The Ayatollah Took A Principled Stand By Condemning India's Massacre Of Muslims

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12 MARCH 2020

Iran’s Supreme Leader inflicted a devastating blow to India’s soft power by strongly condemning the massacre of Muslims that symbolically took place in its capital last month, with his powerful words having the potential to influence how the broad swath of the Alt-Media Community under his country’s sway covers the South Asian state in the coming future, which could possibly lead to a long-overdue reappraisal of it.

Iran Won’t Stay Silent While Indian Muslims Are Slaughtered

Iran is speaking up for the oppressed Muslims of India after they were massacred in none other than its capital city last month, which symbolically showed the world that the self-professed “world’s largest democracy” is anything but “democratic”. Foreign Minister Zarif tweeted last week that “Iran condemns the wave of organized violence against Indian Muslims. For centuries, Iran has been a friend of India. We urge Indian authorities to ensure the wellbeing of ALL Indians & not let senseless thuggery prevail. Path forward lies in peaceful dialogue and rule of law.”, which prompted India to summon the Iranian envoy to complain. Not to be intimidated, Ayatollah Khamenei took a principled stand by tweeting his own condemnation a few days later, writing that “The hearts of Muslims all over the world are grieving over the massacre of Muslims in India. The govt of India should confront extremist Hindus & their parties & stop the massacre of Muslims in order to prevent India’s isolation from the world of Islam. #IndianMuslimslnDanger”.

Why Does Alt-Media Cover Up For India?

The importance of his remarks rests with the influence that he commands over the broad swath of the Alt-Media Community under his country’s sway. These outlets and individuals pay serious attention to the Supreme Leader’s statements and oftentimes look to his words for guidance when reporting on various issues. Up until now, the Iranian-friendly Alt-Media Community was divided over India, with some choosing to ignore the country’s new military-strategic partnerships with the US and “Israel” because they were too “politically inconvenient” to acknowledge while others paid service to the truth by exposing them. Some people find it difficult to explain complicated topics to their audience such as the reason why vehemently anti-American and anti-Zionist Iran would continue to voluntarily align itself with India despite its partner’s increasing closeness with the Islamic Republic’s worst enemies, hence why they “cover up” for India in order to avoid the “uncomfortable” optics that their factual reporting could produce.

The Ayatollah And Other Anti-Islamophobic Activists Aren’t “Hindu-Hating” “Anglo-Saxon Supremacists”

That’s almost impossible to do now after the Ayatollah’s latest statement, which forces the Iranian-friendly Alt-Media Community to finally confront this proverbial elephant in the room. The Supreme Leader also debunked the narrative spread by RT’s Ashish Shukla, who penned an op-ed last week which basically boiled down to accusing anyone who criticizes Prime Minister Modi’s violent brand of “Hindu nationalism” of being a “Hindu-hating” “Anglo-Saxon supremacist”. In his own words:

“Let’s assume Hindus and Muslims were on opposing sides in these violent clashes (despite the fact that Indian intelligence is still trying to determine if it was engineered by inimical forces). Let’s also not deny that law and order, crime against women, caste, linguistic identities, inequality etc. is very real in India. Yet, let’s not also frame these events solely in the context of the rise of Modi, which lately seems to have let the genie of Hindu-hating Western media out of the bottle…In essence, we are still witnessing the colonial and imperial hangover of the “North” against the “Savage South” who must get tutorials on “tolerance,” “peace” and “multiculturalism.” This colonial hangover is the binding thread of policy, business, academia and media in the West and is woven with the cloth of liberty, religious freedom and human rights; of American exceptionalism and the supposed superiority of the Anglo-Saxon world.”

His piece was written before either Zarif or the Ayatollah’s condemnation of the massacre of Muslims in New Delhi, but Shukla probably regards them as fitting targets of his diatribe too given the seriousness of their remarks, which were stronger than the Mainstream Media headlines that he cited in his op-ed. This thought exercise of imagining him accusing those two figures of being “Hindu-hating” “Anglo-Saxon supremacists” like he believes that the rest of his government’s critics supposedly are shows the ridiculousness of his attacks.

Alt-Media’s Long-Overdue Reappraisal Of India

Condemning the massacre of Muslims in New Delhi and calling upon the Indian authorities to rein in the death squads responsible for this crime against humanity doesn’t automatically make someone a “Hindu-hating” “Anglo-Saxon supremacist”, especially not Zarif or the Ayatollah, but their principled stand on this issue raises widespread awareness about what happened and strongly encourages the Alt-Media community to undertake a long-overdue reappraisal of India. The country isn’t the “peacefully rising superpower” that its surrogates deceitfully present it as being, but is a religiously supremacist pro-American proxy state for “containing” China. The message that the Supreme Leader and his Foreign Minister are sending is that India’s massacre of Muslims shouldn’t be ignored, and that it’s about time that the his country’s supporters eschew their “political correctness” and begin seriously talking about the dangerous changes in Indian society as of late which made that pogrom possible in the first place. Instead of continuing to cover up for India, they should finally expose it.

Concluding Thoughts

The Ayatollah’s condemnation of India’s massacre of Muslims was indeed a devastating blow to the soft power of the South Asian state because of the influential impact that it could have on shaping the way in which the Alt-Media Community covers the country. India had hitherto been given a free pass by many to continue killing Muslims with impunity just because it used to be one of Iran’s top energy partners, but the Supreme Leader just signaled that it’s unacceptable to remain silent after such a bloody pogrom took place in its capital last month. It doesn’t matter that gatekeepers such as RT’s Shukla strongly implied that all anti-Islamophobic activists who talk about this are “Hindu-hating” “Anglo-Saxon supremacists” since the Ayatollah wasn’t going to be intimidated by anyone, hence why he tasked his Foreign Minister with speaking out about that massacre and then followed up with his own remarks a few days later after the Indian government censured his envoy to the country. It’s therefore inevitable that India’s reputation will continue to suffer as more people learn the truth.By Andrew KorybkoAmerican political analyst

Imam Khamenei Urges India to Stop Extremist Anti-Muslim Violence

By Staff, Agencies

Leader of the Islamic Revolution His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei deplored the massacre of Muslims in India, calling on the New Delhi government to confront extremist Hindus.

In a post on Thursday, Imam Khamenei’s official Twitter account denounced the recent wave of violence against Muslims in India.

“The hearts of Muslims all over the world are grieving over the massacre of Muslims in India,” the post read.

“The govt of India should confront extremist Hindus & their parties & stop the massacre of Muslims in order to prevent India’s isolation from the world of Islam,” it added.

The post ended with the hashtag #IndianMuslimslnDanger.

Violence erupted in the Indian capital last week, leading to a three-day-long rampage, with Hindu mobs attacking Muslim homes, shops and mosques.

The attacks were carried out on protesters, who have been rallying against a new citizenship law, after the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] leader Kapil Mishra threatened peaceful sit-ins would be removed from the streets.

The violence in Delhi killed scores of people.

It was the worst violence in Delhi since 1984, when more than 3,000 Sikh minority were killed following the assassination of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The Indo-‘Israeli’ Trans-Arabian Corridor Will Push Russia Closer to Pakistan

By Andrew Korybko

Global Research, December 19, 2019

India’s participation in “Israel’s” Trans-Arabian Corridor for connecting the Eastern Mediterranean and Afro-Asian (“Indian”) Ocean will render New Delhi’s North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC) with Iran, Azerbaijan, and Russia economically redundant, consequently pushing Russia closer to Pakistan as Moscow seeks to ensure the viability of its southern connectivity vision through N-CPEC+ instead.

India Slaps Iran Yet Again

Sputnik reported earlier this month that “Israel” and India shared documents pertaining to the former’s Trans-Arabian Corridor for connecting the Eastern Mediterranean and Afro-Asian (“Indian”) Ocean during the meeting between the former’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Katz (who’s also interestingly the Minister of Intelligence) and the latter’s External Affairs Minister Jaishankar during the Mediterranean Dialogues forum. This development is strategically significant because the success of India’s participation in that “Israeli”-led initiative will render New Delhi’s North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC) with Iran, Azerbaijan, and Russia economically redundant since there wouldn’t be much of a reason for the South Asian state to utilize it for exporting goods to Europe if it can reach its destination much quicker through the Trans-Arabian Corridor while transiting through territories much wealthier than Iran such as the GCC and “Israel” which are more capable of buying some of its wares en route.

NSTC Is Dead, Long Live N-CPEC+!

Nobody should be surprised this turn of events since India had already agreed to comply with the US’ unilateral anti-Iranian sanctions regime and cut off the Islamic Republic from what had at one time been among its largest energy customers, further exacerbating its ongoing economic crisis as a result. Moreover, India slashed its budget for the NSTC’s terminal port of Chabahar earlier this summer and even deployed its warships to the Gulf following the Ansaraullah’s attack on Saudi Arabia’s Aramco that the West incredulously blamed on Iran. India isn’t a formal member of the US’ so-called “coalition” but it de-facto behaves as such through these means. Adding some more context to its decision to strengthen its integration with the GCC and “Israel” is the fact that India recently rejected joining the Chinese-led “Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership” (RCEP) last month, which the author analyzed at the time undermined Russia’s “Greater Eurasian Partnership” (GEP) too.

It’s therefore perfectly understandable why India is intensifying its alliance with “Israel”, especially since Prime Minister Modi praised the self-professed “Jewish State” last month for supposedly “sharing and valuing the same principles of democracy”, in spite of this move being aimed against Iranian and even Russian interests. The Islamic Republic is left in the lurch after having naively trusted India to fulfill its NSTC commitments and therefore relieve the country’s increasing US-imposed “isolation”, though Russia is much more strategically resilient because it’s not only interested in constructing the railway portion of the Trans-Arabian Corridor which the author analyzed in two analyses last year on this topic, but is also preparing itself to pioneer what his earlier cited RCEP-GEP analysis described as N-CPEC+. That neologism refers to the expansion of CPEC through post-war Afghanistan for connecting Russia with the Afro-Asian Ocean via the global pivot state of Pakistan.

The Fast-Moving Russian-Pakistani Rapprochement

This isn’t the author’s “wishful thinking” like some critics have alleged, but a serious project that’s proceeding apace after two extremely important developments in Russian-Pakistani relations in just as many months and possibly even a third one that might manifest itself next week. The Russian Trade Representative in Pakistan publicly announced his country’s intent to establish a “reliable and mutually acceptable” banking system following the resolution of their Soviet-era dispute last month, which the author analyzed represents the prerequisite towards making tangible progress on N-CPEC+. Earlier this month, a massive trade delegation from Russia visited Pakistan and committed to at least several billion dollars’ worth of investments, proving that progress on improving the economic dimension of Russian-Pakistani relations is proceeding faster than even the most optimistic observers expected.

As for the third instance, Iran invited Pakistan to participate in the joint naval drills that it’s hosting next week with Russia and China, which would build upon the growing closeness of the Russian and Pakistani navies in recent years which the author analyzed in his piece late last year about “Russia’s Naval Strategy In The Afro-Asian Ocean” should Islamabad take Tehran up on it. So concerned is India about this possible development that the Observer Research Foundation’s Head of the Maritime Policy Initiative Abhijit Singh wrote in his recent piece for Russia’s top think tank, the Valdai Club, that “many in New Delhi are worried over the prospect of Russia’s involvement in a naval exercise with both Pakistan and China in a sensitive Indian Ocean littoral region” and that “Russia’s engagement in the Indian Ocean has indeed grown but not quite in the way India’s maritime watchers had imagined”, which is exactly what the author predicted in his previously cited analysis a year ago.

Concluding Thoughts

Considering that India has all but officially bowed out of the NSTC by slashing its funding for Chabahar earlier this year and is now exploring the possibility of replacing that trade route with the “Israeli”-led Trans-Arabian Corridor instead (a trend that was obvious enough for any objective observer to discern), it makes perfect sense that Russia would take the necessary steps to ensure the viability its southern connectivity vision through N-CPEC+ in response. After all, its GEP is dependent on pioneering new axes of supercontinental connectivity, and with the NSTC no longer as promising as before, the only realistic recourse for Russia is N-CPEC+, which could also complement NSTC in the unlikely event that it’s revived by serving to diversify Moscow’s access to the Afro-Asian Ocean. India isn’t expected to be too happy about this development, but it was none other than its own decision to join the Trans-Arabian Corridor at the NSTC’s expense that inspired Russia’s N-CPEC+ outreaches to Pakistan.

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This article was originally published on OneWorld.

Andrew Korybko is an American Moscow-based political analyst specializing in the relationship between the US strategy in Afro-Eurasia, China’s One Belt One Road global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, and Hybrid Warfare. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from OneWorldRussia’s S-400 Sale to India Won’t Imperil Its Partnership with PakistanThe original source of this article is Global ResearchCopyright © Andrew Korybko, Global Research, 2019

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India Humiliated Zarif By Sending Him Back To Iran Empty-Handed

By Andrew Korybko
Source

Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif was desperate for India to offer his country some relief from the economic component of the US’ Hybrid War on the Islamic Republic but was humiliatingly sent back empty-handed by his hosts after being told in non-committal terms that New Delhi will only decide on this issue after the ongoing elections, which can’t portend anything positive for Iran if Modi wins re-election since BJP-ruled India has been decisively pivoting towards Tehran’s American, “Israeli”, and Saudi enemies for the past half-decade already.

The Iranian “Begging Bowl”

A millennia-old civilization as proud as Iran’s has never sent its representatives abroad with a “begging bowl” until now when Foreign Minister Zarif was urgently dispatched to India to desperately seek some relief from the economic component of the US’ Hybrid War on the Islamic Republic. India’s acquiescence to America’s “secondary sanctions” pressure and its subsequent decision to discontinue purchasing Iranian oil following the Trump Administration’s refusal to renew its waiver will greatly exacerbate Iran’s economic challenges by depriving it of its second-largest customer and the attendant revenue that it was expected to provide to the country’s budget. It’s therefore not for naught that President Rouhani recently warned his countrymen that they might face conditions harder than during the 1980s war with Iraq and decided to send his top diplomat to India in the hopes of negotiating a workaround for continuing Iran’s energy cooperation with the South Asian state.

Inexplicable Trust In The Untrustworthy

Alas, it was all in vain because India humiliated Zarif by sending back to Iran empty-handed after being told in non-committal terms that New Delhi will only decide on this issue after the ongoing elections, which can’t portend anything positive for Iran if Modi wins re-election since BJP-ruled India has been decisively pivoting towards Tehran’s American, “Israeli“, and Saudi enemies for the past half-decade already. Iran’s ruling “Reformist” faction, however, ignored these “inconvenient facts” for reasons that only they can account for if challenged, though possibly in the “best-case” scenario having naively fallen for the “Indian Illusion” of New Delhi denying anti-Iranian sanctions while quietly preparing to implement them this entire time.

The Writing On The Wall

If Modi getting his toes wet with Netanyahu in the Mediterranean during the first-ever visit of an Indian Prime Minister to “Israel” back in summer 2017 didn’t set alarm bells ringing, then Iran must also not have considered India’s military-strategic partnership with the US that past summer through LEMOA to be a threat despite it allowing the Pentagon access to some Indian military facilities on a case-by-case “logistical” basis, nor for that matter would it have realized that Modi was scheming against their country during his summit with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman at last year’s G20 in Argentina. The signs were all there this entire time that India would submit to American-“Israeli”-Saudi pressure to cut off its oil imports from Iran, but the Islamic Republic was evidently oblivious to them for whatever the reason may be.

Lesson Learned?

In spite of all of this, it’s unclear whether Iran finally learned its lesson or not. For all that one knows, India might still have Iran under its spell, lying to Zarif that he needs to wait until the elections are over for it to make a decision because otherwise the US will immediately punish it and therefore tip the scales in favor of the opposition at the last minute. Since Iran has been victimized by the US’ regime change plots for quite some time already, it would probably have been sympathetic to this excuse and easily fallen for it even though it appears obvious that Modi will only accelerate his pro-Western pivot if he wins re-election and probably won’t hesitate to throw Iran under the bus as one of the sacrifices that he might be forced to make to his new American-“Israeli”-Saudi patrons.

The Double Backstab

After all, he might very well be preparing to ditch Russia by pulling out of the previously agreed deal to purchase its S-400s in order to avoid the US’ CAATSA “secondary sanctions”, though with the “consolation” being that he can buy the US’ THAAD instead. Considering that Modi might also be about to bow down to Trump on trade too, it’s difficult to imagine that he’d risk his new master’s wrath by continuing to purchase oil from Iran. In the event that he backstabs Russia too, then the North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC) and its over-hyped terminal port of Chabahar would probably be canceled, unless of course Iran “saves face” by kicking India out of the project first as punishment for it submitting to the US’ sanctions demands and then replaces its role with its Chinese rival instead.

CPEC Calling

On the topic of Iran’s possible responses to India’s perfidy (if it even realizes that it’s being manipulated, that is), the Islamic Republic would be wise to accelerate its incipient rapprochement with the global pivot state of Pakistan, understanding that there are obvious limitations to how far and fast everything can unfold but nevertheless realizing that it’s the most pragmatic way to “make the best of a bad situation” after “putting all its eggs in one basket” with India but then losing everything. There’s no doubt that India’s humiliation of Zarif and it failure to “donate” anything into his “begging bowl” stands as perhaps the greatest foreign policy failure of the Rouhani-led “Reformist” government apart from the disastrous nuclear deal that the US ultimately withdrew from, so seeing as how those two countries are allies with one another nowadays anyhow (together with Iran’s “Israeli” and Saudi enemies), then pivoting to their Pakistani and Chinese rivals respectively in response would make the most sense.

Trump And PM Khan Might Have Just Ruined Iranian-Indian Relations

By Andrew Korybko
Source

The American and Pakistani leaders independently took two very important and uncoordinated moves at almost the exact same time that might coincidentally have the same effect of ruining Iranian-Indian relations.

Iranian-Indian relations might be about to enter their worst-ever period in modern history as a result of two very important and uncoordinated moves undertaken at almost the exact same time by the American and Pakistani leaders. PM Khan just paid his first visit to Iran where he and his hosts announced that they’ll enter into a new era of anti-terrorist cooperation that geopolitical analyst Adam Garrie comprehensively analyzed in his recent piece on this breaking news event. The ball was indeed in Iran’s court to stop India’s anti-Pakistani Baloch terrorism like I wrote the other day, and to Tehran’s credit, its leadership finally understood this and decided to expand its military partnership with the global pivot state of Pakistan. This will greatly complicate India’s Hybrid War capabilities in clandestinely using Iranian territory to carry out terrorist attacks against Pakistan by proxy as it obsessively seeks to sabotage CPEC, meaning that PM Khan’s visit will have far-reaching and long-term geostrategic security consequences in the New Cold War.

In parallel with this, Trump decided that the US won’t renew its Iranian oil sanctions waivers and that Washington’s GCC partners of Saudi Arabia and the UAE will help the Islamic Republic’s energy customers replace their imports with Gulf resources instead. India was very vocal last year about its intent to defy the US’ unilateral sanctions against Iran, but as I wrote in my piece at the time about the “Indian Illusion“, all of this was just rhetoric to hide the fact that New Delhi was quietly implementing its new American patron’s will. Trump just put Modi on the spot, however, and it might augur negatively for the Indian leader during the ongoing month-long electoral process if he publicly capitulates to the US’ demands and replaces Iranian resources with Gulf ones like I suspected he’s been planning to do since late last year after his summit in Argentina with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. As such, this American move might also be yet another “bad cop” tactic against Modi to get more strategic concessions out of India.

It therefore wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Trump and PM Khan might have just ruined Iranian-Indian relations for good when considering the combined effect of their latest moves to that relationship. The Pakistani leader exposed India’s Hybrid War terrorist plot during his talks with the Iranian leadership which probably explains why the two neighboring nations decided to take their military cooperation with one another to the next level, while the American leader is forcing India to stop importing Iranian oil under the threat of potentially crippling “secondary sanctions” and to replace its resources with those from the Islamic Republic’s hated GCC foes. Although Iran and India still have shared strategic interests in the Chabahar Corridor and North-South Transport Corridor, the trust that formerly defined their relations is broken and their ties will never be the same. The end result is beneficial to the US and Pakistan for different reasons and might even interestingly be a tangential outcome of their recent diplomatic cooperationin Afghanistan.

The Ball’s In Iran’s Court To Stop Anti-Pakistani Baloch Terrorism

By Andrew Korybko
Source

Pakistan filed an official complaint against Iran just two days before Prime Minister Khan’s first visit to the Islamic Republic for its unwillingness to take action against Baloch terrorist groups like the one that claimed credit for the recent terror attack along the Makran Coastal Highway despite being informed by Islamabad about training camps and logistics bases within its borders, which therefore puts the ball in Iran’s court to stop this resurgent trend of transnational terrorism in the region and will obviously figure very high on the agenda during the Pakistani leader’s upcoming two-day visit.

An umbrella group of three Baloch terrorist organizations claimed credit for the recent killing of 14 Pakistanis who were pulled off of a bus traveling along the Makran Coastal Highway by fighters disguised as legitimate members of the security services and martyred in front of the other passengers. Pakistan filed an official complaint against Iran just two days before Prime Minister Khan’s first visit to the Islamic Republic for its unwillingness to take action against Baloch terrorist groups such as the one that was responsible for the latest attack, claiming that Tehran had previously been informed by Islamabad of training camps and logistics bases within its borders but hadn’t done anything to address this resurgent trend of transnational terrorism in the region. Although it’s not directly stated, the complaint heavily implies a high degree of hypocrisy on the side of the Iranian government which had previously resorted to over-the-top rhetoric back in February after a Baloch terrorist attack along the Pakistani frontier, even ridiculously hinting that an Indian-like “surgical strike” against Pakistan was one of the options on the table.

I wrote about that incident in a previous piece about how “Iran’s Being Tricked Into Making Balochistan The New Kurdistan” by India, but Tehran apparently doesn’t care all that much because it’s too obsessed with the carrot of potential “sanctions relief” that “Israel’s” new ally in New Delhi is dangling in front of it through the Chabahar Corridor even though “Iran Just Fell Victim To Blowback From The US-Indian Hybrid War On CPEC” back in December. I explained how India’s RAW (its version of the Mossad) is responsible for this upsurge in regional terrorism, which the whole world is already aware of after Pakistan provided evidence of this to the United Nations’ International Court of Justice following the capture of Hybrid Waragent Kulbushan Jadhav and his admission to operating out of Iran’s nearby Indian-owned Chabahar port. My analysis at the time mentioned that Iran had the chance to use that tragedy to strengthen anti-terrorist cooperation with Pakistan along their shared border and possibly establish an Iranian version of the “Overseas Pakistani Baloch Unity” initiative (OPBU, recently rebranded to PBU after dropping the first prefix) for reintegrating wayward Baloch into society.

It now looks as though Iran ignored that opportunity and is therefore indirectly responsible for the latest terrorist attack in Pakistan as a result of its negligence. It’s important to point out that the incident was probably timed to coincide with Prime Minister Khan’s first two-day visit to Iran just like the February one against the Islamic Republic was likely inended to provoke a crisis in bilateral relations precisely at the moment that India was planning its Bollywood-like “surgical strike” against Pakistan. Islamabad wisely isn’t biting the bait but it surely isn’t going to leave Iran’s irresponsibility to its neighbor unaddressed during the Prime Minister’s trip either, especially since last week’s terrorist attack was obviously meant to diminish international confidence in CPEC after targeting one of the global pivot state’s main transit routes connecting to the terminal port of Gwadar. As such, Iran’s IRGC are compelled to take decisive action against the Indian-backed terrorist groups on their soil if they themselves truly aren’t the “terrorists” that Trump claims that they are, thus putting the ball in their court and making Prime Minister Khan’s upcoming visit a defining moment in bilateral relations.