TURKEY

PEPE ESCOBAR–Soon, in early 2021, ITI will become a reality. But, initially, just as a freight train. The deal was recently sealed at the 10th meeting of the transport and communication ministers of ECO (Economic Cooperation Organization) in Istanbul.

ITI’s official name is actually the ECO Container Train. Trial runs started in 2019. The 6,500 km overland journey should now take 11 days – compared to the roughly 45 days across sealanes for trade between Western Europe and Pakistan.

ECO is a very interesting – and strategic – organization, virtually unknown outside of Asia, uniting Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, the five Central Asian “stans”, Azerbaijan and Afghanistan.

EROC ZUESSE—Finally, on 10 November 2016, right after Trump’s election, that same newspaper, the WP, bannered “Obama directs Pentagon to target al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, one of the most formidable forces fighting Assad” and, without noting that Obama had supported that “al-Qaeda affiliate” until then, but instead falsely reporting that “the administration had largely ignored until now” it, said: “While Obama, White House national security adviser Susan E. Rice, Secretary of State John F. Kerry and special presidential envoy Brett McGurk agreed with [the super-neoconservative Obama Secretary of Defense Ashton] Carter on the need to keep the focus on the Islamic State, they favored shifting resources to try to prevent al-Nusra from becoming a bigger threat down the road.” That was extreme euphemism, coming from this extremely neoconservative liberal newspaper.

Red Lines host Anya Parampil speaks with Syrian journalist Bashar Barazi, the correspondent for HispanTV in Damascus, about recent developments in the country. They discuss the impact of the new “Cesar sanctions” on the Syrian public, US and Turkish maneuvers within Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s recent visit to the country, as well as the average Syrian’s response to efforts from Gulf countries to normalize relations with Israel. Barazi explains why he believes the US is seeking to “create a new base in Syria”. 

TAXI—Running out of time, and desperate to gather focus and forces to fast pivot east to confront a rapidly rising Chinese superpower, America is currently arranging for its exit from the Middle East in a way that militarily secures its allies and proxies there, especially that of Israel. Naturally, it has to pick a top dog from its kennel of allies to police the region in its absence, and pick one, indeed, it has.
Turkey. Not Israel.

ERIC ZUESSE—The Syrian and Russian Governments had planned to finish them off there in Idlib, so that none of them could escape back into their home countries to continue their jihad. However, the U.S. and its allies raised ‘humanitarian’ screams at the U.N. and other international organizations, in order to protect the ‘rebels’ against the ‘barbarous dictator’ of Syria, its President, Bashar al-Assad — just in order to create more anti-Assad (and anti-Russian, and anti-Iranian) propaganda. And, so, on 9 and 10 September 2018, Putin and Erdogan and Rouhani met in Rouhani’s Tehran to decide what to do. By that time, Erdogan was riding the fence between Washington and Moscow. On 17 September 2018, I headlined “Putin and Erdogan Plan Syria-Idlib DMZ as I Recommended” and reported that Putin and Rouhani entrusted Idlib to Erdogan, with the expectation that Erdogan would keep the jihadists penned-up there, so that Putin and Assad would be able to bomb them to hell after the ‘humanitarian crisis’ in Idlib would be no longer on front pages. As things turned out, Erdogan double-crossed Putin and Rouhani, and just grabbed the territory.