Free Republic

Iran is forging closer ties with countries and groups in the Middle East that share its hostility toward the US and Israel. By Nicholas Blanford | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor BEIRUT, LEBANON – Rising tension between the West and Iran is coinciding with the emergence of a loose anti-Western alliance - Israel now dubs it an "axis of terror" - spanning the Middle East, presenting a new challenge to the US's regional ambitions. Centered on Iran, this alignment has hardened in recent months, analysts say, with Tehran shoring up old alliances and strengthening ties with countries (Syria and...

Russian news agency Interfax: The Russian state arms trading agency Rosoboronexport has denied reports by a number of US media alleging that Russia will sell outdated Kalashnikov assault rifles to Venezuela instead of modern ones, as it promised to do earlier. "We would like to express our surprise and even outrage at an April 10 article published in the Washington Times. The allegations it makes are untrue and absolutely absurd," Rosoboronexport spokesman Valery Kartavtsev said at a press conference, Saturday. According to a contract signed in May 2005, Russia will sell 100,000 AK-103 rifles to the Venezuelan army and security...

BEIJING. April 13 (Interfax-China) - The Shanghai Cooperation Organization's summit, due to be held on June 15 2006, will discuss the issue of renaming and reforming the organization's secretariat, said the SCO's Executive Secretary Zhang Deguang. "The Secretariat was set up at the organization's onset. The SCO has gone through significant change and development, which requires that the Secretariat be reorganized and renamed," Zhang said. The upcoming summit will also address the issue of granting the status of permanent members to individual observer states, at their request, he said. Regarding talks between the SCO defense ministers, set for the...

A blossoming Sino-Russian romance is undercutting U.S. global interests on an unprecedented scale. Indeed, Russia and China seem to have their eyes on restraining European and Japanese power, too.Start with the United Nations, where Russia and China are hampering U.S.- and European Union-led efforts to address Iran's nuclear program. It's been weeks since the Security Council got official notice that Iran had violated its nonproliferation promises - yet the U.N. body has yet to manage to even condemn Tehran's actions, much less impose economic sanctions.No surprise: Both Moscow and Beijing have way too much at stake to bully their buddy,...

Iran would fully go nuclear with the current Persian year which started simultaneously with spring on March 20, arab-parast president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday. "Our enemies try to prevent our scientific progress through widespread propaganda but inshaAllah (God willing) this (new) year will be the year when the Islamic Republic of Iran will fully avail itself of peaceful nuclear technology," Ahmadinejad, the towelhead president of Iran said. In a meeting with visiting Syrian Vice President Farouk Al-Shara, Ahmadinejad said Iran's use of peaceful nuclear energy will be to the benefit of the Islamic world and the "friends of Iran." Earlier...

Energy tsars hungry for a new market (Filed: 26/03/2006) The Chinese President, Hu Jintao, has lobbied Vladimir Putin hard for the planned £6.5 billion East Siberian Pacific Pipeline, on which work is due to begin this year, to include a spur to the Chinese border. If opened as planned in 2008, the main pipeline will pump up to 1.6 million barrels of oil a day to the Pacific port of Nakhodka. Last week, China's National Petroleum Corporation offered to pay Transneft, the company building the pipeline, £228 million to cover the costs of a branch. China is a leading buyer...

Russia-backed opposition leads in Ukraine - exit polls Sun Mar 26, 2006 7:46 PM GMT By Yuri Kulikov KIEV (Reuters) - The party of Russia-backed Viktor Yanukovich, loser in a presidential poll in Ukraine's 2004 "Orange Revolution", held a clear lead in Sunday's parliamentary election, exits polls showed. But an even bigger blow for the pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko came from the bloc of his estranged "Orange Revolution" ally Yulia Tymoshenko, who flew past him into second place leaving his Our Ukraine party badly trailing. The projected outcome, that could mark a step away from the pro-West ideals espoused by...

Russia and China bridle at paying UN All Financial Times NewsThe US has sparked protests from Russia and China by proposing a fundamental change to the way contributions to the United Nations are calculated that would make them pay more. The US, the organisation's biggest contributor, wants to shift from a formula broadly based on gross national income (GNI) to one that takes account of purchasing power parity (PPP) – a tool used by economists to compare living standards in different countries more accurately. In testimony prepared for a congressional hearing, before that hearing was delayed, John Bolton, the US...

Russia and China marked the arrival of President Vladimir Putin on a state visit to Beijing yesterday by launching twin attacks on American foreign policy, in a sign of the growing ties between the two former communist rivals.Both leaders responded strongly to the American condemnation of their human rights. The United States has criticised Russia for hampering democratic development at home and in former Soviet states, and China for its lack of transparency in military spending and its ties to countries with poor human rights records. The Russian foreign ministry said America's national security strategy, released last week, was using...

A bear clad in the Russian tricolor dances with a panda wearing the Chinese red and yellow stars on banners around Beijing. "Together Toward Common Prosperity" reads the slogan on ads for a coming Russian cultural year. Russian President Vladimir Putin will seek to tighten his country's dance with its former Cold War adversary when he arrives in China's capital Tuesday for a two-day state visit. With China's wealth and might burgeoning, Putin's meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao _ their fifth in under a year _ is expected to be a tightly choreographed spectacle of symbolism and overtures to...

Russian generals and anti-American propagandists would like you to believe that George W. Bush was behind 9/11, or else it was “the Jews.” Anti-Semitism is alive and well today, from the “historical revisionists” who say the holocaust never happened to the obnoxious conspiracy nuts who believe that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are authentic. Anti-American and anti-Jewish propaganda are of a piece. The one set of lies is related to the other, as the fate of the Jewish people in World War II foreshadows the fate of the American people in World War III. Extermination of the hated...

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- Chinese influence is increasing in Latin America and Africa, a phenomenon that could have substantial bearing on America`s foreign policy on these regions, say analysts. 'America`s influence could be seriously eroded,' while Chinese influence will only increase, said Stephen Johnson, senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. Referring to the 'plantation economy' being created in Latin America as a result of China`s substantial influence on the economy, he said that the United States should rely more on competition in order to get a foot back in the door as a major player....

FORMER Soviet leader and Nobel peace prize laureate Mikhail Gorbachev has turned 75, bitter that the end of the Cold War has left the United States with what he called a "superiority complex". "It would be in everyone's interest if that big country America recovered from that disease," he said. Mr Gorbachev, who launched the democratic and economic reforms that ultimately led to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, described the end of the Cold War as a gift that the United States has squandered. He also denounced growing Russophobia, saying "some in the West would like to...

Gorbachev, Who Turns 75 Thursday, Says End of Cold War Only Strengthened U.S. 'Arrogance' MOSCOW - Mikhail Gorbachev's magnetic brown eyes shine as brightly as ever, and he speaks with the same passion about the collapse of the Soviet Union as he prepares to mark his 75th birthday on Thursday. The man who ended the Cold War and launched democratic reforms that broke the repressive Soviet regime continues to enjoy the limelight, globe-trotting on behalf of his political foundation and environmental group and taking part in charity projects. At a meeting with foreign reporters this week, Gorbachev blamed the United...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2006 – After terrorism, the ongoing development of weapons of mass destruction is the second major threat to the safety of the U.S. and its allies, and Iran and North Korea are both emerging as potential dangers in that area, a top U.S. official told a Senate committee here today. "The time when a few states had monopolies over weapons of mass destruction is fading," said John D. Negroponte, director of national intelligence, at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on worldwide threats to U.S. national security. "Technologies, often dual-use, move freely in our globalized economy, as...

Venezuela has received the first three of at least 10 military helicopters purchased from Russia. Military officials say the three MI-17 helicopters arrived Tuesday in Caracas. Venezuela bought the helicopters as part of a $120 million deal signed last March. Caracas also agreed last year to buy 100,000 Russian-made Kalashnikov assault rifles. U.S. officials have criticized the deals, saying they could trigger an arms race, destabilizing the region. MI-17s can be used in an assault role or as a transport craft. Venezuelan military officials say the helicopters will be used to patrol the border with neighboring Colombia. The remaining helicopters...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Russia and China appear unlikely to support U.S. efforts to get the United Nations Security Council to pressure Iran on its nuclear program, experts said this week. Instead, both powers seek their own solutions to energy problems and will use the Iranian crisis as a means of destabilizing U.S. power in the Middle East, leaving the Bush administration with precious few levers of influence with which to challenge them, experts argued Wednesday at a conference at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. As the U.S. pushes the issue of Iranian nuclear capabilities to the...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez spent over $2.17 billion in 2005 to acquire Russian assault rifles and helicopters, Spanish transport aircraft and missile-capable corvettes, and Brazilian turboprop light attack aircraft. In January 2006, however, the U.S. State Department denied Spain and Brazil permission to sell Venezuela military transport and light attack aircraft containing U.S.-owned engine and avionics technology. The U.S. government’s action killed deals worth over $600 million to Spanish firm CASA-EADS and Brazil’s Embraer. It also created a major hindrance, albeit not an insurmountable obstacle, for the president’s military expansion plans. The Bolivarian revolution’s military weapons buying spree will continue...

The sudden decision by Russia and China to allow Iran's nuclear weapons program to be brought before the U.N. Security Council should caution American officials about the old saw of being careful about what they wish for. It is doubtful either Moscow or Beijing have had any change of heart about their support for the Tehran regime. Moscow favors having Tehran ship uranium to Russia, where it would be enriched and then returned to Iran for use in its nuclear reactors. This would defuse the current crisis, but it would not end the long-term threat. It would legitimize Iran's possession...

Welcome bear hug By Arnon Regular Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement that he would be willing to meet with Hamas leaders did not come as a complete surprise to Hamas, which is currently on a drive to obtain international legitimacy for its future government. Within 24 hours after Hamas won the Palestinian elections, its leaders had identified the Russian-Chinese axis, as well as a few European countries, as the place to concentrate its efforts to soften the stringent conditions for acceptance by the international community that are currently being set by the United States, Israel, Egypt and Jordan. Nevertheless, even...