“Fascism is a gangrene”

Sheri Laizer | Exclusive to iKurd.net

The Day of the Dead (in Spanish, El Dia de Los Muertos) arises on November 1, aligning with All Saints Day following Halloween. The departed are remembered, their resting places if known, are visited and decked with flowers and tributes.

For those never found by their families in the concentration camps special ceremonies take place, like at the Concentration Camp of Le Vernet in the Ariège, SW France, where I paid my respects yesterday.

Eighty years after the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, around on hundred people gathered on Toussaint (All Saints Day) to remember those buried in the former camp cemetery. Their remains were never collected by their families and are honoured each year by the Amicale du Camp de Concentration du Vernet d’Ariege gathering in the Cimetière des ‘Oubliés” de la Toussaint.

Hundreds of thousands of people fell victim to the forces of fascism during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) through the Nazi Occupation. The graves of known and unknown fighters that took a stand against the rise of fascism in Europe by joining the International Brigades and French Resistance lie in many lands from Europe to north Africa. Resistance combatants of 79 nationalities fought shoulder to shoulder for shared freedoms in Spain during the Civil War. Many of the valiant fell captive and were rounded up and transported to concentration camps or prisons. Others fell in battle.

One of the main hubs for transportation and internment of the ‘foreign undesirables’, Republicans, intellectuals and later, European Jews, was the Concentration Camp of Le Vernet Ariège in SW France. The village lies a day’s march from the Spanish border where France adjoins the northern territories of Catalonia, and the Basque Country that were administered by the Republican government until its toppling.

The mass exodus known as the Retirada, or Retreat, then ensued. Thousands among the half million refugees perished en route and lost their lives in the inhospitable interment and deadly concentration camps.

Today, eighty years on, the legacy of those that opposed fascism transcends their graves. Several internationally acclaimed writers and thinkers of the period include George Orwell who fought with the International Brigades and composed A Farewell to Catalonia, Animal Farm, 1984 reflecting their values; Max Aub, interned in Le Vernet and transported in 1941 with other ‘foreign undesirables’ to the barbaric, French-controlled Djelfa camp in Algeria; Arthur Kostler, author of Scum of the Earth, who was another prominent intellectual and writer interned at Le Vernet survived extreme deprivation and constant punishments for his political opinion.

Among the thousands of men whose nationalities became known often only when they were registered in the concentration camps were Armenians, two Iraqis, Persians, socialist Turks, Lebanese, Palestinians, Greeks, Moroccans, Russians, Poles and Europeans of all nations.

It was only in the later phases, that European Jews began to be summarily rounded up and thrown in with the rest before the Holocaust truly began. Kurds are not documented to date as having joined the Republican forces perhaps by omission of ny nation recognised as ‘Kurdistan’ but Arabs from Iraq, Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Algeria did so. The forces of the International Brigades came to number more than 45,000 volunteers standing up to oppose Franco, Hitler and Mussolini.

Baghdadi Christian, Nouri Rafael Kotani is remembered in a plaque erected in his honour in the Spanish town of El Pinell de Brai in Taragona. He went under the nom de guerre of Anwar R or Nuri Anwar Rafael.

Having been awarded an Iraqi government scholarship to study engineering at MIT in the United States, he joined the Brigades in 1938 and was first listed as ‘American.’ Hie engineering skills were very useful to his unit but after leaving Spain he fell prisoner and was transported to one of the French camps, possibly even Le Vernet.

He had joined the Syrian Communist party taking part in the Movement for the Liberation of Palestine (from the British) and was also a founding member of the Association against Fascism and the Committee for Combating Imperialism and Exploitation. He later explained to family members how he had tried four times to escape before being helped by a friend called Yusuf Ismail whose wife smuggled him out concealed under a load of goods in a wagon.

He then reached Paris and stayed with Yusuf’s family obliged to contact the Iraqi Consulate there having lost his documents in Spain. Fortunately, he there encountered Ali Hayder Suleyman, a friend who was an alumni of the American University of Beirut (that at the time still belonged to Syria) and helped him with a new passport and funds to return to Iraq in November 1939 where he remained politically active against the British-instilled kingdom.

He was imprisoned for his views and activism not seeing freedom until the revolt of 14 July, 1958 led by General Abd al-Karim Qasim. He became Minister of Railways and held the post until the first Ba’ath Party coup of 1963. He lived an intriguing life until death overcame him in 1980.

Another Baghdadi intellectual, Setty Abraham, the son of a Jewish family, also went to train in Spain and was sent to join the XVth International Brigade that his countryman Nouri Kotani had also served with. He did not end up in Le Vernet camp.

In 1929, Setty had first left Baghdad to work in Argentina remaining there between 1929-1934, before moving on to Uruguay where he stayed working as a translator, typographer and writer till 1934, speaking Arabic, Spanish and English.3 In 1937 he reached France so as to enter Spain and join the Brigades. For an in-depth account see the Biography of the Militants.

Palestinian journalist, translator, trade unionist, and critic, Muhammad Najati Sidqi, born in Jerusalem, was sent to Spain by the Comintern.

Of Communist persuasion, Sidqi believed that the conquest of European fascism would help liberate the Arabs through self-determination. Sidqi recalled introducing himself to local Spanish Republican militias saying: “I am an Arab volunteer, I have come to defend the Arabs’ freedom on the front in Madrid. I have come to defend Damascus in Guadalajara, Jerusalem in Cordoba, Baghdad in Toledo, Cairo in Andalusia, and Tetouan in Burgos.” 4

He was active in propaganda including in promoting the quest for Moroccan independence. He adopted a Moroccan alias to this end working as Mustafa Ibn Jala and urged Moroccans serving with the forces of General Franco to desert their positions. Franco’s so-called Army of Africa then numbered around 60,000 Moroccans and greatly exceeded those in the Republican forces, generally giving Moroccans a bad name with the Spanish.

The three-sided red star of the International Brigades represented the unity of the workers, the peasants and the intellectuals during the Spanish Civil War.

According to Catalan historian, Andreu Castells (and figures collated by the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History), “211 Moroccans, 11 Syrians, four Palestinians, three Egyptians, two Iraqis and one Lebanese man …took up arms for the International Brigades.”5 Many of the Arabs were registered as French nationals owing to French colonial control over much of north Africa at the time.

A new sculpture unveiled against fascism at Le Vernet 1.11.2026

The wooden sculpture draws part of its theme from a book by Max Aub, Manuscit Corbeau -The Treatise of the Crow.

The sculpture created by artist, Rico Sculptu, was hewn from the ancient oak tree that witnessed thousands of people transported/deported beneath its branches from the station to the cattle trains bound for Auschwitz, Dachau, Ravensbrück (four women) and other French camps at Aurigny, and refouled to Franco’s Spain.

Crowned by the crow, a verse inscribed down the centre front panel reads, “Jacobo was a tame crow who observed the concentration camp of Le Vernet d’Ariège. He wrote a treatise on the lives of men that Max Aub found in his suitcase.”

The wood is carved into many suitcases along with the principal destinations of the deportees – destinations and journeys that were largely fatal as they left with their last meagre possessions packed in their carrying cases.

The deportations included the final voyage of the ‘ghost train’ that left Le Vernet even as France celebrated its liberation from the Nazi occupation: it took two months to reach Dachau despite the peace. A lone carriage sits on a side runner with the names of the last victims inscribed inside the wagon.

Max Aub and hundreds of others were subsequently shipped off to Algeria’s Delfa Camp. He survived and escaped to Mexico where his books on his ordeal were published.

A Moroccan who had fought for Franco’s forces is heard speaking in the documentary The Forgotten, reflecting on his experience saying: “Franco was an ungrateful bastard, after winning the war he forgot about us. We were no longer useful to him.”6

Speeches, readings and the singing of the French Marseillaise and Patriots Song of the International Brigades continued from the unveiling of the sculpture to the graveyard that is all that remains of the camp, now agricultural land aside from the old entrance gates and a number of guards houses occupied as private homes.

The present rise in fascism and the acceleration of desperate wars unite those who stand firm to remember the fallen of Le Vernet d’Ariège Concentration Camp.

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No Turk Should Lead the U.N. or Any International Organization Until Cyprus Occupation Ends

Michael Rubin | The ME Forum

United Nations Secretary General António Guterres’ second term will end on December 31, 2026, but there is not yet a clear candidate to replace him. Initially, Latin Americans expected someone from Central America, South America, or the Caribbean to take the helm, but President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio made clear that none of the announced candidates met their standards for reform and that the United States would not constrain itself with adherence to United Nations tokenism.

Several other candidates soon emerged, most prominently, Emirati official Lana Nusseibeh, former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Behind the scenes, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has pushed for a Turk to take the helm, pushing long-time loyalist Feridun Sinirlioğlu, a former interim foreign minister who now serves as secretary-general of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Erdoğan and his aides have quietly canvassed other leaders, especially among the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, and say privately they have no objection from anyone but France. Erdoğan, however, believes that either through bribery or coercion, he can force Emmanuel Macron’s acquiescence.

Erdoğan is not pushing a Turk simply out of national pride; he regularly seeks to host international events or insert Turks in leadership positions to extend his policy reach and implement his ideological program. In 2011, he announced Istanbul’s bid to host the Olympics.

Turkish officials openly pitched their bid through the lens of religion. Egemen Bağış, a close Erdoğan confidant and bagman, said awarding Turkey the games would allow International Olympic Committee members to prove they were not biased “against a belief group.”

Meanwhile, Turkey’s proposed logo featured mosques and the crescent. Turkey has again applied to host the 2036 games. For the International Olympic Committee to choose it, however, no matter how many Turkish bribes are offered, would be shameful since Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu announced the bid before his arrest for the crime of being too popular and posing a political challenge to Erdoğan.

Erdoğan openly pushed for Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu to take the helm of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation in January 2005. Turkish officials pointed to the İhsanoğlu appointment as a sign of Turkey’s increased prestige among Islamic countries. Hikmet Çetin, a Turk who served as NATO’s first Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan, took a soft approach to the Taliban; billboards went up around Kabul heralding Turkey-Afghanistan Islamic solidarity, rather than Turkey as a NATO member.

Erdoğan also maneuvered Ahmet Üzümcü to chair the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in 2013 to 2018. Fatih Birol leads the International Energy Agency, and has regularly shilled for Erdoğan’s oil and gas projects, favoring a pipeline through Turkey over safer Greek, Cypriot, and Israeli alternatives.

Sinirlioğlu has the charisma of Michael Dukakis after a double dose of ketamine. His tenure at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has been lackluster at best; he has made no reforms and seems to be a gatekeeper to prevent the organization from making any statements or taking any significant action that undercuts Erdoğan’s diplomatic or financial interests. To open the U.N.’s coffers to him would be to invite a corruption scandal on par with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan’s Oil-for-Food program.

Sinirlioğlu is Erdoğan’s man. He was undersecretary during Ahmet Davutoğlu’s tenure as foreign minister. He then served Erdoğan loyally at the United Nations for seven years. When Turkish forces invaded and ethnically cleansed Kurdish-administered regions of Syria, Sinirlioğlu told the U.N. Security Council that he would “flatly reject and strongly condemn any misrepresentation of our counter-terrorism operation as an offensive or aggression.”

He defended the purge of tens of thousands of Turks following the abortive July 2016 “Reichstag Fire” coup by declaring, “We will never forget this villainy.” Four years later, he warned countries engaging with Syrian Kurds that “your red carpets could quickly be stained with blood.” Sinirlioğlu, meanwhile, was silent on Turkey’s safe-haven for the Islamic State and endorsement and support for Hamas. He was likewise silent on İmamoğlu’s arrest, even as other Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe officials spoke up.

In July 2026, Russian pranksters telephoned Sinirlioğlu, with one pretending to be Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The prankster accused Karekin II, the head of the Armenian church, and asked for Sinirlioğlu’s assistance in helping to remove him. Sinirlioğlu responded, “OK, I’ll do my best; I’ll try.” Such a remark suggests Sinirlioğlu treats Helsinki Principle VII on religious freedom with disdain.

Under Erdoğan, Turkey has become one of the world’s most corrupt countries, on par with Belarus and Egypt. This is due to not only the Turkish leader, but also the silence, cowardice, and complicity of men like Sinirlioğlu.

All of this should disqualify Sinirlioğlu as an individual, but the notion that any Turk should lead the U.N. or any other organization should be a non-starter for other reasons. Turkey has occupied Cyprus for more than a half-century.

The idea that a desire to protect Cyprus’ Muslim minority motivated and justified Turkey’s invasion is nonsense: The bulk of the invasion occurred after the Cypriot crisis had passed and while the two sides were negotiating in peace talks in Geneva. Simply put, Turkey is occupying European Union territory and so long as it does, no Turk should have any leadership position in the United Nations or any international organization, nor should Turkey receive any consideration to host the United Nations.

Michael Rubin is a former Pentagon official whose major research areas are the Middle East, Turkey, Iran and diplomacy. He is author of “Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes” (Encounter, 2014). He is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute AEI. His major research area is the Middle East, with special focus on Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Kurdish society.

The article first published at meforum.org.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.

Copyright © 2026, respective author or news agency, meforum.org

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BAGHDAD,— Iraq, Six French nationals convicted of membership in Islamic State (IS/ISIS) were sentenced to life in prison by an Iraqi court on Tuesday.

A seventh French defendant received a 15-year prison sentence, a Reuters witness present at the hearing said.

The defendants were part of a group of 47 French Islamic State suspects moved from detention facilities in northeastern Syria to Iraq last year.

U.S. forces and Iraqi authorities coordinated the transfer under a broader relocation arrangement.

The judge said the convictions and sentences fell under Iraq’s counterterrorism law, which was applied in this case to joining Islamic State and spreading fear.

He said the court chose life imprisonment over the death penalty because the six defendants were young.

The seventh man, who is 23, was sentenced to 15 years, according to the Reuters witness.

Defense lawyer Abbas al-Maliki said the defendants would challenge the sentences before the Court of Cassation.

Proceedings against the French nationals began last month.

Islamic State captured extensive territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014. A U.S.-led coalition and local forces defeated the group’s territorial control in 2019, although some militants remained active after many were detained.

The United States said in January that transfers of Islamic State detainees from Syria to Iraq had begun.

The decision came amid security concerns over detention facilities in northeastern Syria, where Kurdish-led forces had lost control of parts of the region.

In March 2026, a French court handed a life sentence to an Islamic State-linked jihadist for crimes against Iraq’s Yazidi minority, in the first case of its kind tried in France.

(With files from Reuters)

Copyright © 2026 iKurd.net. All rights reserved.

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Islamic Slogans and Looting Poisoned France’s Protests

Goran Halabjai | Exclusive to iKurd.net
Translate by iKurd.net from Kurdish Awene.

Events in France and a Few Observations

Over the past few days, many cities across Europe, especially in France, have experienced unrest, and widespread protests have disrupted the peace in those cities. Thousands of students, wage earners, small business owners, and ordinary citizens took to the streets to protest.

As I mentioned, these protests were organized by students, teachers, and wage earners. The reasons included the rising cost of education, cuts to workers’ wages, rising prices, and a declining ability to save money.

In such circumstances, these groups have a legitimate right to make the authorities aware of their difficult living conditions and to pursue some of their demands. They can use peaceful and civil methods to express their dissatisfaction, including holding demonstrations.

It is true that protests in developed countries do not always end as the organizers planned. Often, groups of troublemaking young people infiltrate the protests. By using slogans that have little to do with the protesters’ actual demands, they change the nature of the protest and lead it in the wrong direction.

The motives of these troublemakers fall into two main categories. First, they may be opponents of the groups organizing the protests, whether those groups are political or nonpolitical.

The second possibility is that they are acting on behalf of the authorities to discredit the groups or individuals who organized the demonstrations and thereby undermine the purpose and goals of the protests.

What happened in France and Italy was different. The difference was that these “troublemakers” came from an environment in which civic and democratic action was not valued. I would say that the vast majority of these young people involved in looting were not trying to express dissatisfaction, nor did they sympathize with the protesters. Instead, they saw the situation as an opportunity to loot and chant Islamic slogans.

You may have noticed that, in many places, some young Muslim men shouted “Allahu Akbar” or held copies of the Quran while chanting Islamic slogans. They went so far as to call for Islamic law, or Sharia, to be implemented in that country.

I am not saying that all the looters were Muslim. Undoubtedly, ethnic French people were also among them, but they made up a very small proportion. By looking closely at their facial features, one could identify which ethnic groups they belonged to.

Emmanuel Macron had been waiting for an opportunity to reveal his hostility toward the left. He quickly accused young French leftists of trying to overthrow the French government through looting and violence.

Going forward, it is important for any group organizing a protest to be aware of these troublemakers. Otherwise, instead of achieving its goals, the group may end up being blamed for the unrest.

Those young Muslims must also understand that they will gain nothing through unrest, looting, and chanting Islamic slogans. Instead, they may face prison sentences or be deported to the countries they came from.

Therefore, they should respect the laws, constitutions, and cultures of the countries that have opened their doors to them and given them a better life, a life they might only have dreamed of in their own countries, rather than actually experienced.

Goran Halabjai is a senior Kurdish writer, commentator, and social media figure known for his outspoken and critical views on Kurdish political authorities and Islamic fundamentalism. Halabjai’s FB.

This article was originally published in the Kurdish language in Awene Newspaper on October 26, 2026.

The views expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of iKurd.net or its editorial team.

Copyright © 2026 iKurd.net. All rights reserved.

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Sheri Laizer | Exclusive to iKurd.net

Former investment banker for US bank, Morgan Stanley, one time journalist for the BBC and ITN Granada, multi-millionaire security official, Jonathan Powell is linked with bringing Abu Mohamed al-Jolani, the former Al Qaeda affiliate leader to power through back channel negotiations approved by MI6, and the British SAS.

Jonathan Powell, as Chief of Staff to former Labour Prime Minister, Tony Blair, (1997 to 2007), was linked to attempts to sex up the dossier against Saddam Hussein as a pretext for the war on Iraq.

As I wrote in an article on the Blair cabinet’s false ’45 minutes’ claim against Iraq and the untimely death of former weapons inspector, Dr. David Kelly:

“Journalist Richard Norton-Taylor had observed in the Guardian in September 2003, “There is a dark cabal around Tony Blair” – perhaps the same ‘dark actors’ that Dr Kelly referred to in his email? He observed, “What has already emerged – but been largely ignored – from the Hutton inquiry is the existence of a dark, almost Jacobean, cabal at the core of the Blair administration…It is a group of powerful, unelected people few would have heard of were it not for the evidence given to Hutton: Sir David Manning, the prime minister’s foreign policy adviser; Sir David Omand, his security coordinator; and John Scarlett, chairman of the joint intelligence committee. Until he resigned, the group also included Alastair Campbell, Blair’s communications director. Indeed, he was a prime mover in establishing this inner circle. 3

Norton-Taylor didn’t explicitly refer to Jonathan Powell in this context although he was central to the decision-making, but added: “Above all, they allowed themselves to be embraced by Campbell and opened the door to the tainting of intelligence by politics.”

“You could hear it in their calculating treatment of Kelly who, in Scarlett’s chilling words, should have been subjected to a “security style interview.”

“It seems that he was”…I had opined.

Syria is just a repeat performance. It is immaterial to British interests how many Syrians pay the price of having a jihadist for a president.

Talking with terrorists: Enter Jonathan Powell

In 2014, Jonathan Powell had been the UK Conservative Party leader, David Cameron’s special envoy to Libya – another disaster zone owing to the Arab Spring and foreign interference. Powell also took on negotiating roles in Northern Ireland, North Korea, Afghanistan, with FARC in Colombia and ETA in the Basque country, among other assignments. He went on a decade later to be appointed by Labour PM, Keir Starmer as his ‘Special Security Advisor. Now, the secrets about British intelligence interference in Syria and Powell’s significant role are out in the open.

Jonathan Powell brokered meetings between MI6 and Abu Mohamed al-Jolani (Ahmed al-Shara’a) while working as Chief Executive of his NGO, Inter Mediate. His counterpart was still designated as a terrorist as the leader of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham. The National News claims Powell he had first met al-Sharaa back in 2015. 4

The conservative mainstream UK newspaper, the Telegraph ran a heading on 21 November 2025, Starmer’s security chief ran secret backchannel to Syrian terror group. Tony Diver, the Telegraph’s associate political editor claimed that Powell’s Inter Mediate had been founded back in 2011. Powell ‘has had a significant presence in Syria since 2012.’

If so, this was when the Syrian conflict was just a year old and dressed up by the mainstream media for Western audiences as a revolution for democracy against the dictator, Bashar al-Assad. As I wrote at the time it was very clear from early footage that the bearded jihadists crying “AllahuAkhbar” when they launched their attacks were not democracy seeking rebels.

Powell was indeed ‘given responsibility (by MI6) for establishing contact between the intelligence agency and HTS in 2023 yet he had already been active there to sculpt a path for UK interests.

British officials reportedly obtained legal advice that cleared Powell to arrange contact with these terrorist groups on behalf of the UK, “using a defence in counter-terror legislation that permits “genuinely benign” meetings with terrorists, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Al Majalla claimed Powell first met Al Sharaa in May 2021.5 His organisation had been overlapping with another British NGO, the White Helmets, massively funded by the UK Foreign Office with a murky reputation for staging chemical weapons scenes as evidence against Bashar al-Assad’s government. Its CEO, James Le Mesurier had not lived to see the fruits of this labour and met a nasty end in Istanbul in 2019. See, The West’s ‘Red Line’ Fiction: Think Tanks, Jihadists and the White Helmets.

US fingers in the Syrian pie

Jonathan Powell teamed up with Robert Ford, the former US ambassador to Syria (2011-2014).

“Olive-branch carrying peaceful protestors!”

Back in 2011, Ford had visited the Sunni stronghold of Hama and stirred up further resentment against Assad He posted a tirade on Facebook in English and Arabic, saying “how ironic that the Syrian Government lets an anti-U.S. demonstration proceed freely while their security thugs beat down olive branch-carrying peaceful protesters elsewhere.”

He declared, “Hama and the Syrian crisis is not about the U.S. at all. This is a crisis the Syrian people are in the process of solving. It is a crisis about dignity, human rights, and the rule of law.” 7

Ford would later claim that he had met al-Sharaa personally and that al-Sharaa had refused to apologise “for terror attacks his group had committed in Iraq and Syria, which killed scores of civilians between 2017 and 2024, “He claims to have met al-Sharaa twice, once in Idlib under the group’s control in 2023. 8

Powell invited Ford into Inter Mediate to help their Syrian influence project. But al Sharaa denied he had met Ford under such circumstances claiming he only met international delegations. Other accounts say that Ford travelled with Inter Mediate in March and September 2023 and again in January 2024. Powell had taken up his post with Starmer’s government as his National Security Advisor after standing down as the chair of Inter Mediate just six days before the fall of Syria. They knew of course how things were headed and had helped set the conquest in motion.

(Sir) Richard Moore who was head of MI6 at the time of the backchannel operations made similar public revelations from the British Embassy in Istanbul in his farewell speech. 9 He has been a staunch supporter of autocratic Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, including backing him over the 2016 (false flag) coup.

Moore has also acknowledged that the relationship that had begun with al-Sharaa in May 2023 opened the door to the UK being able “to return to the country within weeks” of al-Sharaa seizing power: He did not refer to Powell or Inter Mediate, although sources said Powell’s organisation effectively functioned as an unofficial branch of the UK intelligence services in Damascus. 10

Wikileaks had revealed that Powell had spoken with Hillary Clinton’s office as early as 2012 over his ‘starting work in Syria’ operating closely with the UK Foreign Office and MI6. Her campaign advisor, Sid Blumenthal emailed her saying Powell had ‘initiated some very interesting work below the radar.’ Powell’s email, reproduced for her, added:

‘We work closely with FCO, NSC and SIS in London but this is our first visit to the US to talk about what we do. I have a meeting with Bill Burns, an old friend, but would be grateful for guidance on who else I should see in DC and in New York. I will be in Washington from 18 to 21 March and then in New York from 21-23 March. I will be accompanied by my deputy, Arabella Phillimore, ex UN and ex FCO (Afghanistan).

These manoeuvres so early into the Syrian conflict confirm Bashar al-Assad’s claim that foreign forces were trying to take over his country.

The Wikipedia leaks emails then revealed that visiting Washington the same year, Powell met Hillary Clinton, her deputy secretary, Bill Burns, (who later became director of the CIA), and her adviser Jake Sullivan, who later served as Joe Biden’s national security adviser. He is remembered for his famous 2012 claim that ‘Al Qaeda is on our side in Syria.’

Powell and the plotted demise of the PKK and PYD – A boost to the KDP

Jonathan Powell remains in office as the Labour government’s National Security Advisor (although speaking of imminent departure on health grounds). He was also fielded to engage the PKK and PYD on their disarmament in favour of Erdoğan’s ‘terror Free’ Turkey policy that nowhere uses the word ‘Kurd.’ 12 Powell is said by Al Majalla to have been in Istanbul when PKK captive leader, Abdullah Öcalan spoke at a state organised news conference to declare that the PKK was to lay down its arms.13

The National reported that “working with the UK-based think tank Democratic Progress Institute, Powell and his team developed a program drawing on lessons from Northern Ireland.

The team briefed MPs from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). An unnamed source said that “The American thinking was that one day there would be a withdrawal from Syria. When that day came, they did not want the Kurds in Syria to enter into conflict with Turkey. They wanted to prepare the ground for that.” 14

The Biden administration had reportedly reached out to Erdoğan to propose a deal with the PYD which then extended into a so-called wider ‘peace’ process. The UK became involved in these talks, and Powell’s company, Inter Mediate, also had long-standing contact with the PYD as well as Turkey under a state assignment dating back to 2017, and with the Turkish Kurds in focus with Erdoğan’s 2013 peace posturing.

Kurdish and Turkish MPs had travelled to the UK and Ireland that year looking at ways of resolving the long running Kurdish problem. It was not sincere on either the UK or Erdoğan’s ‘ part but aimed at ending Kurdish opposition to Turkification historically posited as ‘integration.’

According to the Kurdish “authorities” running Iraqi Kurdistan via the enduring duopoly, “Powell reaffirmed London’s commitment to supporting Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, praising the Region’s role in promoting peace and stability. The statement noted that the meeting underscored shared priorities in strengthening cooperation and addressing common security concerns.”

Wither headed?

In his most recent position as two UK Labour Party PMs, National Security Advisor, (successively to Keir Starmer), and Tony Blair’s decade-long Chief of Staff, Powell had to step down from Inter Mediate that he had co-founded with Martin Griffiths – the former UN Special Envoy to Yemen and UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator until 2024 when al-Sharaa was helped to power.

Afrique-Asie in a French translation of a Vanessa Beeley article spoke critically of the role Jonathan Powell and Inter Mediate had played also claiming that his NGO benefited from GBP 4 million funding from the UK Foreign Office between 2011-2020. 15 The White Helmets also benefitted and continues to benefit from massive funding in the name of relief and training etc. while its deeper political role was masked.

Inter Mediate remains in the Presidential Palace with Ahmed al-Sharaa

Just four days before al-Sharaa seized power, Claire Hajaj was appointed as Inter Mediate’s new executive director. She has a background in the UN Security Council’s Counter Terrorism Committee from the period leading up to the war against Iraq. Haaj then worked with the UN Special Representative for Iraq following the US invasion during the peak of the violent backlash by various resistance forces the occupying parties chose ever to denigrate as an ‘insurgency’. It was in fact a legitimate response by Iraqis to the war unleashed upon them.

Long term projects director in Inter Mediate’s Damascus setting is someone named Lucy Stuart, credited by her organisation as speaking Arabic and Farsi. 16 She is reported to be advising another former US-designated terrorist, Asaad Hassan al-Shibani – a co-founder of al-Nusra.

Stuart is said to have written for Al Arabiya’s London bureau during the Syrian conflict, but I could only find one article with her name to it on search engines. That article is entirely based on citations from an Amnesty International report accusing the Assad government of severe human rights abuses back in July 2011. 17 The final citation from their report reads: “However, Mr. Luther concludes that despite President Bashar Al Assad’s talk of reform, there is little evidence so far that the Syrian authorities will respond to anything but concrete international measures.”

Lucy Stuart is now dubiously credited with coaching al-Shibani for his meeting with Tony Blair at Davos of January 22, 2025. See the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change video.

Foreign fingers

Accounts filed for Inter Mediate with the Charity Commission in 2025 reveal that its assets rose to £1,625,316 from £668,745 the previous year. The number of its employees increased dramatically from two to 13 people, and it had adopted an investment plan of up to £1.75 million over five years exceeding its fundraising targets. It had profited from a “greater commitment from the [Foreign Office] through a new partnership agreement with the Office of Conflict and Stabilisation.” 18

Jonathan Powell’s elder brother is none other than Lord Charles Powell, a former Conservative and administrator of the Said Foundation established by British-Syrian national, Wafic Said. Said soon travelled to the seat of al-Jolani once he seated himself in the Presidential Palace in Damascus.

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former British Army officer and an expert on bio-chemical weapons was also immediately seen to be present in Damascus after the seizure of power by HTS. He visited the new Ministry of Health and further promoted the role of the White Helmets ‘incubated’ by MI6 and the CIA. He wrote glowingly of the new regime for the Telegraph.

Al Sharaa is now ‘the President’, not an interim president, fully endorsed by those that helped put him there. “ The Syrian president was in London this week, and he is an example of how regime change should happen: from within, but with just enough external support to tip the balance.

According to Russia Today, I had a hand in Assad’s downfall. That’s nonsense, of course. If I did play even a small role, I’d take quiet satisfaction in it. But the truth is, the fall of Assad was the work of Syrians themselves, groups like the White Helmets, the Idlib Health Directorate, and countless other ordinary citizens who laid the groundwork for change over many brutal years…” 19

Underlining is my emphasis.

Ordinary Syrians? Well!

Emerald Solutions is also named by anti-establishment reporter, Vanessa Beeley as yet another British military/mercenary group backing al-Sharaa in the ‘new’ Syria.

In October 2025, Declassifed UK, another investigative news website revealed how: “Keir Starmer’s special representative to Syria, Ann Snow, met defence minister Murhaf Abu Qasra in Damascus. This followed a meeting between Qasra and Britain’s chief military adviser in the Middle East, Vice Admiral Edward Ahlgren, in July:

“The meetings indicate the UK is deepening relations with Syrian military forces that took power in Damascus in December last year, overthrowing the regime of Bashar Assad which had ruled since 2000. Snow posted that her meeting with Qasra was “to exchange views on the Syrian army’s internal reform and restructuring and the evolving security situation including in the north east and Sweida.” 20

Human Rights Watch – A Counter View of the new regime

Despite all the gloss, a Human Rights Watch report dated September 23, 2025 headed, “Are you Alawi?” Identity-based Killings during Syria’s Transition documented how just two weeks before Snow’s visit: “government forces, comprising Defense and Interior Ministry units, alongside government-aligned armed groups and armed volunteers swept through Alawi-majority neighborhoods, towns, and villages in Tartous, Latakia, and Hama governorates leaving behind torched homes, piled bodies, mass graves, and broken communities.

The answer to one question repeated during methodical house-to-house raids and before brutal executions often determined whether you lived or died: “Are you Alawi?”…Interviews with fighters and volunteers reveal that men unaffiliated with the security forces were actively recruited, armed, organized, and deployed alongside formal units by Defense Ministry representatives… Efforts to vet fighters and commanders lagged, allowing previously unaccountable units to rebrand as state forces and act with impunity. 21

Last laugh

British, American, French, German, Turkish and Iraqi Kurdish leaders have all shaken hands with the jihadist leader whose philosophy is expressed in Islamist utterances at street level they calmly choose to ignore.

Posters and messages discriminate between fundamentalist Muslims and the ‘infidels.’

For example, a recent decision issued by the Municipality of Douma prohibits the entry of a groom to the hall where the females are celebrating the wedding under a legal penalty of accountability/guilt. The bride must only celebrate with women and the groom elsewhere with men.

The Brothers are laughing up their sleeves.

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Kurdish Opposition to the Nomination of Reza Pahlavi for the 2026 Freedom Prize for the Iranian People

Kurdish American Education Society KAES via iKurd.net

October 12, 2026

Ardishir Rashidi Kalhur
President
Kurdish American Education Society

The Honorable Steffen Saebisch
President
Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom Karl-Marx-Strasse 2
14482 Potsdam, Germany

Subject: KAES Statement of Opposition to the Nomination of Reza Pahlavi for the 2026 Freedom Prize for the Iranian People

Dear President Saebisch,

I am writing on behalf of the Kurdish American Education Society (KAES) to formally express our opposition to the nomination of Mr. Reza Pahlavi as the recipient of the Foundation’s Freedom Prize for the Iranian People.

While we respect the significance of this award and the longstanding work of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in promoting democratic values, we believe that Mr. Pahlavi’s record and political conduct do not align with the principles and criteria that should guide the selection of such an honoree.

Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979, Mr. Pahlavi and many of his supporters in the Iranian diaspora have advocated for the restoration of the former dictatorial system that ruled Iran under the Pahlavi family. In our view, such efforts do not represent a commitment to a genuinely democratic and inclusive future for all peoples of Iran.

The human rights record of the former Pahlavi regime, particularly with respect to political freedoms and the treatment of non-Persian national communities, has been the subject of extensive historical documentation and criticism. Many Kurds, along with other national minorities in Iran, experienced political repression and denial of cultural, political and linguistic rights during that period.

As members of the Kurdish national community in Iran, whose people have endured repeated human rights violations under both the current Islamic Republic and previous governments, we do not believe that Mr. Pahlavi can credibly represent the aspirations of all the peoples of Iran.

Awarding him a prize that purports to recognize the struggle for freedom would, in our view, overlook the experiences and sacrifices of millions who continue to seek genuine democracy, equality, and self-determination.

Our position should not be interpreted as an expression of grievance against the Persian people. Rather, it reflects our belief that the diverse nations and communities of Iran deserve representation that is inclusive, democratic, and respectful of their distinct identities and rights. We do not consider Mr. Pahlavi to be an appropriate representative of those aspirations, nor do we believe his record merits this distinction.

Honorable Mr. Saebisch, the Freedom Prize should be reserved for individuals whose actions demonstrate a sustained commitment to liberty, human dignity, democratic principles, and equal rights. Such recognition should be based on merit, sacrifice, and a proven record of advancing freedom, rather than on inherited political status, historical prominence, or political favoritism

We respectfully urge the Foundation to reconsider this nomination in light of these concerns. Should the Foundation wish to receive additional information or supporting references regarding the historical and political issues raised in this letter, we would be pleased to provide them.

Should the Friedrich Naumann Foundation decide to consider alternative candidates for this honor, we respectfully submit that the parents of Zhina (Jina) Amini would represent a more compelling choice.

Through their dignity, courage, and perseverance following their daughter’s death, they have become internationally recognized symbols of the struggle for human rights, justice, and freedom in Iran.
Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely,

Ardishir Rashidi-Kalhur, the President of Kurdish American Education Society, Los Angeles, U.S.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.

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WASHINGTON,— US President Donald Trump called on Saturday for Ukraine to replace its leader, criticizing Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil sites a day after announcing a diesel deal with Russia that angered President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelensky offered some of his sharpest criticism yet of the White House, linking the US move to lift sanctions on Russian diesel to a Russian strike that killed 20 people, including three children, in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Saturday.

Global diesel prices have risen sharply since the Iran war began in February, becoming a political problem for Trump’s Republican Party ahead of next month’s midterm elections, where Democrats could gain control of one or both chambers of Congress.

“I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president,” Trump told reporters at the White House, saying Zelensky had hurt global diesel supplies by striking Russian refineries.

He said Zelensky was creating problems for American farmers and ranchers, since Russia supplies much of the world’s diesel fuel.

Earlier Saturday, Zelensky said Trump’s Friday announcement of the diesel deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin had emboldened Moscow. Kyiv has urged Washington instead to pressure Moscow into serious talks to end the war, now in its fifth year.

Russia’s government said Saturday it had partly lifted its ban on diesel exports.

“Today, Russia said thank you for the lifting of sanctions on diesel exports by dropping five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia,” Zelensky said.

He said the previous night showed again that Russia sees any easing of pressure as permission to keep fighting and bombing cities, adding that different signals were needed.

Zaporizhzhia, in southern Ukraine, has been a frequent target of Russian bombing, with strikes growing heavier in recent months.

Trump has clashed with Zelenskiy before. On February 19, 2025, Trump labeled Zelenskiy “a dictator without elections” and warned that unless Zelenskiy moved quickly to secure peace, he would have no country left.

The tension escalated further on February 28, 2025, when Trump and Zelenskiy clashed openly at the White House over the war.

On Saturday, a six-year-old girl was among the dead after a strike flattened part of an apartment building. Her grandfather, Anatoliy Chumniy, wept over her body after rescuers pulled it from the rubble and laid it on the ground in a white bag.

“Her birthday would have been at the end of the month,” he said through tears.

It was the third deadly mass attack on Ukraine in a week. Nearly 80 civilians were killed in Russian strikes on Wednesday and Thursday, including at least 30 killed by a bomb in the eastern city of Kramatorsk and 22 others killed by a missile in Pryluky, about 130 kilometers, or 80 miles, east of Kyiv.

The diesel deal also drew criticism from US lawmakers, including Republican Representative Don Bacon, who said Congress should enforce sanctions it had recently passed rather than lift them.

Analysts said the deal was unlikely to bring lasting lower fuel prices, noting the volumes involved remain far below what Russia usually exports when its refineries are not under attack.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham spoke with Zelensky on Saturday and said Britain would strengthen sanctions on Russia, a Downing Street spokesperson said, adding that the two leaders would meet in person within days.

The strikes followed talks on Friday in Miami between Ukrainian and European officials and US negotiators, aimed at shaping a joint plan to end the war, according to a person familiar with the talks.

Trump announced the diesel deal while those talks were underway, a move Zelensky said caught Kyiv by surprise.

The Ukrainian delegation returned home Saturday, presidential aide Dmytro Lytvyn told the Interfax Ukraine news agency.

Putin said after speaking with Trump on Friday that an immediate resumption of peace talks was unlikely, citing Ukrainian drone strikes on Moscow.

US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner may travel to Moscow within two weeks, Russia’s state news agency TASS reported Saturday, citing a source.

At the White House, Trump also criticized Zelensky over the lack of a peace deal while demanding an end to Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy sites.

“I said to him, ‘Do what you want. Don’t hit refineries. There’s plenty of targets. Don’t hit refineries.’ And he went out and he hit,’” Trump said, adding that Zelensky had “better stop.”

He said Ukraine should pick a new leader who can make a deal, since Zelensky had many chances to do so but never did.

(With files from Reuters)

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WASHINGTON,— The United States imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court on Friday, escalating the Trump administration’s longstanding dispute with the institution and creating new tensions with European allies.

The announcement came hours after South African jurist Navi Pillay, a former member of the court’s Appeals Chamber, received the Nobel Peace Prize.

The ICC, which has 125 member states, condemned Washington’s decision as an “assault on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order.” It called on its members to defend the court.

“The Court cannot stand alone. Its fate now rests also in the hands of the states that created it,” the institution said. It warned that the issue extended beyond the court itself to the international order founded on the rule of law, adding, “History will judge this moment.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration would not permit the ICC to prosecute Americans.

“President Trump will never allow the International Criminal Court to prosecute Americans,” Rubio said in a statement first published by Reuters.

He said Washington would prohibit transactions with what he called a “rogue court,” seeking to cut its resources and impair its ability to function.

The Treasury Department announced a six-month initial grace period, along with exemptions covering some telecommunications, software, pension payments and transactions involving detainees.

Rubio said the measures were intended to give the ICC and its member states time to address U.S. objections. The sanctions could be adjusted if those concerns were not resolved.

Established in 2002, the ICC prosecutes war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The Trump administration has repeatedly challenged its authority, previously imposing sanctions on prosecutors and judges.

The latest measures expand the potential impact by exposing companies that provide services to the court to penalties.

Washington has objected to ICC arrest warrants against Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It has also criticized the court’s earlier investigation into actions by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. The ICC says that investigation is “deprioritized.”

Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan told Reuters that the sanctions were designed to weaken international rule of law and undermine an independent judicial institution. She said the court would continue its work across its investigations and prosecutions.

The ICC has publicly indicted more than 70 people in cases involving international conflicts and political leaders.

Its targets have included Netanyahu, Hamas figures, Russian President Vladimir Putin, former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Charges against Kenyan President William Ruto and former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta were withdrawn.

The Nobel Peace Prize committee cited political pressure on international legal institutions in awarding the prize to Pillay. She served on the ICC’s Appeals Chamber from 2003 to 2008.

The committee described the award as an expression of support for international tribunals when “judges and institutions of international law are under political attack.”

“An international legal system in which war criminals are held to account and the victims of abuse see justice served is a precondition for a peaceful world,” the committee said.

The court’s membership includes every European Union country and every NATO member except the United States and Turkey. Its headquarters are in the Netherlands, a member of both the EU and NATO.

Sanctions imposed by Washington generally bar U.S.-based companies from working with designated organizations. Banks may close their accounts, insurers may withdraw coverage, and software companies may stop providing services.

The Trump administration imposed targeted sanctions on ICC officials during his first term, but Biden rescinded them. Washington announced a new round of sanctions just days after Trump returned to office in January 2025.

The court had been preparing for the possibility of broader restrictions for months. Officials moved office computers away from Microsoft software to open-source alternatives and made new arrangements for banking and health insurance.

ICC Registrar Osvaldo Zavala Giler called on the European Union earlier this week to prepare a “blocking mechanism” to protect European countries against the extraterritorial effects of U.S. sanctions.

Rubio said the administration had postponed the action while waiting for the ICC and countries that joined its founding Rome Statute to address U.S. concerns. He said those efforts had not succeeded.

“Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC,” Rubio said. He urged U.S. allies that are members of the court, many of which depend on American service members for their defense, to curb its activities.

(With files from Reuters)

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OSLO,— Former International Criminal Court judge Navi Pillay, who headed a United Nations panel that found Israel guilty of “genocide” in Gaza, received the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday “for her efforts to promote peace and international law.”

The Nobel Committee said this year’s prize highlights the need to protect an organized international order.

In its citation, the committee warned that the global legal system is under heavy strain and its institutions are being attacked.

It said the world is shifting toward power politics at the cost of legal rules and respect for justice, adding that when power replaces rights, it weakens stability, trust and peaceful coexistence.

Pillay, 85, was born in Durban, in South Africa’s Natal province, into a family of Indian Tamil background.

She has served as a judge on several international courts, including the International Criminal Court and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

She also chaired the UN Commission of Inquiry on the so-called occupied “Palestinian” Territory, which last year concluded that Israel had committed “genocide” in Gaza. Israel rejected the report, calling it “scandalous.”

Pillay previously served as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. In 1967, she became the first woman to open a law practice in Natal and the first non-white woman to sit on South Africa’s High Court.

The Nobel Committee said Pillay held states and national leaders accountable, gave hope to victims of violence and conflict, and showed a strong moral compass throughout her long career.

The citation noted a consistent thread running from her early work defending Nelson Mandela and other anti-apartheid activists to her role as judge in major international court cases.

The ICC, based in The Hague, has faced growing pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who last month called on countries to withdraw from the court.

Washington has already placed targeted sanctions on several ICC prosecutors and judges, and sources say officials are weighing broader sanctions in response to the court’s actions against Israeli leaders.

Haakon Gjerloew, acting director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, said the committee’s choice of Pillay was not meant as a direct rebuke of Trump.

He said the award mainly promotes an international legal order, though Trump may still react since Pillay was part of the ICC.

The Peace Prize is the fifth Nobel awarded this week, following prizes in literature, chemistry, physics and medicine. Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won the Peace Prize in 2025.

The prize carries a value of 12 million Swedish crowns, about $1.2 million, and will be presented in Oslo on December 10, marking the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish industrialist who created the awards in his 1895 will.

(With files from Reuters)

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BERLIN,— The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) won a historic victory in Sunday’s state election in Saxony-Anhalt, a result that left Mamad Mohamad, a Green Party lawmaker, feeling torn.

Mohamad, 46, came to Germany from Syria in 1996 as a 16-year-old Yazidi Kurd. He is set to become one of the first lawmakers with an immigrant background to sit in the state parliament, alongside Mustafa Groener of the Left party.

Mohamad called the outcome a “poisoned victory.”

“My heart was split,” he said, describing the moment early projections showed the AfD doing better than expected while Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative party fell to its lowest level ever.

The AfD has pushed for years for stricter immigration and asylum rules. The party says Germany has lost control of its borders and that migration is straining public services, security and social unity.

Its election platform calls for a state-level push to deport asylum seekers whose applications have been rejected.

The party also wants businesses to use artificial intelligence and automation instead of relying on skilled workers from what it calls “culturally alien” backgrounds.

The AfD denies that its language creates a hostile environment for migrants. It says it only opposes illegal and uncontrolled migration.

AfD co-leader Alice Weidel said Monday that anyone who works, pays taxes, follows the law and adds value to society is welcome.

The mood in Mohamad’s home was quiet on Monday. He said his daughter did not want to go to school, one of several schools the AfD has criticized for running programs on threats to democracy.

Undra Dressler, managing director of the State Network of Migrant Organizations in Saxony-Anhalt, said the election result caused unease but not shock among immigrant communities, which have long dealt with discrimination and barriers to jobs, education, health care and public services.

“All of this is our reality,” she told Reuters.

Still, she said Sunday’s vote marks a turning point. She said many people in migrant communities have already packed their bags with firm plans to leave, and some have already gone.

Pascal Begrich, managing director of the democracy advocacy group Miteinander, said he does not expect a mass departure, citing economic factors. But he said both migrants and employers are reconsidering their future in the state.

“There are companies asking themselves whether they really want to locate here and whether they can ensure their workers will be safe,” Begrich told Reuters.

Mohamad said the political shift could make it harder to draw new residents to a state already losing population. “Skilled workers and families will look elsewhere,” he said.

Dressler and Begrich both said any future state government will still have to follow Germany’s constitution and its protections for minorities.

“Every government is bound by this,” Dressler said. “And the 15 other federal states have a duty to monitor this and, if necessary, to intervene.”

(With files from Reuters)

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