US pressuring Russia into passing UN resolution on Syria under Chapter 7 - Lavrov

Video Source: Russia Today YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4bs0DswnVA

Story Source: Russia Today Online

http://rt.com/news/us-russia-syria-resolution-pressure-202/

The US is pushing Russia into approving a UN resolution that would allow for military intervention in Syria, in exchange for American support of Syria’s accession to OPCW, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

“Our American partners are starting to blackmail us: ‘If Russia does not support a resolution under Chapter 7, then we will withdraw our support for Syria’s entry into the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). This is a complete departure from what I agreed with Secretary of State John Kerry',” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Channel 1's Sunday Time program.

Chapter 7 of the UN charter would allow for potential military intervention in Syria.

Western countries blinded by 'Assad must go' attitude

The head of Russia’s Foreign Ministry went on to say he was surprised by the West’s “negligent” approach to the conflict.

“Our partners are blinded by an ideological mission for regime change,” said Lavrov. “They cannot admit they have made another mistake.”

Slamming the West’s intervention in Libya and Iraq, the foreign minister stated that military intervention could only lead to a catastrophe in the region. Moreover, he stressed that if the West really was interested in a peaceful solution to the conflict that has raged for over two years, they would now be pushing for Syria’s entry into the OPCW in the first place, not for the ouster of President Bashar Assad.

“I am convinced that the West is doing this to demonstrate that they call the shots in the Middle East. This is a totally politicized approach,” said Lavrov.

The Russian foreign minister pointed out that in the case of a military scenario, militants would come to power and Syria would no longer be a secular state. Up to three quarters “of these guys are Jihadists,” including the most radical groups such as Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, who want to create an Islamic Caliphate in Syria and in neighboring territories, Lavrov said.

“If our western partners think at least two steps ahead, they cannot but understand it,” Lavrov noted.

As to why the West would want that, Moscow has so far received no clear answer, but hears “mantras” on the necessity to promote democracy and protect human rights, said the minister. That is important, but “responsible politicians should be guided not only by that. Not to care about stability in a key world region is absolutely irresponsible,” he added.

According to Lavrov, some experts alleged that “someone is attempting to create a guided chaos” in the region for their own benefits. However, the foreign minister said he personally sees no possible advantages that Western countries would gain if they were behind moves to stir up instability.

“There’s only an attempt to grasp a straw, and turn a blind eye to the fact that the world is changing and becoming multipolar,” Lavrov concluded.

'A repeat of Geneva 2012'

Lavrov harked back to last year’s Geneva accord which was agreed upon by the international community, including Russia and the US. However, when the resolution went to the Security Council the US demanded that Chapter 7 be included.

“History is repeating itself. Once again in Geneva an agreement has been reached which does not contain any mention of Chapter 7. But the Security Council wants to redo the document in their own way to include it.”

He called on the West to observe international law and stop writing resolutions motivated by their “geopolitical ambitions.”

‘Both sides must hand over chemical weapons’

Sergey Lavrov has also insisted that opposition forces take part in the decommissioning of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles.

“The solutions currently being worked out at the OPCW suggest that all stocks of Syrian chemical weapons must be brought under control and ultimately destroyed.”

Lavrov further charged that the West was “not telling the whole story” by asserting that chemical weapons are only possessed by the regime, and not the opposition.

He added that the available information provided by the Israelis confirmed that on at least two occasions, the rebels had seized areas in which chemical weapons were stored and those arms might have fallen into their hands.

"According to our estimates, there is a strong probability that in addition to home-grown labs in which militants are trying to cook up harmful and deadly concoctions, the data provided by the Israelis is true,” the Russian FM said.

“Preparatory work for OPCW inspectors to assume control of chemical weapons storage sites requires that those who fund and sponsor opposition groups – including extremists – demand that they hand over the [arms] which have been seized so that they can be destroyed, pursuant to the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.”

Lavrov added that Russia was not a guarantor for the disarmament of Syria’s chemical weapons, as Syria’s commitments fell under the auspices of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which is internationally administered by the OPCW.

Lavrov said Russia and the US were working out a draft resolution to be submitted to the OPCW, although several points were yet to be agreed upon.

Earlier in September, Moscow said it would submit data to the UNSC proving that the chemical weapons in a Damascus suburb were used by the rebels. These “purely technical” documents were handed over to Russia by the Bashar Assad government and are being examined by Russian specialists. This data “is an addition to what we already know and to what is known to…independent experts who give their assessments and confirm that the opposition regularly resort to provocations, attempting to accuse the regime of using chemical weapons” and this way get foreign military support, Lavrov said.

A UN experts team, who investigated the August 21 attack in Syria, presented a report on their findings, in which they described the ammunition and substances they discovered on the scene, but made no conclusions regarding who was behind the incident.

However, the US, along with Britain and France, moved quickly to repeat their accusations against the Syrian government. “Such an approach is neither scientific, nor professional but rather politicized and ideology-driven,” the Russian foreign minister stressed.

According to Lavrov, it was no secret that they did not need any report. Long before the document was prepared, they stated that they already knew everything from their intelligence findings – which have never been presented to the public in full, the Russian minister noted.

“What they did show to us does not convince that the [Syrian] regime is linked to the episode with the use of chemical weapons,” Lavrov said.

He reiterated that there is also evidence by eyewitnesses, including nuns from the Christian monastery close to the scene of the deadly attack, and journalists who visited the area. Reporters, Lavrov said, talked to militants who told them that they “received from abroad munitions that they had never seen before and did not know how to use them, but they used them in the end.” There was also an open letter by the Pentagon and CIA veterans to President Obama, where they say that the rebels could have used chemical weapons.

Moscow expects the UN experts to go back to Syria to finish their investigation there, which should include three other incidents - on August 22, 24 and 25 – when the Syrian army was attacked with poisonous gas, Lavrov said.

Logistics of destruction

Sergey Lavrov said that the time frame for the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons was not unrealistic.

"The overwhelming majority of the figures as per timing, term, beginning, finishing of the mission have been suggested by the American side," he added.

Even if the time frame is feasible, there remains disagreement on the cost of the venture.

Earlier this week, President Assad said the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal would be a costly venture.

“It needs a lot of money, it needs about one billion [US dollars]. It’s very detrimental to the environment. If the American administration is ready to pay the money, and to take responsibility of bringing toxic materials to the United States, why don’t they do it?” Assad told Fox News

Lavrov said he had heard of the cost estimate, although during his negotiations with his US counterpart in Geneva last week, the figure was much lower. Lavrov said the discrepancy stemmed from the fact that a professional estimate was in order.

“When OPCW experts visit Syria and view the storage sites for chemical weapons, they will understand what can be destroyed on the spot (and this is also possible) with the use of mobile equipment which a number of states have, and those where special factories need to be built, as we did when destroying Soviet chemical weapons stockpiles. But for those which need to be taken out of the country – toxic substances – will require a special decision, because the convention considers it essential that the destruction takes place on the territory of that country which possesses the chemical weapons,” he said.

Lavrov said legal grounds would need to be found to move forward in this case, but if all sides could agree in principle, then drawing up a legally binding document will not be hard.

He further noted the difficulties that would be faced in assuring the security of both the Syrian and international experts tasked with bringing the chemical weapons under control and laying the groundwork for their ultimate destruction.

“We’ve considered that an international presence will be demanded in those areas where experts are working. We are prepared to allocate our own servicemen or military police to take part in those efforts. I do not believe it is necessary to send in a strong [military] contingency.] It seems to me that it will be sufficient to send in military observers. It will be necessary to do it in such a way that the observers will come from all permanent members of the UN Security Council, Arab states and Turkey, so that all conflicting sides in Syria understand that this contingent represents all external forces who are collaborating with one or the other conflicting sides in Syria…so that they don’t resort to provocations,” he said.

Lavrov reiterated previous statements made during his negotiations with Secretary of State John Kerry following their talks in Geneva last week that the opposition was equally responsible for providing for the safety of OPCW and UN experts in the country and not allowing for any “provocations.”

 

CIA commandos US Special Forces entered Syria – Report

 

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/08/23/320094/us-forces-cia-men-enter-syria/

US special operations and CIA teams, along with Israeli and Jordanian troops, have entered Syria to command members of the militant groups fighting against the Syrian government, according to a French newspaper.

“According to our information, Le Figaro reported on Thursday, “The regime's opponents, supervised by Jordanian, Israeli and American commandos have been moving towards Damascus since mid-August.”

US and Jordanian teams have set up a training camp in Jordan where special operations units are training members of the militant groups in Syria.

According to Le Figaro, the first group of these specially trained militant fighters, commanded by American special forces, crossed the border into Syria on August 17 along with a number of CIA operatives. A second group joined them two days later, the report said.

The newspaper cites military sources saying the operation began in the southern Syrian region of Deraa.

DEBKAfile, an Israeli newspaper, also reported that up to 250 US-trained rebels entered an area of Syria near the Israeli border this past Saturday and were joined by an additional 300 on Monday.

The US troops and intelligence officers reportedly made their way into Syria a few days before reports emerged that hundreds of men, women and children were killed by an alleged chemical weapons attack in the suburbs of Damascus.

The alleged chemical attack, which some experts argue was suspicious, prompted the United States and other Western courtiers to call for a military response.

US officials said Thursday that the Pentagon was refining its military options for possible strikes on a number of government and military installations in Syria, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Syria's foreign-backed opposition claimed on Wednesday that around 1,300 people were killed in a government chemical attack on militant strongholds in the Damascus suburbs of Ain Tarma, Zamalka and Jobar.

The Syrian government and the army categorically denied any role in the alleged chemical attack.

Israel provides terrorists in Syria with chemical weapons - British MP

 

 

Update: 2013 Aug. 23rd, 2:10 PM

 

 

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/08/23/320111/chemical/

A British lawmaker says he believes the Israeli regime was the main culprit behind killing hundreds of civilians in Syria, because it provided terrorist groups affiliated with al-Qaeda with chemical weapons they used against civilians.

“If there’s been any use of nerve gas, it’s the rebels that used it...If there has been use of chemical weapons, it was Al Qaeda who used the chemical weapons”, said Respect Party MP for Bradford West, George Galloway.

“Who gave Al Qaeda the chemical weapons? Here’s my theory: Israel gave them the chemical weapons”, Galloway MP added.

Meanwhile, media reports had it that Qatar’s Al Jazeera TV and Reuters news agency published the news of massacre in East Ghouta, Damascus “one day” before the massacre happened.

According to the reports tens of videos were uploaded before foreign-backed terrorists announced and accused the Syrian government of conducting chemical attacks on its own people. Those evidences show the terrorists massacred people, including women and children, then recorded and uploaded the scenes to deceive the world’s public opinion, but they did so hurriedly and gave themselves up.

The question here is why the Syrian government and its army should have committed such a heinous mass murder using chemical weapons when the United Nations inspectors are visiting the country to investigate the use of such weapons?

The foreign-backed terrorists and mercenaries hired by certain regional Arab countries are making up those allegations against the popular government of President Bashar al Assad to invoke a foreign armed intervention in Syria the same as what they did in Libya.

Qatar’s Al Jazeera TV published the news of the alleged chemical weapons attack by the Syrian army, citing unknown activists as its source.

A website funded by foreign-backed terrorists also uploaded videos of the alleged attacks and wrote that “Baath Regime used chemical weapons in East Ghouta, Damascus, Jobar, Ain Tarma, Zamalka, Western Ghouta, Muaddamiyah around 03: 30 am.”

At the same time, one of the well-known pro- terrorists’ Youtube account ‘SHAMSNN’ swiftly uploaded tens of videos between 03: 00 and 04: 00 am, 20 August. The same people behind all these scenarios accused the government of Syria and its army of carrying out chemical attacks on 21 August.

Now, even if the chemical attacks had happened at 03:30 on 20 August, it’s not possible to film the scenes and upload tens of videos of these heinous crimes with the best quality pictures.

Therefore, all the evidence shows is that foreign-backed terrorists perpetrated the crimes, filmed and uploaded the scenes and went to their mouthpieces such as al Jazeera, al-Arabiya, Sky News and Reuters to accuse the Syrian government of a massacre the terrorists did.

Another best evidence of such brutality by the terrorists, who are regularly coming close to their end of life, is that they had gathered innocent civilians including women and children into certain places, killed them by nerve gas and filmed the brutal murder scenes, then they did what they were ordered to accuse the Syrian government.

Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi highlighted certain countries’ hostile stance towards his country telling the world that a media and political campaign of lies is being circulated by certain Arab and foreign media outlets including al-Jazeera, al-Arabiya, Sky News and others which are involved in the shedding of Syrian blood and supporting terrorism, with the objective of distracting the UN committee of inspectors of its mission to investigate which party to the conflict has used chemical weapons.

“The cries of terrorists and their calls for aid accompany the fact that the Armed Forces are advancing on the ground, and also accompany the fabricated campaign waged by some channels in desperate bid to imbue false morale in the armed terrorist groups,” he said.

Omran al-Zoubi described the support by some Arabs and the so-called Arab League for these allegations as ridiculous, naïve and illogical.

------------------------------------

Syria opposition preventing chemical attack probe - Russia

 

Videos posted online by opposition activists on 21, August 2013 show hundreds of lifeless bodies near Damascus

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/08/23/320110/syria-militants-preventing-chem-probe/

Russia has accused Syria's opposition of preventing an objective investigation into an alleged chemical attack near the capital, Damascus.

Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday that by remaining silent and refusing to guarantee safe access for the UN investigators to the alleged place of the chemical attack, the opposition is directly preventing a probe into the incident, Reuters reported.

"Much needed signals from the opposition, including its readiness to guarantee the safety and effective work of UN experts on territory controlled by militants, unfortunately are not forthcoming," the ministry said in a statement, adding, "It is directly preventing an objective investigation into the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria."

On Wednesday, Syria's opposition claimed that hundreds were killed in a government chemical attack on militant strongholds in Damascus suburbs of Ain Tarma, Zamalka and Jobar before dawn.

Head of Syria's opposition National Coalition, George Sabra, told reporters in Istanbul that more than 1,300 people were killed in the alleged attack.

The Syrian army has vehemently denied allegations that it used chemical weapons against Takfiri militants in the suburbs of the Ghouta region, saying the accusations were fabricated to distract the visiting team of UN chemical weapons experts and to cover up militant losses.

The UN investigators are staying at a hotel just a few kilometers away from the site of the attack. They arrived in Syria on Sunday.

In March, dozens of people were killed in a chemical attack in the northern province of Aleppo. A Russian-led inquiry said that militants were behind the deadly attack.

------------------------------

Update: 2013 Aug. 23rd, 2:10 PM

 

Syrian opposition promises to ensure UN inspectors' safety in rebel-controlled areas

 

 

A handout image released by the Syrian opposition's Shaam News Network on August 17, 2013 shows heavily damaged buildings in Zamalka, a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus. (AFP Photo

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/syria-opposition-chemical-weapons-912/

 

The Syrian opposition said they will ensure the safety of UN chemical weapons experts as they pass through rebel-controlled areas, adding that their successful arrival at the site of an alleged gas attack near Damascus within 48 hours was ‘critical.’

“We will ensure the safety of the U.N. team ... It is critical that those inspectors get there within 48 hours,” Khaled Saleh, spokesman for the opposition, told a news conference in Istanbul.

The UN inspectors requested access to Damascus suburbs “without delays” on Thursday in order to investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons in attacks in the country.

The statement was made the day after a gas attack was reported by opposition activists in the capital killing anywhere between ‘dozens’ to ‘1,300’, according to conflicting reports.

The Syrian government said on Thursday that it was ready to engage in “maximum” cooperation with UN experts, according to Russia’s foreign ministry.

The UN investigative team entered the country last Sunday. Three weeks ago an agreement was reached with Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government regarding the three different locations that were to be examined by the mission.

Around 13 different reports of alleged chemical weapons usage in Syria have been made to the UN, and the sites are being examined in order to determine the responsible parties in the alleged attacks.

Russia provided the UN with an analysis of samples taken from western Aleppo in Khan al-Assal. The district was the site of a chemical weapons attack in March 2013 when 30 people died. Russia’s findings so far have indicated that rebels were behind the incident.
 

 

A Syrian boy walks on the rubble of destroyed buildings in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo (AFP Photo

The US has declared that they have their own data suggesting government forces were responsible for the attack. However, Paulo Pinheiro, chairman of the UN commission’s inquiry into rights violations in Syria, said US records did not meet the standards required by the UN.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday that there will be “serious consequences” if the reports of chemical weapons usage turn out to be true.

“Any use of chemical weapons anywhere, by anybody, under any circumstances, would violate international law,” Ban said at a scheduled event in the South Korean capital of Seoul on Friday.

“Such a crime against humanity should result in serious consequences for the perpetrator,” he added.

A spokesperson for Ban told Reuters on Friday that he wants a “thorough, impartial and prompt investigation” into the alleged chemical gas attack.

US President Barack Obama stated on Friday that the country should tread with caution in response to the most recent apparent attack, as his aides mulled over the prospect of military action against Syria’s government. In the interview, which was his first since Wednesday’s strike, he called the reports coming out of the country “very troublesome” and a “big event of grave concern.”

Moscow has been continuing to monitor events surrounding the alleged attack, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aleksandr Lukashevich, said in a statement on Friday.

“We’re getting more new evidence that this criminal act was of a provocative nature,” he stressed. “In particular, there are reports circulating on the Internet that the materials of the incident and accusations against government troops had been posted for several hours before the so-called attack. Thus, it was a pre-planned action.”

 

 

2013 - China Rises: The Seat of "The New World Order"

Video Source: World United News

Road to Endless War – The Final Chapter – Crash of the Western Empire (2011)

China was chosen as the seat of power by the global banking cartel to run their New World Order.

It began July 10th, 1971 when Henri Kissinger went to China in secret and met with Chinese Prime Minister Zhou En-Lai, China’s number 2 who revealed that China was looking to move towards a socialist economic approach to rebuild their country.

A very important economic understanding came out of that meeting as were the Geo-political and economic events that followed…

That same year, Taiwan was removed as a permanent member of the UN Security Council (1971) and Mainland China took its place. US President Richard Nixon, also changed the US monetary system (Aug 1971) by removing the Gold standard (Breton Woods) on US treasuries and replaced it with worthless fiat money. This began the destabilization of the global monetary system and lead to crisis after crisis, in oil, and all things sold…inflation soared across the western economies.

While China prepared to move from an agricultural society into an industrial society, the nations of the West began to go into an inflationary period…all synchronized and controlled by a rigged banking system that was and still is centered on debt and exponential growth.

In 1985 Free trade became the way in which companies could leave North America for cheaper costs in Mexico and then eventually move to China. From this point on, the western industrial capacity shrunk and relocated to China. I was in the packing Industry so I saw this first hand as China became a massive economic factory. In essence, while the Western economic balloon deflated, the Chinese Balloon inflated directly and by design. 

In 1979, Deng Xiaoping eventually replaced Chairman Mao as the countries leader after Mao’s sudden death in 1976. Deng had incredible power within the Communist Party and is the reason that China is the economy it is today…but let’s face facts…he had a lot of Western help. While the western companies were setting up shop in China, the Rothschild Gold Bullion Banking relocated to China (1994). In 1997 the UK govt hands over Hong Kong with its stock market running on all thrusters…China then plugs in and begins the run and expansion of their economy at a phenomenal growth rate. Meanwhile the EU prepares to take down Europe with their New Currency “The Euro”(1997), the USA deregulates the housing industry by removing Glass Steagall (1999) and follows that up with an inside job on the World Trade Center (2001) which began the Road to Endless wars that accelerated US bankruptcy to finish off the US economy completely…

Recently we have seen an escalation of war as the economies of the World print currencies that are locked in with the US reserve dollar, and the US printing presses have gone into overdrive. All the banking crimes are visible now, and silently in the background China has been plugged into the Western oil supplies in places like Canada’s Tar sands, and war-torn Iraq…China also gets its oil from many other independent oil producers as well including Iran, Russia and Venezuela.

China’s UN position to allow US led NATO to destroy Libya in 2011 was mind boggling, considering we were sold on a story that China needed African oil. No matter, they just walked over to Iraq with the US blessing and plugged into the oil there…then they did nothing to stop Syria from being destroyed…all the while our stores are filled with cheap Chinese trinkets…

Now that the EU & IMF have demanded that the Cyprus govt steal money out of the peoples accounts so that they can go further into debt with a loan from the ECB and IMF, everyone is expecting the obvious “Bank Runs” across the Euro Zone and indeed North America. They took 60% of peoples savings! Then, only a few days later, the BRICS set up a New Global Investment bank to compete against the World Bank…meanwhile, as we go back to North Korea and the US led sanctions which China signed on to at the UN security council, we see North Korea, one of the last countries to hold out against the USA become the next target…all started and provoked by the USA with its rigid posture of sanctions and military activity in South Korea since 1953! However what has changed, is China’s position…this tells me that the economic war has arrived and will be used to eventually crown China as the global victor and seat of power for the New World Order…and with the potential to put 600 million people into military service, no one will beat them in a conventional war, while no one wins a nuclear war. China can occupy every country in the World with millions of soldiers if it chose to…

What becomes abundantly clear is that the economic model chosen by China and the BRICS remains the same and this model is based on exponential growth. We, the people of the Earth will not survive this direction in any way shape or form…its time to evolve away from the economic growth model to a one that takes care of everyone’s needs instead of taking care of the greed of an elite few…

Sustainability 101: Exponential Growth

Source Video: Sustainability 101: Exponential Growth

Russia, China repeat opposition to intervention in Syria

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/06/08/245112/russia-china-opposition-intervention-syria/

China and Russia have once again expressed opposition to foreign armed intervention and forcible regime change in Syria.

“There will not be a [United Nations] Security Council mandate for outside intervention [in Syria], I guarantee you that," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters on Thursday on the sidelines of a visit to Kazakhstan, AFP reported.

He added that allowing any outside military intervention against Damascus would benefit armed groups in the country, and that Moscow would veto any Security Council resolution authorizing intervention in Syria. The Kremlin’s stance was also echoed at the 66th session of the UN General Assembly on Thursday.

"We resolutely oppose the solutions to the Syrian crisis through outside armed intervention or any attempt to forcibly promote regime change," Chinese Ambassador to the UN Li Baodong told the assembly.

Russia and China vetoed two previous Security Council resolutions against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

On Thursday, the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) called on the anti-Damascus rebels inside Syria to “step up military assaults” on security forces.

Earlier in the day, the Syrian government issued a statement, rejecting a report by the SNC, which had alleged that security forces had killed 100 people in the al-Qubeir village in the west-central Syria province of Hama on Wednesday.

“A terrorist group committed a heinous crime in the Hama region, which claimed nine victims. The reports by the media are contributing to spilling the blood of Syrians,” the statement said.

On Wednesday, the official Syrian Arab News Agency said that an “armed terrorist group” had killed a brigadier general and two other members of security forces in Damascus’ countryside, and two others in the western province of Latakia during the day.

Hundreds of people, including many members of the Syrian security forces, have been killed in the unrest that began in Syria in March 2011. Damascus says foreign-sponsored “saboteurs and terrorists” are responsible for the killings.

The Road to Endless War - Video Series

By: Stewart Brennan

Source: 2minstral - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF0ED5173C2F2C94E



The Road to Endless War series is really 2 series of truth videos I completed in 2009 and then again in 2011. The series explores a wide range of topics but centers on what drives the insanity for global domination. Please feel free to comment on this series and share it with others.

The Video playlist contains all 15 episodes but begins with the 2011 series.

2011 = 9 Episodes

2009 = 6 Episodes

The music played in this series is by a brilliant composer named Jussi Huhtala. Please visit his Official Website for more inspiring music.

Composer: Jussi Huhtala
http://www.wix.com/jussihuhtala/huhtala3#!

Information Links can be found within each video description on the YouTube link below.

2minstral - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF0ED5173C2F2C94E

Topics include but not limited to: World War II, World War III, Council on Foreign Relations, CFR, United Nations, UN Security Council, NATO, Rise of, New World Order, Fascism, Libya, Syria, Iran, USA, Russia, China, Israel, Israeli, War Crimes, Gaza, Palestine, Arab Spring, Freedom, protest, Global, economic depression, revolution, Peak Oil, change, solutions

Russia will veto military intervention in Syria at UNSC - Foreign Ministry

Russia will veto initiative on Syria intervention in UNSC - Foreign Ministry (AFP Photo / Timothy A. Clary)

Source: Russia Today
http://rt.com/politics/russia-veto-initiative-foreign-560/

Russia is firmly dedicated not to let pass an initiative of foreign military intervention into Syria in the UN Security Council.

“We always said we’re strongly against any kind of external interference into the Syrian conflict, because it would only worsen the situation and bring unpredictable consequences for Syria and the whole region,” Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told Interfax.

He also said that Russia is opposing the convention of a new UN Security Council meeting on Syria in the near future.

The UN Security Council president's statement concerning the tragic events in Houla, “is a strong enough signal to the Syrian parties and is a sufficient reaction of the Security Council,” the Russian diplomat told Interfax. Any new measures to affect the situation “would be premature for the Security Council,” he stressed.

China is siding with Russia regarding the Syrian conflict. On Wednesday, the spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Liu Weimin confirmed the official position of Beijing being against any sort of foreign military intervention into internal Syrian affairs.

The Russian diplomat commented on the statement of the French President Francois Hollande about possible foreign military interference into Syria.

Earlier, the French president did not exclude military intervention in Syria, saying “Military interference is not out of the question, but only with due respect to norms of the international law, which means a decision of the Security Council of the UN”.

At the same time the French president noted that “another solution” is preferable. He called on for more sanctions to be imposed on the Syrian government. Uniting Syrian opposition is another task he spoke of.

The French position has also been supported by Belgium and Australia

UN Security Council issues statement condemning Houla Massacre

John Moore / Getty Images / AFP

Source: Russia Today
http://www.rt.com/news/un-security-syria-houla-348/

The UN Security Council has issued a statement condemning "in the strongest possible terms" the massacre of civilians in the Syrian village of Houla, during which more than 100 people are reported to have been killed.

"The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest possible terms the killings, confirmed by United Nations observers, of dozens of men, women and children and the wounding of hundreds more in the village of Houla, near Homs, in attacks that involved a series of government artillery and tank shellings on a residential neighbourhood," the statement reads "The members of the Security Council also condemned the killing of civilians by shooting at close range and by severe physical abuse."

The statement also chided the Syrian government for violating international laws under UN Security Council resolutions 2042 and 2043. The Security Council members also reiterated that “all violence in all forms by all parties must cease” and that those responsible for it must be held accountable. The statement also asks the Secretary-General and the UNSMIS to continue the investigation of the attacks and to report the findings to the Security Council.

The document also called on the Syrian government to stop using heavy weapons, and to withdraw its troops and heavy weaponry from population centers. At the same time, the Security Council members reaffirmed their commitments to the “sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity” of Syria.

The statement to the press was at the end of an urgent session of the UN body. The meeting was convened at the initiative of Russia, which insisted on listening to a briefing by the head of the UN observers’ mission in the country, General Robert Mood. Earlier, the UN Security Council discussed a joint French-British draft statement, which also censured the Houla massacre, but unilaterally put the blame on the Syrian government.

Norwegian General Robert Mood, who heads the UN observer mission in Syria, told the gathering that 116 people were killed and 300 more injured in the massacre in Houla, Reuters reports. A spokesman for Kofi Annan, the UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, said those killed include 49 children and 34 women.

There are concerns that most “civilians killed in Houla were victims of a blatant murder: they were either shot in the temple from a short distance, or their throats were cut,” Russia’s UN envoy deputy Aleksandr Pankin told journalists before the session began.

“Very few of the people who died in Houla were killed by artillery shelling,” he added.

Russia opposes putting all the blame on forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, say sources in the Council. Moscow wanted to introduce references to “a third party,” implying terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda could be behind the attack in western Syria.

"The tragic events in Syria and the deaths of dozens of people deserve condemnation. However it is necessary to seriously examine the causes of what happened," Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said on Twitter.

After the session was over, Martin Briens, France’s permanent representative at the UN, said the Assad government was plunging into horror and chaos, and was threatening regional security.

“Tanks and artillery cannons from the government shelled residential areas killing civilians,” he added, as quoted by Reuters.

Britain’s envoy to the UN, Sir Mark Lyall Grant, called the statement “important,” but not sufficient. He stressed that there was evidence of “deliberate government shelling against a civilian neighborhood” in Houla.

Russian deputy UN ambassador Aleksandr Pankin underscored that according to Mood’s briefing, it wasn’t clear who was responsible for most of the deaths in Houla.

“It still remains unclear what happened and what triggered what,” Pankin noted. “Tanks were there and heavy artillery was used there, however he [Mood] did not link directly shelling with numbers of deaths.”

Pankin also pointed to the fact that it was difficult to imagine the Syrian government shooting women and children at point-blank range.

Syria’s envoy to the UN also said that no government would massacre its own citizens to achieve political victory over its opponents.

“It’s a terrorist crime,” Bashar Ja’afari stated. “We cannot describe it with different terms.”

The Syrian government denies involvement in the massacre. Damascus condemned the attack Saturday, saying “terrorist” groups were behind it.

Initially the massacre was reported by opposition activists, who claimed that the city was shelled by government forces during an anti-regime demonstration. Reports also suggested that troops entered the city, butchering dozens of people.

A team of UN observers arriving in Houla to investigate the killings said the casualties included 32 children under the age of 10 and dozens of women. Russia hopes the Sunday report by General Mood will bring some clarity to the incident.

Syria is trying to implement a peace plan drawn by UN special envoy Koffi Annan. The plan is meant to stop bloodshed in the country, which has been trapped in a violent civil turmoil for over a year. The popular uprising against President Assad’s regime has taken over 9,000 lives, the UN estimates. Assad says he is a fighting foreign insurgency.

Annan’s plan demands a ceasefire from all parties to the conflict starting on April 10, 2012, and deployment of a UN observing mission. The massacre in Houla comes as the biggest incident since the observer mission began. Now the Free Syrian Army, the biggest opposition force fighting Assad’s troops, says it will pull out of the plan “unless the UN Security Council takes urgent steps for the protection of civilians.”

Sudan oil-war spiral could split world powers

Source: Russia Today
http://rt.com/news/sudan-south-sudan-war-338/

Sudan's president has threatened to topple the government to his south to “liberate” the South Sudanese. As a bloody battle over a disputed oil field heads towards full-scale war, it threatens to provoke conflict between the US and Russia-China.

Wednesday, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir accused authorities in the Southern capital, Juba, of trying to topple his government and vowed to retaliate.

“This situation makes it imperative for Sudan to confront the challenge of the State of South Sudan to topple the government in Khartoum by working to liberate the Southern nationals,” al-Bashir said.

South Sudan broke away from its northern neighbor last July after decades of on-off civil war. But the two never agreed on how to share the oil wealth found in the region between the countries, and the border was never fully demarcated.

The fighting is taking place along the shared border around the oil town of Heglig, which South Sudanese troops captured last week.

The northern state’s parliament was quick to brand its southern neighbor an “enemy” and called for the swift recapture of the region.

The Heglig field is vital to Sudan’s economy as it accounted for half the 115,000 barrels per day output that remained in its control when South Sudan seceded in July and Khartoum lost 75 per cent of the country’s oil production.

In its turn, the landlocked South lost its 350,000 barrels per day output after failing to agree on how much it should pay to export via Sudan’s pipelines, a Red Sea port and other facilities.

Fighting over oil transit payments and disputed territory has already withered the combined crude output of both countries, which are highly dependent on oil. Any protracted fighting would severely damage their economies and may disrupt the surrounding region.

Fueling an arms race

The international community is calling to stop the bloodshed, but the two sides seem determined to resolve the issue by force.

Meanwhile, their “border war” threatens to provoke a conflict among the permanent members of UN Security Council. South Sudan is an ally of the US, while Khartoum has close ties with Russia and China.

“If the conflict escalates, we are likely to see a stalemate at the UNSC with China and Russia opposing any proposals that may be politically costly to Sudan,” political author and columnist Reason Wafawarova told RT. “The US, with its allies France and the UK, is likely to push for proposals politically favorable to South Sudan, while opposing any proposals they may see as benefiting Sudan.”

Wafawarova says Sudan is seen as militarily superior to its southern neighbor. The US is unlikely to allow Juba’s capitulation, increasing its military support.

Some reports allege that the West is already providing arms to South Sudan through its Middle Eastern partners. For instance, Sudan’s Al-Intibaha newspaper writes that Israel might be supplying weapons to Juba.

South talking tough too

Another indicator that Juba has some serious allies in the West is the tough stance of South Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir.

When the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called him and asked to stop the attack on Heglig, he received a surprisingly defiant answer: “I am not a slave to fulfill your orders!”

Experts say the behavior of President Kiir may be explained by the fact that he was confident of the unshakable support of the United States. Previously the US helped the southerners in their fight against the “dictatorial regime in Khartoum.”

The reason, Wafawarova says, is that it is no secret the United States militarily supported South Sudan in its campaign for secession from the North.

The US reportedly provided $100 million-a-year in military assistance to the SPLA. The information about the nature of this assistance has been scarce, but in December 2009 WikiLeaks released a diplomatic cable that refers to a US “training program for the SPLA, including combat arms soldier training.”

On the other side are Russia and China, who have traditionally supported close ties with Khartoum, selling weapons to Sudan right up to the 2005 UN arms embargo on the Sudanese government because of the war in Darfur.

However, in 2008 a BBC news report claimed to have found evidence of China-Sudan trade in violation of the embargo.

Currently, China is Sudan’s largest trading partner, importing oil and exporting low-cost goods.

Wafawarova believes that the permanent USNC council members’ standoff in the region may lead to an arms race between the two Sudans. US will be “expanding the military strength of South Sudan, while China and Russia will keep arming Khartoum,” he said.

There are also persistent rumors that the US plans to set up a military base in South Sudan – the largest in Africa.

“The US has failed to set up its AFRICOM base in Ghana, Mozambique, Uganda, Kenya and other proposed countries in the past,” says Wafawarova. “It would not be surprising if the US is trying to capitalize on the vulnerability of South Sudan in its efforts to establish the AFRICOM base somewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.”

However, Wafawarova stressed that any efforts to set up AFRICOM in South Sudan are likely to face stiff opposition from Russia and China, as well as from the African Union and most African countries at individual levels.

Shifting the blame

While all involved in the conflict are pursuing their own interests, there always has to be someone to blame. It seems that Russia and China might again become the punching bag of the West for this purpose.

One of the indicators that that this might be the case is Amnesty International’s shift of attitude towards the parties involved. In July 2011, the organization accused China, Russia, and the USA of fueling conflict in the region.

The organization condemned the countries “for providing weapons or military training to the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), the official army of South Sudan.”

However, in February 2012, only China and Russia were accused of supplying arms to the volatile region, with no traces of US involvement whatsoever.

“China, Russia, and Belarus continue to supply weapons and munitions to Sudan despite compelling evidence that the arms will be used against civilians in Darfur,” the new Amnesty International statement reads.

Tuesday, Security Council members promised to discuss the crisis urgently, including the possibility of sanctions.

“Calls from the UNSC for a ceasefire are hypocritical and of no strength for as long as China, the US and Russia are pursuing their own political and economic interests in Sudan,” believes Reason Wafawarova. “And the fact that Heglig is, in reality, a conflict over oil makes the prospect of an amicable solution bleak.”

Moscow rules out US backed draft resolution on Damascus

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/230753.html

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov says Moscow is against an ‘unbalanced’ US-backed UN draft resolution against Syria.

"We cannot agree with the draft resolution in the form it is being presented in today. The text of the resolution under discussion is unbalanced," he said on Friday.

"Its main problem is the absence of a simultaneous call on all sides to take practical steps in the context of ceasing fire," Gatilov added.

Moscow was receiving reports that the UN Security Council intended to put the resolution up for a vote at a meeting on Monday, according to the Russian official.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March 2011.

A large number of civilians and security forces have been killed in the violence in recent months.

Damascus blames “outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups” for the unrest, asserting that it is being orchestrated from abroad.

The Western states and the Syrian opposition, however, accuse the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of killing people.

Earlier, Syrian armed groups rejected a proposal by UN-Arab League envoy, Kofi Annan, to renounce violence.

Anan on Thursday called for finding a way of implementing political reforms in the country.

Russia and China vetoed two previous UN draft resolutions on Syria.

Moscow has asserted that the unrest should be resolved through negotiations between Damascus and the Syrian opposition. Beijing has also declared that it maintains an unbiased position on the situation in Syria and is trying to resolve the issue through dialog with all the involved parties.

Western bloodlust: Assad days ‘numbered’, ‘day of reckoning’ for ‘disgraceful’ regime

US President Barack Obama (AFP Photo / Saul Loeb)

Source: Russia Today
http://rt.com/news/cameron-assad-rebels-crescent-711/

Statements from Western leaders on Syria have grown harsh, if not menacing, as criticisms of the Bashar Assad government are unleashed and regime change becomes a common theme.

The fury and thirst for blood can be heard around the world as Washington and Brussels make their views known on how the conflict in Syria should be resolved. The noose began tightening around Damascus after reports emerged in the previous week that several foreign journalists were killed and injured in a siege of the rebel stronghold Homs. And now, Western officials are taking advantage of the incident as an excuse for openly calling for the removal of Assad and his government. The new labels for the country’s president and his regime are growing creative in their severity.

‘Medieval barbarity’ condemned from the UK

Responsibility for the “medieval barbarity” in Syria lies solely with the country’s leadership, UK Prime Minister David Cameron said at the end of an EU summit in Brussels.

“We will make sure … that there is a day of reckoning for those who are responsible. I have a clear message for those in authority in Syria: make a choice, turn your back on this criminal regime or face justice for the blood that is on your hands,” he said.

Britain is now demanding that Assad face a war crimes tribunal for what Cameron describes as “butchering his own people.”

“It is very important that we set out the war crimes that effectively are being committed, that we write them down, we take the photographic evidence, we bring it together and … make sure that the day of reckoning will come,” he said.

London is withdrawing its entire diplomatic staff from the troubled country, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Thursday.

France wants ‘dictators to pay’

As the two French journalists Edith Bouvier and William Daniels, who were evacuated from the embattled city of Homs, arrived at an airport near Paris, French President Nicolas Sarkozy asserted that “dictators anywhere in the world should know that they will have to account for their crimes.”

“The crimes that they have committed will not go unpunished,” Sarkozy is quoted as saying by Al Arabiya.

He backed his rhetoric with the announcement that France is to close its embassy in Damascus.

‘Assad’s days numbered,’ Obama warns

The US is obviously not the country to avoid inflammatory comments on the issue. President Barack Obama stated in an interview with the Atlantic Monthly published on Friday that the Syrian president’s “days are numbered,” and said that the US was working to accelerate the transition to what it calls democracy for the country.

“It is our estimation that [Assad’s] days are numbered – it’s a matter not of if, but when,” Obama added.

“Now, can we accelerate that? We’re working with the world community to try to do that,” he said.

Obama did not hesitate to openly compare the situation in Syria to that in Libya some time ago, saying that the country is more sophisticated and more complicated than Libya – while regretting that “countries like Russia are blocking UN action.”

Regime change was the objective in two separate resolutions presented to the UN Security Council, both vetoed by Russia and China, who believe the international community cannot simply push out governments. Moscow and Beijing maintain that the Syrian people must decide what is to take place in their country, and support initiatives that would have both the government and the opposition agree to a ceasefire.

Obama noted that US is trying through the “Friends of the Syrian People” group to promote humanitarian relief to cities under attack from Syrian government forces.

“But they can also accelerate a transition to a peaceful and stable and representative Syrian government,” he added.

Earlier in the week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a Congressional committee that Assad could be classified as a war criminal, while France suggested Assad be referred to the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

Assad bad, rebels good?

Western leaders are classifying the Syrian conflict in more black-and-white terms every day, with Assad consistently on the dark side. But while Brussels and Washington condemn the Assad government, eyewitnesses from Homs tell chilling stories of atrocities committed by opposition fighters, who kidnap and kill anyone they choose.

The Free Syrian Army blocked passage to Red Cross and Red Crescent ambulances, delaying evacuation from humanitarian disaster areas like the one in Baba Amr, a district of Homs. Further, on several instances when aid did reach its destination, there was no guarantee the people, who needed it, would receive it.

Thus, on Tuesday, a Russian helicopter flew into a neutral area to pick up Edith Bouvier, a French journalist wounded in the shelling of Homs on February 22. She was meant to be transported to France or Lebanon, but failed to appear, said Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday.

“She was in the area controlled by the rebels. They could carry her out to the helicopter. But she never came. Or were the rebels holding her?” added Putin.

Nothing changed after two attempts by Red Crescent ambulances.

Bouvier and another injured reporter, William Daniels, finally reached Paris on Friday night. But as far as the official powers are concerned, there was no reason for the wounded journalists to spend so much time in the devastated city.

As the recent death toll in Syria's year-long uprising has leapt over 7,500 people, a growing number of voices are saying the atrocities carried out by the opposition can no longer be ignored.

“There is a growing recognition that some of the fundamentalist Islamic groups, who probably make up about 30 per cent of the armed insurgents, are guilty of as much brutality as the Syrian army,” Aisling Byrne, a project coordinator at the Conflicts Forum, told RT. “It is a guerrilla war. This is not a fight for democracy, but a fight to introduce a hardline Sunni regime.”

Supporters of Syria’s Assad demonstrate in Southern Turkey

File photo of a Syrian demonstration in support of President Bashar al-Assad in the capital Damascus

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/227544.html

Supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have held a demonstration in the southern Turkish city of Antakya near the border with Syria, Press TV reports.

Hundreds of Syrians demonstrated in support of President Assad on Sunday and condemned international attempts against the Syrian government.

Demonstrators also chanted the name of the Syrian president and urged him to resist foreign pressures against Damascus.

The demonstration in Antakya comes as the United Nations General Assembly approved a non-binding resolution, introduced by Egypt, which supports an Arab League plan concerning the unrest in Syria on February 16.

Syrian Ambassador to the UN Bashar Jaafari said after the UN vote that the resolution “would only lead to a tightening of the crisis and more violence in the region as a whole.”

Jaafari added that the United Nations was in danger of being used by “some member states” as a means of providing cover for “armed terrorist groups” in Syria.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March 2011, with demonstrations being held both against and in favor of President Assad.

The West and the opposition accuse the government of being behind the months-long unrest, but Damascus says “outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups” are responsible for the turmoil, which it says has been orchestrated from abroad.

West plots in Mideast to spark nuke war: Analyst

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/227056.html

A senior political analyst says the oil-thirsty West is gearing up for a military intervention in Syria and a strike on Iran which would potentially trigger a nuclear world war.

“The multinational New World Order, led by the Anglo-American axis and Israel (spearheaded by the UN), are preparing a final conquest of the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa, with nuclear world war implications,” Larry Chin wrote on the Global Research website on Wednesday.

“Syria and Iran are being relentlessly destabilized. CIA operations have been continuous for months and years. Two nations are targeted to fall sequentially, as part of one agenda,” he added.

The prominent analyst argued that the rising oil prices pose a threat to the “petroleum-driven” world economy and the Western desire to quench this thirst has increased the likelihood of an attack on Syria and Iran.

“The empire is hell-bent on securing what is necessary to sustain its dying economic and industrial engine, regardless of how many lives are taken in the process,” Chin concluded.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March and many people have lost their lives in the violence.

The West and the Syrian opposition accuse the government of killing protesters. But Damascus blames “outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups” for the unrest, insisting that it is being orchestrated from abroad.

Meanwhile, the United States, Israel, and some of their allies accuse Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear program, and have used this pretext to push for international and unilateral sanctions against Tehran.

Washington and Tel Aviv have also repeatedly threatened Tehran with the "option" of a military strike over its nuclear program.

Iran has refuted the allegations, arguing that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful use.

Turkish FM to visit Washington at Clinton’s invitation

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a conference in Munich, Germany on February 4, 2012

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/225714.html

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is scheduled to travel to the United States to meet with the US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the ministry said that the visit was to take place between February 8 and 12 at Clinton’s invitation.

Davutoglu will also meet with the US National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon, representatives of various think tanks, and opinion leaders. He as well will give interviews to some leading media organizations.

According to the statement, the meetings will serve as an opportunity for the exchange of views on the bilateral, regional, and global issues of common interest.

This will be Davutoglu's third trip to Washington. He went to the US in June 2009 and November 2010 to hold negotiations with high-level administration officials and representatives of the US Congress.

UN chief Arab League wants to resend mission to Syria

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/225719.html

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says the Arab League (AL) chief has informed him that the League is ready to resend its observer mission to Syria.

Ban said in New York on Wednesday that AL’s Secretary-General Nabil al-Arabi had told him during a Tuesday telephone conversation of the plan to resume the mission and had asked for it to become a joint UN-AL operation.

"He informed me that he intends to send the Arab League observer mission back to Syria and ask for UN help," Ban said.

“He further suggested that we consider a joint observer mission in Syria, including a joint special envoy.”

The League’s team ended its monitoring work in Syria on January 28.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March, with demonstrations being held both against and in favor of Assad. Hundreds of people, including many members of the Syrian security forces, have been killed during the violence.

Damascus blames ‘outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups’ for the violence, insisting that it is being orchestrated from abroad. However, the West and the Syrian opposition accuse the government of killing the protesters.

Some parts of the Arab League team’s confidential report prepared during the group’s initial presence in Syria leaked recently, showing that armed terrorists were responsible for most of the violence and that the government had fully cooperated with the mission and facilitated its work.

The Syrian government has repeatedly accused several Western and Arab states of fueling the unrest in Syria by providing armed gangs in the country with weapons and financial resources as a means of inciting civil war and toppling the government.

Damascus has also repeatedly said that negotiation was the only way to end the violence. Opposition groups, however, have rejected the proposal for talks.

US strike group simulates war with Iran

United States oldest aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/225453.html

The United States’ oldest aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise, and its strike group are running naval drills, which seem to indicate potential conflict with Iran, off the US East coast ahead of being deployed to the Persian Gulf.

The drill map, referring to Florida shores as "The Treasure Coast," depicts nine countries, two of which - Garnet and North Garnet, are identified as 'fundamentalist Islamic theocracies' suspected of supporting terror groups, Russia Today reported on Tuesday.

According to the report, the drill map also depicts a 56-km (35-mile) wide strait located some 320 km (200 miles) from the coast. The mock strait’s shape and width is identical to the Strait of Hormuz - the Persian Gulf’s key oil shipping route, part of which is controlled by Iran.

US military officials have denied the maneuvers being connected with escalated tensions around Iran, saying the strike group is "training for all the mission areas."

However, Rear Admiral Dennis Fitzpatrick, commander of Strike Force Training Atlantic, told The Navy Times that "there obviously is an emphasis on where we think the ship will go."

The 50-year-old aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, which leads the naval exercise, is to join two other US strike groups in the Persian Gulf by March. This will be the final deployment for the oldest carrier in Washington's fleet.

Meanwhile, Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps has launched ground drills near the Strait of Hormuz, which is used to transmit nearly a third of global oil exports.

Iran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz if the US and the EU, actually enforce their unilateral sanctions against the country’s oil and financial sectors to prevent Iran from exporting its crude oil and make Tehran give up its peaceful nuclear program.

On Tuesday, January 3, commander of Iran's Army Major General Ataollah Salehi warned the US aircraft carrier, USS John C. Stennis, not to return to the Persian Gulf after it left the region.

“We recommend and warn the aircraft carrier not to return to its previous position in the Persian Gulf, since we are not in the habit of repeating a warning and we warn only once,” the general added.