A New Perspective on Constantine

by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – France, Britain, and Germany, the European signatories to the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran, held the Islamic Republic to its commitments as outlined in the deal this week in spite of recent threats from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to resume high-level enrichment of uranium.

“If these commitments were not respected, naturally this question,” of whether the EU, Britain, France, and Germany ought to join the U.S. in placing sanctions on the Islamic Republic, “would be asked,” France’s Defense Minister Florence Parly said on Wednesday, her firm posture echoed by a joint statement from the European powers on Thursday that “reject[ed] any ultimatums” coming from the Iranian side.

The Iranian economy, according to a statement issued by President Trump the same day, is virtually in danger of collapsing after the U.S.’s decision to levy sanctions against Iranian metal exports, the second highest source of revenue in its economy after oil, for which the US has already revoked customer waivers in a bid to put a 10 billion dollar dent in the rogue nation’s petroleum profits.

“Because of our action, the Iranian regime is struggling to fund its campaign of violent terror as its economy heads into an unprecedented depression, government revenue dries up, and inflation spirals out of control,” Trump’s statement read on Wednesday.

Fears that the increasingly cornered Islamic regime might lash out at U.S. forces in the region through its Shi’ite proxy armies were met this week by a heavy show of US military force, with the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group deployed to the Persian Gulf and four B-52 Stratofortress bombers ordered to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

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(Worthy News) – US Special Mideast Envoy Jason D. Greenblatt said Saturday the Trump administration’s long-delayed peace proposal, dubbed ‘the deal of the century’ will not be unveiled until mid-June after the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.

Last month, reports suggested White House senior adviser Jared Kushner – the plan’s architect – planned to unveil the proposal after Israel forms a governing coalition in the wake of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s election victory and after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends in early June.

One thing we won’t do, the Trump administration won’t compromise on Israel’s security,” he said in an interview with Fox News. [ Source: Ynet News (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – A Venezuelan general called on the country’s armed forces on Sunday to rise up against President Nicolas Maduro, who has relied on the backing of the military to hold on to power despite an economic collapse.

Ramon Rangel, who identified himself as an air force general, said the Venezuelan government is being controlled by the “communist dictatorship” in Cuba – a key Maduro ally.

“We have to find a way to get rid of the fear, to go out into the streets, to protest, and to seek a military union to change this political system,” Rangel, dressed in a suit with a copy of the constitution in his hand, said in a video posted on YouTube. “It’s time to rise up.” [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Saudi Arabia said Monday two of its oil tankers were sabotaged off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in attacks that caused “significant damage” to the vessels, one of them as it was en route to pick up Saudi oil to take to the U.S.

Khalid al-Falih’s comments came as the U.S. issued a new warning to sailors and the UAE’s regional allies condemned the reported sabotage Sunday of four ships off the coast of the port city of Fujairah. The announcement came just hours after Iranian and Lebanese media outlets aired false reports of explosions at the city’s port.

Emirati officials have declined to elaborate on the nature of the sabotage or say who might have been responsible. However, the reports come as the U.S. has warned ships that “Iran or its proxies” could be targeting maritime traffic in the region, and as America is deploying an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to the Persian Gulf to counter alleged threats from Tehran. [ Source: Fox News (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said on Sunday the U.S. military presence in the Gulf used to be a serious threat but now represents a target, the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reported.

The U.S. military has sent forces, including an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers, to the Middle East in a move that U.S. officials said was made to counter “clear indications” of threats from Iran to American forces in the region.

The USS Abraham Lincoln is replacing another carrier rotated out of the Gulf last month. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday ordered his trade chief to begin the process of imposing tariffs on all remaining imports from China, underscoring a lack of progress by U.S. and Chinese negotiators in talks aimed at ending an escalating trade war.

Trump’s move would subject about $300 billion worth of Chinese imports to punitive tariffs, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement.

Lighthizer said a final decision has not been made on the new duties, which would come on top of an early Friday tariff rate increase to 25% from 10% on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has approved the transfer of $1.5 billion to build more than 80 miles (130 km)of barriers on the border with Mexico, U.S. officials said on Friday, including taking about $600 million from an account meant for Afghan security forces.

The latest move was opposed by congressional Democrats, who also criticized a March transfer of $1 billion in military money to fund Republican President Donald Trump’s wall.

“The funds were drawn from a variety of sources, including cost savings, programmatic changes and revised requirements, and therefore will have minimal impact on force readiness,” Shanahan said in a statement. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – The U.S. budget gap widened 38% in the first seven months of the fiscal year as federal spending outpaced tax collections.

The government ran a $531 billion deficit from October through April, the Treasury Department said Friday, compared with $385 billion during the same period a year earlier, a 38% increase. Federal outlays rose 8%, to nearly $2.6 trillion, while revenues increased 2%, to $2.04 trillion — a record for the seven-month period.

Part of the increase in the deficit was attributable to a shift in the timing of certain federal benefit payments, which made the deficit appear larger. If not for those timing shifts, the deficit would have risen 23% from the same period in fiscal year 2018. [ Source: Morningstar (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Vice President Mike Pence told graduating seniors at the country’s largest Christian university they should expect to be “ridiculed” for their beliefs.

“Throughout most of American history, it’s been pretty easy to call yourself Christian,” Pence said at Liberty University’s commencement Saturday. “It didn’t even occur to people that you might be shunned or ridiculed for defending the teachings of the Bible. But things are different now.”

“Some of the loudest voices for tolerance today have little tolerance for traditional Christian beliefs,” he said. “Be ready.” [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – A U.S. aircraft carrier strike group rushes toward the Persian Gulf. Decades-old B-52 bombers rumble down runways at desert air bases. The Pentagon, meanwhile, routes a Patriot missile battery and an amphibious supply ship to return to the region.

These military deployments in the Persian Gulf, beginning with a sudden May 5 order from the White House citing still-unspecified threats from Iran, comes as Tehran has begun setting its own deadlines over its unraveling nuclear deal that President Donald Trump pulled America of out of a year ago.

Yet even without these movements, the U.S. has maintained a vast network of bases across the Persian Gulf dating back to the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq. Allied Gulf Arab nations, many rich from oil reserves, equip their own forces with billions of dollars of American arms as well. [ Source: ABC News (Read More…) ]

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