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Irish Examiner
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
Donald Trump is 'all in' with Benjamin Netanyahu's illegal war on Iran
The unfolding conflict between Israel and Iran is both far more complex and far simpler to understand than much of the reporting to date suggests. Far from a defensive necessity for Israel against an alleged nuclear threat, this escalation appears to be a calculated gamble born of Benjamin Netanyahu's long-held strategic ambitions and the alarming absence of a coherent strategy from the Trump administration, with Iran's nuclear program serving merely as a convenient — and increasingly threadbare — pretext for regime change in Tehran. For years, the international community, including the United States, painstakingly constructed a robust diplomatic framework to ensure the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear programme. The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), an agreement between Iran and the P5+1 nations, established an unprecedentedly stringent surveillance and inspection regime, significantly curtailing Iran's nuclear activities. In return, some of the UN-backed sanctions against Iran were lifted or suspended. An Israeli strike hits an oil storage facility in Tehran on Saturday. The assault on Iran is just the latest episode in an alarming pattern of escalating criminal behaviour on the part of Tel Aviv. File photo: AP/Vahid Salemi In 2018, however, bowing to intense pressure from Benjamin Netanyahu, then-president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the JCPOA. Netanyahu had always been the most vocal critic of the agreement, advocating for military action even as US officials acknowledged that Iran's compliance, as well as a limit to uranium enrichment of just 3%, made the delivery of a nuclear weapon virtually impossible for decades. Notably, Tulsi Gabbard, US director of national intelligence testified in March 2025 that the intelligence community found no evidence of Iran building a nuclear weapon. More definitively, the director general of the IAEA on 18 June 18, 2025, clearly stated "we did not have any proof of a systematic effort [on Iran's part] to move into a nuclear weapon". Thus the "threat" seems, in large part, to be a manufactured crisis. Regime change Israel's surprise attack on Iran occurred just two days before scheduled Iran-US talks that Iran viewed positively and were progressing smoothly (according to officials on both sides). This strongly suggests that these talks were a mere smokescreen, a deceptive cover for an attack that, according to Trump, the US had been aware of for months. While Iran's nuclear programme serves as Israel's public justification for pursuing the war, the true objective appears to be the destabilization of Iran, a clear intention to topple the government and turn the country into a failed state, akin to the tragedies witnessed in Libya and Syria, where central governments can no longer maintain territorial integrity. The echoes of 2003 when the United States and its allies attacked Iraq are eerie: the insistence that Iran is developing alleged 'weapons of mass destruction', disguising the real goal of the operation which is regime change in Tehran. The campaign to overthrow Saddam Hussein created utter chaos in Iraq and resulted in the deaths of probably a million Iraqis, the displacement of millions, and 4,800 American and coalition deaths, As was the case in Iraq, it seems abundantly clear that Netanyahu and Trump have no plan for what happens if/after the Iranian regime is defenestrated. This intervention, if successful in toppling the Iranian government, carries the terrifying prospect of a prolonged civil war. Iran's diverse regional groups, including militias from Azerbaijan, Iraqi Kurdistan, Turkey, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, could exploit the power vacuum, leading to a scramble for territory and an even wider regional conflagration. Consequences Furthermore, two other dangerous consequences are likely to emerge. Firstly, Iran may conclude that a nuclear weapon is its only true deterrent against such aggression, leading it to abandon all diplomatic efforts to restrict its nuclear program. Secondly, Iran will almost certainly target US allies and interests in the region. This could involve strikes on oil production and refinery infrastructure in the Persian Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia and could block the Strait of Hormuz. Given that roughly 20-25% of global oil exports pass through the strait daily, this will have significant implications for global energy security. The erratic behaviour of the US president is evident in Trump's fluctuating positions throughout this war — from urgent calls for peace, to presenting a final offer to Iran that never materialized, to urging Tehran residents to evacuate, denying involvement in attacks, threatening to assassinate Iran's supreme leader, and finally demanding 'unconditional surrender'. Rogue state Forget these lurching statements about Iran: there is a good case for arguing that they are performative and that Trump is all in as Netanyahu's partner in crime. Trump's American version of authoritarianism neatly dovetails with Benjamin Netanyahu's model: lawlessness and loutishness define them. Violence is their operational creed. Israel is a rogue state now completely out of control. The assault on Iran is just the latest episode in an alarming pattern of escalating criminal behaviour on the part of Tel Aviv, from the repeated and decades-long flouting of UN resolutions, to the ramped up building of illegal settlements and outrageous settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, the murder of large numbers of UN officials and journalists, and cross-border attacks on Lebanon and Syria. Already it is evident that, far from protecting civilians via 'precision strikes' against Iranian regime figures, the casualty list includes at least 250 civilians, including more than 20 children, echoing the approach the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) has taken in Gaza. Gaza has become not just an Israeli concentration camp but a death camp, where Palestinians are corralled, starved and murdered by Israeli forces every day of the week. Leaders of the collective 'West' who piously pontificate about 'never again' stand by and do nothing; many such governments give the impression that they implicitly approve of what Israel is doing. The collective West thus bears enormous responsibility for its complicity in Israel's genocidal violence, and Tel Aviv's repeated infringements of international law. The Trump-Netanyahu escalation points to a disturbing calcification of the international system of states and institutions, and a complete unwillingness on the part of those who designed it, to defend the rules-based international order which emerged after the catastrophes of two world wars in the 20th century. Palestinian Samia al-Atrash holds the corpse of one of her sister's children killed in an Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip in October 2023. The protracted silence of the European Union as Israel carried out the mass slaughter of more than 50,000 Palestinian civilians in Gaza has provided Tel Aviv with confidence that there would be minimal pushback if it went ahead with its large-scale attack on Iran. Photo: Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images An outstanding example of this phenomenon can be seen in the protracted silence of the European Union, as Israel carried out the mass slaughter of more than 50,000 Palestinian civilians in Gaza. This provided Tel Aviv with confidence that there would be minimal pushback if it went ahead with its large-scale attack on Iran. The attack on Iran is a dangerous manifestation of Netanyahu's expansive regional ambitions, supported by a US administration seemingly devoid of a cohesive strategy. The consequences, both for Iran and the wider world, could be devastating, far outweighing any purported security gains for Israel and the United States. Shamsoddin Shariati is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology at Maynooth University. John O'Brennan is a professor in the Department of Sociology at Maynooth University and Director of the Maynooth Centre for European and Eurasian Studies.
TimesLIVE
21 hours ago
- Politics
- TimesLIVE
Haiti's capital in the dark after residents storm hydroelectric plant
The outburst came after authorities and gangs faced off in Mirebalais earlier in the day, local media reported, with gangs capturing a security vehicle and setting it on fire. Reuters was not immediately able to verify images of the incident. This would be the second time residents forcibly shuttered the hydroelectric plant in recent months. In May interim Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime promised swift action to ensure a similar incident would not happen again. Haitians are growing increasingly frustrated with the government as the transition council fails to deliver on promises to stabilise the nation, which has been without a president since Jovenel Moise was assassinated in 2021. A Kenya-led, UN-backed security mission to the nation has also failed to make headway in tackling the crisis. World leaders have increasingly called for the mission to become a formal UN peacekeeping mission, while the US and Colombia have floated deploying troops through the Organization of American States.
Scoop
2 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
Iran-Israel Crisis: UN Rights Office Appeals For Urgent De-Escalation
18 June 2025 Israel began targeting nuclear and military sites across Iran last Friday, prompting a barrage of retaliatory strikes on Israeli cities. 'The UN human rights office urges de-escalation and urgent diplomatic negotiations to end these attacks and find a way forward,' said Ms. Al-Nashif. 'We are following closely and are aware of reports that many thousands of residents are fleeing parts of the capital, Tehran, as a result of warnings covering broad areas.' Latest reports from the region indicate that more than 200 people have been killed in Iran and 24 in Israel to date. The violence continued unabated overnight in both countries. Addressing the Human Rights Council in Geneva at a scheduled meeting to discuss Iran's rights record, the Deputy High Commissioner highlighted serious concerns that populated areas have been hit in the escalation. 'It is imperative that both sides fully respect international law, in particular by ensuring the protection of civilians in densely populated areas and of civilian objects,' she said. 'We urge all those with influence to engage in negotiation as a matter of priority.' Nuclear watchdog update In a related development, the UN-backed nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday that two Iranian centrifuge production facilities had suffered major damage after being targeted. 'The TESA Karaj workshop and the Tehran Research Centre, were hit,' it said in an update. 'At the Tehran site, one building was hit where advanced centrifuge rotors were manufactured and tested. At Karaj, two buildings were destroyed where different centrifuge components were manufactured,' said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Speaking at the Council after the Deputy High Commissioner, Iran's Permanent Representative of Iran, Ambassador Ali Bahreini, condemned the Israeli strikes: 'There has been no violation worse than [the] 13 June act of aggression against Iran,' he said, pointing to 'continuous blind attacks on residential areas, bombardment of vital supplies, explosion of drinking water resources and reckless strikes on nuclear facilities are immediately impacting the civilians and people of Iran.' Such 'deliberate targeting' of his country's nuclear facilities risked exposing local communities to a 'possible hazardous leak', the Iranian ambassador continued. 'This is not an act of war against our country, it is war against humanity.' In a short statement to the Council from which Israel announced its withdrawal earlier this year, Mr. Bahreini called for accountability and international condemnation of the Israeli attacks. 'This impunity must come to [an] end,' he said. 'Israel activities are not just against one or two countries. It is acting against all humanity and their actions target all human rights.'
Canada Standard
2 days ago
- Business
- Canada Standard
Is Mark Carney turning his back on climate action?
The G7 summit in Alberta, hosted by Prime Minister Mark Carney, has ended with only passing mention of fighting climate change, including a statement on wildfires that is silent on the pressing need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is puzzling. Canadians didn't opt for Conservative Pierre Poilievre, considered by some to be an oil and gas industry mouthpiece, in the last federal election. Instead, voters gave Carney's Liberals a minority government. Carney was the United Nations Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance and was behind the UN-backed Net-Zero Banking Alliance, so some Canadians might have assumed he'd prioritize climate action if he won the election. Instead, Carney has described developing fossil fuel infrastructure as "pragmatic." But it's unclear how a country grappling with abysmal air quality due to wildfires fuelled by global warming will benefit from further global fossil fuel development and its related emissions. Read more: Wildfire smoke can harm your brain, not just your lungs Canada is warming faster than most of the globe. Its leaders should be laser-focused on mitigating climate change by reducing fossil fuel use to the greatest extent possible, as soon as possible. This decades-long understanding of how to approach climate action has been repeatedly explained by experts and is well known to governments globally. Canada's prime minister was once one of those experts. Carney now has a tremendous opportunity to lead by steering Canada in a clean direction. Canada is at the forefront of clean technology, with numerous business opportunities emerging, particularly in areas like circular economy international trade. These opportunities not only support Canada's commitment to meeting its Paris Agreement targets but also help expand and diversify its global trade. Canada already has exemplar eco-industrial parks - co-operative businesses located on a common property that focus on reducing environmental impact through resource efficiency, waste reduction and sharing resources. Such industrial communities are in Halifax and in Delta, B.C. They represent significant investment opportunities. Vacant urban land could be revitalized and existing industrial parks could boost their economic output and circular trade by building stronger partnerships to share resources, reduce waste and cut emissions. Read more: A sustainable, circular economy could counter Trump's tariffs while strengthening international trade Canada would benefit economically and environmentally by building on existing expertise and expanding successful sustainability strategies to achieve economic, environmental and social goals. But by continuing to invest in fossil fuels, Canada misses out on opportunities to diversify trade and boost economic competitiveness. Real diversification makes Canada less vulnerable to economic shocks, like the ones caused by the tariffs imposed by United States President Donald Trump. Fossil fuel reliance increases exposure to global economic risks, but shifting to cleaner products and services reduces climate risks and expands Canada's global trade options. China's economic rise is partly a result of this strategy. That's seemingly why Trump is so fixated on China. China today is a serious competitor to the U.S. after making smart trade and economic decisions and forging its own path, disregarding American pressure to remain a mere follower. Investing in its huge Belt and Road Initiative, China also aligned itself with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It's building diplomatic bridges with many Belt and Road countries in southeast Asia as Trump's America alienates its partners, pulling out of the Paris Agreement and cutting foreign aid. As another one of the America's mistreated partners, Canada was poised to forge its own path under Carney. Instead, Carney is supporting American oil and gas by encouraging Canadian pipeline projects. Canadian oil and gas is a concentrated industry controlled by a wealthy few, primarily Americans. More pipelines would therefore mean more sales of fossil fuels to other countries, with the beneficiaries mostly American. Fossil fuel investments reduce Canada's diversification because the resources used to further these projects could go elsewhere - toward clean diversification. With almost unlimited clean economy options across many sectors, clean diversification would broaden Canada's economic and trade portfolios and reduce American control. Read more: Why Canada's Strong Borders Act is as troublesome as Donald Trump's travel bans This is International Business 101, and would make the Canadian economy more competitive through innovation, while reducing the country's climate risk. California, often targeted by Trump for its policies, has been a leader in clean innovation, making its economy the envy of the world. Read more: California is planning floating wind farms offshore to boost its power supply - here's how they work My recent research shows that clear, decisive choices like those made in California will be key to Canada's future success. Canada must make choices aligned with goals - a core principle of strategic management. My research also suggests Canada must restructure its energy industry to focus on renewable energy innovation while reducing fossil fuel reliance. Increased renewable energy innovation, as seen in patent numbers, leads to higher GDP. Contrary to common beliefs, pollution taxes boost the economy in combination with clean innovation. But when the government supports both the fossil fuel industry and clean industries, it hinders Canada's transition to a cleaner future. Do Canadian taxpayers truly want to keep funding an outdated, polluting industry that benefits a wealthy few, or invest in clean industries that boost Canada's economy, create better jobs and protect the environment? To differentiate Canada from the United States, it would make sense to choose the latter. Carney should consider refraining from pushing for the fast-tracking of polluting projects. If he doesn't, Canada will become more uncompetitive and vulnerable, trapped by the fossil fuel industry. Read more: Mark Carney wants to make Canada an energy superpower - but what will be sacrificed for that goal? Carney's support for pipelines may have stemmed from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's implicit support for Alberta sovereignty. She made veiled threats to Canada at a critical juncture, when Trump was making repeated assertions about annexing Canada. Alberta didn't vote for Carney. But Canadians who care about mitigating climate change did. Banks that felt pressure to at least recognize sustainable finance during the Joe Biden administration joined Carney's Net-Zero Banking Alliance. But as soon as Trump came to power a second time and walked away from the Paris Agreement, many American banks abandoned the alliance. Canadian banks followed suit, and Carney remarkably missed another moment to show Canadian leadership by stopping their exit. In fact, Carney seems to have abandoned his own organization to appease Trump as the president made multiple 51st state threats. The prime minister had the chance to differentiate Canada and demonstrate his own leadership. Instead, he seems to have easily turned his back on his principles under pressure from Trump.
AFP
2 days ago
- Politics
- AFP
Ethiopian minister's interview distorted to claim she issued stern warning to Eritrean leader
Relations between neighbours Ethiopia and Eritrea have deteriorated in recent months over access to the Red Sea. Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki recently accused Ethiopia of preparing for war. Amid the rising tensions, posts published on Facebook with a photo of Isaias purport to show a video of Ethiopian Defence Minister Aisha Mohammed issuing an official warning to the Eritrean leader. Although Aisha discussed unnamed external rivals, neither the original interview nor the misleading video contains an explicit warning aimed at the Eritrean head of state. The Amharic text accompanying the Facebook post reads: 'Breaking news: Ethiopian Defence Minister Aisha Mohammed has issued an official stern warning to the leader of Shabia.' Shabia refers to the Eritrean government. Image Screenshot of the misleading post, taken on June 17, 2025 Published on May 31, 2025, the post has been shared more than 220 times. In the video, which is more than a minute long, Aisha is seen speaking in what looks like an interview. As she talks, a photo of Isaias is displayed, along with clips of Ethiopian troops. 'The Ethiopian army was not built in a way that external rival forces would consider. It is not built to respond to forces operating in Ethiopia and supported by foreign forces,' Aisha says at the beginning of the video in Amharic. 'The army was built to protect Ethiopia from all external forces that intend to violate the country's sovereignty based on any miscalculation,' she adds. She also outlines the role of the army. 'Local militias can respond appropriately to local clashes that occur here and there. We train the local militias, we equip them, and most importantly, we have people who can defend themselves.' She continues: 'Ethiopia's army knows that there is no place other than Ethiopia that suits its destiny; it has no ethnicity and believes that Ethiopia is its destiny.' Aisha then asserts that Ethiopia has a military that is 'committed to protecting Ethiopia 24/7 with a highly reliable capability'. She concludes by saying that 'Ethiopia's army has developed new military capabilities based on the current international requirements' and that 'the navy force, special brigade and cyber security brigade and others have been installed'. A similar post was also shared here on Facebook. Ethio-Eritrean relations Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993, but a border conflict between 1998 and 2000 killed around 80,000 people (archived here). Later, after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office, Ethiopia and Eritrea reached a peace agreement, with Ethiopia accepting a UN-backed border commission decision. The Eritrean army even allied with Abiy's federal government during the 2020-2022 Tigray war. However, relations between the two countries have deteriorated recently after landlocked Ethiopia sought access to the Red Sea, with Eritrea accusing it of eyeing its port of Assab. Speaking during Eritrea's 34th independence anniversary in May 2025, Isaias accused Ethiopia of preparing for another war in the name of accessing the sea (archived here). However, the claim that Aisha issued a stern warning against Isaias is misleading. Edited video AFP Fact Check used the video verification tool InVID-WeVerify to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the video. The results revealed that a longer version of the video was published on the official YouTube channel of the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) on June 2, 2025 (archived here). Aisha discusses a range of issues, including the army's organisation, duties, military capabilities, and its commitment to upholding the rule of law. She also responds to allegations of human rights violations. However, in neither the original interview nor the misleading video does Aisha expressly mention or warn the Eritrean leader. AFP Fact Check established that the Facebook clip contains different sections from Aisha's original interview edited together to give the impression that she was addressing Isaias. Image Screenshots of the original video published by EBC (left) and the misleading version, taken on June 11, 2025 The clip was specifically drawn from three segments of the original interview: minutes 4'27' to 4'44', 5'29' to 6'10', and 26'42' to 27'23'. The first 55 seconds of the misleading clip came from minutes 26'42' to 27'23' of the original video. In this segment, Aisha was responding to the journalist's question about Ethiopia's alleged portrayal as a country engulfed in a national crisis. She claimed that unnamed external rivals wrongly viewed the country's rise in the Horn of Africa region as a threat to their national security, explaining that the army is built to protect the country against all forms of external aggression. The subsequent segment of the misleading clip running from 56 to 62 seconds was lifted from the original video's 4'27' to 4'44' mark. Here, Aisha was discussing the army's mission and professional discipline. Finally, the concluding part of the misleading clip comes from 5'29' to 6'10' of the original video, during which Aisha spoke about the modern military capabilities of the Ethiopian army and the installation of the special and cyber security brigades.
