11, May 2019
US passes phone number to Swiss in case Iran wants to call 0
The White House has contacted Swiss authorities to share a telephone number with Iran in hopes that Tehran will contact US President Donald Trump, CNN reports.
The White House contacted the Swiss on Thursday, the same day Trump publicly appealed to Iran to call him amid heightened tensions, the broadcaster cited a source as saying.
The source, however, said Iran was “highly unlikely” to demand the number from Swiss authorities.
The Swiss embassy represents US interests in Tehran, where Washington has had no mission since 1980.
While Trump called for talks on Thursday, he did not rule out military action against Iran.
Earliest this week, hawkish national security adviser John Bolton announced that the US was deploying an aircraft carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the Middle East in a bid to send a “message” to Iran.
Asked about the deployment decision on Thursday, Trump said Iran had been “very threatening.”
“We have information that you don’t want to know about. They were very threatening, and we just want to have — we have to have great security for this country,” Trump said.
On Friday, a senior commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) stressed that Tehran would not engage in talks with the Americans.
IRGC’s deputy head for political affairs, Brigadier General Yadollah Javani, said the US thinks it can intimidate Iran into negotiations with a combination of military threats and sanctions, but to no avail.
The senior military commander also said the US will not dare to wage a war on Iran despite its deployment of bombers and an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf.
In a further provocative move Friday, the Pentagon announced that it would deploy an amphibious assault ship and a Patriot missile battery to the Middle East to counter the “Iranian threat”.
Many observers have questioned the US administration’s sudden and vague assertions about Iran in the region, citing contradictory remarks made by US intelligence officials and politicians.
Iranian officials have also dismissed the allegations as part of the US administration’s “psychological warfare” against the country.
Speaking on Thursday, Iran’s envoy to the United Nations Takht Ravanchi slammed the Trump administration’s allegations of rising Iranian threats, saying they were based on “fake intelligence”.
Tensions rose after the US said last month that it would not renew waivers allowing Tehran’s eight largest customers to purchase oil from Iran in order to bring Iranian oil exports to zero.
Washington withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) last year and reimposed unilateral sanctions that had been lifted under the landmark 2015 agreement.
Iran on Wednesday informed the UK, France, China, Russia and Germany — the remaining five signatories to the deal — that it was suspending some of its commitments under the deal.
Tehran also gave the three European signatories 60 days to meet their commitments, especially in the banking and oil sectors, and guarantee Iran’s interests in the face of US sanctions.
US unilateralism
Countries affected by US sanctions have expressed discontent, citing tight market conditions and high fuel prices that harm oil-dependent industries.
Last month, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the US decision to end sanctions waivers had even angered Washington’s allies.
“People are not happy. China is not happy, Turkey is not happy, Russia is not happy. France is not happy. US allies are not happy that this is happening and they say that they will find ways of resisting it,” said Zarif.
On Friday, Germany’s leading news weekly Der Spiegel published an article highlighting how Washington’s bid to pressure Iran had endangered Washington’s European allies, specifically Germany.
“Trump’s confrontational Middle Eastern policy has exacerbated the tensions between the US and its European allies, because, unlike the situation in Venezuela, Europe would be directly affected. The continent’s very security is at stake,” read the article.
“Washington is exacerbating regional tensions with its policy of applying maximum pressure on Iran,” Niels Annen, a high-ranking official at the German Foreign Ministry, told the publication.
Member of the German parliament with the Green Party and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee Jürgen Tritten said, “The US appears to be looking for a pretext to escalate the conflict with Iran.”
The paper also said the Europeans are in disarray in the face of Washington’s bid to pressurize Iran, with German foreign policy agreeing more with Tehran than its ally in Washington.
Deputy parliamentary group leader for the German SPD party, Rolf Mützenich, urged the German government to push for a UN Security Council resolution “requiring strict compliance with international law in the Middle East”.
The move, Mützenich said, will seek to counter US policies in the Middle East which disregard international law, notably in the case of Trump’s recent dealings over Palestine and Iran’s nuclear deal.
Source: Presstv
11, May 2019
Month after Bashir ouster, Sudan far from civilian rule 0
One month after ousting veteran president Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s military rulers show no sign of handing power to a civilian administration and talks with protest leaders remain deadlocked.
Thousands of protesters remain encamped outside army headquarters in central Khartoum, vowing to force the generals to cede power just as they forced Bashir from office.
“We want civilian rule or we will stay here forever,” said protester Iman Hussein, a regular at the sit-in which protesters have kept up since April 6.
Protesters initially gathered at the army complex to seek the generals’ help in ending Bashir’s three decades of iron-fisted rule.
On April 11, the army toppled Bashir in a palace coup replacing him with a military council formed entirely of generals that has shattered protesters’ dreams of a civilian-led transition to democracy.
The deepening economic crisis that fuelled the four months of nationwide protests which led to Bashir’s ouster shows no sign of abating.
Huge queues form daily at ATM machines as the freezing up of the banking system forces consumers to use cash to buy basic goods made ever more expensive by the sliding value of the Sudanese pound.
The generals insist they will not use force to disperse the sit-in which protesters have kept up through the daytime fasts observed by Muslim during the holy month of Ramadan.
The generals have offered several concessions to placate the protesters, including detaining Bashir in Khartoum’s Kober prison, arresting several of his lieutenants and promising to prosecute officers who killed protesters during the demonstrations against the old regime.
– Winner ‘will be us’ –
But when it comes to the protesters’ key demand for a civilian authority to oversee a four-year transition, the military has simply dragged its heels.
“They are pressuring us with time, but we are pressuring them with our presence here,” said protester Hussein.
“One of us has to win in the end, and it will be us.”
Last month, the Alliance for Freedom and Change, which brings together the protest movement and opposition and rebel groups, handed the generals its proposals for a civilian-led transition.
But the generals have expressed “many reservations” over the alliance’s roadmap,
They have singled out its silence on the constitutional position of Islamic sharia law which was the guiding principle of all legislation under Bashir’s rule but is anathema to secular groups like the Sudanese Communist Party and some rebel factions.
The protest movement says the military appears intent on hijacking the revolution and determining its outcome.
Protest leader Khalid Omar Yousef told reporters on Wednesday that the movement was now considering “escalatory measures” like launching a nationwide civil disobedience movement to achieve its demand.
– US pressure –
The generals are under pressure too, with the United States and the African Union calling on them to ensure a smooth transition of power.
In a telephone call with military council chairman General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, backed “the Sudanese people’s aspirations for a free, democratic and prosperous future”.
The State Department said Sullivan encouraged Burhan to reach agreement with the Alliance for Freedom and Change and “move expeditiously toward a civilian-led interim government”.
But the generals have strong support from oil-rich Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which have extended a $3 billion credit line to shore up the Sudanese pound and fund imports of basic goods.
Some members of the protest movement are optimistic however that the generals will ultimately cede power.
“They will hand over executive power to a civilian government if we present a credible, viable form of a civilian government,” opposition leader Sadiq al-Mahdi, the prime minister Bashir overthrew in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989, told AFP earlier this month.
“Because they know if ultimately they settle for a military dictatorship, they will be in the same position as Bashir.”
AFP