Darius Shahtahmasebi

Darius Shahtahmasebi is a New Zealand-based legal and political analyst who focuses on US foreign policy in the Middle East, Asia and Pacific region. He is fully qualified as a lawyer in two international jurisdictions.

New Actors Could Be Drawn into Israel’s Coming War With Hezbollah

The looming showdown between Israel and Hezbollah will be nothing like the last. A new cadre of battle-tested Hezbollah fighters returning from Syria and a myriad of bolstered alliances have Israel scrambling.

Hezbollah fighters advancing up a hill as they hold Lebanese, Syrian and their group's flags in the mountainous region of Qalamoun, Syria, Aug 28, 2017. (Syrian Central Military Media, via AP)

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL -- In mid-2006, Israel and Hezbollah fought a short-lived ground war in Lebanon, the outcome of which has generally been accepted as a victory for Hezbollah, as Israel struggled to inflict any meaningful damage on the Lebanon-based group. As the Nation’s Sulome Anderson has explained: The 2006 war was an impressive win for the

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Primed by Saudi Money and Influence, the ISIS Diaspora Reaches the Philippines

Saudi Arabia’s spread of jihadist ideology has reached past the Middle East and Southeast Asia and penetrated deep into the Asia-Pacific, drawing in extremist groups reeling from recent losses in Syria and Iraq.

Two suspected Abu Sayyaf militants Hood Abduallah, left, and Jimmy Bla wait to be presented to the media by Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre in a news conference at the National Bureau of Investigation headquarters Monday, March 12, 2018 in Manila, Philippines. In the Justice Department press statement, the two were arrested two weeks ago in Zamboanga, southern Philippines and allegedly were involved in kidnappings in 2001 and 2002 including that of American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (Analysis) -- ISIS’ inevitable decline in Iraq and Syria, the credit for which is almost always wrongly bestowed upon the Trump administration, has provided windows of opportunity for the global terror group to spawn insurgencies in other locations. On December 20, 2017, MintPress News reported how this foreseeable ISIS

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Both Venezuela and the US are Preparing for an Impending Conflict

As if Trump’s threats of military action were not enough, the appointments of John Bolton and Mike Pompeo have sent Venezeuala scrambling to prepare its military for an American invasion.

Venezuelan Coup Attempt

Countries that don’t eagerly follow the U.S.-led global order make prime targets for American-led invasions, particularly when those countries challenge the status of the U.S. dollar. Right now, Venezuela is one of these countries. Venezuela sits on the world’s largest oil reserves, and in order to free itself from what it calls the “tyranny of

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Israeli Bombs Are Raining down on Gaza and No One Is Talking About It

Gaza does not have an air force, does not have air defenses of its own, and in essence represents 2 million Palestinians trapped in what is widely regarded as an open-air prison, which is predicted to become uninhabitable in less than two years.

A Palestinian boy stands inside a damaged home following early morning Israeli airstrikes in town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017. The Israeli military says it has carried out airstrikes in Gaza is response to rocket fire toward southern Israel. The military says it struck a Hamas military compound in southern Gaza early on Wednesday. No casualties were reported. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

THE GAZA STRIP -- (Analysis) With close to zero media coverage, particularly any analysis that is critical of the Israeli government and its policies, Israel has continued to pound the Gaza Strip with air strikes since the beginning of this year. In a separate report, MintPress News has documented the various human-rights abuses that Israel has

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Historically Anti-Apartheid New Zealand Confronts Risks of BDS and Standing Up to Israel

New Zealand prides itself on having been one of the most staunch opponents of South Africa’s former apartheid regime and has now taken some of that fervor to the fight against Israel’s marginalization of Palestinians, but the Kiwi nation is quickly discovering the high cost of confronting Israel.

Anti-apartheid demonstrators march through Auckland, New Zealand to protest the tour of South Africa's Springbok rugby union team. The tour had proceeded, in the face of bitter opposition from critics of South Africa's system of apartheid with the sanction of the New Zealand Rugby Union and government of then Prime Minister Robert Muldoon, July 3, 1981 . (AP/New Zealand Herald)

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND -- If we were to truly honor the late, great Stephen Hawking, perhaps it would pay to remind ourselves of the principles the acclaimed physicist really stood for. One of those principles was Hawking’s commitment to the boycott of Israel in response to Israel’s longstanding policy of egregiously violating the rights of millions

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Retired US Colonel: Israel Is Dragging the United States Into World War III

Lawrence Wilkerson, a retired army colonel who now teaches at Washington-area universities, didn’t hold back in his critique of where the status quo is leading the United States via its client state, Israel.

WILKERSON

Israel is in the process of plunging America into a war with Iran that could destroy what’s left of the Middle East and ignite a third world war, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, warned in Washington approximately a week ago. Wilkerson, a retired army colonel who now teaches at Washington-area

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What the Media Won’t Tell You About the US’ True Intentions in Syria

While Israel voices its frustration with what it terms as U.S. “inaction,” a showdown between Iran and the United States in Syria is becoming increasingly inevitable.

Photos released by Hammurabi’s Justice News and MaT show U.S. Special Forces personnel posing with U.S.-backed Syrian rebels in southern Syria, July, 2017.

Just days ago, Israel openly voiced its frustrations with the United States for not taking a stronger role in countering Iran’s growing influence in neighboring Syria, a red line for Israel that has them planning to assault Syria’s sovereignty in order to defend its interests. “It is convenient for the Americans to let us be their proxy against

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