Foreign
US, Israel’s True Intentions In Iran Debate
In his 2002 testimony to the United States Congress, then former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US lawmakers that an invasion of Iraq was necessary for winning the “war on terror” and preventing Iraq and terrorist groups from acquiring weapons of mass destruction. He further claimed that the war would be quick and would usher in a new age of Western-friendly democracy, not just in Iraq, but across the region, including Iran. Neither proclamation was true.
As many experts and officials already knew before the 2003 invasion began, Saddam Hussein’s regime did not have weapons of mass destruction and held no ties to al-Qaeda. The war was bound to cause widespread devastation, instability, insecurity, unspeakable suffering, chaos and the breakdown of governance. And that is what happened. Iraq today is at best a fragile state with enormous economic and political challenges.
After Israel and then the US attacked Iran earlier this month, many analysts rushed to comment on how the two allies have supposedly failed to learn the lessons of the Iraq war and are now repeating the same mistakes in Iran. These analyses would have been accurate had the actual goals of the 2003 invasion been to stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and to establish democracy. But they were not.
For the US and Israel, the desired outcome of the war was an Iraq that would not pose any resistance to the Israeli settler-colonial project in Palestine and its role as an agent of US imperial power in the region. This is also the desired outcome in Iran today.
Just like the claims about the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq proved completely false, the claims that Iran was on the “verge of” developing a nuclear weapon have no grounds. No real evidence that Tehran was in fact close to gaining nuclear capabilities has been put forward. Instead, we have been presented with a truly unmatched level of hypocrisy and lies.
Here we have a situation where two nuclear powers – one which stands out as the only state in history to use, not once but twice, a nuclear weapon and another that refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has a mass-murder-suicide type of nuclear doctrine – are undertaking illegal “pre-emptive” aggression under the guise of stopping nuclear proliferation.
Clearly, the US and Israel are not after Iran’s nuclear programme. They are after Iran as a regional power, and that is why regime change has already been floated in public.
In addition to multiple statements from Netanyahu, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, and other Israeli officials, US Senators Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz have also called for toppling the Iranian government. On Sunday, US President Donald Trump joined the calls for regime change in Iran with a post on social media.
The Iranian people are now being encouraged to “stand up” and fight for their “freedom”. But freedom and democracy in Iran are certainly not what Israel and the US aim for. Why? Because a free and democratic Iran would not serve their interests and accept the brutalities of a settler-colonial project in its vicinity.
They would rather see Iran return to the violent, tyrannical monarchy under the Pahlavi dynasty, which was overthrown in a popular revolution in 1979, or any other political force willing to do their bidding.
If that doesn’t happen, Israel and the US would rather have a fragmented, weak, chaotic, destabilised Iran, marred by a civil war. That would suit their interests, just as a war-torn Iraq did.
Weakening regional powers in the Middle East and spreading instability through subversion and aggression is a well-established policy goal that the political elites in Israel and the US have jointly embraced since the 1990s.
A policy document called Clean Break, authored by former US Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle and other neoconservatives in 1996, outlined this strategy of attacking Middle Eastern states under the pretext of preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to secure Israel’s strategic interests.
Perle et al did not come up with something radically new; they simply built on the well-known imperial strategy of sowing division and chaos in order to facilitate imperial domination.
But this strategy is not without risks. Just like the collapse of the Iraqi state paved the way for violent non-state actors to emerge and for Iran to solidify its position as a regional power challenging US-Israeli interests, a weakened or fragmented Iranian state can result in the same dynamics.
On a more global scale, the actions of the US and Israel are encouraging more countries to pursue nuclear weapons. The lesson that states are drawing from the US-Israeli aggression on Iran is that nuclear weapons are necessary to acquire precisely to prevent such attacks. Thus, we are likely heading towards more proliferation as a result of this war, not less.
The Israeli state does not seem to be concerned about proliferation as long as the chaos and destruction it spreads in the region allows it to achieve its strategic goal of eradicating the Palestinian struggle once and for all, and ending all resistance to its settler colonisation project. Israel, in a nutshell, wants the entire region on its knees and will stop at nothing to achieve that objective. This is because it does not really have to foot the bill of regional instability.
By contrast, US interests are directly impacted when the Middle East descends into chaos. A dysfunctional Iraq or a weakened Iran may serve the US in the short term, but in the longer term, the instability can disrupt its grander plans for control of global energy markets and containing China.
The rest of the world will also feel the ripple effect of this unjustified aggression, just as it did after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Given the brutal, decades-long fallout of that war, the global response to the US-Israeli aggression against Iran has been self-defeatingly subdued; some European countries have appeared to endorse the attack, despite the many negative economic impacts they could face as a result of this war.
If governments truly desire to make the world a safer place, this complacency with imperial violence needs to end. It is past time that they come to the sober conclusion that the US and Israel are agents of destruction and chaos by virtue of their racist colonial design.
The Israeli settler colonial project is an unjustifiable project of displacement, expulsion and genocide; US imperialism is an unjustifiable project of robbing people of their resources, dignity and sovereignty.
To establish peace and stability in the Middle East, the world needs to put pressure on Israel to give up its settler colonial project and become part of the region through a decolonial existence with the Palestinians in a decolonised Palestine; and to compel the US to release its iron grip on the region, allowing its people to live in freedom and sovereignty.
This is the only way to avoid perpetual chaos, instability, suffering and pain.
Aljazeera.com
A new investigation by The New York Times claims Sudan’s military ran an organized program in 2024 to develop and produce chlorine-based munitions, escalating long-standing allegations of chemical weapons use in the country’s war.
According to the report, the Times reviewed nearly 150 documents, plus photos, videos, audio recordings and thousands of messages. The materials describe months of work to design, test and manufacture about 300 bombs filled with chlorine.
Brigadier General Tariq Hussein is named as one of the principal supervisors. The documents detail a munition that combined explosives with large quantities of chlorine, and tests carried out before production.
One of the most serious claims involves the source of the chemical. The dossier alleges that some chlorine was taken from a water-treatment facility in Omdurman, at a time when Sudan is facing cholera outbreaks and a collapse of basic services.
The investigation also points to senior leadership. Voice and text messages reportedly implicate army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in knowledge of the program, and in orders to “remove all traces” after U.S. pressure and sanctions.
This is not the first time chemical weapons have been alleged in Sudan. Independent.ng reported that the Sudanese Alliance for Rights filed a case at the International Criminal Court against four senior Port Sudan Authority leaders, including al-Burhan, accusing them of using chemical weapons and committing serious violations against civilians. The lawsuit also names Yasser al-Atta, Shams al-Din al-Kabashi and Major General Taher Mohammed, and calls for an urgent ICC investigation.
The U.S. has already acted on earlier findings.
Independent.ng noted that Washington imposed additional penalties in May 2025 over the alleged use of chemical weapons, further linking Sudan’s war to international politics.
Chlorine is permitted for water purification, but using it as a weapon violates the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Sudan ratified. Experts say its civilian availability makes it easier to obtain and harder to monitor than military-grade agents.
With the conflict since April 2023 already causing mass displacement and famine, rights groups are now calling for an independent international investigation with access to sites, documents and the chain of command.
The retired Nigerian Army Major General, Danjuma Hamisu Ali-Keffi, has alleged that two prominent members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) secretly sought confidential records on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu from United States government agencies.
Ali-Keffi, a former General Officer Commanding (GOC) 1 Division of the Nigerian Army, made the claim while speaking about the events that shaped Tinubu’s emergence as the APC presidential candidate.
According to him, the alleged attempt was brought to his attention by former Director of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Modibbo Hamman-Tukur.
The retired general said the incident happened during the period when powerful figures within the APC were struggling to determine who would secure the party’s ticket for the 2023 presidential election.
Ali-Keffi said the information came to him while he was serving as Commander of Operation Service Wide, an operation he described as being focused on terrorism financing and the leadership structures of terrorist organisations.
He explained that Hamman-Tukur later told him about an alleged move by two influential APC figures who were opposed to Tinubu’s presidential ambition.
According to Ali-Keffi, the individuals allegedly gained access to the office of the NFIU director without authorisation and sent requests to American government agencies for information concerning Tinubu.
“Two prominent APC people who were against Tinubu entered illegally into the office of NFIU director and sent messages to the US government agencies requesting confidential records of Bola Ahmed Tinubu on those issues – terrorism financing,” Ali-Keffi said.
The retired military officer said the former NFIU director was uncomfortable with the development.
He claimed Hamman-Tukur later went to his office at about 2am after becoming aware of what was happening.
According to Ali-Keffi, the people allegedly involved realised that the NFIU director had arrived and subsequently left the office.
Ali-Keffi further claimed that a response was later received from the United States concerning the request.
He, however, said he was not aware of the exact information contained in the response.
“I don’t know what the record is or related to current issues regarding his forfeiture and other issues, if I am not mistaken,” he said.
The former army commander was careful to distinguish between the alleged request for information and any conclusion about Tinubu.
He said he had no personal knowledge of the contents of the records allegedly requested from the US authorities.
He also did not claim that the records established that Tinubu committed any offence.
Instead, he said his account was based on information he received from Hamman-Tukur at the time.
Ali-Keffi also alleged that NFIU officials connected to the incident were later dismissed. He said the matter eventually became the subject of legal proceedings.
The retired general further brought former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, into the account.
Ali-Keffi alleged that El-Rufai was aware of some of the information relating to the request for Tinubu’s records.
He said the former Kaduna governor was among the political figures who had knowledge of the matter but did not support the idea of using confidential information against Tinubu.
Tinubu eventually defeated other contenders at the APC presidential primary in June 2022.
He went on to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party in the February 2023 presidential election.
Ali-Keffi said his own decision to support Tinubu at the time was influenced partly by El-Rufai’s argument that power should move from the North to the South.
He recalled that the argument was based on the need to maintain a sense of balance and national unity after former President Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner, had completed his second term.
The retired general said the political situation could have been different if the alleged information obtained from the United States had been made public before the APC primary.
“Had people like the former NFIU Director and people like El-Rufai who were in the know, who were aware of that documents that were sent in respect of candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu, had they allowed it to get to public domain at that time, I believe it would have perhaps hurt the candidaty of Ahmed Bola Tinubu. Certainly, he wouldn’t have gotten the ticket to fly the flag of APC at that time,” Ali-Keffi said.
Several prominent politicians had shown interest in the APC presidential ticket before Tinubu eventually emerged as the party’s candidate.
Ali-Keffi said those considerations played an important role in the eventual decision by some politicians to back Tinubu.
He also recounted a separate conversation involving former Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) chairman, Muhammad Nami, and an unnamed powerful minister who was said to have been close to Buhari.
According to Ali-Keffi, Nami approached the minister during the United Nations General Assembly in New York in an effort to persuade him to support Tinubu.
The retired general said the minister expressed reservations about Tinubu and warned that he could take action against some people if he eventually became president.
“Look, Ahmed Tinubu is going to come after them. He was going to do this and that. You people don’t know this,” Ali-Keffi recalled the minister as saying.
Nami, according to Ali-Keffi, continued to make the case for a Southern presidency and argued that handing the APC ticket to a Southern candidate would promote national balance.
However, years after the 2023 election, Ali-Keffi said he now regrets his decision to support Tinubu.
“I regret actually voting for him,” he said.
He also stated that he would not vote for the ruling party in the next election.
“I’m not going to vote APC next election,” Ali-Keffi said.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has published the personal particulars of candidates nominated for the 2027 presidential and National Assembly elections, with President Bola Tinubu’s nomination documents showing that the sections for his primary and secondary education were left blank.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has published the personal particulars of candidates nominated for the 2027 presidential and National Assembly elections, with President Bola Tinubu’s nomination documents showing that the sections for his primary and secondary education were left blank.
In a related development, POLITICS NIGERIA reported in August that fresh controversy had emerged over Tinubu’s academic credentials.
This came after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) explained why his primary and secondary school certificates were not included among the documents displayed for the 2027 election.
The commission said it displayed the documents submitted by candidates and did not have the authority to demand additional credentials or alter the information contained in their submissions.
Source: Politics Nigeria
The Nigerian Ambassador-designate to Mexico, Reno Omokri, has disclosed that records from the United States, US, Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, cleared suspicions that President Bola Tinubu is 90 years old.
Omokri disclosed that a letter from the FBI, sent via the US Embassy in Lagos and addressed to the Nigerian government, revealed that Tinubu was born on March 29, 1952.
Recall that the African Democratic Congress, ADC, presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, had claimed that he had evidence that Tinubu is 90 years old.
Atiku disclosed that he would tender the evidence in court.
However, Omokri dismissed Atiku’s claim during an interview on the City Boy Movement’s media one-on-one podcast with Otega Ogra, a Senior Special Assistant to Tinubu on Digital and New Media, yesterday.
According to Omokri: “First of all, Atiku was never my principal; he’s my friend. I have a document here from the FBI via the American Embassy. At that time, it was in Lagos, and I can read it for you.
“It’s a letter to the Nigerian government and Inspector-General of Police, Tafa Balogun, at that time.
“In relation to your letter dated February 3, 2003, regarding Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a record check of the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Crime Information Centre was conducted.
“The result of the check was negative for any criminal arrest records, wants or warrants for Bola Tinubu.
“Another thing is that this is just a complete vindication of Tinubu. But notice that the FBI records have the President’s date of birth, which is March 29, 1952. So, this document destroys anybody trying to say that the President is 90 years old.”
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