Bolow posted:

Helldump Immunity. posted:

quote:

Iran and Russia have made progress towards an oil-for-goods deal sources said would be worth up to $20 billion, which would enable Tehran to boost vital energy exports in defiance of Western sanctions, people familiar with the negotiations told Reuters.

In January Reuters reported Moscow and Tehran were discussing a barter deal that would see Moscow buy up to 500,000 barrels a day of Iranian oil in exchange for Russian equipment and goods.

The White House has said such a deal would raise "serious concerns" and would be inconsistent with the nuclear talks between world powers and Iran.
...
The source said the two sides were looking at a barter arrangement that would see Iranian oil being exchanged for industrial goods including metals and food, but said there was no military equipment involved. The source added that the deal was expected to reach $15 to $20 billion in total and would be done in stages with an initial $6 billion to $8 billion tranche.

Under the sanctions accord, Iran's exports are supposed to be held at an average of 1 million barrels a day for six months to July 20, but sales have stayed above that level for five straight months, oil tanker tracking sources told Reuters last week.

"The deal would ease further pressure on Iran's battered energy sector and at least partially restore Iran's access to oil customers with Russian help," said Mark Dubowitz of Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a U.S. think-tank.

"If Washington can't stop this deal, it could serve as a signal to other countries that the United States won't risk major diplomatic disputes at the expense of the sanctions regime," he added.

The Iranian official said missiles would also be part of the deal, together with Russia providing assistance with building two nuclear plants in Iran. The Iranian official did not produce any documentation, and Russian government officials declined to comment.

quote:

Tensions between Russia and the West are hitting a new peak. And in this face-off, Moscow has an extraordinary piece of leverage: a super-sophisticated, bomber-killing missile that it once threatened to sell to Iran.

Last week, Reuters first reported Russia was preparing an oil-for-goods deal with Iran worth up to $20 billion. An unnamed Iranian official told the news service that the barter would include Russian weapons. And that was before further signs of Russia’s shadow invasion of Ukraine emerged Monday...

The trade between Moscow and Tehran would alleviate the economic pressure on Iran that the White House has said helped bring the Islamic Republic to the bargaining table. It may even sink the talks President Obama is hoping will persuade Iran to defang its nuclear program.

If those talks fail, then Russia has the leverage to equip Iran with the missile that could defend its centrifuges and reactors from allied air strikes, the S-300.

quote:

Frustrated by the stalemate in Syria, Secretary of State John Kerry has been pushing for the U.S. military to be more aggressive in supporting the country's rebel forces. Opposition has come from the institution that would spearhead any such effort: the Pentagon.

Mr. Kerry and United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power have advocated options that range from an American military intervention to weaken the regime of President Bashar al-Assad to using U.S. special operations forces to train and equip a large number of rebel fighters. Such moves would go far beyond the U.S.'s current engagement.

In recent White House meetings, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel have pushed back against military intervention, said senior officials. They say the risk is high of being dragged into an open-ended foreign entanglement.

Both sides have agreed on the need to create an expanded program to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels. But the Pentagon worries the Assad regime would halt cooperation on the removal of chemical weapons if the military training starts now. Officials said Mr. Kerry has now agreed to a delay.

The disagreement between a hawkish State Department and a dovish Pentagon, the officials from both sides said, is the latest chapter in an agonizing three-year administration debate over Syria.
...
A senior administration official said top national-security advisers to Mr. Obama have now backed the training proposal in principle as their "consensus recommendation."

It isn't clear where Mr. Obama stands.

quote:

Top policy makers say the rift echoes similarly fraught Clinton administration debates over the conflict in Bosnia two decades ago.

Then-U.N. ambassador Madeleine Albright summed up her frustration with the Pentagon by asking Gen. Colin Powell, then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs: "What's the point of having this superb military that you're always talking about if we can't use it?"

In a 1995 autobiography in which he recounted the exchange, Gen. Powell said Mrs. Albright was treating American GIs like "toy soldiers to be moved around on some sort of global game board."

quote:

Mr. Kerry and Ms. Power have told current and former officials the only way to turn the momentum of the war and restart stalled diplomacy would be to put some sort of military intervention on the table.

"Kerry has felt that diplomacy backed by the threat of force is an effective approach and that it would strengthen the administration's hand, but he has never felt that we have run out of diplomatic options—this will only be resolved through diplomacy," a senior Obama administration official said.

Current and former officials say Gen. Dempsey has been Mr. Kerry's chief opponent in many of these debates. From Gen. Dempsey's perspective, even a limited military operation could embroil the U.S. in a broader regional conflict than advocates realize, these officials say.

"If it weren't for the chairman, you would be right back in Iraq or Afghanistan," a senior defense official said.

Searching for new options, Mr. Kerry has been huddling with retired generals David Petraeus and Jack Keane, architects of the 2007 troop surge in Iraq.

quote:

Children in Iraq could be legally married before the age of nine under sweeping legislation tabled on Tuesday that introduces new religious restrictions on women's rights.

As almost its last act before elections at the end of the month, the Iraqi parliament looks likely to pass new marital rules for its majority Shia community with a draft law criticised by human rights activists as "legalised inquality".

The legislation has been approved by the governing coalition in an effort to attract support from Shia Muslims in the April 30 vote.

Current Iraqi law sets the legal age for marriage at 18 without parental approval and states girls as young as 15 can be married only with a guardian's approval. It does not allow for special provisions according to sect.

But the legislation, known as the Jaafari law, introduces rules almost identical to those of neighbouring Iran, a Shia-dominated Islamic theocracy.

quote:

Searching for new options, Mr. Kerry has been huddling with retired generals David Petraeus and Jack Keane, architects of the 2007 troop surge in Iraq.

shyduck posted:

hearts and minds

Snowdens Secret posted:

This is what you get when you don't occupy for 50 years. You don't see anyone in Japan trying to make it with little kids

Snowdens Secret posted:

This is what you get when you don't occupy for 50 years. You don't see anyone in Japan trying to make it with little kids

Snowdens Secret posted:

This is what you get when you don't occupy for 50 years. You don't see anyone in Japan trying to make it with little kids

Snowdens Secret posted:

You guys are spoiling my Marine joke

quote:

TEHRAN: Iranian state television said Iran has started a joint naval drill with the Pakistani navy east of the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which one fifth of the world's oil supply passes.

Tuesday's report did not say how the exercise in the Oman Sea would last.

Iran's official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday that the Pakistani vessels include a warship, a submarine and logistics vessels.

It said the Pakistani fleet will leave after four days.

In the past, regional countries have had a presence at similar Iranian maneuvers as observers.

Snowdens Secret posted:

This is what you get when you don't occupy for 50 years. You don't see anyone in Japan trying to make it with little kids

I mean, other than US Marines

Whip Slagcheek posted:

No they just have vending machines for soiled underwear, pay for cuddling, and have sex with dolls. Nope everything is going swimmingly in the land of the rising sun. We should have nuked them more.

Sjurygg posted:

Is loving with the Hormuz strait shipping still a Big Red Line as far as the US is concerned?

As in, "a red line they actually will enforce".

lightpole posted:

They outlawed those vending machines over a decade ago.

The used panties ones, I think they still have the fresh panties around but I haven't been to Japan for awhile.

friend of the family DEATH TURBO posted:

please don't white knight glorious nippon

LimburgLimbo posted:

I will unironically white samurai grorious Nippon forever

Kung Fu Fist gently caress posted:

looks like we got a tom cruise wannabe folks

Full Battle Rattle posted:

According to the movie he was supposed to be the last one, I want my money back.

LimburgLimbo posted:

Actually in all seriousness so many people misinterpret that title. The last samurai are the Japanese dudes Tom Cruise is with; Japanese doesn't have pluralization like English so even when you're talking about multiple samurai you wouldn't say "samurais".

There are some people who know that and are just making a joke, but I've met a number of people who literally thought the title meant Tom Cruise was the last of the samurai.

LimburgLimbo posted:

Actually in all seriousness so many people misinterpret that title. The last samurai are the Japanese dudes Tom Cruise is with; Japanese doesn't have pluralization like English so even when you're talking about multiple samurai you wouldn't say "samurais".

There are some people who know that and are just making a joke, but I've met a number of people who literally thought the title meant Tom Cruise was the last of the samurai.

quote:

Left-wing leaders vociferously criticized the "oligarchic regime" one day and supported it wholeheartedly the next. Even Sergei Udaltsov, the Left Front leader on trial for charges that he organized riots in 2012, wrote an appeal to Ukrainians supporting the Kremlin plan for self-determination in eastern Ukraine."

I was born in the Soviet Union," wrote Udaltsov on his movement's website, "and it will always be my homeland. Those who destroyed it and their supporters today will always be my political opponents. The rebirth of the Soviet Union in new forms is necessary, crucial and urgent.

"Komsomolskaya Pravda journalist Ulyana Skoibeda, whose claim to fame is the scandal last year when she regretted that the ancestors of today's Jewish opposition activists hadn't been killed by the Nazis, was ecstatic over the Crimean annexation.

"As I listened to Putin's speech about Crimea, I hugged my child close and said, 'Look, son. You will remember this for the rest of your life,'" Skoibeda wrote. "Entering a conflict with the whole world to defend your rights and interests” that is the U.S.S.R. And being willing to live in poverty” that is also the Soviet Union. So what if Russia has been kicked out of the Group of Eight? The Soviet Union always lived in isolation. My homeland is back."

A large swath of the Russian population shares Skoibeda's views.

quote:

"What will be written in textbooks, and how convincing and attractively this will be written depends the attitude of a whole generation of youth toward the history of our country. It is always important to remember in which country you live and work and remember its traditions. Our Fatherland has a great past. A branch of the Aryan tribe descended from the Carpathian mountains, peacefully settled the Great Russian plain, Siberia, the coldest part of the planet, reached the Pacific Ocean, founded Fort Ross, and absorbed the juices of the richest cultures of Byzantium, Europe and Asia, and destroyed the most ancient enemy of humankind, Nazism, then built a road to outer space. But there are few places where people so poorly know and do not fully appreciate their past and present," said Nikonov.

quote:

"Meaning that other countries are held to a different standard. Can it be that they were annoyed by your statement about burning or burying the hearts of gay people killed in traffic accidents?

But this is a total betrayal of freedom of speech. As for gays, I have a very clear position on the issue. Gay culture certainly has the right to exist in Russia, and it does, de facto. Yet, it is a minority culture, and this is all it will ever be. A minority culture should not be imposed on the majority, especially not through aggressive propaganda. I do not believe this unconventional sexual orientation is an illness. I am not even saying it is outside physiological norms. But it is certainly outside accepted social practices, and for me this is a strongly held belief. Each country has the right to define its own social norms. In Russia, the norm is a traditional family. The Russian government is responsible for encouraging what is accepted as the social norm, because it is crucial for society. A family means children. Russia is experiencing a demographic crisis. Supporting the spread of gay culture in Russia amounts to self-elimination. Is this what they are proposing? And do we have to agree?"Âť

Do you believe this is what is being imposed on use?

Yes. And something that is absolutely alien to us. There are numerous examples of this. For example, my line about burning gay people's hearts is now being used as a hostile meme. Alright, let the critics keep it up. I will not take back on what I said, but let me clarify what I meant. My statement should not be taken out of context. I was trying to be provocative. It was a controlled flame that I used to ignite the discussion. A dramatic conflict of opinions was what I was after; it was part of the script. The discussion focused on plans to introduce fines for propagandizing unconventional sexual relations among teenagers for molestation in effect. Since gay people cannot reproduce naturally, they have to recruit new members of the community. Gay parades are aimed at attracting new members “ everyone marching in bright feathers and laughing to show how fun it is to be gay. But the reality of being gay is very different.

quote:

Vitaly Milonov is a prominent Russian conservative and member of the United Russia party. A staunch advocate of Russia's controversial ban on 'homosexual propaganda,'Âť and he has also repeatedly made anti-Semitic statements, including during a session of the St. Petersburg legislative council in March. He is a prominent critic of the pro-EU Ukrainian movement, and is often considered an ideological leader of Russian conservatism.

Of note in this interview, Milonov's argument that Russia needs to invade Ukraine on humanitarian grounds, that the Americans were trying to capture the Russian bases in Sevastopol to use them to attack Syria, and his description of Ukrainian acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov as"Arsen the Homo." - Ed.

Koesj posted:

Didn't see anything last week. The diving was excellent but somehow I got a text saying "welcome to Iran" while in Oman lmao. Not a ship in sight, only RAFO working up their NH90s.

ming-the-mazdaless posted:

Did you at any stage roam onto MTN Iran? I recall a tactic of theirs (MTN in Rwanda) during one of many Burundian conflicts, was to set up cells-on-wheels or even fixed base stations really close to the border to capture cross border traffic.

Or you could have been subject to a hamfisted man in the middle.

Koesj posted:

Can't remember which operator sent me a text but it was p weird anyway because my phone was lying on a shelf in Khasab for the whole day, and mainland Iran/Qushm Island is more than 50km away on the other side of the strait

Koesj posted:

e: looks like it was du being flaky with a "have a great stay in Iran" message

Koesj posted:

Can't remember which operator sent me a text but it was p weird anyway because my phone was lying on a shelf in Khasab for the whole day, and mainland Iran/Qushm Island is more than 50km away on the other side of the strait

e: looks like it was du being flaky with a "have a great stay in Iran" message

Koesj posted:

Then there's the unmarked Il-76s coming in and out Minhad every day, but hey what else is new.

Frosted Flake posted:

Are unmarked aircraft flying in and out of military bases really that common? I thought that kind of thing only happened in movies.

Derek Dominoe posted:

KAF shares its runway with a civilian airport.