It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, August 18, 2024
Kenya Airports Authority seeks to avert strike by the aviation union
The Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) announced on Friday that it has contingency plans to prevent disruptions to airport operations due to a possible strike by the country's main aviation union, set to start on August 19.
The Kenya Aviation Workers Union, which represents staff at airports and Kenya Airways, has threatened to go on strike starting Monday.
This protest is in response to a proposed deal with India's Adani Airports Holdings to develop Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya's largest airport.
The union is concerned that this deal could result in job losses and the hiring of non-Kenyan workers, referring to it in their strike notice as the "intended sale" of the airport.
The Kenyan government has clarified that the airport is not for sale and that no final decision has been made on the proposed public-private partnership to upgrade the airport.
The KAA emphasized that discussions are ongoing between the Ministry of Roads and Transport, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, KAA Management, and the Kenya Aviation Workers Union to reach a mutually agreeable solution.
Many Indian spices unsafe, fail to meet quality standards
The two brands under scrutiny MDH and Everest are among the most popular in India and are exported in Europe, Asia and North America.
Reuters Archive
India is the world's biggest exporter, producer and consumer of spices. / Photo: Reuters Archive
Nearly 12 percent of tested spice samples failed to meet quality and safety standards, according to data obtained by Reuters of tests by Indian authorities after several countries took steps over contamination risks in two popular brands.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India conducted inspections, sampling and testing of mixed spice blends after Hong Kong suspended sales of some blends of the MDH and Everest brands in April over high levels of a pesticide.
Britain then tightened controls on all spice imports from India, while New Zealand, the United States and Australia have said they were looking into issues related to the brands.
MDH and Everest have said their products are safe for consumption.
Their spices are among the most popular in India - the world's biggest exporter, producer and consumer of spices. They are sold in Europe, Asia and North America.
The data, obtained by Reuters under India's Right to Information Act, shows 474 of 4,054 samples tested between May and early July did not meet quality and safety parameters.
Under scrutiny
The safety agency told Reuters in a statement it did not have breakdowns by brands of the spices it tested but was taking necessary action against companies involved.
"Action on non-conforming samples has been taken as stipulated," it said, referring to penalty provisions under Indian law, without elaborating.
Reuters open records request sought reports on all the samples that failed the tests, but the agency said such reports were unavailable.
India's domestic spice market was valued at $10.44 billion in 2022, according to Zion Market Research.
Its exports of spices and spice products were a record $4.46 billion in the fiscal year that ended in March.
NAKBA II
IOF arrested over 10,000 Palestinians in West Bank
Since Oct. 7
Published on August 18, 2024 | The number of Palestinians arrested by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in the West Bank since the beginning of the genocide on the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7 has risen to 10,100 detainees, after the arrest of 25 Palestinians during the past two days, including a female student and children, in addition to freed captives.
The Commission of Prisoners' Affairs and the Prisoners' Club reported that recent arrests across the West Bank were accompanied by assaults on detainees and their families, as well as widespread vandalism and property damage.
The arrests of Palestinians in the West Bank have increased in frequency, coinciding with the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, during which the Israeli occupation has slaughtered more than 40,000 Palestinian civilians and wounded nearly 100,000 others for 317 consecutive days.
UK Legal bid to stop 25% cut in affordable childcare
Maya Sall Local Democracy Reporting Service Adriana Elgueta BBC News
Save Hackney's Children's Centres
The campaign to save the centres has been underway since 2021
Hackney Council is facing a High Court challenge by campaigners battling to save two children’s centres from closure.
Parents and campaigners claim that during the initial consultation to close Fernbank and Sebright children’s centres in Stoke Newington and Haggerston, alternative options were not offered and a lack of clarity regarding its funding, rendered it "unlawful" and "unfair".
The proposal is to cut 129 of the borough's 600 subsided childcare places.
Hackney Council has said the cuts are necessary to reduce its funding gap.
Save Hackney's Children's Centres
A protest was staged in February to save the two centres
Oldhill children’s centre in Clapton and Hillside in Stamford Hill are also facing a proposed reduction to term-time-only childcare services as part of the plans.
The first consultation in 2021 was met with a overwhelming negative response. As such, the council paused plans to "listen to resident concerns".
Since then, a new consultation in January invited alternative care providers to take over the two nurseries. The consultation also said if no providers are found by autumn both the nurseries will close in August next year.
Having gathered a new list of recommendations, this will be put before a decisive cabinet meeting on 16 September.
Natalie Aguilera, one of the campaign leaders said: "We do not want Hackney Council to be spending funds on court cases, but ultimately, we are firm in our belief that the consultation was unfair and unlawful, so we had no other choice than to pursue legal action."
She said that one of their key arguments in court will be that the council argues that the cuts are "necessary" but the funding for the nurseries is coming from a non-essential funding pot.
It is roughly costing the council £600,000 to fund the nurseries.
"We have been clear that we would fight tooth and nail to try to keep these valuable services – particularly the subsidised childcare – available to disadvantaged families, for which they are a lifeline," she added.
'No choice but legal action'
The council has previously said that there is a surplus of affordable childcare places in the borough.
In a formal response to the campaigners’ letter before claim, which was submitted in April and warned the council to expect a legal challenge, the Town Hall said it "does consider it necessary to achieve savings in the children’s service in order to reduce its overall funding gap".
It added: "Identifying a need to deliver savings does not suggest that such savings are inevitable and unavoidable. Nor does it necessarily imply that no alternative is available."
Hackney Council aims to find savings amid a £1m budget deficit, which they say is a result of a drop in nursery fees and higher operational costs.
It is trying to save £4m across its early years' service within the next three years.
Hackney Council was contacted again for new comment, but said it cannot comment on live legal proceedings.
The judicial review will take place on 6 and 7 November at the Royal Courts of Justice.
PRO-LIFE SUNDAY SERMON
Death penalty brings no justice, poison for society-pope
In preface to 'A Christian on Death Row'
ROME, 18 August 2024 ANSA English Desk
The death penalty is "in no way a solution to the violence that can strike innocent people", Pope Francis wrote in the preface released Sunday to 'A Christian on Death Row: My Commitment to Those Condemned', a new book by Dale Recinella, set for publication by the Vatican Publishing House (LEV) on Tuesday, August 27.
"Capital executions, far from bringing justice, fuel a sense of revenge that becomes a dangerous poison for the body of our civil societies", the pontiff wrote in the preface. "States should focus on allowing prisoners the opportunity to truly change their lives, rather than investing money and resources in their execution, as if they were human beings no longer worthy of living and to be disposed of", said the pope.
In the book out next Tuesday, Recinella, 72, formerly a successful lawyer on Wall Street, talks about his work since 1998 as a lay chaplain aiding inmates on death row in Florida, an experience he has shared with wife Susan.
"Jesus is capable of revolutionizing our plans, our aspirations, and our perspectives", the pontiff also wrote in the preface.
"The story of Dale Recinella, whom I met during an audience, and have come to know better through the articles he has written over the years for L'Osservatore Romano and now through this deeply moving book, confirms what I have said: only in this way can we understand how a man, who had other goals in mind for his future, became the chaplain—as a lay Christian, husband, and father—to those condemned to death.
"His is an extremely difficult, risky, and arduous task, because it touches evil in all its dimensions: the evil committed against the victims, which cannot be undone; the evil the condemned person is living through, knowing they are destined for certain death; the evil that, through the practice of the death penalty, is instilled in society.
According to the pontiff, "the Jubilee should commit all believers to collectively call for the abolition of the death penalty, a practice that, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, "is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person!" (n.2267).
In order to support such a thesis, Pope Francis quotes The Idiot in which Fyodor Dostoevsky "succinctly encapsulates the logical and moral unsustainability of the death penalty, speaking of a man condemned to death: "It is a violation of the human soul, nothing more! "It is written: 'Thou shalt not kill,' and yet, because he has killed, others kill him.
"No, it is something that should not exist".
The pontiff talks about Recinella's work as lay chaplain as "a great gift" for the Church and US society, where Dale works and lives.
"His commitment as a lay chaplain, particularly in such an inhumane place as death row, is a living and passionate testimony to the infinite mercy of God", he wrote.
The pope concluded offering "a sincere and heartfelt thank you to Dale Racinella: because his work as a chaplain on death row is a tenacious and passionate adherence to the deepest reality of the Gospel of Jesus".
Turin female detainees urge Mattarella for help
Announce hunger strike against prison overcrowding
ROME,
18 August 2024,
ANSA English Desk
The female detainees of Turin's prison have written a letter to the penitentiary administration in which they appealed to President Sergio Mattarella to "shake" decision-makers from their "indifference".
"There is no more time to lose", they said in the letter which was published by Turin daily La Stampa on Sunday.
The inmates said they refused food on the August 15 Ferragosto national holiday and that they will start a hunger strike once Parliament resumes its activity after the summer break to urge policy makers to approve alternative measures to detention to "reduce overcrowding and to bring back to life the penitentiary community". The detainees said in their appeal to the president that the government's prison decree is "useless" - "the system should be completely reformed", they said.
At the moment there are around 61,000 inmates in Italy's jails, while the official capacity is around 51,000, with an overcrowding rate of 119%.
ITALY
Rescue ship Geo Barents reaches Livorno with 57 migrants
Including minors and women
ROME, 18 August 2024, ANSA English Desk
Migrant-rescue ship Geo Barents on Sunday reached the Tuscan port of Livorno with 57 people on board. The majority of passengers on the boat, which is operated by medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) were adult, with a few women and minors on board, rescuers said. Landing operations and medical checkups have been organized by the local prefecture, maritime authorities, police forces and a civil protection unit.
Iraqis overwhelmingly oppose plan to allow children as young as nine to marry
More than 73% of respondents are strongly apposed to the changes that would legalise child marriage
A public-opinion poll which surveyed more than 61,000 Iraqis across the country has shown a significant opposition to the controversial proposed amendments to the country’s Personal Status Law, which allows reliance on religious interpretations instead of current laws.
The changes supported by Islamist parties inside the Parliament would allow girls as young as nine to be married and strip women of many of their divorce and inheritance rights.
The results of the poll, announced on Sunday, was conducted by Iraq Polling Team NGO and ran from August 13 to August 15. It indicated that 73.2 per cent of Iraqis expressed “strong opposition” to the amendments to the Personal Status Law that has been in place since 1959.
In contrast, only 23.8 per cent of those surveyed expressed strong support for the changes, while 3.1 per cent remained indifferent to the matter.
On August 4, the parliament completed the first reading of the bill and will have two more readings and a debate before deciding whether to vote it into law.
The proposed amendments have led to widespread demonstrations and debate in Iraq between pro-civil rights Iraqis and the religious institutions which have gained more power over the past two decades.
A key highlight of the survey is the strong preference for a civil approach to personal status legislation.
An overwhelming 81.6 per cent of respondents expressed their desire for the law to remain civil in nature, rejecting any shift towards a religious, sectarian framework, which was supported by only 18.4 per cent of respondents.
The age group most represented in the poll was those between 46 and 60 years old, making up 29.2 per cent of participants. The youngest voters, aged 18 to 25, accounted for just 8.3 per cent of the total. 72.8 per cent of the total surveyed were married, while 12.7 per cent were single.
The poll highlighted a well-educated respondent base, with 47.6 per cent holding a bachelor's degree, 12.2 per cent holding a master's degree, and 10.5 per cent having earned a doctoral degree.
The findings suggest that any move to alter the law would face substantial public resistance which has been on the rise since the start of the month, posing a formidable challenge to any efforts to alter the law.
There were efforts by Islamist parties to introduce similar amendments in 2014 and 2017, but both of which failed to pass.
'Disastrous effects'
On Friday, the Human Rights Watch voiced concerns over the move, and warned that it will have “disastrous effects on women’s and girls’ rights”.
“The Iraqi parliament’s passage of this bill would be a devastating step backward for Iraqi women and girls and the rights they have fought hard to enshrine in law,” Sarah Sanbar, Iraq researcher at Human Rights Watch, said.
“Formally legalising child marriage would rob countless girls of their futures and well-being. Girls belong in school and on the playground, not in a wedding dress.”
The amendments allow the couples to choose whether the provisions of the Personal Status Law or the provisions of specific Islamic schools of jurisprudence would apply. If couples are from different sects, the school followed by the husband’s sect would apply.
This arrangement would effectively establish separate legal regimes with different rights accorded to different sects “further enshrining sectarianism in Iraq and undermining the right to legal equality for all Iraqis”, the New York-based organisation said.
Malians suffer economic hardship after four years of military rule
Former guide Kola Bah, who has been unemployed since Mali's conflict started and now sells from his small herd of cattle when he needs to make ends meet, poses for a photograph in Djenne, Mali, May 9, 2024.
Four years after the military ousted Mali’s then-president and came to power, many residents say economic troubles are worsening and constant power cuts are hurting businesses.
The August 2020 coup in the troubled West African nation was set off by public anger with corrupt rulers backed by former colonial power France, a spreading jihadist insurgency and economic hardship. Many are still waiting for life to improve.
"The way they've handled the electricity situation is a problem. Many Malians are experiencing huge losses," Oumar Diarra, a furniture maker, told Reuters. "The government has to make an effort because we are suffering enormously."
The 2020 coup in Mali helped set off a wave of coups in the Sahel region south of the Sahara desert, including in neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger, which are fighting the same jihadist groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State.
The current military rulers in Mali, who seized power in a second coup in 2021, have reneged on a promise to hold elections in February, postponing the vote indefinitely for technical reasons.
Allasana Ag Agaly, a silversmith, said power cuts were affecting all households in Mali. “If the head of the family goes out in the morning and comes back at night without being able to work to bring something to his family, it will affect the children, the women and everyday life,” he said.
The World Bank says economic growth in Mali is expected to slow to 3.1% this year from 3.5% last year, with extreme poverty levels rising. About 90% of Mali's population lives in poverty.
Mali’s military leaders, along with those in Niger and Burkina Faso, also kicked out French and U.N. troops that had been involved in fighting Islamist insurgents for a decade, and turned to Russia for help instead.
Some residents say they remain hopeful, and view the current hardship as the price for greater independence from France.
“Political independence without economic independence is meaningless,” said Alkady Haidara, a resident in the capital Bamako. “I just want Malians to be patient, because it's part of life. You have to go through a difficult time to have a brighter moment.”
1953 coup exposed true face of US to Iranian people
American history prof. told MNA
TEHRAN, Aug. 18 (MNA) –Prof. Yaghoubian says, " The US orchestrated 1953 coup itself and subsequent American-enabled abuses of the Pahlavi dictatorship (such as the horrors of SAVAK) exposed the true face of Washington to the Iranian people."
1953 coup in Iran, coup d’état in Iran that occurred in August 1953. Funded by the United States and the United Kingdom, it removed Mohammad Mosaddegh from power and restored Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi as Iran’s King. Some 300 people died during fighting in Tehran.
With its strategic location and vast oil reserves, Iran was of special interest to the United States, the United Kingdom, and other powers. Britain had established a presence in the country during World War II to protect a vital supply route to its ally the Soviet Union and to prevent the oil from falling into German hands. After the war, the United Kingdom effectively retained control over Iran’s oil through the establishment of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
This arrangement changed abruptly in 1951 when the Iranian parliament, led by Mosaddegh’s nationalist and democratically elected government, voted to nationalize the country’s oil industry. Seeing its interests thus threatened, the UK embarked on a secret campaign to weaken and destabilize Mosaddegh. At first the British government tried to convince the shah to remove Mossadegh from office by engineering a parliamentary decree, a ploy that both failed and enhanced Mosaddegh’s reputation while diminishing the shah’s. When the push to remove Mosaddegh evolved into the idea of a coup to overthrow the government, Britain, reluctant to shoulder the responsibility alone, persuaded the U.S. to join forces by playing on Cold War fears.
To know more about the US and the UK goals behind the coup, we reached out to Dr. David Yaghoubian, a Professor of History at California State University, San Bernardino.
Here is the full text of the interview:
What were the goals behind the US and UK orchestrated coup?
The 1953 coup in Iran was orchestrated to fulfill the goal of the UK and the US to simultaneously crush the oil nationalization movement and replace Iran’s democratically elected government with the dictatorship of the puppet Pahlavi regime. It enabled a consortium of western companies to subsequently control Iranian oil, and Mohamad Reza Pahlavi to remain on the throne to serve foreign interests, against the will of the Iranian people and to their collective detriment. Although the 1953 coup was not intended to sow the seeds of revolution in Iran, ultimately this was its primary accomplishment.
Why was the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry so important for them that they couldn't tolerate Iran's democratic then government?
As the largest source of crude under the control of the UK, the nationalization of the AIOC in 1951 was intolerable for a dying British empire, which initially resorted to enforcing a global boycott of Iranian oil, before successfully manipulating Cold War fears of the new American presidential administration in 1953 to motivate collective action to carry out the coup. Paralleling Eisenhower administration concerns about potential Soviet interests was a clear desire to exert American control over Iranian oil (and thus over British energy resources) evidenced by the equal US/UK division of spoils via the 1954 consortium. Dividing Iran’s oil wealth among this consortium of foreign companies would never be an acceptable proposition to democratically elected Iranian leadership, thus the coup was designed to implant a compliant and subservient comprador government in Iran to serve overlapping British and American interests.
How has the US-orchestrated coup affected the relations between the two countries since then up to now?
The 1953 US-orchestrated coup was the crucible of modern Iran-US relations. The coup itself and subsequent American-enabled abuses of the Pahlavi dictatorship (such as the horrors of SAVAK) exposed the true face of the United States government to the Iranian people, who rose up collectively to expel the American Shah, and the tens of thousands of US military advisors and contractors that his regime employed. The success and durability of the Iranian revolution since 1979 simply drives American imperialists mad. Nearly a half century of failed attempts at coercion, bullying, provocation, vilification, global ostracization, and even starvation (according to former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo) since the revolution have only served to isolate the United States and further point out its rapid decline. Having failed to keep the Iranian nation down via their puppet dictator (1953-1979), failed to destroy Iran via support of the Iraqi Baathists (1980-1988), and subsequently failed to contain, retard, control, or otherwise influence the trajectory of the Islamic Republic and its alliances, US empire has been effectively checked in the region.
Do you see any changes in the colonial policies of the US? Have they stopped it or just changed the methods?
Rather than changes in colonial policies or employment of different methods I see abject failure, continuity, and self-defeating stupidity on a vast scale, in conjunction with the inexplicable attempt to double down on unsuccessful policies of the past. Until American imperialists can come to grips with the fact that the United States will never achieve global hegemony and “full spectrum dominance,” and that their efforts to promote such US unipolar primacy are demonstrably absurd and counterproductive, the United States will continue to pursue policies and short-term objectives that will ultimately benefit only the military-industrial complex, while hastening the demise of American power, legitimacy, and relevance. Consider American policies that sustained the criminal occupation of Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan, the carnage in Yemen and Libya, as well as the ongoing attempt to destroy Palestinian society in a wholly US-enabled genocidal project. Murder, destruction, and chaos continue to be the hallmarks of US foreign policy in West Asia. While the more sociopathic members of the American political establishment would claim that these results constitute success in the context of “containment,” area denial, and the twisted concept of “constructive instability,” the US position across the region, physically as well as diplomatically, becomes weaker and more perilous by the day. Its global reputation and legitimacy have never been lower in history. Yet on this 71st anniversary of the 1953 coup in Iran, in light of history and current events—including but not limited to the daily slaughter of Palestinian civilians—what does the United States continue to promote in the region besides more waste, tension, division, conflict, color revolution, war, and genocide? Nothing.
US, UK-backed 1953 coup shattered Iran's democratic process
TEHRAN, Aug. 18 (MNA) – August 19, is the anniversary of the coup d'état that was launched in 1953 by the US and the UK against Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh and the democratic process in Iran.
UK, US role in coup d'état; It’s Always About Oil
1953 coup in Iran that occurred in August 1953 funded by the United States and the United Kingdom, removed Mohammad Mosaddegh from power and restored Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi as Iran’s king. Some 300 people died during the fighting in Tehrān.
With its strategic location and vast oil reserves, Iran was of special interest to the United States, the United Kingdom, and other powers. Britain had established a presence in the country during World War II to protect a vital supply route to its ally the Soviet Union and to prevent the oil from falling into German hands. After the war, the United Kingdom effectively retained control over Iran’s oil through the establishment of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
Prime Minister Mohammed Mosadegh; Iran's Oil Nationalization
Mohammad Mossadegh became Prime Minister of Iran in 1951 and was hugely popular for taking a stand against the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, a British-owned oil company that had made huge profits while paying Iran only 16% of its profits and often far less. His nationalization efforts led the British government to begin planning to remove him from power.
In October 1952, Mosaddegh declared Britain an enemy and cut all diplomatic relations. Britain was unable to resolve the issue unilaterally and looked to the United States for help.
CIA Overthrew Iran's Democracy In 4 Days
The plot, known as Operation Ajax, centered on convincing Iran’s monarch to issue a decree to dismiss Mossadegh from office.
In early August, Iranian CIA operatives threatened Muslim leaders with “savage punishment if they didn't oppose Mossadegh,” thereby giving the impression that Mossadegh was cracking down on dissent.
On August 16, 1953, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi formally dismissed Mossadegh and nominated the CIA’s choice, General Fazlollah Zahedi, as Prime Minister. The decrees were dictated by Donald Wilber, the CIA architect of the plan.
Soon, massive protests, engineered by the US, took place across the city to assist the coup. Mosaddegh was imprisoned for three years and then put under house arrest until he died in 1967.
Anglo-US coup condemned Iran to decades of oppression
The coup not only encouraged the Shah’s descent towards dictatorship, but it would later become a rallying cry in anti-US protests during the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Even now, Mossadegh is one of the most popular figures in Iranian history.
Indeed, Mosaddeq would not have fallen from power without actions undertaken by Iranians. But it is misleading to elide the US role in the coup, the memory of which continues to continue to haunt US-Iran relations. Even more importantly, the United States played a major role in stabilizing the Shah’s post-coup regime. Focusing on the events of August 19 alone obscures Washington’s ultimate aim with the coup: the return of Iran’s oil resources to foreign control, an objective the United States achieved roughly one year after Mosaddeq’s dramatic fall from power.
Consequences of the 1953 Coup in Iran, West Asia
Iran, West Asia, and, arguably, the whole world may well have been profoundly different. Apart from rewriting the destiny of Iran and its neighbors, the coup paved the way for a series of imperialist interventions and the toppling of democratically elected governments across the global south.
The coup altered the geopolitical landscape in West Asia, became a blueprint for a succession of covert US efforts to foster coups and destabilize governments in the '50s, and provided the Soviet Union with ideological ammunition during the Cold War. Following the 1953 coup in Iran, the CIA orchestrated the successful Guatemalan coup one year later, failed to oust Syria's president in 1957; and suffered a black eye backing the unsuccessful military invasion of Cuba in 1961.
CIA publicly acknowledges involvement in the 1953 coup
For decades, the United States denied playing any part in the Iranian coup. But that position ended in 2009 when President Barack Obama acknowledged Washington's role.
In Britain, meanwhile, the government-funded BBC provided details in 2011 of how it broadcast anti-Mossadegh programs to undermine his government.
Secret files and memoirs of CIA operatives show that the CIA played a pivotal role in initiating and planning Operation Ajax, as the covert operation to oust Mossadegh was called.
On Aug. 19, 2013, the CIA publicly admitted for the first time its involvement in the 1953 coup against Iran's elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.
As we saw in the issue of the nationalization of Iran's oil industry and the withdrawal of this national strategic resource from British control, controlling the strategic natural resources of countries has always been one of the motivations of hegemonic powers such as the US to launch endless and multi-dimensional wars against oppressed nations.
Although superiority in the world economy is one of the powerful motivations of the US's involvement in any part of the world, interference in oil-rich countries, countries rich in mineral resources and natural wealth of the world such as Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Venezuela, and Ukraine have always required excuses such as fighting terrorism, defending freedom, guaranteeing security, pre-emptive defense strategy, etc., so that under their protection, the dominating countries, especially US, could implement their policies.
While the US considers itself the observer of other countries to follow all general and common laws, principles, and policies, does not obey these principles and laws
By reviewing the pages of this country's history in the world, there are many cases of violation of common laws and principles in the world by Washington against countries that oppose its policies and even in some cases friends of this country.
Reported by Sahar Dadjoo
Iran court holds 1st trial session over US-plotted 1953 coup
TEHRAN, Aug. 18 (MNA) – An Iranian court has begun the trial of the US administration and its officials over the 1953 coup against the democratically-elected government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh.
The first session of the trial was held at the 55th branch of the court dealing with international affairs in Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Judicial Complex on Sunday, on the occasion of the 71st anniversary of the coup.
The court will hear a lawsuit filed by some 402,000 Iranians against six American natural persons and legal enteritis over their role in the ousting of Mosaddegh that consolidated the rule of the pro-Western monarch, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, until the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Lawyer Shami Aghdam, representing the defendants, said documents show the US spy agency CIA, with the help of its British counterpart MI6, planned the coup by using internal and external agents against the legitimate government of Iran on August 19, 1953.
Washington and London, it added, “designed the military coup through violating international principles and rules, and interfering in the internal affairs of Iran, intending to maintain their influence and power in the government, securing their interests and looting the country’s property.”
It added that the coup was perpetrated by military and political figures affiliated with the US and the UK governments, as well as thugs.
“In fact, the coup marked the beginning of the US’s complete domination over Iran to make it more dependent than before and prevent its independence and progress. The domination lasted for more than 25 years and inflicted costs, as well as material and spiritual damage, on the country and the nation.”
The 1953 coup set off a series of events, including riots on the streets of the Iranian capital Tehran, leading to the ousting and arrest of Mosaddegh, who was popular in Iran for nationalizing the country’s oil industry and taking it back from largely British control.
It also enabled the return from exile of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who remained in power until the victory of the Islamic Revolution, led by Imam Khomeini.
Mosaddegh, who was convicted of treason by a court martial after the coup, served three years in solitary confinement and eventually died under house arrest in exile in 1967.
In 2013, the US formally admitted its role in the coup in 2013 with the declassification of intelligence documents.
SD/PressTV731586
US to forever be ashamed of overthrowing Mossadegh's govt.
TEHRAN, Aug. 18 (MNA) – Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson stated that the disgrace of overthrowing the popularly elected government of Mohammad Mosaddegh through the 1953 coup will always remain on the face of the US and UK regimes.
On the anniversary of the 1953 coup in Iran, Nasser Kan'ani wrote on his X social account that slavery, colonialism, coups, and military interventions in other countries are only a part of the dark and shameful history of American and British interventions in the world.
The disgrace of overthrowing the popularly elected government of Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran through the 1953 coup d'état and the political, security, and military support of tyranny will always remain on the face of the US and UK regimes, Kan'ani stated.
He noted that these two countries with such a dark record are currently supporting the fake and racist Israeli regime and the genocide in Gaza, while they consider themselves the flag bearers of human rights and democracy.
1953 coup in Iran The coup d’état in Iran occurred in August 1953. Funded by the United States and the United Kingdom, it removed Mohammad Mosaddegh from power and restored Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi as Iran’s King. Some 300 people died during the fighting in Tehran.
