Tag: Foreign Relations

Iran Official Proposes Formation Of Countries’ Union Against Sanctions

All, with consolidation, should stand against the US sanctions and plots, Rezaei said in a meeting with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, according to the IRNA Saturday report.

In his remarks, Rezaei said that the Iranian nation and government pay special respect to Nicaragua’s resistance against excessive demands.

He went on to stress that the resistant countries should make further efforts to expand their relations and friendship because the bullying powers, particularly the United States, are after preventing nations’ development and cooperation.

Further, he noted that the Islamic Republic of Iran has stood by Nicaragua and is ready to strengthen ties with it.

For his part, the Nicaraguan president thanked Rezaei for attending his swearing-in ceremony and appreciated the strong spirit of the Islamic Republic against the enemies’ pressures.

The Iran Deal And The Assassination Of Soleimani

Vienna – World leaders have descended upon Austrian capital Vienna to participate in the ongoing nuclear deal being negotiated primarily between the United States and Iran. Today, MintPress spoke to Dr. Seyed Mohammad Marandi, Professor of English Literature and Orientalism at the University of Tehran. Dr. Marandi is currently in Vienna as part of the Iranian delegation.

While corporate media often portray Iran as a recalcitrant pariah and the United States as a long-suffering broker in the situation, Dr. Marandi notes that it was actually the Trump administration that unilaterally walked away from the agreement. Furthermore, President Barack Obama refused to live up to his promise to remove financial sanctions against Iran.

Foreign Relations Iran Qassem Soleimani US Imperialism Wars and Militarism

Cuba Remembers First Tricontinental Anti-Imperialist Conference

On Monday, progressive organizations celebrate the 56th anniversary of the First Tricontinental Conference, which gathered 500 delegates from Africa, Asia, and Latin America in Havana to adopt policies to strengthen the fight against imperialism and neo-colonialism.

“This event was an exercise in diplomatic cooperation between anti-hegemonic forces of different origins that advocated peace and the self-determination of peoples,” German intellectual Jennifer Hosek stressed.

Besides discussing the imperialism’s smear campaigns against social revolutions, delegates founded the Peoples of Asia, Africa, and Latin America Solidarity Organization (OSPAAAL) to support countries that had recently liberated themselves from colonialism.

Africa Anti-Imperialism Asia Cuba Foreign Relations Latin America Tricontinental Conference

US And Taliban Delegations Meet In Doha

US and Taliban delegations met in Qatar’s capital Doha on October 9-10, the first such meeting since the political developments of August when the latter took over the country. Following the meeting, the US has reportedly agreed to provide “humanitarian assistance” to Afghanistan. However, the foreign ministry in Afghanistan said that such assistance “should not be linked to political issues.”

The delegates included officials from the US intelligence and state department. According to State Department spokesperson Ned Price, the agenda included talks for containing extremist groups, easing the evacuation of foreigners from Afghanistan, and allowing access to humanitarian agencies.

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Historic Africa/CARICOM Summit

It was an idea whose time had come. On Tuesday, September 5 this idea took material form at the first Africa/CARICOM Summit conducted virtually and broadcast to the world via the Web and social media.

Participants at the historical event included heads of State and Government of the Caribbean Community and the African Union, chairs of Caricom and the African Union Commission, the Africa Regional Economic Communities, the Secretaries General of Caricom and the Organization of the African Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), and the president of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).

The Summit was chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya under the theme ‘Unity Across Continents and Oceans: Opportunities for Deepening Integration’.

Africa Caribbean Foreign Relations International Solidarity

First Africa-CARICOM Summit

Hosted by Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, and with the theme ‘Unity Across Continents and Oceans: Opportunities for Deepening Integration’, participating governments looked at ways to strengthen the linkages between the people of Africa and the Caribbean regions by addressing integration challenges across continents.

Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda, and Chair of CARICOM, proposed the establishment of a Forum of African and Caribbean Territories and States (FACTS) to be coordinated jointly by the Secretariats of CARICOM and the African Union (AU). He also proposed the designation of September 7th “Africa-CARICOM Day” in every year going forward, which would coincide with a repeat of the Africa-CARICOM summit “to analyze the global situation and our place within it; to discuss initiatives and programs; and to authorize joint actions.”

Africa Caribbean Foreign Relations

Venezuela Conference Another Example Of Liberal Hypocrisy

Was it conscious? Did someone at Global Affairs say, ‘we should organize a lofty sounding conference that’s a cover for our pro-US and corporate policy on the anniversary of the international community rejecting Trudeau’s liberal imperialism’?

On the one-year anniversary of Canada’s defeat in its bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council the Trudeau government is hosting an International Donors’ Conference in Solidarity with Venezuelan Refugees and Migrants. While it may sound like a humanitarian endeavor, it’s the latest phase in Canada’s multipronged effort to overthrow Nicolás Maduro’s government, which has included plotting with the opposition to anoint an alternative president.

A number of opponents of the Venezuelan government will participate in the conference.

Canada Foreign Relations Imperialism Venezuela

Foreign Capital Is Trying To Crush AMLO’s Energy Reform

President of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) has vowed to push on in his quest to properly regulate the country’s hydrocarbons industry, despite the obstacles placed by foreign capitalists and the notoriously corrupt Mexican justice system.

President AMLO today rejected the move by two judges, Rodrigo de la Peza López Figueroa and Juan Pablo Gómez Fierro, who struck down his government’s reform to the Hydrocarbons Law, which was passed by the legislature and signed into law on May 4th.

This reform seeks to expand public control over the nation’s own natural resources and roll back the neoliberal energy reform of 2013 that saw the state’s downstream monopoly largely handed over to foreign capitalists.

Transforming energy policy was a key plank of AMLO’s campaign program.

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COHA Deeply Concerned Over Re-election Of Almagro As Secretary General Of The OAS

The Council on Hemispheric Affairs in Washington, DC (COHA) expresses its deep concern over the re-election of Luis Almagro as Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS). No outside experts are needed to explain the consequences of continuing this Uruguayan’s questionable leadership over the regional block.

Foreign Relations Latin America OAS

Cuban President Says Concessions To US Would Lead Nowhere

LAS TUNAS, Cuba (AP) — Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said he does not believe the Trump administration would drop sanctions on the island in exchange for concessions from his government. The Trump administration says it has been tightening sanctions on Cuba in recent months in order to starve the island’s communist government of cash and energy supplies and force it to end support for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

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Cuba Is Ready For An Eventual Diplomatic Rupture With Washington

The Cuban government is ready for an eventual rupture of diplomatic relations with Washington, but “we don’t want it,” Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Director General for the United States of the Foreign Ministry, told AFP. After months of tensions between the two countries, “we must be aware that this could get even worse,” because “the people who are in charge of U.S. policy toward the Western Hemisphere today are people with very extreme and aggressive behaviors and postulations toward our country,” he warns.

Cuba Foreign Relations

Can We Democratize Foreign Policy?

Since 1946, when the Army Air Forces decided to give $10 million to the Douglas Aircraft Company to found what would become the RAND Corporation, national security think tanks have exerted a profound influence on the U.S. role in the world. Though less well-known than defense contractors like Boeing and Lockheed Martin, think tanks are as important when it comes to determining the direction of U.S. foreign policy. It was think-tank analysts, for instance, who developed the nuclear strategies that guided U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War…

Diplomacy Foreign Relations

NATO Is As Good As Dead

When the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was founded some 70 years ago, its first secretary-general, Lord Ismay, famously noted that the purpose of the treaty alliance was “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.” NATO’s mission was to secure peace in Europe, promote cooperation among its members and guard their freedom by countering the threat posed by the Soviet Union at the time. This latter point was critical—by signing onto NATO, the United States agreed to accept the leadership of a burgeoning resistance to ostensible Soviet aggression…

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Why Are U.S. Citizens Banned From Traveling To Cuba?

In the alleged “land of the free,” US citizens will now be almost completely banned from traveling to Cuba —an island only 90 miles away from the coast of Florida and one of the safest places to live and visit in the world. The foreign policy of the Trump Administration has been taken over by anti Cuba extremists and in particular National Security Advisor John Bolton who has now fulfilled an old ambition of opposing any improvement between Havana and Washington while restricting the stream of people between the two countries.

Cuba Foreign Relations US Imperialism

The Shadow Of Torture Behind Trump’s Britain Visit

As President Trump visits the United Kingdom, the focus has been on strained trans-Atlantic relations, his intervention in domestic politics, and massive public protests. A different, diplomatically-couched protest has received less attention but sends a consequential signal about the so-called “special relationship” between the two countries: U.K. parliamentarians are concerned that under Trump, America could return to a policy of torture — and they are warning British intelligence agencies to guard against it. Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee released a pair of reports at the end of June providing extensive detail about U.K. complicity in torture, rendition, and other abuses of detainees by the U.S. military and the CIA during the George W. Bush administration. The reports by the committee, which oversees the U.K.’s intelligence agencies, also focus on policy changes needed to avoid a repeat of such abuses.

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