The Iranian Parliament just hosted its annual conference on Palestine and, among the dignitaries – that included Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani – and the 700 foreign guests from more than 50 countries was Asia Times columnist Pepe Escobar.
by Pepe Escobar for the Asia Times
The art of the deal, when practiced for 2500 years, does lead to the palace of wisdom. I had hardly set foot in Tehran when a diplomat broke the news: “Trump? We’re not worried. He’s a bazaari”. It’s a Persian language term meaning he is from the merchants class or, more literally, a worker from the bazaar and its use implies that a political accommodation will eventually be reached.
The Iranian government’s response to the Trump administration boils down to a Sun Tzu variant; silence, especially after the Fall of Flynn, who had “put Iran on notice” after it carried out a ballistic missile test, and had pushed the idea of an anti-Iran military alliance comprising Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Jordan. Tehran says the missile test did not infringe the provisions of the Iran nuclear deal and that naval drills from the Strait of Hormuz to the Indian Ocean, which began on Sunday, had been planned well in advance.
I was in Tehran as one of several hundred foreign guests, including a small group of foreign journalists , guests of the Majlis (Parliament) for an annual conference on the Palestine issue.
Not surprisingly, no one from Trump’s circle was among the gathering of parliamentarians from over 50 nations who attended the impressive opening ceremony in a crowded, round conference hall where the center of power in Iran was on display; Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani and Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani.
Khamenei proclaimed that “the existing crises in every part of the region and the Islamic ummah deserve attention”, but insisted that the key issue remains Palestine. The conference, he said, could become “a model for all Muslims and regional nations to gradually harness their differences by relying on their common points”.
Khamenei’s was an important call for Muslim unity. Few in the West know that during the rapid decolonization of the 1940s and 50s, the Muslim world was not torn apart by the vicious Sunni-Shi’ite hatred – later fomented by the Wahhabi/Salafi-jihadi axis. The Wahhabi House of Saud, incidentally, was nowhere to be seen at the conference.
Hefty discussions with Iranian analysts and diplomats revolved on the efficacy of multilateral discussions compared to advancing facts on the ground – ranging from the building of new settlements in the West Bank to the now all but dead and buried Oslo two-state myth.
On Palestine, I asked Naim Qassem, deputy secretary-general of Hezbollah about the Trump administration’s hint of a one-state solution. His answer, in French; “One state means war. Two states means peace under their conditions, which will lead us to war.”
As with most conferences, what matters are the sidelines. Leonid Savin, a Russian geopolitical analyst, claimed that Russian airspace is now all but sealed with multiple deployments of the S-500 missile defense system against anything the US might unleash. Albanian historian Olsi Jazexhi deconstructed the new Balkans powder keg. Muhammad Gul, son of the late, larger-than-life General Hamid Gul, detailed the finer points of Pakistan’s foreign policy and the drive to build the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Pyongyang was also in the house. The North Korean delegate produced an astonishing speech, essentially arguing that Palestine should follow their example, complete with a “credible nuclear deterrent”. Later, in the corridors I saluted the delegation, and they saluted back. No chance of a sideline chat though to go over the unclear points surrounding Kim Jong-nam’s assassination.
Blake Archer Williams, a.k.a. Arash Darya-Bandari, whose pseudonym celebrates the “tyger tyger burning bright” English master, gave me a copy of Creedal Foundations of Waliyic Islam (Lion of Najaf Publishers) – an analysis of how Shi’ite theology led to the theory of velayat-e faqih (the ruling of the jurisprudent) that lies at the heart of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Every time I’m back in Tehran I’m impressed with the surprising number of open avenues for serious intellectual discussion. I was constantly reminded of Jalal Al-e Ahmad, the son of a mullah born in poor south Tehran who later translated Sartre and Camus and wrote the seminal Westoxification (1962).
He spent the summer of 1965 at Harvard seminars organized by Henry Kissinger and “supported” by the CIA. He pivoted to Shi’ism only toward the end of his life. It was his analysis that paved the way for sociologist Ali Shariati to cross-pollinate anti-colonialism with the Shi’ite concept of resistance against injustice and produce a revolutionary ideology capable of politicizing the Iranian middle classes, leading to the Islamic Revolution.
That was the background for serious discussions on how Iran (resistance against injustice), China (remixed Confucianism) and Russia (Eurasianism) are offering post-Enlightenment alternatives that transcend Western liberal democracy.
But in the end it was all inevitably down to the overarching anti-intellectual ghost in the room; Donald Trump (and that was even before he got a letter from Ahmadinejad).
So I did what I usually do before leaving Tehran; I hit the bazaar, via a fabulous attached mosque – to get reacquainted with the art of the deal, the Persian way.
That led me to Mahmoud Asgari, lodged in the Sameyi passage of the Tajrish bazaar and a serious discussion on the finer points of pre-WWI Sistan-Baluchistan tribal rugs from Zahedan. The end result was – what else – a win-win sale, bypassing the US dollar. And then, the clincher: “When you call your friend Trump, tell him to come here and I’ll give him the best deal”.
Beautiful piece by Pepe. Loved every word.
Agreed, a pleasure. Peaceful trade, what a concept!
What about the other letter from Teheran? Ahmadinejad clearly welcomes Trump’s election, and wrote a respectful open letter (not lecturing as the fakestream JM$M disinforms, if at all): http://www.wakingtimes.com/2017/03/01/former-iranian-president-pens-open-letter-president-trump/
Palestinian Cause is the perennial milking cow for all parties, including Iran. Yes they at least do a good job of doing a better PR than the pathetic Gulf monarchies, but its all lame and empty rhetoric. All they have done is to fund the lousy Muslim Brotherhood Hammas who are of Wahhabi creed. What an irony!!
That is true for the Arab countries. But I doubt it is for Iran. The Iranians as non-Arabs had no reason to support Palestine. Most Palestinians aren’t even Shia. And they aren’t thinking of converting. So what would Iran gain from supporting Palestine. They now have “blood enemies” in Israel and the US because of that pro-Palestinian support.Had they only been interested in “gain”,they would support Israel and the US. And do “nothing” to show support for Palestine.But instead they “rightly” see the Palestinian cause in the same light that most people here see the Donbas cause. One that stands on its on merits as an injustice to be fought no matter what.
I trust Persians with nukes.
That’s all “well and good and all”. But the Iranians aren’t after having nukes (and haven’t been). So that trust isn’t needed to start with.
They might want to be careful with the whole bypassing the dollar bit. It didn’t work out so well for their neighbor.
Iran,Russia,and China,aren’t the “weak sisters” that Libya and Iraq were. They are slowly doing away with the US dollar in their trade. Too slow in my thinking. But I don’t have a say in what they do.So we just have to wait and see.
“Rome wasn’t built in one day”!
Meanwhile, in Yankeestan, really important social issues are being given voice by the American fake free press: transgender children!
First, it was tranny bathrooms.
Then, it is transgender children.
What’s next? Transgender reassignment surgery for kids?
I can just imagine all the progressives of America congratulating themselves about how tolerant they are of diverse gender identifications with such a development.
The USA is seriously off the rails and increasingly a pathetic joke of a country.
It would almost be funny–if not for the threat that the Americans will aggressively try to export its brand of transgender politics to the rest of the world.
Librulism Run Amok – “My 7-Year-Old Is Transgender”
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/02/librulism-run-amok-my-7-year-old-is-transgender.html
I’ve noticed that israeli faggot radio (they call themselves “conservative” talk radio) is hysterical about the tranny subject. It is very obvious this whole hyped nonsense is another zionazi Jewish media campaign engineered to get people chasing their nonexistent tails over some inconsequential subject. To keep people from looking at, and discussing things that would affect the zionazi’s/nazi’s interests, like their hysterical faggotry about an athlete not saluting the pindo flag during sporting event.
“Hello. I’m Iranian. War!”
Do the Iranians ever see another route to international relations?
War for Palestine?
This reminds me of Castro warning Che that revolution is not an exportable commodity.
He even incarcerated Che to think of it for one year on the Isle of Pines.
But Che (Iran?) decided Castro was wrong. He went to Bolivia.
The natives sold him out to the US hunting him down.
No revolution. Coca leaf chewers sold his ass for a few bucks.
He lost his life over an idea Castro knew was a loser.
Iran is going to fight Israel and the US for Palestinians?
What’s Iranian for Isle of Pines?
Iran has plenty of reasons to ‘fight Israel’ all for itself.
Just curious…imagine if Israel was there since antiquity with ZERO Palestinians on its soil.
I am convinced all Arabs/Muslims/Iranians would still hate it all the same.
I see no one else has bothered to reply to your silly observation. Why Rico – would anyone hate anyone unless they made themselves unpopular ? If Israel was still expanding itself into Syria – Golan Heights and Lebanon in 2006 – then, yes, they would still be unpopular without the beautiful dead albatross of Palestine hanging around their thick fat necks.
That’s a poor retread of the “they hate us only because we’re Jewish” canard. No, people have hated others throughout history for being aggressive, overbearing, exploitative, “superior”, etc. Jews have just traveled to a lot of places and refused to assimilate yet be power-hungry and aggressive. Nobody likes foreigners coming in in a small minority and running the show. Lots of people fought off British imperialism but at least the Brits don’t go around whining “they hate us cuz we’re Brits”. In fact Jew whining is so pronounced, even if you claim Jews are partially responsible for some of the bad things that have happened to Jews, you are accused of being a virulent anti-Semite who deserves the gas chamber.
Jews (as a people) could very easily fit in anywhere in the Middle East by converting to Islam. They are not hated for being Jews but for refusing to assimilate and instead aggressively pushing their agenda by force on the large majority around them. Same old same old. History does repeat itself.
“Jews (as a people) could very easily fit in anywhere in the Middle East by converting to Islam.” Google “a cold day in Hell” and this is what comes up.
No. Iran since its Revolution has been about empowering Palestinians to free themselves. For an example, look at Hezbollah. Iranians stand for justice and the elimination of double standards, which naturally put them at odds with outlaws who live by promoting double standards.
The Bolivians did not give Che to the authorities tho neither did they join his non starter Bolivian revolution. The US used infrared satellite technology to track his band through the hinterlands and sent Felix Rodriquez to kill him when captured.
Ché was never incarcerated on the Isle of Pines – that’s pure bs
Hasta Siempre Comandante
Pedro de Hungria
p.s. – You’re pushing old discredited C.I.A. propaganda
“and had pushed the idea of an anti-Iran military alliance comprising Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Jordan.”
That “alliance” idea now includes a few others and is to be run by israel and america. Funny pepe “forgot” to mention that.
“Few in the West know that during the rapid decolonization of the 1940s and 50s, the Muslim world was not torn apart by the vicious Sunni-Shi’ite hatred – later fomented by the Wahhabi/Salafi-jihadi axis.”
No it wasn’t, the Shia-Sunni conflict was fomented by israeli-american-british psywar ops. The version pepe propagandises here is the israeloamerican propaganda version for the zio-gay media.
“Leonid Savin, a Russian geopolitical analyst, claimed that Russian airspace is now all but sealed with multiple deployments of the S-500 missile defense system against anything the US might unleash.”
The S-500 is not yet even in production, let alone operational. I’m not familiar with Savin, but if he actually said that, he is no expert. I doubt pepe has even a clue what an S-500 is, let alone an S-400 or S-300. That’s another problem with pepe commentaries, beyond the embedded subtle reinforcement of zio-gay propaganda, is he doesn’t learn his subjects well enough to actually know what he is talking about.
Have to agree, vot tak, particularly about the S-500’s.
Only people with no grasp of the difficulty of “sealing” the airspace of a huge country like Russia would say anything so silly. Any US/NATO attack would involve thousands of ICBMs, medium range missiles, cruise missiles, stealth and regular bombers and a full array of electronic warfare including EMP enhanced nuclear weapons to knock out defensive radar and jam command and control systems.
In a all-out attack like that, plenty of warheads will get through any conceivable defence, especially since the US has a huge geographical advantage with bases and submarines completely surrounding Russia.
An attack on the US is much more difficult as the US is isolated on a continent it completely dominates surrounded by wide oceans it also controls. In an all-out exchange some Russian missiles would get through, but it would be ten to one in the US favour, to the extent that a full-on nuclear war is “winnable” and anyone survived long term.
I agree that Pepe probably doesn’t understand the technical abilities of those weapons. But I disagree with your conclusion. Russia may not be able to stop all the nukes. But Russia is more than double the land area of the US. And has a much better nuclear bunker system for her population than the US does. Personally I have no idea where there is a bunker in my city (if there is one). I had a discussion with a “very aware” younger army veteran about that the other day. He also said he had no idea of where there would be a shelter. Russia’s size and its bunker system leads me to believe there would be far more survivors than in the US (proportionally at least).
The vast majority of Americans live within a 100 miles of the US coastlines. On both the West, and especially the East Coast. A series of nuclear strikes in those regions would destroy much of our population at one time.The days when the 2 Oceans was our protection ended with WWII. But sadly,many if not most Americans haven’t figured that out yet.And still believe the Oceans protect us. They may,against vast military invasions. But no longer from missiles in the skies. In 2014 I talked with a Russian friend whose father was a higher up in the missile forces under the Soviets. He tried to get it through to Americans that a nuclear war would destroy both sides (without much luck I must say). In a private conversation he told me he had seen a list of over 300 targets in the US prepared by the Soviets for nuclear strikes in case of war.And that was then. I don’t doubt that type of list has been updated since then.But just those 300 alone would, as a Russian commentator said on TV once,”turn the US to a fiery ash”.
You say the US surrounds Russia with bases. Yes they do.But only a few of them would have nukes at them.And in the event of war. I have little doubt that the Russians would start by targeting those bases that do.And would seal the Baltic and Black Seas to US/NATO ships.It would then,mostly, come down to missiles from subs and from sites in the US.The Russians themselves have countless missile sites inside Russia to attack from. And some of the most powerful and well armed nuclear subs in existence to launch attacks from near the US. Since the two sides have “around” the same number of nukes. More than likely neither side would have a huge advantage. And mass destruction would strike the US ,Europe,and Russia together. I do agree with you though that a nuclear war like that wouldn’t really be “winnable”. It would destroy most, or all the World. And most certainly,it would destroy the US. So its best that Americans wake up to that fact. And stop the aggression against Russia before it is “too late” to avoid that destruction.
HI Uncle Bob !!
Yeah, I’ve been thinking the same thing about the bunkers..where are the bunkers on this little ilsand I live on ?
well, if the Russians came ashore on Saltspring Island, I would go out to meet them.
But I suppose those days are over, and I wouldn’t even get the chance to shake a Russian’s hand before the lights went out. Hopefully its fast –
I suppose that might be a blessing – Americans won’t be trying to live in a radioactive land for the next 30 years or so. They’ll all be ash.
I just hope that somebody somewhere on the planet survives. Otherwise all this evolution for nothing.
Check and see if there is an old lead mine under Mount Maxwell, Ann. That’s probably your best bet. Don’t forget to pack a picnic lunch and some spare batteries for the flashlight. ;-) You might be there for a while.
I could be the old guy sitting at the next table in a cafe in Ganges or Fulford Harbour one of these days. I often circumnavigate Saltspring during the course of a summer’s sailing in the Gulf Islands.
You would think our little non-militarized part of the world would be relatively safe from a direct hit, but given the Trident submarine base, several USAF bases, and the big Boeing factory just across the border, we probably have half a dozen SS-18 or Sarmat missiles pointed at us. Maybe we’ll get lucky and go out in a bright flash.
To give some ideal of the impossibility of “sealing off” the airspace of Russia, surrounded as it is by a dozen other countries, recall that around 1988 a teenage kid on a “peace” mission flew a small single seat light plane UNDETECTED! from Germany, if I recall correctly, across the heavily defended USSR airspace and landed it on Red Square! As Gorby said at the time, it was a real “wake up call” for the Soviet Air Defenses. It could have had a nuclear weapon aboard and decapitated the Soviet leadership, given that it landed unmolested right beside the Kremlin.
And that’s not exactly a stealth cruise missile doing 1000 Kph 30 meters off the ground in the middle of the night. It was just a noisy little sports plane plodding along out in plain sight in the middle of a summer afternoon for hours at about 200 Kph through some of the most heavily watched and guarded airspace in the world at the time and nobody detected or challenged it.
A US First Strike, should they ever launch one, would begin without notice with stealth cruise missiles targeting all the air defense installations, timed to arrive just before the ICBMs launched from all directions. Simultaneously the US attack submarines which are always following the Russian missile subs would attempt to sink them before they could retaliate. Of course, some mobile ICBMs and maybe a few missile subs would escape and attempt to fire back, which is why the US withdrew from the ABM treaty and is surrounding Russia and China with ABM bases on whatever pretext they can contrive. They would attempt to shoot down most of the ICBMs that survived the initial attack and managed to launch.
Naturally the Russian defense forces are well aware of the danger and are trying to keep a viable retaliatory capability to deter the US from initiating a war, but the appalling ignorance of the average US Congressman or Senator and the hubris of the Pentagon and White House might lead them to take insane chances. Like Hitler, they tend to be gamblers and poker players, counting on their bluffing to frighten the opponent into folding. Russia and China don’t bluff, and the US leadership may be too stupid to understand that and go for that First Strike. And then it’s all over.
However deranged and messianic Killary may be, and delighted though I was to see her lose, I see little reason to think that the crew who arrived with Trump are any more rational. The Pentagon is a fireworks factory full of kids playing with matches. One of these days one of them is going to ignite something and then the whole warehouse goes up before the fire trucks can arrive.
As for civil defense and bomb shelters, a US First Strike would most likely start without warning in the middle of the night, local time, when everyone is asleep. By the time you noticed the Air Raid sirens going off, if anybody even flipped the switch to activate them, the warheads would already be exploding. It only takes a sub launched ICBM about 15 minutes to get to it’s target. That’s not enough time even to pull your pants on and have a look out the window to see what all the commotions is about.
The secret of that little plane was that it was so small,and not noticed. The same thing several times has happened at the US White House. I’ll put my faith in the Russians knowing in advance if there is an attack coming.The US has been quite angry that they haven’t been able to follow many of those Russian subs.So the likelihood of them launching their missiles is I think quite good. I do agree that the US leadership is insane. And I think that is way Russia has said a nuclear war won’t be fought on Russian soil. They probably intend to strike first if it comes to a certainty of war.
@ vot tak
There are, indeed, some fault lines in Pepe’s geology of the mind, f not creaking fractures. His colourful narrative is enticing and overall expresses well-reasoned contempt for the “westoxification” drummed out as “liberal democracy” (his words, although I don’t see anything liberal or democratic in it).
Sometimes I detect a drop of the guard in his narrative where his literary contortions get the better of his brain and falls into sloppy solipsism. Never mind his failings; I think he means well and he depends on his writing for a living. He’s a true blue (genuine) as we say round here.
Pepe’s one of the best out there. He’s not perfect but I’m not sure why anyone would attack him.
He’s colorful and also well educated in current events. He writes on many topics – he’s got a connection with China and Asia that I sadly do not have – so reading his articles is informative for me, on the Asian topics.
He’s chipper and is willing to wait and see what happens, not like many who profess doom and gloom constantly.
I appreciate Saker putting his articles up here, because Pepe writes alot of articles and they’re usually a better read than most.
EXCELENT PEPE
The “letter from Ahmadinejad to Trump” link:
http://www.tehrantimes.com/news/411455/Ahmadinejad-backs-Trump-s-stance-against-political-elites-media
OB1
I agree, the tech for a first strike to take out either side’s nuclear deterrent does not exist. The pindos are trying, but the sods are not even realistically close. It’s important to understand the zionazis and the nazis keep on about this. It’s a wet dream to them. People claim it is the masada complex at root, but it is psywar. They know they can’t do it, “but maybe next year”, zionazia might get the edge…
Wow,I can’t believe it. An Israeli comic who had a late night TV show “Asaf Harel”. Used his last night of the show to condemn “Apartheid” in Israel. If he wasn’t going off the air anyway. I’m sure they would have canceled the show. I’m surprised they didn’t “pull the plug” while he was speaking. Its a powerful (as powerful as you dare in Israel) condemnation of Israeli treatment of the Palestinians.He may need to leave Israel for safety reasons after that.
https://www.rt.com/viral/379138-israel-show-host-apartheid/
The roving reporter hits Tehran and makes a stunning disclosure: he, too, is not an ideologue, not a card carrying member of whatever club, but a bazaari at heart. And that is why we love Pepe.
Well its better Trump the ‘bazarri’ then Trump the ‘hashisi’!