Author: Alicia

An interesting article in the September-October issue of Foreign Affairs, the publication of the Council on Foreign Relations, chides the U.S. government for attempting to ignore the Chinese One Belt, One Road Initiative. The article is most interesting as it is written by Gal Luft, the co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security and a member of Committee on the Present Danger and co-director of the Set America Free Coalition, which also hosts a number of leading neo-cons who want to make the U.S. energy independent.

Luft complains of the folly of the Obama Administration in ignoring the Belt and Road project and encourages U.S. participation in it. “The B&R is a massive undertaking that will shape Eurasia’s future. It will extend from the Pacific to the heart of Europe, stimulate some $4 trillion in investment over the next three decades, and draw in countries that account for 70% of the world’s energy reserves,” Luft writes. “So far, however the United States has fruitlessly attempted to undermine the initiative or avoided engaging with it altogether. That is the wrong course. Washington should instead cautiously back the many aspects of the B&R that advance U.S. interests and oppose those that don’t. The United States does not have to choose between securing its global position and supporting economic growth in Asia: selectively backing the B&R would help achieve both goals.”

Outlining the magnitude of the Silk Road project, Luft is concerned that the U.S. is alienating itself from those countries which will definitely benefit from the project as well as allowing China to get the full benefit of the results, warning that such a policy could have the same negative effect as the U.S. attempt to boycott the AIIB, with even allied countries distancing themselves. Luft also points to the obvious tremendous infrastructure deficit in the world, noting that anything that China could do to tackle that problem should be supported simply on its own merits.

Luft warns, however, of giving “blanket support” to the project. Moving too close to China on the issue, he warns, will trigger paranoia in Russia, and working too closely with China in the Middle East, where Iran is a key pillar in the Belt and Road, could alienate U.S. allies in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.  Perhaps a division of labor, he moots, like the U.S. providing security for some Chinese construction projects or reviving Hillary Clinton’s New Silk Road project.

“The Belt and Road Initiative could become either a source of great-power competition or a force for stability and collaboration,” Luft writes. “Beijing and Washington can ensure that the latter possibility wins out. In general, the best course for the United States will be one of selective buy-in: it should participate in projects that advance its interests, such as infrastructure investments aimed at improving intraregional trade in Southeast Asia, while avoiding those that undermine them.

“It will take a great deal of magnanimity for the United States to resist the urge to oppose such a grand strategic initiative as the B&R, especially since China’s westward push comes at a time when Washington is increasingly confused about its own role in the world. But the United States must remember that its response to the project will help determine the future of U.S.-Chinese relations and of the international order. And as the global economy slows down and hundreds of millions of Asians languish with few hopes of escaping poverty, the United States must recognize that its fate is linked to that of the developing world  and that it should give its blessing to initiatives that will lift all boats.”

An interesting article in the September-October issue of Foreign Affairs, the publication of the Council on Foreign Relations, chides the U.S. government for attempting to ignore the Chinese One Belt, One Road Initiative. The article is most interesting as it is written by Gal Luft, the co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security and a member of Committee on the Present Danger and co-director of the Set America Free Coalition, which also hosts a number of leading neo-cons who want to make the U.S. energy independent.

Luft complains of the folly of the Obama Administration in ignoring the Belt and Road project and encourages U.S. participation in it. “The B&R is a massive undertaking that will shape Eurasia’s future. It will extend from the Pacific to the heart of Europe, stimulate some $4 trillion in investment over the next three decades, and draw in countries that account for 70% of the world’s energy reserves,” Luft writes. “So far, however the United States has fruitlessly attempted to undermine the initiative or avoided engaging with it altogether. That is the wrong course. Washington should instead cautiously back the many aspects of the B&R that advance U.S. interests and oppose those that don’t. The United States does not have to choose between securing its global position and supporting economic growth in Asia: selectively backing the B&R would help achieve both goals.”

Outlining the magnitude of the Silk Road project, Luft is concerned that the U.S. is alienating itself from those countries which will definitely benefit from the project as well as allowing China to get the full benefit of the results, warning that such a policy could have the same negative effect as the U.S. attempt to boycott the AIIB, with even allied countries distancing themselves. Luft also points to the obvious tremendous infrastructure deficit in the world, noting that anything that China could do to tackle that problem should be supported simply on its own merits.

Luft warns, however, of giving “blanket support” to the project. Moving too close to China on the issue, he warns, will trigger paranoia in Russia, and working too closely with China in the Middle East, where Iran is a key pillar in the Belt and Road, could alienate U.S. allies in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.  Perhaps a division of labor, he moots, like the U.S. providing security for some Chinese construction projects or reviving Hillary Clinton’s New Silk Road project.

“The Belt and Road Initiative could become either a source of great-power competition or a force for stability and collaboration,” Luft writes. “Beijing and Washington can ensure that the latter possibility wins out. In general, the best course for the United States will be one of selective buy-in: it should participate in projects that advance its interests, such as infrastructure investments aimed at improving intraregional trade in Southeast Asia, while avoiding those that undermine them.

“It will take a great deal of magnanimity for the United States to resist the urge to oppose such a grand strategic initiative as the B&R, especially since China’s westward push comes at a time when Washington is increasingly confused about its own role in the world. But the United States must remember that its response to the project will help determine the future of U.S.-Chinese relations and of the international order. And as the global economy slows down and hundreds of millions of Asians languish with few hopes of escaping poverty, the United States must recognize that its fate is linked to that of the developing world  and that it should give its blessing to initiatives that will lift all boats.”

The initial pioneers of the field of “cosmoclimatology,” Henrik Svensmark and Nir Shaviv, have published a new paper demonstrating the near-realtime response of the Earth’s cloud and atmospheric water system to rapid changes in the flux of galactic cosmic rays reaching the Earth (“The response of clouds and aerosols to cosmic ray decreases,” Aug. 19, 2016). Though not explicitly stated by the authors, this study also contributes to our insights into a galactic perspective on controlling the Earth’s water cycle and ending droughts.

“End Droughts with Weather Control: Interview with Prof. Pulinets.”

Much of the evidence indicating galactic cosmic radiation drives climate change comes from historical and geological correlations (across timescales ranging from hundreds, to thousands, to millions of years). However, this new study looks at relatively near-realtime changes (measured over days). It has been long-known that large explosive outbursts of solar activity temporarily shield the Earth from galactic cosmic radiation (“Forbush decreases”), and using satellite observations over 25 years Svensmark and Shaviv have now demonstrated that the resulting sudden drops in galactic cosmic radiation cause changes in cloud cover and in atmospheric water conditions during the days following a strong solar outburst.

According to coverage on the popular climate skeptic blog WattsUpWithThat.com, following a large Forbush decrease the rapid reduction in galactic cosmic radiation reaching the Earth causes global cloud cover to fall by ~2%, and ~1 billion tons of liquid water to disappear from the atmosphere. From this authors understanding, this latter effect on the amount of liquid water in the atmosphere is because more water remains in a vapor (rather than liquid) state; since galactic cosmic radiation increases the atmospheric ionization (which induces water vapor to change from a vapor to a liquid state), less galactic cosmic radiation (e.g. from a Forbush decrease) means: less ionization, less water vapor changing state into liquid water, and less total liquid water in the atmosphere—a billion tons worth, according to this study.

This demonstrates the intimate, real-time connection between the galactic climate, the solar climate, and the conditions experienced here on Earth. You’re living in the Galaxy buddy!

Regarding “climate change,” it is not these rapid, short-term changes that are relevant (though they can affect certain weather systems, such as cyclones), but the longer-term, sustained changes in galactic cosmic ray flux are key. On timescales of tens, to hundreds, to thousands of years, cyclical changes in the magnetic activity of our Sun control the amount of galactic cosmic radiation reaching the Earth, and thereby control climate change though the resulting long-term changes in average global cloud cover.

In this context, it is worth emphasizing that the Sun looks to be entering a multi-decadal weakening phase, which could result in substantial cooling around mid-century. The strength of the current 11-year solar cycle is the lowest in ~100 years, while measurements of magnetic strength show the Sun is steady weakening from year to year. For the past decade Russian solar scientist Habibullo Abdussamatov and his colleagues at the Pulkovo Observatory have been forecasting a coming “grand minimum” in solar activity (starting between 2030 and 2040) and a resulting global cooling phase for the Earth.

On significantly longer timescales, millions to tens and hundreds of millions of years, the changes of the Solar System’s position in the Galaxy, and changes in the global conditions of the Galaxy itself govern the largest and most dramatic climate changes experience on Earth. You’re currently living in a Galactic climate.

While these long-term and ultra-long-term relations have been known for some time, this new study underscores the day-to-day and week-to-week intimacy of this Earth-Solar-Galactic relation … and how mankind can control it.

Just as natural variations in atmospheric ionization (due to changes in galactic cosmic ray flux) can affect cloud cover and atmospheric water conditions, man-made atmospheric ionization systems can also tap into the forces governing the atmospheric component of the water cycle to increase precipitation where it is needed and desired.

From Russia to Mexico, Switzerland to Australia, for decades atmospheric ionization systems have been successfully used to increase precipitation, bringing water to where it is desired by tapping into the galactic characteristics of our water cycle. Currently the most robust demonstration yet is ongoing in Oman (run by Australian Rain Technologies), where they have recently announced their third strait successful year of a five year trial, demonstrating these types of systems can reliably and effectively increase precipitation where desired.

California, are you really going to settle for the present Brown future? Or will you join the future of mankind as a galactic species?

Contact the author at benjamin.deniston@gmail.com

In an interview with CCTV on Thursday, Su Xiaohui, the Deputy Director of Strategic Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, said that other countries had been eager to have China host the G20 Summit at this critical time.

“This is a very important summit for all the countries in the world,” Su said. “China is hosting this summit because it is what other countries wanted. It’s the other countries that wanted China to host this event. In recent years, there have been plenty of problems in the world economy, and all the countries in the world, including G20 members, are eager to find solutions. Other countries know China can be a leader in addressing the world’s economic problems. So they would like China to host this event, and provide the opportunity for other countries to deal with these problems.”

“China has its own contribution to this platform,” Su said. “China has made some very successful achievements, like the AIIB, which is a very ambitious plan that has gained the support of many other countries. China is providing new ideas like innovation and green finance.” Also speaking on CCTV, Professor Liu Chunsheng from the Central University of Finance and Economics, pointed to three major tasks for the upcoming summit to tackle: 1) expanding trade and investment, 2) rebuilding a new world economic order, and 3) finding a new engine of growth through innovation and structural reform.

In the run-up to the event, which will focus on technological innovation, the Chinese Academy of Social Studies has issued a report on how each of the 20 nations can enhance its innovation strategies.  CCTV also reported on this Thursday.

“After the global financial crisis in 2008, most of the countries have started to place their hopes of economic recovery on technological innovation,” said Professor Huang Maoxing from Fujian Normal University. “So what we are doing right now is to help the 20 economies find out the advantages and weakness of their technological innovation development, help them solve those problems, and consolidate their current achievements in the area. Besides, the G20 summit has been shifting its focus to investment, open trade and green finance. So we are also providing analysis on the development outlook in these areas.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed that all 20 leaders will be attending the Summit, including Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Barak Obama, and British Prime Minister Theresa May, as well as the leaders of the UN, the World Bank, and the IMF. The summit will also have a larger contingent of leaders from developing countries than ever before.

“The voices of developing countries will be fully heard at the G20 Summit,” said Lu Kang, spokesman of China’s Foreign Ministry. “Developed and developing countries will make decisions on global economic affairs through consultation on an equal footing. It reflects a major change in the world economic landscape. It’s a response to the trend of the times, which is a historic progress,” Lu said.

The following speech was delivered by Schiller Institute representative Ulf Sandmark to a two-day conference in London to support the Yemeni people against the Anglo-American-Saudi imperial war. He was also interviewed for the conference, which was aired on Yemen TV.

by Ulf Sandmark, Economist, Schiller Institute, Sweden

I want to thank the organizers of this conference. I consider this a milestone conference in aiding Yemen to ascertain its sovereignty, especially as it coincided with the astounding 4 million demonstration in Sanaa yesterday. I am so impressed with the courage of the Yemeni people to risk demonstrating under the direct threat of the Anglo-American-Saudi bombardment.

It was the most heroic manifestation of the sovereignty of the Yemenite nation under its new governing council and its elected parliament. What we see, is a people who has stood up to liberate itself from the most brutal aggression. With this manifestation they have already made themselves a free people in their minds.

Yemen now could join the ongoing world revolution organized by the BRICS countries and their expanding number of allies. It is more than half the world population who have liberated themselves mentally from the Western globalist economic and military domination. The BRICS have set out to supersede the Anglo-American old world order, and started to build the world in a frantic pace. BRICS is realizing visionary infrastructure projects that was put on the agenda already by the Non-Aligned Movement in the 1960s and the Bandung conference. The centerpiece of these projects is the New Silk Road [Silk Road Economic Belt], connecting Eurasia overland, and the [21st Century] Maritime Silk Road, from China passing Yemen on its way to the New Suez Canal.

The BRICS does not wait. They build their own financial institutions, security organizations, infrastructure systems, industrial centers, technology and science. This means that the peace movements have a new way to stop all the geopolitical wars like the war against Yemen. We can make Europe and the U.S. join the New Silk Road project. This would make Europe and the U.S. into allies with BRICS and allies do not fight wars. The war-hawks can be bypassed and rendered impotent. At the same time, this giant project can put all our unemployed youth to produce the machines and other means necessary.

I am here to help found an international coalition to stop the war against Yemen, as we discussed yesterday in the workshop. The idea of my organization, the international Schiller Institute led by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, is to expand the ways to operate for peace with a policy for economic development. Building the New Silk road is the biggest peace project ever, building the peace by connecting nations in practice, physically with railroads, highways, canals and all kinds of infrastructure.

We want to supersede the geopolitical wars with a new paradigm of world relations, a multipolar world instead of the dying world under Anglo-American domination and financial bubbles. The new paradigm is formulated with the “win-win” concept of the Chinese President Xi Jinping, which is a concept for peaceful cooperation based on the revival of the wisdom of Kon Fu Tse [confucius]. It is opening the Silk Roads for a renewed dialogue of civilizations on the highest standpoint of philosophy, art and science, a dialogue where Yemen “the land of Wisdom,” will feel at home.

In only the last months, have Japan and the Philippines been recruited away from the war-hawks who have been pushing for nuclear confrontation in the South China Sea. Japan will start cooperating with the BRICS in giant projects in Russia’s Far East, in India and Indonesia. Turkey is being recruited by Russia and is stabilizing relations with Egypt, Israel, the Caucasus, the Turkish speaking Central Asia and probably with Syria. Russia also, very importantly, just blocked a new Saudi resolution in the UN Security Council against Yemen. Several Eastern European countries and also Greece are orienting to the New Silk Road and the BRICS, just like most of Africa and Ibero-America. Even here in London, the City wants to join in the Chinese currency trading and therefore there is a resistance here to those war-hawks who are risking nuclear war.

World Land-Bridge

This World Land-Bridge map describes how the New Silk Road plans to reach out to all continents. The link under Bering Strait will become a direct link between Russia and the U.S. to cement their peaceful cooperation and link the Americas to the New Silk Road. Together with the linking of Africa we will have a World Land-Bridge. And Africa can be linked both in Egypt, with Spain and Sicily, but most importantly for Yemen, under the Bab El Mandeb strait to Djibouti. This map has been compiled by the Schiller Institute out of different development and peace projects we have worked with during the last 40 years. It is part of a Special Report called The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land Bridge. This year we published the expanded Arabic translation of this report.

The Outstanding Fight For Hope in Yemen

Without hope there is no future. With a plan for the reconstruction of Yemen, the hope is made concrete to realize the potentials of the people of Yemen, its productive powers, its science and its rich heritage. The Schiller Institute is in contact with outstanding fighters in Yemen who are doing this in spite of the Anglo-American-Saudi bombardment. They have founded the Yemen Committee for the Coordination with BRICS. Each Tuesday they are courageously gathering in meetings in Sana’a to study and develop the plans for the reconstruction of Yemen.

Their leader Fouad Al-Ghaffari sent a video film as a greeting to the Schiller Institute conference in Berlin just two months ago. The video was the most moving display of courage and optimism of fighting for the highest values of mankind. I would like to end my presentation by sharing this video with you, showing his report of what they do to mobilize the hope and dignity of Yemen.

The Schiller Institute Berlin conference was deeply moved by this video and adopted the following resolution:

The conference of the Schiller Institute in Berlin on June 25-26 sends the most heartfelt greetings of support to the great nation of Yemen and the study group of Fouad Al-Ghaffari. Your courageous intellectual leadership, literally under the bombardment of satanic forces, has been an inspiration to thousands of people in the US, Latin America and Europe. We make a solemn oath to fight for the extension of the New Silk Road for the reconstruction of Yemen, so that the lives of the many men, women and children, who have been murdered, will be honored in a Renaissance of Yemen, which also will reconstruct the beautiful ancient cities and architecture. Yemen must and will become a pearl among the nations of Southwest Asia and the world very soon!

Thank you!

The policies of the European Central Bank have wrecked havoc on the entire European financial system, to the point that “the dead bank walking” Deutsche Bank and major European hedge funds are screaming for a change—before they crash and burn altogether. The Global Edition of Handelsblatt dated Aug. 23 featured an article on the consequences of the ECB’s negative interest rates and quantitative easing, quoting extensively from Deutsche Bank’s chief executive, John Cryan, who wrote a guest column on the eve of Handelsblatt’s Banking Summit in Frankfurt, which runs from Aug. 31 through Sept. 1. Cryan complained bitterly: “Monetary policy is now running counter to the aims of strengthening the economy and making the European banking system safer.” By forcing banks to pay interest on funds they deposit with the ECB, under mandatory increased reserve requirements, and by looting pensioners through the negative interest rates, Cryan charged that the ECB has made a terrible situation far worse. Cryan called for a drastic change in ECB policies, freely admitting that Deutsche Bank is going through a “painful restructuring and battling to keep the confidence of investors,” and the ECB policies are making it far more difficult.

Handelsblatt also quoted from a Cologne-based asset manager, Bert Flossbach, that central banks are “forced to resort to ever more aggressive policies to stop the financial system from collapsing, and that has made the markets totally dependent on central bank interventions.”

ECB executive board member and close Mario Draghi ally Benoit Coeure threatened that the ECB could take even more draconian actions, like further reducing negative interest rates, if governments in the eurozone don’t carry out deeper austerity measures and other “reforms.”

Hedge funds are also on the chopping block, due to the ECB’s negative interest rates. Forced to post collateral with the big European clearinghouses that manage the derivatives trade, they are now losing money on those deposits, which usually take the form of purchases of government bonds, now with negative interest rates, “which threaten to erode their main profit driver: the gap between their cost of funding and their revenue from lending,” Reuters warned Wednesday.

The panic of Deutsche Bank and some leading European hedge funds is reflective of a much deeper crisis, that goes far beyond 2008: the entire trans-Atlantic banking and financial system is drowning in worthless debt and engaging in the same gambling games that led to the 2008 blowout. And the remedies being peddled by the ECB and other central banks are accelerating the blowout.

On the eve of her Senate impeachment trial, which begins on Thursday, President Dilma Rousseff delivered the message to a “Meeting in Defense of Rights and Against the Coup” in Sao Paulo Tuesday and a similar rally in Brasilia Wednesday, that she will defend herself personally before the Senate, because the impeachment trial is a “parliamentary coup” which threatens democracy. It is also being used, she said, to impose vicious economic measures which the electorate would never support: freezing expenditures on education and health for 20 years, in violation of the Constitution; ripping up labor laws; cutting pensions and the minimum wage; and “the great privatizaton of the Nation’s wealth.”

The mood in patriotic layers of the country was expressed starkly at a “Public Act of Constitutional Resistance” held at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul on August 18, where leading legal scholars and others identified the so-called “Lava Jato” anti-corruption operation as “judicial fascism” premised on the precepts of the Nazi crown jurist, Carl Schmitt, whose purpose is to impose a colonial looting economic system upon the country, for which the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff is only the first step.

Former president of the Brazilian Lawyers Association (OAB) Marcelo Lavenere, told the overflow crowd at the Economics School auditorium, to be prepared to form a resistance movement like that which formed after the 1964 military coup, if the President is impeached. The media-driven “Lava Jato” operation, led by “pop-star” judges like Sergio Moro, is “the worst attack that Brazilian democracy has suffered in the last 100 years. It is worse than the ’64 coup,” Lavenere charged. Then we faced an enemy well-defined as an enemy, “and the military, at least, were not such sell-outs as [acting President] Michel Temer [and others] … who want to hand over all our resources to the international elites.”

Pedro Estevam Serrano, Constitutional Law Professor at Sao Paulo’s Catholic University, identified the media as the means by which the rich are being mobilized as “the rabble” who provide the social basis for “judicial facism” imposed through “Lava Jato.” Serrano, who has written a new book, “Coups and Authoritarianism in Latin America—a Brief Essay on the Judiciary as The Instrument of Exception,” cited Nazi Carl Schmitt’s theory that “the true sovereign is he who has the authority to establish the exception.” Serrano added: “who has that power today in Brazil is the judiciary.”

When President Obama rejected the idea of a single-payer Federal medical insurance program, and, instead, turned over the drafting of the Obamacare legislation to the big health insurance companies, he couldn’t imagine that the system was doomed from the start and might not survive his second term in office. But that is exactly where things stand today. Major health insurance providers, including United Healthcare and Aetna, have pulled out of most of the markets, and, according to a recent study by Kaiser Family Foundation, in five states and in a total of 664 counties around the United States, people will only have one health insurance option. And the Kaiser study was conducted before Aetna made its announcement, pulling out of Obamacare.

Alabama, Alaska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wyoming are the five states where there will be only one insurance provider available, and North Carolina and Kansas are almost down to just one company. Of the 664 single-insurer counties, 70 percent are in rural America, compounding an already collapsing health care infrastructure in these areas.

When President Obama was making his pitch for Obamacare before Congress, he told lawmakers: “My guiding principle is, and always has been, that consumers do better when there is choice and competition.”

While Tennessee is not even on the list of the states hit hardest by the pullout of big insurance companies from the Obamacare exchanges, the State Commissioner of Commerce and Insurance, Julie Mix McPeak, told the Tennessean recently that “I would characterize the exchange market in Tennessee as very near collapse… and that all of our efforts are really focused on making sure we have as many [insurance policy] writers in the areas as possible, knowing that might be one. I’m doing everything I can to prevent a situation where that turns to zero.”Business Insider noted that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, the only statewide insurer, has asked for a whopping 62-percent increase in premiums they can charge in 2017, on top of a 36.3-percent hike already implemented this year. The other two large health insurers in Tennessee, Humana and Cigna, have both requested 40-percent premium hikes for 2017.

A week-long forum in Tehran on the “Silk Road Economic Belt” indicated great enthusiasm for this project, which is quickly catching on in the Middle East.

The conference was opened by Ahmad Mohammadi, the  head of the Iran-China Friendship Association. Mohammadi said the interaction between the two countries has long existed, but has taken new dimensions with the initiative.

“The proposal has been well received in Iran, and the Islamic republic is preparing to accept the proposal,” Mohammadi said. In order to implement the project, he said, the first step is to establish a secretariat of the project in China, adding that this can be followed by sessions of the secretariat with the representatives from the participation states.

Mohammed Reza Dashiri, the head of the international department of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said the Belt and Road is aimed at creating a friendly environment for a better neighborhood in terms of political, economical and security dimensions.

“The Islamic republic is determined to actively participate in the project, and believes that joining the plan would help the regional and international economic development,” Dahshiri said.

The China-proposed initiative could promote interaction between the Iranians and Chinese and can be a turning point with win-win venture in bilateral ties, Mohammad H. Emadi, advisor to Iran’s Agricultural Ministry, told Xinhua in an interview. The Belt and Road Initiative is “a new paradigm and a turning point in the relationship between Iran and China and among all central Asian states,” Emadi said.

“Since some financial sanctions by the West against Iran are still in place, it would be a good idea to develop mechanisms for transactions between Iran on the one hand and China and other countries involved in the initiative on the other,” said Mohsen Shariati Nia, a professor at Tehran Shahid Beheshti University. “In addition, the private sectors of both countries should engage in strategic cooperation and investment projects, so that short-term trade ties could grow into comprehensive economic interactions.” He said Iran’s role in the “Silk Road Initiative” should be more than a mere link between East and West. “Iran should play a key role as a partner of China, which will result in the strategic cooperation,” Shariati Nia said.

Concurrently with the conference, Tehran is also hosting a cultural festival called “2016 Experiencing China in Iran,” showcasing northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and featuring a photo exhibition, music and dance performances, and other cultural activities. 

Wednesday afternoon, after meeting with US Vice President Joe Biden, Turkish President Reccept Tayyip Erdogan announced that Syrian rebels, backed by Turkish artillery and tanks, took the Syrian border town of Jarabulus, on the Euphrates River, from ISIS. According to a Reuters report, the operation began at 4 AM local time, with US and Turkish air strikes against ISIS targets. The air strikes were apparently followed by the insertion of Turkish special forces into Syria and Turkish artillery strikes across the border. Turkish tanks reportedly crossed the border some hours later.

“The aim of the operation is to ensure border security and Syria’s territorial integrity while supporting the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State,” one military source told Reuters. The military operation was aimed at clearing the Turkish border of “terrorist elements,” halting a new wave of refugee flows, and delivering humanitarian aid to civilians in the region, the last significant town held by the jihadist group on the border with Turkey, state-run Anadolu Agency reported, according to Hurriyet. It also aimed at “prioritizing and supporting Syria’s territorial integrity,” it added.

The Turkish assault began hours before Biden arrived in Ankara to meet with Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim. While the main agenda item for Biden’s visit is the Turkish demand for the extradition of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen for his alleged involvement in the failed July 15 coup attempt, the US relationship with the Syrian Kurdish PYD and its armed wing, the YPG, is also high on the list of Turkish concerns. Biden therefore promised that the YPG, which played a key role in the recent liberation from ISIS of Manbij, Syria, would not be allowed to stay west of the Euphrates River.

“They cannot and will not — under no circumstances — get American support if they do not keep that commitment,” Biden said during a joint press conference with Yildirim, yesterday, reports Hurriyet.

Both the Kurds and the Syrian Foreign Ministry have denounced the Turkish incursion as an act of aggression. A source in the Foreign Ministry told SANA that Syria condemns the incursion as a blatant violation of Syrian sovereignty and affirms that fighting terrorism isn’t done by ousting ISIS and replacing it with other terrorist organizations backed directly by Turkey. PYD leader Salih Muslim, in a twitter posting this morning, declared that  “Turkey is in Syrian Quagmire. will be defeated as Daish.”