Western governments’ abandonment of the very system of international law which they created was embodied in a tweet from the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which sought to justify the illegal Israeli attack on Iran as “Targeted strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities”.
The former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Authority, Mohamed ElBaradei, was left to point out that far from a justification, it is specifically against international law to target nuclear facilities.
He refers to Article 56 of the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions. While we are on the subject, you might also wish to see article 54:
It is worth noting that the exception on destruction of foodstuffs at Article 5 refers to the right of a country which is defending against invasion, not which is invading another country. It means that it is not illegal for a country to destroy crops and stocks of its own, on its own territory. Which is to say a scorched-earth policy against an invader is legal. It does not give the right to refuse supplies to a population under occupation.
The German justification was of course just part of a chorus of Western support for the Israeli attack on Iran, in which numerous Western leaders all parroted a co-ordinated line about “Israel’s right of self-defence”, even as Israel conducted an entirely illegal and unprovoked attack on Iran during peace talks.
There are dozens of examples, but I give you the openly genocidal von der Leyen as one:
Spoke with President @Isaac_Herzog concerning the escalating situation in the Middle East.
I reiterated Israel’s right to defend itself and protect its people. At the same time, preserving regional stability is vital.
I urge all parties to act with maximum restraint and work…
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) June 13, 2025
On Thursday, before Israel attacked Iran, I attended the UN General Assembly debate on Palestine. This had limited utility as it mandated no specific measures and did not suspend Israel from the United Nations, the one truly useful action the General Assembly has the power to implement.
The motion called for an immediate ceasefire and for states to take “all necessary measures”, but that is the last we shall hear of it. It passed by 150 votes to 12, with opposition from the United States, its de facto colonies and the small far-right collection of Argentina, Paraguay etc.
But there was one interesting point in the Statements, known as Explanations of Vote, of the national delegations. These too were very routine, with Arab states that have not the slightest intention of actually doing anything, condemning Israel and western nations all launching blood-curdling condemnations of Hamas (yes, really, that was still their priority, 60,000 dead Palestinian civilians later).
But the UK explanation of vote made one point that absolutely nobody else made. It stuck out like a sore thumb. The British Ambassador to the UN stated that
“While the UK voted in favour of this resolution, we wish to clarify that our long-standing position remains that there is no legal obligation on states to ensure respect for international law by third parties.”
When the EOV was published, this part of the statement was bolstered by a reference to Common Article 1 of the Geneva Convention. I do not recall her actually saying this and it is not in my notes.
Common Article 1 (so called because it is present in every one of the Geneva Conventions) reads:
Article 1
The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect and to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances.
So why did the UK, and the UK alone, say that it is not responsible for ensuring that other parties comply with international law, adding later a specific reference to the Geneva Conventions?
It is perfectly simple. Starmer and Lammy are terrified about future charges of complicity in Israeli war crimes. So the UK, only, feels it necessary to emphasise that they do not bear legal responsibility for Israel’s actions.
They claim they are not responsible for what Israel did with the supplies of UK munitions, which the UK increased to fuel the genocide.
They claim they are not responsible for what Israel did with the targeting information they gave Israel on a daily basis from RAF Akrotiri flights over Gaza.
They claim they are not responsible for the Israeli use of weapons flown in through the UK and Akrotiri.
They claim they are not responsible for use of the F-35 jets attacking Iran now, which they continue to supply with UK-manufactured spare parts.
We simply do not yet know what else they have done to support Israel based on the secret UK-Israeli defence treaty, but whatever it is, Starmer and Lammy want to make absolutely plain that the UK had no responsibility to prevent Israel from committing war crimes.
The claim that this is longstanding British policy is of course a rather frivolous bit of gaslighting. Indeed given that this argument runs completely counter to the doctrine of “the responsibility to protect” – of which the UK was the leading international proponent – it is simple nonsense.
[As it happens I always opposed the “responsibility to protect” argument because it is used as an excuse for Imperialism, cf. the destruction of Libya.]
The Genocide Convention in fact explicitly does create a duty on states to prevent genocide by third parties.
Article I of the Genocide Convention reads:
The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.
So the declaration by Starmer and Lammy of not bearing responsibility really does not wash. The interesting thing is that they felt compelled to make it.
The evening after the debate I attended receptions hosted by both the British Ambassador and then by the Russian Ambassador, and I spoke to a large number of Ambassadors to the UN. Of course we discussed the debate, and everybody had noticed both the extraordinary and unusual addition to the UK statement and its motive.
They all specifically realised it was an effort to back away from responsibility for complicity in Israeli crimes.
I understand and share your disappointment at the collapse of international law. But I can tell you that the prospect of eventual retribution at the Hague still terrifies Starmer and Lammy.
Netanyahu’s desperate gamble in attacking Iran is an attempt to force the USA to join the war on Israel’s behalf, and to prevent peace talks.
It is of course simply untrue that Iran was about to produce a nuclear weapon. Every Spring a CIA-led US intelligence exercise formally reviews the situation, and the firm position of Five Eyes intelligence remains that Iran genuinely was not seeking to make a nuclear weapon.
I hope that Iran learns the lesson of Southern Lebanon. There, over many months, Israeli air superiority enabled them to substantially degrade missile systems of various resistance factions. Israel does – not least because of the traitors ruling Jordan and Syria – have air superiority over Iran. In a long war of attrition, Israeli bombing raids could do real damage to Iranian capabilities.
Iran’s best strategy would be to view this as the existential crisis, and seriously unload its missile capacity on Israel without restraint. The period of measured tit-for-tat reprisals is at an end. The decision of nuclear-armed Pakistan to stand behind Iran was extremely helpful. These are early days in the Israeli-Iranian war. I do not sense any popular enthusiasm in the USA to be involved. Even the mainstream American media is characterising Iranian attacks as “retaliation” and the Israeli victim card is no longer as Platinum as it used to be here in the USA.
Germany has been refuelling Israeli jets en route to attack Iran, and the UK may also have been doing so. Starmer and Macron have both expressed determination to defend Israel with their own military but both would face massive popular resistance.
We wait to see what happens next. But having lived through vicious Israeli bombardment of Beirut, having been menaced by drones in the Bekaa Valley, having stood on the line at Kfar Kila while a twelve-year-old boy was shot standing next to my producer, having witnessed 100,000 Lebanese homes destroyed, I have no sympathy left for Tel Aviv.
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Iranian authorities claim senior regime and IRGC figures have been targeted through their mobile phones. Reportedly they’ve been ordered to stop using them, according to the Iranian press.
Are foreign embassies still operating? Because that data is unlikely to be coming from sensitive spy planes, given the risky airspace. Cooperating embassies can be kitted out with all sorts of gear to triangulate signals. Remember how Germany accused the US of spying from its embassy. Maybe that’s why the UK hasn’t proscribed the IRGC, risking diplomatic expulsions?
Don’t you remember what happened in Lebanon a short while ago?
Were ‘foreign embassies’ complicit? Probably not, too big of a risk of leaks…
Same thing yesterday and tomorrow in Iran with cellphones. But do they have pagers? I don’t know. Can they use smoke signals? As our host wisely said:
“We wait to see what happens next.”
I’d imagine, after the Hezbollah pagers attack, Iran double-checked everything. It’d be a sensible precaution.
Iran has been dealing with Israeli and US(CIA) supply chain sabotage and secure logistics problems for a long time, they’re probably very alert to the dangers. Israel and the US have been in a covert war with the regime for decades.
Please don’t be Mr Pitiful…
Iran has ‘double-checked’ everything so well that they had dozens of Mossad agents reassembling attack drones on their territory for months unbeknownst to them.
And the head of Iran military intelligence himself was quietly killed yesterday. But you may obviously get again and again the same wrong message:
What’s good for the gander…
Iran is a big county : nearly 4x the size of Iraq, nearly as big as the whole of Western Europe. Do you think a state-sponsored, well- resourced, determined group couldn’t get into the US? Remember 9/11? and they weren’t state-sponsored. Look at Russia, with Ukrainians conducting ops. Security at scale is hard and often comes down to tip-offs about suspicious activity etc. Since the initial attacks such public reports appear to have netted Israelis. Why do you think the US is paranoid about its borders. I wouldn’t blame Iran for what happened.
Mobile ‘phones report their location back to their base stations. It’s the way they work. Anybody with access to the mobile network in Iran and the right software could pinpoint the position of any mobile from the other side of the world. Anyone at risk needs to put the ‘phone in a Faraday pouch or quietly slip it into the pocket of someone they don’t like (hi-tech version of ‘Casting the Runes’).
Indeed. But equipment that can be hid in embassies is far more sensitive and less risky, in terms of detection, than operating some improvised fake station or a series of them.
The listening stations run by GCHQ, NSA and 5 Eyes have already tapped into the Internet cables all around Iran (and literally everywhere else). So, unless the iranian phone networks are fully isolated everything is visible, you don’t necessarily need local capability, and then there are satellites overhead.
Mobile phones are a huge ‘here am I’ beacon, end of.
True.
When mobile phones were invented, basic functionality was all that mattered, and they still use the same unsafe protocols today. They were never designed with obfuscation and security in mind. And govts are quite happy with that ‘weak security for the public’ situation.
Do as much as possible offline. Permanently carrying a phone around is insane.
Don’t forget the one major factor in world affairs.
CORRUPTION
Obviously, since a majority of the Iranian people lives under the threshold of poverty, there are plenty of candidates to help foreign attackers reach their targets, against a welcomed contribution…
“Obviously, since a majority of the Iranian people lives under the threshold of poverty, there are plenty of candidates to help foreign attackers reach their targets, against a welcomed contribution…”
That’s presupposing that poor people are all easily corrupted, which all the evidence points against. How do you know that a majority of the Iranian people lives under the threshold of poverty anyway? and who determines the “threshold of poverty”? In any case what matters is how content the population is, not how much money they have.
Good answer, play again.
On here, you may only preach to the converted. I guess it’s a start.
One fail proof way to tell a sucker is that they can’t tells allies from foes…
“On here, you may only preach to the converted. I guess it’s a start.”
If by “preach”, you mean “suggest what’s likely to be the truth” or “point out what’s almost certainly to be a lie” and by “converted” you mean “those that don’t believe everything they are told”, or in the case of the MSM, anything that they are told, then yes. If you are complaining that those who only come on here to propagate propaganda are met with rebuttals, scepticism and sarcasm, then yes, too. My experience is that it is pointless “preaching” to the latter as they tend to have the attitude towards probability of a Creationist.
Wi-Fi isn’t working in Iran. Its network has been damaged, so Mr Musk has kindly allowed the Iranians to use his Starlink internet system
Wi-Fi is local, tens of metres. It’s what connects your home router to devices in your house. Do you mean mobile broadband, i.e. 3G, 4G, 5G etc.?
Who cares about such technical subtleties?
You might just as well wonder what African nation holds the largest mineral reserves.
Or wonder what bombs may pierce 8km under the surface.
Never question statements from the stalwart chorus!
Musk spent time in Israel, doing the bidding of the Israeli government, and looking frightened. He ensured starlink would not work in Gaza. I can imagine he would be able to follow internet users in Iran. Telecommunications centres would be likely targets. Just speculating.
Trump says “we now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran”.
Confused over which country he works for?
We can now expect a fair few Zionist warplanes to be shot down.
BR: ” We can now expect a fair few Zionist warplanes to be shot down.”
We can but hope.
However, when they do get shot down, we can guarantee that this will be considered a hostile act, for which ‘reprisals’ will be called.
Remember – Israel’s first strikes do not count. Nor the second, third, fourth, and so on. But anything that The Enemy does after that is considered an act of aggression, doubtless anti-Semitic, for which unlimited amount of ‘counter-strikes’ are perfectly permissible, up to and including genocide, war crimes, and every other crime against humanity mentioned in the GCs, which should be considered a list of suggestions rather than prohibitions.
Those B-2 bombers are sat there, Iran knows what they are going to be used for… Even if they attack Fordow, the attacks have been so widely trailed, it’s probably empty. And what’s to stop them building deeper tunnels in the future, there might only be a localised collapse, if any.
And why wait for a carrier strike group to arrive and get into formation? The US is already involved heavily.
Iran’s real nuclear weapon though, is destroying all oil & gas infrastructure in the region, clogging the Strait, putting US gas prices up by x4. How would Trump fare electorally, how would any western leader fare electorally in that scenario?
Not suggesting they do that , but were any of us in their existential place that they didn’t ask to be in.
The next step, in a day? In a week or two? is the use in Iran of the world -famous “GBU-57” bunker-buster. No insider information needed. The US of A will pierce anything.
The supreme leader is expected to reach for the very last branch he’s been offered before elimination. A safe haven, where he could entertain his former ally Bashar…
I’m sure nothing of this ever transpired into the British embassy (sorry for the forlorn empire), but more possibly the Russian embassy in America. Our gracious host may have some interesting scoops about this. Please enlighten us if you care.
Meanwhile, we are all terrified!
“The US of A will pierce anything.”
Ah, yes another of those wunderwaffen, infallible right up to the point when they fail to do the job they were supposed to do.
You don’t seem to be familiar with the concept of ‘IRONY’.
Please consult the nearest dictionary.
Wunderwaffen? Where are you from exactly?
It wasn’t clear if you were being ironic, so I posted something that could be read either way. Sorry that you missed that.
Don’t be sorry. You can always pretend!
I’ll leave that to you.
Thank you, fearless
Western leaders are at the G7 openly celebrating a war of aggression. An illegal, unprovoked attack, launched out of the blue on a country in negotiations. One that has already killed and maimed many civilians. These are indisputable facts that are simply not being conveyed in Western nations.
If a BBC newsreader read these indisputable facts live, they’d be sacked on the spot. Might not make it to the end of the broadcast.
BBC’s main news at Six tonight, was entirely from the Israeli perspective. Not once did they mention the illegality of the initial attacks, or how attacks on nuclear facilities are illegal.
They are as bad as the shitty,foreign owned UK press, with their : WHY WE SHOULD ALL WEEP FOR ISRAEL EVEN THOUGH THEY STARTED THE WAR warped opinion pieces from zionist journos.
The BBC presenter, in Israel, actually gave the Israeli justification of pre-emptive strikes : ‘to prevent Iran acquiring nuclear weapons’.
There is no evidence they were on the brink of functional nuclear weapons, or that Khamenei’s edict(fatwa) banning development had been lifted.
They’d enriched uranium to 60%, but that’s a far cry from having a proven, tested miniaturised warhead, that they can stick atop a missile – a lengthy complex process. And flying a plane in, to drop a crude atom bomb over Israel is impossible.
Indeed, the lousy BBC have accelerated their anti-iranian influence campaign. If it was Iran that all of a sudden launched a war of aggression against Israel, the framing, wording, narration would of course be 100% negative and critical through and through..
Islamic rep. of Iran that has not started a single war since they got power in 1979, still BBC frame Iran as some menacing warmongering power:
“Five reasons why Iran is involved in so many global conflicts – BBC World Service “
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=KEWp2xn67f4
Or take this from yesterday, when Israel targeted the iranian newscaster IRIB, the wording was that mere “debris” had fallen on the building! There was also a shrug, almost neutral to joyful reporting from the western journalists in general about this brazen war crime against the media inside Iran.
” Debris falls in Iranian state TV studio during live broadcast as Israeli strikes continue | BBC News “
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGDzWqIeXI8
Let’s take a moment to remember the BBC employee Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. Flushed down the memory hole but still an indicator of what the BBC does.
The British state spreads massive doublethink on issues of dual citizenship and even on the simpler issue of protection of citizens who have been detained abroad … or in international waters.
The guardian is also normalising this Israeli – US bloodlust, by casually talking about killing the supreme leader, as if it’s like choosing whether to have large fries with a cheese burger.
Nothing should be normalised about Israel, their society has been psychologically warped by years of killing their opponents : we hate them, they hate us. It’s like the Capitol in the fictional Hunger Games series, everyone who lives outside their boundaries(Arabs) are worthless trash to them.
It’s pretty obvious really, that had the decision Netanyahu claims had been taken – he’s lying obviously – namely, to develop weapons, he wouldn’t have attacked. And Iran wouldn’t still be fucking about with the silly IAEA inspections, they’d have told Grossi’s crew to get lost and left the NPT, as is any signature’s legal right.
All Netanyahu’s lies,… the reality is, if Iran quits the NPT then he’ll be left guessing, and I don’t think Trump has the justification, or the support to keep bombing Iran into submission. Huge protests could erupt around the world and possibly in the US, where Trump isn’t exactly everyone’s idea of a good president.
“An illegal, unprovoked attack, ”
When a member of the “international community” does it, it’s spelt p-r-e-e-m-p-t-i-v-e. It’s only when Russia, China, Iran or North Korea do it that “unprovoked” is spelt how you spell it. Oh and “illegal” is spelt i-n s-e-l-f d-e-f-e-n-c-e in the former case, too.
As Craig earlier said on Twitter/X today:
Everything I have ever stood for or believed in makes me intellectually committed to taking a stance against violence.
But two years of pent emotion from witnessing the relentless slaughter of small children in Gaza, makes me cheer on every Iranian missile.
There, I said it.
I feel exactly the same, I am anti-violence to the point that I would rather not even hurt a small fly but seeing that Israel atleast get some bruises makes me glad. It is just human.
And is it not interesting that when Russia invaded Ukraine western social media approved death threats against russians..
‘Facebook allows war posts urging violence against russians’
Meta Platforms (FB.O), will allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion, according to internal emails seen by Reuters on Thursday, in a temporary change to its hate speech policy.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/exclusive-facebook-instagram-temporarily-allow-calls-violence-against-russians-2022-03-10/
But calling for threats against israelis is course not allowed that would be antisemitic, sigh. These hypocrites..
Happy Jack.
Cheers for everything you said.
Just longing for the Cuckoo Clock to chime again. It’s been a few days…
Melrose.
” In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace. And what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”
Orson Welles.
“Welles would later learn that cuckoo clocks are made in Germany, not Switzerland.”
Don’t berate Orson Welles. He was just trying to level with his audience. Besides, have you seen “Chimes at Midnight”? It might tell you a lot about what he really thought…
90% of the public like to see a bully get a taste of their own medicine.
The law, most religious texts, good novels and dramas are all based on the idea of comeuppance. The US will lose eventually; maybe some natural disaster will befall that country which has fault lines and a supervolcano in Yellowstone capable of causing devastation across N.America. No doubt when the time comes, the devout will claim it’s God’s justice and not simply plate tectonics.
I think you put that very, very well, Craig.
Sooner or later, Article 111 of the Iranian Constitution may apply.
So, it’s probably wise to already discuss its implications, whether at a reception or at any other event that may not threaten the interests of our host.
I personally think that any further loss of life would be a major mistake.
I imagine we are all old enough to remember this:
WikiLeaks Updates
#wikileaks @wikileaks · Aug 3, 2024
« Former General of the US Army Wesley Clark on the military strategy after 9/11 attacks: “We are going to take out 7 countries in 5 years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and finishing it off with Iran” [2007] »
8:17 AM · Aug 3, 2024
⦿ https://x.com/wikileaks/status/1819709215352438921
Watch Video Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAnNJW9_KYA
Iran may prove a tough nut to crack for the regime changers though. They need the Iranian people to do the heavy lifting.
There is a problem though, one that differentiates Iran from Libya, Syria and Iraq, . The population is 95% Shia Islam; they have a clerical regime, but they aren’t going to abandon their religion, there will still be mosques. I don’t see how the US can force anything other than a temporary change.
In Syria, the Sunni majority, was long oppressed by the minority Alawites(branch of Shia Islam) It was relatively easy to bring about regime change. In Iraq, Saddam’s Tikriti clan was part of the Sunni minority, thus, the long-oppressed Shia majority, long persecuted by Saddam, happily took their rightful place in power.
Point being, the US can kill their leaders, and maybe their departure will be welcomed? But ultimately, they can’t kill the Shia Islamic faith of a united people.
The USA’s Nimitz carrier strike group could arrive in the region on Friday. That’s the quarterly “triple witching” day on derivatives markets – a time of extreme sensitivity and therefore with enormous moneymaking opportunities for those who have special access to information and levers or who are believed to.
Shares in mass murder merchants such as BAE are up even as indexes are down. Just to be clear – that is a redistribution of wealth.
The species-level need for a better social arrangement than the one we’ve got now is becoming ever more palpable.
Its a real possibility.
“This has always been Netanyahu’s calculus and it may be that he’s found one president stupid enough to execute his ultimate objective”
https://nitter.poast.org/MaxBlumenthal/status/1934825898248949962#m
Off topic, sort of, but I’ve been delighted to hear Craig, either in-person or name checked, on many US podcasts I listen to in the last few days. I have the impression he has made many good connections and no doubt will develop them.
I am coming round to thinking that Starmer and Lammy cannot be terrified by their breaking every rule in the international law book but they might be from the state of international anarchy and nihilism that they Netanyahu, Merz, Macron, Trump and the rest are creating. When these people can talk casually about “taking out” another country’s leader they are putting their own heads above the parapet and I for one would not be sorry if anyone took aim at any one or the lot of them. They certainly do not deserve to be where they are.
Given all we’ve witnessed in Gaza I’m surprised there hasn’t been a lot more interfaith trouble here in the UK; I don’t want to see it, nor would I condone it, but given we have over 3 million Muslims in the UK, I thought we may see Synagogues attacked etc.
Islamic communities must be boiling with rage, given what is happening in Gaza pisses everyone off I know, and my family and those I know are not even Muslim. We even had Jewish family friends — deceased now, but I don’t know how I’d feel if they were around today and pro-Israel. I don’t see how anyone can support the overkill that is going on in Gaza, it’s completely outrageous. Starting a war against Iran just adds another thing to be furious about, as if bombing Lebanon wasn’t enough.
If by “complete evacuation” we mean with more than 80% of the population leaving, I think the biggest city that has ever been completely evacuated was Phnom Penh in 1975, when 2m people were made to leave.
Teheran’s population is 10m, about the same size as London’s. So when US president Donald Trump says everyone should leave Teheran, he is talking about an evacuation five times biiigggger than any previous city evacuation.
Would it surprise anyone if he were to try to bring about even more extreme crimes against humanity by the end of the week?
Such calls in themselves assist with shock and awe. So without paying any respect to Zionist and US aims, it’s worth pointing out that if a party wished to destroy the military and intelligence capabilities that the British monarchist regime keeps in London while minimising loss of life (yeah, right) it wouldn’t have to empty the entire metropolis with its 32 boroughs.
Something else is going on. Terrorism against the Iranian population on an unprecedented scale, and the normalisation of prospects of “biblical” levels of destruction.
FFS Russia and China, step in.
How can the very old, the sick, the infirm leave? Predictably ignorant and callous call from Trump. Imagine someone telling everyone to evacuate London or in the US, Orlando, New York or LA.
Yes, but..Israel started it.
“Yes, but..Israel started it.”
I am sure it is a great comfort to the dying to know that the other side started it.
Unfortunately Brian, the World looked the other way, when Israel unleashed a still continuing genocide on Gaza. By doing this they emboldened the embodiment of evil, to attack Iran.
Ali Khamenei and Masoud Pezeshkian are terrified.
The Donald has clearly decided to use overwhelming force to destroy Iranian resistance. And please Bibi.
And this with the complicity of Putin and Xi.
How come these world leaders don’t even care about the Geneva conventions? No education obviously.
Let’s still hope all of this tragedy leads to a new level of resistance in the non-Western world…
I think it’s going to damage non-proliferation. Look how far Iran is from Israel, lots of capitals will be thinking, could we be next? Turkey appears to want an independent nuclear deterrent, at which point they’ll probably pull out of NATO.
There can’t be a situation, in which one little, very aggressive country(Israel) is solely and uniquely trusted to possess nuclear weapons. You can argue for a nuclear-weapons-free Middle East, but there is no case for a sole dominant power. Everything Israel does, it does so using the knowledge it can out-escalate those it’s attacking. That is not a healthy or sustainable situation; it’s a lopsided imbalance of power.
“If there were not an Israel, we’d have to invent one.”, Joe Biden, 1986.
The worst thing Khamenei and Pezeshkian could do is flee into exile in Russia or somewhere else.
And unlike Assad, who would’ve surely been hung and his family killed (nice these US and UK planned coups , aren’t they), he doesn’t need to. Because the IRGC are loyal and if he dies a martyr – to an Israeli or US strike – it’ll complicate their regime change plans considerably.
Bit like Obi Wan Kenobi when he said, “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
Stuff that legends are made of.
“How come these world leaders don’t even care about the Geneva conventions? ”
The Geneva Convention is subordinate to the rules laid out in the Melian Dialogue, i.e. it only applies between equals.
One last time, IRONY.
Which doesn’t always lead very far, but is at least worth the gibberish we’ve been flooded with…
Like humour, irony doesn’t really work when you have to explain it. If no-one laughs at your jokes, there is a strong possibility they aren’t actually funny.
India has apparently advised its citizens to leave Tehran. As I recall, when Putin was about to invade Ukraine, the US embassy advised its citizens to leave.
I still think Israel is mad to start a war with Iran when Saddam couldn’t bring them down even with American backing, and no way should the UK get involved, but anyway Tehran could get too hot for foreigners soon. I hope any bombs fall on the walls of minus 5 star Hotel Evin and enable the residents to make a quick exit!
– “and no way should the UK get involved…”
Britain already is involved. The weapons Israel is using on Iran arrive via RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus.
It is true that Iran and the UK are not on friendly terms, and UK citizens are liable to arrest if they set foot in Iran, but that is not a sufficient reason to get involved with Israel’s war. Starmer may pay for this in future elections.
A lot of Blood Curdling Cries all round I think.
As usual no-one really knows what’s going on as BBC reporters stood on a Hill in Jerusalem or coming out of the 4/5 star Tel – Aviv Hotels are not going to pursue any real journalism and instead (as they do in the UK Parliament ) just wait until their daily readout is handed to them on a plate by their obliging hosts.
Ditto: if you are not in Iran ( it’s a big place) as Western reporter you aren’t going to learn much either.
I hear and see ( don’t know) that Israel is not allowing anyone to leaved Israel ( except Netanyahu?).
The Fox Man – Hesgeth – is apparently ‘ fuming ‘ because US/Israeli people are being held captive by the Israel Government.
And of course the ‘ Experts ‘ are doing the rounds sitting behind News Desks looking as though they really know hat’s going on when they patently don’t.
The other morning a France 24 journalist was saying that Israel’s Iron Dome had stopped all incoming missiles into Tel – Aviv or Haifa.
The video behind him showed about 10 explosions on the ground of missiles that had hit.
That really is a denial of reality.
Unless of course, he is one of those journalists that cannot remember what they reported on from say, a couple of months ago and like all liars you need a very good memory to keep up the further pretence.
Or perhaps he just doesn’t watch much news as it’s equivalent to a Busman’s Holiday?
One thing I do know is that we – he and they don’t know either.
We will get to know as usual when things have to become known.
Then, the unknown knowns will be known.
To coin a convoluted phrase.
p.s. Ukraine has got it’s second Dear John letter from a former loyal Beau.
Reply to my self.
Huckabee not Hegseth.
Well, we know the US will be involved soon.
Given all the advanced weaponry the US, UK and Germany et al, have been supplying Ukraine, whilst claiming once it’s in Ukrainian hands, “nothing to do with us guv”. Maybe by the same token, Pakistan and China could similarly wash their hands of all responsibility, for a few, little gifts. Can you imagine the indignation in the West if those in the East copied our example.
If China have any sense they’ll be sending military observers and watching what the US do next and the tech used very closely, because the US is eyeing up fighting them next, over Taiwan.
The US is always planning its next war, as proved by this president, elected as he was on an anti-war platform promising to end all wars.
“elected as he was on an anti-war platform promising to end all wars.”
It’s beginning to look like those elected on an anti-war ticket are the dangerous ones.
“Ditto: if you are not in Iran ( it’s a big place) as Western reporter you aren’t going to learn much either.”
It makes me laugh when people read that Israel has bombed a few cities in Iran and this is going to make the entire country panic and destroy the social order. FFS, unless you can actually see or hear the explosion, you are unlikely to know anything had happened until long after.
Craig, thanks again for reminding us that Israel and the USA are profoundly contemptuous of international law, and now we must assume that Britain is firmly part of that club. Of course a willingness to make up the rules as you go along is a game that all sides can play. I guess that the previously agreed rule of outlawing chemical or biological weapons no longer obtains with the obvious inevitable outcome. The search for intelligent life in this part of the galaxy will have to continue without the citizens of Earth.
Meanwhile in Palestine Skwawkbox reports that more that 200 civilians queuing for food rations were blown apart by IDF forces:
https://skwawkbox.org/2025/06/17/video-more-than-200-palestinian-civilians-blown-apart-waiting-for-food-at-israeli-aid-station/
“Britain is firmly part of that club…”
Britian is a founder member. It’s not all Britain’s fault. It’s the human condition. We just haven’t worked out how to get past this impediment yet. We’ll either work it out or die in the process.
– “We just haven’t worked out how to get past this impediment yet.”
Sortition.
The vast majority of the public want ceasefires. A government body chosen at random from the general public (i.e. by sortition) would stop the genocide and stop the wars.
Withut sortition, you can’t have a democracy. Presumably, that is why we don’t have sortition.
Do you think Trump even realises that he’s Netanyahu’s useful idiot?
Netanyahu has been pestering the US for years to do this, and only Trump has acquiesced. Netanyahu has done this now, because he knows that in under a year and a half, after the midterms, Trump could well be a lame duck president, and then even possibly impeached. Got to give it to Netanyahu, he’s far cleverer than Trump, although that’s not saying much, most people are.
Useful idiot-in-chief,
“Trump has acquiesced”. Amazing what $100mn from Adelson can achieve.
British regime media asks what is China sending to Iran:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/06/17/china-sends-mystery-transport-planes-into-iran/
Note: China can send what it f***ing likes to Iran, and doesn’t have to check in with British poshos (or the Zionists) first. International law isn’t Mornington Crescent.
Iranian Jews condemn Zionist brutality and support the Iranian government’s military response against the Israeli regime:
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/jews-of-isfahan-decry-israeli-strikes–back-iran-s-response
What would you expect them to do, in a country like Iran? This reminds me of Jews in Damascus demonstrating in favour of Assad.
Now anti-Zionist Jews in the West, particularly groups like Neturei Karta in Israel itself – that’s really impressive.
“What would you expect them to do, in a country like Iran? ”
Just because their co-religionists in Israel have put their lives in danger doesn’t mean that they don’t mean what they say. I very much doubt if it was more than a tiny percentage of Iran’s Jewish population that was actually demonstrating.
Zionists describe the conflict, increasingly, in a biblical dimension – a prophesy of sorts. They may well have their wish.
We are still a few weeks away from solar maximum and our star has just unleashed two X class flares towards our planet. Whether they emulate the Carrington Event we will discover tomorrow, but one may hope for a Divine intervention nonetheless. A level playing field. Worth saying a prayer for.
Classicle western schizofrenoid hypocrisy.
The West have for centuries and decades committed warcrimes and crimes again humanity incl. ethnic cleansing and genocide incl. the well known Holocaust by Germany during WW-2,
No wonder what Israel is doing,is not unknown to the West,besides their geopolitical interest and greed
Yes this is just a continuation of european colonialism, where you have rabid europeans (this time ashkenazi supremacists) waging war for, alleged, western causes against native populations of the Middle East whether it is Palestinians or Iran, one of the oldest nation on earth.
Some weeks back Tory leader said that Ukraine and Gaza is “proxy war” for the West:
“Israel is fighting a proxy war on behalf of the UK” Kemi Badenoch defends Israel’s actions in Gaza
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/m9XdN0ME9o0
And yesterday Germany came out the same nasty comment:
Germany’s Merz says Israel doing ‘dirty work for us’ in Iran
https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-merz-says-israel-doing-dirty-work-for-us-in-iran/live-72939104
The masks are off. The cult leader Netanyahu have really managed to indoctrinate the western elite to back whatever Israel choose to do. European leaders talk like they are messianic.
“The masks are off. ”
Not far enough. It is in our nature to pin blame on a small group – “It’s all the fault of the Jews/Muslims/capitalists/communists/socialists/gays/Americans/Israelis/Russians” etc. The temptation to believe that if we could only get rid of our current crop of world leaders, or even our current crop of world oligarchs, the world would be a far better place is very strong. The truth, easily confirmed by a glance at the history books, is that, so long as humanity has social systems that reward the less scrupulous with riches and power, it will end up in the mess that it is currently in and that it was in twice in the previous century. The masks have to slip very far before people will bring themselves to realise that.
Bayard.
The African concept of Ma’at did for large periods govern the civilised world.
The more power drains away from the Euro-colonial elites history, archaeology and anthropology become open to new interpretations and neglected evidence is considered.
Professor Michael Hudson the great economist and author of Superimperialism ( the text that inspired all those who advocate for de-dollarisation ) has done great work with the Peabody museum in Harvard looking at the functioning of the Sumerian economy. I can highly recommend professor Hudson’s And Forgive Them Their Debts
The more that is being discovered and reevaluated about antiquity in Asia, Africa and the Americas ( and parts of Europe) the clearer it is becoming that principles of high civilisation existed in these places the scope and grandeur of which we are only starting to fathom. We have fallen a long way.
I am not saying that there was universal peace and that wars and conflicts did not happen but they were contained and limited and were not total wars. There is still much to learn and much to hope for.
The work of Cheik Anta Diop and Theophile Obenga is opening new gateways to me that is giving me some hope.
Best wishes.
Pity about the censorship on here now. I guess this is not the place I thought it was.
—
[ Mod: The comment that was removed – for directing readers to an external video podcast (of a long conflab between right-wing media commentators) while not outlining what they actually said, and for failing to contribute to the discussion of the points raised by Craig above – can now be found in the discussion forum, with a summary, on its own thread:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/forums/topic/the-propaganda-war-with-iran/
The patent lack of responses so far might imply that nobody else thought the video was quite as “mind blowing” or “fascinating” as you did, Mac. ]
Could it be that the USA will abandon Ukraine – and focus on Iran – afterall, the USA abandoned Afghanistan to focus its assets on Russia and Ukraine – still the likes of Germany, and the EU overall – will still aid the Neo-Nazi dictatorship in Ukraine – at great expense to their own economies, and to the detriment of their own citizens.
No one appears to have thought any of this through: A sovereign country was the victim of an illegal unprovoked attack and is now being told it has to not only “unconditionally surrender” to its attacker, but completely disarm. Isn’t this exactly the scenario we’ve been told Ukraine faces; a scenario that the UK and EU have been getting on their moral high horse about for the last few years?
Why should Iran – the victim of the unprovoked attack – have to disarm? And in a dangerous region, with competing territorial claims, including the waters of the Persian Gulf. It’s too big a country to agree to having no defences. Would the UK unconditionally surrender and give up its weapons if attacked out of the blue by a nuclear-armed bully? would the US? it’s unprecedented BS.
Is Netanyahu going to roll out of bed one day and decide Turkey or KSA must completely disarm, so he can sleep a little easier? Where does indulging Netanyahu’s fears end?
“Is Netanyahu going to roll out of bed one day and decide Turkey or KSA must completely disarm,..”
Only dictators do things like that. Netanyahu is a democratically elected leader. Less of the wrongthink, please.
“Would the UK unconditionally surrender and give up its weapons if attacked out of the blue by a nuclear-armed bully? ”
If the “nuclear-armed bully” was the US, it would have to.
Republicofscotland
A definitive yes from myself.
The very idea that the US gives ( or ever gave ) a toss about Ukraine and Ukranians is pure bullshit
for Wester Liberals.
This Iran/ Israel/US War is now rapidly turning into Military Logistics race.
If Biden or Trump had built these magnificent Military Production Factories then things may be
different.
They didn’t so, the weaponry is not only in short supply but will run out pretty soon in my opinion.
Unfortunately for the US Israel and Ukraine the Stock market and Financiers are only in the game
of making money from War.
They don’t produce weapons and you can’t fire shares prices at Iran.
The question for Trump and his MAGA base is:
Are they in favour of putting the US Military in harm’s way?
Plus ( for Bannon ):
Who is in charge of the US?
Trump or Netanyahu?
Having visited Youtube and searched for “Tel Aviv damage”, I am shocked at the level of destruction there; footage of which is missing from our news bulletins.
This begs the question, why would the leader of a country attack another state knowing this kind of damage would be the result? Yes, I know Netanyahu appears to be an evil psychopath, but is he really so dismissive of his own population that he will sacrifice them and their livelihoods for his own misguided bloodlust?
Or have Netanyahu and Trump seriously underestimated Iran’s retaliatory capabilities, and treated them as just another backward but oil rich nation to be plundered at will?
In either case, we appear to be witnessing the results when powerful people sign up to the will of Satan.
This could be interpreted in many ways. Zionism has always been prepared to sacrifice people (their own and others) for the cause. If the calculation is that America will intervene if it appears things are existential for Israel then the losses will be compensated for if Iran is destroyed leaving Israel the hegemon in West Asia. Alternatively (and just as plausibly) they could be high on their own supply. This tends to distort reality and it may be that only the pain of suffering can reach the hippocampus and override their intoxicating delusion of unlimited power.
The other development which shocks me (although I tended to assume this might now be the norm), is the level of complicity in the UK media, and their lack of interest in showing much of the destruction of Israel by a few well targeted Iranian missiles.
I find myself refusing to watch any UK news outlet, simply because of what they are not reporting on. What is the point, when the news is just one-sided propaganda?
Will I ever trust Western media to tell the unbiased truth again? I doubt it.
Of course, Netanyahu and his cronies were very happy to look the other way on October the seventh.
This opened the way to the final solution for Palestinians and a large step forward for the greater Israeli project.
The sacrifice of a few hundred Israeli Jews has been a huge lottery win for the zionists, and it keeps bibi out of prison.
There needs to be a MASS REVOLT against war-mongers and war-makers. The survival of humans and human civilization depend on it. And STILL no international assistance or protection from those israeli devils!!! An utter DISGRACE.
https://veaterecosan.blogspot.com/2025/06/more-israeli-terror-eventdisaster.html
—
[ Mod: The URL you posted was invalid, so I found the one you most likely intended and fixed the link for you.
From the moderation rules for commenters:
“Contribute
Contributions which are primarily just a link to somewhere else will be deleted. You can post links, but give us the benefit of your thoughts upon them.” ]
Donald (bone spurs) Trump was granted 5 deferments during the Vietnam war. Now he is ignoring his Nat Sec advisor Tulsi Gabbard in favour of the serial liar Netanyahu. He is calling for Iran’s unconditional surrender and the evacuation of Tehran. Think about that for a moment, to evacuate Tehran (population 10 million, greater Iran possibly 15 million) would mean the deaths of thousands of citizens, the sick and hospital patients, pregnant women, the old and infirm. Then, where are they to go? This is similar to Israel ordering the Palestinians to various areas in the Gaza strip. Trumps orders are inhuman and prove beyond doubt that he is a psychotic mad man. He is not the only one, German Chancellor F Merz when interviewed for German TV at the G7 meeting said… “Israel is doing the dirty work for all of us, this Mullah regime has brought death and destruction upon the world with attacks and murder. I can only say: the greatest respect for the fact that the Israeli leadership had the courage to do this.”
There you have it, Israels ‘right to self defence’ now covers the right to a war of aggression.
Even the intervention of the west will not save Israel, It is to be hoped that Iran’s stockpile of missiles and its threat of any Gulf Arab counry helping the US, will deter the US from intervening.
Murdering Muslims. Destroying whole peoples and societies. Slaughtering children and babies.
“Doing the dirty work, for all of us,” is how the leader of Germany describes it.
That’ll be, literally “Mein Kampf” I guess ?
Friedrich’s grandfather – a senior squadron leader in the SA – was a big fan of the author.
Friedrich has often described his grandfather as an admirable role model.
And another one bites the dust …
“Fifth Israeli F-35 Fighter Jet Shot Down in Iran’s Tehran Province”
https://sputnikglobe.com/20250618/fifth-israeli-f-35-fighter-jet-shot-down-over-varamin-in-irans-tehran-province-1122277913.html
Half a billion and counting.
Why would this be brought out, unless of course the US is going to openly attack Iran.
“The USAF Continuity of Government Aircraft (Doomsday Plane) has arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Washington DC.
if in case things get out of hand..the US government will evidently be in Air.
The last time this was used was September 11, 2001.”
https://nitter.poast.org/MonitorX99800/status/1935289178994130965#m
There are four “Doomsday” aircraft – Boeing E4B – this one 73-1676 was in the air in September 2024.
https://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/731676
This one 73-1677 was up on 3rd June 2025
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/731677
This one 74-0787 was up on 17th June 2025
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/740787
And finally the last one 75-0125 was 16th June 2025
https://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/750125
So, I am not sure where you are getting your info from.
andyoldlabour.
Errmm….
Click the link provided for that answer, that’s why I posted it.
It was a pointless link which was clearly wrong, just a lot of scaremongering.
Russia watching with interest – the illegal war on Iran – will probably see oil prices rise – which will lead to more revenue for Russia – will Russia aid Iran? If this is anything to go by probably not, or at least not openly.
“The newly signed Strategic Partnership Treaty with Iran includes no obligation for direct military support. It simply states that neither party will aid an aggressor.”
For Putin, the ongoing war between Iran and Israel is just like icing on the cake.
Previously, Iran was a major purveyor of oil for China. But with all the extensive damage inflicted by the IDF to the refineries around Tehran, it clearly cannot be the case any longer. So China will have no other choice from now on than to buy oil from Russia, much to the delight of Putin, considering the abysmal deficit Russia is experiencing because of the Ukraine war…
For once, two wrongs can make a right!
“will Russia aid Iran? If this is anything to go by probably not, or at least not openly.”
Putin knows his history and most likely is thinking of how WWI started. He doesn’t want Iran to be the equivalent of Serbia, a hundred odd years on.
Neither Russia nor Iran gave much aid to Armenia, which Israeli-armed and Turkish-armed Azerbaijan walked all over, imposing a nakba on the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Later, Russia had to run from Syria at short notice.
Right now, Shoigu seems to be going to Pyongyang a lot.
There will come a time when the Russian government has no time for the argument that allowing regional successes to Nazis of one description or another – even while eventually defeating the ones in Kiev – is a price worth paying to avoid using its strategic nukes to lay down the law to the declining degenerating USA and that country’s overlords.
Trump is not to be trusted as he blows in the wind. And I don’t know why Russia hasn’t helped Iran? Maybe it’s because they think it a hopeless situation as Iran doesn’t even have an air force and their AA defences clearly aren’t up to much either.
Russia has seen NATO virtually running Ukraine’s war; as shown when Trump briefly cut live US intelligence flows and Ukraine’s forces saw massive reversals in Kursk. Ukraine forces said they became ‘sitting ducks’ as they were blind to Russian troop movements. The true extent of US help in Ukraine is probably staggering.
Old Trump ally, Steve Bannon, claims that Trump is being manipulated into war by the Deep State. But Trump is headstrong enough to resist that, so I think Bannon is wrong.
I think the US will use Delta Force to attack Fordo, as the GBU-57 MOP , the so-called ‘bunker buster’ isn’t guaranteed to reach those depths and verification of success would prove difficult. The Iranians may have already cleared it out(?) and rigged it to explode when they enter.
“Maybe it’s because they think it a hopeless situation as Iran doesn’t even have an air force and their AA defences clearly aren’t up to much either.”
Goose.
Maybe not.
“But Iran is the much bigger country. It has more than ten times the people than Israel. Its area is 1.5 million square kilometer versus Israel’s 21,000 square kilometer. Iran is mostly self sufficient. It has a widely dispersed industry and a well trained work force which can be switched from civil to military production. Israel depends on imports which can be interrupted. Its industry is small and highly concentrated in a few areas.
There is no doubt that Iran would win in a (long) war of attrition.
That is why Israel needs the U.S. to jump in.”
https://conflictsforum.substack.com/p/does-trump-realistically-expect-iranian
However.
Can you imagine the MSM reports, not just in America, if Trump says no – we won’t join the war, and Israel falls – of course before that conclusion could be reached, I can picture Britain, and half of Europe rushing to Israel’s aid to delay the defeat.
No, Trump will give the attack the get go – in the USA and especially in Washington – it would be political suicide not to give it the green light – with so many political beasts in the pocket of Israel.
“No, Trump will give the attack the get go – in the USA and especially in Washington – it would be political suicide not to give it the green light”
Yeah, but if Iran turns into Vietnam on steroids, which is quite likely, given that the US will not be fighting a country led by a not particular popular dictator, but a people who see themselves fighting a religious war, he’s going to be politically f*cked, too. Unlike WWII, not everyone who remembers Vietnam is dead or dying.
I’d be very surprised if Trump put troops in on the ground. What happened the last time would make it unacceptable among the advisors – safe distance only is all that’s acceptable.