The U.S. State Department made it clear on Monday that it was only willing to support some work carried out in Syria by NGOs, but that it would have no dealings with the al-Assad government, Peoples Dispatch reports.
Vijay Prashad highlights workers’ struggles in the second half of the 20th century against Third World dictatorial regimes put in place by anti-communist oligarchies and their allies in the West.
Given the duplicitous history of the Minsk Accords, it is unlikely Russia can be diplomatically dissuaded from its military offensive. As such, 2023 appears to be shaping up as a year of continued violent confrontation.
In SIPRI’s latest tracking, the U.S. remains dominant, China is in distant second, Russia has semiconductor and sanctions problems, Israeli sales are boosted by the Washington-mediated Abraham Accords and a Taiwanese company enters the top 100 for the first time.
It’s inexcusable that these direct peace negotiations are not already underway. The recent escalation of this war makes peace talks more necessary, not less.
Western coverage of last week’s summit in Uzbekistan brings us face-to-face with the extent to which Americans are not supposed to see the world turning.
The United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel, responsible for military fiascos, hundreds of thousands of deaths and innumerable war crimes in the Middle East, are now plotting to attack Iran.
At the same NATO summit, President Biden announced plans to ramp up U.S. military presence in Europe in response to the Ukraine war, writes Caitlin Johnstone.