RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18797/belgium-iran-prisoner-swap

A Belgian court has temporarily prohibited the Belgian government from exchanging an Iranian diplomat convicted of terrorism for a Belgian citizen being held in Iran on dubious charges of espionage.

The court’s ruling represents a potential blow to a controversial new prisoner exchange treaty, which critics say will embolden the Iranian government to step up its practice of taking foreigners hostage to pressure Western countries into making concessions.

The treaty has angered those who argue that it would grant impunity to Iranian agents such as Assadi and have accused the Belgian government of caving in to “odious blackmail.” It has been variously described as: “frightening appeasement,” “a green light to terrorists,” and “very short-sighted,” “dangerous,” “outrageous,” “a sign of weakness,” “a stunning mistake,” and “a deal with the devil.”

“If the Belgian government proceeds with this treaty, Iran’s regime will further turn Europe into a roaming ground for its terrorists, targeting not just Iranian dissidents but others also, as Tehran is essentially being told that it won’t pay a price.” — Ramesh Sepehrrad, Organization of Iranian American Communities, July 5, 2022.

“With the knowledge that prisoner swaps are an easy option, Tehran will now instruct more ‘diplomats’ and other operatives to engage in terrorism…. Europe must recognize that, ultimately, the only sustainable path to having a stable relationship with Iran is to support the Iranian people’s democratic aspirations.” — Cameron Khansarinia and Kaveh Shahrooz, Politico, August 1, 2022.

A Belgian court has temporarily prohibited the Belgian government from exchanging an Iranian diplomat convicted of terrorism for a Belgian citizen being held in Iran on dubious charges of espionage.

The court’s ruling represents a potential blow to a controversial new prisoner exchange treaty, which critics say will embolden the Iranian government to step up its practice of taking foreigners hostage to pressure Western countries into making concessions.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18791/us-policy-taiwan

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, moreover, provides a timely illustration of what can happen when the West does not take sufficient action to safeguard the security of its allies.

In February, for example, the US approved a $100 million support package to improve the island’s missile defences, which were designed to improve its Patriot missile defence system. But bureaucratic wrangling in Washington means Taipei has still to receive the support it needs.

Consequently, now that Beijing has provided the West with its military template for intimidating Taiwan, this has provided the US and its allies with an indication of the military defences, such as anti-missile, anti-aircraft and anti-warship missiles, to thwart any future Chinese attack.

So if Washington, as the Biden administration keeps insisting, is really serious about defending Taiwan from Chinese aggression, then it should get off the fence and abandon its confused policy of “strategic ambiguity” in favour of one that will deter future acts of Chinese aggression against this freedom-loving island state.

China’s extreme military response to Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan sends an unequivocal message to the US that it can no longer sustain its policy of “strategic ambiguity.”

At a time when the very existence of the democratic island state is under threat from China’s communist rulers, what Taipei badly needs is unconditional declarations of support from its Western allies, not the diplomatic equivalent of sitting on the fence, which essentially sums up the Biden administration’s inadequate response to date.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18780/iran-bahai-persecution

Samin Ehsani had been running educational courses for Afghan children living in Iran, but who did not have access to education in the country. During the trial, her activities were presented as an example of the charges against her.

In Iran, an estimated 300,000 followers of the Baha’i faith are being denied many fundamental rights such as access to education, employment, political office, and practice of their religious rituals. Iran’s clerical regime evidently considers the Baha’is to be heretics and as having no religion.

Baha’is consider Baha’ullah as a messenger in succession to Buddha, Jesus and Mohammed. For that, no other religion or state suppress them except Iran.

On June 15, 2022, Samin Ehsani, a follower of the Baha’i faith and an activist for children’s rights in Iran was arrested and transferred to the infamous Evin Prison in Tehran. Earlier, on July 2, 2011, Ehsani had also been sentenced by Branch 28 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran to five years in prison on charges of “propaganda against the regime, acting against national security, and being a member of the heretical Baha’i faith.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18787/china-russia-attack-dollar

Russia and China have launched another attempt to develop a “new global reserve currency.” In other words, they are again attacking the dollar.

There is only one country that can dethrone the dollar, and it is not a BRICS nation. It is the United States. President Joe Biden is China’s and Russia’s biggest ally in “dedollarizing” the world.

Russia’s ruble, although showing surprising strength of late, is tied to a country in long-term—and seemingly irreversible—decline. Moreover, the Russian Federation, thanks to its aggression and barbarism in Ukraine, is cementing its role as a pariah.

Who wants to hold a weak Chinese currency that is racing toward the edge of the cliff?

Furthermore, Xi Jinping, the Chinese ruler, believes in “absolute” control of every aspect of society. The idea of free convertibility, therefore, is almost certainly anathema to him. So until China completely abandons its model of economic development and removes Xi as ruler, the renminbi cannot dethrone the dollar. The Chinese failure to make their currency widely acceptable means, as a practical matter, the BRICS currency will never get off the ground.

What are the attributes of a global reserve currency? It must be stable, it must be underpinned by a large and strong economy, it must be freely convertible, and it must be used widely.

Americans should not remain overconfident. The only reason the greenback is still the world’s reserve currency is because there is no practical alternative. China and Russia, however, are busy trying to figure out how to engineer a replacement.

“The issue of creating an international reserve currency based on a basket of currencies of our countries is being worked out,” said Vladimir Putin in June, at a meeting of the BRICS—Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa—grouping.

  https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18781/climate-change-excuse-slaughter

“And it is striking how quickly politicians and commentators trot out the same discredited banal narrative that the drivers for such carnage are climate change and lack of resources. They say that the causes are ‘complicated,’ with hardly a mention of the Jihadist ideology that is behind the endless atrocities of ISIS and Boko Haram. And then they say that everyone [Christian and Muslim] suffers and there is a sort of equivalence with victims coming from varied religious backgrounds. They should tell that to the families whose loved ones are targeted, day in and day out, and see what sort of response they receive.” — Lord Alton of Liverpool, June12, 2022.

“[T]he shocking murders in a church in #Nigeria are attributable to Ideology, Insecurity and Impunity – along with indifference by the Buhari Government. Nor can climate change be blamed for executions, abductions and murders.” — Lord Alton, Twitter, June 6, 2022.

“[P]oliticians need to be more honest about what drives the carnage.” — Lord Alton, June 12, 2022.

Politicians have found a new straw man: climate change. There are certainly many things we can gradually do not to pollute or wreck our planet, but blaming it for the pervasive slaughter of Christians by Muslims in northern Africa is not one of them. It seems, sadly, that what drives the persecution of Christians there, and elsewhere, is doctrine, not climate change.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/08/shining-spotlight-real-war-women-mark-tapson/

Last week marked the seventh annual commemoration of the Yazidi genocide, though you wouldn’t know it from watching establishment media. Nor would you know that there is an ongoing genocide of Christians taking place in Nigeria, nor that throughout the Islamic world countless women and girls are enduring kidnapping, forced marriages, forced conversions of Christians to Islam, genocidal rape, and/or widespread sex trafficking even in countries that are supposedly our allies in the War on Terror.

To keep abreast of these crises, one needs to seek out the work of such concerned journalists as the Freedom Center’s own Raymond Ibrahim or Dutch journalist Sonja Dahlmans, who work desperately to bring international attention to the plight of the victims of an actual war on women.

I recently interviewed Ms. Dahlmans about these issues. She currently writes (in Dutch only) for the conservative political news site PAL NWS, and is studying Islam at the Melbourne School of Theology, where she will be starting her thesis.

For those readers who would like to help make a change – and to participate in the effort to protecting and liberating the victims of Islamic Jihad, sex slavery and rape, please contact Sonja on her Twitter at: @SonjaDahlmans.

Mark Tapson: Sonja, please tell us what the focus of your journalistic work has been in recent years, and why you’re passionate about it.

Sonja Dahlmans: I focus mainly on Christian persecution, but I have also written about persecution of the Yazidis in Iraq and Syria and of Hindu girls in Pakistan. Women and girls from these groups are often targeted in Islamic countries or regions. The abduction, rape, forced marriage and forced conversion (to Islam) of non-Muslim women and girls is a widespread problem. This is the subject I write about the most, because I am afraid it is still underestimated, although lately there has been more attention to it. Unfortunately not often in the mainstream media, the subject is almost only discussed on Christian (or other religious minority) pages or reports.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18682/north-korea-threat

China’s urging “flexibility” on North Korea appears to coincide with the Chinese Communist Party’s ambitions in the region.

“According to unclassified intelligence reports to Congress, there are five key Chinese banks and a specially created holding company that funds the North Korean missile and nuclear technology programs.” — Peter Huessy, Real Clear Defense, August 10, 2017.

China’s main strategic concern when it comes to the Korean peninsula is apparently to end the US presence there and keep it out of US hands so that China can finally establish itself as the hegemon in the region.

North Korean escalation in the form of increased missile tests and resumption of ICBM and nuclear tests to pressure the US to make concessions — in the shape of troop withdrawals from South Korea — would play directly into the hands of China, enabling it to replace the US and establish itself as the primary power in the region.

“They are looking to take actions, which we believe are fundamentally destabilizing, as a way to increase pressure.” — US official in Washington to journalists, France24.com, January 31, 2022.

China, however, seems to have no interest in cooperating with the US on North Korea. Attempts to secure “Beijing’s cooperation” to build necessary economic leverage over North Korea are therefore exercises in futility.

China clearly cannot be relied on voluntarily to use its leverage over North Korea to persuade Kim Jong-un to give up his missile and nuclear program. To resolve the impasse, it is necessary to employ means that will leave China no choice other than to cooperate on North Korea.

A highly efficient way of doing that, Gordon Chang has suggested, would be to cut off the large Chinese banks and businesses that support the North Korean missile and nuclear technology from the global financial system by designating them a “primary money laundering concern” under Section 311 of the Patriot Act.

“In short, American policymakers know how to get China to begin acting responsibly.” — Gordon G. Chang, Newsweek, May 10, 2021.

The question now is — will the Biden administration muster the political will to designate those large Chinese banks under Section 311 of the Patriot Act?

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18770/eu-iran-nuclear-deal

The European Union has presented Iran with a new draft text that aims to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. The document, which has not been made public, presumably offers additional concessions to coax Tehran into rejoining the agreement.

In May 2022, for instance, Iran reached a new dangerous and destabilizing threshold: its stockpile of uranium enriched to 60% reached 42 kilograms, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

In June, Iran removed 27 surveillance cameras from its nuclear facilities. The move came after the IAEA censured Iran for not answering questions about uranium traces found at three undeclared sites.

The EU’s continued appeasement of Iran also comes amid a violent crackdown against civil society in the country. Human rights groups have blasted the EU for its unwillingness to hold the Iranian government to account.

The EU appears to be sacrificing human rights on the altar of financial gain.

“If we simply cling to the idea that continued negotiations will somehow lead to resolution, we’ll be sleepwalking as we did with Russia, allowing a hostile power to take advantage of diplomacy while pursuing increasingly aggressive actions against us and our allies…. ” — Nicola Beer and Peter Neumann, “Iran: Time for a Plan B,” Politico, July 21, 2022.

The European Union has presented Iran with a new draft text that aims to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. The document, which has not been made public, presumably offers additional concessions to coax Tehran into rejoining the agreement.