Feb. 27, 2026 (EIRNS)—The 143rd consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition on Friday, Feb. 27, put a spotlight on the creation of the United Nations and the ongoing sabotage of the system of law that it begat. The meeting began with remarks by IPC initiator Helga Zepp-LaRouche, who opened with the assessment that “Unfortunately, the clouds of war are massing over our heads.” She noted that U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee advised U.S. embassy personnel to evacuate Israel immediately. Other nations did the same. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has admitted that the United States has intentionally provoked the crisis in Iran via economic warfare measures. There is talk of a British-French initiative for providing Ukraine with nuclear weapons, an insanely provocative move.
There have been additional resignations by European leaders who are implicated in the Jeffrey Epstein files. Zepp-LaRouche pointed out that it is not merely depraved sexual activities that are at issue here; these activities betray a mindset which does not respect human life and human reason, and this mindset is integral to their support for neocon brutality toward Iran, Gaza, Cuba, etc. Alluding to the “America First” slogan, she emphasized, “National interest is fine, but it must be coherent with the idea of the One Humanity First…. We will not allow that the image of Man is dragged into the mud.” She reminded the participants of her longstanding proposal for a New International Security and Development Architecture. EIR is organizing a special emergency conference of the Movement of World Citizens on Monday, March 2 to address the urgent actions needed now.
Jonathan Kuttab is a Palestinian-American international human rights lawyer, expert on international law, and Executive Director of Friends of Sabeel North America, as well as Co-Founder of Nonviolence International. He bemoaned the “collapse of international law and international institutions,” and acknowledged Zepp-LaRouche’s proposal for a new security and development architecture. But he said that he has a different view. He reviewed the history of the creation of the UN and related institutions, and said the structure created at the end of World War II has actually worked quite well for 70 years. Admittedly there are some flaws in it, such as the veto granted to members of the UN Security Council. “I don’t think we should be in a hurry to give up on international law,” he said. “We need to find ways to put some teeth in it.”
Zepp-LaRouche hastened to correct the record, stating that the IPC and Schiller Institute are not recommending an end to international law, but seek to preserve and strengthen it.
Elisabeth Martens, organizer of the petition “For an Immediate Reactivation of the UN Charter In Favor of Multilateralism”, described her organization’s efforts to stop environmental crises, proxy wars, and the danger of nuclear weapons. She said that some people join mystical or spiritual movements to escape the reality of the situation, but we must address that reality. “We can no longer allow the interference of the United States into the affairs of the UN,” she said, and we reject their unipolar world. She also addressed the question of economic policy and the need to restrict financial speculation. With the end of the Cold War, she said, the Western nations created a mafioso-type economy and imposed it on the world. “When money does not serve the real economy, it becomes an uncontrollable machine which spawns wars … the tyranny under which millions of lives are pulverized.”
Father Harry Bury of Minnesota is a member of Twin Cities Nonviolent and the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests; he is also the author of Maverick Priest: A Story of Life on the Edge. He described the murder by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operatives of two Americans in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Members of his organization have invited Pope Leo XIV to go there to provide spiritual leadership. They learned that, due to prior commitments, he is unable to come; they had hoped to discuss the Schiller Institute’s Oasis Plan with him. Father Bury praised the dialogue process, and said that he has learned much from those who disagree with him. Addressing the assembled activists of the International Peace Coalition and the Schiller Institute, he said, “We’re joyful that we can work with you!”
Discussion Among the Featured Speakers
Zepp-LaRouche reviewed the history of the Schiller Institute’s 40-year campaign to rectify the underdevelopment of the Global South, something which the UN has failed to do. “In the West, people have to abandon the idea that the West is somehow superior to the Global South,” she said. “There can be no peace without development.”
Zepp-LaRouche discussed the concept of natural law, the idea that there are laws implicit in the universe which are higher than positive law established by humans. We root our campaign for a new architecture in these ideas, she said.
Kuttab said that the advocates for international law are weak and disorganized, while its opponents have the money and influence. “This is a huge challenge, and I think about it all the time.” The powers-that-be used to insist that they were for human rights, but now they have dropped the pretense.
Diane Sare, an independent U.S. Presidential candidate, recounted recent news reports of a refugee from Myanmar, Nurul Amin Shah Alam, who was nearly blind and could not speak English. He was detained in Buffalo, New York by ICE operatives, and then released at night in front of a closed coffee shop, where he subsequently froze to death. In order to avoid accountability, they classified his death as due to “natural causes.” This is the downfall of American culture, Sare insisted. We have embraced the idea that you cause people to change their behavior through force. President George Washington warned that if the citizenry, after becoming politically empowered by our Constitution, became debased, immoral, and obsessed with revenge, then the nation could fail. We must bridge the gap between the general state of mind of the population, and the true, fully matured nature of humanity.
Martens said we are moving from one system, from one world, to another. There is an economic change which must happen and is happening in other parts of the world. China has shown that it is possible to end poverty. The BRICS organization, the Belt and Road Initiative, these will lead the world forward. Zepp-LaRouche said that China is now the “American System” country, the country of Friedrich List. The Chinese model of cooperation is succeeding; the United States has 800 military bases around the world, and they are becoming more unpopular day by day. Britain’s King George III lost his marbles because he could not live with the success of the American Revolution, and we are seeing a similar phenomenon among the “Epstein class” today.
General Discussion
Sare insisted that “If we fail to prosecute anyone in the Epstein files, our nation will cease to exist,” because the moral depravity of the “Epstein class” is consistent with a willingness to accept the consequences of nuclear war.
A participant asked why the UN General Assembly Resolution 377, “Uniting for Peace” option has not been exercised in the current crisis, why is there no move to relocate the UN Headquarters, when the U.S. refuses visas to people they don’t like, and why there is no effort to enforce UN resolutions regarding Israel? Sare responded that diplomats have received mafia-style threats that prevent them from taking action. But Zepp-LaRouche said that she is totally convinced that these reforms can still happen in the short term.
Zepp-LaRouche concluded by expressing her belief that people will come to recognize that China’s practice of win-win cooperation is much more successful than the “zero-sum-game” model of geopolitics. We must first go through the vale of tears to reach a higher level of development. [eir]
