, evoked it in internal Iranian discussions. The information was duly circulated to France, Britain and Germany, the EU-3 members of the Iran nuclear deal (or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), also causing a panic.
Oil derivative specialists know well that if the flow of energy in the Gulf is blocked it could lead to the price of oil reaching $200 a barrel, or much higher over an extended period. Crashing the derivatives market would create an unprecedented global depression. Trump’s former Goldman Sachs Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin should know as much.
And Trump himself seems to have given the game away. He’s now on the record essentially saying that Iran has no strategic value to the US. According to the American source: “He really wants a face-saving way to get out of the problem his advisers Bolton and Pompeo got him into. Washington now needs a face-saving way out. Iran is not asking for meetings. The US is.”
And that brings us to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s long, non-scheduled stop in Switzerland, on the Bilderberg’s fringes, just because he’s a “big cheese and chocolate fan”, in his own words.
Yet any well-informed cuckoo clock would register he badly needed to assuage the fears of the trans-Atlantic elites, apart from his behind-closed-doors meetings with the Swiss, who are representing Iran in communications with Washington. After weeks of ominous threats to Iran, the US said “no preconditions” would be set on talks with Tehran, and this was issued from Swiss soil.
China draws its lines in the sand
Bilderberg could not escape discussing China. Geo-poetic justice rules that virtually at the same time, China was delivering a powerful message – to East and West – at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
The Shangri-La dialogue is Asia’s top annual security forum, and unlike Bilderberg, held like clockwork at the same hotel in Singapore’s Orchard Road. As much as Bilderberg, Shangri-La discusses “relevant security issues”.
A case can be made that Bilderberg frames the discussions as in the recent cover story of a French weekly, owned by a Macron-friendly oligarch, titled “When Europe Ruled the World”. Shangri-La instead discusses the near future – when China may be actually ruling the world.
Beijing sent a top-of-the-line delegation to this year’s forum, led by Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe. And on Sunday, General Wei laid down China’s unmistakable red lines; a stern warning to “external forces” dreaming of independence for Taiwan, and the “legitimate right” for Beijing to expand man-made islands in the South China Sea.
By then everyone had forgotten what Acting US Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan had said the day before, accusing Huawei to be too close to Beijing and posing a security risk to the “international community”.
General Wei also found time to rip Shanahan to shreds. “Huawei is a private company, not a military company… Just because the head of Huawei used to serve in the army, does not mean his company is a part of the military. That doesn’t make sense.”
Shangri-La is at least transparent. As for Bilderberg, there won’t be any leaks on what the Masters of the Universe told Western elites about the profitability of pursuing the war on terror; the drive toward total digitalization of cash; total rule of genetically modified organisms; and how climate change will be weaponized.
At least the Pentagon has made no secret, even before Shangri-La, that Russia and China must be contained at all costs – and the European vassals must toe the line.
Henry Kissinger was a 2019 Bilderberg participant. Rumors that he spent all his time breathlessly plugging his “reverse Nixon” – seduce Russia to contain China – may be vastly overstated.
https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/06/article/why-trump-now-wants-talks-with-iran/
Kastor
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Holy $hit. I didn't know the derivative market was so big. Who needs nukes! This is absolutely crazy. Iran now has the know how for WW3....we don't need to fight anyone, we just need to threaten the strait closure or actually do it, either way it's like nuking their economy.
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its one of the many reasons Washington has maintained this obsession with bringing Iran back into its orbit. in addition to the worlds jugular vein the straight of hormuz. Iranian territory occupies the strategic silk. the only non-Russian Asia to Europe land route.
the vast energy resources are just the cherry on top. Iran could potentially play a big role in checking Russia/china for the US. That was obamas long term "pivot to asia" policy.
you don't go overnight from "axis of evil", and "death to America" to becoming BFFs. just not politically possible for either side. This is a process that takes time. First you talk, negotiate, open up trade, engagement and slowly relations begin to normalize. (Iranian and American officials talking was a HUGE taboo for both sides prior to the JCPOA negotiations) with Iran openly saying that if things go well here, were open to negotiations on "other things"
but this all was ruined by the bull in the china shop trump. Listenting to his Zionist advisors who have israels interest in mind over the American. parasites like Bolton and Pompeo. While Netanyahu and MBS serve trumps personal interests in scoring political points among the powerful Zionist lobby, and serving his personal business interests by having a stupid cash cow like MBS around.
the Zionists are a parasite on the American nation. This is the exact situation in pre-hitler germany that cause such massive animosity towards the jews. one day again I suspect the jews will pay a massive price for this when the American nation wakes up
Arminkh
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If I were Iran, I would partially use it. I would not allow any tanker belonging to US companies or destined to US companies to pass. (thanks God I am not)!
I actually think Iran might do what I suggested above..... Not with US but with KSA:
What do you guys think "shocking decision" is?
Blue In Green
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There is a sense of bitter satisfaction in knowing that Iran fully ascertains the dynamics in the Middle East. Hate or love the Iranian government, they unequivocally know the score and have adjusted themselves accordingly. Israel will be dragged into war via Hezbollah/Hamas the former being able to fully stop the Israeli war-machine, Saudi Oil fields will be burnt asunder, the Straight will be minded and closed: any ship crossing it will be subject to utter destruction from potent Iranian missiles (this threat extends to any place within range of Iranian missiles) and US forces the region over will be targeted with all manner of weaponry hidden in missile bases strewn across Irans vast landscape.
Some of the members here on PDF don't quite understand the pure depravity of American exceptionalism and just how woefully deep it goes. Trump is a celibate stooge bound to the behest of those around him constantly whispering words of war/malice. He let the JCPOA be destroyed to please Netanyahu and this doleful decision will haunt subsequent US administrations for years to come. What pains me the most is to see Trump lie through his teeth when he says he cares for Iranians. No US president or politician gives a damn about Iranians (they can't even take care of this country for goodness sake).
All I can hope for is that Iranians stay strong and weather the economic terrorism storm, somehow managing to make it through...
925boy
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uuummmmmm.....facts. Iran doesnt have to actually close it...all Iran has to do is launch and sustain a noticeable strait-security-worsening campaign. Iran can close that stupid strait. The only reason Iran hasnt is because the reason to do so hasnt yet been good enough yet..
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Kastor
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After seeing an article about Iran's lifeline after oil sanctions on oilprice.com, it only took 3 days for the Zionist bastards in the U.S. to slap sanctions on the petrochemical industry. Let this be lesson to Iran to start coordinating with its industrial leaders to shut up during these times.
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