Russia’s Sergey Lavrov is right about hegemon USA, saying the following on Saturday:
The Trump regime’s “intention is to do everything possible in order not to be bound by any international multilateral obligations,” adding:
“When the US decides that China is a threat because it sells too much to the US and buys too little, the Americans impose restrictions on imports from China.”
“When the US decides that Iran, although it is doing everything it agreed on under the JCPOA, however, misbehaves, then sanctions are imposed against Iran.”
Washington’s geopolitical agenda is largely the same under both right wings of its war party — seeking dominance over all other nations by whatever it takes to achieve its aims.
What works at times short-term is self-defeating longer-term.
The harder hegemons push other nations to bend to their will, even at the expense of their own interests, the more they hasten their decline.
Unacceptable US policy toward Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is one of many examples.
The Trump regime wants its completion undermined to favor sales of far more expensive US liquified natural gas (LNG) to European markets — infuriating key ally German.
In early August, German media reported on a letter from hardline US senators to German port of Mukran’s management.
Defying the nation’s interests and international law, “financial destruction” of the port was threatened if its management continues providing logistical support for completion of Nord Stream 2’s construction.
In response, Bundestag MP Jurgen Tritten denounced what he called “a (US) declaration of economic war,” adding:
“The nasty habit of threatening American letters to German companies is growing.”
“This interference into the sovereign affairs of Germany and the European Union has reached an unprecedented level of aggressiveness which must not go unanswered.”
“The companies involved in this project need protection from Washington’s wild west methods.”
“Germany and the EU must find a robust response to this US behavior.”
“This can include (our own) threat of sanctions…such as on the import of (LNG) from the USA.”
Separately, the German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations demanded that Berlin and Brussels protect sovereign EU nations and their enterprises from “attacks by third countries” — including by providing financial and legal support.
German state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Minister-President Manuela Schweisig called US threats over Nord Stream 2 “absolutely unacceptable,” adding:
It’s Berlin’s sovereign right to decide “where and how to get its energy.”
Germany’s Federal Foreign Office Minister of State Neils Annen denounced US “extraterritorial sanctions against close partners and allies,” calling them “a serious attack on our national sovereignty.”
Germany is committed to Nord Stream 2’s completion.
The Trump regime and congressional hardliners are going all-out to undermine its remaining construction.
Russia is a reliable political, economic and trade partner with European and other world community countries — seeking cooperative relations with all, dominance over none, threatening none.
US hegemonic policies are polar opposite. They risk alienating key allies like Germany, Europe’s economic powerhouse.
Two humiliating defeats of the Trump regime on Iran at the UN in the past week reflect the most glaring examples of opposition to its unacceptable geopolitical demands.
It’s a sign of perhaps more of the same to come, especially because there’s no let-up of DJT’s all-out war on Iran by other means in defiance of the rule of law and strong opposition from key allies that want the landmark JCPOA agreement preserved.
The Trump regime has no legal right to impose snapback sanctions on Iran, a policy it’s illegally pursuing in defiance of opposition by other signatories to the deal.
In response to its imperial arrogance, Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif tweeted the following last week:
“After officially and explicitly ceasing its participation in the JCPOA at the highest level, and having violated each and every one of its obligations under the JCPOA and Resolution 2231, the US cannot arrogate to itself any right under that Resolution.”
“US recourse to the Dispute Resolution Mechanism in (Res.) 2231 has NO LEG TO STAND ON.”
Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — the other JCPOA signatories — agree with Iran on this issue.
The US is waging war by hot and/or other means against all nations it doesn’t control — a self-defeating agenda over time by alienating allies and stiffening resistance of its adversaries.
Along with Russia and Iran, China tops the US target list for marginalizing, weakening, undermining, and isolating on the world stage — preliminary steps to wanting pro-Western puppet rule replacing their sovereign independence.
On a pre-recorded Fox News interview to air Sunday, Trump threatened to decouple economically from China, saying:
“(W)e don’t have to” do business with Beijing. Asked about possibly decoupling, he said:
“Well it’s something that if they don’t treat us right I would certainly, I would certainly do that.”
Despite growing irreconcilable differences between both nations, they’ve been closely integrated for decades — breaking up not simple to do.
China’s economy is a key engine of global economic growth. The nation is a reliable trading partner.
Virtually all large and many smaller US companies operate in China. It’s a major purchaser of US products and services.
Trump’s war on China by other means is the stuff that major conflicts are made of if cooler heads in Washington don’t step back from the brink to avoid a greater class of civilizations than already exists.
The US is a nation in decline, repeating the pattern of all other empires in world history.
It’s no longer the world’s leading super-power.
Russian super-weapons outmatch the Pentagon’s best, developed at a small fraction of the cost.
China is heading toward surpassing the US as the world’s leading economy.
Despite decades of US war on Iran by other means, the Islamic Republic proved resilient in defense of its sovereign independence.
America’s day in the sun is fading, weakened over time by its imperial arrogance and unwillingness to change.
Like all other previous empires, the dustbin of history awaits its arrival.
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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)
His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
