u/blobjim — blobjim [he/him]

Just saw some statement from China that they didn't actually sell air defense systems. So they won't even do weapons deals apparently https://amp.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3317538/china-denies-giving-iran-air-defence-systems-after-conflict-israel

it's just weapons deals lol not like this is altruism or something.

Translated by Yandex:

Caracas, Jun 18 (Prensa Latina) The President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, called on the American people to stop the madness of his government to get involved in the war that Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran are fighting today.

June 17, 2025 | 22:16

When participating in the Workshop of the Seven Transformations (7T) with the elected deputies on May 25, in the Ríos Reyna room of the Teresa Carreño Theater Cultural Complex, in Caracas, the ruler assured that “only the people of the United States can stop this madness.”

I am calling on the American people, do you want another war, do you want the United States to be involved in the slaughter, in the destruction of Muslim, Iranian and Arab peoples? Maduro asked.

They want the United States to be marked as the initiator of the Third World War, he added, noting that this is the call he makes from “pacifist and Bolivarian Venezuela.”

The president called for that, from the streets, from all corners, from North to South and from East to West, in the American nation “a single voice be raised, no to war!”.

Maduro recalled the destruction and death every time the United States gets involved in a conflict in the Middle East as happened in Iraq, where a million people lost their lives, as well as in Libya and Afghanistan.

The head of state urged the countries that are powers in the region and the world to “sit down and force the Zionist state of (Benjamin) Netanyahu to stop its attacks and respect international law.”

I call on all the governments of the new powers: China, Russia, Turkey, the countries of the Gulf Council, the nations of the Global South, but especially the Muslim countries, to “support and accompany the Islamic Republic of Iran in its struggle for peace,” he emphasized.

"That has to be the way, not the way of escalation of violence, of deaths, of bombs, no,” he reaffirmed.

He also reiterated his call to the Jewish people to stop the war and to Netanyahu to "stop this madness of hellish war with all neighboring countries and of wanting to conquer and colonize the entire Middle East and Western Asia."

It is a Hitlerite, supremacist and Nazi idea, which must be defeated by the Global South, he stressed.

About the 7T Workshop, the ruler proposed the creation of a Latin American and Caribbean Parliamentary Political School, named after the Venezuelan revolutionary David Nieves Banchs.

The objective of this center would be to contribute to the formation of political leaders, he said, and he called on revolutionary parliamentarians to prepare to become “a sounding board for People's Power.”

seems like a lot of wish casting about other BRICS members doing or caring or saying anything about this. But I agree that whatever plays out with Iran is what the rest of the BRICS members have in store. So far it seems like the rest of the world will just fold to the US as usual. Since most of the world is run by capitalists who only care about their own wellbeing.

Not selling to Israel could make all the other right-wing countries they sell to nervous. But stuff like this from China is such a betrayal. About as much of one as Vietnam buying arms from Israel. It sucks that the only principled countries are the ones that are the most targeted by the US, and have the least capability to help others (although they certainly do what they can, like the Cuban doctors program, or Yemen keeping Palestine close).

Pretty much no consequences for anyone supporting and allowing the genocide to continue. With Russia-Ukraine, they obviously didn't want to piss off either side, because they've got customers on both sides they want to sell to. But every ruling class knows that there are no consequences for getting in on the action killing Palestinians. And Palestinians aren't a market they can make a handsome profit in.

the Houthi-run health ministry reported

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The article's framing is kinda orientalist. I think the point is to whitewash the mass murder by the US, by making it seem less severe. Basically no mention of civilian suffering. And reducing the entire nation to "Houthis". But if you keep that in mind, it's a pretty interesting article.

woulda been cool if they said this last century too lmao

presstv is one of the best english language media outlets not west-controlled.