Serious escalation in the Middle East condemned
Several countries, including Cuba, have condemned the U.S. bombing of areas near Baghdad airport and the use of missiles for targeted assassinations, calling for efforts to ease tensions in the region

Author: Elson Concepción Pérez | internet@granma.cu
january 6, 2020 09:01:27

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla strongly condemned the U.S. bombing Friday in areas near Baghdad airport and the use of missiles for targeted assassinations.

For their part, the heads of Russia and China’s diplomacy, Sergey Lavrov and Wang Yi, respectively, rejected the U.S. attacks in Iraq, and declared their support for efforts to reduce tensions in the region. In a statement published by Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, Venezuela expressed its firm condemnation, stating, “This is an action that clearly raises tensions in the region, without any basis in international law.”

Tensions in the Middle East continue to increase, as U.S. President Donald Trump warned on Sunday that his country “has just spent two billion dollars on beautiful weapons that it would use against Iran without hesitation,” and the Iraqi Parliament approved a resolution mandating the withdrawal of foreign troops, including those of the United States, after the assassination of the Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani. The binding resolution reiterates the country’s rejection of foreign forces within national territory, waters or airspace, for any reason. Trump, defiant as usual, tweeted, “We are the biggest and the best in the world”.

“Let this serve as a warning that, if Iran attacks any U.S. citizen or asset, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites, some of them very high-profile and very important to Iran and Iranian culture,” Trump asserted on Twitter.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon began moving some 3,500 soldiers to the Middle East. Troops will be transported from Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina to Kuwait, to form a rapid deployment brigade known as an Immediate Response Force.

Iran responded, “Some 35 U.S. targets in the region are within our reach.” According to reports from the website Al Mayadeen, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, secretary general of Hezbollah, warned this yesterday, “When a response to the crime committed by the United States is discussed, no reference is made to the people of that country, its professionals, journalists, businesspeople, or civilians; these are not involved,” continuing, “In the three years since Trump assumed the Presidency of the United States, there have been failures, a deficit, and confusion, and there is nothing to offer the U.S. people at the level of foreign policy as the elections approach.”

He concluded noting that the U.S. government is intent on overthrowing the political system in Iran, an explicit objective revealed by former National Security Advisor John Bolton.

Nasrallah recalled that during his campaign, Trump said more than once that Iraq’s oil was his, that there was no Iraqi state, and the U.S. should control the oil fields, send in military forces, extract the oil and sell it.

Current events give reason to believe that the U.S. President is now taking action to overthrow the Iranian political system and control oil resources in Iraq and Syria.