Al Mayadeen English

Iraqi Resistance factions have issued a firm warning to Washington, declaring that continued US military presence on Iraqi soil will not go unanswered.

In a statement released Wednesday, the Iraqi Resistance Coordination Committee, an umbrella body bringing together six anti-terror formations, said it stands ready to act if the United States refuses to end the “ongoing occupation” and persistent interference in national affairs.

The committee accused Washington of failing to respect its obligations under its agreement with Baghdad, which provides for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Iraq. Despite repeated official declarations that the US combat mission ended years ago, Resistance groups argue that foreign troops remain entrenched under different titles.

“The US actions in Iraq ‘leave us with no choice but to assume our legal and moral responsibilities in taking positions befitting the dignity of our people and their legitimate right to end the occupation, if American forces insist on maintaining their presence and imposing their will on the country,” the statement said.

The coalition also charged that US forces continue to violate Iraqi airspace and undermine the country’s stability, describing such conduct as a “blatant violation” of national sovereignty and dignity.

Advisory mission pretext

While Washington claims that approximately 2,500 American troops remain only in an “advice and assist” capacity following the declared end of combat operations in December 2021, resistance factions view this designation as cosmetic. They argue that the continued deployment, however limited in scale, preserves military infrastructure, intelligence networks, and rapid-response capabilities that entrench US influence rather than end it.

From their perspective, the counter-ISIS mandate increasingly functions as a framework that justifies a long-term strategic foothold in a country central to regional power balances. Even a reduced presence, they contend, enables Washington to retain leverage over Iraqi decision-making while projecting influence across neighboring theaters.

Beyond the security dimension, the Resistance Coordination Committee pointed to direct American meddling in Iraq’s political process, saying that Washington effectively determines which Iraqi political figures may assume senior government positions.

Maliki pressure campaign

The reference was widely understood as relating to Nouri al-Maliki, whose potential return to the premiership has faced US opposition. Washington threatened sanctions on Iraqi individuals and institutions should Maliki take office. Recent reports indicate that the United States has given Iraq’s largest parliamentary bloc until February 27 to withdraw his candidacy, despite Maliki’s insistence that he will not step aside.

For Resistance factions, such moves are examples of direct political coercion, reinforcing their claim that Iraq’s sovereignty remains constrained more than two decades after the US-led invasion of 2003, a war launched on the now-discredited allegation that Baghdad possessed weapons of mass destruction.

[…]

Via https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/iraqi-resistance-warns-of-action-if-us-forces-remain

Episode 15 – The Fertile Crescent, Water and Al-Jazari

Islamic Golden Age (2017)

By Eamon Gearon

Film Review

This lecture concerns water management and agricultural productivity during a period when most of the Muslim world was desert.

Gearon defines the fertile crescent as the river systems extending from the Nile Valley to the Persian Gulf, specifically the Nile, Jordan, Lintani (Lebanon), Orontes (Lebanon and Syria) and Tigris/Euphrates complex (Turkey and Iraq)

Pre-Islamic water management in middle East and North Africa:

• Garamantes (500 BC – 700 AD) – Berber kingdom in North Africa consisting of six prosperous city-states. Its rulers employed slaves to dig wells linking to desert aquifer.
• Nabataean Kingdom (3rd century BC to 103 AD) – Arab kingdom in northern Arabia and southern Levant. Prior to Roman conquest, its chief city Petra (in modern day Jordan) used gravity driven channels to harvest ground water and rain water.
• Yemen (8th century BC) – Built Great Dam of Mand. Earlier dams on same site date back to 2000 BC.
• Persian Empire (500 – 300 BC)  – numerous dams for irrigation and flood control

Around 762 AD, the Abbasid caliphate expanded existing canals to accommodate Baghdad’s growing population. As the Abassid caliphate experienced growing threats to their rule, money used to maintain canals was spent for the military. The canals began to silt up, resulting in reduced agricultural production and economic hardship.

Mathematician and Engineer Ismael Al-Jazari

Ismael Al-Jazari, the father of robotics and crank technology, built human automatons and water raising devices and water clocks. The first was the water wheel pump:

A later one used perpendicular interconnecting gears and double action piston motion. Al Jazari invented segmented gears 300 years before they were adopted in Europe and had a major impact on the European inventors of the steam and internal combustion engine.

At the request of the caliph he wrote a book about his inventions called The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices, which had a major influence on future European machines.

Agricultural Productivity Skyrockets

In addition to improved irrigation technology, new knowledge about crop rotation (from the Iberian peninsula), grafting, fertilizer and pest control increased productivity during the Islamic Golden Age. a year. By the tenth century, Islamic farmers had imported the cultivation of oranges, lemons, sugar cane, rice, mangoes, aubergines, cotton, peaches, plums and artichokes from India to the Middle East.

When the Umayyad caliphate Abu Rachman fled from Damascus to southern Spain, he introduced date palms and pomegranates to the Iberian peninsula.

By the 9th century, distinctive Islamic style decorative gardens had emerged with strict geometric patterns, reflecting pool and fountains that changed shape.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/5756987/5757017

José Gregorio Biomorgi

In recent days, the mass media have amplified their offensive against Venezuela to impose a narrative following the US aggression, which culminated in the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Deputy Cilia Flores.

These misinformation merchants have disseminated fantastical and fabricated stories, the product of unfounded speculation. Their aim, to introduce the idea of ​​betrayal by the High Command of the Revolution against President Maduro into public consciousness. More specifically, the offensive has been directed against our sister, the Acting President, Delcy Eloína Rodríguez Gómez.

It is clear that this strategy is being led by the eternal enemies of the Bolivarian Revolution, together with traitors to the Chavista movement, many of them former ministers, who cannot forgive Chávez for proposing Nicolás Maduro as his successor, nor can they forgive the latter for his absolute loyalty to Chavismo and the people of Venezuela.

What is the reason for the media offensive against Delcy Rodríguez?

To answer this question, we must first understand two undeniable facts:

1. The US effectively failed in its “Regime Change” strategy in Venezuela.
2. The aggression against Venezuela has been a “Miscalculation” by the US administration and is already beginning to take its toll.

Keeping these two facts in mind, it will be much easier to understand the desperation of Venezuela’s enemies in their search for a new strategy to weaken the Bolivarian Revolution, after their historical failure to do so. What is the purpose of this new offensive? It is none other than to try to divide the people and the Chavista movement. That is the real reason behind the narrative of betrayal.

Delcy Eloína Rodríguez Gómez’s Roots

Before discussing Delcy Rodríguez as a political figure and Acting President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, let’s talk about her roots. Delcy is the daughter of the historic figure Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, a prominent student leader and social activist, a member of the MIR (Revolutionary Left Movement), and later the founder of the Socialist League. Both political organizations were left-wing movements with a Marxist-Leninist and anti-imperialist ideology.

Jorge Rodríguez, the Father (as he is also known), actively collaborated with the guerrilla movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s that fought against the repression of what is known in Venezuela as the Fourth Republic. This is the political system formally established in Venezuela from 1958 to 1999. During this period, repressive and highly corrupt governments were installed which, after the overthrow of the military dictatorship in 1958, betrayed the people, sided with the national oligarchy, and became subservient to the United States. Then began the persecution of any leftist movement that demanded sovereignty and advocated for a people’s government, one that would serve the citizens and not the corrupt ruling class, which was already demonstrating its moral decay.

In the midst of these struggles, led by a group of young people with strong political convictions who felt betrayed by the New York Pact (or Punto Fijo Pact, as this agreement signed by the political leaders who betrayed the people is known), the figure of Jorge Antonio Rodríguez emerged as a political and moral leader. And it was in the heat of these revolutionary struggles that our sister Delcy Eloína Rodríguez Gómez was born in 1969.

Jorge Antonio Rodríguez’s dedication and loyalty to the people of Venezuela cost him his life. In 1976, he was assassinated by the repressive government apparatus of one of the most corrupt figures Venezuela has ever had as President. We are referring to the infamous Carlos Andrés Pérez. Delcy Rodríguez lost her father when she was only 7 years old. That’s where our Acting President comes from. A woman who was born in the heat of anti-imperialist struggles.

Delcy Rodríguez, a worthy representative of Venezuelan women

The Rodríguez Gómez family continued on their way despite the pain of losing the leader of their family, who dedicated his life to just causes and the people of Venezuela. Inspired by the example of loyalty and love for the people of Jorge Antonio Rodríguez. This is how the woman who now leads the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela grew up.

Delcy Rodríguez entered the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) in the late 1980s and graduated in 1993 with a law degree. During her time at UCV, she participated in student movements that fought against the repressive state apparatus of that era.

She then continued her academic training in Europe, earning a Master’s and a Doctorate in Social and Labor Law from the University of Paris X-Nanterre, taking courses in economic philosophy at Cambridge, and completing a Master’s degree in Political and Social Theory at Birkbeck, University of London.

From 2002 onwards, she became actively involved in politics, taking her first steps in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. In 2006, she was appointed head of the Office of the Ministry of the Presidency. In 2007, she assumed the General Coordination of the Vice Presidency.

In 2013, she led the Ministry of Communication and Information, and in 2014, she was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, a position she held until 2017. It is worth noting that in 2014, Barack Hussein Obama declared Venezuela an “Unusual and Extraordinary Threat.” Delcy served as Minister of Foreign Affairs for three years, when the US dropped the pretense and began its direct aggression against the Venezuelan people.

In 2017, she took on the Presidency of the Constituent Assembly convened by President Nicolás Maduro, which put an end to the destabilization plan implemented by the National Assembly elected in 2015, in conjunction with the extremist opposition, who once again proved to be the tool (or useful idiots) used by the US at that time in its efforts to destabilize Venezuela.

From 2018, Delcy Rodríguez was appointed Vice President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, a position she held until January 5, 2026, when she assumed the role of Acting President, as established by our Constitution, in response to the cowardly aggression by the US and the kidnapping of President Maduro.

Additionally, in 2020 she was appointed Minister of Economy and Finance and in 2024 Minister of Hydrocarbons. She held both positions while serving as Vice President, demonstrating the Acting President’s exceptional work ethic and management skills. Delcy Rodríguez’s track record speaks for itself.

A brief note for those unfamiliar with the day-to-day realities of our nation: Venezuela began experiencing economic growth in 2021, after several years of recession resulting from the unilateral coercive measures initiated by the US in 2015. This growth continues to this day, and Venezuela has seen five consecutive years of economic growth and improvement. And do you want me to tell you something? Yes, that’s right. Delcy Rodríguez was the coordinator and person in charge of implementing the Economic Recovery Plan designed by President Nicolás Maduro, who always referred to her as the “Leader of Venezuela’s Economy”. So, no further explanation is necessary.

The truth behind the narrative against the Acting President Delcy Rodríguez

Once we have briefly summarized Delcy Rodríguez’s prestigious career as a fighter, academic, revolutionary, manager, and political leader, you, dear readers, will realize that the fascist right and their masters in the North have no way to discredit this woman. We are not exaggerating when we say that Delcy Rodríguez is one of the most capable and qualified people in Venezuela to take the leadership of our nation in these complex times.

Faced with the impossibility of discrediting Delcy Rodríguez, the traitors and the fascist right have no alternative but to resort (once again) to the tool of lies and manipulation, creating false narratives of betrayal. And this is no coincidence. It is a well-thought-out instrument of manipulation, if we consider some chapters of betrayal in our republican history. A false narrative that could take root in the collective imagination.

It is absolutely false (and illogical) to think that the US planned the kidnapping of President Maduro to leave Chavismo in charge of the government. Only ignorant and foolish minds who have no idea how “Realpolitik” works can believe that.

No one should have any doubt that the US objective was to promote regime change in Venezuela. That is why they kidnapped President Maduro, who will never be forgiven for not betraying Chávez and for being able to maintain the unity of Chavismo during the most complex moments of our recent history.

But they failed. The US did not achieve its goal, and faced with that failure, they had no choice but to recognize that the only alternative that guarantees stability in Venezuela is Chavismo. Therefore, they decided to dialogue with Chavismo, although with a gun pointed at their heads. And our people have understood this perfectly and know their role in this historical moment very well. The level of maturity and awareness of the Venezuelan people has surprised the entire world.

Faced with the disappointment of Trump and his hawks, the narrative in the US has begun: “Delcy Rodríguez is cooperating,” “Delcy is fantastic and is doing what we tell her,” “Delcy is leading a transitional government,” or “Delcy is giving us oil and will have relations with whomever the US decides,” and a host of other absurdities not worth mentioning, which are no longer credible even to the US voters.

It is no coincidence that after every conversation between a US official and the (Acting) President, a press release or publication appears in which the US insinuates that it is giving instructions to Delcy Rodríguez. Want a recent example? Let’s look at the US Embassy’s post after its Chargé d’Affaires (CdA) met with the Acting President:
“Today I met with Delcy Rodríguez and Jorge Rodríguez to reiterate the three phases that @SecRubiohas outlined for Venezuela: stabilization, economic recovery and reconciliation, and transition – LFD.”

The aim of this post is to undermine Delcy Rodríguez’s position as a President of a Free and Sovereign Nation, and, at the same time, it suggests that instructions were given to the Venezuelan authorities at that meeting. Although it is a very clumsy post from a political standpoint, it pursues a single goal: the division of the Chavista people.

[…]

Via https://libya360.wordpress.com/2026/02/25/what-is-the-truth-behind-the-narrative-of-betrayal-in-venezuela/

Pravda

Rep. Thomas Massie just went scorched earth on the executive branch, naming names and connecting dots between German Bayer, the White House, and the Supreme Court.

All three branches are “under siege by lobbyists and lawyers from a German company named Bayer. ”

Bayer spent over $9 million lobbying to avoid liability for Roundup herbicide damages.

“The Constitution guarantees people a trial if they’ve been harmed. Why are we contemplating going against the Constitution?”

The connections:

The AG Pam Bondi has “opined favorably for this German company in front of the Supreme Court” on liability.

The President’s Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, and Bondi both worked for a lobbying firm that received “millions of dollars from Bayer. ”

Furthermore, an executive order has declared the production of this Bayer chemical a “national defense priority. ”

“We know why they’re doing that. It’s to keep them from having any liability.”

[…]

Via https://news-pravda.com/world/2026/02/25/2095469.html