A cargo ship is unloaded at the port on the Caspian Sea in Baku, Azerbaijan, June 13, 2023. (Sergey Ponomarev/The … Buffalo News
Day: March 13, 2024
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NPR News: 03-13-2024 1AM EDT
Grigory Karasin, Head of Russia’s Federation Council’s Committee on International Affairs, praised the work done in the Russia-Georgia dialogue format, saying that “the positive results” achieved over the past 11 years will continue to be in demand after the appointment of Giorgi Kajaia to this post. He is further quoted as saying: “Russia is interested in pragmatic dialogue and a return to full-fledged mutually beneficial cooperation with Georgian partners.”
The Prosecutor’s Office appealed to the competent authorities of Germany and Belgium to arrest and extradite UNM-era former Chief Prosecutor and Justice Minister Zurab Adeishvili, sentenced in absentia in Georgia on several criminal charges. The Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to Civil.ge the extradition request. Zurab Adeishvili has recently been included in the Ukrainian delegations to Brussels and Berlin, leading to harsh criticism of Ukraine, Germany and the EU from the ruling Georgian Dream party and the Georgian government.
In response to the Georgian government’s criticism over the inclusion of Zurab Adeishvili in the Ukrainian delegation to Brussels and Berlin, David Arakhamia, leader of the “Servant of the People” faction in the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada, outlined a three-step plan that Georgia must take to “normalize relations” with Ukraine, including releasing of Mikheil Saakashvili, suspending direct flights with Russia and stopping “helping the aggressor to evade sanctions.” “Then the normalization will be easy,”- noted Arakhamia in a Telegram post.
As Saakashvili-era prosecutor general Zurab Adeishvili continues to dominate the country’s foreign policy agenda, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze also found time in his busy schedule to comment on Arakhamia’s position, calling it “regrettable” and adding that due to the state of war and the very difficult situation in Ukraine, the Georgian authorities are not going to enter into controversy with Arakhamia and other politicians.
A coalition of twelve local civil society organizations met with representatives of political parties, except the ruling Georgian Dream party, which did not attend the meeting, to discuss the implementation of the nine conditions set by the European Commission for Georgia. “They had invited us, and we did not go. Every time an NGO starts talking about the nine conditions and holds a meeting, if we run to attend these meetings, the nine conditions will remain unfulfilled,” said Mamuka Mdinaradze, the leader of the parliamentary majority, urging the NGOs instead to “go and work where the real work is being done.”
U.S. President Joe Biden’s Administration requested USD 116.5 million in assistance to Georgia through multiple programs under the fiscal year 2025 budget project for the Department of State and USAID. The largest portion of this amount, USD 80 million, is requested to be disbursed to Georgia under Assistance to Europe, Eurasia, and Central Asia, making it the second largest potential recipient in the Europe/Eurasia region after Ukraine (USD 250 million).
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Annual Threat Assessment of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (Avril Haines) contains some important information that should be highlighted because it refutes right wing propaganda. Let me just draw attention to some of these points.
1. Here’s an essential one: “We assess that Iranian leaders did not orchestrate nor had foreknowledge of the HAMAS attack against Israel.”
After the horrid October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israelis, the majority of them innocent civilians, the usual suspects went wild blaming Iran. The Wall Street Journal, a bizarre hybrid of Rupert Murdoch conspiracy theories and sterling reporting, erred on the side of the former with lurid allegations that Iran trained and put Hamas fighters up to the terrorist attack. The Iran War Lobby swung into action. And yet. The ODNI says all that was a fever dream.
2. It should come as no surprise that the Israeli response, which the International Court of Justice found plausibly genocidal, has given a fillip to al-Qaeda and ISIL, and that the ODNI expects it to provoke terrorism against the US. This conclusion, which seems fairly obvious, contradicts the favored inside-the-Beltway meme that Israel is an asset to US security. Its current government’s dedication to policies that produce starving children is likely to lead to anti-US terrorism.
3. But the assessment also says, “The Nordic Resistance Movement—a transnational neo-Nazi organization—publicly praised the attack, illustrating the conflict’s appeal to a range of threat actors.”
This ugly neo-Nazi movement, by the way, celebrated noisily when Trump won in 2016 and saw it as the beginnning of a global far right revolution.
The European and North American far right is confused about Arab-Israeli conflicts. On the one hand, some of them see Israel as “white” and so side with it against Arabs. But in this case apparently they were willing to idolize Hamas if only it would kill innocent Jews.
4. Another important observation: “Israel probably will face lingering armed resistance from HAMAS for years to come, and the military will struggle to neutralize HAMAS’s underground infrastructure, which allows insurgents to hide, regain strength, and surprise Israeli forces.”
In other words, the stated goal of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, of wiping out Hamas, is impossible. Hamas will pose a danger for “years to come.” Likewise, Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s support for the far right Netanyahu government’s total war on Gaza is misplaced, since he said he believes it is waged “so that this never happens again.” Combine points 2, 3, and 4 we can conclude that Netanyahu is virtually assuring that it does happen again.
5. Then there is this:
- “• Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has publicly stated his opposition to postwar diplomacy with the Palestinian Authority (PA) toward territorial compromise.”
First, the ODNI is saying that there isn’t an icicle’s chance in hell of there being a two-state solution as long as Netanyahu is prime minister. This conclusion contradicts everything President Biden keeps saying about the future of the Palestinians, and his tired mantra about the imaginary “two-state solution.”
Well, you could say, if the problem is Netanyahu, he may not be there very long. But what the assessment doesn’t say is that the entire Knesset just voted against a Palestinian state. So it isn’t just Netanyahu. It is the Israeli mainstream.
6. Speaking of Netanyahu not being there:
- “• Netanyahu’s viability as leader as well as his governing coalition of far-right and ultraorthodox parties that pursued hardline policies on Palestinian and security issues may be in jeopardy. Distrust of Netanyahu’s ability to rule has deepened and broadened across the public from its already high levels before the war, and we expect large protests demanding his resignation and new elections. A different, more moderate government is a possibility.”
Note that US intelligence concurs that the Netanyahu government is extremist, which is the only way to understand the hope for a more moderate successor. Netanyahu gets between 17% and 19% approval in opinion polls, and keen observers of the Israeli political scene believe that his far right Likud Party and its extremist allies (Religious Zionism and Jewish Power) will take a bath in the next parliamentary elections. So US intelligence is not telling us here anything we don’t already know.
Making this assessment public, however, is surely intended to give courage to Netanyahu’s political opponents and to signal that the US intelligence community thinks America would be better off with a different leader.
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Annual Threat Assessment of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (Avril Haines) contains some important information that should be highlighted because it refutes right wing propaganda. Let me just draw attention to some of these points.
1. Here’s an essential one: “We assess that Iranian leaders did not orchestrate nor had foreknowledge of the HAMAS attack against Israel.”
After the horrid October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israelis, the majority of them innocent civilians, the usual suspects went wild blaming Iran. The Wall Street Journal, a bizarre hybrid of Rupert Murdoch conspiracy theories and sterling reporting, erred on the side of the former with lurid allegations that Iran trained and put Hamas fighters up to the terrorist attack. The Iran War Lobby swung into action. And yet. The ODNI says all that was a fever dream.
2. It should come as no surprise that the Israeli response, which the International Court of Justice found plausibly genocidal, has given a fillip to al-Qaeda and ISIL, and that the ODNI expects it to provoke terrorism against the US. This conclusion, which seems fairly obvious, contradicts the favored inside-the-Beltway meme that Israel is an asset to US security. Its current government’s dedication to policies that produce starving children is likely to lead to anti-US terrorism.
3. But the assessment also says, “The Nordic Resistance Movement—a transnational neo-Nazi organization—publicly praised the attack, illustrating the conflict’s appeal to a range of threat actors.”
This ugly neo-Nazi movement, by the way, celebrated noisily when Trump won in 2016 and saw it as the beginnning of a global far right revolution.
The European and North American far right is confused about Arab-Israeli conflicts. On the one hand, some of them see Israel as “white” and so side with it against Arabs. But in this case apparently they were willing to idolize Hamas if only it would kill innocent Jews.
4. Another important observation: “Israel probably will face lingering armed resistance from HAMAS for years to come, and the military will struggle to neutralize HAMAS’s underground infrastructure, which allows insurgents to hide, regain strength, and surprise Israeli forces.”
In other words, the stated goal of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, of wiping out Hamas, is impossible. Hamas will pose a danger for “years to come.” Likewise, Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s support for the far right Netanyahu government’s total war on Gaza is misplaced, since he said he believes it is waged “so that this never happens again.” Combine points 2, 3, and 4 we can conclude that Netanyahu is virtually assuring that it does happen again.
5. Then there is this:
- “• Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has publicly stated his opposition to postwar diplomacy with the Palestinian Authority (PA) toward territorial compromise.”
First, the ODNI is saying that there isn’t an icicle’s chance in hell of there being a two-state solution as long as Netanyahu is prime minister. This conclusion contradicts everything President Biden keeps saying about the future of the Palestinians, and his tired mantra about the imaginary “two-state solution.”
Well, you could say, if the problem is Netanyahu, he may not be there very long. But what the assessment doesn’t say is that the entire Knesset just voted against a Palestinian state. So it isn’t just Netanyahu. It is the Israeli mainstream.
6. Speaking of Netanyahu not being there:
- “• Netanyahu’s viability as leader as well as his governing coalition of far-right and ultraorthodox parties that pursued hardline policies on Palestinian and security issues may be in jeopardy. Distrust of Netanyahu’s ability to rule has deepened and broadened across the public from its already high levels before the war, and we expect large protests demanding his resignation and new elections. A different, more moderate government is a possibility.”
Note that US intelligence concurs that the Netanyahu government is extremist, which is the only way to understand the hope for a more moderate successor. Netanyahu gets between 17% and 19% approval in opinion polls, and keen observers of the Israeli political scene believe that his far right Likud Party and its extremist allies (Religious Zionism and Jewish Power) will take a bath in the next parliamentary elections. So US intelligence is not telling us here anything we don’t already know.
Making this assessment public, however, is surely intended to give courage to Netanyahu’s political opponents and to signal that the US intelligence community thinks America would be better off with a different leader.