Repeatedly US policy has aligned itself with Israel and repeatedly this has led to military and political failure. The last time the US decided otherwise was during the presidency of Eisenhower and the 1956 Suez crisis. Here we go again …
BTW A strange message was sent by Israeli security reporter Yossi Melman:
- #Baghdad collapses. Shells on US & Iran Embassies
Premier Maliki left. Chief of Staff escaped yo Germany.
Heavy casualties to Iran forces.
○ NY Times – Sectarian violence returning to Baghdad with extrajudicial killings and kidnappings
“The fighting is creeping closer to Baghdad and the offensive is being led by Sunni fighters drawn from the Sunni militant groups the 1920 Revolution Brigades and the Islamic Army, according to an Iraqi Intelligence source. Both of those groups have long had a presence in Diyala Province and were involved in some of the bloodiest fighting during the sectarian battles of 2005-2007. The 1920 brigades was formed from disaffected Iraqi Army officers who were left without jobs after the Americans dissolved the military in 2003.”
Israel concerned about any US-Iran cooperation over Iraq
JERUSALEM – Israel voiced concern at the prospect of its closest ally, Washington, cooperating with its what it considers its deadliest foe, Iran, to stave off a sectarian break-up of Iraq.
Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz told Reuters, the United States and other major powers have pledged that any such cooperation would not set back their drive to curb Tehran’s nuclear program.
The Obama administration said on Sunday it was considering talks with Iran about the Iraqi crisis. Iranian officials have voiced openness to working with the Americans in helping Baghdad repel a Sunni Muslim insurgency.
While deploring the “ungodly horror” of the bloodshed in Iraq, Steinitz said Iran should not be helped to extend its sway in Iran where fellow Shi’ite Muslims form the majority.
That, he said would give Tehran an arc of control running through Syria, where the Iranians back embattled President Bashar Assad, and on to Lebanon, where they have powerful allies in the Hezbollah militia.
“And we would especially not want for a situation to be created where, because both the United States and Iran support the government of (Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri) al-Maliki, it softens the American positions on the issue which is most critical for the peace of the world, which is the Iranian nuclear issue,” Steinitz said in an interview.
Even before the Iraq crisis, Israel was concerned about Iran’s nuclear talks with Washington and five other powers, aimed at ensuring Iran is not developing atomic weapons capability. Israel fears Tehran would be able to shake off international sanctions built up over the last decade.
SEPARATION
Steinitz was cautiously optimistic that the negotiations would be unaffected by any international involvement in Iraq. “We are troubled, but we have been made to understand by everyone – the Americans and the British and the French and the Germans – that a total separation will be enforced,” he said.
Steinitz said such a separation of policies would be similar to Russia’s participation alongside Western powers in the Iranian nuclear talks even as it spars with them over Ukraine.
Expanding U.S. fleet, Amphibious USS Mesa Verde moved to Persian Gulf
(CNN) – The Norfolk-based USS Mesa Verde with 550 Marines aboard is expected to enter the Persian Gulf, a U.S. defense official tells CNN. The Marines and their V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft could help evacuate Americans from Iraq if necessary, the official said. The Mesa Verde is part of the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group.
The Norfolk-based aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush and destroyer USS Truxtun are also in the Persian Gulf, along with the USS Philippine Sea.
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A CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter launches from the amphibious transport dock ship USS Mesa Verde (Reuter/JPost)In addition to adding security personnel, some embassy staffers were being moved to consular offices in Basra and Irbil or sent to Jordan, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
1920 Revolution Brigades (Kata’ib Thawrat al-Ishreen)
The 1920 Revolution Brigades (Kata’ib Thawrat al-Ishreen) is a Sunni Islamic extremist group in the Iraqi insurgency that has claimed responsibility for several attacks on U.S. forces as well as some high profile incidents including the ‘kidnapping’ of U.S. marine Wassef Ali Hassoun in June 2004 and the bombing of the al-Arabiya TV headquarters in Baghdad in October 2006.
The group first appeared in June 2003 as a “nationalist Jihadist movement” dedicated to the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq in order to build an Islamic state. The 1920 Revolution Brigades is the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement in Iraq, formerly called the Iraqi National Islamic Resistance. The group is named after the 1920 Iraqi uprising against British colonial occupation following World War I, when the League of Nations granted the United Kingdom control over three Ottoman territories – Baghdad, Mosul, and Basra – that make up present day Iraq. Arabic script in the group’s logo contains a verse from the Quran popular among Jihadists, “Fight them, God shall torture them by your hands,” below which reads, “Islamic Resistance Movement, Twentieth Revolution Brigades.”
