The Shiite bridge | Colonel Cassad

Overall, we are witnessing the triumph of the Iranian strategy and, accordingly, defeat U.S. strategy. But this is not the end. As writes the American press, the hawks in the Pentagon require the Secretary of defense to intensify operations in southern Syria against Iran, and if necessary to attack the Iranian “proxies” in order to cut the new bridge. Foreign Policy reports that Mathis doesn’t want to follow the hawks, because an attack on Iran will have unpredictable consequences and jeopardize the lives of American soldiers. In fact, the debate on this subject, demonstrates that the appropriate scenarios for the development of the US southern-Syria strategy the US are gone.

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Islam against Islam | Alexander Dugin

The Islamic world is far from homogeneous. There are a few geopolitical units, each of which relies on distinct historical, religious, cultural and civilizational trends, conducting independent strategic line both globally and locally. In addition to fundamentalism in Islam, there are many other versions and trends. But more importantly for the concept of “Islamic fundamentalism” is somewhat not just different, but contradictory trends. Not realizing this, we will not be able to adequately understand or sense what is happening today crisis events in Chechnya and Dagestan (also in the North Caucasus and the looming disaster in other areas with the Muslim population on the territory of the Russian Federation), or what is happening in the Islamic world as a whole.

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Hezbollah: Fall of Aleppo could pave way for ‘political solution’ | MEMO

In a live televised address, Nasrallah said that the Assad regime forces’ recapture of the northern city of Aleppo after four years of fighting with rebels holding its eastern sector had opened a new stage in the nearly six-year conflict.

“Today, after Aleppo, one can safely say the [opposition’s] goal of toppling the regime has failed,” he said. “The victory of Aleppo can open new horizons for political solutions…It could make some nations realistic and see new viewpoints.”

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The beginning of the battle for Mosul | Colonel Cassad

A night of massive artillery preparations and numerous air strikes began a General offensive in Mosul. The battle promises to be one of the most ambitious in the history of the Iraq war. 8-11 thousand fighters to defend the Caliphate of Mosul and its surrounding villages will be thrown against 34 to 42 thousand people and several hundred units of various equipment (tanks, armored combat vehicles, trucks), more than 130 guns, a few dozen aircraft and attack drones. Among the participants of the attack – the army and the Iraqi security forces, Kurdish Peshmerga, Shia militia of Iraq and US troops, France and Turkey. In addition, the air offensive will support the aircraft of other countries of the American coalition.

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Fallujah Liberated | Colonel Cassad

Yesterday officially ended the battle for Fallujah. It was presented that “DAESH will be able to stay there at least until the end of the month”, but the numerical and technical superiority affected the acceleration of the process and Fallujah came under the full control of the Iraqi army. The Caliphate lost almost the whole garrison surrounded the city – about 2000-2500 people. The Iraqis according to the Caliphate lost about 1,800 people. Also according to various estimates, during the fighting killed between 700 and 1300 civilians, and tens of thousands were left homeless. Overall, for Iraq and for Americans, it is obvious success, which partly compensates the failure of recent plans related to the attack on Mosul.

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Revoking citizenship of Shia leader is a Saudi plot

Alwaght: Having this in mind, what results and consequences would revoking nationality of Sheikh Isa Qassim and stepping up pressures on Shia citizens have for the Bahraini regime?

Daghgh: The Bahraini uprising would move on with a revolutionary energy even livelier than before and with a stronger morale. Now the demonstrations began and there is under way a gathering near the home of Ayatollah Isa Qassim. The people chant “as long as we have blood in vessels, Ayatollah Qassim remains our leader, and we never forsake our leader.” They also assert that “our revolution is alive and it lives on even more energetic than before

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Russian Orthodoxy and Initiation | Alexander Dugin

Thus, it should be grasped that the Orthodox Church, similarly to the Shiite trend in Islam, is not subject to the strict division into exoteric and esoteric levels, this being true at least on the level of its archetypal organization of the sacred system. However, this does not mean that all of Orthodoxy is esoteric or that all the Orthodox are esotericists. Without a doubt, the division of “internal” and “external” planes is maintained in Orthodoxy as it is everywhere else depending on the personal qualities and “spiritual caste” of this or that human being. However, in our case, this division is not formalized, and the degree of initiatic quality depends exclusively on the internal nature of the believer and his efforts to realize his given spiritual possibilities.

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Dugin’s Guideline – Eternal Iran: working trip of the group “Katechon” in Iran

The secret perhaps is that Iran’s Islam is very different. And policy there is very different. And the Iranians themselves – a separate nation, a civilization which flourished long before Islam. In Iran is dominated by Shia, contemplative, refined, exquisite Islam. In the main it is the mystical dimension and the particular Iranian self-esteem. The meaning of Shia is to build an ideal society, without discrimination, violence, exploitation, fair, moral, and pure.And since historically Muslims dominated the coarser attitudes and principles, the Shia have always been the martyrs, always in minority, always persecuted. But they have not abandoned their faith, their culture expectations, farhangi incisor. And they waited.

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Syria civil war: The untold story of the siege of two small Shia villages – and how the world turned a blind eye | Robert Fisk

This is the untold story of the three-and-a-half-year siege of two small Shia Muslim villages in northern Syria. Although their recapture by the Syrian army – and by Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Iraqi Shia militias – caught headlines for a few hours three weeks ago, the world paid no heed to the suffering of these people, their 1,000 “martyrs”, at least half of them civilians, and the 100 children who died of shellfire and starvation.

For these were villages that remained loyal to the Syrian regime and paid the price – and were thus unworthy of our attention, which remained largely fixed on those civilians suffering under siege by government forces elsewhere.

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Why stoking sectarian fires in the Middle East could be Saudi Arabia’s biggest mistake | Patrick Cockburn

Saudi rulers have faced serious challenges before, but they have never been faced with the degree of instability in states surrounding or close to the kingdom. There are wars in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, a guerrilla conflict in Sinai and street protests in Bahrain that could always become more serious. It should be much in Saudi Arabia’s interest to mitigate these crises but instead it stokes them but without any real plan on how to bring them to an end.

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The Culture of Awaiting | Alexander Dugin

Solidarity with shiites, the common struggle together with them against our common enemy — American based ultraradical pseudo-islamism in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Bahrein, everywhere — is our duty as Russians. Russain-Shiah alliance is not only the geopolitical necessity, it is based on the deep spiritual roots. One Ayatollah in Qom during conversation with me has called it The Culture of Awaiting. We are waiting indeed the coming of Better World and final appearance of our divine Guide.The USA, NATO and its Middle East proxies and puppets (Saudi or Qatar as well as Israel) are the obstacles on the way of Second Coming. They are doomed. The Saudi regime must die first. They are but usurpers and liars. It is a kind of Eurasian fetwa. Glory to the Shaykh Nimr an-Nimr.

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Angry crowds set fire to Saudi embassy in Tehran | MEE

Angry crowds protesting at Saudi Arabia’s execution of a top Shia cleric set fire to the kingdom’s embassy in Tehran on Saturday and stormed the building before being cleared out by police, ISNA news agency reported.

In Mashhad, Iran’s second biggest city, demonstrators meanwhile set fire to the Saudi consulate, according to news sites, carrying pictures of the alleged assault.

The incidents came hours after the announcement of the death of 56-year-old cleric Nimr al-Nimr, a key figure in anti-government protests in the kingdom since 2011.

The execution prompted strong condemnation from Shiite-majority Iran and Iraq.

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The Voyage and the Messenger: Iran and Philosophy | Books

For those not familiar with his work, Henry Corbin is one of the most important scholars on esoteric Islamic and the history of Shiism. This selection highlights the historical links between the many branches of the Shi’a and the deep metaphysical interconnections between the main Twelver branch and the rest of the tree.

As we witness the most spectacular alliance in the whole history of Shiism fighting together in the maelstrom of the Syrian civil war, these links become ever more important.

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Yemen conflict and the emergence of a Russian-Shia alliance | Katehon

We are dealing now with the creation of a very important strategic line – a Russian-Shia alliance. We need to understand the nature of this alliance – in the geopolitics of Islam. Because Islam is presented now by two poles of confrontation, but the Sunni pole is much more differentiated, divided inside. Shias are a minority and Sunnis are a majority. But Shias are homogeneous more or less – in Iraq, in Lebanon’s Hezbollah, in Syria, including in Bahrain and Houthis in Yemen. That is a kind of zone, uninfected culturally, by a level of consciousness. And the Sunni world is completely torn apart by the inner contradictions between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, between different fractions inside of Sunni states. And as well differences between the Maghreb states and Middle East states.

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