Congress is rushing through another tranche of aid to Ukraine in its $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package, with some $44.9 billion in assistance to Kiev tacked on to the legislation. The bill includes a curious proviso prohibiting US support for a Ukrainian ultra-right fighting force. Whether it’s worth the paper it’s written on is another story.
The Ukrainian military’s notorious neo-Nazi-linked Azov Regiment* will be formally barred from enjoying any of the tens of billions of dollars in US taxpayer dollars earmarked for Ukraine in 2023, according to the text of a draft spending bill which includes the US defense budget and foreign aid.
“Section 8138 prohibits the use of funds to provide arms, training, or other assistance to the Azov Battalion,” reads an explanatory note in the "Defense" section of the bill. “None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to provide arms, training or other assistance to the Azov Battalion,” the bill itself reads.
The provisions are probably worthless. Just above them, a stipulation reads that “none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this or any other Act shall be obligated or expanded by the United States Government…to exercise United States control over any oil resource in Iraq or Syria.” And yet the US and its Kurdish allies have been systematically looting Syria’s oil resources for years on end, with no signs of any plans to stop these illegal activities.
It’s not clear how the "no funding for Azov" could even be enforced, since the Azov Regiment, which is part of Ukraine’s National Guard, is spread out across the country’s entire military, often serving as punitive or blocking detachment fighters to shoot retreating troops or deserters, and for "cleansing" operations against pro-Russian activists, civilians, and officials in recaptured areas.
Prior to the escalation of the eight-year-old Donbass crisis into a full-blown military confrontation between Ukraine and Russia this February, Western media and intergovernmental organizations occasionally reported on “Ukraine’s neo-Nazi problem,” and even the war crimes carried out by Azov militants in Donbass.
However, as the conflict escalated this year, articles on the prickly subject trickled to a halt, with Western media attempting to rebrand Azov as a softer “right-wing” militia, questioning whether they even are neo-Nazis, or, in the case of one tragicomical piece by CNN, accusing Russia of “exploiting” Azov’s “neo-Nazi history” for propaganda purposes. Some outlets have even sought to play up Azov as heroes, with The Jerusalem Post penning a glowing report this week titled "Ukraine’s Azov Regiment Visits Israel: Mariupol is our Masada," a reference to the Jewish-Roman War of 73-74 CE.
The "no funding for Azov" reference is a leftover from old legislation, as evidenced by its reference to the militia as a "battalion" (the group has since grown into a regiment). In 2015, the now-late Democratic Congressman John Conyers of Michigan put forward an amendment banning US support for the militia, with the Conyers Amendment subsequently tacked on to annual defense budgets.
Leaked Video: Joe Biden Admits Iran Nuclear Deal is 'Dead' Even as Talks Continue
Joe Biden was vice-president when the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was ratified by then-president Barack Obama in 2015. He has since pledged to reverse his predecessor Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the deal, but talks between Washington and Tehran have been stalled since August.
A video has emerged of Joe Biden declaring the peaceful nuclear energy deal with Iran "dead" even as talks continue.
The US president made the comments to Iranian emigrés at a campaign rally with fellow Democrat congressman Mike Levin in Oceanside, California on November 4, at a time when violent protests were raging in Iran with support from Washington.
"President Biden, can you please announce that JCPOA is dead? Can you just announce that?" asks one woman. Biden replied "no", prompting the woman to ask "why not?"
"A lot of reasons. It is dead, but we're not gonna announce it," Biden told her. "Long story, but we're gonna make sure..."
Biden seemed unfazed when the woman disparagingly referred to the Iranian government as "the Mullahs."
"We just don' t want any deals with the Mullahs," she said. "No Deals! They don't represent us, they're not our government." "Oh, I know they don't represent you," Biden replied, "but they'll have a nuclear weapon that they'll represent."
The Biden administration began talks with Iran last year on the US returning to the deal, which his predecessor Donald Trump withdrew from.
Talks between the European Union (EU) and Iran on reviving the talks are still ongoing in the Austrian capital Vienna, although the US delegation has not participated directly since August.
The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement between Iran, the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia, China and the the EU was signed when Biden was vice-president to Barack Obama.
The deal stipulated gradually lifting sanctions on Iran, while in return, Tehran would greatly reduce its enrichment of uranium fuel for its nuclear power stations and allow International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors access to its facilities to verify compliance.
Obama quickly soured the deal by slapping more sanctions on Iran over its testing of short-range ballistic missiles designed to carry conventional warheads.
Obama quickly soured the deal by slapping more sanctions on Iran over its testing of short-range ballistic missiles designed to carry conventional warheads. Obama's successor Donald Trump kept his 2016 campaign pledge to withdraw from the deal in May 2018, but did not follow that up with a promised renegotiation. Iran waited a year, by the terms of the agreement, before restarting high-grade uranium enrichment.
The US, Israel and other Western countries allege that enriched uranium is intended for a nuclear weapons programme — something which Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has repeatedly said is forbidden by Islam in a fatwah or religious judgement.
*Banned as a terrorist organization in Russia.
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