Headlines:
- Iran Silent as America Attacks Iranian Nuclear Facilities
- Iran Allowing Chinese Military Presence on its Soil
- Turkey Reaches its Allotted Limit in Libya
Iran Silent as America Attacks Iranian Nuclear Facilities
According to the New York Times:
As Iran’s center for advanced nuclear centrifuges lies in charred ruins after an explosion, apparently engineered by Israel, the long-simmering conflict between the United States and Tehran appears to be escalating into a potentially dangerous phase likely to play out during the American presidential election campaign.
New satellite photographs over the stricken facility at Natanz show far more extensive damage than was clear last week. Two intelligence officials, updated with the damage assessment for the Natanz site recently compiled by the United States and Israel, said it could take the Iranians up to two years to return their nuclear program to the place it was just before the explosion. An authoritative public study estimates it will be a year or more until Iran’s centrifuge production capacity recovers.
Another major explosion hit the country early Friday morning, lighting up the sky in a wealthy area of Tehran. It was still unexplained — but appeared to come from the direction of a missile base. If it proves to have been another attack, it will further shake the Iranians by demonstrating, yet again, that even their best-guarded nuclear and missile facilities have been infiltrated.
Iran is dominated by two factions, the ‘moderates’ and the ‘hardliners’ but both of them are complicit in the American plan. When America needs Iran’s services in the region then it tolerates an expansion in the hardliners. But when America no longer needs those services, then it crushes the hardliners and allows the moderates to have a greater role.
Iran Allowing Chinese Military Presence on its Soil
Meanwhile, Iran’s hardliners have exposed a deal by the moderate-controlled government to allow the Chinese military within Iran. According to al-Monitor:
“There is nothing to hide about the deal. Every stage has been transparent, and once it is finalized, the details will be made public,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told lawmakers last week as he was grilled over a controversial 25-year partnership deal with China. “The point that has to be taken into consideration in our foreign policy is the shift in global power,” Zarif argued in justification of the pact.
According to Iranian officials, the draft of the road map, known as the Sino-Iranian Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, was approved by the administration of President Hassan Rouhani in June. The detailed content, however, remains open to heated debate and speculation. While the draft was in the works for over four years, it received little attention until some media reported about what they claimed were key facts and figures involved.
In September 2019, Petroleum Economist, relying on an unnamed source within Iran’s Oil Ministry, detailed a $400 billion Chinese investment under the deal in Iran’s oil, gas and transport sectors, with Beijing enjoying a 32% discount in crude purchases along with two-year payment breaks. The partnership pact, other reports say, will also grant the Chinese government a significant presence in a wide variety of other projects from security and telecom infrastructure to health and tourism.
What has particularly drawn the ire of opponents at home are claims that the plan will give China permission to dispatch up to 5,000 troops to protect its interests in Iran as well as significant control over Iranian islands in the country’s southern business hubs.
Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, known for his populistic approach toward governance, was among the first to bring the debate into the public sphere. Ahmadinejad criticized the Rouhani government for “secretly signing a deal” with a foreign state. “Any such accord that counters the people’s will and national interests lacks validity and will not be recognized by the Iranian nation,” he warned, suggesting that it also violated the fundamental principles of the Islamic Revolution that were meant to “withhold nothing from the nation.”
Former President Ahmadinejad, in attacking the government, should recall that he too covertly cooperated with a foreign power, America, in its brutal occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. The Iranian government is making the mistake that all Muslim governments have been making, which is to seek support from foreign imperialist disbelievers. Allah (swt) says: يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَتَّخِذُوا الْكَافِرِينَ أَوْلِيَاءَ مِن دُونِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَتُرِيدُونَ أَن تَجْعَلُوا لِلَّـهِ عَلَيْكُمْ سُلْطَانًا مُّبِينًا “O you who have believed, do not take the disbelievers as allies instead of the believers. Do you wish to give Allah against yourselves a clear case?” [an-Nisa: 144]
Turkey Reaches its Allotted Limit in Libya
America is repeating in Libya the same plan it employed in Syria, placing its agents on both sides of the conflict in order to create a settlement between them that fully suits America’s own interests, while not allowing any agent to alone have full control of the situation. The latest analysis of a setback faced by Turkey last week indicates that America has just signalled exactly how far Turkey is allowed to proceed within Libya. According to the website moderndiplomacy.eu:
A series of successes by Turkey-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Libya came to a sudden halt July 4th when the Al-Watiya airbase recently captured by the GNA factions was struck by unknown jets. Forces loyal to GNA entered Al-Watiya just a few weeks ago after a rapid offensive supported by Turkish drones. Back then, the GNA fighters took selfies with the Pantsir S-1 systems abandoned by the Libyan National Army (LNA). Instead of Russian-made Pantsirs Turkish MIM-23 HAWK systems were positioned at the base.
The latest satellite pictures of Al-Watia make it clear that these very systems were damaged or possibly destroyed in the attack. These developments surely dealt a huge blow to the pride of the Turkish leadership, all the more so because the attack happened just hours after Turkish defense minister Hulusi Akar concluded his visit to Tripoli…
Turkey and the GNA did not disclose the scale of casualties suffered in the attack, but it is of little relevance really. What’s more important is the symbolic meaning behind the attack that gave Ankara’s ambitious plans for capturing strategic areas of Sirte port and Jufra airbase a reality check. The future of the Libyan conflict now depends on the ability of the Turkish authorities to decipher this message.
The Muslim Ummah will only know peace, justice and prosperity once Muslims have uprooted the agent ruling class that serves the interests of the foreign imperialist disbeliever and implements their systems of law and governance in Muslim lands. With Allah’s permission, the world shall soon witness the return of the righteous Islamic Khilafah (Caliphate) State on the method of the Prophet ﷺ, unifying Muslim lands, implementing Islam and carrying its call to the entire world.