Foreign Digest: India, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, Syria and Russia

India: The Indian Maoists announced last week that they are giving up armed struggle, after a recent government offensive, thereby ending the “Naxalite” rebellion, which began in 1967 and claimed 12,000 lives. The Communist Party of India (Maoist) will enter into dialogue with the Indian Government. Iran: The United Nations Security Council rejected a resolution last week that would have extended the delay since 2015 on the reimposition of sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran for advancing its nuclear weapons program. The sanctions will be reimposed later this month, absent any agreement. Cuba: There have often been spontaneous protests by Cubans against the frequent and lengthy electricity blackouts in the failed socialist State and for liberty. As usual, however, the Communist Cuban dictatorship does not tolerate the freedom to assemble peacefully and arrests protestors. Cuba’s energy crisis has been worsening, with often most of the Caribbean island plunged into the dark. Venezuela: An international U.N. Mission sent to Venezuela has reported state repression by the South American State’s Socialist dictatorship. It observes the absence of an independent judiciary and the rule of law, which allows arbitrary arrests, forced disappearances and torture, and then gives impunity to those who commit such acts. Thus, the report determines the state repression is a “crime against humanity.” The Mission’s report calls for international action to restore human rights and justice for victims. Syria: United States forces killed a terrorist leader of the Islamic State terrorist organization in Syria a few days ago. The Islamic State is an offshoot of al-Qaeda, the Islamist terrorist organization responsible for killing nearly 3,000 people in the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on America, among many other attacks around the Islamic world and beyond. The U.S. led an international mission since 2015 against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, as it had globally against al-Qaeda since 2001 in the War on Terrorism, which succeeded in taking away all of the organization’s territory in Syria and Iraq and killing its leader, who had claimed a caliphate. Some American forces have remained in Syria in support of the Syrian Democratic Forces since the fall of Syria’s tyrannical Assad regime, with the acceptance by the new Syrian Government, and in Iraq in support of the Iraqi Government. In both cases, the U.S. helps protect its ethnic Kurdish allies. Several of al-Qaeda’s affiliates around the Islamic world switched allegiance to the more brutal Islamic State. Despite suffering many hard blows, both organizations remain a threat to America and the world. Russia: The Trump Administration has announced that is cutting back U.S. support for the defense of the Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia against Russian aggression, even after recent Russian incursions onto the territory of members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization during the Russo-Ukrainian War. NATO is the defensive alliance led by the United States that has deterred Soviet and Russian aggression against its members since 1949. The Baltic States are NATO members. Russian Federation tyrant Vladimir Putin is an ex-Soviet intelligence officer intent on restoring the Soviet Union and Russian Empire. The Baltic States were the first Soviet Republics to gain independence from the Soviet Union. Russia has invaded the former Soviet Republics of Georgia and Ukraine and kept troops in a breakaway part of the former Soviet Republic of Moldova, while trying to maintain its dominance over other former Soviet Republics and satellite states. Russia had successfully backed the isolationist Trump’s presidential candidacies in 2016 and 2024, as I have posted. The real estate tycoon had done a considerable amount of business with Russians, which, as I have also posted, he falsely denied continuing to do during his first campaign.