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By Alfred W McCoy

One of modern history’s major empires is falling apart right now, right before our eyes. Yet precious few in the media have reported on this extraordinary event, much less offered any analysis of its implications for the fast-changing shape of global power.

Over the past 60 years, France has used every possible diplomatic device, overt and covert, fair and foul, to incorporate some 14 African nations into a neocolonial imperium called “Françafrique” — a vast region covering a quarter of Africa and stretching for nearly 3,000 miles from Senegal on the Atlantic coast to Chad in the continent’s center.

While the rest of that continent frequently suffered from wars, coups, and chronic instability, Françafrique long enjoyed comparative peace. By dispatching paratroopers from its many African bases (or secret agents for the occasional assassination), Paris provided a rough version of stability — even if at the price of endemic corruption, entrenched autocratic rule, and deep economic exploitation. Recently, however, a rising nationalist consciousness in many of those relatively new countries has begun chafing against that European land’s repeated transgressions of their sovereignty. As French colonial and post-colonial dominance over this vast region moved ever deeper into its second century, unease bordering on open hostility against that country’s presence began to build.

In less than a year, in fact, the sudden withdrawal of French troops from individual African nations has turned into a full-blown retreat from much of the region. As terrorists affiliated with ISIS first became active in 2014, France deployed some 5,000 elite troops for Operation Barkhane in collaboration with six nations of Africa’s arid Sahel region, the strip of territory extending across the continent, largely south of the Sahara Desert.

Yet just last December, French troops left the Central African Republic after Paris decided that the local government there was “complicit in an anti-French campaign allegedly steered by Russia.” In February, Burkino Faso’s new military government simply expelled French forces and hailed its new “strategic partnership” with Russia. And in August, following back-to-back coups in Mali, that country’s ruling junta grew resentful of the 2,400 French troops stationed there and forced them to withdraw into neighboring Niger, which became the new main base for their operations in the Sahel region. Then, last month, French President Emmanuel Macron was forced to announce that he was pulling his troops and his ambassador out of Niger as well. After seizing power in July, that country’s new military junta had demanded just such a French departure and, to drive the point home, closed its airspace to France. “Imperialist and neocolonialist forces are no longer welcome on our national territory,” the junta announced.

Amid such geopolitical upheaval, a most unlikely man from Moscow appeared on the spot in 2017. His name — now all too well known — was Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder and commander of a notorious mercenary army, the Wagner Group. As the French retreated slowly and exceedingly reluctantly from their post-colonial imperium, Wagner began moving in, becoming Moscow’s surrogate in an ongoing great-power contest for influence and control in Africa.

By the time in late 2022 that France’s failing nine-year effort to secure the Sahel was drawing down, Wagner’s forces were already operating secret gold mines in Sudan, running the largest gold mine in the Central African Republic with projected revenues of $100 million annually, and had earned $200 million since 2021 providing security for Mali, a land roiled by Islamist rebels. In March, Washington warned Chad’s president that Wagner mercenaries were plotting to assassinate him and were also preparing Chadian rebels to attack from their bases in the Central African Republic. After the July coup in Niger, cheering crowds were seen waving (as well as wearing) Russian flags. And as 1,500 French troops and that country’s ambassador were being withdrawn, Niger’s new military leaders promptly contacted Wagner for support, expanding Russia’s sphere of influence in the French imperium it was fast supplanting.

The strategic implications of this shift, should it continue, are potentially profound. As the NATO alliance moved ever closer to Russia’s sensitive western border in the 1990s, Moscow reacted early in this century (prior to the invasion of 2022) with repeated interventions in Ukraine, launched special operations to secure its allies in Central Asia, and, above all, engaged in a little understood geopolitical flanking maneuver across two continents.

The thrust of that move started in 2015 when Moscow leapfrogged over the NATO barrier of Turkey to open a massive air base at Latakia in northern Syria. Soon, Russian planes had reduced rebel-held cities like Aleppo to rubble. In 2021, leapfrogging again, this time over the close American ally Israel, Russia began supplying Egypt with two dozen of its advanced Sukhoi-35 jet fighters so its airmen could compete with Israelis flying advanced American F-35 fighter planes, which Washington refused to supply to Cairo. Completing Moscow’s southern push in the region, Russian President Vladimir Putin began building upon their shared interests as oil exporters to try to befriend Saudi Arabia’s functional leader, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, becoming so close by late last year that Western observers began to express concern about the possible loss of a key ally.

The final geopolitical pivot in Russia’s recent maneuvering proved particularly controversial and so initially remained significantly covert: the Wagner Group was used to extend Russia’s influence country by country, deal by dirty deal, across the Sahel. Should this process continue successfully into the near future, Moscow will have flanked Europe (and so the U.S. as well) by forming a geopolitical arc of influence sweeping south through the Middle East and extending west across the whole of the Sahel that stretches from the Red Sea to the Atlantic Ocean.

For this maneuver to succeed, however, the end of French neocolonialism proved crucial. To appreciate the historical significance of the impending fall of Paris’s post-colonial empire, it’s important to understand something of its tangled history — otherwise it would be hard to grasp the full import of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s extraordinary role as the man on the spot in extending Russia’s influence into Africa for the first time since the Cold War.

The Hidden History of Françafrique

As the bitter, bloody French colonial war in Algeria was winding down to defeat in 1960, President de Gaulle realized that the age of empire was ending and used his enormous prestige to grant independence to 14 West African nations. Yet his move was far from altruistic. As part of his vision of France as an independent global power, he began working to create a post-colonial sphere of influence by subsuming the new nations into an exclusive French zone called Françafrique.

While de Gaulle’s visionary rhetoric inspired an independent foreign policy, his “man of the shadows,” presidential adviser Jacques Foccart, built a full-scale covert apparatus for a post-colonial imperium that became the dark underside of the grand Gaullist state. During his service under Gaullist governments from 1960 to 1997, the shadowy Foccart used the state’s clandestine agency, Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage, to maintain a deft, delicate synergy between metropolitan power in France and covert control of Francophone Africa. As head of de Gaulle’s political party and architect of its secret services, he would become the key link between the French executive and Françafrique’s African leaders, whom he personally selected, befriended, and defended with covert action.

At the moment of independence in 1960, Foccart bound all of those former colonies (except Guinea) to Paris by defense agreements that granted France military bases and the right of armed intervention in each country. In the process, he also developed treaties meant to secure strategic materials (cobalt, copper, oil, and uranium) from those countries, as well as a common currency pegged to the French franc that would ensure control of their economies.

Under this postcolonial iteration of informal empire, French troops shuttled in and out of West Africa, conducting more than 40 military interventions between 1960 and 2002, while maintaining a permanent presence at a half-dozen military bases on the continent. Although the rest of Africa suffered 188 coup attempts from 1956 to 2001, the readiness of the French military to quash any such effort provided Françafrique with what political scientist Crawford Young called an “effective inoculation against conspiracies” and so minimized and even controlled coups. Despite vivid personality cults, systemic corruption, and state terror, French complicity in all of the above assured its African allies of an extraordinary political longevity — exemplified by Omar Bongo who ruled Gabon for more than four decades.

With its lucrative oil concessions and its full integration into Foccart’s network, the exemplary state in Françafrique was undoubtedly Gabon — an unbearably poor country of 500,000 people that was surprisingly rich in natural resources. Three years after independence in 1960, as the country’s president lay dying of cancer in a Paris hospital, Foccart picked Omar Bongo, a veteran of French intelligence with no political base, as the ailing president’s running mate in the next election. That ticket then captured 99.5% of the vote, assuring that Bongo, though still just 31 years old, would succeed the president at his death six months later.

As Gabon’s political opposition revived in 1971, Foccart’s office dispatched the infamous mercenary Bob Denard as a “technical adviser” to President Bongo. Not surprisingly, when an influential opposition leader arrived home one night from the movies, an assassin stepped from the shadows and killed him, also wounding his wife and child. His body was never recovered.

During the long years of his rule, French officials enabled Bongo’s graft, making him a principal shareholder in that country’s lucrative Elf-Total oil company and facilitating illicit payments to him — estimated at $111 million a year — that were only exposed at the 2003 corruption trial of the company’s chief executive.

When he died in 2009 after a rule of 42 years, London’s Telegraph reported that he had looted revenues from the nation’s 2.5 billion barrel oil reserve to “become one of the world’s richest men,” while elevating “corruption to a method of government.” His son Ali-Ben Bongo succeeded him as president, inheriting, along with his siblings, 39 luxury properties in France worth $190 million and a country with a third of its population living on two dollars a day.

The son continued many of his father’s policies, including ruthlessly rigging the 2016 election by enforcing a 99% turnout in key districts. In August, however, after one too many rigged elections and amid an eruption of coups across the region that marked the fading of France’s post-colonial power, Ali Bongo was finally toppled by a military coup, ending a dynasty that had lasted nearly six decades.

Advent of Moscow’s Africa Man

To challenge that French post-colonial imperium built by cunning, corruption, and covert skullduggery, Moscow needed an operative who could match Jacques Foccart’s legendary mastery of the dirty business of empire, measure for measure. And it found him in the person of Yevgeny Prigozhin, one of those quixotic, improbable adventurers who, over the past two centuries, have served as the vanguards of new forms of empire.

Who was that extraordinary individual whose personal initiative shook up the world order in Africa, establishing a Russian mercenary troop presence and ties to governments in at least seven African countries? Emerging from Soviet prisons after a 10-year term for a teenage mugging spree, Prigozhin rose, through Vladimir Putin’s patronage, from a hot-dog vendor on the streets of St. Petersburg to a millionaire caterer for Russian schools and troops.

In 2014, his Wagner group of mercenaries first appeared as the shadowy “little green men” during the Russian seizure of Crimea and then moved on to Syria where they engaged in a war of atrocities. Between conflicts, his troll army fired off disinformation barrages meant to influence the 2016 presidential elections in the United States. As French influence in the Sahel was challenged by terrorist groups, Prigozhin inserted his Wagner mercenaries into the fissures being opened by the ending of Paris’ post-colonial empire and turned those cracks into gaping holes.

When in 2022, as the first year of the Ukraine war was ending with Russian troops suffering demoralizing defeats at Kharkiv and Kherson, Prigozhin expanded his Wagner Syrian and African franchises to Ukraine, fielding some 50,000 convicts as troops for Putin’s military, a force that took heavy casualties while winning the battle for the devastated Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Instead of celebrating his victory, Progozhin was growing ever more dissatisfied with Russia’s military chiefs.

“These are Wagner lads who died today,” he shouted on camera while pointing at a pile of corpses. “Those bastards who don’t give us ammunition, we will fucking eat their guts in fucking hell!” Within weeks his war of words had escalated into open conflict in Russia itself. In late June, Wagner’s troops were suddenly on the road to Moscow — smashing through barriers, shooting down Russian aircraft, and raising doubts about Vladimir Putin’s grip on power.

Flailing desperately to survive after defying Putin and halting the advance of his troops on Moscow, Prigozhin returned to Africa, landing in his private jet at Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic where his Wagner Group has gold mines and a security contract. After a private meeting with that country’s president on August 18th, he flew on to Mali and drove out into the desert where he produced what would turn out to be his last video ever. Holding an assault rifle, he proclaimed: “The Wagner PMC [private military company] makes Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa more free.” Five days later, his private jet crashed on a flight from Moscow, killing Prigozhin and everyone else on board.

Even though Prigozhin was undoubtedly assassinated (like so many of Putin’s critics), his extraordinary relationship with Africa highlights an overlooked aspect of modern empires in what still passes for the post-imperial age. Despite the oft-cited role of military power in creating and maintaining them, individuals have often emerged from the covert realm to play surprisingly significant parts in the making of the post-modern version of empire.

Instead of the gentlemen adventurers of the British imperial age, our modern analogues are usually, like Prigozhin, covert operatives, often from anything but gentlemanly backgrounds. And count on one thing: as the struggle to shape and control northern Africa continues through what will undoubtedly be countless new chapters, Prigozhin will not be the last of those extraordinary secret agents, those men on the spot, who leave their fingerprints on the crime scenes of world history.

Alfred W. McCoy, a TomDispatch regular, is the Harrington professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

18 October 2023

Source: countercurrents.org

By Ellen Isaacs

A hospital bombed, thousands killed, made homeless, deprived of food, water and power. The racist degradation of Zionist Israel has reached a new depth as the number lives it annihilates soars. The one thing certain is that the crimes of Hamas will pale by comparison. Israeli leaders, for over a century, have steadfastly cultivated anti-Arab racism in order to justify their land grabs and oppression of Palestinians – and they have succeeded. Barely an Israeli voice is lifted in opposition, although some Jews in the US and elsewhere are rising to oppose genocide in Gaza, including a huge demonstration at the White House on October 16.

Tools of Imperialism All Along

But this is not the whole story by any means –Zionist Jews managing to equal the brutality of their own historical oppressors. No, even these powerful killers are but the creation, the tools of the world’s mightier imperialists. It was the British, and then primarily the US, who promoted the formation of the Israeli state as oil became the preeminent world resource, most of it in the Middle East. As the British empire disintegrated after World War I, they gave the Zionists a disproportionate share of the land and water of Palestine and allowed the natives to be driven into exile. With the French, they had divvied up the other Arab lands into many countries – Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine – where competing nationalisms were fostered as independence was gained.

With the US as its primary post World War 2 sponsor, Israel became a nuclear power with a strong military and intelligence system. More anxious to share in American largesse than to defend Palestinians imprisoned and belittled in the West Bank and Gaza, neighboring Arab nations did not come to their aid when Palestinians rebelled in 1987 and 2000. Recently several have even signed pacts with Israel (that is, with the US) in order to gain an advantage for themselves- enhanced security for the UAE and Bahrain, sovereignty over Western Sahara for Morocco, cancellation of debts and an end to designation as a terrorist for Sudan. Even Saudi Arabia was about to sign its pact.

Since 2007 Gaza has been turned into a total prison for 2.2 million, where poverty, food insecurity, and lack of adequate health care, jobs, water, sanitation and power stalk the population. Since taking power in 2006, the fundamentalist Hamas, which Israel helped create in the 1980s to counter secular nationalism, has further brutalized the population, stealing aid, monopolizing resources, jailing or killing opponents and living in luxury as the standard of living of the majority sank lower and lower. Occasional futile shows of resistance by Hamas with a few rockets brought huge reprisals resulting in the death of at least 6800 through early 2023.

More Big Powers

But it is no longer just the US that is seeking to maintain and expand its power in the region. After the Iranian revolution against the US backed Shah in 1979, Iran began forging alliances to oppose Israel. In addition to Syria and Lebanon, where they sponsored Hezbollah, they began giving aid to Hamas. They offered military training and $30-50 million annually,¹ now up to $70-100 million. They also sent artillery rockets and, since 2006, have focused on supplying the knowhow and equipment to produce rockets locally. All is smuggled in via tunnels or the sea.²

There has been conflict over whether Iran actually knew about the attack in Israel by Hamas last week. The Wall Street Journal ran an article that quotes senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah saying that Iranians were involved in training for this mission and gave the go ahead in a secret meeting in Beirut.³ The US has denied having any evidence of such collusion, likely wanting to hedge its own bets to avoid increasing conflict with Iran.

The other even bigger player whose role is to be considered is China, Iran’s main trading partner. Because of Western sanctions, selling oil to China is now one of Iran’s major sources of revenue. China supplies Iran with military equipment, technology and assistance with its nuclear program. China has also long supported the PLO in a bid to be an ally of the Muslim world.⁴

Since April, 2023, China has launched the Global Security Initiative (GSI), which aims to create an alternative to US control of the international order. Beijing hopes to establish itself as a source of global security, where it would emphasize internal state security and autonomy.  Its main achievement to date was brokering an agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia, long regional rivals. GSI is being promoted in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Pacific Islands, although it has yet to gain much traction.⁵ Today, China met with 130 Belt and Road Initiative leaders, including such partners the Taliban, Hungary’s Orban, and Putin.⁶ What knowledge China may have had of the plans of Hamas remains unclear.

Consequences Unknown

By realizing the breadth of global players involved, we can see beyond the searing tragedy befalling Gaza to possible far wider consequences. Could a disastrous course of Israeli aggression prompt US involvement, Iranian involvement? Already ten US warships are parked or en route to Israel’s coast. Could the supposed distraction of the US prompt Chinese invasion of Taiwan? There are many possible, unpredictable, and cataclysmic consequences to which this conflict could lead, not unlike the war in Ukraine or contests to come. In the larger picture, we must see that we are in some stage of the ultimate contest between the two imperialist giants of the world, the US and China, teetering over the contests between their seconds like Iran, India and Israel, trampling over the small players in Gaza or Syria or Ukraine who will be crushed.

For us there are two major tasks. We must throw off the nationalism and racism that allow us to be used as players in this deadly imperialist game. We must refuse to hate and fear one another and to fight in these wars. And we must build our own power, allying together and rejecting the structures of capitalism and imperialist rivalry. Today it is Jews and Arabs who must see and ally with each other; indeed all of us must reject nationalism and embrace class struggle. If we do not, the consequence may be our annihilation.

Ellen Isaacs is an anti-racist and anti-capitalist activist and co-editor of multiracialunity.org.

18 October 2023

Source: countercurrents.org

By Countercurrents Collective

The strike on a Gaza Strip hospital that killed more than 600 Palestinians has sparked protests and riots in several Muslim-majority countries on Tuesday night, including Lebanon, Jordan, and Türkiye.

Beirut

In Beirut, where the pro-Palestinian militant group Hezbollah has called for “a day of unprecedented anger,” protesters gathered in front of the U.S. embassy building in the Awkar neighborhood.

They threw stones at the security fence and attempted to scale it. Police responded by firing volleys of tear gas and used water cannons to contain the mob, according to the Lebanese news channel MTV.

Protesters also reportedly attempted to break into the office of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) in downtown Beirut.

Amman

Similar scenes unfolded in Jordan’s capital Amman, where an angry crowd burned Israeli flags and tried to storm the Israeli embassy. An AFP correspondent reported that they broke through the first security barrier, but were later pushed back by the police, which used tear gas.

“Police handled and drove a group of protesters who grouped near an embassy in an attempt to reach the building,” Jordan’s Public Security Directorate said, as quoted by Roya News.

Amman was to host a summit of the leaders of the U.S., Jordan, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday. The Jordanian authorities have since canceled the event in solidarity with the victims in Gaza.

Turkish Cities

Rallies were held in multiple Turkish cities, including Istanbul, Malatya, Gaziantep, and Kayseri.

In Istanbul, Türkiye’s largest city, a huge crowd gathered outside the Israeli consulate, with some protesters launching fireworks, scaling the security fence, and attempting to set the building on fire. Others threw stones and set a US flag on fire, local media reported.

Police intervened, dispersing the rioters. Fahrettin Altun, spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, urged those wanting to express “justified anger” over the deaths in Gaza to respect the law and “preserve common sense.”

The Palestinian authorities blamed Israel for the strike on the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City that claimed more than 600 lives on Tuesday.

The Israeli army and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, said that the hospital was hit by a rocket that was launched by one of the Palestinian militant groups and had veered off course. Israeli officials previously accused Hamas, a group that governs Gaza, of using hospitals, schools, and mosques as a cover for its operatives.

The Israel Defense Forces have been conducting retaliatory strikes on Gaza after Hamas and allied militants launched a surprise attack on Israeli cities on October 7.

Hundreds Dead In Gaza Hospital Bombing

More than 600 people have been reported dead and over 900 wounded after a missile struck the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza. Hundreds of Palestinians were sheltering in the building, as well as patients receiving treatment, and there are fears the death toll will grow higher. Israel, which is bombarding Gaza following a bloody incursion by Hamas, has denied responsibility for the strike and accused Palestinian Islamic Jihad of hitting the facility.

A Palestinian Red Crescent representative on Tuesday described the destruction of the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City as a war crime and genocide, while a local doctor called it a massacre.

According to a source, the final death toll could easily reach more than 1,000.

Al-Ahli hospital is run by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, an Anglican Christian denomination.

Its destruction was denounced by the World Health Organization, Egypt, Qatar and Türkiye, among others.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh insisted that such “brutality” by Israel confirmed its “defeat” on October 7, and said the U.S. was ultimately to blame.

He also called for Palestinians in the West Bank to rise up against Israel.

Within minutes of Haniyeh’s statement, a riot broke out in Ramallah, as hundreds of Palestinians protested against President Mahmoud Abbas’ decision to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday. Abbas has reportedly canceled those plans since, citing the hospital attack.

Russia and the United Arab Emirates have called for an emergency session of the UN Security Council on Wednesday, to discuss the Gaza hospital attack.

Israel And Palestinians Trade Blame For Deadly Hospital Strike

Another media report said:

Israel has denied striking the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza on Tuesday, alleging that a Palestinian Islamic Jihad misfire was to blame. PIJ has accused Israel of trying to cover their “massacre” while Hamas has argued the U.S. is ultimately to blame.

Israel has denied striking the hospital, however. IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said that “an enemy rocket barrage was carried out towards Israel, which passed through the vicinity of the hospital when it was hit.”

“According to intelligence information, from several sources we have, the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization is responsible for the failed shooting that hit the hospital,” Hagari added. The same claim was echoed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly afterwards.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu reposted the IDF claim.

“The entire world should know: It was barbaric terrorists in Gaza that attacked the hospital in Gaza, and not the IDF. Those who brutally murder our children also murder their own children,” Netanyahu added later.

A spokesman for PIJ responded by calling the Israeli claims “completely incorrect” and accusing the IDF of “trying to cover for the horrifying crime and massacre they committed against civilians.”

One Palestinian doctor in Gaza described the attack to Al Jazeera as a “massacre,” while a Red Crescent representative in the West Bank called it “genocide” and “a war crime.”

Israel declared “war” on Gaza after the October 7 incursion by Hamas militants that has claimed the lives of more than 1,300 Israelis. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh told reporters on Tuesday evening that the hospital attack “confirms the enemy’s brutality and the extent of his feeling of defeat,” dubbing it “a new turning point” in the conflict.

Russia and the UAE have called for an emergency UN Security Council session about the incident.

WHO Condemns Gaza Hospital Attack

The World Health Organization (WHO) has denounced the attack on a Gaza hospital, calling for immediate” protection of civilians in the Palestinian territory. Israel has denied responsibility for the strike and blamed Hamas.

The ‘Israel War Room’ account on X, formerly Twitter, said there was “no air activity” by the Israel Defense Force (IDF) at the time of the explosion, and that it “coincided with a salvo of rockets launched at Israel.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has cited the hospital strike to back out of a planned meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, who is expected to visit Israel and Jordan on Wednesday.

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18 October 2023

Source: countercurrents.org

By Michel Chossudovsky

“Those of us who do understand the nefariousness of the empire, and the ever-increasing danger it represents, must be clear that the effective defense of life on planet Earth, including that of the human species itself, inexorably demands the existence of an independent and democratic world forum for a genuine and effective defense of the rights of Mother Earth and of humanity.

That is why we insist, repeat and say time and again that the United Nations as it exists today is useless, inoperative, dysfunctional and an instrument of the empire. That is why it no longer enjoys any confidence or credibility whatsoever.”

—Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann.  Managua, 28 February 2011

This article is dedicated to the memory of my mentor and lifelong friend Padre Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann.

In 2019, the National University of Nicaragua (UNAN) established the Centro de Desarrollo Miguel d’Escoto Brockman (CEDMEB).

Padre Miguel d’Escoto’s legacy will live forever. 

_______________________________________

Introduction 

“We must wrest it from those who have usurped it so that we, the truly concerned for the future of the Earth, can inject new life, relevance and effectiveness into our world Organization.”

Appointed by Washington, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has more than usurped our trust. He is the epitome of ambiguity and DoubleSpeak, particularly in relation to the dramatic social and economic crisis affecting the Global South.

“Poverty is increasing and hunger is growing… the conclusion is clear, the world is failing developing countries,” said UNSG General Antonio Guterres in his opening presentation at the September 2023 G77 Conference Venue in Havana.

Global poverty has become part of a convenient political “narrative.” What has Guterres done to reverse the tide of global poverty? Nothing!

“Guterres got the UN job only because he is gullible and corruptible. He is drumming the drums of the ruling elite’s narrative – be it covid, climate or the energy crisis; or whatever else may hit the crisis-board. Fossil fuel causing climate change is a scientifically proven lie. No trillion dollars can undo it.” (Peter Koenig)

Guterres is not only an instrument of the White House, his 2030 UN Sustainable Development Project is being carried out in coordination with Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum (WEF), which represents the interests of the global financial establishment. Needless to say, Big Money call the shots. 

The UN-WEF Partnership

A strategic partnership was signed in 2019 at a meeting held at UN headquarters between UN Secretary-General António Guterres and WEF Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab “to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”

The 2030 UN Sustainable Development Project is the WEF’s “Great Reset” by another name. 

This partnership is in blatant violation of the UN Charter. The UNSG is in conflict of interest. He has provided a Green Light to the implementation of the WEF’s Agenda on behalf of powerful financial interests and corrupt politicians, which essentially consists in impoverishing the entire planet. 

What should have been debated by the G77 in Havana in September 2023 is the nature of this insidious WEF-UN partnership. It’s a neoliberal agenda to the nth degree on behalf of “Big Money”, to the obvious detriment of the Global South. It is part and parcel of the WEF’s “Great Reset”:

“The UN-Forum partnership will focus on aligning financial systems and accelerating finance flows toward the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Collaboration will seek to build a shared understanding of sustainable investing, especially in small island developing States, least developed countries and landlocked developing countries, and identify and take forward solutions to increase SDG investments” (emphasis added)

To consult the text of the UN-WEF partnership, click here.

“Aligning Financial Systems”

While Guterres refers rhetorically to the failed  “global systems and structures”, he is visibly involved in “aligning financial systems” to the detriment of heavily indebted developing countries, which are the victims of U.S. dollarization.

While the IMF-World Bank Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) launched in the early 1980s prevails, the Neoliberal chessboard has become increasingly complex.

“Aligning financial systems” goes far beyond the imposition of “IMF economic medicine”, which historically has triggered mass poverty throughout the Global South.

While the dollar denominated external debt remains the instrument of economic subservience, “Aligning financial systems” is intent upon opening the door to privatization on a large scale affecting entire sectors and regions of both developing countries and the West.

The large portfolio investment funds including BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard (coupled with Wall Street’s banking cartels) are the driving force. “Their holdings are colossal. BlackRock manages nearly $10 trillion in investments. Vanguard has $8 trillion, and State Street has $4 trillion.” (NYT)

“BlackRock Owns the World”

The portfolio companies have strategic investments in all major regions of the World.

BlackRock operates Worldwide with 70 offices in 38 countries. 

“These oligarchs are accompanied by some super-giant financial institutions, like BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, Fidelity and more which control an estimated 25 trillion dollars-equivalent in assets, giving them a leverage power of well-over a 100 trillion dollars, as compared to the world’s GDP of some 90 trillion dollars. In other words, they can manipulate, control and pressure every government on Mother Earth to do their bidding.” (Peter Koenig)

Video: BlackRock, the Company that Owns the World

Below are three major BlackRock initiatives.

In the case of Ukraine, the levels of indebtedness are beyond description. The agreement with BlackRock is tantamount to the privatization of an entire country.

BlackRock in Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest

The amounts invested in the Amazon are colossal under the auspices of the three portfolio investment giants:

“The 20 institutional investors plowed a combined $54.1 billion into nine mining conglomerates … “Of that amount, $14.8 billion came from just three U.S. firms — BlackRock, Capital Group [a US Financial Services Company] and Vanguard — with BlackRock alone pouring $6.2 billion into the mining companies.” (Mongabay)

BlackRock in Kenya

“BlackRock Alternatives’ public-private finance vehicle, Climate Finance Partnership (CFP), has acquired a 31.25% stake in Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP), the largest wind farm in Africa. The stake was purchased from Vestas, Finnfund, and the Investment Fund for Developing Countries for an undisclosed sum.” (Kenya Wallstreet Journal)

Ukraine Is Being Bought Up by BlackRock and JPMorgan

In recent developments, BlackRock together with JPMorgan “have  come to the rescue of Ukraine”, whose external dollar denominated debt is beyond description. (See Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, August 2023)

The stated objective is “to attract billions of dollars in private investment to assist rebuilding projects in a war-torn country”. (FT, June 19, 2023)

The Privatization of Ukraine was launched in November 2022 in liaison  with BlackRock’s  consulting company McKinsey, a public relations firm which has largely been responsible for co-opting corrupt politicians and officials Worldwide not to mention scientists and intellectuals on behalf of powerful financial interests.

In late December 2022, president Zelensky and BlackRock’s CEO Larry Fink agreed on an investment strategy.

The Hegemonic Triad: UN-WEF-NATO

UN-NATO “Cooperation”

In parallel with the UN-WEF Partnership, the United Nations under Secretary General Guterres has developed a strategic relationship with NATO.

While it is described as a dialogue, NATO is increasingly embedded in the UN system, allegedly endorsing “peace support and crisis management”. The realities are otherwise — the UN is endorsing the US-NATO hegemonic agenda of Global Warfare:

“The complexity of today’s security challenges has required a broader dialogue between NATO and the UN. This has led to reinforced cooperation and liaison arrangements between the staff of the two organisations, as well as UN specialised agencies.” (NATO, July 2023)

NATO and the United Nations: partners in global peace and security

The UN Secretary General’s “Public Relations Ploy”

Providing a “Human Face” to Global Capitalism

UNSG Antonio Guterres has launched a stereotyped public relation’s ploy which is intent upon presenting the UN-WEF-NATO Agenda as a means to resolving the climate crisis, eliminating poverty as well as instating “World Peace.” It’s a lie.

In 2021, in preparation of the 76th UN General Assembly, the UNSG appointed  “advocates” to endorse the Sustainable Development Goals.

In September 2021, the UN Secretary-General appointed four new advocates of the SDGs as part of a reprehensible public relations ploy:

• the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, Kailash Satyarthi;
• the president of Microsoft, Brad Smith;
• the k-pop superstars BLACKPINK
• Chile’s STEM activist – science, technology, Valentina Muñoz. (Chica Rosadita)

This is how public opinion and media coverage is manipulated at the UN General Assembly.

Censorship is applied. Independent analysts are not invited.

I have high regard and admiration for the k-pop singers, but for UNSG Antonio Guterres to have invited them to present a carefully prepared script (on his behalf) to the 76th UN General Assembly was improper and unbefitting.

BLACKPINK (Secretary-General’s Advocates) at the SDG Moment 2022

Also in 2021, Valentina Munoz (La Chica Rosadita), 19 years old, was invited by Guterres to endorse the UN Agenda 2030 in an address to the UN General Assembly:

By John P Ruehl

In the waning days of August 2023, closely following a BRICS summit and mere days ahead of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and G20 meetings, Beijing revealed its latest seemingly innocuous “standard” map. Having been released regularly since at least 2006, China’s standard maps are aimed to eliminate “problem maps” that do not affirm China’s territorial integrity. But the 2023 edition invited ripples of condemnation throughout China’s near abroad and beyond, as it repeated Beijing’s claims on divisive territorial disputes with its neighbors—including the Philippines, which has seen its struggle with China over a small shoal in the South China Sea escalate significantly over recent weeks.

The release of China’s map, coupled with its aggressive border strategies, has created enormous uncertainty across the Indo-Pacific. In a rapidly evolving geopolitical landscape, various actors are wrestling with how to effectively counter China’s actions.

China’s perception of maritime and international laws as products of Western customs has underpinned its level of adherence to them. “Stealthy compliance” allows China to ambiguously accept international law while interpreting it flexibly to advance its territorial claims. Beijing will also explicitly reject international law, exemplified by its dismissal of a tribunal in The Hague that challenged China’s assertions in the South China Sea in 2016. Regularly publishing maps helps assert China’s claims to domestic and international audiences, without putting Beijing in a position where it has to enforce them simultaneously.

Beijing’s strategy has effectively thwarted regional and Western responses and prevented the outbreak of major conflict. Inflaming territorial disputes serves as a bargaining chip in bilateral negotiations and lays the groundwork for potential future claims as China’s strength is expected to increase. Channeling nationalist sentiment outward has also bolstered the Chinese government’s domestic legitimacy and diverted attention from contentious issues like Tibet, Xinjiang, and Hong Kong.

However, the response to China’s 2023 map reveals growing backlash to Beijing’s approach to its border issues and questions over its long-term sustainability.

China has periodically unveiled its nine-dash line map for decades, delineating its claims in the South China Sea. The mystery shrouding whether these claims pertain to water rights, land features, or both, has kept the region on edge. Regardless, they symbolize China’s desire to reduce U.S. control over regional shipping lanes, secure rights over natural resources, and project power beyond its first island chain into the expansive Pacific.

China’s latest map took a bold step by reintroducing a tenth dash east of Taiwan—a largely dormant claim since 2013. The move not only reaffirmed China’s ownership of Taiwan but also extended China’s reach beyond Taiwan’s recognized territorial waters, a direct challenge to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Reasserting this claim may point to growing confidence in Beijing of being able to impose its various claims in the region. China’s map also continued to emphasize China’s rights to the Senkaku Islands, disputed with Japan. Both Taipei and Tokyo vehemently criticized China for the map’s release.

China and ASEAN had meanwhile been negotiating a code of conduct for the South China Sea, reaching an agreement in July to accelerate the process. The release of the 2023 map just days before the ASEAN summit in Indonesia naturally triggered swift rejection from member states such as Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, which have longstanding wariness of Chinese maritime territorial ambitions.

China occupied the Paracel Islands, contested by Vietnam, in 1974 and engaged in a brief skirmish with Vietnam over the Johnson South Reef in 1988. The Philippines was meanwhile forced to concede Mischief Reef to China in 1995 but later stranded a warship on the Second Thomas Shoal in 1999 to enforce its claims there. Chinese forces steadily took control over the Spratly Islands (including by creating artificial islands) over the last decade, while the 2012 Scarborough Shoal standoff saw China gain effective control over a shoal against the Philippines. Malaysia has also seen increasing naval confrontations with China in recent years.

Under former Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte, Manila pursued a more hospitable approach to China and its territorial claims. But since 2022 under President Bongbong Marcos, the Philippines has taken a renewed confrontational strategy in confronting China, including blocking Chinese attempts in recent weeks to deny resupply efforts to the Filipino warship on the Second Thomas Shoal. Vietnam has also drawn closer to the U.S. in recent years, largely in response to China, and the 2023 map may also convince Malaysia to do so as well.

However, not all ASEAN states are willing to coordinate with the U.S. and confront Beijing. Indonesian officials downplayed the 2023 map’s significance, and days later inaugurated a China-backed high-speed rail project. Similarly, Brunei raised limited objections to the map, reflecting its pledge with China made in July 2023 for greater cooperation. Many other ASEAN member states maintain substantial trade ties with China, tempering their willingness to take a firm stance even amid the release of another provocative Chinese map.

China’s coast guard, navy (now the world’s largest), and militarized fishing fleets also deter countries from escalating disputes in the South China Sea. However, resisting China’s territorial claims is complicated because many countries are also embroiled in disagreements with one another. Taiwan, for instance, claims Japan’s Senkaku Islands, while Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, Indonesia, and the Philippines have their own disputes. By inflaming its own border disputes, China often exacerbates other existing conflicts, and other countries may opt to avoid involvement because they fear it could lead to more tension with their other neighbors.

China’s land border disputes were also thrust into the spotlight with the unveiling of its 2023 map. Longstanding border issues with ASEAN member Myanmar persist, but Myanmar’s internal strife and economic reliance on China have rendered moot any serious opposition to Chinese border policies.

Instead, China’s most serious border dispute is with India, involving a poorly defined 2,100-mile international border that was never demarcated. China and India both claim sovereignty over Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh. In 2020, the two countries had their first deadly skirmish in 45 years, with another violent clash in 2022. Beijing and New Delhi have also authorized infrastructure projects in the disputed regions to solidify their claims and ease logistical issues. India lodged an official diplomatic protest against China for its 2023 map, extinguishing any hopes for a potential thaw in India-China relations that had been suggested after the BRICS summit in South Africa in August.

India has also supported Bhutan in its territorial disputes with China. Bhutan requested and received Indian assistance in 2017 to repel Chinese troops and construction workers that had entered Bhutan, while China made new territorial claims in Bhutan in 2020. But in a surprising turn of events in April 2023, Bhutan appeared to partially acquiesce to China and explore concessions by agreeing to a joint technical team with China to address their territorial issues.

India’s attempt to rally regional opposition against China has also been complicated by Nepal, which has territorial disputes with both China and India. Nepal’s protest against China’s 2023 map also criticized the inclusion of several territories as part of India which it claims as its own. Beijing has consistently accused India of encroaching on Nepalese territory to undermine New Delhi’s territorial claims and take away attention from its own dispute with Nepal.

China’s 2023 map further stirred controversy by reviving a settled dispute with Russia. Although both countries resolved longstanding border disputes in the 1990s and 2000s, China’s latest edition claimed a small island that was divided between the two countries in 2005. Russian officials dismissed the map’s claims, stating the issue had already been resolved.

Marking the island as such may have been a retaliatory gesture by China in response to a Russian map from 2022 showing Aksai Lachin and Arunachal Pradesh in India. It also likely appealed to nationalist elements within China critical of Russia’s territorial gains from unequal treaties during the 19th and 20th centuries. But China’s assertiveness also serves as a signal to Russia as its dependence on China has grown since its invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin’s tepid response reflected its increasing unwillingness to confront Beijing.

Barely three weeks after the release of China’s map, China and Syria, an important Russian ally, announced the formation of a strategic partnership. Together with competing Chinese and Russian interests in Central Asia, the 2023 map marks another subtle but notable test for the Sino-Russian no-limits partnership announced in February 2022.

China’s assertions are also bolstered by the United States’ historical wavering on international law. The U.S. was accused of breaking international law by the International Court of Justice by mining Nicaraguan harbors and supporting rebels in the country in the 1980s. Furthermore, the U.S. has yet to ratify the UNCLOS, a significant maritime framework. Washington’s inability to mediate the 2012 dispute between the Philippines and China encouraged Beijing to test the United States’ willingness to defend the region. As the U.S. seeks to rally countries into conducting freedom of navigation exercises in the region, China will increasingly aim to disrupt them and establish squatter’s rights.

Concordantly, Beijing will continue to block attempts to “internationalize” its territorial disputes, opting for multilateral or bilateral talks where it can leverage its strengths. Keeping these disputes ongoing (or reigniting them) puts pressure on its neighbors and fuels nationalist sentiment in China, with claims likely to escalate if Beijing perceives its position as stronger.

However, China’s increasingly aggressive foreign policy under President Xi Jinping runs the risk of turning the country into a regional antagonist. Central Asian states, which also solved their territorial disputes with China, are also likely increasingly nervous. The riots in China against Japanese businesses during heightened tension over the Senkaku Islands in 2012 serve as a stark reminder of how exploiting nationalist sentiment can spiral out of control and damage China’s reputation as an attractive place for investment. For the U.S., successfully rallying the region becomes much easier when it can highlight China’s self-interested actions.

China’s enigmatic and assertive border strategies have far-reaching implications for regional and global stability. While its tactics have yielded short-term benefits, they carry the risk of escalating disputes into conflicts and generating significant international backlash. The current geopolitical landscape remains dynamic, with major powers and smaller countries grappling to find an effective response to Chinese calculations.

John P. Ruehl is an Australian-American journalist living in Washington, D.C., and a world affairs correspondent for the Independent Media Institute.

17 October 2023

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr Ramzy Baroud

At one time, the ‘Arab-Israeli Conflict’ was Arab and Israeli. Over the course of many years, however, it was rebranded. The media is now telling us it is a ‘Hamas-Israeli conflict’.

But what went wrong? Israel simply became too powerful.

The supposedly astounding Israeli victories over the years against Arab armies have emboldened Israel to the extent that it came to view itself, not as a regional superpower, but as a global power as well. Israel, per its own definition, became ‘invincible’.

Such terminology was not a mere scare tactic aimed at breaking the spirit of Palestinians and Arabs alike. Israel believed this.

The ‘Israeli miracle victory’ against Arab armies in 1967 was a watershed moment. Then, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Abba Eban, declared in a speech that “from the podium of the UN, I proclaimed the glorious triumph of the IDF and the redemption of Jerusalem.”

This, in his thinking, could only mean one thing: “Never before has Israel stood more honored and revered by the nations of the world.”

The sentiment in Eban’s words echoed throughout Israel. Even those who doubted their government’s ability to completely prevail over the Arabs, joined the chorus: Israel is unvanquishable.

Little rational discussion took place back then, about the actual reasons why Israel had won, and if that victory would have been possible without Washington’s complete backing and the West’s willingness to support Israel at any cost.

Israel was never a graceful winner. As the size of territories controlled by the triumphant little state increased by three-fold, Israel began entrenching its military occupation over whatever remained of historic Palestine. It even began building settlements in newly occupied Arab territories, in Sinai, the Golan Heights and all the rest.

Fifty years ago, in October 1973, Arab armies attempted to reverse Israel’s massive gains by launching a surprise attack. They initially succeeded, then failed when the US moved quickly to bolster Israeli defenses and intelligence.

It was not a complete victory for the Arabs, nor a total defeat for Israel. The latter was badly bruised, though. But Tel Aviv remained convinced that the fundamental relationship it had established with the Arabs in 1967 had not been altered.

And, with time, the ‘conflict’ became less Arab-Israeli and more Palestinian-Israeli. Other Arab countries, like Lebanon, paid a heavy price for the fragmentation of the Arab front.

This changing reality meant that Israel could invade South Lebanon in March 1978, and then sign the Camp David Peace Accords with Egypt, six months later.

While the Israeli occupation of Palestine grew more violent, with an insatiable appetite for more land, the west turned the Palestinian struggle for freedom into a ‘conflict’ to be managed by words, never by deeds.

Many Palestinian intellectuals make a point of arguing that “this is not a conflict”, that military occupation is not a political dispute, but governed by clearly defined international laws and boundaries. And that it must be resolved according to international justice.

That is yet to happen. Neither was justice delivered, nor an inch of Palestine was retrieved, despite the countless international conferences, resolutions, statements, investigations, recommendations, and special reports. Without real enforcement, international law is mere ink.

But did the Arab people abandon Palestine? The anger, the anguish, and the passionate chants by endless streams of people who took to the streets throughout the Middle East to protest the annihilation of Gaza by the Israeli army, did not seem to think that Palestine is alone – or, at least, should be left fighting on its own.

The isolation of Palestine from its regional context has proven disastrous.

When the ‘conflict’ is only with the Palestinians, then Israel determines the context and scope of the so-called conflict, what is allowed at the ‘negotiations table’, and what is to be excluded. This is how the Oslo Accords squandered Palestinian rights.

The more Israel succeeds in isolating Palestinians from their regional environs, the more it invests in their division.

It is even more dangerous when the conflict becomes between Hamas and Israel. The outcome is a whole different conversation that is superimposed on the truly urgent understanding of what is taking place in Gaza, in the whole of Palestine at the moment.

In Israel’s version of events, the war began on October 7, when Hamas fighters attacked Israeli military bases, settlements, and towns in the south of Israel.

No other date or event prior to the Hamas attack seems to matter to Israel, to the West and to corporate media covering the war with so much concern for the plight of Israelis, and complete disregard to the Gaza inferno.

No other context is allowed to spoil the perfect Israeli narrative of ISIS-like Palestinians disturbing the peace and tranquility of Israel and its people.

Palestinian voices that insist on discussing the Gaza war within proper historical contexts – the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948, the occupation of Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, the siege on Gaza in 2007, all the bloody wars before and after – are simply denied platforms.

The pro-Israel media simply does not want to listen. Even if Israel did not go as far as making unfounded claims about decapitated babies, the media would have remained committed to the Israeli narrative, anyway.

Yet, if Israel continues to define the narratives of war, historical contexts of ‘conflicts’, and the political discourses that shape the West’s view of Palestine and the Middle East, it will continue to obtain all the blank checks necessary to remain committed to its military occupation of Palestine.

In turn, this will fuel yet more conflicts, more wars and more deception regarding the roots of the violence.

For this vicious cycle to break, Palestine must, once more, become an issue that concerns all Arabs, the whole region. The Israeli narrative must be countered, western bias confronted, and a new, collective strategy formed.

In other words, Palestine cannot be left alone anymore.

Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle.

17 October 2023

Source: countercurrents.org

By Countercurrents Collective

Two recent incidents in the area of geopolitics have attracted notice. One is related to the U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the other is related to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Antony Blinken

According to a report by The Washington Post, Saudi’s crown prince snubbed the U.S. Secretary of State by making him wait hours for a meeting before postponing it.

Saudi Arabia’s ruler kept the U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, waiting for hours for a meeting, then did not show up until the next day, in an astonishing snub to the U.S.’ top diplomat, The Washington Post said. 

The report said:

In the wake of the Hamas terror attacks in Israel, Blinken last week visited several U.S. allies in the Middle East in a bid to rally them around the U.S.’ position, including Mohamed bin Salman.

The core goal of the trip was to persuade the leaders to condemn Hamas’ brutal violence, and try and tamp down unrest in their countries sparked by the new fighting.

But Blinken reportedly got a cold reception in Riyadh, where key differences between the U.S. and Saudis emerged.

Blinken had expected to meet Mohamed bin Salman in the evening after touching down on Saturday, but was kept waiting for hours, with the crown prince eventually showing up the next morning, the report said.

In the meeting, the crown prince reportedly called for Israel to halt military operations “that claimed the lives of innocent people,” after Israel bombarded the densely populated Gaza strip, and imposed a blockade on food, fuel, and other supplies. He also reportedly called for the conflict to be de-escalated.

The Saudi position is in contrast to that taken by the Biden administration. The U.S. president has backed Israel’s bid to eliminate Hamas in the wake of the terror attacks, but has called for civilian lives to be protected.

The report said:

Blinken’s attempts to find common ground with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, another U.S. regional ally, also met with little success.

There were signs in recent weeks that Saudi Arabia and Israel were on the verge of a historic agreement, that would’ve seen relations between them normalized. Analysts believe that among Hamas’ core aims in launching the October 7 attacks was ruining the talks.

Saudi Arabia has long been among the U.S.’ key regional allies, but in recent years its ruler has sought to steer a more independent course for the kingdom, forming closer ties with U.S. rival China. Last year, the Saudis snubbed the Biden administration and refused to increase oil production.

The Washington Post said (Blinken meets resistance in courtship of Egypt and Saudi Arabia on Gaza war):

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken faced stiff resistance from the Arab world’s most powerful strongmen on Sunday, trying to convince Egypt’s Abdel Fatah El-Sisi and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to embrace Washington’s view of the Israel-Hamas conflict, despite deep public sympathies for the Palestinian cause in the respective countries.

Putin

Russia no longer trusts the U.S. on anything, while China has been reliably delivering on its promises, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

He contrasted the trustworthiness of the two nations in an interview with political correspondent Wang Guan, published in full on Monday. The journalist spoke to the Russian leader on behalf of the China Media Group.

U.S. Cannot Be Trusted

Washington has a habit of discarding previous agreements depending on political whims, as seen with its exit from the multilateral agreement on the Iranian nuclear program, Putin said, adding that the Ukraine conflict is rooted in the same problem.

The Russian president said: “We were told as far back as 1991 – by the then-U.S. administration – that NATO would not expand further east. Since then, there have been five waves of NATO expansion.”

He asked: “How can we agree on anything if every new administration starts from scratch?”

Rules-based Order Is Nonsense

The U.S.-promoted concept of a ‘rules-based order’ is colonialism in disguise, Putin argued, as Washington decides on what those rules are on a case-by-case basis.

The Russian president said: “How can one talk about order based on rules that no one has ever seen? In terms of common sense, it is nonsense. But it is beneficial to those who promote this approach.”

Colonial powers of the past claimed they were “bringing enlightenment” and “benefits of civilization” to the territories they held, the Russian president said. U.S. exceptionalism implies that Americans perceive the rest of the world as “second-rate people,” just like the colonialists of history.

Moscow rejects this approach and strives for a fair multipolar world, where all nations are treated as equals, according to the president.

The Western-promoted “rules-based order” is merely a cover for colonialism, as the presumed rules have never been agreed-on by anyone and are ever-shifting from one case to another, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

The president made the remarks in an exclusive interview with state-run broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) that was aired on Monday.

“Have you ever seen these rules? No, because no one has ever written them, and no one has ever agreed to them with anyone. How can we talk about order based on rules that no one has seen?” Putin stated.

“If no one has ever seen these rules, it means that those who talk about themselves come up with these rules from case to case in a way that suits their own interests. This is the essence of the colonial approach,” Putin noted.

Colonialism has always been based on supremacist ideas, segregating people into different “classes.”

“Colonial countries have always believed themselves to be first-class people. After all, they always said that they bring enlightenment to their colonies, that they are civilized people and bring the benefits of civilization to other peoples, who are considered to be second-class,” Putin stressed.

The colonial mindset remains strong, he noted, with all the U.S. talk of its “exceptionalism,” for instance, stemming precisely from it. “That is, when they say that they are exceptional in the United States, it means that there are other people, people of some other second class. How can one perceive this? These are the rudiments of the colonial mindset, nothing else,” he added.

The approach exhibited by Russia and China is entirely different from that shown by the West, with Moscow and Beijing both believing that treating all nations equally is the cornerstone of the emerging multipolar world and the basis of cooperation between the two nations themselves, Putin stressed.

“We proceed from the fact that all people are equal, everyone has the same rights, the rights and freedoms of one country and one people end where the rights and freedoms of another person or of an entire state start. This is how multipolar world should gradually be born,” the president explained.

Multipolarity Is Inevitable

A new global arrangement is coming, one way or another, Putin predicted. He said: “We can speed up this process or someone can try to slow it down and maybe even achieve some kind of reduction in the pace of building a multipolar world. Anyway, its creation is inevitable.

This year’s expansion of the BRICS group of leading non-Western economies was a major step in that direction, Putin believes. With the inclusion of six new members, it has surpassed the West’s G7 club in economic strength, he noted.

He said: “No one wants to play second fiddle to some sovereign, everyone wants equal rights. And when they join BRICS, they see that we can achieve this goal.”

Kiev’s Battlefield Losses

Putin outlined the history of Russia’s hostilities with its neighbor, from the 2008 NATO pledge to make Ukraine a member, to the Western-backed 2014 armed coup in Kiev and the conflict in Donbass, to the refusal of the Ukrainian government to implement a roadmap for reconciliation with rebels, and its decision last year to reject a draft truce in favor of a hoped-for military victory against Moscow.

“They launched in June an active military operation, the so-called counter-offensive,” the president said of the latest phase of the confrontation. He said: “No results achieved so far, only massive losses. The losses are simply huge, at a ratio of one to eight.”

Russia wants the conflict to be resolved and believes that China’s proposal may serve as a basis, the president noted – but it is up to Ukraine to make talks possible, as it has passed a law banning negotiations with Putin.

Xi’s Word Is His Bond

A large portion of the interview was dedicated to Russian-Chinese cooperation, and Putin’s friendship with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which he believes has contributed to the rapid development of ties between the nations over the past 15 years.

The Russian leader called his Chinese counterpart “attentive to detail, cool-headed, business-minded and a reliable partner,” stressing that he especially values Xi’s trustworthiness.

Xi’s strategic approach to governance distinguishes him from “people whom we call ‘time servers’ who are there for a brief moment just to show off on the international stage, and then they are gone,” Putin said.

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17 October 2023

Source: countercurrents.org

A man carries a child injured by an Israeli airstrike at a hospital in Rafah, Gaza on October 13, 2023.
(Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images)

By Jake Johnson

Israel’s relentless bombing campaign in the occupied Gaza Strip has killed more than 1,000 Palestinian children—roughly one every 15 minutes—since it began on October 7, according to the latest tally from Defense for Children International–Palestine.

Children have faced some of the most horrific impacts of Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza, where roughly half of the population is under the age of 18. Israel has dropped more than 6,000 bombs on Gaza—home to 2.3 million people—in the wake of Hamas’ deadly attack.

Mohammad Abu Rukbeh, senior Gaza field researcher at DCIP, said in a statement Tuesday that “the repercussions of this war will not only affect the victims we have lost, some of which are still trapped under the rubble of their homes, and not only the residential areas that have been completely destroyed, including our own homes, but the psychological impact on us civilians and our children will be catastrophic.”

Research released before Israel’s latest bombardment of Gaza found that four out of five children in the Gaza Strip reported living with depression, grief, and fear amid a yearslong Israeli blockade and frequent outbreaks of deadly violence.

Israel’s current military campaign in Gaza is its deadliest to date, and the unlawful total blockade it has imposed on the strip has further deprived children and the rest of the civilian population of food, fuel, electricity, and clean water. Some Gazans have resorted to drinking seawater and water contaminated by sewage, and hospital staff have reportedly had to drink from IV solution bags.

“Israeli authorities cut water supply to Gaza on October 9, and since then, all three water desalination plants in Gaza have been forced to cease operations,” DCIP noted Tuesday, citing the United Nations. “Even though Israeli authorities claimed to resume water supply to southern Gaza yesterday, there is no electricity to operate water pumps, Israeli airstrikes have damaged many water lines, and very little water in Gaza is drinkable in the first place.”

GAZA UPDATE: More than 1,000 Palestinian children in Gaza have been killed by Israeli attacks. Additional children are unaccounted for and missing under the rubble of destroyed buildings, indicating the true death toll is much higher.

Our Oct 16 report: https://t.co/gRv7fQ4cut pic.twitter.com/TJOlXAPgaM

— Defense for Children (@DCIPalestine) October 16, 2023

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said late Monday that Israel has agreed to develop a plan to let desperately needed humanitarian aid reach Gazans, but Israel has continued its destructive bombing campaign and refused to allow a ceasefire as civilians struggle to find safety in the besieged enclave.

Al Jazeerareported that more than 70 people were killed in their homes on Tuesday “after Israel conducted air raids on Gaza’s Khan Younis, Rafah, and Deir el-Balah.”

Last week, the Israeli military ordered the entire population of northern Gaza to evacuate to the south ahead of an expected ground invasion and was subsequently accused of bombing supposed “safe routes” that civilians were using to flee.

Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement Tuesday that “appalling reports that civilians attempting to relocate to southern Gaza were struck and killed by an explosive weapon must be independently and thoroughly investigated, as must all allegations of serious violations of international humanitarian law.”

“Those who managed to comply with the Israeli authorities’ order to evacuate are now trapped in the south of the Gaza Strip, with scant shelter, fast-depleting food supplies, little or no access to clean water, sanitation, medicine, and other basic needs,” said Shamdasani. “We echo the U.N. call for a humanitarian pause to enable aid delivery and to prevent further suffering and deaths of the already much beleaguered civilian population of Gaza. Urgent immediate, unimpeded humanitarian access needs to be ensured.”

Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.

17 October 2023

Source: countercurrents.org

On October 7, 2023 Hamas launched an unprecedented multi-faceted and sustained assault on Israel from Gaza Strip. Since then, Israel has launched a brutal and vicious attack on about 1.1 million Gazan population who had already been living under a brutal military siege. At the time of writing this statement, there were credible reports in the media suggesting that Israel had cut off electricity, water and food supply for an already traumatized population. It had ordered northern Gaza residents to flee to the South. To make matters worse, Egypt has also closed its sides of the border.

Most residents of Gaza are descendants of refugees of the Nakba. This might be the second biggest act of population transfer and ethnic cleansing in Palestine’s history with multiple episodes of the same. Israel has been bombarding Gaza relentlessly with credible reports suggesting the use of white phosphorus. If that was not enough, there is also a sustained disinformation campaign that has been waged against Hamas and Palestinians on social media.

India which had a long history of supporting Palestinian people shamefully sided with the Occupying forces within hours of attack by Hamas. There were no statements issued to condemn the longest military Occupation in modern history and the siege that made a million people live in an open-air prison. After public outcry and a better assessment of sentiments in the Global South, the Indian government did walk back on its initial statement with an oft-repeated but now meaningless statement of supporting an independent Palestine. The anchors of the mainstream Indian media who could not move out of their studios to cover the ongoing ethnic violence in the north-eastern state which now enters its fifth month, travelled to Israel and are shamefully presenting an ongoing genocide as nothing but a turf-war. The Western media is no better.

One may ask what exactly would it take for these media houses to get an education in international law, history, or even common decency? The streets might teach them more than any Ivy League college ever did. And the streets have spoken for Palestinians in an unprecedented support for Palestinian lives. The information about what had happened with Palestinians and  what is happening with them is easily available on the internet. Ignorance is not a condition. It is a choice.

Settler colonialism itself is a war. Siege is a war. Israel had been waging a brutal war against Palestinian people since its very inception. Hamas’ attack proves that the Occupation and siege are unsustainable. It asks people of conscience to take a hard long look at how their brethren in another part of the world are being treated. It asks to hold ourselves accountable.

The Indo-Palestine Solidarity Network (IPSN) of likeminded people drawn from all parts of the country is committed to justice and freedom for Palestine. We seek an end to the racist- colonialist- apartheid politics of Israel through which Israel’s Occupation of Palestinians and their lands have continued for the last 56 years. At this time of the brutal and unconscionable war on the suffering people of Gaza who are being bombed mercilessly with nowhere to go, and at the same time having food, water, fuel and power cut off we reiterate our commitment to the long-suffering but resilient Palestinian people. IPSN demands the indictment of Israel by theInternational Community for attempted genocide in addition to the other war crimes.

We also, at this critical time, urge the Indian government to revisit its official stand with respect to the hundred-year war on Palestine. It needs to reaffirm the historical stand that it maintained during the Non-Alignment Movement where it maintained a morally righteous decision of denouncing Israel’s many war crimes and siding with the Palestinian people. We once again urge the International community to come together in pressuring Israel to stop its onslaught on Gaza, and end its military occupation and siege.

7 October 2023

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky and Caroline Mailloux

The Hamas Partnership is confirmed by Netanyahu

“The Cat is Out of the Bag”

“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” he [Netanyahu] told a meeting of his Likud party’s Knesset members in March 2019. “This is part of our strategy – to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.” (Haaretz, October 9, 2023, emphasis added)

Does this statement not suggest that Netanyahu and his military-intelligence apparatus are responsible for the killings of innocent Israeli civilians? 

“Support” and “Money” for Hamas. 

“Transferring Money to Hamas” on behalf of Netanyahu is confirmed by a Times of Israel October 8, 2023 Report:

“Hamas was treated as a partner to the detriment of the Palestinian Authority to prevent Abbas from moving towards creating a Palestinian State. Hamas was promoted from a terrorist group to an organization with which Israel conducted negotiations through Egypt, and which was allowed to receive suitcases containing millions of dollars from Qatar through the Gaza crossings.” (emphasis added)

The Dangers of Military Escalation

Let us be under no illusions, this “false flag” operation is a complex military-intelligence undertaking, carefully planned over several years, in liaison and  coordination with US intelligence, the Pentagon and NATO.

In turn, this action against Palestine is already conducive to a process of military escalation which potentially could engulf a large part of Middle East.

Michel Chossudovsky: Interview with Caroline Mailloux

Video

MICHEL CHOSSUDOVSKY – FALSE FLAG: ERADICATING GAZA FROM THE MAP

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17 October 2023

Source: globalresearch.ca