No nations should subordinate their sovereign rights to the will of another country.
Most do by cowing to imperial USA. Establishment media operate the same way, serving as press agents for its destructive domestic and geopolitical agenda.
The late Gore Vidal called the NYT the “typhoid Mary of American journalism” for good reason.
It long ago substituted state-approved propaganda for all the news that’s fit to print on domestic and geopolitical issues mattering most.
Like other establishment media, it’s militantly hostile toward all sovereign nations not subservient to US imperial interests.
Reporting cross-border from Bogota, Colombia, a US colonized fascist police state, the Times noted the arrival of the first of 5 Iranian tankers with gasoline for Venezuela.
Instead of supporting the right of nations to trade freely with others, unrestrained by another state, the Times, true to form, vilified Iran and Venezuela.
Calling them “two pariah states run by authoritarian leaders” turned truth on its head.
The characterization applies to imperial USA, other NATO countries, apartheid Israel, and their partners in high crimes of war and against humanity.
Clearly not to nonbelligerent Iran and Venezuela, nations engaging cooperatively with others, at war with none, threatening none—polar opposite what the scourge of imperialism is all about.
Saying both nations are sanctioned by the US, the Times failed to explain the illegality of unilaterally imposed sanctions by one country on others, a UN Charter breach.
Instead it quoted State Department spokeswoman/loose cannon Pompeo’s imperial mouthpiece Morgan Ortagus, a serial liar like her boss, saying that President Nicolas Maduro’s government is a “criminal organization.” The Big Lie was unchallenged by the self-styled newspaper of record, its silence showing support, typical of its imperial backing.
The Wall Street Journal noted the arrival of a second Iranian tanker in Venezuela on Monday, three more to arrive this week.
It quoted Maduro saying Venezuela and Iran will not “kneel before North American imperialism.”
Maduro added that both nations “want peace and have the [lawful] right to trade freely.”
Imagine a world safe and fit to live in if most nations felt the same way, refusing to operate as US vassal states.
Like other establishment media fake news reports, the Journal suggested that Iranian gasoline will go to Venezuela’s military and black marketers.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel hailed cooperative relations between Iran and Venezuela, tweeting, “Long live solidarity among the peoples.” He thanked Tehran for “breaking the [Trump regime’s] unacceptable and criminal blockade.”
Separately, former Iranian envoy to OPEC Mohammad Ali Khabtibi said, “The increase in the number of countries [illegally] sanctioned by the United States has provided a better capacity to create alternative solutions to supply demands.”
He recommended an alliance among them, including use of barter to facilitate trade.
On Monday, Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiyee said Tehran “sent gasoline tankers at the request of the Venezuelan government. No state is duty-bound to implement [illegal] US sanctions.”
He warned the Trump regime against interfering with Iran’s right to trade freely with other nations.
Urging support from the international community, he added the obvious, saying, “The US has a record of [high seas] piracy” and gunboat diplomacy.
Earlier in May, Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif tweeted, “The US has long been the world’s top military spender, arms seller, war initiator & instigator [and] conflict profiteer.”
“Yet @SecPompeo is apparently so worried about Iran—a huge US arms customer till 1979—that he’s pouring weapons all over the globe.”
The “#UnitedStatesOfArms”—the world’s leading merchant of death, destruction, and human misery—wrapped in the American flag.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
