Thursday, February 16, 2017

Key Iranian General And Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani Is In Moscow

Iranian General Qassem Soleimani

FOX News: EXCLUSIVE: Shadowy Iranian general visits Moscow, violating sanctions

A shadowy Iranian general responsible for the deaths of nearly 500 Americans traveled to Moscow Wednesday to meet with high-ranking Russian officials -- a trip that violated multiple United Nations resolutions forbidding him from leaving his country, multiple western intelligence officials with direct knowledge of the visit told Fox News.

Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani arrived in Terminal A of Vnukovo airport outside Moscow on Feb. 14 on Mahan Air WD084 at 12:13 p.m. local time and was scheduled to remain in Russia for a few days for meetings, officials said.

Read more ....

Update #1: Senior Iranian military commander visits Moscow in violation of UN resolution (Al Arabiya)
Update #2: Iranian General Visits Russia Again, in Violation of UN Travel Ban (The Tower)

WNU Editor: His appearance in Moscow is significant because he played a key role in convincing Moscow to intervene in Syria in the first place (see link here). As to why he is there now .... he probably wants to know what are Moscow's intentions for the future .... more specifically .... what will Russia do with the U.S. in view of rumours that they may be cooperating in Syria.

Hat tip to James for this link.

2 comments:

RussInSoCal said...

The Iranians are learning what happens when a partnership with Putin has run its coarse.

B.Poster said...

Russ,

The Russians and Vladimir Putin are hardly the first to reevaluate the nature of an alliance when it no longer suits their needs or interests and they won't be the last. In fact, the United States has been rather prolific in this regard.

It seems not unusual for the United States to woo potential countries with lavish things of value then cut them loose when things get rough. There are three basic problems in the long term to this approach. 1.) It doesn't work well for winning true friends who might actually come through for you in a time of deep need. 2. We seem to end up paying more for the service than we actually receive. 3.) Once the dollar loses its role as world reserve currency, this approach will not be nearly as effective.

Russia's alliance with Iran was/is based upon two things. 1.)Each country has an adversarial relationship with America. As such, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" approach appears to apply here. 2.) Each country has/had an interest in Syria. While the interests overlap in the sense of beating ISIS, other than this they are not entirely compatible. With ISIS on the ropes, part 2 has or will run its course most likely sooner rather than later. Operative words "most likely" as ISIS is a VERY tough enemy and it may well be "later" before it is defeated. Both parties had to be aware of this at the start.

As for part 1, Iran's hatred for America is based upon "death to America." Essentially Iran is calling for genocide against the American people. Had such venomous hatred been directed toward anyone else with the possible exception of Israel the world would be up in arms in outrage against these people and their would be world wide calls for sanctions and boycotts. Unfortunately no one wants to advocate on behalf of America or its people and since American leaders don't seem willing to step up to do this it may well be understandable why no one else wants to.

In contrast, it seems Russia is merely opposed to us at this point. Operative words "at this point." Continue needlessly provoking them and their attitude may change. To use an analogy, tick your hand in a beehive expect to get stung!! Such an approach is not only needless but it is stupid as there are a number of ways in which we can use and even need their assistance. With Mr. Trump seeking to make mend ties supporting Iran based upon having a mutual adversarial relationship to America may become less attractive.

Now a bit off topic but the US/Iran conflict needs to be ultimately decided by a UN tribunal. Unfortunately the problems with this right now are threefold. 1.)Assuming the tribunal should decide against Iran in some way, how do we collect? In other words, there is no mechanism in place to ensure Iranian compliance with the terms of any judgment. 2.)I fail to see how one can begin to try and negotiate with someone who essentially wants them exterminated. In other words any settlement regardless of who it ultimately favors will need to end the conflict and this needs to be agreed to by all parties. 3.) At this point, any such tribunal would likely simply rubberstamp whatever Iran wants. There seems no way America could expect a fair trial. As such, unless one is extraordinarily masochistic there is no good reason to submit oneself to such a farce as it likely would be at this time.