Turkey’s Cavusoglu Urges Turkey, Russia, and Iran To Cooperate in U.S. Withdrawal from Syria

Pentagon Confirms Syria Withdrawal Plan, Calls It ‘Strong, Deliberate’

Guterres Requests UN Security Council Set Up Six-Month Monitoring of Yemen Ceasefire

D.P.R.K. Chairman Kim and President Xi Jinping Had Packed Agenda in Beijing

U.S.-China Trade Talks End in Beijing, Focus Includes China Buying More U.S. Goods

Privatization Is Killing the U.S. Space Program

Subscribe to EIR Daily Alert

EDITORIAL

The ‘Great Game’ Is Up! LaRouche Method Gives Content to Momentum for a New Epoch

Jan. 9 (EIRNS)—As of late Jan. 8, the U.S. delegation to Turkey had departed Ankara, and intense diplomacy is underway throughout the entire region, in support of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria. This is as it should be, given the historic action taken by President Donald Trump in December, to order the pullout of the U.S. military, and thus, to dramatically break with the “endless wars” policy of the dying British Empire, used by it for ages in its attempt to dominate the world. Trump’s action at the same time, broke the “special relationship” Britain has for so long induced the U.S. to accept. The “Great Game” is up.

The Pentagon reiterated yesterday that the U.S. troop pullout from Syria would take place in a “strong, deliberate and coordinated manner.” Leaders in Russia, Turkey and Iran are now in motion to confer on seeing this through. The Iranian special envoy for Syria is in Moscow Jan. 9-10. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to meet President Vladimir Putin soon. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said today that there are frequent consultations between the U.S. and Russia over Syria, which is not “extraordinary,” he said. “It is not always announced.”

In the course of furthering the implementation of Trump’s decision, consultation is strengthening on the part of the Great Powers—the U.S., Russia, China, India and others—towards going the whole way for a new quality of foreign relations, favoring development and peace. No wonder the British filthy tricks networks are churning out new waves of anti-Trump lines, e.g. that “the Trump Administration is in chaos.” This is everywhere in media headlines this week regarding both Syria and U.S. border security.

Further, there is significant peace momentum in other historic geopolitical conflict zones. In East Asia this week, China’s President Xi Jinping hosted D.P.R.K. Chairman Kim Jong-un and his wife for a 27-hour packed agenda in Beijing. Unofficially, the purpose includes the two leaders conferring on another Trump-Kim “Singapore Model” meeting sometime in the new year.

Even in the urgent situation of Yemen, there is positive motion, though limited. Today the UN Security Council took up the request from Secretary General Antonio Guterres for supplying the logistics for a six-month deployment of UN ceasefire monitoring forces in Hodeidah and two other Yemeni ports. The UNSC took testimony from UN Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths, about his progress discussing ceasefire with the various parties.

In all these cases, what is needed as the guarantee for success, is the shift in the United States in favor of deliberate economic development—domestically and internationally. This in turn requires the LaRouche “Four Laws,” and collaboration in the New Silk Road process of reconstruction and building for the future—in Southwest Asia, East Asia, Africa, and in the Americas—including Central America, the Caribbean and Mexico. It is this perspective that uplifts the vision of what can be done for U.S. “border security” from fixating on “the wall” (either for or against), to the reality of what must be done throughout the hemisphere, to eliminate the causes of displacement and misery.

President Trump is in the process of conducting a number of actions on border security this week. Today he hosted a White House meeting of Congressional leaders, but ended up walking out on it. Tomorrow, he will visit the border area in McAllen, Texas; on Jan. 8, he gave his first Oval Office National Address, titled, “The Humanitarian and National Security Crisis on Our Southern Border.”

Thus he is supplying motion towards resolution of a policy conflict, including restoring the government, currently in shutdown due to the budget impasse. But content is lacking. This is the task of collaborators with the LaRouchePAC drive, in particular through its current weekly economics class series, as well as the program of the LaRouche “Four Laws”; and with the February Schiller Institute conference, “Let Us Shape a New, More Human Epoch of Mankind!”

We take note of a beautiful cultural expression of a new epoch, in an event in Egypt on Jan. 6 (Coptic Christmas Eve), in the New Administrative Capital (45 miles east of Cairo). On that day, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi inaugurated two new, beautiful, big houses of worship, the Coptic Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ, and the Al-Fattah Al-Alim Mosque. President Trump tweeted his greetings, “Excited to see our friends in Egypt opening the biggest Cathedral in the Middle East…!”

ENDING THE STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Turkey’s Cavusoglu Urges Turkey, Russia, and Iran To Cooperate in U.S. Withdrawal from Syria

Jan. 9 (EIRNS)—A number of statements from Asian and Russian leaders mid-week affirm the intention for diplomacy to support to the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov today directly addressed the matter of continuing U.S.-Russia contacts. Speaking on a visit to New Delhi, he told TASS, “The contacts on various aspects of the Syrian issue have not stopped. I don’t see anything extraordinary, sensational or special. These contacts are not always announced. The contacts are underway on different issues, and will be also held on other issues soon.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has proposed that Russia, Turkey and Iran—the “Astana process” guarantors of the ceasefire regime in Syria—cooperate to manage the U.S. withdrawal from Syria. He spoke today to the Turkish Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. He said, as reported in the Hurriyet Daily Newsand elsewhere, “The United States has been facing several difficulties amid the process of withdrawing troops from Syria. We want to coordinate this process jointly with Russia and Iran, with which we had arranged work in the framework of the Astana process. [It is needed] in order for terrorist organizations not to fill in the void [following the U.S. pullout].”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Moscow soon, according to a report today from Moscow, saying that planning is underway. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that there is no date set, but such a meeting will take place “in the near future,” according to TASS. The talks are to focus on Syria; and in addition, Russia supplying Turkey with the S-400 missile defense system.

Already in Moscow today, is the Iranian special envoy for Syria Jaberi Ansari. He will spend two days, discussing the Syria situation with Russian officials. Ansari has been Iran’s special diplomat at the Astana series of talks.

Last night U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton left Ankara, which he had visited along with State Department Special Representative for Syria Engagement James Jeffrey and Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford. Bolton met for two hours with Erdogan’s Chief Foreign Policy Advisor Ibrahim Kalin and Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Önal. Dunford met separately with Turkish Chief of General Staff Gen. Yasar Güler and Defense Minister Hulusi Akar.

Kalin gave a press conference after the Bolton meeting, in which he said that talks between Ankara and Washington will continue, as the U.S. has not yet completed its withdrawal plan, which would be completed in 120 days.

On Jan. 8 President Erdogan told a meeting of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) that Turkey will not compromise on its position that the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militia, YPG, is a terrorist organization. He also again denounced comments Bolton had made in Israel about guarantees for the security of the YPG. Erdogan said he would have to have another direct telephone discussion with President Donald Trump on the issue of U.S. withdrawal.

Pentagon Confirms Syria Withdrawal Plan, Calls It ‘Strong, Deliberate’

Jan. 9 (EIRNS)—The Hill reported yesterday that the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition has now approved a U.S. withdrawal plan that is “conditions-based” and has no timeline. Operation Inherent Resolve “has an approved framework for the withdrawal of forces from Syria, and is now engaged in executing that withdrawal,” Cmdr. Sean Robertson said in a statement. “That framework is conditions-based and will not subject troop withdrawal to an arbitrary timeline. The framework will be influenced by a number of factors, including weather.”

The Pentagon’s latest statement specifies that the United States “will continue to provide support to the Coalition’s operation in Syria while withdrawing troops in a strong, deliberate and coordinated manner in order to ensure U.S. forces’ safety and protection,” The Hillreports. Robertson said that, for operational security reasons, the Pentagon will not discuss actual troop movements, but instead will provide periodic updates “on progress regarding percentages of equipment removed from Syria.”

Guterres Requests UN Security Council Set Up Six-Month Monitoring of Yemen Ceasefire Jan. 9 (EIRNS)—The UN Security Council today took up a letter from Secretary General Antonio Guterres presenting a proposal for establishing a 75-member monitoring team with a mandate of six months. They would monitor the situation in Hodeidah and two other ports. “Appropriate resources and assets will also be required to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel, including armored vehicles, communications infrastructure, aircraft and appropriate medical support,” Guterres wrote, reports Reuters. “Such resources will be a prerequisite for the effective launch and sustainment of the proposed mission,” he said. The UNSC will have to act by about Jan. 20, when the 30-day mandate for the advance monitoring team under Dutch Gen. Patrick Cammaert (ret.) expires.Also reporting to the UN Security Council today was UN Special Envoy to Syria Martin Griffiths. He visited the Houthi-held capital Sana’a on Jan. 7, then went to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he met with Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi regarding the efforts to establish the ceasefire agreed on in Stockholm in December.Abdullah al-Alimi, the head of Hadi’s office, wrote on Twitter that Hadi remained committed to the ceasefire accord and stood ready to open up “all humanitarian access,” reports AFP. Under the deal, the Houthis were supposed to hand over the port of Hodeidah and two other ports to “local authorities in accordance with Yemen law,” but both sides have been in dispute over the wording of the agreement. There is also disagreement on the redeployment of forces from Hodeidah as well. D.P.R.K. Chairman Kim and President Xi Jinping Had Packed Agenda in Beijing Jan. 9 (EIRNS)—D.P.R.K. Chairman Kim Jong-un departed Beijing today by private train, after a 27-hour visit, with a packed schedule of social and diplomatic meetings. Kim and his wife, Ri Sol Ju, attended a gala banquet the evening of Jan. 8, his 35th birthday, held at the Great Hall of the People. Afterward, was a “grand variety show” marking the occasion of the 70th anniversary of China-D.P.R.K. diplomatic relations.Today, Kim and Xi lunched at the historic Beijing Hotel, and Kim visited the traditional pharmaceutical firm, Tong Ren Tang Chinese Medicine Company, in business for 300 years. Global Times suggested Pyongyang “may be eyeing cooperation opportunities with traditional Chinese medicine,” because medicinal materials are not sanctioned. Furthermore, “North Korea has rich resources of medicinal herbs, especially Korean ginseng,” Lü Chao, a research fellow at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences in Shenyang was quoted as saying, therefore it could play a role in pharmaceutical industry cooperation between China and North Korea.No details have yet been released of the substance of the various talks held between the two leaders. U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC U.S.-China Trade Talks End in Beijing, Focus Includes China Buying More U.S. Goods Jan. 9 (EIRNS)—The U.S.-China trade talks ended in Beijing today, an extension by a day of the two-day sessions planned to follow up on the mandate from the Dec. 1, 2018 talks between President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping, to reach a resolution of trade disputes by March 1, 2019. The Chinese government is reported to be releasing a statement on the talks tomorrow.Today, a short statement was released by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which ended by saying, “The delegation will now report back to receive guidance on the next steps.” The statement said that the participants in the Beijing meetings discussed “ways to achieve fairness, reciprocity and balance in trade relations between our two countries.”  Specifically, their mandate has a “view to achieving needed structural changes in China with respect to forced technology transfer, intellectual property protection, non-tariff barriers, cyber intrusions and cyber theft of trade secrets for commercial purposes, services, and agriculture. The talks also focused on China’s pledge to purchase a substantial amount of agricultural, energy and manufactured goods, and other products and services from the United States.” Trump White House Downgraded Diplomatic Status of EU Mission without Advising Brussels Jan. 9 (EIRNS)—In 2018, the Trump Administration downgraded the European Union’s mission in Washington from a nation-state status to an international organization, according to an unnamed EU official cited by Germany’s Deutsche Welle news agency.Britain’s pro-Brexit Leave campaign happily tweeted: “That should take the EU superstate down a peg or two!”EU bureaucrats, however, are reportedly scurrying to reverse this snub. Britain’s daily Independent cited an EU spokesperson as saying that the downgrade took place without the U.S. notifying the EU and that officials had discussed with their U.S. counterparts “possible implications” for the delegation in Washington. The unnamed official from the EU’s External Action Service, the EU diplomatic agency, told the Independent that “clearly we’re not happy with this,” and that the U.S. “conveniently forgot to notify” Brussels of the decision.The EU mission did not realize something was amiss until they found that EU Ambassador David O’Sullivan had not received invitations to several events last year. The source claimed that it became completely obvious when O’Sullivan was listed last at the funeral of former U.S. President George H.W. Bush in December, which didn’t correspond to his earlier diplomatic status.According to Voice of America, it was the Obama Administration, in 2016, which elevated the EU delegation to nation-state embassy status, which it had never previously enjoyed. Congressional Talks on Border ‘Wall’ Go Nowhere—An Effective Solution Is Required Jan. 9 (EIRNS)—President Donald Trump’s White House meeting this afternoon with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) ended in an impasse, after Pelosi said she would not agree to funding a wall on the southern border and the President walked out of the meeting, saying “nothing else works,” and pronouncing the meeting a “total waste of time,” in his tweet.With each side hunkering down, absent is any discussion of an effective policy required to resolve the issue of illegal immigration—regional economic development extending throughout Central America, great power collaboration to accomplish it, including creating new financing mechanisms, and respectful cooperation with the Mexican government. Nothing else will do.Tomorrow, President Trump will travel to McAllen, Texas to inspect the border and speak with citizens and government authorities. In his nationally televised speech from the Oval Office last night, he focussed on the humanitarian side of the problem, drugs and human trafficking, security threats to Americans, dangers to women and children making the dangerous trek north. He insisted that the wall, and the $5.7 billion needed to fund it, are the only solution. Pelosi and Schumer gave the official Democratic response, in their best imitation of “American Gothic,” repeating the mantra that the border issue is a “manufactured crisis,” and that the President is “appealing to fear, not facts” to, in Schumer’s words, “distract attention from the chaos in his administration.” COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM Italian Government Moves To Prevent Bail-In of Genoa’s Banca Carige Jan. 9 (EIRNS) The Italian government has extended unlimited guarantees for the Banca Carige—Savings Bank of Genoa—in a move to prevent a bank resolution and a bail-in, under European Law. Carige has been put under caretaking administration by the European Central Bank, which means that Carige must increase its capital. It is completely defunct, however. The move by the Italian government aims at facilitating the required capital increase, and, should this objective fail, the government will take over the bank with a capital injection. The government’s intervention, besides averting bail-in, also prevents takeover of Banca Carige by one of the bigger Italian banks, which are often not really Italian, but foreign, in effect. SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE Privatization Is Killing the U.S. Space Program Jan. 9 (EIRNS)—A cogent opinion piece by freelance writer Daniel John Sobieski in yesterday’s American Thinker juxtaposes the Chinese landing on the lunar far side to the destruction of the American manned space program, which once held the leadership in space. Having to now rely on the Russians to transport U.S. crews to the International Space Station is a “telling indictment” of how far the U.S. has sunk, he says, warning that while privatization may have some useful purposes, it is no substitute for government direction and support when it comes to serious missions for science and exploration.“While China lays plans for the first permanent lunar base, we entrust our space exploration to the eccentric Elon Musk, whose SpaceX promises to give a Japanese billionaire the ultimate joyride around the Moon,” he ridicules. Sobieski quotes the late Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the Moon, that the activities of the commercial companies are not really “private,” calling them “NASA’s new way of spending money.” Former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin has similarly said it is a joke to call these projects “commercial,” since they have received tens of billions of dollars from NASA’s budgets. Sobieski denounces the fact that “the vast expertise and space exploration infrastructure we developed suddenly vanished as an administration [Obama] bent on expunging American exceptionalism from the face of the Earth abandoned space.”“President Trump wants to return us to space,” but the nation has not returned to a country “whose President, John F. Kennedy once proudly pledged” to go to the Moon, Sobieski wrote. That is, the country, with an aroused citizenry looking to the stars, must be awakened if the U.S. is to once again take up the space exploration programs, that drive the creative foundation of our economy. OTHER Foreign Diplomats Reject Media Claims of Xinjiang ‘Prison Camps’ Jan. 9 (EIRNS)—Diplomats from 12 countries were invited to Xinjiang by the provincial government to visit the training centers which have been the subject of so much Western media speculation, labeling them as forced labor or “prison” camps. But, what the diplomats report from their visit is that this is another instance of “fake news.”The diplomats visited Xinjiang from Dec. 28-30 and were given a chance to visit vocational training and education centers in Kashi in southwest Xinjiang near the Pakistan border, where trainees were learning Chinese language, national laws and regulations, and were taught vocational skills. The visitors asked about the trainees’ life in the centers, played ping-pong and basketball with them, and watched a musical performance with song and dance put on by the trainees. Indonesian Ambassador to China Djauhari Oratmangun said he was impressed by the education centers in Xinjiang, as he observed that the trainees can learn about the national laws and as well as Uyghur culture. An Afghan diplomat, who had visited Xinjiang many times, was surprised to find that once-idle residents in southern Xinjiang now are busy studying and working. He said that vocational training would help improve many people’s lives, and that this is the exact opposite of Western media reports.After visiting the Grand Bazaar in the provincial capital, Urumqi, and also China’s largest mosque in Kashi, the diplomats learned that the mosque had installed heating equipment and facilities for believers, as well as fresh drinking water. A Malaysian diplomat said that what he had seen was the Chinese government’s efforts to protect religious freedom, providing religious groups a place for their activities. The visit to Xinjiang, he said, has given him an opportunity to know the place and realize that the reports of the Western media were false. Most of the centers are located in southern Xinjiang, which is the least-developed part of the province. There is only one camp in the northern part which has become the main route of the Silk Road Belt through Kazakhstan and Central Asia. The construction of a southern route, however, connecting the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, will provide more opportunities for Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in the south. Egypt’s el-Sisi Opens Neighboring Coptic Cathedral and Mosque on Same Day: ‘We Are One’ Jan. 9 (EIRNS)—On Sunday, Jan. 6, the Coptic Christmas Eve, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi inaugurated the beautiful new Coptic Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ, alongside Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II and Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb. Coptic Christians, who represent about 10% of Egypt’s population, have been repeatedly targetted in recent years by jihadists in Egypt. Just a day earlier, a bomb went off at the Al-Haq Mosque, placed in order damage the neighboring Virgin Mary Church in the Nasr City district of Cairo, killing police Maj. Mustafa Ebeid as he was attempting to defuse it, reported Al Ahram Weekly.U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed the inauguration, tweeting that he was “excited to see our friends in Egypt opening the biggest Cathedral in the Middle East. Sisi is moving his country to a more inclusive future.” A video greeting from Pope Francis in Rome was played during the inauguration and messages were also sent by Ethiopian Church clerics, whose doctrine and rituals are the same as the Egyptian Coptic Church. Amidst tight security, el-Sisi emphasized that the simultaneous opening of the new cathedral and the Al-Fattah Al-Alim Mosque carried a message of unity. Referring to Christians and Muslims, he said, “We are one and we will continue to be one. This moment is very important in our history.”  Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, Egypt’s top Muslim authority, told those gathered that “if Islamic law requires Muslims to protect mosques, it equally requires Muslims to protect churches.”Egypt’s Al Ahram Weekly concluded its coverage in its latest issue: “The newly inaugurated mosque and cathedral are the first major edifices to have been constructed and put into operation in the New Administrative Capital. This, too, has important ramifications since building houses of worship is a sign of optimism. It is an affirmation that Egypt is the cradle of civilization, the cradle of the divine faiths, and the cradle of development that begins with the construction of spiritual edifices that bring people together.” Reach us at eirdailyalert@larouchepub.com or call 1-571-293-0935