Antiwar.com Weekly Newsletter for December 3, 2020

Your source for foreign policy news. 

December 3rd, 2020

Report: Trump Gives Hawks Free Rein to Hammer Iran

According to a report from The Daily Beast, President Trump has given his most hawkish advisors free rein to squeeze Iran as much as possible in the final weeks of his administration. The story cites multiple anonymous US officials who say Trump's only condition was that his aides do not risk starting "World War III."

The report reads: "Trump has given some of his most hawkish administration officials, particularly his top diplomat, Mike Pompeo, carte blanche to squeeze and punish the Islamic Republic as aggressively as they wish in the coming weeks.

-- By Dave DeCamp

Israel Suspected in Assassination of Top Iranian Scientist

A top Iranian scientist was assassinated near Tehran in an ambush on Friday, Iranian state media first reported. Israel has previously alleged the scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, headed an Iranian military nuclear program.

In a statement, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif condemned the attack and said there are "serious indications" of an Israeli role in the assassination. In 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called out Fakhrizadeh at a news conference and said, "remember that name."

-- By Dave DeCamp

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The Monroe Doctrine Goes Global: America, and Only America, Gets To Intervene Everywhere

On December 2, 1823 President James Monroe enunciated what became known as the Monroe Doctrine. It was a fantastic mix of presumption and chutzpah: the U.S., and only the U.S., was entitled to intervene whenever and wherever it desired for whatever reason it decided in Latin America.

-- By Doug Bandow

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Has Bibi Boxed Biden in on Iran?

If Israel, as is universally believed and has not been denied, was behind the assassination of Iran's leading nuclear scientist, questions arise:
 

Why would the Israelis kill him? And why would they do it now?
 

The scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, it is conceded, was a leader in Iran's nuclear bomb program, but that program was disbanded in 2003.

--  By Patrick J. Buchanan

Will Antony Blinken's Past Catch Up With Him?

When last week Antony Blinken emerged as the candidate likely to be tapped by Joe Biden to be his nominee for either National Security Advisor or Secretary of State, those of us in the camp dissenting from the "bash Russia"policies on Capitol Hill during the Trump years groaned at the thought of the same policy being now enthroned in the Executive Branch by one of its most prominent spokesmen. Blinken had long served Biden as an advisor, had been in the Obama Administration as Undersecretary of State and was known to be one of those actively promoting imposition of stiff sanctions on Russia as from its 2014 takeover of the Crimea.--

-- By Gilbert Doctorow

Washington Is Writing Security Checks to Taiwan the US Can't Pay

A geostrategic time bomb is ticking ever louder in the Taiwan Strait. Beijing's determination to compel a recalcitrant Taiwan to accept political unification with the People's Republic of China (PRC) is becoming noticeably more insistent. At the same time, Washington's previously vague commitment to defend Taiwan has morphed over the past four years into the functional equivalent of a full-blown military alliance. Those policy changes put China and the United States on a collision course with horrific potential consequences.

-- By Ted Galen Carpenter

Biden Says He Will Not Immediately Lift Trump's China Tariffs

Dan Caldwell: Trump Should Get Out of Afghanistan Before Inauguration Day

UN Appeals to Trump Administration Over Houthi Terror Designation

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