Baloney about the 2-state solution. Everybody knows that was never happening, but I like Russia calling out “israel” on the annexation. I don’t recall Russia raising a voice when it comes to Palestine matters… or so few that I missed it. Anyway, in the long run, “israel” will be exterminated one way or another because it does not deserve to exist, and it will not be worthwhile to preserve it.
All settlements are illegal under international law.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 of 2016 states that Israel’s settlement activity constitutes a “flagrant violation” of international law and has “no legal validity”. It demands that Israel stop such activity and fulfill its obligations as an occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Russia has confirmed its rejection of Israel’s plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, stressing that this would undermine the settlement of the conflict on the basis of a two-state solution, and especially the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement yesterday that Moscow and other countries that support the two-state solution share Palestinian concerns that the implementation of these plans may undermine the prospects of the establishment of an independent, viable and integrated Palestinian state.
The National Office for the Defence of Land and Resistance of Settlement in Palestine has warned that Israeli occupation authorities continue to implement their plans to annex settlements in the occupied West Bank, including in Jerusalem, and take preliminary steps to extend the occupation’s sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and the area to the north of the Dead Sea.
According to the data of the Negotiations Affairs Department of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), approximately 51.6 per cent of the occupied West Bank is under Israeli control.
There were more than 150 settlements and 128 illegal outposts in the occupied West Bank at the end of 2019 in addition to 15 illegal settlements in occupied East Jerusalem. They were home to 670,000 settlers.
All settlements are illegal under international law.
Israel’s main concern is the ability to conceal itself. Its exposure weakens it. Once exposed, Israel faces questions about its legitimacy, its methods, its purposes. Israel does not want to be held accountable. It wants absolute freedom to reproduce itself and amass power. pic.twitter.com/tcjMhpfLQb
It really doesn’t matter who, it doesn’t matter if we like them or not. What’s needed is a balance of power in the world.
The balance of power theory in international relations suggests that states may secure their survival by preventing any one state from gaining enough military power to dominate all others.[1] If one state becomes much stronger, the theory predicts it will take advantage of its weaker neighbors, thereby driving them to unite in a defensive coalition. Some realists maintain that a balance-of-power system is more stable than one with a dominant state, as aggression is unprofitable when there is equilibrium of power between rival coalitions.[1]
This is going to bring hell on earth for all of us, but it does feel great to see the system that brought us such things as child trannies, endless wars, multiculturalism, feminism and Rise of Skywalker finally ending.
And it is poetic that it is ending in a nonsensical panic over
Russia is sending a plane filled with medical equipment to the United States to help fight the coronavirus following a phone conversation between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.
The Russian Embassy Tuesday posted on its social media channels that “Russia may send a plane with medical equipment and protection gear to the United States already on Tuesday,” citing the Russian news agency TASS.
Reuters later reported that Russian state TV was saying the flight had taken off early Wednesday morning.
This comes after Trump indicated, without much context, that Russia was sending some sort of medical aid in his Monday coronavirus task force briefing.
“And I have to say, we’ve had great relationships with a lot of countries,” Trump said. “China sent us some stuff, which was terrific.
Russia sent us a very, very large planeload of things, medical equipment, which was very nice.”
The American government’s “aid” regime was the symbol of its global dominance. Now it is the one receiving aid. And Russia is going to get a lot more opportunities for this.
They have made the decision to not completely collapse their economy. And due to the sanctions that have been going on since 2014, as well as the nature of Russia, their economy is not unstable in the way the US economy is unstable.
They also do not have tens of millions of brown people to create endless chaos in their country if something goes wrong.
You people wanted to keep the cold war going, and you turned a victory into a loss.
The jig is up.
It will be so much fun to watch the realization set in among the media class of just what they have done.
The time of it mattering if they don’t like Russia, or don’t like something else, or want a war in Syria or Iran, or want more child trannies – that is all over.
Nothing they say is going to matter anymore.
Bonus video
William Powell Lear was an American inventor and businessman. He is best known for founding the Lear Jet Corporation, a manufacturer of business jets. He also invented the battery eliminator for the B battery, and developed the 8-track cartridge, an audio tape system.
Concerned About Nuclear Weapons Potential, John F. Kennedy Pushed for Inspection of Israel Nuclear Facilities, unaware that no one has such authority over the Jews. All the actors (Kennedy was against their interests) beyond them worked under the authority of the Jews. LBJ, Bush, Dulles and all the people working under their authority. So I believe Lear on this topic.
In the past weeks the Kremlin has shown it’s willing to punch back as well as take drastic necessary defensive action in the face of Washington sanctions at a moment America is preoccupied and made more vulnerable by the coronavirus threat — first by dumping OPEC+ and MbS, effectively declaring war on US shale — and now by taking aggressive measures to insulate Russia’s state-controlled Rosneft.
On Saturday Rosneft announced it has sold off all its Venezuelan oil assets to an unnamed Russian state entity. “The government of the Russian Federation has acquired assets in Venezuela from Rosneft. A company 100% owned by the Russian Federation has become the owner,” Russia’s TASS said.
A company statement framed the move as key to protecting shareholders’ interests at a moment the Trump administration ramps up pressure on Maduro and external entities still doing business with Caracas.
It’s been widely reported that Rosneft has explored exit options since early 2019 when Venezuelan assets continued rapidly losing money, leading to worsened current operating conditions.
“As a result of the concluded agreement all assets and trading operations of Rosneft in Venezuela and/or connected with Venezuela will be disposed of, terminated or liquidated,” Rosneft said.
“We took this decision in the interests of our shareholders, as a publicly traded international company,” Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontyev further told TASS.
“And we have a right to expect, indeed, that the US regulators fulfill their public promises.”
On Thursday the White House went so far as to issue a $15 million bounty on Maduro and his inner circle over drug trafficking charges, amid sweeping indictments against what Washington dubbed a vast narco-state criminal enterprise orchestrated by the regime.
It appears Rosneft took note of Trump’s willingness to press his economic war on Venezuela further even as the United States now leads the world in numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases, which threatens to decimate an economy still on “pause” and extreme uncertainty still on the horizon.
All of this follows in mid-February the US slapping new sanctions on Rosneft Trading SA, a unit of Rosneft, and the company’s executive Didier Casimiro, accusing it of being the “primary culprit” of a campaign to evade Washington’s pressure campaign on the Maduro government.
But the sanctions stopped just short of naming parent company Rosneft, though the Trump administration long accused it of “actively evading sanctions — engaging in ruses, engaging in deception.”
Bloomberg observed that “The fight over Venezuela fits into a much larger geopolitical battle between Trump and Vladimir Putin, with both turning to oil as the weapon of choice.” And the report further cited Russia’s ambassador to Venezuela, Sergey Melik-Magdasarov, as saying:
“Don’t worry! This is about Rosneft’s assets being transferred to Russia’s government directly. We keep moving forward together!,” he [Amb. Melik-Magdasarov] said, in a message that also posted on the embassy website.
The assets include Rosneft’s stakes in local upstream companies Petromonagas, Petroperija, Boqueron, Petromiranda and Petrovictoria, as well as oil-service, commercial and trading units.
The Russian Federation controls Rosneft with just over 50% of its shares, while BP Plc is the second-largest shareholder with 19.75%, and Qatar’s QH Oil Investments owns 18.93%.
Rosneft’s position has long been that US sanctions are illegal and that its own operations in Venezuela are commercial in nature, not political, after in prior months the company’s cooperation with state-run PDVSA became an “open secret”.
The ultimate strategy behind Saturday’s dramatic announcement is as yet uncertain, it should be noted:
But Russ Dallen, head of Caracas Capital Markets brokerage, cautioned that it’s too early to know for sure whether the move is intended to bolster Maduro.
“We don’t know whether the new state entity is a cemetery corporation, where companies go to die, or whether the Russians are simply doing it to take Rosneft — which is their crown jewel and provides a large portion of Russia’s income — out of the way of sanctions and Putin will use the new company to continue to help Maduro,” he said.
Rosneft has emerged as one of PDVSA’s closest joint venture partners, being crucial as a heavy lifter keeping Venezuelan oil afloat at a moment Washington tries to strangle and blockade the socialist state’s industry.
While Cuba, China, and Venezuela — countries targeted by US economic warfare — are helping the world contain the coronavirus outbreak, Washington itself is working overtime to monopolize any potential treatments, so it can profit from them.
The sanctions that the United States has imposed on dozens of countries around the world, in an attempt to overthrow their independent governments, have only made the global coronavirus pandemic worse.
But at the same time, some of these nations targeted by US economic warfare have taken the lead in the effort to contain the Covid-19 outbreak.
In fact, the local government in the north of Italy, a member of the European Union and NATO, has officially requested medical help from China, Cuba, and Venezuela — all countries demonized by the United States and EU, which in turn have provided Italy with little support.
The Italian government lamented that “not a single EU country” has responded to its request for medical equipment — unlike China, which immediately helped.
And it is not just Italy; Britain has also relied on Cuba to help it battle the contagious virus.
The northern Italian region of Lombardy has been particularly hard hit by coronavirus, with tens of thousands of cases and more than 1,000 deaths. The pandemic has devastated the region, which is the richest and most populous area in the country.
On March 15, Italy recorded 368 new deaths in just one day — more than the deadliest day in Wuhan, China, which successfully contained the virus.
In response to the crisis, Lombardy’s government requested that China, Cuba, and Venezuela send doctors and other medical personnel to help to contain the outbreak.
Havana’s embassy declared “Cuban solidarity with Italy,” and Cuba’s Foreign Affairs Ministry published a notice confirming Gallera’s request and announcing it will be sending “Cuban personnel specialized in dealing with contagious diseases.”
The local government in the major Italian city Milan has also relied on shipments of medical equipment from China.
European Union abandons Italy, after pushing privatization of health systems
The European Union, on the other hand, has left Italy out to dry.
Italy’s ambassador to the EU, Maurizio Massari, published an op-ed noting that his country requested support through the body’s Mechanism of Civil Protection, seeking medical equipment to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
“But, unfortunately, not a single EU country responded to the Commission’s call. Only China responded bilaterally,” Massari wrote.
In fact the European Union has done the opposite of help. The European Commission, which leads the EU, called on member states to cut medical spending and privatize health services at least 63 times between 2011 to 2018.
The EU’s obsession with cutting and privatizing state institutions has greatly weakened the continent’s health infrastructure, making it much more susceptible to deadly pandemics like coronavirus.
Britain relies on Cuban help to dock coronavirus-infected ship
Cuba has been under an illegal US embargo since 1960 — which every country in the world (excluding Israel) votes to denounce each year at the United Nations. But this blockade has not stopped the small country from developing the best health system in all of Latin America.
Even the United Kingdom, one of the richest countries on the planet, has relied on Cuban help to contain the coronavirus.
The British government asked numerous countries in the Caribbean to let the cruise ship MS Braemar dock in their port, after there were several reports of coronavirus among its more than 1,000 passengers.
CNN noted that “British officials launched an intense diplomatic effort to find a country willing to take the” infected ship, but were rejected by Barbados and the Bahamas.
On March 16, Cuba agreed to assist Britain, offering to dock the MS Braemar in a Cuban port and help fly the passengers back to the UK.
Cuba’s Foreign Affairs Ministry declared in a statement, “These are times of solidarity, of understanding health as a human right, of strengthening international cooperation to face our common challenges, values that are key to the humanist practices of the Revolution and of our people.”
US fights for control of potential coronavirus treatment and vaccine
While Cuba, China, and Venezuela — countries targeted by US economic warfare — are helping the world contain the coronavirus outbreak, Washington itself is working overtime to monopolize any potential treatments, so it can profit from them.
A California-based pharmaceutical corporation, Gilead Sciences, has developed an experimental drug that medical experts think could potentially treat coronavirus.
The Chinese government’s Wuhan Institute of Virology applied for a patent so it can produce this drug, which is called remdesivir. But the US company has been fighting tooth and nail to prevent Beijing from being able to manufacture it.
The US government has also tried to bribe a German medical company that may be on the verge of developing a coronavirus vaccine.
President Donald Trump reportedly offered “large sums of money” to the German firm, CureVac, so that the United States could have exclusive rights to the treatment — which it could then sell to the rest of the world.
US sanctions prevent Venezuela and Iran from importing medicine and medical equipment
And while the Trump administration and US pharmaceutical companies are seeking to profit from the coronavirus pandemic, Washington is doubling down on its destructive economic warfare.
Venezuela’s attorney general, Tarek William Saab, gave a press conference denouncing Washington for preventing Caracas from buying medicine and medical equipment that would help it fight Covid-19.
“It is ethically unacceptable that such sanctions be maintained against Venezuela,” Saab said. He called on Colombia and Brazil to stop their coup attempts against Caracas and to instead work together to contain the virus.
US sanctions have also greatly hindered Iran’s effort to fight Covid-19. Hundreds of Iranians have died, with thousands more affected, and Washington has prevented the country from buying much-needed medicine and medical equipment.
Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, denounced the US sanctions as a form of “medical terrorism.”
“Efforts to fight COVID19 pandemic in Iran have been severely hampered by US sanctions,” Zarif added. “It is IMMORAL to let a bully kill innocents.”
In a letter to Secretary-General António Guterres, Zarif called on the United Nations and member states to ignore the “inhuman US sanctions” on Iran and push for them to be lifted.
China has also forcefully spoken out against the US sanctions on Venezuela and Iran.
In a press conference on March 13, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, Geng Shuang, condemned Washington’s blockade of Caracas.
“At a crucial moment in which the governments and peoples of all countries are fighting together against the epidemic of a new coronavirus, the American side, however, is determined to continue shaking the stick of sanctions against Venezuela, which is going against the minimum spirit of humanity,” the Geng said.
The Chinese government spokesperson likewise denounced US sanctions on Iran.
Noting that Beijing had sent a team of medical experts to help Iran contain Covid-19, the Foreign Affairs Ministry added, “We urge the US to immediately lift unilateral sanction on Iran. Continued sanction is against humanitarianism and hampers Iran’s epidemic response.”
European Union abandons Italy, after pushing privatization of health systems
The European Union, on the other hand, has left Italy out to dry.
Italy’s ambassador to the EU, Maurizio Massari, published an op-ed noting that his country requested support through the body’s Mechanism of Civil Protection, seeking medical equipment to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
“But, unfortunately, not a single EU country responded to the Commission’s call. Only China responded bilaterally,” Massari wrote.
In fact the European Union has done the opposite of help. The European Commission, which leads the EU, called on member states to cut medical spending and privatize health services at least 63 times between 2011 to 2018.
The EU’s obsession with cutting and privatizing state institutions has greatly weakened the continent’s health infrastructure, making it much more susceptible to deadly pandemics like coronavirus.
Britain relies on Cuban help to dock coronavirus-infected ship
Cuba has been under an illegal US embargo since 1960 — which every country in the world (excluding Israel) votes to denounce each year at the United Nations. But this blockade has not stopped the small country from developing the best health system in all of Latin America.
Even the United Kingdom, one of the richest countries on the planet, has relied on Cuban help to contain the coronavirus.
The British government asked numerous countries in the Caribbean to let the cruise ship MS Braemar dock in their port, after there were several reports of coronavirus among its more than 1,000 passengers.
CNN noted that “British officials launched an intense diplomatic effort to find a country willing to take the” infected ship, but were rejected by Barbados and the Bahamas.
On March 16, Cuba agreed to assist Britain, offering to dock the MS Braemar in a Cuban port and help fly the passengers back to the UK.
Cuba’s Foreign Affairs Ministry declared in a statement, “These are times of solidarity, of understanding health as a human right, of strengthening international cooperation to face our common challenges, values that are key to the humanist practices of the Revolution and of our people.”
US fights for control of potential coronavirus treatment and vaccine
While Cuba, China, and Venezuela — countries targeted by US economic warfare — are helping the world contain the coronavirus outbreak, Washington itself is working overtime to monopolize any potential treatments, so it can profit from them.
A California-based pharmaceutical corporation, Gilead Sciences, has developed an experimental drug that medical experts think could potentially treat coronavirus.
The Chinese government’s Wuhan Institute of Virology applied for a patent so it can produce this drug, which is called remdesivir. But the US company has been fighting tooth and nail to prevent Beijing from being able to manufacture it.
The US government has also tried to bribe a German medical company that may be on the verge of developing a coronavirus vaccine.
President Donald Trump reportedly offered “large sums of money” to the German firm, CureVac, so that the United States could have exclusive rights to the treatment — which it could then sell to the rest of the world.
US sanctions prevent Venezuela and Iran from importing medicine and medical equipment
And while the Trump administration and US pharmaceutical companies are seeking to profit from the coronavirus pandemic, Washington is doubling down on its destructive economic warfare.
Venezuela’s attorney general, Tarek William Saab, gave a press conference denouncing Washington for preventing Caracas from buying medicine and medical equipment that would help it fight Covid-19.
“It is ethically unacceptable that such sanctions be maintained against Venezuela,” Saab said. He called on Colombia and Brazil to stop their coup attempts against Caracas and to instead work together to contain the virus.
US sanctions have also greatly hindered Iran’s effort to fight Covid-19. Hundreds of Iranians have died, with thousands more affected, and Washington has prevented the country from buying much-needed medicine and medical equipment.
Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, denounced the US sanctions as a form of “medical terrorism.”
“Efforts to fight COVID19 pandemic in Iran have been severely hampered by US sanctions,” Zarif added. “It is IMMORAL to let a bully kill innocents.”
In a letter to Secretary-General António Guterres, Zarif called on the United Nations and member states to ignore the “inhuman US sanctions” on Iran and push for them to be lifted.
China has also forcefully spoken out against the US sanctions on Venezuela and Iran.
In a press conference on March 13, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, Geng Shuang, condemned Washington’s blockade of Caracas.
“At a crucial moment in which the governments and peoples of all countries are fighting together against the epidemic of a new coronavirus, the American side, however, is determined to continue shaking the stick of sanctions against Venezuela, which is going against the minimum spirit of humanity,” the Geng said.
The Chinese government spokesperson likewise denounced US sanctions on Iran.
Noting that Beijing had sent a team of medical experts to help Iran contain Covid-19, the Foreign Affairs Ministry added, “We urge the US to immediately lift unilateral sanction on Iran. Continued sanction is against humanitarianism and hampers Iran’s epidemic response.”
With united Europe MIA in its Covid-19 response, worst-hit nations turn to ‘evil’ Russia & China for help
And thank heavens for Russia and China, because if either Italy or Spain had been looking to the EU — or the USA for that matter — for real, on-the-ground assistance that would enable them to simply stop people dying in their thousands in overcrowded hospitals, then they would have found themselves waiting in vain.
Iran rejects Trump’s virus aid offer: “The American leaders are liars, manipulators, impudent and greedy … They are charlatans,” he said, also labeling them “absolutely ruthless” and “terrorists”. The American proposals “to help us with medicines and treatments, provided we ask for them, are strange”, he said, noting that the United States itself suffers from “a horrible shortage not only of disease prevention equipment but also of medicines”.*
Brussels has all but abandoned them to their fates, so is it any wonder that Italy, Spain and other European countries have turned to Moscow and Beijing for meaningful support in terms of expert advice and medical supplies?
When this coronavirus pandemic has passed and the nations of the European Union are counting the cost of decimated populations, shattered public health infrastructures and economic meltdowns, one thing is certain: the dynamics within the bloc will have changed forever.
Before the global outbreak of this killer virus, Russia and China were always the West’s undisputed bogeymen. Troublemakers, always up to mischief, playing dangerous geopolitical games intended to undermine Western democracies and divide allies in the EU and NATO.
The Chinese are not seeking to destroy Americans’ way of life. The Chinese accept fundamental aspects of our capitalist marketplace, and they have similar interests in halting climate change, fighting terrorists, and combating pandemics. China should be regarded as a serious rival as well as a crucial partner.
Many in the Western mainstream media are addicted to a daily fix of either Russian or Chinese conspiracy, so they probably don’t appreciate the irony here. Because things have changed.
In a big way.
It’s largely due to the generosity of these two “tricksy” outsider superpowers that some European nations, fully paid-up, long-term members of the EU, have even a remote chance of getting to grips with the immense public health demands caused by the outbreak of the coronavirus.
And thank heavens for that, because if either Italy or Spain had been looking to the EU — or the USA for that matter — for real, on-the-ground assistance that would enable them to simply stop people dying in their thousands in overcrowded hospitals, then they would have found themselves waiting in vain.
Sure, the ECB weighed in only last week, with an unprecedented fiscal bazooka aimed at reducing the economic impact that is being caused by the virus (ar at least by the measures governments are taking to try to stop it). But that’s fighting the virus in one manner only, very much after the fact and certainly not on the frontline.
This significance of that fiscal help will only really be apparent once the health crisis is over and the full, disastrous economic consequences are realized. And the fact that it is far from over right now is what needs immediate attention, like providing more medical staff, personal protection gear, ventilators, hospitals and, obviously, a vaccine.
But the message from Brussels to Italy, Spain and other EU members is clear: in dealing with the pandemic and the thousands of dead citizens it leaves in its wake, you are on your own.
The EU’s abject hopelessness and indifference started to become clear some weeks back in the face of the escalating virus, when the export beyond national borders of facemasks and medical equipment was banned by some EU members, including Germany.
Russia mocks America’s ‘umpteenth’ report of Baghdadi’s death claiming there’s no evidence the ISIS leader was killed. Apparently the underwear DNA was not convincing. AND officials in Russia also claimed there were no recorded airstrikes in the Idlib zone on Saturday when the operation was said to have taken place.
They stole his underwear for DNA
RUSSIA has sneered at claims that ISIS monster Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a fiery raid – mocking Donald Trump’s announcement as the “umpteenth” such report of his death.
The US president said Baghdadi “died like a dog” when he blew himself up in a tunnel as he fled US special forces at the weekend.
Top CIA officials openly admit, Al-Qaeda is a total and complete fabrication, never having existed at any time.
Mr Trump said the ISIS chief – who became the world’s most wanted man – died “crying, whimpering and screaming and bringing three kids with him”.
Hailing Saturday night’s operation as an “unbelievable success” he called it a “great night for the US and for the world” as they had brought the “world’s greater terrorist leader to justice”.
But, Russia’s defense bosses downplayed the victory, saying they were skeptical about his announcement.
Russian state-operated news agency, RIA, quoted Major-General Igor Konashenkov saying: “The Russian Ministry of Defense does not have reliable information on the operation by US servicemen… on yet another ‘elimination’ of former IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.”
Trump was also mocked by Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of upper house of parliament’s foreign affairs committee.
Last respects have been paid to al-Baghdadi at least five times in the past.
Konstantin Kosachyov, Foreign Affairs Spokesman, Russia
He told Interfax news agency: “Last respects have been paid to al-Baghdadi at least five times in the past.
“(Also) countering terrorism is a much more difficult task than the physical destruction of its leaders, even the most irreconcilable.”
Officials in Russia also claimed there were no recorded airstrikes in the Idlib zone on Saturday when the operation was said to have taken place.
Trump said US military helicopters flew “very low” over territory controlled by Russian and Syrian forces before landing at Baghdadi’s compound in the village of Barisha.
However Russia said the ministry was unaware of “any alleged assistance to the passage of American aircraft into the airspace of the Idlib de-escalation zone during this operation.”
Military bosses said that the ISIS chief’s presence in that area would be unlikely because the territory is controlled either by the Syrian government or by an al-Qaeda affiliate that is an IS rival.
IRAN ALSO MOCKS TRUMP
Trump’s announcement was also scoffed at in Iran.
Iran’s Information Minister, Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi, mocked Saturday’s raid on Twitter, saying, “not a big deal, You just killed your creature” – accusing the US, its longtime foe, of creating ISIS.
And Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei tweeted: “The killing of Baghdadi will not end Daesh (Islamic State) and its ideology … which was created and flourished with the help of regional petrodollars.”
Meanwhile, in Afghanistan an ISIS fighter told a Reuters reporter that he suspected news of Baghdadi’s death was fake.
The militant, who identified himself as just Shaheen, said: “If the US really killed him, they should show the evidence, show the body.
“But let’s say he was killed, it wouldn’t matter.
“Our struggle is not for Baghdadi, our struggle against the infidels is for Allah.”
oops wrong photo, this was the bin-Laden raid
This is the Al-Baghdadi raid.
“We have been working together with the CIA to track Al-Baghdadi and monitor him closely,” Polat Can, a senior SDF official posted on his Twitter account.
One interesting fact was yet to be revealed, as SDF said it needed evidence to prove Al-Baghdadi’s identity.
I got his underwear!
“Our own source, who had been able to reach Al-Baghdadi, brought Al-Baghdadi’s underwear to conduct a DNA test and make sure (100%) that the person in question was Al-Baghdadi himself,” he added.
ISIS == ISRAELI SECRET INTELLIGENCE SERVICE. The former employee at US National Security Agency (NSA), Edward Snowden, has revealed that the British and American intelligence and the Mossad worked together to create the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
We’re just back to that we already know: everything is a farce.
According to D. Sheehan, Russiagate was a distraction while Trump, Putin and some oligarchs plot to create an oil monopoly in the Western world. Capturing this oil source is dependent on climate change to melt the Arctic shelf where the oil is. And lots of other shenanigans and players. Funky Trump blackmail videos. I love the history that goes into all of this…The retelling of the story of Howard Hughes and the sweat on Nixon’s brow in the Kennedy debate to William barr dose a real good job catching people unfamiliar with the subject matter.
Daniel P. Sheehan is a Constitutional and public interest lawyer, public speaker, political activist and educator. Over the last forty-five years he has participated in numerous legal cases of public interest, including the Pentagon Papers Case, the Watergate Break-In Case, the Silkwood Case, the Greensboro massacre Case, the La Penca bombing Case and others.
In The Peoples Advocate, Sheehan details “the inside story” of over a dozen historically significant American legal cases of the 20th Century, all of which he litigated. The remarkable cases covered in the book include both The Pentagon Papers Case in 1971 and The Watergate Burglary Case in 1973.
In addition, Sheehan served as the Chief Attorney on The Karen Silkwood Case in 1976, which revealed the CIA’s Israeli Desk had been smuggling 98% bomb-grade plutonium to the State of Israel and to Iran.
Smuggled Bomb Grade Plutonium Went to 卍Israel卍 (3 min) “Israel” is always somewhere.
In 1984, he was the Chief Trial Counsel on The American Sanctuary Movement Case, establishing the right of American church workers to provide assistance to Central American political refugees fleeing Guatemalan and Salvadorian “death squads.”
His involvement with the sanctuary movement ultimately led to Sheehan’s famous Iran/Contra Federal Civil Racketeering Case against the Reagan/Bush Administration, which he investigated, initiated, filed, and then litigated. The resulting “Iran/Contra Scandal” nearly brought down that Administration, leading Congress to consider the impeachment of over a dozen of the top-ranking officials of the Reagan/Bush Administration.
The Peoples Advocate is the “real story” of these and many other historic American cases, told from the unique point of view of a central lawyer.
JFK Assassination Convenient Deaths
1963 – 1976
In the three year period following the assassination many witnesses died – mostly of unnatural causes. Many rumors crawling around about the high death rate during these years. They are supported by the mostly suspicious circumstances the victims died under. For a unknown shooter or even shooters, all these deaths have on thing in common: they are very convenient to those assassins since these witnesses took their knowledge with them into the grave. But see yourself and decide whether these deaths are purely coincidently:
Date
Name
Connection with case
Cause of death
11/63
Karyn Kupicinet
Tv host’s daughter who was overheard telling of JFK’s death prior to 11/22/63
Murdered
12/63
Jack Zangretti
Expressed foreknowledge of Ruby shooting Oswald
Gunshot Victim
2/64
Eddy Benavides
Lookalike brother to Tippit shooting witness, Domingo Benavides
Gunshot to head
2/64
Betty MacDonald*
Former Ruby employee who alibied Warren Reynolds shooting suspect.
Suicide by hanging in Dallas Jail
3/64
Bill Chesher
Thought to have information linking Oswald and Ruby
Heart attack
3/64
Hank Killam*
Husband of Ruby employee, knew Oswald acquaintance
Throat cut
4/64
Bill Hunter*
Reporter who was in Ruby’s apartment on 11/24/63
Accidental shooting by policeman
5/64
Gary Underhill*
CIA agent who claimed Agency was involved
Gunshot in head ruled suicide
5/64
Hugh Ward*
Private investigator working with Guy Banister and David Ferrie
Plane crash in Mexico
5/64
DeLesseps Morrison*
New Orleans Mayor
Passenger in Ward’s plane
8/64
Teresa Norton*
Ruby employee
Fatally shot
6/64
Guy Banister*
x-FBI agent in New Orleans connected to Ferrie, CIA, Carlos Marcello & Oswald
Heart attack
9/64
Jim Koethe*
Reporter who was in Ruby’s apartment on 11/24/63
Blow to neck
9/64
C.D. Jackson
“Life” magazine senior Vice-president who bought Zapruder film and locked it away
Unknown
10/64
Mary Pinchot
JFK “special” friend whose diary was taken by CIA chief James Angleton after her death
Murdered
1/65
Paul Mandal
“Life” writer who told of JFK turning to rear when shot in throat
Cancer
3/65
Tom Howard*
Ruby’s first lawyer, was in Ruby’s apartment on 11/24/63
Heart attack
5/65
Maurice Gatlin*
Pilot for Guy Banister
Fatal fall
8/65
Mona B. Saenz*
Texas Employment clerk who interviewed Oswald
Hit by Dallas bus
?/65
David Goldstein
Dallasite who helped FBI trace Oswald’s pistol
Natural causes
9/65
Rose Cheramie*
Knew of assassination in advance, told of riding to Dallas with Cubans
Hit/run victim
11/65
Dorothy Kilgallen*
Columnist who had private interview with Ruby, pledged to “break” JFK case
Drug overdose
11/65
Mrs. Earl Smith*
Close friend to Dorothy Kilgallen, died two daysafter columnist, may have kept Kilgallen’s notes
Cause unknown
12/65
William Whaley*
Cab driver who reportedly drove Oswald to Oak Cliff (The only Dallas taxi driver to die on duty)
Motor collision
1966
Judge Joe Brown
Presided over Ruby’s trial
Heart attack
1966
Karen “Little Lynn” Carlin*
Ruby employee who last talked with Ruby before Oswald shooting
Gunshot victim
1/66
Earlene Roberts
Oswald’s landlady
Heart attack
2/66
Albert Bogard*
Car salesman who said Oswald test drove new car
Suicide
6/66
Capt. Frank Martin
Dallas policeman who witnessed Oswald slaying, told Warren Commission “there’s a lot to be said but probably be better if I don’t say it”
John Bolton announced that the US will freeze Venezuelan assets and block oil payments for Venezuelan oil imports to the US. This would not only be illegal, but would also be yet another crippling blow to the country, says Mark Weisbrot #VenezuelaCouphttps://t.co/wg5wB9SWEp
Guiado’s constitutional claim to the presidency of Venezuela was a scheme cooked up in collusion with Washington, made in the USA, with Secretary of State Pompeo, John Bolton and Sen. Marco Rubio signing on, and President Trump signing off. This was Plan A.
But if Plan A does not succeed, and Maduro, with America’s prestige on the line, defies our demand that he yield, what do we do then? What is Plan B?
“Assad must go!” said Barack Obama. Well, Assad is still there — and Obama is gone.
“Russia has become the major power broker in the Middle East”
Propping up Assad was a message to the West that leaders cannot be deposed by outside force — an attempt that Putin is believed to fear the West is trying to orchestrate in Russia. The military campaign was also a way for Russia to reestablish influence in the Middle East, show off its reconstituted military might and help brand itself a resurgent great power.
The losers are scurrying around to different places, different battles, battles they can win, perhaps.
Little by little, the partisans of the Cebrowski doctrine are advancing their pawns. If they must cease creating wars in the Greater Middle East for Israel, they’ll just turn around and inflame the Caribbean Basin. Above all, the Pentagon is planning to assassinate an elected head of state, ruin his country, and undermine the unity of Latin-America. Not cool.
“If they withdraw from Afghanistan it will not have a security impact because in the last 4 1/2 years the Afghans have been in full control,” Ghani’s spokesman, Haroon Chakhansuri, said via social media… Haha, US hasn’t won anything there…
The US Air Force is condemned to defeat if it confronts the Syrian Arab Army, which now has in its possession Russian anti-air materials, the best in the world. The US’s only viable option is to leave, sparing itself any humiliation. History is repeating itself.
Once before, in Iraq, the United States had used Kurdish combatants, promising them a State before letting them be massacred by Saddam Hussein. Today the US lets other Kurds to whom it has also promised a State, face up to Turkey alone. _ In a few months the war will be over. After eight years of fighting and tens of thousands of Islamist mercenaries being sacrificed, ZIO-Nato’s dream of destroying Syria’s state structures will have failed.
States addressed in the Report as the instigators of war crimes are the imperialist states and their
collaborationists which we are used to see where there is war in the World.
A week ago, two S-300 rocket missiles were deployed in Deir Ez-zor, in East Syria. Immediately after, the intensity of the US-led coalition flights decreased by 80% in North East Syria. Since 18 September 2018, the Israeli Air Force has not carried out any more raids in Syria’s airspace.
A delegation from the Israeli army, led by General Major Aharon Haliva (Head of Operations), went to Moscow for talks with Major General Vasily Trushin (Joint Chief of Operations of the Russian Army). Relations between the two armies have deteriorated after the destruction of the Russian airplane IL-20 during the attack on Syrian targets near the Russian air base of Hmeymim by the Israeli F-16.
The Israeli delegation went to Moscow because it had not succeeded in finding the gaps in the no fly zone, imposed by the new system of Syrian Defense delivered by Russia. The Israelis thought they could coax the Russians to obtain the security codes for Syrian missiles. Russia, quite clearly, refused to give these codes to them.
What are the elements of the automatized management of the Syrian air space that prevent the Israelis and Americans from acting? Syria has received 6 to 8 S-300/PMU2 missiles, with an action range of 250 km. The missiles guarantee the security of planes and Syrian military land targets. However, they are not the most important element.
Management is assured by the automatized management system, Polyana D4M1. The role of the automatized management system is a necessary interface for the Syrian air units and anti-Air Defense apparatus to work at the same time. Polyana D4M1 can cover an area of 800 km2, following 500 air targets and ballistic missiles and establishing 250 of them. It is thanks to the Polyana D4M1 that command centres of the army of the Syrian Air Force also receive external information from the Russian airplane A-50U (AWACS) and Russian satellites of surveillance.
The memory of the Polyana D4M1 computer servers stock the radar imprint of all the air targets including the cruise missiles and the allegedly “invisible” F-35 plane.
When an air target is detected by a radar in Syria, the automatized system Polyana D4M1 posts information for all the detection radars and systems for guiding planes and Syrian and Russian anti-air artillery. Once identified, the air targets are automatically assigned to be struck down. This automatized system ensures that the oldest Syrian missiles of the Soviet era (S-200, S-75, S-125, etc.) become almost as precise as the S-300 missile.
The Polyana D4M1 network also includes the following: • the Krasukha-4 for jamming the radars on the ground • AWACS aircrafts • reconnaissance planes with or without pilots.
The network also uses the Zhitel R-330ZH systems for interfering with NAVSTAR (GPS), the apparatus of navigation. This equips the means of attack (planes, helicopters, cruise missiles, guided bombs, etc.).
What is the consequence of Russia implementing the automatized management of the Syrian air space?
The US military air bases in Syria consist essentially of troops for special operations. By this we mean a light infantry, without any armour or support. They could not therefore ward off any land attack carried out by the Syrian army supported by the Air Force. Having understood that the US Air Force will not be able to pass the Syrian anti-air barrage without unacceptable losses, any US intervention becomes inappropriate.
This is why the US has just announced that it will start to withdraw 2,000 soldiers from Syria [1]. At the same time, Turkey, supported by Russia, is getting ready to launch a new offensive against the YPG in Northern Syria. These new circumstances ensure the Syrian Army will fight on the side of Turkey. The YPG, trained and supported by the United States, is quickly losing all the territories that it had taken from the Islamic State which itself had taken from Syria.
The truth is, Israelis are no longer preoccupied with the matter. They’re otherwise engaged; they’re making money; they’re enjoying the rays of late summer. A watching world may still see their country as being defined by the blood feud with the Arabs whose families used to live on this land and whether that conflict can be negotiated away, but Israelis say they have moved on.
Israel has also maintained that only the US can mediate the conflict. (US has seen 45 years of failure.)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday said that Russia was willing to mediate between Israel and the Palestinians, and that stability in the region could not be reached until the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was resolved.
“It is impossible to create stability in the Middle East, including in Libya and Iraq, without a solution to the oldest regional problem, the Palestinian problem,” said Lavrov, who was on a two-day trip to Rome.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday said that Russia was willing to mediate between Israel and the Palestinians, and that stability in the region could not be reached until the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was resolved.
“It is impossible to create stability in the Middle East, including in Libya and Iraq, without a solution to the oldest regional problem, the Palestinian problem,” said Lavrov, who was on a two-day trip to Rome.
“We support the need for a resumption of direct talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians. We confirm again our offer from several years ago to host a meeting between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Russia without any preconditions,” he said.
The offer came as relations between the Palestinians and the US, the traditional Mideast peace mediators, are at an all-time low.
The Trump administration’s plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace is expected to be rolled out in the coming months.
But the plan is unlikely to be welcome by either side, especially with the Palestinian Authority boycotting the Trump administration since its recognition last December of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. The PA has vowed to oppose the “deal of the century.” Israel’s shaky right-wing coalition government, meantime, is down to a majority of just 61 in the 120 seat Knesset after Avigdor Liberman resigned as defense minister to protest last week’s Gaza ceasefire.
On Wednesday, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said that she would counsel the American leader that any such proposal was “a waste of time.”
“I think that the gap between the Palestinians and the Israelis is much too big to be bridged,” she said in an English-language interview on stage at the Jerusalem Post diplomatic conference. She added: “I think personally it’s a waste of time. Although I want peace like anyone else, I think I’m just more realistic. And I know that in the current future, it is impossible.”
Trump was set to hold a meeting with top advisers this week to review his administration’s peace plan and discuss the timing for its release, according to a television report on Sunday.
The meeting was to be attended by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Adviser John Bolton, Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as Middle East peace envoy Jason Greenblatt, the Channel 10 report said. US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman traveled to Washington, DC, to attend the meeting as well.
US officials told the news channel that Trump wants to see the plan rolled out by February, but his advisers favored taking a more cautious approach, in light of the political crisis that engulfed Israel over the past week, and the razor-thin 61-seat parliamentary majority that the Netanyahu government now holds.
Although the Trump administration has been touting its peace plan for months, details of it have been scant, and the Palestinians have vowed not to cooperate with US efforts.
Israel has also maintained that only the US can mediate the conflict.
American defense planning of 21st century is based upon “America is the nation at war” doctrine intended to run outdated unipolar hegemony by hook and crook.
China and Russia Sign Military Cooperation Roadmap
The U.S. led “Law of the Jungle” has created the series of endless wars and regional conflicts. More than 60 independent and sovereign states were destroyed directly and indirectly by Washington interference to usher the uni-centric World Order with Western allies in this 21st century. American defense planning of 21st century is based upon “America is the nation at war” doctrine intended to run outdated unipolar hegemony by hook and crook.
Therefore America has not only executed “law of the jungle” to run world affairs unilaterally but now to save Washington power-centric hegemony, it is using third degree methods to keep control over world nations. But this hawkish rhetoric has fueled chaos all-around the world from Africa to Asia.
America has involved in attempts to bring regime change in different countries around the globe to achieve its geopolitical objectives through color revolutions. While in many countries it has launched direct military option to install puppet regimes.
The situation in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Afghanistan is the witnessed of it that how America assaulted unilaterally on these sovereign states to alter regional map. Now it has trying to extend ground based strategic defense missile system from Europe to Asia with the construction of American defense system complex also known as European Interceptor Site (EIS) in Poland for Europe and the installation of THAAD on South Korean soil for Asia.
This is Zionism
Bluntly speaking, the U.S. is attempting to breakdown of world peace by posing nuclear war threat with global missile program which is a direct threat to Eurasian superpowers Russia and China. Although the US has projected this global missile system hosted by Poland and Korea for defense purposes but the fact is that this is a deliberately attempt to undermine or weaken Russia and China’s strategic nuclear deterrent.
Both countries agree that the deployment of such ground based American defense systems in Europe and Asia is simply sharp-cut venture to tear down the geostrategic balance of the power that guaranteed the safety of humanity from the major conflict, over past 71 years.
Now America on the name of defense is fueling aggression with the installation of ground based missile systems having ability to penetrate distance of up to 1000 Km and then further depends on the advancement of technology. This is a clear cut massage that America is going to violate the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty negotiated by President Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Gorbachov in 1987.
First time publicly Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian president Vladimir Putin discussed briefly to secure the peace of world by adopting new global security model for multipolar world during the Chinese President’s recent state visit of Russia. Both have not only opposed THAAD installation but declared it against the common security of the Asia-pacific.
Hence why both are filling the international leadership vacuum with the construction of a multipolar world security framework and new mechanisms for international relations featuring win-win cooperation through defeating the “law of the jungle” which was imposed by the US/NATO on the world.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, during his address to 70the session of UN General Assembly, already issued a loud warning in saying that the “law of the jungle” should not be the way for countries to conduct relations – warmongering will backfire. Now both countries have rejected the shrill American call for global action to a global threat because both have already assembled world nations with their international and regional multipolar institutions.
Interlinking EEU and OBOR together with multipolar institutions
Put simply, Russia and China have created a new window of opportunities for the world by zipping their respective dreams of “Grand Eurasia” and “Modernization of the Ancient Silk Road” together with multipolar international institutions. Therefore, they are shaping the future of the new world through extending and strengthening multipolar world institutions i.e. BRICS, SCO and AIIB as alternates to unipolar institutions such as the IMF, World Bank, NATO and ADB.
In fact the US’ global Hybrid War strategy against China’s Silk Road known as One Belt One Road (OBOR) and Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) brought China and Russia close together in establishing an alternative security system resisting the US/NATO-led Cold War mentality. Both Moscow and Beijing have promised to end-up the US dominance over seas and skies.
First time in history, Chinese naval ships participated in Russian hosted naval wargames from Baltic Sea to Mediterranean Sea while both have vowed to protect each other sovereignty from Black Sea to South China Sea. Hence why both are not only ready for an imminent war but they are also collaborating on different ways to minimize possible damage to the security of multipolar world.
Both Eurasian powers have joined hands to protect world as they are developing and proposing a substantive mechanism in Eurasia with multilateral institutions, which will include security issues, development of relations between the states, organization of the economy, social sphere, management system and search for new drivers of the growth.
For this purpose they are making institutional arrangements to interlink EEU and OBOR together intended to cover common economic space. Russia, Kazakhstan and China have already framed trilateral mechanism to boost the process of interlinking Eurasian Economic Union with Belt Road Initiatives. Although it needs a lot of work and it will take a time but the process has begun to fill the room with mutual collaboration. If it happens it would be a great geopolitical significance as the part of wide economic integration contour.
Despite this Russia and China are also shaping the new future of world by repelling the US led trade wars with their regional and global multilateral intuitions. As I wrote in one of my article about Eurasian Multilateral institutions that Russia and China have founded the one Eurasia’s powerful geo-strategic alliance, known as Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) which considers the security guard of Eurasia while the West also views SCO as alternative to the NATO. Now with the submission of Pakistan and India, SCO has become more powerful than NATO by keeping four nuclear powers; Russia, China, India and Pakistan under one umbrella.
To minimize the monopoly of Western international institutions World Bank and IMF, Russia and China have formulated the powerful economic institution of the BRICS. The world fastest growing economies, Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa are the part of it. Like SCO, the BRICS is also on the expansion mode as China has proposed BRICS plus idea to align other world fastest growing economies with BRICS. Not sure but my calculation lead me that BRICS is the interested to collaborate individually and collectively with the NEXT 11 also known as N-11 emerging economies.
Russia and China have already great strategic and economic influence on these rising economies of 21st century which includes Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Turkey, South Korea, and Vietnam. If Russia and China succeeds to work with these nations, then it will give positive geographical diversification covering Europe, Latin America, Africa, South-East Asia, and the Middle East. For this purpose, BRICS New Development Bank can invest on infrastructure projects in these countries to replace IMF and World Bank. Beside this for the development in Asia, China has also established the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as alternate to Japan-led Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Trade wars and New Multipolar Investment Regime System
Thirsty blood sanctions war against multipolar world countries; Russia, Iran, North Korea hinted that America is using existing international investment regime system dominated by WTO, IMF and WB as tool of trade war to destroy the economy geopolitical opponents. Beside these countries, the US trade war against China has also become visible and there is an also a threat sooner or later sanctions would also be extended to the enormous economic power of China.
Being the architectures of multipolar world, China and Russia were aware of such bloody economic war, therefore they had already formulated an alternative mechanism of international trade and economic law through bypassing Washington controlled international economic institutions. They had already challenged the monopoly of dollar as international currency by establishing the international trade in national and local currencies with their alternative economic institutes. BRICS has given preference to national currencies while Russia and China are also working on de-dollarization by introducing petrogold instead of petrodollar.
Russia being the one of biggest oil and gas exporter has introduced alternative energy trade system to minimize petrodollar hegemony over the organization of petroleum exporting (OPEC) countries. In 1975 all of the OPEC nations had agreed to sell their oil in the US dollars in exchange for American weapons and military protection. Unfortunately this “oil for dollars” system created the artificial American dominance around the globe due to demand for the US dollars.
But with the passage of time, oil exporter countries realized that oil for dollars was a biggest global blunder because they were accepting worthless paper currency for their worthy oil. Russia raised a voice against this petrodollar system by introducing an ancient wisdom; trade in gold. Russia’s proposed Oil for Gold attracted many oil exporters. Today, Russia, Iran, Syria and Venezuela appeared as pressure group on OPEC. They have chosen their national currencies and gold for energy supply. Additionally, like other nations China and India as the biggest energy importers also given a preference to pay in their own currencies.
In fact Dollarization of world appeared immediately after the WW2 with aim to regulate war-torn international economic system by establishing the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, later known as the World Bank), The International Monetary Fund and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT, later known as the World Trade Organization, or WTO). In all this institutional process, the US Dollar played a central role and these economic institutions introduced new fixed exchange rate regime with Dollar.
Hence why, all global currencies were pigged to the US Dollar. But today, the de-dollarization trend has become very popular. This trend was accelerated by the common efforts of Moscow and Beijing as they formulated anti-dollar alliance. Russian President Putin was personally behind the establishment of anti-dollar alliance as in 2014, he sent the governor of the Russian Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina to Beijing for the establishment of a system of multilateral swaps.
Ruble-Yuan swap deal turned BRICS into anti-dollar alliance. Therefore now currency swaps between the BRICS central banks are facilitating trade financing while completely bypassing the dollar. This new alternative system will also act as a de facto replacement of the IMF, because it will allow the members of the alliance to direct resources to finance the weaker countries. In other words, Russia and China by using the potential of BRICS have got success to replace existing international investment regime system with new multipolar investment regime system.
It is plain silly to pretend that we don’t know when we all know that we all know.
“The era of Western domination is coming to an end.” Western elites “should lift their sights from their domestic civil wars and focus on the larger global challenges. Instead, they are, in various ways, accelerating their irrelevance and disintegration.”
Western elites cannot but worry when central banks in China, Russia, India and Turkey actively increase their physical gold stash; when Moscow and Beijing discuss launching a gold-backed currency system to replace the US dollar; when the IMF warns that the debt burden of the global economy has reached $237 trillion; when the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) warns that, on top of that there is also an ungraspable $750 trillion in additional debt outstanding in derivatives.
Mahbubani states the obvious: “The era of Western domination is coming to an end.” Western elites, he adds, “should lift their sights from their domestic civil wars and focus on the larger global challenges. Instead, they are, in various ways, accelerating their irrelevance and disintegration.”
Meanwhile, Eurasian integration, as depicted in Diesen’s book, is slowly but surely redefining the future.
Key economic forums in cities across Eurasia point the way to new power structures rising to challenge Western dominance
Ahead of the crucial Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Qingdao this coming weekend, three other recent events have offered clues on how the new world order is coming about.
The Astana Economic Forum in Kazakhstan centered on how mega-partnerships are changing world trade. Participants included the president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) Jin Liqun; Andrew Belyaninov from the Eurasian Development Bank; former Italian Prime Minister and president of the EU Commission Romano Prodi; deputy director-general of the WTO Alan Wolff; and Glenn Diesen from the University of Western Sydney.
Diesen, a Norwegian who studied in Holland and teaches in Australia, is the author of a must-read book, Russia’s Geoeconomic Strategy for a Greater Eurasia, in which he analyzes in excruciating detail how Moscow is planning “to manage the continent from the heartland by enhancing collective autonomy and influence, and thus evict US hegemony directed from the periphery.”
In parallel, as Diesen argues, Moscow aims “to ensure the sustainability of an integrated Eurasia by establishing a balance of power or ‘balance of dependence’ to prevent the continent from being dominated by one power, with China being the most plausible candidate.”
In a nutshell; this New Great Game installment revolves around “Russia’s strategy to enhance its bargaining power with the West by pivoting to the East.”
Concerning Astana, Diesen told me that the AIIB’s Liqun “took the hardest stance in defense of diversifying financial instruments, while Belyaninov was very critical of anti-Russian sanctions.”
Diesen argues that: “The emergence of economic mega-blocks actually improves economic relations by creating more symmetry. For example, China’s CIPS (Cross-Border Interbank Payment System) undermined the ability of SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) to be used for economic coercion, while CIPS and SWIFT still cooperate. Similarly, the EAEU [Eurasia Economic Union] gets its strength from the ability to integrate with other regions as opposed to isolating itself.”
And here’s the clincher: “China’s cooperation with the EAEU mitigates Russian concerns about asymmetries, and enables greater EAEU-BRI [Belt and Road Initiative] integration under the stewardship of the SCO. Also, unlike the EU, the EAEU provides great benefit to non-members (non-zero sum) by creating an effective transportation corridor with harmonized tariffs, standards, etc.”
Diesen remarked how Liqun, a key character in the whole game, “is very positive about the Eurasian Economic Union and insistent on the positive-sum game of integration of regions.” Liqun is “direct, honest and forceful” and does not refrain from criticizing the Trump administration, arguing “there is not a trade war between the US and China, it is a US trade war against the world.”
Add to the debate the crucial Astana headline, ignored by Western corporate media: Iran signed a provisional free-trade-zone agreement with the EAEU, lowering or abolishing customs duties, and opening the way for a final deal in 2021. For Iran, that will be a golden ticket to do business way beyond Southwest Asia, integrating it further with Russia and also Kazakhstan, which happens to be a key member of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
All about Eurasian integration
The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) is the annual Russian equivalent of Davos. Predictably, coverage on Western media was appalling – at best rehashing bits and pieces of the joint press conference held by presidents Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron.
There was no mention, as Asia Times previously reported, of how Moscow was instrumental in ironing out differences between North and South Korea at the Far East summit in Vladivostok last September, impressing the need for a win-win regional business plan; the integration of the Trans-Siberian with a future Trans-Korean railway, a key plank of Eurasia integration.
When it comes to tracking Eurasia integration, SPIEF is invaluable. The St Petersburg get-together has also been a traditional forum for key SCO discussions. One panel illustrated how the Shanghai forum is fast advancing on the trade and economic front; new members India and Pakistan are now very much active in the SCO Business Council. The discussion of the business, industrial and technological agenda for observer states was also important; that’s where Iran, a future full SCO member, fits in.
Eurasia integration also featured on another panel about new logistical routes opened by international transport corridors – very much the stuff BRI and the EAEU are made of.
And the BRICS revival was also part of the picture, as attested by this panel on the BRICS in Africa “leveraging the Fourth Industrial Revolution” for economic development, featuring the president of the BRICS’s New Development Bank (NDB), Kundapur Kamath, and Jiakang Sun, the executive vice-president of Chinese giant COSCO Shipping Corp.
Yet the clincher in terms of possible game-changing relations between Russia and Europe came from Finance Minister and first deputy Prime Minister Anton Siluanov: “As we see, restrictions imposed by the American partners are of an extraterritorial nature. The possibility of switching from the US dollar to the euro in settlements depends on Europe’s stance toward Washington’s position.”
So once again the EU was on the spot – on both crucial fronts, Iran and Russia. Siluanov left the door wide open: “If our European partners declare their position unequivocally, we could definitely see a way to use the European common currency for financial settlements, such as payments for goods and services, which today are often subject to restrictions.”
Siluanov did not fail to mention that Russia, as much as China and Iran, is already bypassing the US dollar. That accounts for three crucial nodes of Eurasian integration, and that’s the way to go for BRI, EAEU, SCO and BRICS.
The Indo-Pacific enigma
Meanwhile, the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore has been the top venue for defense diplomacy debate in the Asia-Pacific since 2001.
With the “Indo-Pacific” concept is hyped to the extreme, it was up to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the keynote speaker, to strike a deft balancing act.
Even as Modi said the Indo-Pacific should not develop as an exclusive club, he took pains to stress that “Asia and the world will have a better future when India and China work together in trust and confidence. No other relationship of India has as many layers as our relationship with China.”
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi dismissed the “Indo-Pacific” push as an “attention-grabbing idea” that will “dissipate like ocean foam,” as he hopes that the Quad – US, India, Japan, Australia – does not focus on targeting China, like the previous Obama administration “pivot to Asia.”
The problem is the Indo-Pacific focus, in practice, amounts to a military counterpunch to BRI, with no wide-ranging economic cooperation dimension apart from sketchy plans for a “new global infrastructure.” Compare it, for instance, with China financing over 130 projects within the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation framework, integrating Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam into the Chinese economy.
BRI is a multi-trillion-dollar, multinational, decades-long, inclusive project. As Wang Yiwei, a senior research fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies of the Renmin University of China, said “All SCO members are participating in BRI, and this organization [SCO] is the initiative’s security guarantee.”
Yet when it comes to the Indo-Pacific sphere, the US, Japan and Australia are not SCO members. And India still refuses to acknowledge the SCO is interlinked with BRI.
Moreover, everything about BRI cannot but clash front-on with the depth and reach of the US across Asia. So the security stress is inevitable. The 10-nation ASEAN, caught in the middle, is adopting at best a “wait and see” strategy. Indonesia at least is venturing a step ahead, promoting a non-confrontational “Indo-Pacific cooperation concept.”
The bottom line is that China’s relentless drive to multiply Chinese-organized solutions in international relations is unstoppable. As in Wang Yi’s discreet but forceful diplomacy leading to Kim Jong-un’s first visit to China; President Xi solidifying his role as the go-to leader of globalization 2.0; and the Chinese leadership as a whole arguing that the future of Asia-Pacific security cannot be hostage to a Cold War 2.0 mentality.
US Defense Secretary James Mattis’ warning to China in Singapore of “much larger consequences” if its sovereignty expansion across virtually the whole South China Sea is not contained may be an idle threat. Beijing has no intention to restrict freedom of navigation in the South China Sea; for a mercantile giant, that would be counter-productive. The whole game is about high-stakes geopolitical control. Even the new head of the renamed US Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral Philip Davidson, had to admit to the US Senate that short of war between China and the US, Beijing will prevail in the South China Sea.
Welcome to the post-Westphalian world
In his latest, avowedly “provocative” slim volume, Has the West Lost It? former Singaporean ambassador to the UN and current Professor in the Practice of Public Policy at the National University, Kishore Mahbubani frames the key question: “Viewed against the backdrop of the past 1,800 years, the recent period of Western relative over-performance against other civilizations is a major historical aberration. All such aberrations come to a natural end, and that is happening now.”
It is enlightening to remember that at the Shangri-la Dialogue two years ago, Professor Xiang Lanxin, director of the Centre of One Belt and One Road Studies at the China National Institute for SCO International Exchange and Judicial Cooperation, described BRI as an avenue to a ‘post-Westphalian world.’
That’s where we are now. Western elites cannot but worry when central banks in China, Russia, India and Turkey actively increase their physical gold stash; when Moscow and Beijing discuss launching a gold-backed currency system to replace the US dollar; when the IMF warns that the debt burden of the global economy has reached $237 trillion; when the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) warns that, on top of that there is also an ungraspable $750 trillion in additional debt outstanding in derivatives.
Mahbubani states the obvious: “The era of Western domination is coming to an end.” Western elites, he adds, “should lift their sights from their domestic civil wars and focus on the larger global challenges. Instead, they are, in various ways, accelerating their irrelevance and disintegration.”
Meanwhile, Eurasian integration, as depicted in Diesen’s book, is slowly but surely redefining the future.
