Pepe Escobar: A Sultan Shines In The Court Of The Dragon King

Source

http://www.zerohedge.com

Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Saker blog,

Tue, 07/16/2019

 

The graphic image of Turkey pivoting away from NATO towards the Russia-China strategic partnership was provided, in more ways than one, by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing right after the G20 in Osaka.

BEIJING, CHINA – JULY 02: President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) walk past the honor guards during an official welcoming ceremony at Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China on July 02, 2019. Volkan Furuncu / Anadolu Agency

Turkey is a key hub in the emerging New Silk Roads, or Belt and Road Initiative. Erdogan is a master at selling Turkey as the ultimate East-West crossroads. He has also expressed much interest in joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), led by Russia-China, whose annual summit took place in Bishkek a few days before Osaka.

In parallel, against hell and high water – from threats of sanctions by the US Congress to NATO warnings – Erdogan never budged from Ankara’s decision to buy Russian S-400 defense missile systems, a $2.5-billion contract according to Rostec’s Sergei Chemezov.

The S-400s start to be shipped to Turkey as early as this week. According to Turkish Minister of Defense Hulusi Akar, their deployment should start by October. Much to Washington’s ire, Turkey is the first NATO member state to buy S-400s.

Xi, as he welcomed Erdogan in Beijing, stressed the message he crafted together with Putin in their previous meetings in St Petersburg, Bishkek and Osaka: China and Turkey should “uphold a multilateral world order with the United Nations at its core, a system based on international law.”

Erdogan, for his part, turned up the charm – from publishing an op-ed in the Global Times extolling a common vision of the future to laying it out in some detail. His target is to consolidate Chinese investment in multiple areas in Turkey, directly or indirectly related to Belt and Road.

Addressing the extremely sensitive Uighur dossier head on, Erdogan deftly executed a pirouette. He eschewed accusations from his own Foreign Ministry that “torture and political brainwashing” were practiced in Uighur detention camps and would rather comment that Uighurs “live happily” in China. “It is a fact that the peoples of China’s Xinjiang region live happily in China’s development and prosperity. Turkey does not permit any person to incite disharmony in the Turkey-China relationship.”

This is even more startling considering that Erdogan himself, in the past decade, had accused Beijing of genocide. And in a famous 2015 case, hundreds of Uighurs about to be deported from Thailand back to China ended up, after much fanfare, being resettled in Turkey.

New geopolitical caravan

Erdogan seems to have finally realized that the New Silk Roads are the 2.0 digital version of the Ancient Silk Roads whose caravans linked the Middle Kingdom, via trade, to multiple lands of Islam – from Indonesia to Turkey and from Iran to Pakistan.

Before the 16th century, the main line of communication across Eurasia was not maritime, but the chain of steppes and deserts from Sahara to Mongolia, as Arnold Toynbee wonderfully observed. Walking the line we would find merchants, missionaries, travelers, scholars, all the way to Turko-Mongols from Central Asia migrating to the Middle East and the Mediterranean. They all formed the stuff of interconnection and cultural exchange between Europe and Asia – way beyond geographical discontinuity.

Arguably Erdogan is now able to read the new tea leaves. The Russia-China strategic partnership – directly involved in linking Belt and Road with the Eurasia Economic Union and also the International North-South Transportation Corridor – considers Turkey and Iran as absolutely indispensable key hubs for the ongoing, multi-layered Eurasia integration process.

A new Turkey-Iran-Qatar geopolitical and economic axis is slowly but surely evolving in Southwest Asia, ever more linked to Russia-China. The thrust is Eurasia integration, visible for instance via a frenzy of railroad building designed to link the New Silk Roads, and the Russia-Iran transportation corridor, to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Red Sea and, eastwards, the Iran-Pakistan corridor to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, one of Belt and Road’s highlights.

This is all being supported by interlocking transportation cooperation agreements involving Turkey-Iran-Qatar and Iran-Iraq-Syria.

The end result not only consolidates Iran as a key Belt and Road connectivity hub and China’s strategic partner, but also by contiguity Turkey – the bridge to Europe.

As Xinjiang is the key hub in Western China connecting to multiple Belt and Road corridors, Erdogan had to find a middle ground – in the process minimizing, to a great extent, waves of disinformation and Western-peddled Sinophobia. Applying Xi Jinping thought, one would say Erdogan opted for privileging cultural understanding and people-to-people exchanges over an ideological battle.

The flags of China and Turkey flutter in Beijing during Erdogan’s visit to China on July 2. Photo: Wang Xin/ ImagineChina / AFP

Ready to mediate

In conjunction with his success at the court of the Dragon King, Erdogan now feels emboldened enough to offer his services as mediator between Tehran and the Trump administration – picking up on a suggestion he made to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the G20.

Erdogan would not have made that offer if it had not been discussed previously with Russia and China – which, crucially, are member signatories of the Iran nuclear deal, or Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA).

It’s easy to see how Russia and China should consider Turkey the perfect mediator: a neighbor of Iran, the proverbial bridge between East and West, and a NATO member. Turkey is certainly much more representative than the EU-3 (France, UK, Germany).

Trump seems to want – or at least gives the impression of imposing – a JCPOA 2.0, without an Obama signature. The Russia-China partnership could easily call his bluff, after clearing it with Tehran, by offering a new negotiating table including Turkey. Even if the ineffective – in every sense – EU-3 remained, there would be real counterbalance in the form of Russia, China and Turkey.

Out of all these important moves in the geopolitical chessboard, one motivation stands out among top players: Eurasian integration cannot significantly progress without challenging the Trumpian sanction obsession.

Europeans will be ‘sanctioned to ground’ for Iran ties: Graham

Source

http://www.presstv.com

Tue Jul 16, 2019

US Senator Lindsey Graham leaves after meeting with Speaker of the House Representative Nancy Pelosi on June 27, 2019 at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP)

The United States should sanction “to the ground” European countries that continue to trade with Iran under the 2015 nuclear deal and refuse to join America’s pressure campaign against the Islamic Republic, says top Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.

Speaking to Fox News, Graham said the European signatories of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – the UK, France and Germany – were too “weak” too abide by America’s unilateral sanctions against Tehran.

“I will tell the Europeans, ‘If you want to side with the Iranians, be my guest, but you won’t use an American bank or do business with the American economy,'” Graham said.

The remarks came days after Tehran announced it was beginning to cut back on its commitments under the nuclear deal in response to the Europe’s inability to protect bilateral trade from US sanctions.

Iranian officials have officially announced that the country is now enriching uranium beyond the 3.67 percent limit set forth in the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement and that its enriched uranium stockpile has surpassed the 300 kilograms cap.

The European signatories of the deal pledged after Washington’s decision to abandon the deal in May 2018 that they would introduce a special payment channel to protect trade and ultimately salvage the agreement.

They have recently confirmed that the mechanism, called INSTEX, will soon become operational.

‘US should pressure Europe to support new deal’

Graham said during the interview that he supported Trump’s call for renegotiating a new deal instead of the JCPOA, adding he would use sanctions and economic pressure to force Europeans to join Washington.

“Are you prepared to sanction whatever company or country within Europe does?” Fox News Host Maria Bartiromo asked Graham.

“To the ground,” replied the senator, who is a close ally of the president.

He said a better deal would fully curb Iran’s right to enriching uranium while the JCPOA allows for 3.67 percent enrichment.

Upon announcing his departure from the landmark agreement, Trump said he would launch a pressure campaign against Iran that will make use of sanctions and other hostile measures to force the Islamic into renegotiating a new deal that would address its ballistic missile program and curb its regional influence.

Since then, the US has imposed sanctions against Iranian oil exports while also sending troops and military equipment to the Persian Gulf region to confront what it refers to as “threats” coming from Iran.

The Trump administration’s most recent round of sanctions targeted Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatalloh Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

The US Treasury Department was expected to announce sanctions against Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as well but has shelved those plans for now. The State Department has announced that it would grant Zarif a limited visa ahead of his visit this week to the United Nations in New York City.

European countries have so far rejected the Trump administration’s calls to quit the JCPOA. Iran has also made it clear that it would never accept any alternatives to the current deal.

What Right Has Britain to Seize an Iranian Tanker Off Spain?

What Right Has Britain to Seize an Iranian Tanker Off Spain?

http://www.counterpunch.org

by GARY LEUPP

JULY 16, 2019

Photograph Source: Bengt Nyman from Vaxholm, Sweden – CC BY 2.0

 

“We have reason to believe that the Grace 1 was carrying its shipment of crude oil to the Banyas Refinery in Syria. That refinery is the property of an entity that is subject to European Union sanctions against Syria.”

– Fabian Picardo, chief minister of Gibraltar

“[Praise for Gibraltar and the British marines] for this bold move to enforce Syria sanctions [that deny] valuable resources” to the Syrian government.

– British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt On Twitter

The EU has banned the sale of oil to Syria. Very well, but what has that to do with Iran, or its sales of oil to Syria? Tomasz Wlostowski, a lawyer who specializes in EU regulations, says there is no legal basis in EU sanctions law to take such action.)

– Tomasz Wlostowski on Twitter

What gives the UK the right to seize on July 4 an Iranian oil tanker in Spanish territorial waters, force it to Gibraltar, interrogate its four-man (non-Iranian) crew, and arrest its captain and chief officer?

Why, the request of the U.S. of course.

The Spanish government has stated that the British marines and Gibraltar port authority operated at the behest of Washington, after Trump threatened then called off airstrikes against the Islamic Republic. (Gibraltar authorities deny this.) The piratical act was naturally denounced by Iran, which threatens to seize a British tanker if London does not return its vessel. The Brits respond that they might return the ship if given assurances it was not headed to Syria; indeed, Foreign Minister Hunt had a “constructive” phone call with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif.

Iran for its part denies that the ship was heading to Syria, but what if it was? What is wrong with any country selling oil to Syria, whose government is recognized by many large powerful countries and needs oil to recover from its horrific civil conflict?

The EU has slapped sanctions on Syria since the Arab Spring protests and outbreak of war in Syria in 2011, in compliance with the U.S. decision to effect regime change through aid to armed rebels, and a concerted U.S.-Israeli campaign to isolate Damascus. The premise is that the U.S. determines a government’s legitimacy; when it withdraws it, Europe must go along.

And when Europe tells Iran it must not sell oil to Syria, Iran must go along. Despite Iran’s extraordinary patience in the face of Trump’s provocations, its determination to stick to the JCPOA, its willingness to discuss with France some changes to the deal, it remains a pariah in Washington’s eyes.

Despite the fact that Trump himself is deplored by world leaders generally and the U.S. has lost prestige in the world since his election, Britain still does its bidding. The British ambassador to Washington has been obliged to quit his post after the leaking of diplomatic cables accusing Trump of ineptness and incompetence, but still, London marches almost lock-step with Washington in foreign policy.

Britain might have told Washington: “We don’t have any right to seize a commercial vessel in foreign waters engaging in legal activities. And why would we want to cooperate with you in exacerbating tensions with Iran?” Instead the British Marines act as Trump’s buccaneers.

The U.S. press does not problematize the ship seizure itself. It reports on attempts to “violate sanctions” as though the sanctions are themselves proper and worthy of observance. China, Russia, India, South Africa, many countries do not sanction Syria or buy the U.S. interpretation of Syrian realities. It is not the “international community” that wants to punish Syria, or cut its ties to Iran. It is the U.S., which seems of late to be testing its lingering clout with its allies.

The UK was on board the Iraq War-based-on-lies, but has not committed to a U.S.-Israeli-Saudi war on Iran. Perhaps the favor of the tanker seizure was designed to deepen London’s involvement in the U.S.’s long-term regime-change projects in both Iran and Syria. As Trump tries to woo the UK away from Europe, the “special relationship” acquires new meaning, even as an ambassador departs for candidly noting the Trump administration’s ineptness. The seizure looks to me like a loyalty statement. Britain remains the U.S.’s poodle.

More articles by:GARY LEUPP

Gary Leupp is Professor of History at Tufts University, and holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Religion. He is the author of Servants, Shophands and Laborers in in the Cities of Tokugawa Japan; Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan; and Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion, (AK Press). He can be reached at: gleupp@tufts.edu

France passes law taxing tech giants despite US anger

Taxation can be seen as a form of sanction. As such, the USA is being an arrogant and hypocritical tyrant that applies sanctions willy nilly, as long as it fits its dinosaurian ideology. Look at how it reacts to a foreign country trying to manage its own affairs. Hypocrites. Yo, USA, shove your anger where the Sun doesn’t shine!

Source

http://www.rt.com

11 July, 2019

Google’s logo at the Google cultural hub in Paris © AFP / Joël Saget

The French parliament on Thursday passed a law taxing digital firms like Google and Facebook, which have been accused of exploiting global tax loopholes. The decision comes after Washington launched a probe into the tax.

The three-percent tax will be levied on sales generated in France by multinational firms. Any digital company with revenue of more than €750 million ($850 million) – of which at least €25 million is generated in France – would be subject to the levy.

Defending the new tax, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the country was “sovereign and decided its own tax rules.”

ALSO ON RT.COMUS threatens France over proposed ‘unfair’ tax on Silicon Valley tech giants

“I want to tell our American friends that this should be an incentive for them to accelerate even more our work to find an agreement on the international taxation of digital services,” he said.

The law, which has been already dubbed the GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon) tax, has angered Washington, which had raised concerns that the tax would “unfairly target American companies.”

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered an investigation into the French tax to “investigate the effects of this legislation and determine whether it is discriminatory or unreasonable and burdens or restricts United States commerce.”

ALSO ON RT.COMAustria wants to impose tax on internet giants’ advertising revenues

The new tax will be based on sales generated in France, rather than on profits. It will be paid by all global multinationals – around 30 companies, mostly American – but also firms from China, Germany, Spain and Britain.

The tech giants argue that they are complying with national and international tax laws.

Russia to Continue Trade With Iran Regardless of US Sanctions Against Tehran – Envoy to EU

© Sputnik / Vitaliy Ankov

Source

sputniknews.com

July 9, 2019

 

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) – Russia will ignore US sanctions against Iran and continue to trade with the Middle Eastern nation without creating any special mechanisms, Russian Permanent Representative to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov told Sputnik.

“Our colleagues here [in Brussels] sometimes ask why Russia and China do not create their own INSTEX [Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges]. To that we answer with the question: why do we need it? We have Finland already traded and will trade without paying any attention to US sanctions,” Chizhov said.

The day before, the Finnish government said that it was considering joining a trading system that core EU members set up to bypass US sanctions on Iran.

Last year, the United States reimposed sanctions on Iran’s financial and energy sectors that were initially waived under a 2015 nuclear deal.

In January, France, Germany and the United Kingdom set up INSTEX in order to ease non-dollar trade with Tehran in the wake of these sanctions. Following a meeting of the Joint Commission of the Iranian nuclear deal in June, the mechanism became operational and available to all EU member states.

World should confront United States’ use of dollar as weapon: Araqchi

Source

http://www.presstv.com

Thu Jun 27, 2019

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi addresses a conference dubbed the International Seminar on Unilateral Coercive Measures and Their Impacts in Vienna on June 27, 2019. (Photo by IRNA)

A deputy Iranian foreign minister urges the international community to stand up to the United States’ use of dollar as a weapon.

“The international community should confront this wrongful habit of the US to use the power of dollar as a weapon against independent countries,” Abbas Araqchi said.

The official was addressing a conference dubbed the International Seminar on Unilateral Coercive Measures and Their Impacts convened jointly by Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela in Vienna on Thursday. The event was attended by foreign diplomats, representatives of international organizations, media representatives, experts, and researchers.

“The US’s destructive behavior and its economic terrorism against the Islamic Republic have to stop,” he added.

The US has engaged in a campaign of “maximum pressure” against Iran under President Donald Trump. The campaign has seen Washington returning its sanctions against Tehran and enlisting the assistance of its Western and regional allies in enforcing economic pressure on the country.

Araqchi also referred to the US’s last year departure from a nuclear accord between Iran and six world powers, which has been endorsed in the form of a United Nations Security Council resolution.

“By flouting the Security Council resolution and implementing illegal and unilateral sanctions, the US has placed the only product of diplomacy in our region on the brink of destruction,” he stated.

The remarks were echoed by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who said despite the US claims that it is imposing sanctions on Iran as an alternative to war, those sanctions actually amount to a full-fledged economic war against the Islamic Republic.

Javad Zarif

✔@JZarif

Misconceptions endanger peace @realDonaldTrump:

– Sanctions aren’t alternative to war; they ARE war

– “Obliteration”=genocide=war crime

– “Short war” with Iran is an illusion

– Whoever begins war will not be the one ending it

– Negotiations and threats are mutually exclusive

4,364

6:12 AM – Jun 27, 2019

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“Sanctions aren’t alternative to war; they ARE war,” Zarif tweeted on Thursday.

PressTV-‘Short war’ with Iran an illusion: Zarif

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the US mistakenly thinks a potential war with Iran will be short one.

 

China, Russia, India warn of threats to global order

Yes, Aunt Mildred, I get a kick out of posting articles from Iran. Have you seen what passes for news in the West? 

Source

http://www.presstv.com

Fri Jun 28, 2019

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives at the G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan, June 28, 2019. (Photo by Reuters)

The Chinese president has warned against “protectionism” which, according to him, is being practiced by the West and “destroying the global trade order” amid a trade war between his country and the US.

Xi Jinping told leaders of the world’s five major emerging economies (BRICS) on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka that “protectionism and bullying” are “destroying the global trade order.”

He made the remarks ahead of an expected meeting with US President Donald Trump at the G20 summit in Japan.

“All this is destroying the global trade order,” said the Chinese president. “This also impacts common interests of our countries, overshadows the peace and stability worldwide.”

Xi was indeed reflecting remarks by other world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putting and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who were also attending the summit.

Puin worried about global economy

Putin, who was also attending the same meeting of the BRICS leaders, described the current situation in the global economy as “worrying.”

PressTV-China, US officials discuss trade before Trump-Xi meeting

Senior officials from China and the US hold a phone conversation about bilateral trade ahead of a meeting between the leaders of the two countries.

He said that global trade was feeling the effects of “protectionism, (and) politically motivated restrictions.”

Putin further said that attempts to lower the role of the World Trade Organization (WTO) or to destroy it are counter-productive.

“This is clear that it (global trade) needs to be adopted to the present-day developments… We consider counter-productive any attempts to destroy WTO or to lower its role,” Putin added.

Global economy not stable: Indian PM

The Indian leader also called for a focus on reforming the WTO. Modi raised concern about the global economy, which he said is in a situation of “instability and downfall.”

“Unilateralism and competitiveness are overshadowing the rule-based multilateral global trade systems,” said Modi, who also called for strengthening the WTO and fighting against protectionism.

Trump, who is set to hold a meeting on trade with his Chinese counterpart on Saturday, said trade was his top priority at the summit.

Washington and Beijing are engaged in a trade dispute since last year.

Trump initiated the row, when he imposed unusually heavy tariffs on imports from China. Since then, the two sides have exchanged tariffs on more than 360 billion dollars in two-way trade.

Earlier this month, the US president threatened to impose tariffs on another 300 billion dollars’ worth of Chinese products, if Xi refused to meet him at G20 summit.