World View: Ahmadinejad Blames U.S. for Fall of Iran Currency

World View: Ahmadinejad Blames U.S. for Fall of Iran Currency

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com:

  • China and Japan in naval standoff in East China Sea
  • Military intervention in Mali comes a step closer
  • Lebanon confirms that Hizbollah is fighting in Syria
  • Iran’s Ahmadinejad blames disastrous fall of rial on U.S.

China and Japan in naval standoff in East China Sea

China announced on Tuesday that four Chinese marine surveillance shipshad begun patrolling in the waters around the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyuislands in the East China Sea. The purpose was to confront “theJapanese right-winger’s intrusion.” The new Chinese surveillanceships will be patrolling the same waters as Japanese Coast Guardships. With both countries in highly nationalistic moods, thepossibility of an incident involving military action has increasedsignificantly. Xinhua and VOA

Military intervention in Mali comes a step closer

France and several African countries have been calling for militaryintervention in Mali to throw out the Ansar Dine, the al-Qaeda linkedterrorist group that is now in control of the northern two-thirds ofMali. However, the calls for intervention have been largely ignored,since the Mali government itself has been unwilling to requestmilitary intervention, apparently out of fear that neighboring armieswould never leave. But Mali’s government has now given the go-aheadfor a major troop deployment in northern Mali. If the militarydeployment goes ahead, the troops will come from France and fromcountries belonging to the Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS). The U.S. has expressed caution about military interventionin Mali, and may not support the effort. Guardian/Le Monde and IRIN

Lebanon confirms that Hizbollah is fighting in Syria

An announcement on Tuesday that is likely to raise the level oftension between Sunni and Shia Muslims in the Mideast was confirmationfrom a Lebanon security official that a commander and several fightersfrom the terrorist group Hizbollah were killed inside Syria. 

Hizbollah is a Shia terrorist group located in Lebanon but more loyalto Iran than to Lebanon. Hizbollah has been supporting Syria’spresident Bashar al-Assad as he’s been torturing Sunni children andsending rockets into Sunni apartment buildings, and so he has beenreceiving a great deal of criticism for supporting a mass murderer.Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has repeatedly claimed that he isnot providing military support to al-Assad, but it now appears that infact he is. AP and BBC

Iran’s Ahmadinejad blames disastrous fall of rial on U.S.

Iran’s rial currency has lost a catastrophic 80% of its value since2011, including an 18% plunge on Monday, and another 9% on Tuesday.In a speech on Tuesday, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamedthe “enemies” of his country for the sharp falls in the rial. He maybe right, in the sense that U.S.-led sanctions are thought to be the principalcause of the rial’s collapse. Iran is having a great deal ofdifficulty selling oil, or in getting paid after the oil has beendelivered. In addition, many Iranians are selling rials and hoardingdollars, exacerbating the situation. BBC

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