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Al Etihad
13 minutes ago
- Politics
- Al Etihad
US to leave UN cultural body, citing 'national interest'
PARIS (AFP) The United States said Tuesday it would quit UNESCO, saying the UN cultural and education agency, best known for establishing world heritage sites, is biased and promotes 'divisive' causes. "Continued involvement in UNESCO is not in the national interest of the United States,' State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said. UNESCO called the US departure -- which it said will take effect in December 2026 -- regrettable, but unsurprising, and said its financial impact would be limited. President Donald Trump had already ordered withdrawal from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization once before, in 2017 during his first term. President Joe Biden then reestablished US membership. 'I deeply regret President Donald Trump's decision to once again withdraw the United States of America from UNESCO," Director-General Audrey Azoulay said, adding the move contradicted fundamental principles of multilateralism. The US share of UNESCO's total budget currently stands at eight percent, she added. The UN organisation describes its mission as promoting education, scientific cooperation and cultural understanding. It oversees a list of heritage sites aimed at preserving unique environmental and architectural gems, ranging from Australia's Great Barrier Reef and the Serengeti in Tanzania to the Athens Acropolis and Pyramids of Egypt. Trump was not the first to pull the United States out of UNESCO. President Ronald Reagan ended US membership in the 1980s, saying the agency was corrupt and pro-Soviet. The United States reentered under the presidency of George W. Bush.
Roya News
44 minutes ago
- Politics
- Roya News
US announces leaving UN cultural body UNESCO
The United States on Tuesday announced it has left UNESCO, saying the UN cultural and education agency, best known for establishing world heritage sites, is biased against 'Israel' and promotes "divisive" causes. "Continued involvement in UNESCO is not in the national interest of the United States," the State Department spokeswoman said. The US exit was expected under President Donald Trump, who also ordered withdrawal from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 2017 during his first term. President Joe Biden then reestablished US membership. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce described UNESCO as working "to advance divisive social and cultural causes" and being overly focused on UN sustainability goals, which she described as a "globalist, ideological agenda." Bruce also highlighted what she said was the body's anti-'Israeli' position in admitting Palestine as a state. "UNESCO's decision to admit the 'State of Palestine' as a member state is highly problematic, contrary to US policy, and contributed to the proliferation of anti-'Israel' rhetoric within the organization," Bruce said. The UN organization describes its mission as promoting education, scientific cooperation and cultural understanding. It oversees a list of heritage sites aimed at preserving unique environmental and architectural gems, ranging from the Great Barrier Reef off Australia and the Serengeti in Tanzania to the Athens Acropolis and Pyramids of Egypt. Trump was not the first to pull the United States out of UNESCO. President Ronald Reagan ended US membership in the 1980s, saying the agency was corrupt and pro-Soviet. The United States reentered under the presidency of George W. Bush.
NDTV
2 hours ago
- Politics
- NDTV
"Not In National Interest": US Leaves UN Cultural Body UNESCO
The United States on Tuesday announced it has left UNESCO, saying the UN cultural and education agency, best known for establishing world heritage sites, is biased against Israel and promotes "divisive" causes. "Continued involvement in UNESCO is not in the national interest of the United States," the State Department spokeswoman said. The US exit was expected under President Donald Trump, who also ordered withdrawal from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 2017 during his first term. President Joe Biden then reestablished US membership. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce described UNESCO as working "to advance divisive social and cultural causes" and being overly focused on UN sustainability goals, which she described as a "globalist, ideological agenda." Bruce also highlighted what she said was the body's anti-Israeli position in admitting Palestine as a state. "UNESCO's decision to admit the 'State of Palestine' as a member state is highly problematic, contrary to US policy, and contributed to the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric within the organization," Bruce said. The UN organization describes its mission as promoting education, scientific cooperation and cultural understanding. It oversees a list of heritage sites aimed at preserving unique environmental and architectural gems, ranging from the Great Barrier Reef off Australia and the Serengeti in Tanzania to the Athens Acropolis and Pyramids of Egypt. Trump was not the first to pull the United States out of UNESCO. President Ronald Reagan ended US membership in the 1980s, saying the agency was corrupt and pro-Soviet. The United States reentered under the presidency of George W. Bush.
LeMonde
2 hours ago
- Politics
- LeMonde
US announces leaving UN cultural body UNESCO
The United States on Tuesday, July 22, announced it has left UNESCO, saying the UN cultural and education agency, best known for establishing world heritage sites, is biased against Israel and promotes "divisive" causes. "Continued involvement in UNESCO is not in the national interest of the United States," the State Department spokeswoman said. The US exit was expected under President Donald Trump, who also ordered withdrawal from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 2017 during his first term. President Joe Biden then reestablished US membership. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce described UNESCO as working "to advance divisive social and cultural causes" and being overly focused on UN sustainability goals, which she described as a "globalist, ideological agenda." Bruce also highlighted what she said was the body's anti-Israeli position in admitting Palestine as a state. "UNESCO's decision to admit the 'State of Palestine' as a member state is highly problematic, contrary to US policy, and contributed to the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric within the organization," Bruce said. UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay said on Tuesday, "I deeply regret President Donald Trump's decision to once again withdraw the United States of America from UNESCO. However regrettable, this announcement was expected, and UNESCO has prepared for it." The UN organization describes its mission as promoting education, scientific cooperation and cultural understanding. It oversees a list of heritage sites aimed at preserving unique environmental and architectural gems, ranging from the Great Barrier Reef off Australia and the Serengeti in Tanzania to the Athens Acropolis and Pyramids of Egypt. Trump was not the first to pull the US out of UNESCO. President Ronald Reagan ended US membership in the 1980s, saying the agency was corrupt and pro-Soviet. The US reentered under the presidency of George W. Bush.
India Today
23-06-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Saviour to Satan: The seeds of Iran-US hostility
Tehran, November 4, 1979. The winter air burnt with rage, a smouldering fire of angry chants and angry fists pounding the sky. 'Death to America!' roared the crowd. 'Destroy the Big Satan,' fumed Iran's spiritual the chaos, a tidal wave of students crashed against the iron gates of the US Embassy. Inside, a young attache, hands trembling, clutched a phone, desperately trying to reach Washington: 'They're coming over the walls,' his voice to control the rising tide, the gates buckled. The mob surged forward, and a revolutionary flood engulfed the compound. For 444 days, 52 Americans would become pawns in a game of vengeance, their captivity a wound that would scar the souls of two nations, leading to almost five decades of animus. This is a story of two friends becoming bitter foes. A tale of the US turning from the saviour to the 'Big Satan.' To understand this rupture, we return to the post-World War II era, when oil and Cold War rivalries sowed discord.1949-1952: The Oil ConspiracyDuring the second great war, Iran was an ally of the Allied powers, its sovereignty guaranteed by the English, Americans and Soviets. In the aftermath of World War II, Iran's vast oil reserves had made it a pawn in a global chess game. By 1949, the great rivals of the Cold War, pro-Western and pro-Soviet, circled like vultures, each craving young Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, sat uneasily on his Peacock Throne, his rule already scarred by violence. The battle for Iran's oil started with a winter of intrigues and February 5, 1949The faint echo of Pahlavi's footsteps on the ancient stones of Tehran was shattered by the sound of gunshots. Pahlavi escaped unhurt in the attempted assassination near Tehran University. According to The New York Times, the bid on the Shah's life, allegedly orchestrated by the Tudeh Party (Communists), was a stark warning: Iran was a battleground for pro-Soviet and pro-Western forces, each vying for control of its black June 1950, General Ali Razmara became Prime Minister in the midst of rising demands for wresting control of Iran's oil fields from the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), later British Petroleum, which had long siphoned wealth to British coffers. Before Razmara could act, he was silenced on March 7, 1951, when an assassin's bullet felled him in a Tehran the breach stepped Mohammed Mossadegh, a nationalist, known for his ascetic life and emotional outbursts. 'The Iranian people will no longer be slaves to foreign interests,' Mossadegh declared. On April 28, 1951, he nationalised AIOC, igniting the ire of the between Mossadegh and the Shah over oil policy reached a breaking point. On July 17, 1952, Mossadegh resigned, and Ahmed Ghavam was sworn in as PM. Tehran erupted. For three days, rioting tore apart the city. Within five days, the Shah, under relentless pressure, bowed to the will of the people and reinstated Mossadegh. The nationalist leader returned, stronger than ever. The stage was set for more bloodbath, and anarchy.1953: The Sinister PlotAcross the seas, in the smoke-filled halls of Washington and London, a different plan was taking shape. MI6 agent Christopher Montague Woodhouse, a key player in the Iran saga, laid out the stakes. 'Mossadegh's nationalisation of Anglo-Iranian Oil is a direct threat to Britain's economy,' he argued. 'If he aligns with Moscow, we lose the Persian Gulf.' (All the Shah's Men: Stephen Kinzer, 2003).By March 1953, the CIA drafted a scheme to topple Mossadegh and install a government more pliable to Western interests. On April 16, a detailed study titled 'Factors Involved in the Overthrow of Mossadegh' concluded that a coup was feasible. In Nicosia, Cyprus, on May 13, CIA and British intelligence officers huddled in secret, sketching the outlines of a plot that would reshape Iran. By June 10, in Beirut, the final coup plan was reviewed, and on June 19, it was submitted to the US State Department and the British Foreign Office. (Based on a timeline published by The New York Times)advertisementCIA Director Allen Dulles approved the plan, codenamed TPAJAX, with a budget of $1 million—peanuts for a nation's fate and its vast reserves. 'We had to act,' Dulles wrote in a CIA memo, declassified in 2013, 'to secure Iran's oil and block communist inroads.' On July 1, Britain's Prime Minister gave his approval, followed by President Eisenhower on July 11. The die was AjaxThe plan was intricate: bribe politicians, sway clerics, organise thugs for street protests, and unleash propaganda. The CIA spent $100,000, buying 'loyalty in parliament, press, and streets,' according to one account. Newspapers, paid by the CIA, vilified Mossadegh as a Soviet stooge. Radio broadcasts, scripted by operatives, warned of godless communism. The West's propaganda machinery churned out lies and rumours, creating a facade of anarchy and July 25, Princess Ashraf, the Shah's twin sister, arrived in Tehran from France, tasked by the CIA with convincing the monarch to sign a decree dismissing Mossadegh and naming General Fazlollah Zahedi, a lifelong royalist, as premier. It came with a chilling warning from the CIA, revealed later in declassified documents: 'Should the Shah fail to go along Zahedi would be informed that the United States would be ready to go ahead without the Shah's active cooperation.'advertisementMossadegh, sensing the gathering storm, moved decisively. On August 4, he held a referendum to dissolve Parliament, consolidating power amid suspicions of British and American plotting. On August 13, the Shah, under intense CIA pressure, signed the decrees dismissing Mossadegh and appointing Zahedi.A Failed CoupTehran, August 15, 1953. Inside a CIA safehouse, Kermit Roosevelt Jr, the grandson of US President Theodore Roosevelt, and mastermind of Op Ajax, chain-smoked nervously, waiting for the radio to crackle. Disguised as a businessman in sharp linen suits, he had entered Iran a few days ago to oversee the plot to topple Mossadegh. 'We're on the edge of history,' he'd later recall, 'and it could all collapse in a heartbeat.'Colonel Nematollah Nassiri, a Shah loyalist, gripped a royal firman, ordering Mossadegh's dismissal, in his trembling hands. As his jeep halted near the PM's humble residence, a surprise was waiting. Tipped off in advance, Mossadegh had alerted his troops, who immediately arrested Nassiri. The Shah, nervous and indecisive, fled to Baghdad, leaving Tehran to burn. Zahedi also disappeared into a safehouse in the mountains on the Flees Iran After Move to Dismiss Mossadegh Fails,' The New York Times screamed on August 17. 'The attempt to remove the Premier was made at midnight. The 72-year-old Premier was clearly master of the situationThe Government-authorised story is that alert Army officers foiled a palace guard coup after the plotters had been betrayed by Colonel Muntaz.'But Roosevelt wasn't ready to give up. Ignoring orders to abort the mission, he shot back: 'I'm still in the game.' Within a few days, Roosevelt would roll the dice again.(Next: The Game Begins)
