#Iran, echt? Onze ambassadeur wil zeker ons diepe medeleven uitspreken. Afschuwelijke aanslag, diep bedroefd. Maar Nederland schuld geven? Sterk  weerwoord noodzakelijk. #Kamervragen in aantocht. (_link)

— Sven Koopmans (@SvenKoopmansVVD) September 22, 2018

#Iran, really? Our ambassador certainly wants to express our deep sympathy. Horrible attack, deeply sad. But blame the Netherlands? Strong rebuttal is necessary.

○ U.S., UN Condemn Deadly Attack On Iranian Military Parade | RFERL |
○ Rudy Giuliani says Iran's government will be overthrown | Reuters / RFERL |

Iran summons UK, Dutch and Danish envoys over attack on military parade | The Guardian |  

Iran has summoned envoys from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Denmark over Saturday's deadly shooting of 29 people at a military parade in the south of the country, state media has reported.

The British charge d'affaires, along with the Dutch and Danish ambassadors, were "informed of Iran's strong protests over their respective countries' hosting of some members of the terrorist group" which carried out the attack, the official news agency Irna said.

Iran called on Denmark and the Netherlands to extradite the attack's "perpetrators and their accomplices" to stand trial, Irna said, citing foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi.

"It is not acceptable that the European Union does not blacklist members of these terrorist groups as long as they do not perpetrate a crime on ... European soil," Qasemi was quoted as saying.

The British charge d'affaires, summoned in the ambassador's absence, was told it was unacceptable "that the spokesman for the Al-Ahvazi terrorist group was allowed to claim responsibility of the attack through a London-based TV network", according to the news agency. Tehran claims the group is backed by its arch-rival Saudi Arabia.

My recent diaries ...

○ After 35 Years, Iran Liquidates MKO Terrorist near Amsterdam
○ Dutch Gov't Admits Support for Salafist Jihadists in Syria

'Sapere aude'

○ Terror HQ located in Delft, Holland

On 8 November 2017 Ahmad Mola Nissi was murdered in The Hague. He was the founder and leader of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz (ASMLA).

ASMLA's armed wing, the Mohiuddin al Nasser Martyrs Brigade, has claimed responsibility for several attacks in Iran, including the killing of two members of the elite Revolutionary Guards in January 2017.

'Sapere aude'

Alahwaz News - March 2016

The ASMLA stressed that the profits attained by the Iranian regime from the sale of the oil and gas resources in Ahwaz are used both in the brutal oppression of the Ahwazi people, who are denied any share in or profit from their own resources, and in funding terrorist entities which actively work to destabilise security and stability in the Arab world and elsewhere.

The Ahwazi delegates explained that despite the massive resource wealth contained in Ahwaz (renamed Khuzestan province by the occupying Iranian regime in 1936), the Arab Ahwazi people are maintained in conditions of Third World poverty, denied any of the wealth from the oil and gas resources on their land, denied education, work and the most basic of human rights, with Ahwazi peoples routinely arrested, tortured and often executed for such `crimes' as speaking their native language or participating in any form of human rights activism.

○ Indigenous Ahwazi Arabs for Freedom and Democracy In Iran

The ASMLA representatives urged the international oil companies, investors and other delegates at the conference to meet both their legal and moral responsibilities by rejecting any collusion in the Iranian regime's ongoing abuse of Ahwazi peoples and its funding of terrorism through trade with the regime.

The ASMLA delegation also pointed out that, having been denied any legal recourse to claim their rights, Ahwazi resistance forces have targeted oil facilities for attacks in protest at the theocratic regime's inhumanity, with such attacks increasing in regularity in recent years. The most recent such attack took place on February 22 of this year against an oil installation in the city of Arjan in eastern Ahwaz. The attack by the ASMLA's military wing, the Brigades of the Martyr Mohiuddin Al-Nasser, resulted in massive losses of resources and equipment at the facility. The delegates added that such attacks will continue until the rights of the Ahwazi peoples are recognised.

○ New Terror Campaign Against Iran as Giuliani Predicts Regime Change | Tikun Olam |
○ After 35 Years, Iran Liquidates MKO Terrorist near Amsterdam

'Sapere aude'

Oil and Its Outcomes - Background To Help Understand The Middle East Crisis

After the 1890's, though little publicized, the search for secure energy in the form of petroleum would become of extreme importance to Her Majesty's Navy and government. A global war for control of oil was shaping up, one few were even aware of outside select policy circles Winston Churchill replaced Fisher as First Lord of the Admiralty but was a strong advocate of
Fisher's oil conversion. Churchill stated "We must become the owners or at any rate the controllers at the source of at least a proportion of the oil which we require" The conversion of the British Navy under Churchill meant a high risk strategy as England had abundant coal but no then-known oil. By the first decade of the 20th Century securing long-term foreign petroleum sources had become an essential factor for British geopolitics.  

As oil emerged as the fuel of industry, it also came to be regarded as the fuel of war. The ability to discover, exploit, and maintain this invaluable commodity in the interest of the nation became a paramount concern. By 1909, a British company, Anglo-Persian Oil Company held rights to oil exploration in a 60-year concession from the Persian Shah near the border to Mesopotamia. In 1912, the company negotiated an agreement with Winston Churchill for controlling interest by the British Government in return for secure oil for the Royal Navy. Following the outbreak of war, Britain's majority stake position in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company assumed central importance. Persian oil production grew more than 10-fold- with the company meeting one-fifth of the Royal Navy's oil needs. The fact that Britain was able to maintain control of the majority of its Anglo-Persian assets during the war contributed to fueling the Allied war effort against Germany and the Ottoman Empire

...
The Saudi family has controlled much of the Arabian Peninsula since the 1700s. In 1905, the Saudis controlled very little, having lost their territory in a series of wars. The peninsula was divided into lots of little kingdoms and emirates. The Ottoman Empire controlled most of them, with the British Empire controlling the southernmost third of the peninsula. After World War I, the Saudis expanded to all of the purple area, as the British had promised for helping to fight the Ottomans. By the early 1920s, the British effectively controlled most of the peninsula, through protectorates, and mandates. In 1923, ibn Saud invaded the Hejaz and ousted Hashemite King Hussein. Abdicating in 1924, Hussein left the Hejaz to be assimilated into the Saudi kingdom.

○ Seven Sisters documentary - Al Jazeera
○ US Foreign Policy for Dummies - 3 Letter Word OIL
○ CIA Confirms Role in 1953 Iran Coup (Overthrow of Dr. Mossadeq)
○ Churchill using poisoned gas in Mesopotamia

Churchill was particularly keen on chemical weapons, suggesting they be used "against recalcitrant Arabs as an experiment". He dismissed objections as "unreasonable". "I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes _ [to] spread a lively terror _"

'Sapere aude'

Belgium could build island over abandoned poison gas grenades | The Guardian |

For almost 100 years 35,000 tonnes of poison gas grenades, abandoned by the fleeing Germans around first world war battlefields, have lain in steel barrels on the seabed less than a kilometre from the Belgian coastline.

A convoy of small boats dumped the cargo into the North Sea over a period of six months in 1919 when unloading it into the world's oceans was thought to be the best way to protect people from exposure to the toxic material.

The site was soon forgotten, only to be rediscovered under three metres of sand and silt by divers in 1971 during the expansion of the port of Zeebrugge. Building over the barrels was considered given the danger of gas leakage but the costs were thought to be too high. Monitoring was chosen over action.

Paardenmarkt: A Toxic Legacy of the Great War | Peace Palace - The Hague |

Along the Belgian coast, a narrow submerged sand-bank called 'Paardenmarkt' (Horse Market) extends from the Port of Zeebrugge to the Dutch border. Few people are aware that this sand-bank is one of the largest World War I ammunition dump sites in the North Sea. In fact, the figures are perplexing: at least 35.000 tons of German ammunition, at least a third of which are chemical shells, located just at about 500 meters off the Knokke-Heist beach, a main touristic attraction.

Only since 1988, the area has been marked on nautical charts. The official sea map shows an average depth of from 1.2 to at the most 4 meters. Five dotted lines are drawn on this sand-bank that form a pentagon. Neither fishing nor anchoring are allowed in this two square kilometers area. It is also forbidden for swimmers, divers and surfers. However, there are no warning signs and the area is only indicated by a few orange buoys.

Gevaarlijke erfenis uit de Eerste Wereldoorlog: gifgasgranaten gedumpt in de Noordzee bij Knokke