By Pepe Escobar : posted with permission As Putin meeting looms, no one in Moscow believes any word, promise or cajoling from Erdogan anymore The latest installment of the interminable Syria tragedy could be interpreted as Greece barely blocking a European “invasion” by Syrian refugees. The invasion was threatened by President Erdogan even as he refused the EU’s puny “offer you can refuse” bribe of only one billion euros. Well,
by Pepe Escobar and crossposted with Consortium News It’s quite fitting that the – imperially pre-determined – judicial fate of Julian Assange is being played out in Britain, the home of George Orwell. As chronicled by the painful, searing reports of Ambassador Craig Murray, what’s taking place in Woolwich Crown Court is a sub-Orwellian farce with Conradian overtones: the horror…the horror…, remixed for the Raging Twenties. The heart of our
Pepe Escobar for the Saker Blog : Posted with permission As far as realpolitik Afghanistan is concerned, with or without a deal, the US military want to stay in what is a priceless Greater Middle East base to deploy hybrid war techniques Nearly two decades after the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan post-9/11, and after an interminable war costing over $ 2 trillion, there’s hardly anything “historic” about a possible
Pepe Escobar : Posted with permission and x-posted with Strategic Culture Foundation The New Silk Roads – or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – were launched by President Xi Jinping in 2013, first in Central Asia (Nur-Sultan) and then Southeast Asia (Jakarta). One year later, the Chinese economy overtook the U.S. on a PPP basis. Inexorably, year after year since the start of the millennium, the U.S. share of the
By Pepe Escobar – posted with permission Chinese President Xi Jinping is leading a scientific ‘People’s War’ against the coronavirus President Xi Jinping formally told WHO head Tedros Ghebreyesus, at their meeting in Beijing earlier this week, that the coronavirus epidemic “is a devil and we cannot allow the devil to hide.” Ghebreyesus for his part could not but praise Beijing for its extremely swift, coordinated response strategy – which includes
By Pepe Escobar – posted with permission Coming decade could see the US take on Russia, China and Iran over the New Silk Road connection The Raging Twenties started with a bang with the targeted assassination of Iran’s General Qasem Soleimani. Yet a bigger bang awaits us throughout the decade: the myriad declinations of the New Great Game in Eurasia, which pits the US against Russia, China and Iran, the
Pepe Escobar posted with permission and cross posted with Consortium News (written before Trump’s Speech) President Donald Trump will de-escalate the crisis with Iran when he speaks to the nation at 11 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, a U.S. intelligence source has told me. Last night Iran retaliated for the assassination of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani with missile strikes on two U.S. military bases in Iraq. So far there have
By Pepe Escobar – posted with permission On foreign soil, as a guest nation, US has assassinated a diplomatic envoy whose mission the US had requested The bombshell facts were delivered by caretaker Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi, during an extraordinary, historic parliamentary session in Baghdad on Sunday. Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani had flown into Baghdad on a normal carrier flight, carrying a diplomatic passport. He had been sent by
by Pepe Escobar – posted with permission and x-posted with Consortium News There cannot be a more startling provocation against Iran than what happened in Baghdad. It does not matter where the green light came from for the US targeted assassination of Quds Force commander Major General Qasem Soleimani and the Hashd al-Shaabi second in command Abu Madhi al-Muhandis. This is an act of war. Unilateral, unprovoked and illegal. President
By Pepe Escobar, Lake Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan – posted with permission This journey into the past also reaches the heart of 21st century China’s New Silk Roads strategy t the start of the Tang dynasty, in the early 7th century, a young wandering monk embarked on a 16-year long voyage from the imperial capital Chang’an (today’s Xian) to India to collect Buddhist manuscripts. At the time Chang’an was six times bigger
By Pepe Escobar, On the Pamir Highway, Tajikistan – Posted with permission A privileged microcosm of what is evolving as the intersection between the New Silk Roads and Greater Eurasia This is the second of 2 parts. See part 1 here. Traveling the Pamir Highway, we’re not only facing a geological marvel and a magic trip into ancient history and customs. It’s also a privileged window on a trade revival
By Pepe Escobar, Pamir Highway, Tajikistan – Posted with permission These are the ancient Silk Roads the Taliban will never be able to reach Part 1 of a 2-part series This is arguably the ultimate road trip on earth. Marco Polo did it. All the legendary Silk Road explorers did it. Traveling the Pamir Highway back to back, as a harsh winter approaches, able to appreciate it in full, in
By Pepe Escobar – posted with permission A fuel tax hike set the country ablaze and triggered a social backlash On November 15, a wave of protests engulfed over 100 Iranian cities as the government resorted to an extremely unpopular measure: a fuel tax hike of as much as 300%, without a semblance of a PR campaign to explain the reasons. Iranians, after all, have reflexively condemned subsidy removals for
By Pepe Escobar, Khorgos, Kazakhstan : posted with permission Central Asia, between China and Europe, is bustling We are cruising on a pristine, 380 km-long four-lane superhighway from Almaty to Khorgos – finished in 2016 for $1.25 billion, 85% of the cost covered by a World Bank loan. And then, suddenly, riding parallel to us, there’s the real superstar of New Silk Road connectivity. Meet Yuxinou, the container cargo train
By Pepe Escobar, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan : posted with permission The pros and cons of being the Heartland in the 21st century Crossing Tajikistan from west to northeast – Dushanbe to the Tajik-Kyrgyz border – and then Kyrgyzstan from south to north all the way to Bishkek via Osh, is one of the most extraordinary road trips on earth. Not only this is prime Ancient Silk Road territory but now is
By Pepe Escobar, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan – posted with permission Foreign Minister Zarif sketches Iran-US relations for diplomats, former presidents and analysts Just in time to shine a light on what’s behind the latest sanctions from Washington, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a speech at the annual Astana Club meeting in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan delivered a searing account of Iran-US relations to a select audience of high-ranking diplomats, former Presidents and
By Pepe Escobar, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan – Posted with permission Kazakhstan’s first president has road map for 21st century: global alliance of leaders for nuclear-free world The Astana Club is one of the most crucial annual meetings in Eurasia, alongside the Boao forum in China and the Valdai discussions in Russia. China, Russia and Kazakhstan are all at the forefront of Eurasia integration. No wonder, then, that the 5th meeting of
By Pepe Escobar : Posted with permission Biggest story at ASEAN was convergence of moves toward Asia integration, leaving Delhi out for now A pan-Asia high-speed train has left the station – and India – behind. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which would have been the largest free trade deal in the world, was not signed in Bangkok. It will probably be signed next year in Vietnam, assuming New
By Pepe Escobar – Posted with permission Compare US pillaging with Russia-Iran-Turkey’s active involvement in a political solution to normalize Syria What happened in Geneva this Wednesday, in terms of finally bringing peace to Syria, could not be more significant: the first session of the Syrian Constitutional Committee. The Syrian Constitutional Committee sprang out of a resolution passed in January 2018 in Sochi, Russia, by a body called the Syrian
by Pepe Escobar : posted with permission and x-posted with Consortium News The presidential election in Argentina was no less than a game-changer and a graphic lesson for the whole Global South. It pitted, in a nutshell, the people versus neoliberalism. The people won – with new President Alberto Fernandez and former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK) as his VP. Neoliberalism was represented by Mauricio Macri: a marketing product,
