What follows is my English translation of an article, originally in Italian, published on ComeDonChisciotte.org yesterday Sunday 29th December 2024. (All formatting original - footnotes mine).
Iran in the crosshairs of Imperialism
Italian presstitute Cecilia Sala.
We did not realise it before, but on 16th December [2024], a 38-year-old Iranian-Swiss citizen, Mohammad Abedini-Najafabadi, was arrested at Malpensa [airport, near Milan]. Arrested on behalf of the United States, in Italy [and charged with “illegally exporting sensitive technology to Iran”, as reported by Reuters, for example1]. Three days later, on 19th December [2024], Italian journalist Cecilia Sala was arrested in Tehran [as first reported by Al Jazeera on 27th December 2024 and today confirmed also by IRNA (Islamic Republic News Agency)], someone who goes on television to say that Hamas leader [Yahya] Sinwar, later killed by Israel, is a “psychopathic magalomaniac, incapable of feeling compassion for others and fear for himself”, while Zelenskiy is “a courageous president, the man who chose not to run away, who abandoned his jacket and tie for the olive-green fleece”.
Aside from the facts in question related to the mainstream journalist whose contours we do not yet know, officially the plotter is the Iranian arrested at Malpensa, accused of conspiracy, conspiracy to commit crimes and violation of trade laws. His role is allegedly linked to the drone system that, according to Washington, hit the US base in Jordan, killing three marines last January.
Najafabadi is now before the Court of Appeal, then the Ministry of Justice will have 10 days to make the extradition effective. How will it end? Our (albeit limited) sovereignty stopped at Sigonella, it was 1985. [A reference to the so-called Crisis of Sigonella, part of the broader event of the hijacking of the Italian ocean liner Achille Lauro].
Cecilia Sala and Mohammad Abedini-Najafabadi.
The fact is, that we mere mortals are being fed old news, the two cases - perhaps intertwined - have actually been in the news for days, only now revealed. Plots, conspiracies, international retaliation?
What is certain is that Iran is in the crosshairs. From the 1979 Islamic revolution, the fomented war against Iraq, the targeted attacks, to today's colourful revolutions.
Netanyahu said it in no uncertain terms in front of the US Congress on 24th July 2024: the final target is Tehran, and Imam Khamenei, the country's Supreme Guide, also acknowledged this a few days ago, after Damascus had fallen under the newly minted Isis.
We receive and publish this interesting analysis on the subject:
Iran in the crosshairs of Imperialism
That Iran is in the crosshairs of imperialism is certainly nothing new, yet, in the present “crunch of times”, proceeding to the disarticulation of the Islamic Republic is an urgent objective for it after the disembowelment of Iraq and the ongoing one of Syria. For the great imperialist reset of West Asia, just as the defence of the Zionist entity/”Israel” in the area and keeping the Saudi kingdom under its control are absolutely fundamental, so is the disarticulation/dismantling of the Iranian state.
Here only one of the many explicit declarations of intent (of war) by American-Zionist strategists:
“... Israel not only needs to prop up Israeli morale to move beyond the shadow of Oct. 7 (as the United States had to move beyond the shadow of Dec. 7), but to take actions—perhaps even against Iran itself, but certainly against theaters right now languishing (Yemen, Iraq, Syria)—that strategically signal this is no longer about Hamas alone, nor even about the Palestinians, but about forcing the Iranian regime itself into cowering in fear of what unpredictable thing Israel might do next, and through that to retake strategic initiative and set the regional agenda to bear down on Tehran’s regime itself. Israel needs to take control of the agenda in every aspect and force Iran’s hand into missteps. Israel needs a Doolittle Raid. Or two… or three.” - from the JEWISH NEWS SYNDACATE - 26th November 2023 https://www.jns.org/israel-needs-a-doolittle-raid/
“Forcing the Iranian regime itself into cowering in fear!” these criminal-strategists confidently write.
The tremendous pressure of imperialism is being exerted at a particularly critical moment for the Iranian (capitalist) state. This is not the place to analyse the profound economic-social criticalities and tensions that run through it, we limit ourselves to quoting the following statement by the new “reformist” president Pezeshkian issued on the dramatic eve of 1st October [2024], the historic date of the missile “whipping” inflicted on the Zionist entity and triggered by the decision of the Supreme Guide Khamenei and the IRGC/Revolutionary Guards Corps (against the advice of the “reformists”), seems to us to give quite an idea of the situation:
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in his speech touched upon important aspects that explain why Tehran is in no hurry to engage in an open war with Israel despite the tense situation in the region. His words give a clear idea that in the event of a major conflict, Iran could be on the verge of collapse, which makes the state extremely vulnerable to internal and external threats.
Pezeshkian stressed that if serious internal strife or war breaks out, Iran may cease to exist as a unified state. In this case, individual regions of the country, such as Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Khuzestan and Baluchestan, may declare their independence and create their own governments. Such a scenario, according to the Iranian leader, will lead to complete chaos and disintegration of the country.
The president also noted that in the event of an internal crisis, Iran cannot count on help from other countries. Each region will act in its own interests, seeking to seize power or increase its influence, which will lead to a split in the country and an increase in conflicts. According to Pezeshkian, this is what makes a war with Israel, as well as any other major conflicts, extremely undesirable for Iran.
“We don't want chaos in our country”, — the president emphasized, stating Iran’s desire to maintain unity and harmony within the country.
On 12th December [2024], Netanyahu, intoxicated by the perfect success (at the moment!) of the operations in Syria and the political-military blow dealt to the forces of the Axis of resistance, rubbed salt in the wounds by appealing to the Iranian people (not the first time he has done so) to get rid of “the oppressive regime of the ayatollahs” following the example of the Syrian “rebels” and “revolutionaries” (sic!). One might think that these kinds of “appeals to the people” are counterproductive (from the point of view of the “change” desired by imperialism) given the pulpit from which they come, i.e. given the downright executioner who launches them “to the people”. But this kind of bait, these particularly convoluted-diabolical “tactical approaches” are peculiar to the Zionist mentality. (And not only that, see for instance the “tactics” adopted by George Soros - who neither declares himself to be a Zionist nor is a Zionist - and by his very poisonous Open Society: do you remember Otpor3?) Be that as it may, the executioner Netanyahu puts his finger on the sore spot, that is, on the subject on which Iranian society (the social classes that make up Iranian capitalism) debates and divides.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has addressed the citizens of Iran with an open message, in which he expressed hope for the liberation of the country from the dictatorial regime. In his address, he sharply criticized the actions of the Iranian authorities, accusing them of funding terrorist groups at the expense of funds that could be used for the development of Iran itself.
“Your tyrants spent over $30 billion to support Assad in Syria. Today, that regime fell after 11 days of fighting. Billions went to support Hamas and Hezbollah, but their resources and leaders were destroyed”. “We are talking about money”, Netanyahu said, adding that the money could be invested in building roads, schools and hospitals.
Netanyahu also stressed that Iran's current defeats in the Middle East are the result not only of its aggressive policies, but also of its desire to impose fundamentalist tyranny in the region. The Israeli leader called his country's actions a defense of civilization from barbarism, emphasizing that Israel wants peace, but will continue to defend its borders.
Netanyahu paid special attention to the Iranian people themselves, stating that they are the main threat to the regime.
“The Iranian authorities are afraid of you. And one day, I am sure, this will change. Iran will be free”. “We are very close to each other”, he said, expressing hope for a future where Iran and Israel can coexist in peace.
Netanyahu's address comes amid major defeats for Iran's allies in the region. The fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the destruction of Hamas infrastructure, and the elimination of key Hezbollah facilities have been significant blows to Iran's influence. The Israeli prime minister linked these events to his country's military successes, noting that they are supported by the international community, including US President Donald Trump.
How much money, how many resources, could be spent and employed “for the benefit of the Iranian people” and the “peaceful development” of the country! And instead... And instead the “tyrannical regime of the ayatollahs” squanders them for its expansionist ambitions, for its Axes [sic] of Resistance that lead nowhere but the threat of war, destruction and misery for the people... says the message delivered to the Iranian people by the executioner Netanyahu. It is, fundamentally, the same criticism/complaint that Iran's social-political oppositions (not necessarily the rented fifth columns of imperialism) address to the “fundamentalists” who hold the state apparatus, the IRGC and, albeit indirectly, the Supreme Guide Khamenei himself. It is, fundamentally, the same challenge to the regime made by the internal Iranian “class oppositions” who deny the tremendous pressure that imperialism exerts on the country: it is a “distraction of the masses” to divert the Iranian proletarians from the struggle “against the bosses” they say, as good “orthodox” Marxists. False orthodox!
(Note that in the case of Russia, the political oppositions to the bourgeois patriot Putin - and let us not speak of the “Navalny-like” fifth columns - fundamentally base their contestation “against the Russian tyrant” on the same motive: the Western threat to the country is not true, not real... The war in Ukraine is a war of aggression waged by Putin to “distract the masses”, to extend his authoritarian regime…)
For our part, we categorically deny this kind of challenge to “the tyrannical regime” (of the ayatollahs, of Putin):
the imperialist threat on the country (Iran, Russia..) is absolutely real and looming. The popular masses, the proletariat (of Russia, of Iran...) cannot alienate themselves from the struggle against imperialism. They cannot desert this terrain of struggle.
What we dispute with the current state-patriotic-bourgeois leaderships in the struggle against democratic imperialism or imperialist democracy as you like is the way they conduct this struggle (see above: Who betrays whom?). In short: taming and beating the imperialist beast requires the “Lenin line” and not the “Putin line” or even the “Khamenei line” (to which we, however, take our hats off).
Our “theoretical” chatter aside, here below, explained by Russian political scientist Sergei Markov, is the concrete and very urgent alternative facing the government of the Islamic Republic:
Iran has found itself in a situation that requires making a critical decision, says political scientist Sergei Markov. The country has suffered a series of defeats in Syria, which has significantly weakened its influence in the region. The loss of communication with Lebanon through Syrian territory, Israeli strikes on Iranian facilities, and the death of key generals of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have dealt a serious blow to Tehran's geopolitical positions. According to the expert, these events indicate that Iran is losing the ongoing hybrid war with Israel.
Donald Trump may play a special role in increasing pressure on Tehran, who, after returning to the White House, as Markov suggests, may issue an ultimatum together with Israel. In the context of growing external pressure, Iran will have to choose between radical confrontation, a change in political course, or accelerated development of nuclear weapons.
The political scientist emphasizes that the long war scenario will require the mobilization of significant resources and readiness for a protracted confrontation with Israel and the West. This option will allow Tehran to maintain independence, but will exacerbate economic and social problems within the country. The possibility of changing the political course, implying the transfer of power to pro-Western forces, will actually mean a concession to an ultimatum and a refusal of an active regional policy. Such a step will seriously damage Iran's reputation in the Middle East. The third option, associated with the accelerated creation of nuclear weapons, carries high risks of military strikes and isolation in the international arena, but can become a lever of influence in future negotiations.
According to Markov, Iran's attempts to maneuver between these options will no longer yield results. The current situation requires Tehran to be decisive and make a clear choice of strategy that will determine not only Iran's future role in the region, but also its ability to withstand external pressure.
Now allow me to comment briefly on the story of Cecilia Sala and Mohammad Abedini-Najafabadi, prefacing that I hope that fair justice and common sense prevail in both cases.
As aforementioned in the article above, Cecilia Sala's case is inextricably linked to the that of Mohammad Abedini-Najafabadi, Iranian citizen arrested in Italy a few days earlier on behalf of the United States as part of the economic and military measures unilaterally taken against Tehran. It is therefore a delicate international affair on which the Italian government itself is forced to beg the “polarisers” on its knees to turn off their manipulative machine. The problem for the masters of the mainstream media (MSM, a.k.a. the Big Lie Factory) is that in this very case it is not easy to switch it off: Cecilia Sala is a presstitute, one of the most loyal employees of their system and they should give up the perfect spin. Just to give you an example of the type of articles Cecilia Sala was writing, here is the headline from one of the several pieces she wrote on the Italian newspaper Il Foglio:
The heading says “On battlefield not even the cold [weather] is with Putin” and the sub-heading “300 thousands of arctic kits of Kiev against the mobilized Russians who do not have socks and leave the frontline”. Needless to say that this was/is pure NATO propaganda, which has nothing to do with reality… otherwise, why hasn’t Zelensky’s army won the war with Russia yet?!
What you see below instead is the headline of an article by Claudio Cerasa, director of Il Foglio - it says “Journalism is not a crime. Let’s bring Cecilia Sala back home”.
It is curious to see the outrage from the same presstitutes who did not say a single word for Julian Assange, who six months ago was forced by the Outlaw US Empire to plea-bargain to avoid 170 years in jail and regain his freedom after 12 years spent in an embassy room and in Belmarsh, a maximum security prison in London (as if he was Jack the Ripper!). He was guilty of publishing real news and documents, therefore unwelcome to the Outlaw US Empire and its accomplices, who accused him of espionage; yet, many journalists who hung on his every word for years to secure scoops did not breathe a word in his defence.
Once again, hypocrisy wins out, namely that “all journalists are equal, but some are more equal than others”, to paraphrase George Orwell4. The problem lies in the fact that they are not ashamed of themselves, their double standards and their hypocrisy. They are not even ashamed of fooling themselves, since they write everything and its opposite according to convenience. They need to make up their mind: is journalism not a crime always or only when it suits them? Can Palestinian journalists be exterminated without presstitutes writing a line in their favour? Probably they do not even realise how ridiculous they are!
Meanwhile, Russian news channels Izvestia and Ria Novosti have banned from Telegram across the EU (see for instance this Pravda article), as it happened a few years ago with Russia Today, Sputnik, Rossiya 1, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Channel One and NTV. But, hey… “we are the democratic and freedom-loving West” and, as Josep Borrell5 once said, “Europe is a garden […] most of the rest of the world is a jungle”!
I will conclude this article with my English translation of an opinion piece by Pino Cabras, published on his Telegram channel today, Monday 30th December 2024. (All emphasis mine).
SALA AND THE OTHER
What I am about to say is not about the hopes for a successful resolution of the international crisis involving the well-deserved release of both the Italian journalist in Iran and the Iranian engineer in Italy.
In short, the subject is not Cecilia Sala, but the concept that the mainstream media is repeating in relation to her case: “journalism must be free, foreign journalists must be able to do their work everywhere”. Very nice. The problem is that they only apply this concept to this case but do not universalise it.
It is as if scientists discovered a new form of energy production but only applied it to domestic dehumidifiers.
It is as if Marxist analysis were only applied to the fish market.
Or it is as if the principle of equality were only applied in the ice cream queue.
Or as if the right to liberty were limited to only being able to choose between two American television series, which are, moreover, equal.
Well, the vast majority of Western media pundits meekly accept that their colleagues are prevented from seeing the genocide in the [Gaza] Strip up close.
And that same majority does not consider the European or US regulations that prevent the Iranian, Lebanese or Russian media from having any space in the Western public debate to be wrong. As of yesterday, for one thing, I, an adult citizen endowed with independent judgement and a critical spirit, no longer have access via Telegram to the Russian news agency Ria Novosti, which I used to read carefully as one of the richest sources of updates. Europe had outlawed it some time ago, but Telegram's patron, Pavel Durov, resisted. His arrest and forced stay in France softened him up and here we are. The NATO and EU McCarthyists decide what I must read (Maurizio Molinari, Gianni Riotta and Cecilia Sala [all Italian presstitutes]) and what I must not read (unwelcome foreign journalists who are also prevented from working).
In 2016, a Polish journalist and party leader who was contesting an upcoming NATO summit, my friend Mateusz Piskorski, was arrested and held in prison until 2019 without a trial, long without being able to read a paper, accused of who knows what deals with foreign powers, and released on bail.
Of course, that whole section of the journalistic class that today rediscovers journalism-that-must-be-free did not move a finger or say a word about that scandalous judicial affair, as it was co-opted within an Atlanticist camp logic.
Or shall we talk about Julian Assange? How many of the liberals on alternate plates insulted him as he rotted in a miserable cell? I remember them all. Today I see them in the front row demonstrating all their Pharisaic zeal. Their problem is not amnesty in good faith, it is amnesia in bad faith.
Thanks for reading GeoPolitiQ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
Notice how this Reuters article stresses at the very beginning that (emphasis added)…
U.S. prosecutors on Monday [16th December 2024] charged two men with illegally exporting sensitive technology to Iran that was used in a drone attack carried out by Iran-backed militants in Jordan in January that killed three U.S. service members and injured 47 others.
…however it does not mention the fact that the US has been doing illegal operations on the border between Jordan and Syria for several years and, in particular, in the Tower 22 base that was hit by the drone. See for instance these two articles (1 and 2) by Larry C. Johnson on his blog.
First air raid on the Japanese mainland conducted by the US military on 18th April 1942, as an initial retaliation for the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7th December 1941 - Wikipedia.
Former Serbian civic movement and political party, which began as a civic protest group and eventually turned into a movement, adopting the Narodni pokret (the People's Movement) title, against the policies of the Serbian authorities under the influence of Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević - Wikipedia.
that is funny commentary from netanyahu - very rich indeed - " hope for the liberation of the country from the dictatorial regime. " pot calling kettle black, lol....
as for the presstitutes "they are our presstitutes, so they are good presstitutes!' - if they are journalists from russia, gaza, iran and etc. etc - kill/murder/jail/silence them as need be... our propaganda/censorship msm needs all the help it can get!!!
thanks ismaele
that is funny commentary from netanyahu - very rich indeed - " hope for the liberation of the country from the dictatorial regime. " pot calling kettle black, lol....
as for the presstitutes "they are our presstitutes, so they are good presstitutes!' - if they are journalists from russia, gaza, iran and etc. etc - kill/murder/jail/silence them as need be... our propaganda/censorship msm needs all the help it can get!!!
The trump-netanyahu AIPAC government in USA is here to force humanity to submit to USraeli billionaires' global domination