At the Monday, March 30 White House press briefing, a reporter had the temerity to ask Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt what President Donald Trump thought about what Pope Leo XIV said in his Palm Sunday message: That Jesus “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying, ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood.’” The ever-deft Leavitt twisted the question around, claiming that the troops appreciate that the commander in chief prays for them. She chose not to address the Satanic prayers of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who calls himself the “Secretary of War” and prays for violence and no mercy.

Mohamad Safa, who just resigned from his post as executive director of the Patriotic Vision-PVA at the United Nations because “some UN seniors are serving a powerful lobby and not the UN,” warned: “I don’t think people understand the gravity of the situation as the UN is preparing for possible nuclear weapon use in Iran…. I gave up my diplomatic career to leak this information. I suspended my duties so as not to be part of or a witness to this crime against humanity, in an attempt to prevent a nuclear winter before it is too late.”

Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson posted a letter from a Marine commander asking his troops, “Is your gear packed and ready to go? Are your family affairs in order?” Johnson wrote: “A letter like this can only mean one of two things: 1) It is an elaborate deception campaign to convince Iran that the U.S. is going to attack in hopes that Iran will back down, or 2) He understands that he is sending a portion of the Corps he commands into the valley of death. I am hoping it is the former, but I fear it is the latter.”

For his part, the delirious President of the United States Donald J. Trump made another insane post on Truth Social, which reads in part: “Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ‘touched.’”

According to Pope Leo XIV’s Palm Sunday message, if President Trump prays for success in this mission, which is a violation of international law and an intent to commit war crimes, God will not hear him.

Meanwhile, on Monday, March 30, NASA teams arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to begin the countdown for man’s first orbit around the Moon in over 50 years.The first time human beings orbited the Moon was Christmas of 1968, a difficult year for Americans and world citizens, in which both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy had been assassinated. The NASA astronauts on that flight, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, chose to read the first ten verses of Genesis because “The first ten verses of Genesis is the foundation of many of the world’s religions, not just the Christian religion,” said Lovell. “There are more people in other religions than the Christian religion around the world, and so this would be appropriate to that and so that’s how it came to pass.” They closed their reading of Genesis with the message: “May God bless all of you on the good Earth.”

There is a phenomenon known as the “overview effect,” which is the singular emotion that strikes those who view the Earth for the first time as a whole from outer space. It is described as a sense of wonder, of unity, of the smallness of the Earth and the vulnerability of it, accompanied by a passionate commitment to care for it and humanity.

God will probably welcome a prayer that our astronauts arrive in Moon orbit soon enough to share those images of the Earth with everyone here, in time to prevent us from plunging over the abyss into nuclear war.

Short of putting everybody on the nearest spaceship, LaRouche organizers are planning a series of street deployments and street theater over the coming week leading into Easter Sunday. One wonders if an exorcism were to be performed on Paula White, would there be anything left?

In discussions with associates today, Helga Zepp-LaRouche urged that her open letter to Pope Leo be circulated at houses of worship throughout the week and weekend, particularly at churches on Easter Sunday, April 5. The letter can be found here.

by EIR Staff

March 27—The 147th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) commenced with a tour d’horizon by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and International Peace Coalition initiator. “The situation is still one of utmost suspense,” she said, noting that U.S. President Donald Trump has twice delayed his ultimatum on strikes against Iranian energy infrastructure. After Trump twice used negotiations as a pretext to prepare for an attack, there is little trust in his proclamations. Up to 7,000 additional U.S. troops will soon be in the region, indicating a possible ground invasion and a massive escalation of the conflict. The “decapitation” strategy has failed; the Iranian government remains firmly in control. Countries around the world are affected by skyrocketing oil prices, as the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked. Ambassador Abolfazl Pasandideh, who represents the Islamic Republic of Iran in Mexico, has proposed in a recent presentation to the IPC to return to the idea of a dialogue of civilizations. This was counterposed to Samuel Huntington’s clash of civilizations, which proposed Islam as a new enemy image to replace communism after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Zepp-LaRouche called attention to an extended Oasis Plan, proposed not just for Israel and Palestine, but for the region as a whole, and for the benefit of the many nations from Afghanistan on the east to Africa on the west which have been devastated by neocon operations over the past 25 years. The region can once again become the hub between three continents, she said.

Domestically, “Trump is confronted with a complete crumbling of support inside the United States,” noted Zepp-LaRouche. There is a wide discrepancy between what the public was given as the reason for this war against Iran and what members of Congress are being told in briefings. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is a shining example of a European statesman with the courage to oppose the war.

U.S. Air Force Command Chief Master Sergeant (ret.) Dennis Fritz of the Eisenhower Media Network observed that we keep hearing that this war started in 1979, but it actually started in 1953 with the coup against Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. We also supported Iraq in the Iraq-Iran War. The United States and Israel are the greatest sponsors of terrorism, said Fritz. We attacked Iran in the midst of negotiations twice. Does Iran have the right to defend itself? They will never give up ballistic missiles, because those are the basis for Iran’s national security. Iran warned us that they would close the Strait of Hormuz if attacked.

Fritz then introduced the next speaker, U.S. Marine Corps veteran Brian McGinnis, saying that “they thanked him for his service by breaking his arm.”

McGinnis is a retired Marine and current Green Party candidate for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina, who had his arm broken by U.S. Capitol Police and Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy as they attempted to forcibly remove him from a recent congressional hearing. He said he was honored to be introduced by Fritz. McGinnis went on to say that money laundering has been intrinsic to the wars of the past 25 years. He urged that we continue to expose the “Greater Israel” project. “Our government is leading us in a direction that is sacrificing our moral high ground,” he concluded.

‘Pangs of Conscience’ Will Haunt Their Lives

Zepp-LaRouche responded by expressing her “deep, heartfelt gratitude” to Fritz and McGinnis. Co-moderator Dennis Speed reported that other people from the military who are candidates for office in the United States are saying that they refuse to be associated with the administration’s criminal policies. “This may be the fastest way to send up an S.O.S. to the rest of the world,” she said. Moderator Anastasia Battle added that whistleblower Lt. Col. (ret.) Anthony Aguilar, U.S. Army, had said that the girls’ school in Minab, Iran, was targeted intentionally for a missile attack, to harm the morale of the girls’ parents, many of whom are Iranian government officials. Fritz said that our military is imitating the policies of the Israel Defense Forces, and our Secretary of Defense is encouraging our troops to violate the basic rules of war. They will live with this for the rest of their lives, afflicted with PTSD in addition to their pangs of conscience.

Paul Gallagher, co-editor of Executive Intelligence Review (EIR), had sent a video message in which he reported on how he is investigating the request by the Trump administration for an additional $200-$250 billion for the Iran war. The persistent decline in U.S. manufacturing productivity is to be corrected by a huge slush fund for military production. The plan is being run by 30 top investment bankers, who are being paid salaries of $300,000-$500,000 a year. We now have a military-industrial-financial complex, indeed, said Gallagher, but this has little to do with the Iran War; it is intended instead to produce new “War Unicorn” companies for new “kill technologies” toward eventually confronting China.

Eduardo Gabriel Fernández is a graduate of the Advanced Course in National Defense and a member of the General Jorge Edgar Leal Observatory on Argentine Sovereignty. He reported that the current government of Argentina is reviving the policies of the military dictatorship which ruled from 1976 to 1983—after the overthrow of President Isabel Perón’s government, a trend which is being protested in the streets by the people of Argentina. He is circulating among bishops in Argentina Zepp-LaRouche’s open letter calling on Pope Leo XIV to intervene on the level of the 15th-Century’s Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, and one of them has agreed to present it to the entire Bishops’ Conference there.

Schiller Institute organizer Tim Rush offered areport on organizing by citizen activists, who visited 390 offices at the U.S. Congress. Congressmen are conditioned to discuss issues in a binary for-or-against fashion, and they are unprepared for the IPC’s approach of posing solutions which lift the discussion to a higher vantage point.

An Appeal to the Human Soul

Zepp-LaRouche expressed the hope that our appeal to the human soul can become stronger than the war machine. “I believe that the true nature of man is beautiful, is positive,” she said, and reminded the participants that a nuclear war would not merely annihilate the presently living generations, but also all the scientific and cultural achievements of all the prior generations.

Dennis Fritz agreed with Zepp-LaRouche that it is the economic success of China, based on the successful application of the policies advocated by Alexander Hamilton, that has made them into an adversary in the eyes of our present political leadership.

Zepp-LaRouche described how Nicholas of Cusa was conscious of the fact that he had found a unique and unprecedented mode of thinking: humans, in the image of the Creator, can resolve conflicts by ascending to a higher level of reason than the level which gave rise to the conflict. Pope Leo XIV has called attention to this as well. She contrasted this to the Jeffrey Epstein Class, comprising people who feel that there are no limits or constraints on their power, whose lusts become increasingly perverse. These are not happy people; they have lost their souls.

Final Thoughts

Brian McGinnis described as “riveting” the idea that the United States could pivot away from the destruction in the Middle East, to the regional development and “greening of the desert” promised by the Oasis Plan.

Dennis Fritz indicted the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) for being the impetus for the wars against both Iraq and Iran. He praised the interventions of Jose Vega, an independent candidate for Congress from New York’s 15th District in the South Bronx, and Medea Benjamin, cofounder of the anti-war organization CODEPINK; he said that the latter had “beaten down Cory Booker [U.S. Senator from New Jersey] so bad” that he will no longer accept money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Zepp-LaRouche concluded by saying, “The issue of the One Humanity has to become our battle cry.” Trump, if he is to be believed, has announced in his latest ultimatum that April 6 is his new deadline for capitulation by Iran, and we have chosen that date for our next EIR Emergency Roundtable online event. She asked all participants to please work to maximize worldwide participation.

Join Helga Zepp-LaRouche in her live dialogue and discuss the issues and solutions that move the world and its people. Send your questions & comments to questions@schillerinstitute.org.
Please share the YouTube link with your friends, acquaintances, and colleagues to increase the reach of the solutions presented by the LaRouche movement.

The world whipsawed again on Monday March 23 as President Trump surprised the world by announcing a halt on U.S. strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure. The U.S. and Iran “have had, over the last two days, very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in all caps, adding that he had postponed strikes on Iran’s infrastructure for a five day period. Oil prices fell and stocks surged at the news.

Iran, however, denied the allegations, with Iran’s Foreign Ministry stating that “no talks are taking place between Tehran and Washington.” It added that Trump’s remarks were “part of efforts to manage energy prices and buy time for the implementation of his military plans.” When asked about this, Trump simply suggested that “perhaps that hasn’t been conveyed” because of how badly their country has been destroyed.

There are claims flying in every direction, with very little confirmed as to what, if any, diplomatic process is actually underway, or whether the whole thing is simply an inelegant way for Trump to throw his hands up and walk away. While this is a welcome reprieve in a situation that was quickly headed toward disaster, including possibly nuclear war, at best it is only a pause in a far uglier policy that is still very much alive.

The real issue was laid out by American statesman Lyndon LaRouche 20 years ago, in an article titled “Strictly Speaking, There Is No Iran Crisis.” In it, he said that the push for a regime-change war against Iran was “a continuation of the evolution of what became known as Britain’s Sykes-Picot gambits.” LaRouche continued: “That is to emphasize that the targets of ‘The Crisis on the Global Chessboard’ include Russia and China, Russia more immediately. However, the more immediate phase of the British-led game in progress, is the promotion of British Arab Bureau veteran Bernard Lewis’s revival of the global anti-Islam strategy which had been the basis for the creation and perpetuation of that medieval imperialist alliance of the Venetian financier-oligarchy and Norman chivalry, known as ‘The Crusades.’ What is in progress, currently centered in [then-British Prime Minister Tony] Blair’s and Jack Straw’s Liberal Imperialist London, is the creation of that permanent state of warfare and revolution intended to be the organizing principle of a new form of global imperialism, a form currently labeled ‘globalization.’ A global, perpetual religious war against Islam, is the British imperial policy adopted currently, for this purpose, by the Blair allies associated with the U.S. Bush-Cheney regime.”

Replace George Bush and Dick Cheney with Trump’s new brand of Silicon Valley neocons and Prosperity Gospel crusaders, as well as the ongoing role of Tony Blair in the Middle East, and the situation is clear. Add in the growing role of Palantir, which epitomizes the way this “permanent state of warfare” was necessary to implement “a new form of global imperialism,” as it simultaneously establishes both global surveillance platforms and increasingly lethal (and financially profitable) military techniques—all under the rubric of defending “our way of life” from our “adversaries.”

Yet, despite this evil and almost unfathomable level of danger, the world is perched at an absolutely unique inflection point. Nothing can “go back to normal” after this conflict is over, as is also the case after the genocide in Gaza. The world has fundamentally changed, and the moral bankruptcy of the West has been irreversibly exposed for the world to see. If growing parts of the world were not already looking for the exit from this imperialistic nightmare, you can be sure they are now. The question remains: What will replace it? Can mankind actually organize itself into a new system which doesn’t ultimately lead to a war of each against all?

There is a flurry of diplomatic activity underway throughout Southwest and South Asia, with significant nations, such as Turkiye, Egypt, and Pakistan, playing new roles in reining in this crisis by the hands of the Americans and Israelis. The recent proposal by Oman’s Foreign Minister to establish a regional framework for the transparent use of nuclear energy, is also an indication of how this region could begin to break free from the British Empire’s matrix of permanent war and geopolitics.

Speaking to associates on March 23, Helga Zepp-LaRouche summed up the opportunity before us in the following way: “I think it is really up to us to say that this present course of events, even if this goes back and forth by the day, it has to be taken off the table entirely, and it has to be replaced … with the idea of a total change in the direction of the Oasis Plan, and an Oasis Plan being expanded to the entire region, from India to the Mediterranean, from the Caucasus to the Gulf. Because this region includes many countries that have been victimized by the interventionist wars in the last decades, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, Palestine, and the West Bank. The entire region is now in shambles, given the fact that the business model of the Gulf states, being on the one side extremely wealthy from their oil income, but having no in-depth state. Their populations are very small, all the work is being done by guest workers, and being protected by the U.S. military bases. This business model is now in shambles, and therefore it would be in the vested interest of these Gulf states to use the money of their sovereign wealth funds to invest in regional infrastructure programs … desalination of large amounts of ocean water, [building] canals and systems of irrigation—creating a greening of the desert like China has done in the case of Xinjiang and in the northeast, where they greened a desert the size of the territory of Germany, where now there are forests and farmland and orchards and tourism, and people have become wealthy rather than being dirt poor.

“So that approach has to be put on the table…. And if all relevant forces would work together, the Sunnis and the Shi’ites cooperating, rather than being played according to colonial scripts since Sykes-Picot and earlier, creating a clash of civilization, they should unite and go for peaceful development. That is our unified approach, and the United States should be convinced that that is in the best interest of the United States as well.”

March 21, 2026 (EIRNS)—Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder of the Schiller Institute and initiator of the International Peace Coalition (IPC ), started the 146th consecutive Friday weekly meeting of the IPC on March 20 by challenging the audience to help stop the dangerous, “breakneck speed” of a spiral into the Iran War, chaos, and the very real potential for nuclear war. Following Israel’s bombing of the South Pars off-shore natural gas field in the Persian Gulf which Iran shares with Qatar, Iran is retaliating in the war by attacking oil and gas facilities of neighboring Gulf states hosting U.S. military bases. This is contributing to the oil price shock that could seriously risk a blowout of the world financial system. The United States is moving ground troops into the region which could target disputed islands off the coast of Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia is threatening to join the war, but the three main actors have incompatible goals—the United States wants regime change, Israel wants total destruction of Iran, and Iran insists that the United States must leave the region and pay reparations for the damage from the war and many years of destructive sanctions. Zepp-LaRouche saw hope in the recent call by Foreign Minister of Oman Badr Albusaidi—who was in the midst of mediating U.S.-Iranian negotiations when the United States and Israel launched their “unlawful military strike” against Iran—for a meeting of all countries in the region to move towards a regional non-aggression treaty, pivoted on an agreement on developing nuclear energy, as a pathway out of the ongoing unwinnable war. China’s special envoy for Middle East affairs Zhai Jun is in the region and has been promoting a quick end to the fighting and economic development.

In Europe, Zepp-LaRouche noted the reluctance of Europeans to join the war. Europe has offered to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz, but only after the fighting ends. She also noted that Iran’s Ambassador to Germany Majid Nili Ahmadabadi has been asking about the role of the United States at the Ramstein Air Base, suggesting that Germany is complicit in the war. She spoke of Prime Minister of Japan Sanae Takaichi visiting the White House on March 19 and being subjected to a cruel joke about Pearl Harbor, when a reporter asked President Trump why the United States did not give Japan advanced warning about their intent to start the war against Iran.

Zepp-LaRouche noted that the former head of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, Joseph Kent, has said that the FBI has blocked investigations into the shooting death of prominent conservative activist Charlie Kirk, and the July 2024 assassination attempt against President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. Kent has warned that there may be live, ongoing assassination plans against the President. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has warned that the U.S. effort to militarize and control space is a dangerous escalation. She noted that all of these events could easily go out of control, and stressed the need for negotiations, development, and a dialogue of civilizations. She also noted that Pope Leo XIV is an American and in a unique position to bring other religious leaders together to prevent a descent into barbarism.

The next speaker was Josephine Guilbeau, a 17-year U.S. Army veteran from U.S. Cyber Command and now active with the Eisenhower Media Network. Guilbeau spoke of her attendance at the Catholics For Catholics 3rd annual Catholic Prayer for America event in Washington, D.C. on March 19, where Joseph Kent spoke and received multiple standing ovations. She stressed that the USS Tripoli, with over 2,000 Marines, is just five days away from entering the theater of war, and that Americans must act now to avoid another ground war with no “off ramp.” Guilbeau called on Americans to contact their congressional representatives and send letters to the editors of major newspapers to stop the war, saying that we cannot allow Israel to drag us into another bloodbath. Zepp-LaRouche responded by stressing the importance of mobilizing other Catholics around the world to unite in opposition to the war. Guilbeau announced the Eisenhower Media Network sponsored March 26 press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., which will expose how, as in the Iraq war, contradictory or even non-existent intelligence has been used to dupe a U.S. President into the war on Iran.

Speaking next was Bassam El Hachem, a sociologist and professor at the University of Lebanon, who spoke of the delusion dominating the Trump administration that the war against Iran could be won in four or five days through decapitation. He said that this “adventure” was a failure, and it is now Iran which holds all of the cards. Iran has knocked-out the major U.S. radar systems in the region, forced the two U.S. aircraft carriers to pull back, and it controls the flow of 20% of world oil exports. Without its sophisticated radar, the United States is blind and Iran’s missiles have inflicted damage. President Trump has demanded that his “allies”—the same ones he has threatened with draconian tariffs—help him restore oil and gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, to little effect.

Professor El Hachem noted that at the end of 2024 Israel and Lebanon negotiated an end to the fighting, Hezbollah honored the agreement, but Israel did not: It acted unilaterally to continue the killing. The United States was negotiating with Iran, but in the middle of the negotiations the U.S. acted unilaterally and started the war. He said that there has been a media blackout, but the U.S. makes sure that Lebanon is weak, which means that Hezbollah is the only local force which can respond to this fighting.

The professor continued that for three days Israel has been preparing for a ground invasion of Lebanon, giving Hezbollah no choice but to fight. France has worked to negotiate an end to this fighting, but the professor does not expect this to work.

The final invited speaker was Diane Sare, an independent candidate for U.S. President, who asked if it were possible to end these wars without changing America? She said that only Congress can declare war, but this Congress embarrassed itself by abdicating its responsibilities, allowing the war to begin.

Sare called on whistleblowers and independent-minded candidates to unite to break the brainwashing by the billionaire elite which wants to dumb-down the population to eliminate optimism. Sare said that the peace movement must fight for economic development, eradicate poverty, provide clean drinking water for the world, and build nuclear power for a growing world. This peace movement must act as one humanity and promote a dialogue of civilizations.

A short video interview was shown of Chandra Muzaffar, a prominent Malaysian human rights activist, author, and president of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST), who has called to end all hegemony. He suggested the importance of mobilizing individuals of faith, such as Mahatma Gandhi or Lyndon LaRouche—instead of appealing to religious institutions. Gandhi and LaRouche were people of faith, even though they did not always fit in with the rituals of institutional religious structures, both challenged us with what gives meaning to our lives or what we should do with our lives. Muzaffar said that in a time of crisis, this is the spiritual perspective that we need.

Zepp-LaRouche responded saying the elites are willing to waste precious lives as collateral damage. President Trump has said that he can do with Cuba whatever he wants. She said that we are already in a “Dark Age,” but she is worried that we are sliding into barbarism. She repeated her husband’s frequent question: Do we have the moral fitness to survive? Can we work for the benefit of others? Can we have a dialogue of civilizations? History has shown that arrogance has always led to destruction and we will not survive an Armageddon.

Sare added that people are naturally good and that we can see signs of resistance to this barbarism. Schools are prohibiting smartphones in classrooms, and promoting more reading instead of more screen time. Professor El Hachem added that students of all faiths are acting to stop the war, and he said that it is critical that “we must give young people hope.”

During the question period Sare warned of the danger of false flag provocations to expand the war. She said that President Trump has retreated in Yemen and Minneapolis while declaring defeats to be victories, and that she would be happy if he does the same thing in the Iran War.

A short video was played of former CIA analyst Larry Johnson arguing that nuclear weapons did not end World War II and they will not end the current conflicts. Zepp-LaRouche warned that wars never go as planned and warned of the danger of the unpayable $2.4 quadrillion financial derivatives bubble. She said the only way out of these problems is economic development, but the United States insists on dominating the world despite the fact that it represents only a small fraction of the world’s population. The Global South represents 90% of the world and it demands equality and will not accept an inferior position. Zepp-LaRouche added that Gulf states have shown what is possible in the middle of the desert, but instead of more luxury hotels, these nations must unite around an Oasis Plan development strategy. She said that China developed two of its poor desert areas, each the size of Germany in its northern and western regions—and turned them into lush gardens. There is no need for death and misery anywhere in the world.

Zepp-LaRouche said that the “American System” of economics demonstrates that credit for production always produces more value than the sum of the individual investments. China’s most favorite economist is Friedrich List, who promoted this same system. This “American System” was opposed to the British model of merely extracting value from trade. She called on the United States to return to its mission of being a “Beacon of Hope” for the world again, and that America should not go abroad “in search of monsters to destroy,” as called for by John Quincy Adams. 

Join Helga Zepp-LaRouche in her live dialogue and discuss the issues and solutions that move the world and its people. Send your questions & comments to questions@schillerinstitute.org.
Please share the YouTube link with your friends, acquaintances, and colleagues to increase the reach of the solutions presented by the LaRouche movement.

Lyndon LaRouche, the American philosopher and worldly statesman, once posed the question, “How much does a thought weigh?”

Ask yourself: What kind of substance and causal reality does an appropriate thought have on the material world? And does engaged dialogue amongst cultures and amongst nations actually play a role in averting physical disaster, when greed, pettiness, fears, cynicism, vengeance, outright meanness of spirit or any volatile mixture of such seem to take the upper hand in driving the world into senseless violence, killings, and war?

On March 3, in the 144th weekly session of the International Peace Coalition dialogue, the exchange of ideas prompted IPC founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche to issue on March 9 an open call upon Pope Leo XIV to sound a clear trumpet call to rally various religions, cultures, and heads of government to respond to the “might makes right” abandonment of law and morality, and to initiate the real world steps for a new international security and development architecture.

On March 15, the American-born Pope issued a call for an immediate ceasefire in Iran and, as Zepp-LaRouche summarized the developments over the last day: “[S]hort of responding to our campaign, the open letter to the Pope, nevertheless there are a lot of statements that have come from church circles, Vatican circles, all absolutely, massively condemning this war. State Secretary Cardinal Parolin rejected the claim that this is a preventive war, by saying that they keep the dialogue open, but that this is not a preemptive war. Cardinal McElroy, Archbishop of Washington, said the war is morally unjustifiable. Chicago Cardinal Cupich said it was sickening how the White House was splicing video game imagery into social media messaging about the war…. The head of the Italian Bishops’ Conference called on all religions to seek bold solutions to war, and even the German Cardinal Marx, who is the Archbishop of Munich and former head of the German Bishops’ Conference, sharply criticized the attack by Israel and the U.S., saying that according to Catholic social teaching, this is an illegitimate war and cannot be accepted. This is quite important because normally the German Catholic Church is always more close to the government, and they never stick their neck out like that. But he called on people not to resign themselves to this. He said, we must not allow ourselves to be discouraged. Now more than ever, we must be involved both as church and individual citizens. Now that is very important.”

Today Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israeli military to occupy southern Lebanon, move almost a million citizens from their homes, and carry out a “security” mission there, modelled upon what was carried out in Gaza the last two years. U.S. President Donald Trump, asked whether he knew about this plan, admitted that he did, then stumbled around saying that it had to be done to destroy Hezbollah and that it had nothing to do with most of the population.

Over the weekend, Trump had claimed U.S. air strikes had “totally demolished” much of the Kharg Island oil export hub, but added: “We may hit it a few more times just for fun.” Not one of the countries he called upon to join him in sending warships to free the Straits of Hormuz has agreed. When Britain’s Prime Minister Starmer made his refusal, he reported: “I said to them: We will remember.” China responded by telling Trump to simply stop the unnecessary war and the Straits of Hormuz would be re-opened. At every turn, he issues new threats, as a King Canute ordering the ocean waves to cease. And now, his public behavior has become a major subject of public discussion around the world.

When the emperor is naked, the little boy’s innocent question—”Why is that man wearing no clothes?”—has a massively therapeutic effect on the whole population, one that had been spending so much effort damaging their own minds and spirits, so as not to say the obvious. Ideas deployed properly, when it looks like nothing works, is what works. This is what separates Zepp-LaRouche’s conclusion today from merely naive optimism:

“So I think we are well positioned to fight for a breakthrough. A breakthrough being that we have to absolutely get the new security and development architecture on the agenda, because only if we move people into a new paradigm of axioms of thinking, where we overcome geopolitics, do we have a chance to break out of it.”

The thought that humanity is made in the image of God, with a divine spark of reason, capable of necessary and creative interventions into the world, is arguably the most weighty substance in the universe.

The 145th consecutive online weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) featured a surprise guest, Ambassador Abolfazl Pasandideh who represents the Islamic Republic of Iran in Mexico. This was a unique opportunity for people who live in an environment dominated by war propaganda, to hear an unfiltered message from the nation the U.S. government is attacking.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and IPC initiator provided an update. She posed the question, Why did U.S. President Donald Trump start this war? Reportedly, it was U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, U.S. Secretary of State/National Security Advisor Marco Rubio, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner who convinced him that Iran was on the verge of attacking U.S. forces or bases. She noted that we have reached a new phase in neocon aggression, typified by targeted eliminations of heads of state, such as the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro or the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. She added that this situation can still escalate to nuclear war, citing an editorial in The Hill by Harlan Ullman, senior adviser at the Atlantic Council, who bills himself as the principal author of the doctrine of shock and awe. Ullman suggests that the United States nuke Iran as the only way to achieve the requisite shock and awe. Zepp-LaRouche also reported on her Letter to Pope Leo XIV, calling on him to intervene in the spirit of Nicholas of Cusa’s De Pace Fidei. It has come to her attention that a ranking Shiite cleric from Iran, Ayatollah Seyed Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad Ahmadabadi, has issued a similar appeal to the Pope. She concluded by saying, “The danger to humanity, in my view, has never been more grave than right now.”

Ambassador Abolfazl Pasandideh spoke next, called the present war “one of the most irrational wars in history… a betrayal of diplomacy. For the second time, we were attacked in the middle of negotiations… It was a blatant symbol of the use of power in the place of international law.” It was expected that the internet would usher in an age of humanism, he said, but instead, racists and radical nationalists have successfully exploited the internet. On the topic of the neocon “regime change” agenda, he said, “It is not clear who will be next after Iran—Mexico, or China?” He ended on an optimistic note: “With the pen and the word, it is possible to neutralize the effects of guns.”

Zepp-LaRouche described the motives of the IPC for inviting the Iranian ambassador: we have observed the discrepancy between reality, and the narrative being promoted by Western sources. She recalled the declaration by U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, that the United States had intentionally engineered the collapse of the Iranian economy in order to trigger regime change, and referred also to Trump’s former Director of the CIA in his first administration Mike Pompeo’s tweet about the Mossad agents accompanying each Iranian demonstrator.

Former President of Guyana (2011-2015) Donald Ramotar conveyed to the Ambassador his admiration for the tenacity and courage of the Iranian people in the face of the attempts to destroy their nation. For some time now, he said, there has been an effort to destroy international institutions and international law. Iran is under attack because it is the only country standing up for the Palestinians, and because it is the main obstacle to Israel’s efforts to re-shape the Middle East. Iran’s fight is also a fight for Cuba, which is now under “almost unbearable” economic pressure in a similar mad attempt to incite regime change.

Pasandideh said that he wishes to thank Zepp-LaRouche for going to the “roots of this problem.” He thanked Ramotar for his expression of solidarity.

Father Harry Bury, a catholic priest for 70 years, a lifelong peace activist, and active in the Twin Cities Nonviolent and the U.S. Catholic Priest Association spoke, saying “Our hearts are breaking, truly breaking, at what is happening to Iran,” he said. “Jesus said that we are to love our enemies!” He stressed that history has shown us that violence does not resolve problems. He reiterated his endorsement of the Oasis Plan and the BRICS as an exemplary approach to peace. He asked all participants to add their names to Zepp-LaRouche’s open letter to the Pope.

Pasandideh responded by saying Bury’s beautiful words had touched his heart. He offered his view that Donald Trump is hiding behind religion, and this is an aggression against all religions.

Jack Gilroy, of Veterans for Peace, Pax Christi – Upstate NY, and Pax Christi International, commented on the contrast between what Father Bury is saying, and the endorsement of violence by the Christian Zionists. The stance of the Christian Zionists flies in the face of the non-violent message of Christ and the Jewish commitment to justice.

Pasandideh responded again that if we search for the origins of these problems, we find unilateralism. The UN Charter established a world based on laws and rights to say “never again” to the injustice that had led to World War II, and now these precepts are being ignored. He asked how can we return to multilateralism, which would rule out regime change operations. When we achieve multilateralism, we accept the cultural differences among nations.

Zepp-LaRouche recalled the role of President of Iran Mohammad Khatami, who brought about a revival of culture and the introduction of modern technologies to Iran.

Discussion

Gilroy called U.S. foreign policy “perverse,” substituting gunboat diplomacy for real diplomacy. He said that we must call upon religious leaders to preach the truth like Father Bury does. There are 20 million Christian Zionists in the United States, which is why the Israeli flag is flying over the White House. Where are the religious leaders who say we must stop murdering fishermen in the Caribbean?

Nuclear weapons expert Dr. Theodore Postol, Professor Emeritus of Science, Technology and National Security at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in a video contribution, said the Iranians may be able to continue the war for a very long time, manufacturing drones in underground facilities. The United States is unable to manufacture interceptors at a pace that can match Iranian drone production. And the interceptors are not working, they are unable to perform their functions as advertised.

A question was sent in for Father Bury: what can Catholics do about those in South America and elsewhere who reduce their faith to mere ideological anti-communism? He replied that we must educate ourselves, and then educate other people.

Diane Sare reminded the participants that she is an independent U.S. presidential candidate. She noted that nearly two thirds of the U.S. population are unable to read above a sixth-grade level. The key to deaf and blind Helen Keller’s liberation from her sensory prison was language. Sare noted that Ultimate Fighting Championship fighters are now training the FBI. Our U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and FBI agents need to be able to think, instead of being mindlessly violent.

A participant asked, can Israel be stopped from using nuclear weapons on Iran? Co-moderator Dennis Speed warned that the Jeffrey Epstein Class is not restrained by moral limits. They believe themselves to be above them; they are essentially Satanic. This mentality must be exposed and confronted in order to stop the use of nuclear weapons. Speed recalled that according to Russian intelligence, France and Britain are plotting to bring nuclear weapons to Ukraine.

Congressional candidate in New York’s 15th congressional district (Bronx), Jose Vega reported on his campaign’s petition drive to achieve ballot status, knocking on over 4,500 doors over the past few weeks and bringing a message of peace through development.

See the full transcript here.

As the United States careens ever closer to general war against Iran, including the possible deployment of “boots on the ground” in the next hours and days; and as the world faces the growing probability that that conflict will then escalate into broader nuclear warfare; an extraordinary public dialogue to present an alternative to such a war was held on March 13 among a group of prominent government, religious and political leaders from Iran, the United States, Germany and Global South nations.

That hour-long dialogue can be viewed and read in the attached video and print documents. It constitutes a watershed in the presentation of alternatives to stop the head-long plunge into war. Speaking via Zoom and YouTube to a live audience of some 600 participants from 35 nations gathered for the 145^th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC), the panelists included H.E. Abolfazl Pasandideh, the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Mexico; Father Harry Bury, a renowned Catholic priest for 70 years, and lifelong peace activist and member of the U.S. Catholic Priest Association; Jack Gilroy, of Veterans for Peace and Pax Christi International; H.E. Donald Ramotar, former President of Guyana (2011-2015); and Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder of the Schiller Institute.

Their dialogue constitutes a call to all nations represented in the United Nations and all organizations devoted to the preservation of peace, to immediately put on the agenda the need for a new international security and development architecture to replace the deadly system of geopolitics — or we shall face the likelihood of our self-destruction.

For further information:

HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, first of all, let me say hello to you, and especially to Your Excellency, Ambassador Pasandideh from Iran. We are very happy that you are joining our discussion, because you never hear in the Western media the side of Iran. And in the spirit of the dialogue for truth-seeking, I’m very happy that you will join us today.

We are now entering the third week of the war against Iran. This is an unprovoked war of aggression that has been stated in the meantime, even by former Western leaders and diplomats. And the goal of regime change in Iran clearly has not been accomplished. There is no victory in sight. And even the German TV is reporting today that President Trump obviously totally miscalculated the situation. This, however, was completely unnecessary, because there was a classified national intelligence report in the United States published a week before the 28th of February, in which they stated that in their estimate, even a large-scale assault would not lead to regime change in Iran, and that the opposition would take power would be very unlikely.

So, why did President Trump do this anyway? Well, now it seems, and he is even saying that he was convinced to do this by four people, Hegseth, Rubio, Witkoff, and Kushner. And in particular, Rubio went on the record to basically explain that since they knew that Israel was about to attack, and this would lead to a counterattack from Iran, that they had to do a preemptive attack on Iran, which is a completely strange logic, but that’s what he is saying. So, what is the situation? I mean, we are in a complete strategic mess as a result. If you just review the events since the beginning of this year, on January 7th, President Trump had declared in an interview with the {New York Times} that he did not need international law.

Subsequently, you had the kidnapping of an elected head of state in Venezuela, President Maduro, and more recently, the assassination of the Supreme Leader of Iran, who at the same time not only was the leader of Iran, but also the head of all Shi’ites worldwide. So, this is clearly a new phase, because the targeted eliminations, be it through kidnappings, be it through assassination of elected leaders of state, clearly is a sign of a plunge into lawlessness, where the question of where this should all end, is worrying many people. 

Now, as the military campaign apparently is not going well, and there are many reports from knowledgeable scientists like Ted Postol, Ray McGovern, and many others who describe in great detail that the military operation is not going as planned; but naturally the big danger is that this conflict can escalate. Now, how could it escalate? There was the absolutely shocking article by one person with the name of Helman Ullman, who is an advisor to the Atlantic Council, which is a pretty official position, who wrote an article in the paper {The Hill}, which is distributed to the Congress every day, to every Congressman and Senator. And there he wrote that any attempt for strategic bombing never resulted in the desired goal; not in Vietnam, not in Afghanistan, not in Iraq. And that there’s only one example in history where strategic bombing succeeded, and that is Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And therefore, the potential use of a nuclear weapon to accomplish the goal would be within the options available. 

Now, this is extremely shocking, because we know that Israel is in possession of nuclear weapons, even if it never admitted it and never joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty. And famously, John F. Kennedy, in the context of the Cuban Missile Crisis, basically said one should make sure one never brings a nuclear-owning power into a position where they either have the choice of humiliation and defeat, or use of a nuclear weapon. 

Now, I think this is an imminent danger. And that is why, despite the fact that the public opinion clearly is shifting, for example, the Foreign Minister of Oman, who was the chief negotiator with Iran and the United States in the negotiations in Geneva on the 26th—they had negotiated in Geneva on the 27th. He went to the United States and briefed President Trump, saying that major breakthroughs had been accomplished; that Iran had already agreed to massively reduce or downgrade its enriched uranium, and that he was very confident a solution could be reached. And that was basically now turning out for the second time to be the cover story for launching the attack with all the Israeli input in the background. This Oman Foreign Minister, in the meantime, put out a statement saying that this war is an illegal war; that it completely violates international law, and that one has to rethink the entire security structure of the Middle East. 

Now, I think that we are in an incredibly dangerous moment of history. The additional element is the economic consequences of this war following the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz, the oil price going through the roof; naturally, this is leading to enormous consequences for millions of households who have enormous problems with their livelihood as a result. But it could also be the final blow to an already very fragile financial system. And it could, if not reversed soon by ending the war and going back to the table of negotiations and diplomacy; if this continues, it could lead to a blowout of the entire financial system. Given the fragility of the Western financial system, it could lead to a repetition of a systemic crisis like 2008. Just this time, the so-called tools of the central banks have all been used up. 

So, what is the solution? There are all kinds of scenarios saying how the world will look like after the war is ended, that Israel will have greater Israel in the Middle East, be the strongest military power; that Europe eventually will have got its independence, rearming Europe in an unprecedented militarization with the German army being the strongest army in Europe, and the United States controlling the Western Hemisphere and the Indo-Pacific. Anyway, I think none of these things will happen quite that way. I think we are in an unprecedented epochal change because what is underlying all the hotspots, Ukraine, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, the new war between Afghanistan and Pakistan, there is in each case a specific reason. But the underlying dynamic is the fact that the old order clearly is disintegrating and the global majority, which represent 85% of the human species, are intended to create a more just world order based on the BRICS, the SCO, and similar organizations. There are forces in the West who absolutely want to prevent such an order from coming into being. 

So given the fact that this strategic situation has many, many complicating elements, I have been saying, and that was the purpose of the International Peace Coalition from the very beginning, and the Schiller Institute after the outbreak of the special military operation in Ukraine, we started to campaign for a complete change in the paradigm. That if we stay in these geopolitical games, the danger that what happened with geopolitics two times in the 20th Century will be repeated; namely a world war. Given the fact that we have now thermonuclear weapons, and the likelihood that these weapons would be used in such a global war, being almost 100% certain, which would mean the end of civilization, we have to get together and find a solution based on reason, a New Paradigm which allows the survival of civilization. 

For that reason, I issued as a result of the discussion of last week in the IPC, a letter to Pope Leo XIV, and I appealed to the Holy Father, because he already had referenced the great thinker Nicolaus of Cusa on the 25th of October last year, citing in particular the method of thinking of the {Coincidencia Oppositorum}, the Coincidence of Opposites, that he should reach out to the Patriarchs of the Russian and the Greek Orthodox Churches in the spirit of the unity of the Council of Florence and Ferrara of 1439; and that he should basically reach out also not only in his capacity as being of American background to President Trump; but also to all other religious leaders. Urging that they should all come out and work for peace, pray for peace, and get unity of all religious leaders in the spirit of Nicolaus of Cusa and his writing {De Pace Fidei}, which is a beautiful Socratic dialogue where all the religions are discussing with God how they can find peace in faith. 

Now, also in the meantime, a high-ranking ayatollah from Iran has appealed to the Pope, basically in the same spirit, obviously referring to him as the morally outstanding figure, who is maybe the last person who can intervene to avoid a terrible catastrophe of humanity. So, we have started to circulate this letter. I naturally sent it to the Holy Father directly, and that is one of the topics we should be discussing today. 

Otherwise, I can only say that the danger to humanity, in my view, has never been more grave than right now, and we have to appeal to all people of good faith to help us to avert a catastrophe which mankind would not survive if it really comes to its consequence.

ANASTASIA BATTLE: Next, I would like to welcome the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Mexico, His Excellency Ambassador Pasandideh. It is important that we hear from the government of Iran at this time of crisis, and I kindly ask the audience for your patience as we have an extra layer of interpretation today, so please be mindful. Thank you for joining us, Your Excellency. You have the floor.

AMB. ABOLFAZL PASANDIDEH: I would like to greet all the participants of this webinar. I’m very happy to be with you, my friends, in this webinar today. I explain in Persian and my colleague translates in Spanish.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak about one of the most irrational wars in contemporary history. Since February 28, Iran has been the victim of an unfair and unequal war. This war has crossed several human boundaries:

1. It was a betrayal of diplomacy; for the second time, we were attacked in the middle of negotiations.

2. It was a mockery of the Charter of the United Nations. The UN Charter was the achievement of two world wars, written after the deaths of tens of millions of people to prevent pointless wars and to ensure that innocent human beings would not be killed again.

3. It was a blatant symbol of the use of force and power instead of international law.

4. It replaced multilateralism with unilateralism.

Dear free-minded friends of the Schiller Institute, we are living in the 21st Century and in the age of the internet. It was expected that in this era, negative and aggressive nationalism would give way to humanism. Unfortunately, racists and radical nationalists have taken better advantage of the Internet age. Today we see that supporters of human rights and human values are more isolated than they were in the era before the Internet.

Today, Iran has become a bastion of resistance. Venezuela was taken easily; if Iran is also taken, resistance against coercion and unilateralism will collapse like a row of dominoes. It is not clear who will be next after Iran: Mexico or China? Silence in the face of this aggression will make life more difficult for the people of the world. Here, scientists, thinkers, and free-minded intellectuals are expected to become more active and to free the realm of thought from the monopoly of racism and radicalism. The tools of thinkers and intellectuals are the pen and the word. With the pen and the word, it is also possible to neutralize the effects of guns.

We have very few platforms to counter the narratives of powerful actors. Before becoming victims of F-35 and B-2 warplanes, we had already become victims of narrative-building. 

I would like to thank the free-thinking members of the Schiller Institute for listening to my remarks.

  BATTLE: Thank you, Your Excellency, for that contribution to the discussion today. This was very important that we hear from the government of Iran, and we greatly appreciate you joining us today. Let’s go to Helga Zepp-LaRouche for a response.

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yes, I want to basically state our motives in inviting Your Excellency to this discussion, because I think if truth is the first victim of war, then there is no hope of ever getting to peace. We have been following the events since the end of last year very closely, and found that there was a complete difference in the narrative being told by the Western media, and what we were able to put together in terms of what actually happened. I only want to quote Mr. Bessent, Scott Bessent, the Secretary of Treasury, who in a hearing with the Senate was so blunt as to say that the economic warfare which the United States had conducted against Iran by basically bankrupting a bank, by causing a run on the currency, causing inflation, which caused the demonstrators to go on the streets. And when the government of Iran started to talk to these demonstrators promising relief, that then there was an outside intervention from agents with weapons and so forth, he called that “economic statecraft.” And if you look at the title of the Schiller Institute, we from the very beginning named ourselves an institute for statecraft. So the notion of statecraft is a dear notion for us, because we thought that statecraft was in jeopardy already. That’s why we called it the Institute for Statecraft, meaning that it is the function of the state to improve the livelihood of the citizens, to make sure the well-being of the people is proceeding and so forth. So Bessent admitted that there was an outside economic warfare operation, which he falsely called statecraft. And then Pompeo put out a tweet, saying that every demonstrator had a Mossad agent by his side.

So therefore, when the narrative pushed by the Western media, and most politicians except some very good exceptions, like the Spanish government, for example, I think it’s just very dangerous if falsehood, which naturally in case of war is always the case, but nevertheless, if we ever want to go back to peace, we have to remedy this situation. So that is just my comment to your remarks.

  PASANDIDEH: I thank you very much for your different points of view. Precisely everything that we had said in our remarks coincides. We are interested to hear from the other panelists, and at the end I will state some further views.

BATTLE: Great. Thank you. All right, I see that we’ve resolved the technical problem with President Ramotar. President Donald Ramotar is the former president of Guyana. Please, if you have any reflections or thoughts from the discussion so far.

PRESIDENT DONALD RAMOTAR: First of all, I would like to say how happy I am to have listened to the Ambassador from Iran and to tell the people of Iran through him how much we admire their tenacity and the courage that they’re showing in the face of this unprovoked attack against the people of Iran. I can’t think of any other country that I have known in conflict which has had the attack on its leadership and the decimation of its leadership on more than one occasion. We remember Qasem Soleimani, who was murdered some years ago, and then many of their scientists were killed and many of their leaders were also killed. And yet, when the attack came last Saturday, the Iranian people could have so quickly mobilized a defense and a counterattack on that. That type of heroism is hardly known in our world these days. 

But I would like to also say that this is a continuation of a policy that seems to have been going on for a while. It has been for some time now a deliberate attempt to destroy international institutions and to degrade them, including the United Nations, the Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, and we also see the attack on the destruction of international law. And this is a continuation of the aggression against the Palestinian people, because of the whole Middle Eastern countries, the only country that is standing up to defend the human rights and the rights of the Palestinian people to live as normal human beings, are the Iranian people. And they are the only ones that are supporting the resistance in the place. And that is why they are under this tremendous attack, because Iran is being seen as the main obstacle of Israel to control the whole Middle East, and is the main obstacle to the United States to control all the resources in that territory. 

So Iran is fighting a battle not only for its own survival, but for the struggle of peoples of the whole Middle East, all those in the Middle East, in Lebanon, in Palestine, in other places, who are fighting for their survival. And the stance of Iran has really exposed the cowardice and the sell-out of many of the Arab leaders against the people of Palestine. I think there probably may be an element of shame in that as well for them. 

I want to mention too that the fight that Iran is putting up also is a fight for Cuba, because Cuba is under tremendous pressure at this point in time. For more than three months now, Cuba has not had a single drop of oil for transportation purposes and for other types of activity. The blockade in Cuba has become almost unbearable. And the Cuban people are showing a lot of heroism at this point in time to resist this kind of pressure. 

And the main tactics in this, in my mind, is similar that has happened in many other parts of the world. They’re trying to create dissatisfaction within countries to get countries’ populations to rise up against the governments by using sanctions and, in the final analysis, using force to attack them.

With those words, I wanted to extend to the people of Iran my own solidarity, the solidarity of other like-minded people from the Schiller Institute and other places for the kind of resistance they’re showing. And if I may say one word of a little bit of disappointment, Ambassador, I hope that you take your security much, much stronger. You’ve suffered too much at the leadership. You had too much of penetration. And any other country, any other smaller country, would have been totally decapitated. But you managed to survive. But I think you should take that as a lesson in strengthening your security. But best wishes and good luck. Thank you for your attention.

BATTLE: Okay. Thank you very much, President Donald Ramotar, for your remarks. I see the Ambassador has raised his hand. Please go ahead, Ambassador.

AMB. PASANDIDEH: First I would like to thank Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche for going to the roots of this problem. She has provided a very broad analysis of everything that has happened, and as well as the reasons behind this entire conflict.

Obviously all of these sanctions which have been imposed by the United States on our country are pressure on their behalf. We are now glad people are defending our country.

We also thank former President Donald Ramotar for his analysis and the solidarity which he has expressed. We thank him very much also for his truthful analysis with regard to the current global circumstances. Thank you very much.

BATTLE: Thank you very much, Your Excellency. Okay, so we shall continue with our agenda and then come back for more discussion with the panel. So next, I’d like to bring in Father Harry Bury, a Catholic priest for 70 years. He’s a lifelong peace activist. He’s with the Twin Cities Nonviolent and the U.S. Catholic Priest Association. Please go ahead, Father Burry. You have the floor.

FATHER HARRY BURY: Thank you. Thank you very much. Our hearts are breaking, truly breaking, at what is happening to Iran. The insane action of Israel and the United States attacking Iran is not only crazy, it’s immoral. And as a Catholic Christian priest, I’m here to say that Jesus came, in my faith, Jesus came to reveal what God wants us to do. And what God wants us to do is to love one another as God loves us. And we are to love one another because that is the answer to peace. 

Jesus said very carefully, very strongly, that we are to love our enemies. Love our enemies, do good to those who hate you. Bombing them is not a way of doing good. It’s insane. The cultural norm all over the world is that the best way to end wrongdoing is by violence, punishment. And history has shown us that it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work. Violence is not the answer to peace. Violence, as we’ve been doing it, has been an act of vengeance, not an act of love. And so what we need to do is be good to those who hate us. That’s what God is asking us to do in my mind and in my faith, to do good.

And that’s really what the Oasis Peace Plan is about. The Peace Plan is promoting people to do good through development, to help other nations have what they need for the people to lead happy, decent lives. And BRICS is one group; B for Brazil and R for Russia and I for India, C for China and S for South Africa. And now another 14 nations have joined them and others are about to do so. And they’re practicing the Oasis Peace Plan. They are actually trying to help other nations be equal to other nations. And that’s what is being good to others, doing what Jesus asked us to do. And so that’s what the Oasis Peace Plan is about. That’s what the Schiller Institute is about. And that’s what BRICS is about. And we need to join them. 

And in doing so, Helga LaRouche has written a letter to our Holy Father to join us in this action of doing good to others. And she has called us to endorse that letter. So I’m asking all you who are listening to this that you sign the letter. She is inviting you to sign this letter to the Holy Father, asking him to stand with us in bringing about peace by doing what Jesus has asked us to do; namely to be good to those who hate us. Not to bomb them, not to hurt them. 

What was the first action that happened when Israel and the United States attacked Iran? It was to destroy a school of some, I understand, 173 children were killed in that first action. And it brings tears to many people who understand what that is. And so we’ve got to change. We’ve got to change the way we think, as Nicholas of Cusa and Lyn LaRouche urged us to do. Not to be thinking the old way that the way to end violence is by violence. It doesn’t work. And our history shows that.

So please, please answer Helga’s invitation and sign the letter. And you can do it by going to schillerinstitute.com and have your name with all of us, asking the Holy Father to join with us in doing good to those who hate us. And that’s the way we’re going to end violence and have peace, is by loving our enemies, not killing them. It doesn’t work. So please, please consider signing the letter with us to the Holy Father. Thank you very much.

BATTLE: Thank you, Father Bury, for your remarks and your continued fight for truth. I see the ambassador has raised his hand. Please go ahead, Your Excellency.

AMB. PASANDIDEH: If truth be told, the words of Father Bury have touched our spirit gravely. What a shame that very few politicians are in this meeting to listen to the words of the Father; such beautiful words.

Just as there are also extremist groups that are killing people in the name of Islam and religion. But taking into account that the spirit of Islamic religion is a religion of friendship and peace; and also the spirit of Catholics and Christians is the same. It is friendship and the search for peace. I too am in total agreement with what Father Bury has said, because Donald Trump is hiding behind religion and is killing people by hiding behind religion. And this is obviously an aggression against any and all religions in the world. Thank you very much. 

BATTLE: Thank you, Your Excellency. And next, we’ll continue with the agenda. And I just kindly ask our next speaker, if you can end your remarks at 11:50; only because we have to get closing remarks from the ambassador before he has to leave. And then we can come back to you. So next, I would like to introduce Jack Gilroy with Veterans for Peace, Pax Christi Upstate New York and Pax Christi International.

JACK GILROY: Well, thank you, Anastasia. And I was prepared for much more than three minutes. But in three minutes, I can just say that what Father Barry had to say, of course, is not anything new. Because he’s been saying it ever since he chained himself to the Saigon fence during the horrible war of the United States, slaughtering almost three million people in Vietnam. So the contrast between what Father Bury is saying as a Christian, believing in the nonviolence of Christ, and the falsehood of the Christian Zionist with their Jewish Zionist friends, that violence is part of the culture, is something that we really have to clarify. And later, I would like to, if I have a chance, go into some areas along these lines as to how children are a very important point.

As Father Bury indicates, the first attack on Iran was against children. Then there is the fact that the Israelis, the Zionists, have been killing children in Gaza by the tens of thousands; snipers intentionally shooting babies and young children. These despicable acts are something that surely is not in line with the nonviolent Christ. And it’s not in line with the Jewish sense of justice. These are perverted individuals, and we’ll talk a little bit more about that later on.

BATTLE: Thank you very much, Jack Gilroy, for your understanding and keeping your remarks concise. And we will absolutely give you more time to go through what you had planned to discuss. 

I’d like to go to His Excellency Pasandideh for his final remarks before he has to leave.

AMB. PASANDIDEH: I think that if we search a bit further back, and look to the roots of these problems, we will find a point where unilateralism is being strengthened. This kind of unilateralism in the First and Second World Wars arose as Nazism, fascism. And we saw that more than 80 million people were killed in the world.

In fact, the creation of the UN, the United Nations Charter, was for the same purpose; that the world has to be based on the rule of laws and rights. But we are finding today that all of these norms that were written down are not being respected. False information is given and no one apologizes. We have to take this into account. If countries are viewed as enemies, why do children have to be victims of this? We have reached the point where we attack areas and the oil and gas is kept, and there is great contamination. What is civilians’ responsibility for this? Why should they have to breathe poisoned air?

We should also mention that they are attacking places which are the cultural patrimony of Iran. This is part of humanity’s patrimony. How can they dare attack places that belong to all of humanity?

I think a very positive conclusion that we can draw from this meeting is what we can do to be able to return to unite and maintain multilateralism, so that the permission is not given for any person or any country to make the decision to make a change of regime in a country. Or to say that this Supreme Leader cannot work anymore, he cannot be in his post. I am the one who gets to choose who will be the next Supreme Leader.

I think that what has been lost in the world today is peace. God has not created us to fight and kill each other. And obviously, if we go towards multilateralism, we will find a world that is more positive and more beneficial to all. Because when we achieve multilateralism, it is because we are accepting the cultural differences of each people and of each nation. Thank you very much.

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: First of all, I want to full-heartedly thank Father Bury, because it is people who have a beautiful soul like you who give us hope that we will get out of this crisis in the human way. So, thank you very, very much. 

Otherwise, I just would like to suggest that maybe in this moment it is time to revive the proposals of the former President of Iran, Khatami, who was putting the idea of a dialogue of civilization on the table. Because I think that if people would know the true character of the other side, the culture, the contribution to universal history, bridges can be built even in the most difficult situations. So, I did not discuss this with anybody, so I don’t know if this proposal is timely or not. But I would like to give it to you for consideration.

And otherwise, I thank you also, Ambassador Pasandideh, for joining our meeting. And I’m looking forward to keep in contact.

In this interview, geopolitical analyst Einar Tangen provides a rare perspective on global developments from inside China. The discussion explores how China views the current geopolitical crisis, the risks of escalation in the Middle East, and the potential economic consequences of a wider conflict.

Tangen examines the strategic relationship between China, the United States, and the broader Global South, including how ongoing tensions—such as the war involving Iran—could trigger major disruptions to the global economy and international trade. The conversation also looks at competing economic systems, the future of globalization, and whether the world is entering a new era of geopolitical realignment.

This interview offers an insider’s analysis of China’s strategic thinking and what it may mean for the future of the international order.

In this interview, Helga Zepp-LaRouche speaks with podcaster and journalist Patrick Henningsen. Shortly before the start of the US attacks, Patrick Henningsen visited Iran and graphically describes the moral depravity of the American elite in enforcing their interests, as well as the influence of religious fanatics on US foreign policy over the past 30 years.

The discussion examines the strategic logic behind recent military operations, the role of Western geopolitical doctrine, and the growing danger that regional conflicts could spiral into a broader global confrontation. Zepp-LaRouche argues that decades of interventionist policy and regime-change warfare have destabilized entire regions and accelerated the collapse of the post-Cold War order.

Henningsen and Zepp-LaRouche explore how these policies are perceived internationally, the impact of sanctions and economic warfare, and why many nations are now pushing toward a multipolar system that rejects the old imperial framework.

As tensions rise across the Middle East and beyond, this conversation addresses the deeper geopolitical forces shaping the crisis—and why understanding the reality of US imperial brutality is essential to avoiding a wider war.