Regional geopolitics

[Azad]

Re: Regional geopolitics

"High-Level Visit to Azerbaijan Should Prompt Changes
Transparency Group Should Urge Civil Society Reforms

In one month, the board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), an international multi-stakeholder group, will decide whether to suspend the natural resource-rich government of Azerbaijan for failing to comply with EITI standards.

The potential suspension hangs on whether Azerbaijan’s government has met EITI demands to reform laws that restrict civil society organizations’ ability to register and access international funding. Meeting EITI standards on a range of issues is an important marker for public and private investors to know how transparent a government is about how it spends hydrocarbon profits."

https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/02/01/high-level-visit-azerbaijan-should-prompt-changes

"how it spends hydrocarbon profits"??? You should instead ask where does aliyev's Billions in the hidden wealth come from. Take the "Panama paper" evidence and ask aliyev.

https://panamapapers.icij.org/20160404-azerbaijan-hidden-wealth.html

[Haykakan]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Six Turkish aircraft violated the airspace of Greece at least 138 times on Wednesday, Greek media report.


© AP Photo/ Lefteris Pitarakis
Turkey Not to Tolerate Greece Taking Any Steps to Escalate Tensions - Ankara
ATHENS (Sputnik) – The Turkish planes, one pair and four single aircraft, entered the Greek airspace onxWednesday morning, violating it a total ofx138 times duringxthe day, including eight times overxthe Imia and Kalolimnos islands, the Ethnos newspaper said onxWednesday.

"Greece wants calm and peace betweenxthe countries ofxthe region. We do not seek … trouble," Greek Minister forxNational Defence Panos Kammenos stressed onxANT1 TV onxWednesday, saying, nonetheless, that Greece is ready toxrespond toxany provocations.
The violations came afterxKammenos threw a wreath ofxflowers fromxa helicopter onxWednesday overxthe Imia waters toxcommemorate Greek pilots who died duringxthe 1996 conflict betweenxTurkey and Greece overxthe ownership ofxthe islets.

[Azad]

Re: Regional geopolitics

This is the funniest shut from the azeri "foreign policy". As if their media wasn't funny enough they took it to another level now.

Armenian Defense Minister visits Iran with all the happy talk of military cooperation. The next day the azeri media tells the shekelists we are only business partners with you and we like Iran.

http://en.trend.az/other/commentary/2715870.html

[Eddo211]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Six Turkish aircraft violated the airspace of Greece at least 138 times on Wednesday, Greek media report.


© AP Photo/ Lefteris Pitarakis
Turkey Not to Tolerate Greece Taking Any Steps to Escalate Tensions - Ankara
ATHENS (Sputnik) – The Turkish planes, one pair and four single aircraft, entered the Greek airspace onxWednesday morning, violating it a total ofx138 times duringxthe day, including eight times overxthe Imia and Kalolimnos islands, the Ethnos newspaper said onxWednesday.

"Greece wants calm and peace betweenxthe countries ofxthe region. We do not seek … trouble," Greek Minister forxNational Defence Panos Kammenos stressed onxANT1 TV onxWednesday, saying, nonetheless, that Greece is ready toxrespond toxany provocations.
The violations came afterxKammenos threw a wreath ofxflowers fromxa helicopter onxWednesday overxthe Imia waters toxcommemorate Greek pilots who died duringxthe 1996 conflict betweenxTurkey and Greece overxthe ownership ofxthe islets.

What is Greece doing, standing by the radar and counting numbers of airspace violations?..........Intersept, Engage!!!

[Azad]

Re: Regional geopolitics

The azeris are pissed cause Carl Bildt the former prime minister of Sweden posted a map on his Twitter account showing Artsakh being Christian.

https://twitter.com/carlbildt

http://en.trend.az/azerbaijan/karabakh/2717212.html

[Vrej1915]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Trump-Putin deal on Syria bears on Israel security
Debka


It would be a mistake to take it for granted that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s talks with President Donald Trump in Washington early next month will be plain sailing or produce an automatic shower of benefits for the Jewish state. It is understood in Jerusalem that a new order is unfolding close to Israel’s borders, which is not yet fully in the sights of its government, military and intelligence leaders. This process is going forward at dizzying speed in Syria, currently the central Middle East arena, where Presidents Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Tayyip Erdogan have agreed to cooperate.
The British Prime Minister Theresa May picked up fast on the new power equation. After standing before the media with the US President Friday, Jan. 27, and declaring hopefully, “Britain and the US can once again lead the world together,” she decided to fly straight from Washington to Ankara Saturday, before returning home.
The outcome of her first meeting with President Erdogan was one of the fastest defense collaboration pacts ever negotiated for trade and the war on terror. The British leader lost no time in getting down to brass tacks on how British military and intelligence can be integrated in the joint US-Russian-Turkish military steps for Syria. Erdogan did not exactly receive her with open arms. He did not afford his visitor the courtesy of placing a British flag in the reception room in his palace.
Israel is in much the same position. Israel stayed out of military involvement in the Syrian civil war, according to a policy led by Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and OC Northern Command Maj. Gen. Avivi Kochavi (then Direct of Military Intelligence). This policy has left Israel out of today’s decision-making loop on Syria’s future.
Towards the end of 2015, shortly after Russia embarked on its massive military intervention in the Syrian conflict, Netanyahu took steps for safeguarding Israel’s security interests by setting up a direct line with the Russian president. It was translated into a military coordination mechanism between the Russian air force command in Syria and the Israeli air force, with Gen. Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s Chief of General Staff, and
Maj. Gen. Yair Golan, Israel’s Deputy Chief of Staff, in charge of this direct military link.
Any problems that could not be solved at the military level were promptly turned over to be addressed at meetings or in phone calls between Netanyahu and Putin.
In one example, the prime minister obtained an undertaking from the Russian president to keep Iranian forces and Iran’s Shiite surrogates, including the Lebanese Hizballah, away from the Syrian-Israeli border, or allow them to use borderlands to send terrorists into Israel.
Shortly after Trump’s election victory (Nov. 8, 2016), the spadework on his collaboration with Putin was quietly begun by their national security advisers, Michael Flynn, in New York and Nikiolai Platonovich Patrushev in Moscow.
Jerusalem knew what was going on, but was taken aback by the speed at which those close understandings ripened into US-Russian deals on the ground. Before Trump had finished his first week in the White House, US warplanes had escorted a Russian air strike against ISIS in Syria.
This rush of events injects further urgency into Netanyahu forthcoming talks with the US president. Whereas in the second term of the Obama presidency, the Israeli leader was wont to travel to Moscow or Sochi to sort out security problems relating to Syria, henceforth he must directly engage Donald Trump as the lead player.
So when the Israeli premier travels to the White House next month, he will have to address four pressing concerns, all relating to the fast-moving Syrian scene:
1. Will Washington and Moscow go through with the expulsion from Syria of Iranian forces and their proxies, including Hizballah - and take it all the way until it is accomplished?
2. After they are gone, who will take over the areas they evacuate?
3. Will Bashar Assad stay on as president, or has his successor been nominated?
4. The most burning question of all is the level of Hizballah’s armament. Not only must Hizballah forces be pushed out of Syria, but it is essential to strip them of their sophisticated new weaponry, including missiles. Israel’s military and security chiefs assess Hizballah’s arsenal as having been upgraded in recent weeks to a level that directly impinges on Israel’s security.

[Vrej1915]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Russia freezes Syrian, Iranian military movements
Debka

An order to remain stationary was issued Thursday night, Jan. 26, by the Russian Commander in Syria Lt. Gen. Alexander Zhuravlev to the high commands of the Syrian army and of the Iranian and Shiite forces positioned in Aleppo, as well as Hizballah units in all parts of Syria. Gen. Zhuravlev, acting on instructions from Moscow, prohibited any movement by those forces out of their current positions as of noon local time.
DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources report that the order banned the opening of new battlefronts anywhere in Syria and the movement of Syrian air force units between bases.
This order has been obeyed to date.
The ban came from Moscow to prevent military reprisals against the Putin-Trump deal for Syria. There was no mention of penalties for disobedience, but the tone was peremptory. The three army commanders did not need reminding that the Russians are capable of using their electronic warfare systems to disrupt unauthorized military movements, jam their communications, and withhold fuel, ammo and spare parts to create havoc in their armies.


Moscow has never resorted to extreme action of this kind in previous Russian military interventions in Middle East lands.
The decision was taken shortly after the Kremlin was notified that US President Donald Trump had agreed to join forces with President Vladimir Putin in Syria.
Since then, the Trump administration has kept all dealings with Moscow over Syria under a cloak of secrecy, including the outcome of President Trump’s first phone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. All other concerned parties, such as Israel, have been left groping in the dark about what happens next.
The Russian standstill order in Syria came shortly before the US presidential decree that barred Iranians from entering the United States (along with the nationals of six other terror-prone Muslim countries)
Iran can no longer doubt that the two powers, America and Russia, have ganged up to push the Islamic Republic out of their way. Trepidation in Tehran was articulated on Monday, Jan. 30, at a convention staged in the Iranian capital to celebrate 515 years of Iranian-Russian relations, an anniversary that would not normally be marked by a special event.
In his opening remarks, Foreign Minster Mohammed Zarif Javad said: that Iran and Russia “need to have far more extensive relations,” and “few countries in the world have relations as deep and historical as Iran and Russia.” This sounded like an appeal to Moscow for protection against the new US president. It most likely fell on deaf ears. Putin is fully engaged in promoting his new relations with Donald Trump.

[Vrej1915]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Trump: New Iran sanctions, USS Cole to Red Sea
Debka

Donald Trump ended his second week as president Friday, Feb. 3, by demonstrating his resolve to cut Iran down to size. This is his main preoccupation in the Middle East to the exclusion of all other Middle East issues.
After Trump personally warned the Islamic Republic that it was “playing with fire,” the US Treasury released a fresh round of anti-Iran sanctions, targeting 13 individuals and 12 entities, some based in the UAE, Lebanon and China. In the next hours, the USS Cole destroyer was posted to the Red Sea’s Bab al Mandeb Straits, after Iran-backed Yemeni Houthi rebels began planting mines in the strategic waterway and oil route chokepoint.
This was seen in Washington as a fresh Iranian provocation for escalating tensions, six days after a Houthi suicide attack in fast boats on a Saudi frigate on patrol in the Red Sea, and attacks on US vessels in October.
National security adviser Michael Flynn’s statement Wednesday putting Iran “on notice” for last week’s ballistic missile test, drew a snooty response Thursday night, from a top adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that Iran will not yield to "useless" US threats from "an inexperienced person.”
Trump had evidently decided that Tehran’s scornful provocations deserved a fitting response.
He also pushed to the side all other Middle East questions.
Israel got a light tap on the wrist from another White House statement Friday, that its “new or expanded settlements in the West Bank may not be helpful in achieving Middle East peace,” although the US “has no official position on settlement activity.”
Jerusalem was given to understand that the Trump administration was too busy turning the screws on Iran to deal with “Middle East peace” and develop a settlement policy.
In this sense, Donald Trump is taking the opposite line to Barack Obama, his Secretary of State John Kerry and European powers today, who judge Jewish West Bank settlements to be the root cause - not just of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, but of most other Middle East woes.
The US president also made little time for the visiting King Abdullah of Jordan, who, after moving heaven and earth to be received in the Oval Office, had to be satisfied with breakfast with Trump in Washington – even though Jordan is a vital element in the US-Russian safe zones plan for Syria and moreover host to a US Central Command war room for Syria.

DEBKAfile’s sources in Washington report: After dodging the settlement issue, Trump was just as anxious to avoid being cornered on Jerusalem by the Jordanian monarch, which he would not have escaped had he received the king officially at the White House.
This does not mean that the new US president intends to line up with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu or Education Minister Naftali Bennett on the settlement or any other issue. If he acts in character, Trump will not be sidetracked from his main objectives by actions which he views as irrelevant. He has said in the past that he would try his hand at Middle East peacemaking.
But for now, he is fully focused on getting Iran and its proxies, especially Hizballah, out of Syria. This goal is so challenging that he can’t hope to achieve it without Russia’s military assistance. Trump is willing to pay a high price for this help, including letting Vladimir Putin push his way into one corner after another n the Middle East, or standing aside for a partial reconciliation between Egypt and the Palestinian Hamas terrorists.
Last week, Ayatollah Khameinei still believed that by letting the Revolutionary Guards of the leash for provocative actions, he could push Trump back - hence the missile test, the Houthi suicide boats, and the advances made by pro-Iranian Shiite militias on the Mosul front in Iraq.
But Friday, the US President laid down his markers for the US-Iranian contest which has begun to unfold, and is not ruling out its further escalation into full military confrontations, which may involve America’s allies, including Saudi Arabia and Israel.
This contingency came up in the long conversation Trump held with Saudi King Salman on Jan. 29 and is widely covered in the Israeli prime minister’s almost daily discussions with members of his administration. Early Friday, Netanyahu talked on the phone to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
They all appreciate that Tehran or its Middle East proxies, such as the Lebanese Hizballah, may well hit back at the Trump administration in Syria or by limited military strikes against Riyadh and Tel Aviv.
These eventualities top Washington’s agenda for now and will dominate Middle East affairs in the near future.

[Azad]

Re: Regional geopolitics

"Azerbaijan's Aliyev Cancels Brussels Meeting With EU Parliament President

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has canceled a meeting with the European Parliament president in Brussels, where he held talks with EU officials on issues including a new partnership agreement between Baku and the European Union. Aliyev cancelled a meeting with Antonio Tajani, the president of the European Parliament, which hosted an event on "continued human rights violations in Azerbaijan."
The event's panel included Emin Milli from Meydan TV and RFE/RL journalist Khadija Ismayilova.
Ismayilova was arrested in December 2014 and subsequently spent 17 months in Azerbaijani prisons after being convicted of "illegal entrepreneurship"

http://www.rferl.org/a/azerbaijan-eu-aliyev-partnership-talks-human-rights-pressure/28281494.html

"illegal entrepreneurship" who can come up with this shut?

Than their retarded "Media" calls EU "Haters" ....

"Haters of Azerbaijan in action in European Parliament as Brussels eyes new deal"

http://en.trend.az/azerbaijan/politics/2717844.html

[Hakob]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Alexander Lapshin extradited from Belarus to Baku. This is how Lukashenko pays off for "borrowing" Mehriban Alieva" from Ilham time to time.
On another hand, not related to above, Belarus/Russia relationship is getting strained lately.