Reprinted from Sputnik
Iran will once again be discussed at the UN Security Council. The reason: recent ballistic missile tests, which according to the West, are "capable of delivering nuclear weapons" -- an alleged violation of the 2015 UN Security Council Resolution 2231.
Russia knows it, of course. The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control, Mikhail Ulyanov, once again had to go on the record saying the ballistic missile tests did not breach the UNSC resolution.
What else is new? Nothing. Washington will keep pressure on Tehran for a fundamental reason; the US did not get the natural gas commitments they were expecting after the nuclear deal. Iran privileges selling natural gas to Asian -- and European -- customers. Eurasian integration is the key.
South US Sea, anyone?
Pressure also runs unabated over China related to the South China Sea. Beijing is not exactly worried. As much as Washington and Tokyo ratchet it up, Beijing increases its footprint in the Paracels and the Spratlys. The meat of the matter though is further south.
For China, the key is non-stop smooth trade and energy flows through a maritime highway that happens to contain crucial choke points. These choke points -- most of all the Malacca Strait -- are supervised by Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.
The (rhetorical) pattern from Washington spells out the usual, well, torrent of words. But what is the Empire of Chaos to do? A naval takeover of the South China Sea? Order Indonesia and Malaysia not to further improve their own -- mutually beneficial -- economic ties with Beijing?
Let's keep rotating
Then there's NATO. Many a key player across the Beltway is absolutely fed up with turbulent "NATO ally" Sultan Erdogan. Yet the impression is being created -- by the Masters of the Universe lording over the lame duck Obama administration -- that they are turning to Turkey to reinforce an already anti-Russian NATO, with the whole process covered up in "terrorist" rhetoric. The fact that Ankara is for all practical purposes blackmailing the EU is dismissed as irrelevant. This is a classic misdirection policy.
Yet it's still unclear how "NATO ally" Turkey will keep acting in Syria, considering that Washington and Moscow may -- and the operative word is "may" -- have struck a grand bargain.
Moscow is not exactly worried. The US brigade will have about 4,500 troops. Then there will be a few Bradley fighting vehicles, Humvees, Paladin self-propelled howitzers and perhaps, by 2017, a Stryker brigade. No air force. Perhaps the odd Warthog. This is basically window dressing to appease hysterical Baltic vassals.
Now let's sing Under Pressure
Pressure over Iran. Pressure over China. Pressure over Russia -- which included the (failed) plot to destroy the Russian economy using the oil production of the GCC petrodollar gang even if that would mean the destruction of the US oil industry, against US national interests.
Syria has graphically demonstrated Russian military capabilities to the real rulers of the Empire of Chaos -- and that has left them dazed and confused. Up to the Syrian campaign, the whole focus was on China, especially Chinese missiles that could hit US guidance satellites for ICBMs and cruise missiles, as well as Chinese ability to shoot down an incoming foe traveling at a speed faster than an ICBM. A silent Chinese submarine surfacing undetected next to American aircraft carriers compounded the shock.
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