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Uzbek President Urges: Engage With Afghanistan at Tashkent Conference

Uzbek President Urges: Engage With Afghanistan at Tashkent Conference

July 28, 2022 (EIRNS)—A July 26-27 conference in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, brought together 100 delegations representing 30 countries, to discuss the current situation in Afghanistan and prospects for future development. The conference was convened by Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who has taken the lead in urging the international community to help stabilize Afghanistan economically and politically.

The members of the Afghan delegation who attended, led by acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, were reportedly upbeat and came with a message that their government had taken certain steps to comply with international requirements and that they now required Western investment. In this context they called for the U.S. and its Western allies to unfreeze the $9 billion in funds that were illegally seized from Afghanistan’s Central Bank in August of 2021 after the Taliban took power. Russia’s representative, Zamir Kubilov, called the West’s seizure of those funds “outright robbery,” TASS reported.

One proposal that is reportedly being discussed by U.S. and Swiss officials, and which has a bad stench to it, is the idea of setting up a special trust fund with the seized assets that would be managed by an international board—out of the control of the Afghan government. It would be modeled on the World Bank’s corrupt Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund, which threw around money on failed projects that did nothing to improve the lives of Afghan citizens, keeping the old, rotten structures in place. A careful investigation of this proposal is in order.

Speaking on behalf of President Mirziyoyev, presidential envoy Abdulaziz Kamilov delivered a forceful message. He warned that the international isolation of Afghanistan “shall inevitably lead to further deterioration of the humanitarian situation. It is important not to allow this, since the fate of millions is at stake.” The Afghan government has taken certain steps to improve the socioeconomic situation and establish friendly relations with neighboring countries and mutually-beneficial cooperation with the international community. “We must foster this and endorse these efforts,” Mirziyoyev said, while at the same time insisting that the international community’s conditions for formal diplomatic recognition—an inclusive government representing all layers of society with full respect for human rights–be met.


Lavrov’s In-Depth Briefing on the Strategic Situation to African Union Members

July 28 (EIRNS)—Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov culminated his four-nation African tour on July 27 in Addis Ababa with a thorough, broad-ranging briefing at the Russian embassy to the permanent representatives of the member countries of the 55-nation African Union and to the accredited diplomatic corps in Ethiopia. As he did in similar briefings in the three other nations he visited—Egypt, Uganda and the Republic of Congo—Lavrov cut through Western lies about how Russia had caused the global food and fertilizer shortage, explaining the role that sanctions played, but also hitting the “reckless policy of the Western countries on the so-called Green Transition, and all this has brought the price of fertilizers high, which of course affected the price of food.” Problems in the world food market actually started at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, he noted.

The Foreign Minister also went through a detailed history of the 2014 Maidan coup, the years-long assault by Kiev Nazis on the populations of the Donbas and the “red lines” that Russia had established, the crossing of which would force to respond.

Lavrov made clear that a new paradigm is emerging to replace the old “rules based order” –an order in which there is “no single criteria, no single principle except one. If I want something, you have to obey. If you don’t obey you will be punished.” He expressed the certainty that the overwhelming majority of the world’s countries don’t want to live “as if the colonial times came back.” They prefer to be independent, to rely on their own tradition, their history, and their old friends. They don’t wish to betray their old friends. That is clear, he said, in the fact that except for two or three developing countries, “no one else in Africa, Asia or Latin America joined the illegal American and European sanctions” against Russia.

Most normal countries, Lavrov said, want to be independent, want to choose their own development model, based on the will of their people. “Nobody wants to have enemies.” 
Contrast this to NATO, he said, which as it just did at its Madrid meeting, “appoints enemies, they appoint the order in which they handle these enemies. Now Russia is the first, China is earmarked as the existential challenge for the long term.” Now, the West is trying to figure out how to confiscate Russian money, but “if they become irritated by somebody else tomorrow or the day after, they might do the same.” There is no rationality in the way the West operates, Lavrov emphasizes.

This is the context in which Lavrov suggested that reliance on the dollar as the instrument supporting the world economy “is not very promising,” and it’s not by accident that more and more countries are shifting to using alternative currencies, shifting to use national currencies more and more “and this process will be gaining momentum.” He cautioned that Russia isn’t proposing a revolution against the dollar and the U.S., but the point is that the U.S. has tossed out all principles of the free market, fair competition, sanctity of private property, presumption of innocence. “All these principles have been thrown down the drain.” They are now punishing Russia, he said, but warned that any other country that “irritates” them will be punished likewise. This is a full transcript of Minister Lavrov’s remarks and questions to him.


Zepp-LaRouche on CGTN Radio: Immorality of Sanctions & Import of Russia-Ukraine Grain Deal

Found here is a segment of Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s interview with Ge Anna at CGTN World Today done July 25 in which Zepp-LaRouche insists on the immorality of sanctions for all countries. This segment was Tweeted out by Ms. Ge Anna which can be heard at the link.

In the longer interview with Ms. Ge Anna, Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche also takes up the multi-layered importance of the just concluded Russia-Ukraine grain deal which can be heard here in the second segment start minute 15:12″ to 26:58″ using the play button at the left.


R-CALF USA Sent Support to the Dutch Farmers Against Global, Green Cartels

July 23, 2022 (EIRNS)–R-CALF USA, the largest association of independent cattlemen in the United States, on July 21, issued a statement of support to farmers in The Netherlands, protesting against the impossible green government mandates, to cut nitrous emissions and run-off by 2023. Bill Bullard, R-CALF USA CEO, stated, “Dutch farmers are facing an immediate threat to their livelihoods, liberty and independence. America’s cattle farmers and ranchers are on the cusp of suffering the same fate, which is why R-CALF USA supports the Dutch farmer-protestors who are fighting on the front line.” He said that the Dutch government is disregarding “any concern for reductions in food production almost certain to occur under the mandate.”

R-CALF USA, based in Montana, stands for Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America, and they have led the charge in recent years, fighting in the courts, Congress and public arena, against the Big Four cartel of meatpackers which dominates 85% of U.S. beef processing—Tysons, Cargill, JBS, and Marfrig.

R-CALF USA has also exposed how the “green” agenda is used as a cover for attacking cattlemen, and cutting the food supply, as in the case of the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef. R-CALF USA leader Tracy Hunt, a rancher and attorney in Wyoming, has exposed the GRSB as a front group for the likes of the World Wildlife Fund, cartels, and those who want depopulation.

Bullard denounced the Dutch government for trying “to whip many or all of its nation’s farmers into submission. We urge all Americans to join with us in admonishing the Dutch government’s action and to stand in support of Dutch farmers.”

Bullard has stressed the particular point that his rancher group has long opposed allowing beef imports into the U.S. from The Netherlands–a big beef-exporter–or other export source nations for the world meat cartels, but R-CALF USA supports the Dutch farmers. He said, “This isn’t about trade policy. The Netherlands is ground zero for a globalized effort to control the food supply and those who produce it.” 

Bullard issued a video statement on the Dutch farmers’ protest this last week, which is linked from his July 21 statement, which now is also circulating in German in Europe.


People First – Defend the Farmers Against Green Policies and Speculators!

July 11, 2022 (EIRNS)–Alf Schmidt, a sheep producer and farm leader from Thuringia, addressed the Bueso national convention on July 2 in Frankfurt with a hard hitting, extensive insight on the insanity and deliberate destructive agricultural policies, which are perpetrated in Germany by current “Green” leader Cem Özdemir, Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture, as well as by government leaders in The Netherlands and all over Europe. 

Schmidt started his remarks by asking “Why were there no greenies in East Germany [GDR]?” The answer? “Education was mandatory.”

His presentation title was “Özedemir’s Agricultural Policies – Food as a Weapon.”  With many examples and frightening anecdotes, he showed how agricultural production in Germany is being further and further destroyed and ultimately made completely impossible – by increasingly crazy legal requirements and regulations imposed in the name of animal, environmental and climate protection. 

The speech was a very shocking eye-opener for the audience, and made clear how urgent it is to create international alliances between farmers, entrepreneurs, and all other citizens, for the common good, before vital productive activity in all areas is completely ruined, and the basis for human existence has vanished.

Some examples: As a sheep farmer, Schmidt has recorded around €1.2 million in damage caused by the return of wolves. The demanded reduction in the use of fertilizers, would reduce the quality of the grain so much that it can be used only as fodder, but no longer as bread grain. Large areas of land would be taken away from agricultural production for insect protection and water protection. The stricter regulations for animal transport would be practically impossible to meet. 

In the end, agriculture in Germany would be shut down and Germany would become completely dependent on food imports from abroad. The independent farmers would be ruined, and the land would be bought up by large companies. He said that it was already becoming apparent that food production would decline drastically.

 Finally, he showed a video statement by Sieta van Keimpema, press officer of the Farmers Defense Force and chairwoman of the European Milk Board, who explained for a German audience the reason for the farmers’ protests in the Netherlands: the government had decided on drastic conditions aimed at forcing one third of all farmers to give up their farms.

Alf Schmidt spoke at the international Schiller Institute conference Nov. 14-15, 2021 in the panel on physical economy.


Indian Farmers Prepare for Action Again

Indian Farmers Prepare for Action Again

July 11 (EIRNS) – There are signs that Indian farmers, who were first to stage a sustained – and apparently successful — national protest against the cartelization of agriculture, in 2021, are ready to join in what has now become an international wave of farmers’ protests against inflation and restrictions on their ability to farm. Several Indian English-language publications in India, including The Federal are reporting the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) is getting ready to come out on tractors again after a year in which their producer prices have skyrocketed and BKU says the Modi government has been trying to sabotage the Minimum Support Price agreed as a result of the last farmers’ strike.

While a protest demonstration (without tractors) has already been underway for three days in Haryana State in India, BKU leader Rakesh Tikait said on July 10, “Yes, I did ask (farmers) to keep their tractors ready, since one doesn’t know where one needs to go now. However, a tractor is needed on the fields … or any other place…. The movement will go on. Farmers’ expenses are going up. Unemployment is getting worse. The government doesn’t want to address these issues.”


Retired German General: Nuclear Simulations Show the Danger—Negotiate, Before It Is Too Late to Prevent Nuclear War!

July 5, 2022 (EIRNS)–“We may be closer to a Cuban Missile Crisis-type situation than many think possible,” former Bundeswehr Chief of Staff and Chairman of the NATO Military Committee Gen. Harald Kujat warned in a June 12 assessment for Preussische Allgemeine Zeitung. “The difference being that the epicenter would not be in the Caribbean, but in Europe. So it is essentially in Europe’s interest to prevent a development of the Ukraine war that would expose us to this danger.”

How great is the danger? Kujat points to reports that Russia had simulated attacks using Iskander missiles (which can be armed with both conventional and nuclear warheads) from its Kaliningrad exclave. The practice launch was reported to have been a simulated launch at a military target in response to a nuclear attack.

“The message from the Russian Defense Ministry is apparently intended as another warning that the use of nuclear weapons is a realistic option for the Russian government,” he writes.

He warns that “the carefully safeguarded strategic stability between the two great powers [U.S. and Russia] does not mean that the risk of a nuclear war limited to Europe is eliminated. On the contrary: If the Russian leadership is of the opinion that the use of short-range nuclear missiles will not trigger a nuclear counterattack by the United States, the risk of a nuclear first use for Russia would be calculable. … [T]he former presidential adviser to Yeltsin and Putin, Sergey Karaganov, recently stated: ‘I also know from the history of American nuclear strategy that the United States will probably not defend Europe with nuclear weapons.'”

The potential for the threat is that the Ukraine conflict is not a Ukraine-Russian dispute, but a NATO-Russia conflict. Kujat warns that Western politicians are increasingly emphasizing that the arms deliveries are intended “not only for the defense of Ukraine, but also for Ukrainian victory over Russia.” He quotes U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin from late April saying that the United States “wants to see Russia weakened to the point where it can no longer do the things it did when it invaded Ukraine.”

“This is a significant change in the focus of U.S. strategy in the Ukraine war,” Kujat writes. “The center of gravity is no longer to support Ukraine in its defensive struggle, but to weaken Russia as a geopolitical rival.”

“However, the course of the war so far shows that there will be no military victor in this conflict. The rational consequence, therefore, is not to prolong the war by setting strategic goals further, but to end it through a negotiated peace. The appeal to seek a negotiated peace is also not a call for Ukraine to surrender. It is not even directed at Ukraine.

The main military players in this war are the United States and Russia. “There have been no negotiations between the two great powers since the war began. War has taken the place of diplomacy. It is the task of politics and an imperative of reason to end the suffering of Ukrainians and the destruction of the country and to prevent the war from slipping into a European catastrophe,” Kujat concludes. The full article is here (in German) and here in English machine translation.


Drumbeat for War-time Rationings in Germany

Drumbeat for War-time Rationings in Germany

July 2, 2022 (EIRNS)–Speaking of an expected total halt in Russian gas supplies from July 11 (the start of the annual routine maintenance of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline), Klaus Mueller, head of the German Federal Grid Agency (a Green Party and “renewables” fanatic), hints that strict energy emergency management may be invoked from that day on. Apart from the fact omitted by him that Russian gas pumping through the Ukrainian pipelines to Central and Western Europe is still occurring and will likely also continue beyond July 11, Mueller is himself politicizing the issue which he falsely blames on the Russians. The absence of gas would create a “very serious situation” and force his agency to decree substantial rationing, Mueller said yesterday, calling on citizens as well as industries to assist by “voluntarily” cutting the use of gas themselves.

The aim of such scenario-mongering is to cover up the fact that there are alternatives to freezing during the winter which the government and Mueller’s agency hysterically reject: giving the okay for the opening of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline for continued pumping of Russian gas to German and Europe in the range of what Nord Steam1 supplies.


Poland Urges Citizens to Gather Firewood, Due To Coal Shortage

June 8 (EIRNS) – If it weren’t so tragic, this would sound like a bad Polish joke: After banning all imports of Russian coal, Poland is now suffering such a severe energy shortage combined with soaring prices, that the government has “authorized” citizens to forage for firewood in the forests.

RT reported: “It is always possible, with the consent of foresters, to collect branches for fuel,” Deputy Minister of Climate and Energy Edward Siarka was quoted by Next Gazeta as saying on Monday. However, desperate citizens will first have to be trained in such medieval technologies: “Those wishing to gather wood must first undergo training and obtain permission from the local forestry unit. The report went on to clarify that people can only take branches already lying on the ground, and cannot cut down trees.”


New UN Report Calls for Urgent Aid to 20 ‘Hunger Hotpots’

June 8, 2022 (EIRNS)–The UN report “Hunger Hotspots FAO-WFP Early Warnings on Acute Food Insecurity June to September 2022 Outlook” was issued June 6, sounding the alarm on the scale of the world hunger crisis today. The joint authors of this periodical report are the World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization. Among the 20 nations listed as in need for “urgent aid,” the WFP press release on the report stated that “Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen remain at ‘highest alert’ as hotspots with catastrophic conditions, and Afghanistan and Somalia are new entries to this worrisome category since the last hotspots report in January 2022. These six countries all have parts of the population facing the IPC (5-point scale of severity of hunger–ed.) phase 5 `Catastrophe’… with up to 750,000 people facing starvation and death. 400,000 of these are in Ethiopia’s Tigray region….The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, the Sahel, the Sudan and Syria remain ‘of very high concern,’ with deteriorating critical conditions.”

The report gives country-specific information on the food requirements to save millions of lives.


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