Headlines:
- Trump Expected to Continue Building Pressure against Iran Nuclear Deal
- Nobel Peace Prize yet again used to Serve Strategic Interests of Western Powers
- Saudi King Salman Eager for Relations with Russia
- Islam Set to Dominate the World by 2070
- Mattis: Afghanistan Pullout Would Be To Our Ultimate Peril
- US Will Try to Work with Pakistan One More Time
Trump Expected to Continue Building Pressure against Iran Nuclear Deal
US President Donald Trump is expected to follow up his strong statements against Iran in his UN speech last month by decertifying the Iran nuclear deal next week. According to the Washington Post:
“President Trump is expected to announce next week that he will “decertify” the international nuclear deal with Iran, saying it is not in the national interest of the United States and kicking the issue to a reluctant Congress, people briefed on the White House strategy said Thursday.
The move would mark the first step in a process that could eventually result in the resumption of U.S. sanctions against Iran, potentially derailing a deal limiting Iran’s nuclear activities reached in 2015 with the United States and five other nations.
But Trump would hold off on recommending that Congress reimpose sanctions, which would constitute a clearer break from the pact, according to four people familiar with aspects of the president’s thinking.
The decision would amount to a middle ground of sorts between Trump, who has long wanted to withdraw from the agreement completely, and many congressional leaders and senior diplomatic, military and national security advisers, who say the deal is worth preserving with changes if possible.
This week, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed qualified support for the deal during congressional testimony. And Mattis suggested he did not believe taking the step to decertify would scuttle the agreement.”
Despite Donald Trump’s maverick image and amateurish approach, he is closely following standard US and Republican establishment thinking in foreign policy. The US, and the Republican Party in particular, are not pleased with the concessions that Obama allowed the Europeans in order help with returning Iran to normal relations with the West. According to a report in the Iranian Financial Tribune in July,
“Iran’s crude oil exports to European Union countries in the first four months of the year reached 9.31 million tons, more than six times higher than those in the corresponding period last year.”
More specifically, however, Iran has completed the tasks that America laid out for it in Iraq and Syria, and America now needs to discipline Iran into not thinking of going any further in the region than America has instructed.
The Iranian leadership will never be successful as long as they cling to their narrow nationalist and sectarian outlook, and it is this that has led them to collaborate with the disbelieving foreigner against their fellow Muslims in Afghanistan, in Iraq and in Syria. There is no nationalism in Islam and there is no sectarianism in Islam; and conspiring with the disbelieving foreigner is betrayal of the Deen. This is the time to unify the entire Muslim Ummah behind a single project, the re-establishment of Islam and the complete elimination of foreign influence from Muslim lands. The sincere Muslims of Iran must arise against their misguided leadership.
Nobel Peace Prize yet again used to Serve Strategic Interests of Western Powers
The announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize to an anti-nuclear activist group shows that, yet again, this award in particular follows the global strategy of Western imperialist powers. According to the BBC:
The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Ican).
Berit Reiss-Andersen, the Nobel committee chair, said it was due to the group’s “groundbreaking efforts to achieve a treaty prohibition” on nuclear weapons.
“We live in a world where the risk of nuclear weapons being used is greater than it has been for a long time,” she continued.
In July, after pressure from Ican, 122 nations backed a UN treaty designed to ban and eventually eliminate all nuclear weapons. But none of the nine known nuclear powers in the world – including the UK and the US – endorsed it.
Ms Reiss-Andersen called on nuclear-armed states to initiate negotiations to gradually eliminate the weapons.
Ican, a coalition of hundreds of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), is 10 years old and is based in Geneva, Switzerland. The group will receive nine million Swedish kronor ($1.1 million, £846,000) along with a medal and a diploma at a ceremony in December.
It is fully within the interests of the West to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons in order to maintain their strategic military advantage against the rest of the world. It is inconceivable in today’s Western-dominated world order that 122 nations should be able to support a measure in the UN if the West is genuinely opposed to it. In fact, Western powers want the rest of the world to believe in a non-nuclear future while they continue to stockpile their own nuclear weapons.
Nuclear weapons are an abomination created by the misuse of scientific effort by the West. The Ulema of the past used to even discourage the use of cannon in military engagements because of the relative unpredictability of its targeting, thus compelling Muslim military commanders to restrict its use to breaking the walls of forts to gain entry to enemy forces only. But now that the West has weaponised nuclear science, it is incumbent upon Muslims to acquire and master this technology in order to counter the Western military threat.
With Allah’s permission, nuclear weapons will be eliminated from the face of the earth once the righteous Islamic State upon the method of the Prophet ﷺ is re-established and returned to its true position as leader and guardian of all humanity.
Saudi King Salman Eager for Relations with Russia
Despite previous Saudi anger over Russia’s collaboration with Iran, Salman became the first Saudi King, this week, to visit Moscow. According to Reuters:
Russia this week hosted Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and a raft of Saudi officials and dignitaries, cementing a relationship that is pivotal for world oil prices and could decide the outcome of the conflict in Syria.
Salman is the first sitting Saudi monarch to ever travel to Russia and his visit has been accompanied by a slew of deals worth several billion dollars.
Falih said the current warm ties between Moscow and Riyadh were a sign of things to come.
“Relations between Russia and Saudi Arabia have been stably improving,” he said. “(They) clearly went to a quite new level after the visit by the King.”
Like many Muslim countries, Saudi is seeking to build strong relations with Russia and China as a counter to American hegemony. But this policy is totally misguided. Any support from the disbelieving foreigner, no matter what his nationality, is destructive for the integrity and sovereign interests of the Muslim Ummah. And America has nothing to fear from current Russian and the Chinese interaction with Muslim governments; America even uses such engagement to create competition and conflict between the Russians and the Chinese. Saudi-Russian agreement over oil will only benefit the American shale industry.
And Russia and China themselves submit to Western dictation from time to time, and are fully ready to betray Muslim interests to protect their own.
Muslims must rise up against their weak-minded rulers who beg to receive the leadership of others instead of building the independent leadership of the Ummah and its Deen. With Allah’s permission, the time is soon when Muslims will witness the return of sincere, indigenous, ideological leadership that will return the affairs of Muslims to the authority of Muslims alone.
Islam Set to Dominate the World by 2070
Islam is the most common state-endorsed religion, research reveals after it emerged it is set to overcome Christianity as the world’s most popular faith by 2070. Islam is the most common state-endorsed religion as most Christian nations support their faith unofficially instead, research shows. Some 27 governments around the world officially endorse Islam while Christianity is the state religion in only 13 countries including the UK. But out of 40 governments which unofficially favour a particular religion, 28 legally or financially support Christianity. The Pew Research Centre in Washington DC analysed 199 countries and found that 43 have an official religion, 40 have a preferred religion, 106 including the US have no preferred religion and ten are actively hostile to religious institutions. These are former or currently communist countries such as China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam and several former Soviet republics. The report reads: ‘In some cases, state religions have roles that are largely ceremonial. But often the distinction comes with tangible advantages in terms of legal or tax status, ownership of real estate or other property, and access to financial support from the state. ‘In addition, countries with state-endorsed (or “established”) faiths tend to more severely regulate religious practice, including placing restrictions or bans on minority religious groups.’ ‘Most governments around the globe, however, are generally neutral toward religion,’ the reports concludes. The Pew Research Centre released the figures after it said Muslims would outnumber Christians by 2070.The religion’s share of the world’s population will equal the Christian share – at roughly 32 per cent each by 2070, the centre claimed. By 2100 around one per cent more of the world’s population will be Muslim than Christian, its 2014 report said. Researchers said migration is among factors helping to increase the Muslim population in some regions, including North America and Europe. Pew analysis revealed Muslims are the fastest-growing religious group in the world and in 2010 there were 1.6billion in the world – about 23 per cent of the global population. But the figure is short of the 2.2 billion Christians which made up 31 percent of the population. The research claimed Muslims are having more children than members of other religious groups with each woman having an average of 3.1 offspring compared to 2.3 for all other groups combined. In 2010 the median age of all Muslims was 23 – seven years younger than non-Muslims. The report added: ‘While it does not change the global population, migration is helping to increase the Muslim population in some regions, including North America and Europe.’ Some 62 per cent of Muslims live in the Asia-Pacific region with large populations in Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran and Turkey, Pew researchers said. In 2050, India is set to take over from Indonesia as the country with the world’s largest Muslim population, according to the study. Last year there were 3.3 million Muslims of all ages in the US – about 1 per cent of the population. By 2050, the share is predicted to climb to 2.1 per cent. [Source: Daily Mail].
هُوَ الَّذِي أَرْسَلَ رَسُولَهُ بِالْهُدَى وَدِينِ الْحَقِّ لِيُظْهِرَهُ عَلَى الدِّينِ كُلِّهِ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْمُشْرِكُونَ
“He (is) the One Who has sent His Messenger with the guidance and the religion (of) [the] truth, to manifest it over all religions. Even if dislike (it) the polytheists.”
(Al Tawba:33)
Mattis: Afghanistan Pullout Would Be To Our Ultimate Peril
US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis warned on Tuesday that an American withdrawal from Afghanistan would be “to our ultimate peril,” as he briefed Congress on plans to increase US troop levels. “Based on intelligence community analysis and my own evaluation, I am convinced we would absent ourselves from this region at our peril,” he said, testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee. The administration of President Donald Trump recently announced plans to send an additional 3,000 troops to Afghanistan to train and advise the country’s security forces. There are already 11,000 US troops there. Mattis visited Afghanistan last week with Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to reaffirm US commitment as government forces struggle to beat back the Taliban, which has been on the offensive since US-led combat forces withdrew at the end of 2014. General John Nicholson, the top US commander in Afghanistan, “is holding the line,” Mattis assured the senators. “We must always remember we are in Afghanistan to make America safer and to ensure South Asia cannot be used to plot transnational attacks against the US homeland or our partners and allies,” he said. The September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States was set in motion from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan by Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. [Source: Dawn].
Mattis’s remarks fail to conceal the absence of a long-term strategy for American forces in the region. The world’s only super power is currently forcing Britain to send more troops to Afghanistan to bolster efforts to counter the Pushtun resistance. It is evident now, that America’s primacy is in demise, as it struggles to find stable solutions to a multitude of problems.
US Will Try to Work with Pakistan One More Time
US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis has said that the United States would try “one more time” to work with Pakistan in Afghanistan before President Donald Trump would turn to options to address Islamabad’s alleged support for militant groups. Relations between the two countries have been frayed over the past decade. While officials have long questioned the role Pakistan has played in Afghanistan, the comments by Mattis are likely to cause concern in Islamabad and within the Pakistan military. “We need to try one more time to make this strategy work with them, by, with and through the Pakistanis, and if our best efforts fail, the president is prepared to take whatever steps are necessary,” Mattis said at a House Armed Services Committee hearing. Mattis added that he would be travelling to Islamabad soon, but did not give more details. Reuters first reported that possible Trump administration responses being discussed include expanding US drone strikes and perhaps eventually downgrading Pakistan’s status as a major non-Nato ally. When asked by a lawmaker whether revoking Pakistan’s major non-Nato ally status was amongst the options being considered to deal with Islamabad, Mattis said: “I am sure it will be.” In a separate Senate hearing on Tuesday, the top US military officer said he believed Pakistan’s main spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate, had ties to militant groups. “It is clear to me that the ISI has connections with terrorist groups,” Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. The Pakistan embassy in Washington said Islamabad had achieved success in counter-terrorism operations in its country. “However, unless the same level of success is achieved in (Afghanistan), long lasting peace in the region will remain out of reach,” the embassy said in a statement. The United States in 2012 designated the Pakistan-based Haqqani network as a terrorist organisation. The year before, US Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, then the top US military officer, caused a stir when he told Congress that the Haqqani network was a “veritable arm” of the ISI directorate. US officials have told Reuters that the United States will send about 3,500 additional troops to Afghanistan. Dunford said that the current cost for the United States in Afghanistan was about $12.5bn a year, and the new strategy would cost an additional $1.1bn. [Source: Gulf Times]
Instead of groveling and looking for opportunities to work with America, the time has come to sever ties. If North Korea with a handful of nuclear weapons can give America such a headache then think what Pakistan can do with 200 nukes and proven means to deliver them.