FEBRUARY 7, 2024

Deal With Iran Politically and Diplomatically, Not Militarily

BY MELVIN GOODMAN

Photograph Source: United States Department of State – Public Domain

There is a consensus on the right and the left that the only way to deal with Iran is with military force. The conservative Chicken Hawks in the Senate and the House of Representatives believe targeting Iran—and not merely Iranian proxies—is essential. Senator Lindsay Graham (R/SC) wants to “hit them hard.” The conservative newsmagazine, The Economist, believes that the United States could form a political alliance with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf States to isolate Iran.

Authoritative pundits such as Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, and David Ignatius of the Washington Post favor deterring Iran militarily as well as a “robust” military retaliation against Iran’s proxies. Both fully support the U.S. military attacks now taking place in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. Ignatius even credits the Biden administration’s recent sanctioning of four violent Israeli settlers on the West Bank as a “strong step” that will enhance U.S. credibility as a peace broker for a Palestinian state. This so-called “strong step” has been ridiculed throughout the Arab world.

The U.S. attack on Iran’s military and affiliated militias in Iraq and Syria as well as the attacks against the Houthis in Yemen raise serious questions. We are told that U.S. forces are in Iraq and Syria to combat the forces of ISIS, which happen to be a leading enemy of Iran. Last month, the U.S. even warned Tehran about an ISIS attack in Iran that killed nearly 100 Iranians. This fact suggests that the United States and Iran have something in common in the region, at least regarding the ISIS threat, and that they should be engaged in bilateral or back-channel discussions. U.S. non-recognition of Iran continues to be an obstacle to talks and should be reconsidered.

We must also reconsider our troop deployments in the Middle East that are vulnerable to attacks by Iranian-backed militia groups. At the very least, we should remove our small force deployments from both Iraq and Syria. The United States cannot deter attacks on these facilities, and our troops there are primarily occupied with force protection.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken was ill-advised to ignore his diplomatic hat in order to doff a military cap, promising U.S. military attacks that would be “multileveled, come in stages, and be sustained over time.” This language should not be coming from the nation’s leading diplomat; this is Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s bailiwick. The Department of State should be grappling with the diplomatic possibilities that exist in the region. The first priority should be a cease fire, particularly in view of the fact that Israeli Defense Forces have killed more than 11,500 children in Gaza. Not even the warnings from the International Court of Justice have altered the IDF’s brutal tactics.

While the United States maintains the vilification of Iran that reached new levels in the Trump administration, the Gulf states have been pursuing rapprochement with Iran that has the United States on the outside looking in. In addition to China’s brokering of the Saudi-Iranian accord in 2023 that led to restoration of diplomatic relations, there have been a series of actions by Gulf states to improve relations with Iran. In 2022, Abu Dhabi restored ties with Iran. If these erstwhile adversaries of Iran can begin a dialogue, then perhaps the United States should be able to do so as well.

Continued Israeli bombardment in Gaza and U.S. attacks in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen threaten the signs of political stability that have taken place in the region over the past several years. Beginning in 2020, which happened to be the year of the Abraham Accords between Israel and the Gulf states of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, there have been signs of greater political accord in the region. In 2021, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain ended their economic blockade of Qatar. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad returned to the Arab League. Saudi Arabia and the UAE reconciled with Turkey, ending the freeze that began in 2018 when the Saudis conducted the brutal killing of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Despite the brutal Israeli campaign in Gaza in the wake of the horrific October 7th events, the Gulf states, somewhat surprisingly, have not weakened relations with Israel.

The Gaza War and the current U.S. military attacks, however, will create greater political instability in the region. The United States will come under increased criticism for supplying military weaponry to Israel; providing diplomatic cover for Israel at the United Nations; and showing insufficient regard for the fate of 2.2 million Gazans. The Arab states in the region do not favor the U.S. escalation of force in the region, and certainly do not want a wider war with Iran.

The mainstream media seem particularly oblivious to the strategic trap that the United States has created for itself in the Middle East with its support for Israeli militarism. Thomas Friedman of the New York Times believes the Biden administration is on the verge of proclaiming a Biden Doctrine for the region that would find a “strategic realignment” that would “coalesce around the U.S. stance on Iran, a Palestinian state, and Saudi Arabia.” Secretary of State Blinken’s five unsuccessful trips to the Middle East suggest that there is no Biden doctrine and that Arabs aren’t even listening to the signals that we are sending.

Friedman argues that Palestinian statehood should be “consistent with Israeli security,” which would not meet the demands of the Saudis and all other Arabs. In any event, the Israeli government is opposed to a two-state solution under any circumstances. Friedman also believes that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar could be persuaded to leave Gaza for Qatar, just as Yasir Arafat left Lebanon in 1982 to go to Tunisia. Very wishful thinking.

Continued Israeli and U.S. use of force will create greater instability in the entire region; contribute to the diplomatic and political influence of Russia and China; and create a wider zone of conflict and crisis. We fail to understand that the disastrous and deceitful invasion of Iraq two decades ago by the Bush administration opened the door to Iran’s influence in Iraq and led to weaker states in the region that also invited support from Iran.

The modest U.S. deployments in Iraq (2,500) and Syria (900) are too small to challenge or deter Iran, but large enough to serve as sitting ducks for attacks by Iranian proxies. These deployments must be ended before more Americans are killed, which would lead to more U.S. bombardment. The United States already has more than sufficient military power in the region at the huge U.S. bases in Bahrain and Qatar that should be able to handle any local military challenge. The fact that the United States flew strategic bombers on a 12,000-mile round trip from bases in Texas to target Yemen, one of the world’s basket cases, seemed particularly incongruent unless we were trying to frighten Iran.

Instead of trying to build an Arab alliance against Iran, the United States should be looking for ways to engage Iran both politically and diplomatically. The Iranian nuclear accord, the Joint Comprehensive Action, provided a diplomatic opening that led to conciliatory gestures on Iran’s side. The cease fire that allowed the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners also witnessed a cease fire from Iran’s proxies in the region. It is long past time to reduce the U.S. military presence in the region, which the Obama administration promised in 2011, and to play the diplomatic card.

Melvin A. Goodman is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and a professor of government at Johns Hopkins University. A former CIA analyst, Goodman is the author of Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA and National Insecurity: The Cost of American Militarism. and A Whistleblower at the CIA. His most recent books are “American Carnage: The Wars of Donald Trump” (Opus Publishing, 2019) and “Containing the National Security State” (Opus Publishing, 2021). Goodman is the national security columnist for counterpunch.org.

US Plans Weeks Long Bombing Campaign Against Iranian Targets

https://news.antiwar.com/2024/01/31/report-us-plans-weeks-long-bombing-campaign-against-iranian-targets/

The White House says the US response to the Jordan drone attack won't be a 'one-off'by Dave DeCamp January 31, 2024 at 4:16 pm ET CategoriesNewsTagsIran

US officials told NBC News that the US is planning to launch a weeks-long bombing campaign in the Middle East in retaliation for the drone attack in northeast Jordan that killed three American soldiers.

The officials said that the targets are expected to include Iranian targets outside of Iran, and the campaign will involve strikes and cyber operations. Other reports have said the US is considering targeting Iranians in Iraq and Syria or the Iranian navy.

Biden’s Illegal Bombing of Yemen Intensifies the Risk of Regional War

The Houthis say their attacks in the Red Sea will continue until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

Marjorie Cohn

TRUTHOUT

January 23, 2024

In response to Israel’s assault on the people of Gaza in early October, Yemen’s Houthi movement, Ansar Allah, began mounting attacks on commercial ships in and around the Red Sea. The Houthis said the attacks were aimed at Israeli-connected or Israel-bound ships and they would continue until there is a ceasefire in Gaza. Meanwhile, the pressure on this vital trade route is impacting the global economy as ships are being redirected to more expensive routes.

On January 11, South Africa presented its case documenting Israel’s genocide in Gaza to the International Court of Justice. The following day, the U.S. and U.K. attacked 28 sites in Yemen. Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from a ballistic missile submarine killed five Yemenis and injured six. Four days later, the U.S. fired another cruise missile into Yemen.

The U.S. and Britain conducted large-scale airstrikes against about 12 sites in Yemen on January 22. These strikes were the eighth in almost two weeks and “signaled that the Biden administration intends to wage a sustained and, at least for now, open-ended campaign against the Iran-backed group that has disrupted traffic in vital international sea lanes,” according to The New York Times.

The U.S.-U.K. bombing campaign in Yemen, with logistical support from Australia, Canada, Bahrain and the Netherlands, is fanning the flames of a developing conflagration in a region already enraged by Israel’s genocide. “Israel’s unrelenting assault on the Gaza Strip is beginning to tip the Middle East into a wider regional conflict,” Murtaza Hussain wrote at The Intercept.

On October 8, the day after the Hamas-led attack on Israel, the United States sent an aircraft carrier to the region, closely followed by two destroyers and an armada of warships from 10 countries.

And:

Israel Tells ICJ It Has the “Most Moral Army in the World” at Genocide Hearing

South Africa presented a powerful and compelling case that Israel is violating the Genocide Convention.

Marjorie Cohn ,

TRUTHOUT

January 16, 2024

“With its decision to attack, the Biden administration appears to have opened itself up to a geopolitical checkmate by the Houthis,” Hussain noted. “Escalating the strikes against the rebels will likely bring more shipping disruptions — potentially counterproductive to mitigating economic consequences — and risk a full-blown regional war.”

The United States claimed it launched attacks on Yemen to “degrade Houthi rebels’ ability.” But “years of far more intensive U.S.-backed Saudi bombing have failed to destroy Houthi military capacity, and this campaign will similarly fail to achieve the stated objectives,” Phyllis Bennis wrote at In These Times. “It is not surprising that none of Washington’s current military actions are working to curtail the attacks in the Red Sea. Rather, they are dangerously worsening the already tense situation.”

When a reporter asked Biden outside the White House if the U.S.-U.K. airstrikes in Yemen had been “working,” he replied, “Well, when you say ‘working,’ are they stopping the Houthis? No. Are they going to continue? Yes.”

Moreover, the U.S.-U.K. bombing of Yemen violates both the United Nations Charter and U.S. War Powers Resolution.

U.S. Support for Saudi War in Yemen Contributed to Humanitarian Crisis

In 2014, there was a conflict between Yemen and the Houthis which became a civil war with the military intervention of Saudi Arabia in 2015. Armed with weapons and military support from the United States, the Saudi-led coalition mounted indiscriminate airstrikes, targeting both civilian and military sites. It had been called the worst humanitarian crisis in the world — until Israel’s genocide surpassed it.

“When the Saudis started bombing, they did it with full support and cooperation, and some would say even leadership, of the United States,” Shireen Al-Adeimi, Assistant Professor at Michigan State University and expert on Yemen, said on Millennials Are Killing Capitalism Live! From 2015-2022, between 70 percent and 80 percent of the weapons used by the Saudis were provided by the United States.

Barack Obama supplied the Saudis with in-flight refueling and tactical intelligence for its bombing campaign. The U.S. backed the interdiction of air and sea delivery of food, medical supplies and replacement parts to the Houthis, and the Saudi-led coalition obstructed the provision of humanitarian aid from UN and NGO sources. This created an artificial famine that largely affected children. Obama also increased arms sales to Saudi Arabia to supply its war on the Houthis.

The United Nations Development Programme estimated that by the end of 2021, more than 377,000 Yemenis had died as a result of the war, including from lack of access to food, water and health care. Over 150,000 of the deaths were the direct result of armed conflict, which included 15,000 civilian casualties, the majority killed by Saudi-led coalition air strikes.

Saudi Arabia and the Houthis are close to signing a peace deal. On January 11, the chief negotiator for the Houthis said its attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea will not threaten its peace talks with Saudi Arabia. The Houthis blame Israel’s war on Gaza for increasing regional conflict.

In January 2021, as he was leaving office, Donald Trump designated the Houthi movement as a “terrorist organization.” Later that year, the Biden administration removed the Houthis from the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list. But on January 17, the U.S. State Department designated the Houthis as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group. Although the new designation has less stringent rules than the FTO listing, it subjects the Houthi movement to political and economic sanctions.

The Western media often claims that the Houthis are a proxy for Iran. “The widely held claim that the Houthis act as a proxy for the mullahs’ regime in Teheran is totally false. Historically, there has been virtually no connection between the Houthis and Iran — militarily, politically, economically or ideologically,” Michael Brenner wrote at Scheerpost.

In the current collaboration between Iran and the Houthis, Iran is supplying arms in exchange for the Houthis’ fight against Saudi Arabia. The Houthis, however, “operate with relative political independence,” Hussain noted in The Intercept, quoting Hisham Al-Omeisy, senior adviser on Yemen with the European Institute of Peace, who said, “[The Houthis] have their own mindset, agenda, and ideology.”

Violation of UN Charter

The U.S.-U.K. airstrikes on Yemen violate the UN Charter, which is part of U.S. law under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. The Charter requires that international disputes be settled peacefully. It forbids a state from using military force against another state, except in self-defense or with the approval of the Security Council. Neither of those exceptions apply here to legitimize the U.S.-U.K. strikes.

On January 10, the Council passed Resolution 2722, which calls for the Houthis to cease all attacks on merchant and commercial vessels. Although the resolution notes “the right of Member States, in accordance with international law, to defend their vessels from attacks,” it does not authorize the U.S. and the U.K. to bomb Yemen.

Actions in self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter can only be undertaken in response to an armed attack by a state against another state. The Houthis do not constitute a state, nor did the U.S.-recognized state of Yemen condone the Houthi attacks. Thus, the Houthis did not mount an “armed attack” on the United States which would trigger the right to Article 51 self-defense.

Violation of the War Powers Resolution

The U.S.-U.K. strikes also violate the U.S. War Powers Resolution. The Constitution makes clear that only Congress has the power to declare war, which it did not do before Biden mounted his bombing campaign in Yemen.

Under the War Powers Resolution (WPR), enacted in the wake of the Vietnam War, the president can introduce U.S. Armed Forces into hostilities or imminent hostilities in only three instances:

First, the president may do so if Congress has declared war, which has not happened since World War II. Second, the president may do so in “a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces” – a situation which in this case has not occurred. And third, the president may do so when there is “specific statutory authorization” (in this case there is not).

On January 12, Biden sent a letter to Congress under the WPR. He wrote that the U.S. and U.K. launched “discrete strikes against facilities in Yemen that facilitate Houthi militants’ attacks in the Red Sea region.” Although Biden invoked Security Council Resolution 2722, the resolution does not authorize the U.S.-U.K. airstrikes on Yemen.

Biden also cited the inherent right of self-defense in Article 51 of the UN Charter. Not only is self-defense not applicable because the Houthis are not a state, the U.S.-U.K. strikes aren’t even defensive. Former Congressman Justin Amash tweeted, “we know from the White House’s own statement that the U.S. strikes recently launched were nondefensive. The strikes were warned about well in advance and intended to deter, not to stop an incoming attack.”

Introducing “US armed forces into harm’s way, such as in the Red Sea, and then [using] the foreseeable attacks on the US forces in those circumstances as a basis for then using force without congressional authorization” amounts to “bootstrapping the defense of US forces that you placed in harm’s way as a justification for using military force,” Isabela Dias wrote at Mother Jones.

The WPR requires the president to report to Congress within 48 hours of initiating the use of military force and to cease hostilities unless Congress authorizes continued hostilities within 60 days, which it has not done. Both Democratic and Republican legislators have criticized Biden for launching airstrikes in Yemen without congressional approval.

Although the U.S. began bombing Yemen in October, Biden did not formally advise Congress until January 12.

Ending Israel’s Genocide in Gaza Is Key to Ending the Regional Violence

The key to preventing an all-out regional war is the cessation of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The alternative is frightening to contemplate. Continued airstrikes on Yemen will lead to “escalating tensions that strengthen the de facto Houthi blockade and elevate the potential for the conflict to expand into a full-fledged regional war,” Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, wrote in an op-ed in TIME magazine.

Parsi also argued that a ceasefire in Gaza is the best way to stop the attacks in the Red Sea. “A cease-fire is far more likely to curb Houthi and Iraqi militia attacks; reduce tensions on the Israeli-Lebanese border, where regular exchanges of fire have been taking place; secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas; and, most important of all, stop further civilian casualties in Gaza,” he wrote.

“Anger toward the U.S. seems likely to grow in the region, as the Biden administration appears to be putting the global economy over Palestinian lives in its strikes on the Houthis,” Hussain observed in The Intercept.

“The local perception is that when Palestinian blood was being shed the last three months, no one was bothered, but when the economic interests of the West were threatened, they immediately acted,” Yemen expert Hisham Al-Omeisy said. “This message fits right into Houthi rhetoric and is resonating very strongly in the region,”

Oman, a close U.S. ally that mediates between the Houthis and international parties, fears that the U.S.-led airstrikes won’t deter the Houthis but will inflame regional tensions. “It is impossible not to denounce that an allied country resorted to this military action, while meanwhile, Israel is continuing to exceed all bounds in its bombardment, brutal war and siege on Gaza without any consequence,” said Oman’s Foreign Ministry in a statement.

Jordan’s security relationship with Israel has been increasingly strained since the beginning of the current war on the Palestinians in Gaza in October. Ayman al-Safadi, foreign minister of Jordan, accused Israel of “pushing the entire region towards more wars by continuing its aggression against Gaza and trying to open new fronts and drag the West into them.”

On January 4, Safadi announced that his country supports South Africa’s genocide case against Israel in the ICJ and stated that Jordan will file a legal intervention in the case.

“Urgent diplomacy is required [to stop the attacks in the Red Sea]. And ending Israel’s assault on Gaza remains the linchpin of any effort to calm the spreading regional violence,” Phyllis Bennis wrote in In These Times. “There is no military solution to military escalation in the Middle East: diplomacy is needed. And it needs to start with a cease-fire in Gaza now.”

The U.S. government is heightening the risk of regional war by bombing Yemen. Rather than providing military, economic, political and diplomatic support for Israel’s genocide, the Biden administration should push for a ceasefire in Gaza.

How the Gaza War Can Be Big News and Invisible at the Same Time

By Norman Solomon, World BEYOND War, January 18, 2024

Zen wisdom tells us that the finger pointing at the moon is not the moon. Yet it’s easy to fall into the illusion that when we see news about the Gaza war, we’re really seeing the war.

We are not.

What we do routinely see is reporting that’s as different from the actual war as a pointed finger is from the moon.

The media words and images reach us light years away from what it’s actually like to be in a war zone. The experience of consuming news from afar could hardly be more different. And beliefs or unconscious notions that media outlets convey war’s realities end up obscuring those realities all the more.

Inherent limitations on what journalism can convey are compounded by media biases. In-depth content analysis by The Intercept found that coverage of the Gaza war by the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times “showed a consistent bias against Palestinians.” Those highly influential papers “disproportionately emphasized Israeli deaths in the conflict” and “used emotive language to describe the killings of Israelis, but not Palestinians.”

What is most profoundly important about war in Gaza — what actually happens to people being terrorized, massacred, maimed and traumatized — has remained close to invisible for the U.S. public. Extensive surface coverage seems repetitious and increasingly normal, as death numbers keep rising and Gaza becomes a routine topic in news media. And yet, what’s going on now in Gaza is “the most transparent genocide in human history.”

With enormous help from U.S. media and political power structures, the ongoing mass murder — by any other name — has become normalized, mainly reduced to standard buzz phrases, weaselly diplomat-speak and euphemistic rhetoric about the Gaza war. Which is exactly what the top leadership of Israel’s government wants.

Extraordinary determination to keep killing civilians and destroying what little is left of Palestinian infrastructure in Gaza has caused extremes of hunger, displacement, destruction of medical facilities, and expanding outbreaks of lethal diseases, all obviously calculated and sought by Israeli leaders. Thinly reported by U.S. media outlets while cravenly dodged by President Biden and the overwhelming majority of Congress, the calamity for 2.2 million Palestinian people worsens by the day.

“Gazans now make up 80 per cent of all people facing famine or catastrophic hunger worldwide, marking an unparalleled humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s continued bombardment and siege,” the United Nations declared this week. The UN statement quoted experts who said: “Currently every single person in Gaza is hungry, a quarter of the population are starving and struggling to find food and drinkable water, and famine is imminent.”

Israel is waging a war toward extermination. But for the vast majority of Americans, no matter how much mainstream media they consume, the war that actually exists — in contrast to the war reporting by news outlets — remains virtually invisible.

Of course, Hamas’s Oct. 7 murderous attack on civilians and its taking of hostages should be unequivocally condemned as crimes against humanity. Such condemnation is fully appropriate, and easy in the United States.

“Deploring the crimes of others often gives us a nice warm feeling: we are good people, so different from those bad people,” Noam Chomsky has observed. “That is particularly true when there is nothing much we can do about the crimes of others, so that we can strike impressive poses without cost to ourselves. Looking at our own crimes is much harder, and for those willing to do it, often carries costs.”

With the U.S.-backed war on Gaza now in its fourth month, “looking at our own crimes” can lead to clearly depicting and challenging the role of the U.S. government in the ongoing huge crimes against humanity in Gaza. But such depicting and challenging is distinctly unpopular if not taboo in the halls of government power — even though, and especially because, the U.S. role of massively arming and supporting Israel is pivotal for the war.

“For the narcissist, everything that happens to them is a huge deal, while nothing that happens to you matters,” scholar Sophia McClennen wrote last week. “When that logic translates to geopolitics, the disproportionate damage only magnifies. This is why Israel is not held to any standards, while those who question that logic are told to shut up. And if they don’t shut up, they are punished or threatened.”

Further normalizing the slaughter are the actions and inaction of Congress. On Tuesday evening, only 11 senators voted to support a resolution that would have required the Biden administration to report on Israel’s human-rights record in the Gaza war. The sinking of that measure reflects just how depraved the executive and legislative branches are as enablers of Israel.

The horrors in Gaza are being propelled by the U.S. war machine. But you wouldn’t know it from the standard U.S. media, pointing to the moon and scarcely hinting at the utter coldness of its dark side.

_____________________________________

Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. He is the author of many books including War Made Easy. His latest book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, was published in 2023 by The New Press.

Sanctions Watch, October 2023

Sanctions and funding gaps hamper aid and recovery efforts after deadly earthquakes rock Afghanistan;
Regional leaders blame sanctions for migration from Cuba and Venezuela;
US pauses sanctions relief deal with Iran following Hamas attacks;
US claims North Korea shipped weapons to Russia in violation of UN sanctions;
The EU greenlights the channeling of profits earned on frozen Russian assets to Ukraine;
UN independent Syria expert condemns harmful sanctions as violence escalates;
US eases certain oil and financial sanctions on Venezuela following agreement on election conditions;
The EU adopts a sanctions framework for Niger, the Southern African Development Community calls for sanctions on Zimbabwe to be lifted, Gaza suffers a catastrophic siege, and more.

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Afghanistan

Background: Since the Taliban takeover in 2021, the Biden administration has blocked Afghanistan’s central bank from accessing roughly $7 billion of its foreign reserves held in the United States. Half of these assets have since been allocated to a trust fund largely under US control that has yet to disburse funds to Afghanistan. Around $2 billion have also been blocked by European authorities. Along with a cutoff of aid, and sanctions on Taliban officials, this asset seizure has contributed to a collapse of Afghanistan’s economy.

A series of earthquakes in northwestern Afghanistan have exacerbated an already dire humanitarian crisis. In addition to the destruction of 21,500 homes, at least 1,950 people have been injured and another 1,480 have lost their lives. Due to the government’s limited capacity, international aid organizations have been primarily responsible for responding to the disaster, but funding gaps have severely impacted their ability to provide aid. In the New Humanitarian, Afghan journalist Ali Latifi writes, “The earthquakes are just the latest natural disaster to test the ability of the Taliban-led government to assist the nation’s 32 million people while facing cutbacks in international aid, crippling sanctions, billions of dollars of losses in asset seizures, banking restrictions, and diplomatic challenges due in part to the Islamic Emirate’s own restrictive policies.” In an article for the Middle East Institute, Shanthie Mariet D’Souza notes: “The Taliban’s international isolation … has neither compelled the Taliban to change its behavior nor improved its capacity to respond to such disasters.”

Days before the disaster, the Pakistani government had announced that all undocumented migrants and refugees in its territory, the vast majority of whom are Afghans, would be expelled to their home countries after November 1. This decision stems from an increase in terrorist attacks — including several major suicide bombings — on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan and Islamabad’s allegation that Afghanistan is harboring terrorists. A Radio Free Europe article states: “The cash-strapped Taliban government, which is under international sanctions, is unlikely to be able to absorb millions of returning refugees and migrants.”

Read more:

The Afghan Fund: the Limits of Sovereign Immunity & Recognition Law, Lawfare Media
A Week of Earthquakes Brings Death, Grief, and Trauma to Afghanistan’s Herat, The New Humanitarian
Afghan Refugees Return Home as Pakistan Threatens Arrests, Expulsions, Voice of America

Cuba

Background: The US embargo against Cuba is one of the oldest and strictest of all US sanctions regimes, prohibiting nearly all trade and financial transactions between the United States and Cuba since the early 1960s. After a brief loosening under Obama, sanctions were tightened and expanded under Trump — a policy the Biden administration has, for the most part, maintained.

Despite last month’s reports that the Biden administration was preparing to make it easier for Cuban small business owners to access financing, an official announcement has yet to be made. In the meantime, in an interview with Newsweek, Cuba’s vice foreign minister laid out four policies that he believes the Biden administration can pursue to help the Cuban people with little political cost. These include removing Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list; ending the sanctioning of shipping companies that import fuel to Cuba; ceasing the targeting of Cuba’s international medical cooperation; and suspending Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, which allows domestic and foreign-based companies with ties to Cuba to be sued in US courts.

The US Export–Import Bank canceled an $800 million line of credit to Pemex, Mexico’s state-owned oil company, over alleged Mexican donations of oil to Cuba while it was suffering an energy crisis this summer. Pemex denies that the oil was a donation, but has not disclosed the shipment’s financial terms. Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that Mexico would continue providing oil to Cuba, calling the embargo “inhumane and unjust,” and adding that Mexico does not need permission to assist Cuba. The Mexican president has also criticized US sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela for driving migration, a sentiment that was echoed by multiple Latin American heads of state during a regional summit on migration in which they signed an agreement that, according to El País, notes “the migration problem is fueled in large part by ‘coercive unilateral measures’ imposed by the United States on various countries, particularly Venezuela and Cuba. The agreement denounced the economic sanctions as ‘contrary to international law.’”

Finally, ahead of the annual UN General Assembly vote calling for an end to the Cuban embargo, the Cuban foreign ministry released a report estimating that the blockade has cost the country $4.8 billion from March 1, 2022, to February 28, 2023.

Read more:

Iran

Background: US sanctions on Iran began during the 1979 hostage crisis, and currently bar US actors — plus some non-US actors — from almost all trade and financial transactions with Iran. Though certain sanctions were lifted as a result of the 2015 nuclear deal, the majority have been reimposed since the United States’ withdrawal from the agreement. The European Union also maintains certain trade and financial sector sanctions on Iran.

Following the October 7 attacks in Israel by Hamas, the US and Qatar agreed to, at least temporarily, deny Iran access to frozen Iranian funds that had been placed in a Qatari-managed humanitarian fund as a part of last month’s prisoner exchange agreement. The move comes despite the fact that there is, so far, no concrete evidence tying Iran to the attack. Ryan Costello of the National Iranian-American Council argues that breaking the terms of the agreement would “risk increasing humanitarian suffering and further punishing ordinary civilians,” adding that “blocking these funds would renege on yet another rare diplomatic agreement with Iran. This would render any diplomacy with Iran exceptionally difficult … including on critically important issues like hostages, regional security, and the nuclear program.”

Sanctions proponents have seized on the moment to try to derail the deal — at least two bills in the House and another two in the Senate seek to refreeze the $6 billion. An additional bill in the Senate intends to ban imports of Iranian oil and natural gas. Furthermore, several Republican representatives have introduced legislation to further limit Iran’s access to the US financial system and to IMF financing. Moreover, in a letter, a bipartisan group of 110 representatives called for “maximum enforcement” of all US sanctions on Iran. Even before October 7, members of Congress had introduced bills aimed at making the president’s lifting of Iranian sanctions more difficult and prohibiting sanctioned Iranian officials from entering the US, including for the purpose of visiting the UN. The US also sanctioned members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for their alleged support for Hamas.

UN Security Council sanctions prohibiting Iran from importing or exporting ballistic missiles and drones, which were imposed under the Iran nuclear deal, expired on October 18. The EU and UK decided to maintain their own sanctions on Iran in line with the UN’s expired ones, and the US announced new sanctions on the country’s missile and drone programs that target “11 individuals, eight entities, and one vessel based in Iran, Hong Kong, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and Venezuela.” The State Department separately imposed sanctions on two Iranian officials and entities. Moreover, 45 countries, including the US and many European countries, signed a statement saying they will take steps to counter Iran’s drone and missile activities.

Read more:

Freezing’ Iran’s Humanitarian Fund is Self Defeating, Responsible Statecraft
Biden Can’t Squeeze Iran and Russian Oil at Same Time, Bloomberg
Russia Says It Need No Longer Obey UN Restriction on Missile Technology for Iran, Reuters
US Moves to Deter Iran Ahead of Israel’s Invasion of Gaza, Financial Times

North Korea

Background: The United States first imposed sanctions on North Korea during the Korean War in the 1950s. Following the country’s 2006 nuclear test, more stringent sanctions were added, which have periodically intensified since then. US sanctions now target oil imports, and cover most finance and trade as well as the key minerals sector. In addition, the UN Security Council has adopted nine major sanctions resolutions since 2006. The European Union has implemented these in addition to its own sanctions.

The US alleges that North Korea shipped over 1,000 containers of arms to Russia for their use in the war in Ukraine in violation of UN sanctions that prohibit the country from trading arms and military equipment. The Russian foreign minister also met with Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang, where the two discussed ways to “ramp up cooperation,” Reuters reports. The US condemned the shipments in a joint statement with Japan and South Korea. The US, Japan, and South Korea have also carried out their first ever trilateral aerial exercise off the Korean peninsula, adding to long-simmering tensions.

In a USA Today op-ed on the ineffectiveness of sanctions, the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Rorry Daniels writes, “The North Korean government has easily passed the cost of sanctions onto its citizens while decision-makers live large. Moreover, North Korea has adapted to sanctions by finding workarounds. In short, sanctions have lost their leverage.”

Read more:

Russia

Background: US sanctions on Russia’s financial, energy, and defense sectors began after the 2014 annexation of Crimea. This sanctions regime was greatly expanded, particularly by the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union in response to the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, with the barring of most financial transactions and of Russian oil and gas imports, and the freezing of Russian assets abroad, among other measures.

EU leaders, with US support, agreed this month to channel €3 billion of investment profits, generated from €197 billion in frozen Russian assets, to Ukraine. The details of the plan are expected in December. However, several member states and legal scholars have cautioned against the legal risks of such a move, as Russia’s state assets are protected from confiscation and expropriation under international law, and the EU is obligated to fully return the assets, along with any accrued interest, once sanctions are lifted. Separately, the G7 is expected to announce a ban on imports of Russian diamonds at the end of this month, with the EU’s 12th sanctions package, which contains similar provisions, following shortly thereafter.

In light of Russia’s apparent success in adjusting to the G7’s oil price caps, with Russian oil often trading above the designated ceiling since mid-July, the US has imposed its first cap-related sanctions on shipping companies based in the UAE and Turkey. The G7 signaled that stricter enforcement of the price cap may be on the horizon, and the UK said it is carrying out numerous investigations into breaches. Separately, the US has imposed export controls on 42 Chinese companies, along with seven entities from Finland, Germany, India, Turkey, the UAE, and the UK for allegedly supplying US-origin circuits to Russia. In addition, Australia has extended its sanctions on Russia for two years.

The Financial Times reported that the Russian ruble briefly fell “below the psychologically important barrier of 100 to the dollar” on October 3 — due to ongoing sanctions — though it quickly bounced back following the introduction of additional capital controls. Three weeks later, Russia’s central bank increased its key interest rate by 2 percent, bringing it to 15 percent. Furthermore, while the country’s economy grew by 2.2 percent this year, the IMF has lowered its 2024 growth forecast to 1.1 percent. Russia’s current short-term growth is fueled by its high military spending, but economists and IMF officials say the long-term prospects of its economy under sanctions are dim. Whether and how these economic challenges will translate to peace in Ukraine, and what their effects might be for Russian civilians, remains unclear.

Read more:

Blinken: US and EU Need Legal Frameworks to Seize Russian Assets, POLITICO
Canada Imposes Russia-Related Sanctions on Moldovan Individuals, TV Stations, Reuters
Russia is Scrapping its Ratification of a Key Nuclear Test Ban. Here’s What That Means, NPR
Russia’s Axis of the Sanctioned, Foreign Affairs

Syria

Background: As a designated “State Sponsor of Terrorism” since the list’s creation, Syria has faced unilateral sanctions in some form since 1979. These were augmented during the George W. Bush administration, and greatly expanded under Presidents Obama and Trump to bar most financial transactions with Syrian entities. The “Caesar Act,” passed by Congress in 2019, goes even further, imposing secondary sanctions on third-party entities that engage in such transactions, even if they have no connection to the US.

In the wake of what he calls “the largest escalation of hostilities in Syria in four years,” the Chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic warned, “There is no evidence during the past decade that sectoral unilateral coercive measures have resulted in positive behavioral changes by the government or others. It is ordinary people who bear the brunt of their impact and related over-compliance.”

Read more:

Statement by Paulo Pinheiro Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Aid Agencies in Syria Warn of the Grave Impact of Escalating Hostilities Across Syria, Syria INGO Regional Forum
Rising Poverty Forces Syrian Parents to Choose Between Children’s Schooling and Survival, Arab News

Venezuela

Background: While the George W. Bush and Obama administrations adopted sanctions on arms purchases and against Venezuelan individuals, it was under Trump that broad financial sanctions and restrictions on oil exports were implemented, with dramatic effects on Venezuela’s economy. In addition, the United States, the United Kingdom, and some other governments have frozen Venezuelan state assets abroad, and have transferred others to Venezuelan opposition actors.

As the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election approaches, the Maduro government and representatives of major opposition parties have agreed to a partial deal outlining basic conditions for competitive elections. The US responded by announcing that it will permit the trading of some Venezuelan bonds and will lift many restrictions on the country’s oil and gas sector for a period of six months, allowing Venezuela to sell oil to most countries, including the US. The Biden administration has threatened to reimpose the sanctions if Venezuela does not follow through on the deal, or if it does not lift a ban preventing hard-line opposition leader María Corina Machado from running for office. Machado won the opposition-organized primary — which the government decried as fraudulent — but is currently banned from running for office for her alleged involvement in efforts to overthrow the government. The question of Machado’s ban was not directly addressed in the agreement.

Analysts believe the relief will allow Venezuela to increase crude oil production by about 25 percent in six months. Current production stands at around 750,000 to 800,000 barrels a day, a far cry from the 2.3 million barrels of daily output the country had in 2016, before former President Trump imposed broad oil and financial sanctions, which The New York Times says have “strangled” the economy. Republican senators have responded to these developments by introducing a bill to prohibit Venezuelan and Iranian oil and gas imports.

Also this month, a US judge ordered that Citgo — the US-based subsidiary of Venezuela’s state oil company, which was transferred to opposition control when the Trump administration recognized Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s president, must be auctioned off to repay Venezuelan creditors. While the Biden administration temporarily extended Citgo’s protection from creditors, the auction process is expected to begin in January.

Separately, the UN Secretary-General has reportedly given permission for the UN to begin administering $3 billion in frozen Venezuelan state funds for humanitarian purposes. While the Maduro government has long condemned the freezing of the funds as illegal and illegitimate, it ultimately agreed to the UN-administered fund arrangement in November 2022.

US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said during an interview that “broad-based sanctions [on Venezuela] … punish the overall economy, harm everyday working people and are driving them into the economic and political destitution that force millions of people, not just to the United States but also to our regional partners, like Colombia.” Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has also tied sanctions on Venezuela to migration (see the Cuba section above).

Read more:

Juan González: U.S. “Economic Warfare” Targeting Venezuela, Cuba & Nicaragua Fuels Migrant Crisis, Democracy Now!
First Venezuelans Sent Back Under New U.S. Policy Arrive in Caracas, The New York Times
A War Without Bombs: The Social, Political and Economic Impact of Sanctions Against Venezuela, Venezuelanalysis
Record Number of Venezuelan Migrants Crossed U.S.-Mexico Border in September, Internal Data Show, CBS News

Other

This month, the EU adopted a sanctions framework allowing it to impose sanctions on certain Nigerien individuals and entities. Notably, however, in announcing humanitarian aid to Niger, the EU recognized that sanctions have caused humanitarian organizations to experience “disruptions in the supply chain of key items while the local population has been faced with drastic price increases.” The AP reports that “the country’s 2023 budget, which was meant to be largely funded through the now-withheld external support from donors and loans, has been slashed by 40%.” The consequences for Nigerien citizens are likely to be dire.

In a reiteration of previous appeals, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the chair of the African Union Commission have called for all sanctions on Zimbabwe to be lifted. The SADC statement says, “The extent of this block to Zimbabwe’s socio-economic growth on the livelihood of its people represents a modern-day atrocity.”

Israel, with the backing of the United States, has imposed a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip, further tightening its 16-year blockade on the territory’s two million inhabitants by cutting off all water, electricity, food, and fuel, on top of a bombing campaign described by The New York Times as “one of the most intense of the 21st century,” as well as ground incursions. A humanitarian catastrophe has ensued, with thousands killed and thousands more injured, and food, water, and fuel running dangerously low. The UN described the aid that was eventually allowed to enter as “nothing more than crumbs,” and fuel — which is crucial for energy stations, water systems, hospitals, the provision of aid, and other vital services — remains cut off. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the UN Secretary-General have labeled Israel’s siege and bombing as collective punishment, a war crime under international humanitarian law. Oxfam contends that Israel has used starvation as a weapon of war, and Brazilian president Lula da Silva has said a genocide is taking place. The US has imposed two rounds of sanctions on Hamas officials, as well as on people and entities in multiple countries allegedly tied to the group’s financial and support networks. Japan later announced similar

INTERCEPT

Ryan Grim

May 18 2023, 5:26 p.m.

THE YEMEN WAR CAN BE OVER — IF BIDEN WANTS IT

The U.S. is slow-walking peace negotiations, effectively pushing for a resumption of the war.

Photo: Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images

I’VE ALWAYS THOUGHT of the famous John Lennon refrain, “War is over, if you want it,” as mostly a thought experiment meant to shake us out of the learned helplessness that can lead to forever wars. But in the case of the war in Yemen, the war really is over if we want.

Everybody else directly or indirectly involved — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the Houthis, China, Oman, Qatar, Jordan, etc. — appears to want to put the war behind them. A ceasefire has held for more than a year, and peace talks are advancing with real momentum, including prisoner exchanges and other positive expressions of diplomacy. Yet the U.S. appears very much not to want the war to end; our proxies have been thumped on the battlefield and are in a poor negotiating position as a result.

Reading between the lines, the U.S. seems to be attempting to slow-walk and blow up the peace talks. Triggering a resumption of hostilities would unleash yet another Saudi-led bombing campaign that could win U.S. proxies better terms when it comes to control of the strategically positioned Yemeni coastline. (The Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden link the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean at the southwestern corner of Yemen, an area so geopolitically important to the flow of oil and international traffic that the U.S. has one of its largest bases, in Djibouti, across the strait.)

Tim Lenderking, the U.S. special envoy for Yemen, has been offering up particularly pessimistic comments on negotiations. “I don’t expect a durable resolution — and we should not — to the nearly eight-year conflict in Yemen to happen overnight,” he said recently in the region. “A political process will take time and likely face numerous setbacks, but I continue to be optimistic that we have a real opportunity ahead of us for peace.” That sounds nice, but decoding the diplomacy, the most important remark there is the prediction of “numerous setbacks” and the confidence that we “should not” expect “a durable resolution.”

“I don’t think we’re near the finish line yet,” Lenderking went on. “I think there is great challenges ahead. I think there is still a considerable amount of distrust among the parties, and there’s considerable division within Yemen’s society itself.”

In fact, Lenderking is attempting to wish “considerable division” back into Yemeni society. Much of that considerable division has been resolved by the Houthis winning the war. But acknowledging that would give the U.S. and Saudi-backed proxies, which operated largely out of luxury hotel rooms in Riyadh, no real position in the new Yemeni government. That’s why the U.S. keeps pressing for an “inclusive government” — the same phrase the U.S. has used with Afghanistan, demanding that in order for us to release the country’s foreign currency reserves, the Taliban must empower our proxies there (the warlords the Taliban already paid off to hand the country over to them).

In mid-April, as news of the Saudi-Iran-Houthi peace deal emerged, U.S. diplomats rushed to Saudi Arabia to tap the brakes. Axios reported at the time that the Brett McGurk, a top envoy to the region, and Lenderking “underscored the U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s defense against threats from Yemen or elsewhere and emphasized the need for forging broader regional integration and stability through a combination of diplomacy, deterrence, and new investment and infrastructure.” This saber rattling and talk of new security guarantees came just as hundreds of prisoners were being exchanged, and the world was celebrating the steps toward peace.

A State Department spokesperson, Vedant Patel, said that I was reading too much into the U.S. insistence on transitioning the talks over to the United Nations and making sure the deal is “comprehensive” and inclusive” before peace is reached. “I reject your premise that we’re hostile to these peace talks,” Patel said. “In fact, Tim reiterated our commitment to not just strengthening the UN brokered truce but also how we remain focused on helping the parties secure a new, more comprehensive agreement.”

The U.S. knows that time is not on the Houthis’ side.

But the U.S. knows that time is not on the Houthis’ side. Saudi Arabia is still inflicting a blockade on Yemen, preventing food, medical supplies, and energy from entering the country at anywhere near the capacity needed for basic survival. In Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, a charitable offering worth roughly $9 recently drew a crowd of hundreds to a local school. Houthi security forces, in a failed effort at crowd control, fired weapons in the air; a bullet reportedly hit an electrical box, sparking an explosion and a panicked stampede that left at least 78 people dead.

The Houthis, for their own political and literal survival, need the blockade lifted. If the talks drag on for too long, the Houthis are likely to resume cross-border strikes. Everybody on all sides knows that, which is why the Saudis appear eager to get to a final deal, while the U.S. keeps throwing up new conditions.

Hassan El-Tayyab, legislative director for Middle East policy for the Friends Committee on National Legislation, who has lobbied for an end to the war, said the U.S. rhetoric makes him nervous. “I’m very concerned that the administration is adding all these conditions to a full U.S. military exit and a Saudi-Houthi deal. I’m worried that they’d use the idea that we need to have a perfect inclusive peace as a precondition to lifting the blockade,” he said, adding that he is completely supportive of an inclusive peace — but the U.S. has no business dictating terms of what peace should look like. “Yemenis should be allowed to chart their own future. It increasingly seems like the Biden administration would rather slow down diplomatic progress instead of finally just ending the Saudi-Houthi conflict.”

“Lenderking has made clear that his primary goal is not ending the war but advancing the U.S. and Israeli anti-Iran crusade in the region.”

Erik Sperling, executive director of Just Foreign Policy, was even more blunt. “It’s surreal to think that the Biden administration is more hawkish on Yemen than the brutal regime of Mohammed bin Salman, but that’s the current reality,” said Sperling. “Lenderking has made clear that his primary goal is not ending the war but advancing the U.S. and Israeli anti-Iran crusade in the region. He would prefer the Saudis continue their brutal war and blockade against Yemen, even if it means endangering Saudi security, to a deal that legitimizes Yemen’s de facto authorities. The blood of Yemenis will once again be on U.S. hands if he succeeds in his goal of scuttling the Saudi-Houthi deal and the war escalates.”

Even if the State Department earnestly believes longer talks will produce a more durable peace, the longer the talks are delayed while the blockade remains in effect, the more likely it becomes that hostilities resume. And likelier it is that Houthis launch attacks across the border at Saudi Arabia, that Saudi Arabia responds with a devastating round of bombing — and then the U.S. proxies get a bigger chunk of Yemen in peace talks when they start up again amid the rubble.

If the U.S. wanted to reduce the risk of restarting the war, it could urge Saudi Arabia to lift the blockade without conditions, or could announce that it will not support a new round of Saudi bombing. The U.S. has resisted doing either.

On Thursday, a group of more than three dozen House Democrats sent a letter to the State Department urging the U.S. to make both of those commitments, urging U.S. diplomats to “[c]learly and publicly state that the United States will not provide any further support in any form to any faction party to the conflict while diplomatic talks to end the war are ongoing and should they fail to reach a diplomatic settlement and return to armed hostilities” and “[c]learly and publicly state that the Saudi blockade of Yemen’s ports — a form of collective punishment against innocent Yemenis — must be lifted unconditionally, as global international humanitarian leaders have long sought.”

BREAKING: @RepRashida announces new letter with @RepRoKhanna & dozens more urging @POTUS @StateDept_NEA to cut all military support for Saudi war in Yemen, forcing Saudis to sign a peace deal and end their brutal war.

If they don't, she'll force a War Powers vote to end it. pic.twitter.com/vpe3VLdsne
— Just Foreign Policy (@justfp) May 18, 2023

If the U.S. did what the letter is suggesting, the war would be over. If we want it.

U.S. Building ANOTHER Illegal Military Base In Syria

The Jimmy Dore Show

Jun 3, 2023 #TheJimmyDoreShow

Unbeknownst to most Americans, the US military is currently occupying a third of the nation of Syria and, based on recent news, it looks like the U.S. won’t be leaving any time soon. That’s because the military is reportedly building a new military base in Syria’s northern province of Raqqa. Jimmy and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger discuss the U.S. military’s ongoing occupation of Syria and the sheer hypocrisy of doing so while criticizing Russia for invading Ukraine.

Thursday, May 18, 2023

Contact: [email protected]

Tlaib, Khanna Lead Letter Urging President Biden to Support Ending War in Yemen

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (MI-12) and Congressman Ro Khanna (CA-17) led 39 of their colleagues in a letter to President Biden and his Yemen policy team in support of ongoing diplomacy to end the eight-year long war in Yemen.

“We write to applaud the recent diplomatic progress made by the warring parties in Yemen, and to express our profound hope that the recent visit of Saudi officials to Houthi-controlled Sanaa and prisoner swaps mark the beginning of a major breakthrough in a conflict that has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. While these developments provide a reason to hope that an end to the 8-year war and humanitarian crisis in Yemen is within reach, we must acknowledge that there are still major obstacles to a lasting settlement that require careful attention and diplomatic engagement from the United States,” wrote the members.

As we approach the 8^th Anniversary of the Yemen War, the country remains stuck in a devastating cycle of conflict and humanitarian crisis that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. Yemen is currently the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with over 4 million Yemenis displaced and an estimated 80% of the country’s 30 million people reliant on some form of assistance for their survival.

The lawmakers are urging President Biden and his Administration to:

Clearly and publicly state that the United States will not provide any further support in any form to any faction party to the conflict while diplomatic talks to end the war are ongoing and should they fail to reach a diplomatic settlement and return to armed hostilities.
Clearly and publicly state that Yemen belongs to the Yemeni people and only the Yemeni people.
Clearly and publicly state that the Saudi blockade of Yemen’s ports — a form of collective punishment against innocent Yemenis — must be lifted unconditionally, as global international humanitarian leaders have long sought.
Ensure that all factions are cut off from the weapons that they require to continue the bloodletting of the Yemeni people by immediately pausing all weapons sales and military assistance to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and any active member of the Saudi-led coalition until peace is secured and their forces are withdrawn from Yemeni territory, and maintaining American support for the United Nations arms embargo on the Houthis.
Support a significant and desperately needed increase in American humanitarian aid to the Yemeni people.
Take a leading role in organizing the international community to prepare for and begin the significant reconstruction effort that must take place in Yemen.

“We believe that these steps are crucial to achieving a just and lasting peace in Yemen and ending a dark chapter of American involvement in this horrific crime against the Yemeni people. For our part, we will remain deeply engaged in supporting this renewed momentum for peace, and stand ready to introduce legislation to prevent further U.S. military complicity in the Saudi-led war on Yemen if hostilities resume, including via Congress’ authority under the War Powers Act,” the members concluded.

This letter comes after Tlaib led 23 of her colleagues in calling for at least $1.2 billion in humanitarian assistance to Yemen in this year’s budget.

“Now more than ever the U.S. must push hard to ensure that the blockade is completely lifted, and that Saudi Arabia and the UAE agree to and honor a timeline to withdraw militarily and end their occupations of Yemeni territory. While peace negotiations are ongoing, the U.S. must not obstruct peace by offering further military assistance, weapons, or security guarantees to Saudi Arabia or the UAE, while maintaining its support for the UN arms embargo on the Houthis,” said Congresswoman Tlaib. “The message needs to be crystal clear—no aid of any kind will be considered while Yemen starves. If this diplomatic process breaks down, my colleagues and I are prepared to introduce new legislation to end this awful war.”

“Despite recent progress in peace talks in Yemen, it remains the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. As negotiations proceed, the United States must be clear that it will not provide any support to the Saudis -- logistical, intelligence or spare parts -- until peace is secured,” said Congressman Khanna. “The United States must not be complicit in this conflict. As I have advocated for years, ongoing diplomacy is critical to ending this eight-year long war in Yemen.”

The letter was signed by Representatives Becca Balint; Jamaal Bowman; Cori Bush; André Carson; Greg Casar; Debbie Dingell; Lloyd Doggett; Veronica Escobar; Anna Eshoo; Valerie Foushee; Chuy García; Raúl Grijalva; Val Hoyle; Sheila Jackson Lee; Pramila Jayapal; Hank Johnson; Barbara Lee; Jim McGovern; Kevin Mullin; Eleanor Holmes Norton; Alexandria Ocasio Cortez; Frank Pallone; Mark Pocan; Ayanna Pressley; Delia Ramirez; Jamie Raskin; Linda Sánchez; Jan Schakowsky; Melanie Stansbury; Eric Swalwell; Dina Titus; Jill Tokuda; David Trone; Juan Vargas; Maxine Waters; Bonnie Watson Coleman; and Susan Wild.

The full text of the letter can be found here.

Chief Sharp Noise #YemenCantWait #Palestine #MMIWG on Twitter: "STOP THIS INHUMANE CRUELTY ‼️‼️‼️ YEMEN CAN'T WAIT ‼️‼️‼️ #YemenCantWait # StandUpForYemen #StopAllWars https://t.co/PndkEbqTmI" / Twitter

Yemen Can’t Wait! Millions Starve while Saudi War Coalition Prevents Aid

March 1-3, 2023 National Action- Contact Congress to End the War in Yemen

Support the People of Yemen through the expansion of humanitarian aid.

Call on Saudi Arabia and the UAE to Lift the Blockade and fully open airports and seaports.

Stop Weapons Sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE

Pass a War Powers Resolution to finally end U.S. involvement in the War in Yemen.

Sample message:

I am writing to you to express my concern over the continued U.S. support in the Saudi-led war on Yemen.

This war is going into its eighth year and the death toll has reached nearly 400,000. According to the United Nations, the war has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Since April 2022, Saudi Arabia has ceased its airstrikes on Yemen. We want to make sure the fragile pause in hostilities endures. Unfortunately, Saudi Arabia could deploy U.S.-serviced fighter jets at any point and resume their bombing of Yemeni civilians. We hope Congress prevents this from happening by acting to end U.S. support.

Since April 2022, Saudi Arabia has ceased its airstrikes on Yemen. We want to make sure the fragile pause in hostilities endures. Unfortunately, Saudi Arabia could deploy U.S.-serviced fighter jets at any point and resume their bombing of Yemeni civilians. We hope Congress prevents this from happening by acting to end U.S. support.

We were disappointed an effort by Sen. Bernie Sanders to vote on a Yemen WPR did not move forward last year. This joint resolution directs the President to remove U.S. Armed Forces from hostilities against the Houthis in Yemen within 30 days of the enactment of this joint resolution unless Congress authorizes a later withdrawal date, issues a declaration of war, or specifically authorizes the use of the Armed Forces. Prohibited activities include sharing intelligence or providing logistical support to enable offensive strikes by the coalition led by Saudi Arabia.

This joint resolution shall not affect any military operations directed at Al Qaeda or forces associated with Al Qaeda.

MARCH 1, Wednesday— NATIONAL CALL-IN to Protest U.S.-Saudi War on Yemen (AND EARLIER TOO IF SAUDI AIRSTRIKES RESUME)

Call in from home or come over to Peace Action WI at 1 PM to make calls.

Please add your organization below this statement.

*Link: https://forms.gle/DKQGDcQWvWuXLua46

We, the following organizations, call on people across the United States to protest the U.S. supported, Saudi-led war on Yemen. We call on our members of Congress to take concrete steps, listed below, to bring the harmful U.S. role in the war to a rapid and final end.

Since March 2015, the Saudi Arabia/United Arab Emirates (UAE)-led bombing and blockade of Yemen have killed hundreds of thousands of people and wreaked havoc on the country, creating the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. The U.S. has been not only a supporter of, but a party to, this war since its inception, providing not only weapons and materiel for the Saudi/UAE war effort, but intelligence support, targeting assistance, refueling, and military defense. While the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations have promised to end the U.S. role in the war and reduced targeting, intelligence and refueling assistance and limited certain arms transfers, the Biden administration has resumed defense assistance relying on US troops deployed in the UAE and Saudi Arabia and expanded sales of “defensive” military equipment.

Efforts to Stop the War: President Biden, during his campaign, promised to end U.S. weapons sales and military support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen. On January 25, 2021, his first Monday in office, 400 organizations from 30 countries demanded an end to Western backing of the war on Yemen, creating the largest anti-war coordination since the Iraq War in 2003. Just a few days later, on February 4, 2021, President Biden announced an end to U.S. participation in offensive operations in Yemen. Despite President Biden’s commitments, the U.S. continues to enable the blockade – an offensive operation on Yemen – by servicing Saudi fighter jets, assisting Saudi and UAE with military defense operations, and providing military and diplomatic support to the Saudi/UAE-led coalition. The humanitarian crisis has only worsened since Biden took office.

The U.S. Role in Enabling the War: We have the power to help stop one of the world's largest humanitarian crises. The war on Yemen is enabled by continued US support as the United States provides military, political, and logistical support to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

People and organizations from across the U.S. are coming together to call for an end to U.S. involvement in the war in Yemen and solidarity with the people of Yemen. We demand that our members of Congress immediately:

→ Pass a War Powers Resolution. Introduce or co-sponsor a Yemen War Powers Resolution before International Women’s Day on March 8th, to end U.S. participation in the war in Yemen. The war has exacerbated gender inequality in Yemen. Congress should reassert its constitutional authority to declare war and end executive branch overreach in embroiling our country in disastrous military campaigns.

→ Stop Weapons Sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Oppose further arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, in compliance with U.S. laws, including Section 502B of the Foreign Assistance Act, prohibiting arms transfers to governments responsible for gross violations of human rights.

→ Call on Saudi Arabia and the UAE to Lift the Blockade and Fully Open Airports and Seaports. Call on President Biden to insist he use his leverage with Saudi Arabia to press for the unconditional and immediate lifting of the devastating blockade.

→ Support the People of Yemen. Call for the expansion of humanitarian aid for the people of Yemen.

→ Assemble a Congressional Hearing to Examine the U.S. Role in the War in Yemen. Despite nearly eight years of active participation of the U.S. in this war, the U.S. Congress has never held a hearing to examine exactly what the U.S. role has been, accountability for U.S. military and civilian officials for their role in violations of the laws of war, and U.S. responsibility to contribute to reparations and reconstruction for the war in Yemen.

→ Call for the Removal of Brett McGurk from his position. McGurk is the National Security Council’s Middle East & North Africa coordinator. McGurk has been a driving force for failed United States’ military interventions in the Middle East over the last four administrations, resulting in major catastrophes. He has championed support for the Saudi/UAE war in Yemen and expanded arms sales to their governments, despite the opposition of many other senior officials in the National Security Council and State Department, and President Biden’s commitment to end it. He has also supported the extension of dangerous new U.S. security guarantees to these authoritarian governments.

We ask individuals and organizations across the states to protest at the district offices of their members of Congress on Wednesday, March 1st with the above demands.

Below please add your organization's name to this statement. More information about the U.S.-enabled blockade of Yemen: every75seconds.org. For more information about ending U.S. participation in the war, please contact [email protected].

SIGNATORIES:

1. Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation

2. Yemeni Alliance Commitee

3. CODEPINK: Women for Peace

4. Antiwar.com

5. World Can't Wait

6. The Libertarian Institute

7. World BEYOND War

8. Twin Cities Nonviolent

9. Ban Killer Drones

10. RootsAction.org

11. Peace, Justice, Sustainability NOW

12. Health Advocacy International

13. Mass Peace Action

14. Rising Together

15. Peace Action New York

16. LEPOCO Peace Center (Lehigh-Pocono Committee of Concern)

17. Commission 4 of the ILPS

18. South Country Peace Group, Inc.

19. Peace Action WI

20. Pax Christi New York State

21. Kings Bay Plowshares 7

22. Union of Arab Women

23. Maryland Peace Action

24. Historians for Peace and Democracy

25. Peace & Social Justice Com., Fifteenth St. Meeting (Quakers)

26. Taxes for Peace New England

27. STAND

28. About Face: Veterans Against War

29. Office of Peace, Justice, and Ecological Integrity, Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth

Lebanon explosion

HOUSE MEMBERS PUSH FOR U.N. OVERSIGHT OF YEMEN ATROCITIES (Withdrawn)

Reps. Ilhan Omar and Joaquin Castro are leading the call to renew international oversight of atrocities committed in the Saudi-led war in Yemen.

Austin Ahlman

THE INTERCEPT November 21 2022

AS THE UNITED STATES’ relationship to Saudi Arabia shifts, a group of congressional Democrats led by Reps. Ilhan Omar and Joaquin Castro is pushing to reestablish oversight of atrocities committed during the Saudi-led coalition’s war in Yemen.

The U.S. relationship to the kingdom has been strained since President Joe Biden came into office promising to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for the killing of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi. Late last week, it emerged that Biden requested sovereign immunity for Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince and prime minister of Saudi Arabia, in the lawsuit over Khashoggi’s murder. And on Monday, OPEC+, the coalition of oil-producing countries heavily influenced by Saudi Arabia, announced it would increase oil production, fulfilling a long-term ask by the Biden administration.

Asked about these developments, Omar said, “Our foreign policy should not be based on a dependence on oil or the geopolitical whims of foreign despots. It should be based on the rule of law and human rights.”

An opportunity for accountability is coming up later this week when the United Nations Human Rights Council convenes an emergency session to discuss the protests in Iran, a major backer of Yemen’s Houthis. While oversight of the Yemen war is not immediately on the agenda, the matter is sure to arise in the council’s next general session, which convenes in March.

On Friday, 13 members of the House of Representatives sent a letter asking Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield to use their influence in these upcoming sessions to push for a reinstatement of the Group of Eminent Experts, or GEE: an independent international oversight body that previously reported on the litany of human rights abuses and war crimes carried out during the war.

The changing nature of the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia, they argue, has created an opening for renewed international scrutiny of the war, which has claimed at least 375,000 lives and left the overwhelming majority of Yemen’s residents in “desperate” condition and dependent on humanitarian aid. The signatories of the letter — which include House Rules Committee Chair James McGovern, D-Mass., and California Rep. Sara Jacobs, a former U.N. employee — hope that the U.S. rotation onto the Human Rights Council, whose members serve staggered three-year terms, and changing global and domestic attitudes toward Saudi Arabia might allow for a different dynamic when the council reconvenes.

Omar stressed the importance of strong international institutions in achieving and maintaining peace in the region. “True peace demands justice,” she said in a statement provided to The Intercept. “International institutions have a responsibility to account for any and all atrocities that took place in Yemen, and the United States has a responsibility to advocate for them.”

The last time a vote on renewing the GEE came before the Human Rights Council in 2021, the measure narrowly failed after a coalition of Saudi-aligned states on the council, including Russia, mustered the votes necessary to end the probe. The resolution’s narrow defeat was the first in the body’s 15-year history, and it drew condemnation from a number of international humanitarian organizations. The lack of an oversight body has alarmed some of Saudi Arabia’s Western allies in part because possible war crimes committed by the Houthis are also no longer being independently verified.

Last month, a resolution that called for the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner to provide support for Yemen’s government in ensuring human rights was passed without a vote, but advocates dismissed that move as symbolic. Joey Shea, a Saudi Arabia and UAE researcher for Human Rights Watch, panned the resolution as “toothless.” Citing the measure’s lack of new monitoring and accountability mechanisms, she said its passage “means that grave human rights violations, including apparent war crimes, are likely to continue to go unchecked.”

The importance of reinstating the GEE or a similar body has heightened in recent weeks, after a ceasefire that had previously been brokered expired early last month. While that ceasefire had temporarily reduced the number of direct military confrontations, human rights advocates warned that its partial allowance of Saudi Arabia’s deadly blockade — which is responsible for the lion’s share of the humanitarian catastrophe facing Yemenis — made its preservation untenable.

The letter continues a pressure campaign from congressional Democrats that has persisted throughout Biden’s administration. Progressive Democrats have rebuked the administration’s decision to continue selling weapons to the kingdom, which many see as direct support for the atrocities being inflicted on the Yemeni people.

In her statement, Omar gestured at Biden’s previous promises to pursue human rights-based diplomacy. “Truly centering human rights and a rules-based order in our foreign policy,” she said, “requires full accountability when those rights are violated.”

Solidarity with Iran Protests

MASSACHUSETTS PEACE ACTION STATEMENT

November 3, 2022 Cole Harrison Middle East Wars

Mahsa Amini. Photo: iranwire.com

Massachusetts Peace Action (MAPA) is an organization dedicated to peace and social justice for all, with programs and campaigns on nuclear disarmament, a peace economy, healthcare over warfare, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. We oppose war, sanctions, and violations of popular and state sovereignty. And we support the right of people to engage in peaceful protest without fear of repression, reprisals, or imprisonment.

In that spirit, we join the worldwide chorus of solidarity for the Iranian people who have taken to the streets to protest the death in police custody of Mahsa (Jina) Amini, the young Kurdish woman apprehended for inadequate hejab, by the so-called morality police. The women-led tsunami of protests across Iran, at great peril to their own safety, has been joined by many women who wear hejabs. They are among the protestors condemning Mahsa’s death, along with men, people of all ages, social classes, and ethnicities. This courageous response is an unprecedented show of shared anger over police brutality, the unjust targeting of the young Kurdish woman, and the Islamic regime’s authoritarian rule. Those grievances are inscribed in the slogan heard across the country: Woman, Life, Liberty (Zan, Zendegi, Azadi).

We also recognize that decades of harsh U.S. sanctions have generated the onset of inevitable economic austerities. This has led to unemployment, rising prices, and severe shortages of essential goods. A series of protests in 2017-2019, centered on these problems. Today, the protesters who are condemning Mahsa’s death and calling for an end to the morality police, are also rightly pointing out that at a time when Iran is suffering from punitive US sanctions, the Iranian government’s emphasis should be on tackling the economic difficulties, not on policing women’s dress.

MAPA stands for the right of Iranians to choose their own system of government, and to be able to protest peacefully without facing state repression. As a U.S.-based organization, we oppose any efforts by our government to violate popular and state sovereignty through regime change. In fact, we believe the Iranian people will be best served by the end of U.S. sanctions. Our responsibility as Americans is to demand the lifting of U.S. sanctions that have irretrievably harmed the Iranian people, especially women and girls, and a return to the negotiating table for the revival of the 2015 international nuclear agreement (JCPOA).

The women of Iran have the right to live in dignity, without fear of assault, and with their physical security and welfare guaranteed. We call on the Iranian government to halt the repression; we call on the U.S. government to lift all sanctions on Iran to help ease the people’s economic pain.

The latest updates from the National Iranian American Council

As Afghan People Boil Grass to Eat, U.S. Refuses to Release $7 Billion of Frozen Afghan Assets

The Biden administration has ruled out releasing roughly $7 billion of frozen U.S.-held Afghan assets, a year after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and occupation, even as the United Nations warns a staggering 95% of Afghans are not getting enough to eat. “This money belongs to the Afghan people. And the U.S., for 365 days, has been holding their money in a New York vault while Afghan people are boiling grass to eat, are selling their kidneys, are watching their children starve,” says Unfreeze Afghanistan co-founder Medea Benjamin. We also speak with Shah Mehrabi, chair of the audit committee of the central bank of Afghanistan, who says the return of funds is necessary to bring back price stability, which would put cash back into the hands of Afghan people so they can afford basic necessities.

https://www.democracynow.org/2022/8/17/biden_afghanistan_foreign_assets_taliban_economic?utm_source=Democracy+Now%21&utm_campaign=55507e446e-Daily_Digest_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fa2346a853-55507e446e-192741442

Rich Western countries stand by as Afghans face starvation

Rich Western countries stand by as Afghans face starvation - Asia Times

The UN has issued ‘the largest ever appeal for a single country for humanitarian assistance’

By VIJAY PRASHAD

https://asiatimes.com/2022/01/rich-western-countries-stand-by-as-afghans-face-starvation/

Support MADRE's relief efforts in Afghanistan and Haiti!

Kate Alexander | Policy and Campaigns Officer

www.MADRE.org

646.490.2389

pronouns: she/her/hers

ReThink Media

US, Taliban officials to engage in direct talks on economic crisis and frozen funds

On Wednesday, officials from the US and the Taliban will hold direct talks in Uzbekistan to discuss Afghanistan’s economic and humanitarian crisis. The talks will focus on US proposals to allow the Afghan Central Bank limited access to some of its $7 billion reserves that were frozen by the Biden administration following the Taliban’s takeover of the country last year.

In June, the Washington Post reported that the administration has been working on a proposed system that would allow career central bank officials to manage some of the assets to stabilize the economy while creating safeguards that would ensure the funds are not misused. [Washington Post/ Jeff Stein]

The Taliban have demanded that all of the funds be released without conditions on the grounds that the money belongs to the Afghan people. [Voice of America/ Ayuz Gul]

____________________________________________________________

US and Taliban make progress on Afghan reserves, but big gaps remain

https://www.reuters.com/world/exclusive-us-taliban-make-progress-afghan-reserves-big-gaps-remain-2022-07-26/

KABUL/WASHINGTON, July 26 (Reuters) - U.S. and Taliban officials have exchanged proposals for the release of billions of dollars from Afghan central bank reserves held abroad into a trust fund, three sources familiar with the talks said, offering a hint of progress in efforts to ease Afghanistan's economic crisis.

Significant differences between the sides remain, however, according to two of the sources, including the Taliban's refusal to replace the bank's top political appointees, one of whom is under U.S. sanctions as are several of the movement's leaders.....more on above link

For this month’s Afghanistan News Update, the Black Alliance for Peace Solidarity Network’s Afghanistan Committee spoke with Obaidullah Baheer, a lecturer at the American University of Afghanistan and a visiting scholar at the New School in New York. He leads an aid initiative under the title “Save Afghans from Hunger.” An advocate of reconciliation in Afghanistan, Baheer has delivered lectures and talks—and he has written for—several eminent global platforms. This interview was conducted before the recent earthquake, for which the death toll is in the hundreds.

The views expressed below do not necessarily reflect the positions of the Black Alliance for Peace.

Black Alliance for Peace: Based on your experiences, how would you describe the current situation on the ground in Afghanistan? For instance, how does the refusal by the United States and European allies to lift their sanctions or return stolen assets affect ordinary Afghans?

Obaidullah Baheer: I've spent the last two days trying to track down a photo of an Afghan media presenter selling samosas on the streets of Kabul that had gone viral. This is just a snippet of how drastically life has changed for so many in the country. We are trained to view all suffering to look the same, but there are always cultural differences. Because Afghanistan is a male-dominated society, most of the real victims of hunger are sitting at home and away from the public eye. The International Community [IC] and the Taliban seem to be in a staring competition regarding the issue of recognition, which ties into the frozen assets issue. The IC has a list of demands that they want met before they will consider the Taliban a legitimate government, and the Taliban say that they will not meet other demands unless they are seen as a legitimate government. Amidst this political grandstanding, it is the common man who continues to fall deeper into the vicious cycle of poverty. The situation reminds me of a quote about Afghanistan following the Soviet Union's invasion: "It will take us 20 years to get back to where we were 50 years ago."

BAP: What does Western media get wrong about the Taliban?

OB: The Western media is guilty of seeing the world in monochrome and also of its own sensationalist tendencies. The Taliban aren't an ideal government and neither do they have a great record. However, the world has so many of these governments with records that could easily rank worse than the Taliban in human rights abuses, both in scale and intensity, but they are not necessarily demonized or sanctioned. The economic sanctions imposed on Afghanistan were worse than those imposed on Russia for invading a sovereign state. Afghanistan is struggling to define itself with the rapid succession of changes it has seen over the past four decades. The Taliban are not only an unfortunate political reality, but also represent the disconnect of the larger rural population of the country and its ideals from those of the urban population. The current state could either be another failed attempt at socially engineering the Afghan society by force, or we could stop the violence for once and try to arrive at a synthesis of visions that is bound to evolve with time. There are no short-term ideal outcomes for Afghanistan. There will have to be a painstaking process of organic dialogue that brings forth a sustainable order. It is up to the Taliban whether they will allow for that to happen or risk another fall like that of many regimes before them.

BAP: Can you describe attempts made by the Taliban government to engage diplomatically with neighboring countries to normalize relations? What progress has been made, where have there been setbacks, and what challenges lie ahead?

OB: The Taliban deputy minister was recently featured on Indian media outlets to assure them of the Taliban's desire to normalize relations with India. The Taliban have been torn between trying to appease their fighters by appearing hard on some neighbors, being too accommodating towards groups that might pose a threat to regional countries, and their desire to engage in diplomacy. Afghanistan was in its best economic state after the Second World War, where it had consciously decided not to align itself in the great geopolitical game of the time. It has since then constantly been pushed into alignment in regional and global rivalries. The Taliban will have to be mindful of such a pitfall if they are to have any chance of succeeding in foreign relations.

BAP: Ever since U.S. and NATO troops formally ended their direct military occupation of Afghanistan, Western media outlets have focused considerably less attention on what is happening there. How do Western countries continue to interfere in Afghanistan today?

OB: We experienced the decline of media attention as it unfolded. There is a saying that the U.S. doesn't lose wars, it loses interest. The global media are only interested in what the U.S. sees as important. It might have also been a conscious effort by the Biden team to make the Afghanistan issue go away because they knew they had botched the whole process and caused the eventual fall of a regime. One thing that has been good to see is the lack of appetite for interference in Afghanistan by most other countries. There are certain countries that engage with, and perhaps support, certain violent elements within Afghanistan to serve their own goals, but they are few and we are hoping such behavior will soon cease.

BAP: The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan is quite dire in many ways. Amidst this, where do you see signs of hope for constructing a better future?

OB: Hope is a strong word in the current reality of Afghanistan, but there are plenty of positives from which to take heart. The absence of direct military presence and the lack of appetite for direct interference is positive and has rarely been afforded to Afghanistan in the past four decades. There is also the ending of the protracted war and occupation. This presents an opportunity to transform Afghanistan into something better. Even the strife between the relatively moderate Taliban and the hardliners is a positive sign. At the end of the day, the ball is in the Taliban’s court and they will have to find a common vision for Afghanistan among themselves and then have a dialogue with the people regarding what is sustainable for the whole country. That is, if they want a sustainable order.

To read more of Obaidullah’s work and commentary, please follow him on Twitter.

From Obaidullah Baheer

Save Afghans from Hunger

We are helping Afghans survive the worst humanitarian crisis in modern history through our different initiatives. We have distributed monthly packages, provide financial assistance, baked bread and meals distribution.

Afghanistan's per capita income drops by more than a third in 2021

US sanctions have exacerbated the crisis in Afghanistan, with the deaths of 13,000 newborn babies since January 2022, due to the collapse of the health sector

ByNews Desk- April 2022

https://media.thecradle.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/5f9a79e10cd84eed9c5cba15e96b7485.jpg

File image. Afghan children play outside their home in a camp for internally displaced families in Kabul, Afghanistan on 18 January, 2021 (Photo credit: AP/Rhamat Gul)

Afghanistan’s per capita income fell by more than a third in the last quarter of 2021, according to a World Bank semi-annual regional update released on 14 April.

“One of the poorest countries in the world just got a lot poorer,” assured Tobias Haque, the World Bank’s chief economist for the country.

Haque said in a briefing that ”the isolation of the Afghan economy following the political crisis that began last August risks severe poverty, displacement, fragility and threats of extremism.”

The World Bank previously warned that about 37 percent of households did not have enough money to buy food. Under current conditions, the outlook for the economy is dire, and the country’s real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita could shrink by 34 percent by the end of 2022.

Meanwhile, 75 percent of the population does not get enough food and 58 percent do not have shelter.

The UN said that the number of severely hungry people in Afghanistan rose to 23 million in March and that the situation mostly affects children, with 3.5 million children in need of nutritional treatment.

Health officials have also revealed that since January 2022 over 13,000 newborn babies have died as a result of malnutrition and the gradual collapse of the healthcare sector.

Months after the Taliban victory against the US-backed Afghan army, Afghanistan’s economic future remains gloomy as 97 percent of Afghans could fall below the poverty line by mid-2022.

A poll by the US-based Gallup analytics firm highlights the record figure. However, the percentage could be higher as the economy remains on a tailspin due to the effect of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine over global food markets.

The US also seized billions of dollars of Afghanistan’s foreign reserves, depriving the central Asian nation of much-needed resources.

US sanctions have decimated the Afghan economy, one that was already crippled by two decades of war by the US. The situation has been further worsened by droughts that have hit some regions of Afghanistan over the past three years.

The scenario is increasingly difficult with foreign aid stagnating, the economy collapsing, banking and financial systems crippled, and millions of jobs lost.

MARCH 18, 2022

Starving a People, Committing a Genocide: Biden’s Sanctions on Afghanistan

BY EVE OTTENBERG

Photograph Source: Afghanistan Matters – CC BY 2.0

When the United States stole $7 billion from Afghanistan on February 11, that was no mere crime of robbery. It was a war crime and a crime against humanity that condemns possibly millions of Afghans to starvation. In short, prelude to genocide. Biden prevaricates about his excuse for this outright theft of Afghan funds, namely compensating the 9/11 victims. The Afghan government didn’t kill their loved ones, indeed back in 2001 the Taliban offered to turn the al Qaeda culprits over to Washington. The U.S. refused the offer and invaded instead.

Biden’s shocking action makes all Americans complicit in sickening atrocities. According to UNICEF, “more than 23 million Afghans face acute hunger, including 9 million who are nearly famished.” By the middle of this year, 97 percent of Afghans will be in poverty, the UN estimates. To say these people need every penny of their $7 billion is an understatement. To say those who steal half of it from them are monsters is the only moral assessment of such larceny. (The other half will supposedly be returned to them at some unspecified future date.) Biden has done highway robbers one better: “Your money AND your life” is the new American message, delivered in ringing tones of mendacious self-righteousness.

This particular heist equals roughly 40 percent of the Afghan economy and approximately 14 months of Afghan imports, according to Mark Weisbrot in the February 4 Sacramento Bee. But Biden earlier slapped other sanctions on the country, as a parting gift when U.S. troops finally left after 20 years of wrecking the place. Overall Biden’s sanctions mean “more people will die…over the next year than the number who died in 20 years of war,” Weisbrot wrote in the March 15 CounterPunch. That’s because Biden’s gratuitous sanctions kill funding for the Afghan government along with money for desperately needed food imports. So between the multi-decade U.S. war on this poor nation, drought, covid and frozen currency reserves – frozen by the Biden administration, just to be clear – it’s no wonder millions of pauperized Afghans hover over the abyss of starvation.

Thus Biden cancelled out the good he did by yanking U.S. troops out of Afghanistan. The military withdrew, but the U.S. president opened the door to famine. And that killer walked right in. This entirely man-made catastrophe could be averted, of course. Lift the sanctions. Give Afghanistan back all of its money and lives will be saved. Don’t and lots of people will die.

Clare Daly, MEP from Dublin summed it up best in a March 8 speech: “There’s no doubt about it, we’re living in times where…the lives of innocent civilians are sacrificed in the wars of their masters. Yes in Ukraine, but not only. Since the last plenary tens of thousands of Afghani citizens have been forced to flee in search of food and safety, five million children face famine, an agonizing and painful death, a five hundred percent increase in child marriages and children being sold just so they can survive, and not a mention of it, not here, not anywhere, no wall-to-wall TV coverage, no emergency humanitarian response, no special plenaries, not even a mention in this plenary, no Afghani delegations and no statements. My God, they must be wondering what makes their humanitarian crisis so unimportant. Is it the color of their skin, is it that they’re not white? They’re not European? That their problems come from a U.S. gun or a U.S. invasion? Is it that the decision to rob their country’s wealth was taken by a despotic U.S. president rather than a Russian one? Because my God, all wars are evil, and all victims deserve support and until we get on that page, we have no credibility whatsoever.”

What if Russia or China engaged in such murderous chicanery? Well, Russians and Ukrainians are killing each other right now, but the projected Afghan starvation death toll beats anything they’ve come up with so far. And though Biden’s actions put Chinese treatment of the Uyghurs to shame – after all, their deaths are merely suspected, whereas Afghan deaths in the hundreds of thousands are a certainty if the U.S. pursues its insane cruelty – don’t expect furious denunciations of the sort regularly leveled at Beijing from the corporate media. No. Our press tiptoes around our government’s culpability. But that’s to be expected from our media, aka Washington’s propaganda megaphone, once known as a proud free press. Free no longer. The only freedom of thought lies in the occasional unexpected investigative report or in the margins of independent media.

One exception was a March 5 article in the Guardian by Selay Ghaffar. “Across the country, five million children are on the brink of famine. Many young people are in despair; suicide is on the rise,” Ghaffar writes and then laments the soaring price of wheat due to the Ukraine war. This rise in cost means more people will starve. Part of the reason is that during the 20-year U.S. occupation, the country was “made into a dependency, relying on flows of humanitarian aid.” Biden “has refused responsibility for America’s intervention in our country.”

The lesson of the U.S. defeat in Afghanistan and the promptly ensuing sanctions is damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Any country Washington attacks has a Solomon’s choice: surrender or fight and win and then face Washington’s global financial fury and the mass destitution it engenders. That’s how the empire works. It’s the sorest loser on the globe. Defeated, it exacts an excruciating revenge.

If the geniuses in Washington think they can win the propaganda war on Afghanistan, they better think again. Too many people will die to be concealed. Many cloistered Americans who consider their country blameless may not know about the Washington-inflicted mass death, but the rest of the world sure does. Just look at the front page of China’s Global Times back on February 23. It featured Afghanistan’s Washington-imposed agony, with a petition demanding the U.S. return money to Afghans. And that’s not the only international headline to point out Washington’s brutality. As corpses pile up, the appalling U.S. starvation of Afghans inevitably becomes as widely known as its aid to the slaughter in Yemen. But the callous sociopaths who inflict this policy on an entire nation seem scarcely to notice.

According to Vox back on January 22, before the August fall of Kabul to the Taliban, the country “relied heavily on foreign aid; after the Taliban takeover, that influx of cash ceased…In December the World Food Program found that 98 percent of Afghans aren’t getting enough to eat.” Afghan famine has one culprit: “The U.S. decision to halt aid to the country and freeze billions in Afghan government funds.”

One can only hope some major power, like maybe China, comes to the rescue. China is generally careful about illegal U.S. sanctions, but it has cordial relations with the Afghan government and wants to include the country in its Belt and Road Initiative. Perhaps China could coordinate with the UN to put some food on Afghan tables – not too much, of course, because that would offend the omnipotent nitwits in the U.S. government. But maybe just enough to save some lives.

In Afghanistan, the Biden administration continues to use sanctions as political leverage against the Taliban, compounding nation-wide and regional instability, and making food and fuel much costlier for tens of millions of Afghans. As a result, the United Nations estimates 97 percent of Afghans could be living below the poverty line by the middle of this year.

The Black Alliance for Peace Solidarity Network’s Afghanistan Committee continues its efforts to raise the public’s awareness on the role the United States and its coalition partners continue to play, despite mostly evacuating the country in September.

The United States continues to support what the UN has called a “downward humanitarian spiral” in the country by:

Refusing to return $7 billion in Afghan funds, preventing the country from resolving its crises and meeting the needs of the Afghan people.
Leveraging sanctions and using aid as a political tool to destroy the Afghan economy, forcing tens of millions of Afghans into dependence on Western “humanitarian” funding for their well-being.
Decades of interference and occupation, which led to reactionary violence, both inside and outside the country, thus paving the way to recent deadly confrontations with regional neighbors Pakistan and Iran.

If the ruling class in the United States continues down this road, more Afghans will die over the next year than the number who died amid two decades of U.S. military occupation. Washington’s hegemonic grip over Afghanistan has been the status-quo for decades, but it may be faltering in the face of constructive diplomatic actions China and Russia have taken.

ADDITIONAL READING

Starving a People, Committing a Genocide: Biden’s Sanctions on Afghanistan

March 18, 2022, by Eve Ottenberg for CounterPunch

The billions in stolen assets from Afghanistan by the United States is a crime against humanity that condemns possibly millions of Afghans to starvation.

Recording and Links from Report Back from Afghanistan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px8pp7JrlGY&authuser=0

-UNFREEZE AFGHANISTAN, A Women-Led Campaign Supporting the Afghan People’s Wish to Live in Peace and Prosperity

-Link to the video we shared, including the wonderful rendition of Bruno Mars' tune.

Help Us Support Girls’ Schools in Afghanistan!

A group of U.S. women leaders from different fields, all of whom have done important humanitarian work in Afghanistan for many years, will be traveling to Afghanistan to witness the opening of girls’ schools as the school year begins this spring.

The U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August of 2021 impacted businesses, NGOs, and schools alike. When the western countries withdrew their troops, they also withdrew support for basic services like education that the country relied on. In addition, they froze the assets that the Central Bank had overseas, making it impossible for the government to pay its civil servants. To make matters worse, the designation of the Taliban as a terrorist organization and the sanctions imposed on Afghanistan have contributed to the severe economic crisis that Afghanistan is now facing.

The schools face tremendous challenges. Teachers have gone for months without salaries, and payments continue to be erratic. Students whose families are suffering from extreme poverty are unable to pay for their school supplies. There is no money for the upkeep of the schools or regular payment for support staff.

With the funds we bring, we will help girls get school supplies and teachers get paid.

At a time of great change in Afghanistan, girls’ access to education has never been more critical.

Thank you for your help.

https://www.codepink.org/unfreeze_afghanistan

Unfreeze Afghanistan

A Women-Led Campaign Supporting the Afghan People’s Wish to Live in Peace and Prosperity

STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO THE SUSPENSION OF GIRLS’ RETURN TO SECONDARY SCHOOL IN AFGHANISTAN

Read our Statement

URGENT CALL TO ACTION

On February 11, President Biden issued an Executive Order regarding the $7 billion of Afghan funds invested in the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank. Biden called for the money to be divided in two, with half going to compensate 9/11 families who had been suing the Taliban for sheltering Al Qaeda and the other half going to humanitarian aid. But the Afghan people are not responsible for 9/11 and more than humanitarian aid, they need their money to be returned to their Central Bank to shore up their collapsing economy. Moreover, these funds are not Biden’s to distribute. They belong to the Afghan people. Join us in expressing outrage at Biden’s cruel, unilateral measure and calling on him to reverse this decision.

Afghanistan Approaches Brink of Disaster- LA Progressive

Gay rights, women’s rights — in reality, these are a nuisance to many U.S. conservatives, but purporting to protect these rights on the other side of the world is a great excuse to play war.

And you don’t need bombs to play. All you need is the will to dominate and the ability to dehumanize “the enemy,” so that their lives can be trashed if (and when) necessary.

I have to confess a stunned speechlessness as I learn about the looming fate of Afghanistan, if President Biden refuses to release $9.4 billion of its assets to the country’s central bank, which it had deposited abroad, primarily at the U.S. Federal Reserve, during the 20-year war. With the Taliban reclaiming power after the U.S. withdrawal last August, the president seized control of these assets, potentially plunging Afghanistan into economic freefall, and . . . oh God . . .

“United Nations officials are warning that millions of Afghans could run out of food before winter, with 1 million children at risk of starvation. . . .

“No increase in food and medical aid can compensate for the macroeconomic harm of soaring prices of basic commodities, a banking collapse, a balance-of-payments crisis, a freeze on civil servants’ salaries, and other severe consequences that are rippling throughout Afghan society, harming the most vulnerable.”

These words are from a letter to Biden last December, signed by 48 members of Congress, urging him not to play economic war with the people of Afghanistan, even though the Taliban is in power. Enduring 20 years of war is one thing, but it doesn’t compare with living in the midst of total economic collapse.

A million children could die of starvation.

Afghanistan in 2022 is shaping up to be one of the worst, possibly the worst, humanitarian catastrophe on record, for any country.

This is almost beyond comprehension. Indeed, families are being forced to take unthinkable actions to survive.

“Many of Afghanistan’s growing number of destitute people are making desperate decisions . . . as their nation spirals into a vortex of poverty,” according to the Associated Press. For instance: “Arranging marriages for very young girls is a frequent practice throughout the region. The groom’s family — often distant relatives — pays money to seal the deal, and the child usually stays with her own parents until she is at least around 15 or 16. Yet with many unable to afford even basic food, some say they’d allow prospective grooms to take very young girls or are even trying to sell their sons.”

Jean Athey of Peace Action, noting that the U.S. spent some $2.3 trillion dollars on the Afghanistan war, points out that:

“for the people of Afghanistan, the war has not ended, nor has the killing. The new economic war is expected to kill more Afghans in four months this winter than did the ‘kinetic’ war in twenty years. No one expects the leaders of the Taliban to suffer. But everyone agrees that hundreds of thousands of babies will die. In fact, Afghanistan in 2022 is shaping up to be one of the worst, possibly the worst, humanitarian catastrophe on record, for any country.”

Such data raises endless questions, all of which can be reduced to a single word: Why? Why? Why?

The consciousness of war still rules. The basic, abstract answer is simply: the Taliban. They are cruel and brutal and deny many people their basic rights as human beings. True as that may be, how can the U.S. government and its unquestioning supporters fail to see the irony of our faux-outrage over this, when we have been killing civilians there with impunity for decades and are now prepared to preside over a starvation holocaust? Furthermore, we gladly support and ally ourselves with brutally oppressive governments all over the world, as long as they bend to our wishes and align themselves with our “interests.”

The time is now to ally ourselves with a million children on the brink of starvation and directly acknowledge the endless failure of war, including economic war. The primary victims are always the innocent.

The letter to Biden from 48 members of Congress — barely 10 percent of the House — addressed the issue thus:

“We deplore the new Taliban government’s grave human rights abuses, crackdowns on civil society and repression of women and LBGTQ people. However, pragmatic U.S. engagement with the de facto authorities is nevertheless key to averting unprecedented harm to tens of millions of women, children and innocent civilians. Punitive economic policies will not weaken Taliban leaders, who will be shielded from the direst consequences, while the overwhelming impact of these measures will fall on innocent Afghans who have already suffered decades of war and poverty.”

The letter ends with a quote from Mary-Ellen McGroarty of World Food Program: “We need to separate the politics from the humanitarian imperative.”

If instead we continue to wage the “war on evil” that George W. Bush began, we will continue to be part of that evil. Think about the millions of Afghans facing starvation in their shattered country, then imagine the consequences coming home.

Robert Koehler

Milwaukee vigil on Saturday, Feb 12, 2022 at noon – 1 PM, Kinnickinnic Ave and Lincoln

Biden administration to end policies are strangling the Afghan economy and causing mass starvation.

Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations, has warned that millions of Afghans are on the “verge of death,” 22.8 million Afghans – or more than half of the country’s population – will face acute food insecurity this winter and one million children risk dying of malnutrition.

He urges the international community to fund the U.N.’s $5 billion humanitarian appeal, release Afghanistan’s frozen assets and jump-start its banking system to avert economic and social collapse. First they lost their father… then their mother died. So the eight kids were left to fend for themselves, alone in Afghanistan. Neighbors tried to help, but they were hungry, too. The eight children starved to death. The youngest wasn't even 2 years old.

It isn’t technically feasible for NGOs and humanitarian partners to cover the entirety of Afghanistan’s food supply. In both the immediate and long term, Afghans need not just bags of flour but also a viable currency, access to U.S. dollars, and trade financing to support food sales and essential government-run services.

“Love to Afghanistan” Valentine’s Vigils and Advocacy

After 20 years of war in Afghanistan, the Afghan people are suffering more than ever. Hunger could kill more now than in 20 years of war. This humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan is in the words of the International Red Cross a “human-made catastrophe.” “Human-made” largely by coercive U.S. economic policies.

We can mobilize to change these harmful policies with these actions:

Starting NOW, we can all pressure members of Congress to call on the administration to unfreeze the frozen funds, relax sanctions, and increase humanitarian aid. As of this writing, the main focus is getting Senators to support the Merkley Letter on the looming Afghanistan famine and the economic collapse driving the suffering.

This February 14th, we will also join together nationwide to call for “Love to Afghanistan.” These vigils will have a clear call to unfreeze the assets and relax U.S. sanctions and attendees can be asked to take further action by contacting Congress. We suggest pushing for this by holding silent vigils throughout the country. You can also pick a day near Valentine’s Day if that is best for you.

If you are able to healthwise, we can encourage you to fast – in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan – until at least sundown. But everyone can be invited to attend. See below for materials for the vigils including an action flyer for attendees.

On Monday February 7th there will be a webinar about the crisis, including the economic policies driving it with Dr. Shah Mehrabi who has been a member of the board of governors of the Afghan Central Bank.

Middle East

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Recording and Links from Report Back from Afghanistan

Help Us Support Girls’ Schools in Afghanistan!

Unfreeze Afghanistan

OUR PURPOSE IS TO KEEP A FOCUS ON AFGHANISTAN’S CIVILIAN POPULATION

WE ARE A COALITION OF US AND AFGHAN WOMEN

WE ARE NOT A POLITICAL GROUP. WE DON’T HAVE A POLITICAL AFFILIATION

WE ARE COMMITTED TO AFGHAN WOMEN

WE CALL ON THE US TO UNFREEZE AFGHAN FUNDS AND STOP STRANGLING THE COUNTRY’S ECONOMIC RECOVERY

WE CALL ON THE TALIBAN TO RESPECT HUMAN RIGHTS AND TO ENSURE EQUAL RIGHTS FOR WOMEN

STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO THE SUSPENSION OF GIRLS’ RETURN TO SECONDARY SCHOOL IN AFGHANISTAN ​

URGENT CALL TO ACTION

Afghanistan Approaches Brink of Disaster- LA Progressive

Milwaukee vigil on Saturday, Feb 12, 2022 at noon – 1 PM, Kinnickinnic Ave and Lincoln

Biden administration to end policies are strangling the Afghan economy and causing mass starvation.

“Love to Afghanistan” Valentine’s Vigils and Advocacy

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STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO THE SUSPENSION OF GIRLS’ RETURN TO SECONDARY SCHOOL IN AFGHANISTAN