As a piece of the new world order that is under construction, Putin’s trip to Tehran last week was of singular importance.
Railway station constructed in 2013 in Kazandzhik, Turkmenistan, an important crossroad of the Trans-Caspian Railway and North-South Transnational Railway. (Balkan Wiki, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons)
By Patrick Lawrence
Special to Consortium News
At last we were able to read, last week, a New York Times story that concerned the Russians but not the brutal Russians. However, if we are not reading about the brutal Russians and their brutal military and their brutal attacks on civilians in Ukraine, we are obliged to read about the lonesome Russians, the pariah Russians, the Russians the world has forsaken. We are never going to read about ordinary, just plain Russians in the Times or in the rest of the mainstream press as it apes the Times. This we must accept.
Vladimir Putin traveled to Tehran last Tuesday for a summit with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader. This was an unusual occasion: The Russian president has not been much for foreign travel since the Covid–19 pandemic erupted; it was his second state visit outside the Russian Federation since Russia intervened in Ukraine last February.
And it is a big deal, deserving of our attention. It marks another step, a considerable one, in the construction of the diplomatic, political, and economic infrastructure that will — I don’t consider this a daring prediction — define the 21st century. We witness the new world order many of us anticipate as it is being built.
The new world order many of us anticipate, if you have not noticed, ranks high among the great unsayables in American discourse and among American media. No, we’re still stuck on our “rules-based international order,” which is clunky code for the hegemony America defends. It is hopelessly passé at this point but remains lethally destructive.
Apart from significant signals that Moscow and Tehran are committed to deepening ties, the centerpiece of the occasion was a simultaneous memorandum of understanding signed by the National Iranian Oil Company and Gazprom. In an agreement worth $40 billion, the Russian energy supplier is to assist on the technology side as Iran develops two gas fields and six oil fields. Further out, this is part of a long-in-the-making project that will connect Russia, Iran, and India by sea, road, rail, and, eventually, a very significant Iran–to–India gas pipeline.
One giant step for Russia and Iran, let’s say, and one even more giant step for the non–West as it advances toward parity with the West.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, meeting with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran, July 19. (Mehr News Agency, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)
But never mind all that. When Putin traveled to Tehran it was to find solace in “a fellow outcast,” The New York Times misinformed us in its July 19 report. Iran and Russia are “two isolated, sanctions-stricken countries whose main connection is their active opposition to the United States, its allies and its domination of the multilateral world order,” we read in the paper’s second-day story.
You simply cannot beat the Times for reductionist rubbish when a major development does not match America’s fictions. The task is to keep its readers’ heads buried so far into the sand they have no hope of pulling them out.
I can’t, anyway.
A Second Summit
Apart from the Putin–Khamenei talks and the Gazprom–NIOC surprise, Putin attended a second summit, this one with Ebrahim Raisi, the Iranian president, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Tehran and Moscow share a common interest in bringing order to Syria now that Damascus, with Russian and Iranian help, has reasserted sovereignty except in areas of the north where the Islamist militias of ISIS and its offshoots remain active and where the U.S. continues to steal Syrian oil as part of an illegal occupation.
As reported, the intent of the three-way was to dissuade the perfidious Turkish leader from launching another offensive against the Kurdish population in areas near the Syrian frontier with Turkey. There’s no indication at this time as to how successful Putin and Raisi were in their talks with Erdogan, a tinpot main-chancer whose word and a quarter will get you a cup of coffee, as we used to say.
I love some of the problems the Times’ Steven Erlanger identified when analyzing the Russian–Iranian demarche, and there must be problems if an event of this magnitude is to be properly misunderstood. “Russia does not share Iran’s enmity toward Israel and does not want Tehran to develop a nuclear weapon,” Mr. Erlanger tells us.
Last time I checked, Tehran wants a settlement with Tel Aviv that guarantees its security; the enmity runs in the other direction. Tehran, as a matter of its religious principles, does not want to build a nuclear weapon — as it has made clear too many times to count.
Here is a good one:
“Russia and Iran are also competing to sell their sanctioned and discounted oil to China and other countries. Though the quality of the crude is different in both countries, it is difficult to imagine them forming some sort of cartel to sell sanctioned oil, Mr. Shapiro [a former State Department bureaucrat] said.”
Who said anything about some sort of cartel, other than Mr. Shapiro? But it must be said, who can imagine two oil-producing nations getting along when they both market internationally — especially when they are not selling the same product? I think I understand.
The best in this crop of silly assertions is Erlanger’s analysis of the main fault line in the Tehran–Moscow relationship. It does not rest on “shared values and democracy.” Uh-oh. It is “transactional” and rests on converging interests. “But transactional relations do not make for lasting alliances or disguise the strains within them,” writes our Steve [as if the U.S. is not transactional in its international dealings].
Translation: The Biden regime is hell bent on replacing politics and history in international relations with ideology and an authoritarians-vs.-democrats binary that is supposed to define all of humanity. I have to set aside my usual decorum here. Horseshit. History, politics and interests are the proper determinants in state-to-state relations. Ideology, even when referred to as “values,” has no place in them.
Stevie, you’re no Jack Kennedy.
Coherence of the Non–West
In the increasing coherence of the non–West, there were a few days last year that I have never got out of my head. They occurred after the Biden regime’s first significant encounter with the Chinese. You remember: the disastrous talks in Anchorage, Alaska, March 2021.
The Chinese side was looking expectantly for a new start with the Americans, the beginning of a serious relationship based on mutual respect, parity, and none other than common interests. Antony Blinken, our secretary of guitar strumming and state, instead gave them canned ideological lectures about democracy, human rights and the rules-based international order. It was a disaster.
As soon as Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, returned to Beijing, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian FM, flew to the Chinese capital for talks. As soon as those talks finished, Wang flew to Tehran and concluded a 25–year, $400 billion agreement with the Islamic Republic — tech transfer, infrastructure development, oil sales, and so on — that had been years in gestation.
March 27, 2021: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, center, and then Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on right, signing 25-year Iran–China cooperation program. (Tasnim News Agency, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)
There you have it, the dynamic of the non–West’s coalescence. It is not anti–American or anti–anybody, as the Western press insists it is. The powers involved have, imagine this, too many common interests to bother with adversarial enmity and, indeed, would rather the Americans and their allies cut out the ideological antagonism and join in the effort to build a world order worthy of the term. Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping made this explicitly clear in that remarkable joint declaration they made public on the eve of the Beijing Olympics last winter.
What happened in Anchorage, what made it so key a moment, is that the Chinese simply gave up trying to work with the Americans: You can’t get any sense out of them, Beijing concluded. This, parenthetically, is exactly what the Russians concluded 11 months later when they intervened in Ukraine.
The construction of infrastructure to serve a 21st century world order has been under way for some time. China’s Belt and Road Initiative is a big part of it. Then you have bilateral relations improving here and there: China’s recent economic agreements with Cuba, China’s with Iran, Iran’s with Venezuela, China’s with Venezuela, India’s with Russia, and so on. These multiply as we speak.
All these desperate outcasts. They seem to be everywhere, lolling around feeling forlorn.
The Russia–Iran development is another piece of this but seems to me singularly important. It signals that sanctions, which do not work in any case, will eventually fail completely and that Iran is more than gradually coming in from the cold.
On the diplomatic side, the Islamic Republic has just become part of a three-sided bloc with Russia and China. This follows by a year its admission as a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a Eurasian partnership China started in 2001. Tehran’s application to join the BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — is pending, as is Argentina’s.
When Hossein Amir–Abdollahian, Iran’s foreign minister, visited New Delhi earlier this summer it signaled what The Diplomat is calling a reset in relations. His Indian counterpart, along with Prime Minister Nahendra Modi, were effusive in their celebrations of the relationship afterward.
In the nuts-and-bolts line, Iran recently agreed with Azerbaijan, its northern neighbor — this is another memo of understanding — to build an elaborate corridor establishing rail, road, communications and energy links. Now this gets interesting. Coming atop the Gazprom deal, the project with Azerbaijan brings Iran closer to a direct transport link with Russia.
Now dolly out. This deal comes just as a new rail link between Russia and India opens, via Iran. This is part of something called the International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC), which Moscow, Tehran and New Delhi set in motion at the turn of the century. No, in all likelihood you have read nothing of this.
Here is the part that most interests me. As the INSTC develops, it may follow naturally that India and Iran can revisit a project that was iced many years ago. In the early years of this century, the two sides proposed a gas pipeline linking Iranian fields to Indian ports. The U.S., eager to make the Islamic Republic the outcast Steve Erlanger wants us to think it is, vigorously opposed the project and it was dropped.
Reports now suggest the pipeline project, which makes eminent economic sense, is under study once again. Nothing definite is yet agreed, but it tells us that in time Western markets, long key to the West’s coercive power, will no longer be the only markets. And I like the poetic justice: You can slow us down but you cannot stop us.
This same can be said of the non–West’s ever more evident gathering of forces, interests, and cooperative arrangements. Who, I have to ask, is leading the world forward in a sensible, constructive direction? And who is retarding this process with all its might, the only thing it has left?
Patrick Lawrence, a correspondent abroad for many years, chiefly for the International Herald Tribune, is a columnist, essayist, author and lecturer. His most recent book is Time No Longer: Americans After the American Century. His Twitter account, @thefloutist, has been permanently censored. His web site is Patrick Lawrence. Support his work via his Patreon site. His web site is Patrick Lawrence. Support his work via his Patreon site.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
About the Steve Erlanger quote about Iran, Israel and Russia in the article this is worth reading.
hxxps://thecradle.co/Article/Columns/13460
Patrick Lawrence delivers a brilliantly clear update on a topics that evidently drive fear into the heart of the MSM and certain others. So much so that our leadership in the MSM and certain others refuse to acknowledge as being relevant at present.
Great stuff!
Is the intelligence community signal that the only “free thinkers” of the intelligence community will be allowed the privilege of reviewing the normal activities of the remainder of the planet?
Thanks CN
Kinda reminds me on just how “silent” the MSM and the government have been on the NAFTA superhighway, wiki it or see hXXtps://www.thenation.com/article/nafta-superhighway or google The NAFTA Superhighway @ the NATION
Thank you, Robert. & thanks to all those commenting.
I try not to read The Nation and it does not take much effort.
Albest.
.
P.L.
My bad, I don’t read it either. I ran a google search and being lazy I took the first references I got to lend validity to the NAFTA Superhighway project. This makes my error even more egregious, I have wikied this topic before and its an informative page
I did a wiki again today, NAFTA Superhighway. The last time the page was edited was April 15, 2022. It shows some maps etc. but we sure as hell never hear about it. A few years ago the State of Iowa had references to it on the Department of Transportation web site.
Since no one else so far has mentioned it, I’d like to congratulate Mr. Lawrence on his dismantling of the NYT article that was the centerpiece of his commentary.
I enjoyed “…there must be problems if an event of this magnitude is to be properly misunderstood” almost as much as “You simply can’t beat the Times for reductionist rubbish when a major development does not match America’s fictions.”
Without listing all the ways the old rules of journalism have been abandoned, I’ll just say a public trust has been broken by the now corporate press that won’t easily be put back together again (by the HumptyDumpty media anyway). I suspect because it’s easier & more lucrative to side with unchecked power rather than to question, let alone fight it.
Will enough people get a clue & say something or will a chorus of increasingly totalitarian institutions continue their cockeyed march down roads of perfidy led by a shabby Gray Lady?
Like the others, I say, thanks again, Mr. Lawrence for a timely and informative article! Yes, spot on!
The United States of Misinformation and the vassal states of Europe are on the decline, and the “East” is steadily rising slowly uniting and cooperating for the good of it’s people, not without flaws or mistakes made along the way, but at least making progress as never before in building unity for a better world.
I’m looking forward to your take on Lavrov’s ‘African tour’. The term ‘diplomatic triumph’ is being liberally tossed around.
One indication – ‘protocols’ would have peer to peer ‘meet and greet’ on initial arrival, so Foreign Minister meets and greets Foreign Minister.
By what I have read, each African country had their President meet and greet Lavrov, and then ‘discuss’.
Reuters headline;
“Ugandan leader extols Africa-Russia friendship during visit by Lavrov”
What a good eye for detail you have, David. Astute reading of the tortoise shells.
P.L.
A couple of further examples of what you’re describing, Patrick;
1. Iran has an arable land shortfall. Russia has agreed to provide Iran with 100k hectares, within Russia, for Iran to grow food. And, there’s a kicker – Venezuela have agreed to provide Iran with 1m hectares, within Venezuela, for Iran to grow food.
2. Recently, a Joint Military Exercise, in and around Venezuela, was announced. The visiting participants – Russia, China and Iran.
3. Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua has signed an agreement with Russia, to provide security advice and assistance. At this stage, they’ve capped Russian ‘boots on the ground’ in Nicaragua at around 250 (IIRC).
Not many hats being thrown in the air, in D.C., London or Brussels, over that lot!
As always, ‘love’ your work!
Patrick, you brought up Wang Yi’s vicious ass-whooping of Little Antony at Anchorage again. Such embarassments are best papered-over. Pathetic-musician Blinken had the nerve to demand that China follow American government dictates (cleverly renamed “Rules-Based International Order”). Wang Yi wasn’t having any of that and had Blinken running from the room screaming and crying like a little sissy.
Christ, where are the MEN like James Baker or James Woolsey? Can’t the US field strong and smart people anymore?
I know the answer but it would help me if you were to pile on!
Chinese Director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs & Politburo member Yang Jiechi gave Antony Blinken a severe lashing for the Americans’ condescending attitude towards China. Yang Jiechi reminded the Americans that the US, since the past decades, had no qualifications to speak condescendingly from a perceived position of strength towards Chinese people. The Chinese panel made it very clear the Americans’ attitude was unacceptable. The dialogue went downhill from there.
One can only agree with every word that has been said and printed above, Great article and great responses. Thank you to all of you.
I hate to throw a wet blanket over the party here, but all this development of oil and gas fields and associated pipelines will inevitably hasten the day when the earth is no longer habitable, especially by the people living in the global South. A unavoidable price will be paid, and no one will be celebrating then.
And that’s a paradox we will all have to live with. The only way at this point to continue life on the planet is for us all to give up this energy-intensive way of life and go back to something resembling the eighteenth century. Do you think that’s going to happen? I have spent years trying to find someone to share our land with us and I have come to accept that people do not want to engage in manual labor, especially LOTS of manual labor.
Russia has made it clear that they will not allow American world dominance to continue. Our grotesque militarism, our consumption of petroleum, our hundreds of bases worldwide, cannot be excused. As an American I cannot affect the East’s rising economic strength, but it is my duty to oppose the American government.
A very fine article by Patrick Lawrence: Concise, to the point, and true.
“rules-based international order,”
It already exists. It is the Charter of the United Nations and the body of international law and treaties.
Great and informative analysis, thank you!!!
Articles like this in Consortium, give me a feeling of hope. Not because things are polished to look good, But because we get the opportunity to see behind the smokey curtain we call news.
Thanks Patrick Lawrence
The Summer heat is B R U T A L! And, Patrick Lawrence, like BRICS & BRI, coming in Hot & On Point Indeed! PUTIN Summiting in TEHRAN, “IS A BIG DEAL!!!”
Eureka! Eurasia!! “Et tu, Biden?” Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin summits w/Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iranian President, Ebrahim Raisi; AND, Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. AND, the INTERNATIONAL NORTH-SOUTH TRANSPORT CORRIDOR (INSTC), l i v e s!
Back @ The White House, Everybody “GOT” “The Memo of Understanding,” i.e., POTUS, Joe R. Biden, is M.I.A. “Blame it on The Rona!!!”
Yep! POTUS’ down w/SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19). Biden promised to eradicate “The Rona.” The upside, everybody’s witnessing POTUS celebrating “Trump’s Herd Immunity,” infected, masked, & alone, It’s NOT pretty.
The Democrats need to talk about Joe. Clearly, the oldigarch IS addled w/dementia and challenged w/the truth. Outta the gate, Biden’s blathering was f/up. Confused & Lost i.e., “The State he’s in IS New Hampshire NOT Vermont; NOT knowing the name of the college where he just spoke; Thinking that he met with Parkland school shooting victims when he was Vice President;’ AND, He “Hiked 7,000 miles w/XiJinPing. Biden’s memory, warped.
Fast forward to “yesterday;” THERE’S Biden’s inappropriate public touching (and sniffing), kissing, i.e., JULY 13, 2022, JOE BIDEN lands in ISRAEL, “NO Malarky,” He asked permission to kiss me and he kept on holding my hand and WE Were Told NOT to touch him,” Rena Quint, 86, was quoted as saying after meeting the president at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial.
“NO, malarky,” Biden fist-bumped Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman;” AND, “Shook hands with members of Congress at a White House picnic.”
Ugh. Ugh. Ugly!!! NOW, BIDEN’s quack’n up in Quarantine (Testing. Tracing. Treatment). NOT Applicable, IS POTUS’ SARS-CoV-2 (19 )Doctor, Unavailable for Inquiries. “ALL of this and more” (including the alarming frequency with which JOE R. BIDEN looks lost, confused, medicated, s l o w; and, his brain freezes)! ALL are signs that Joe “The Political Corpse” Biden is NOT Fit for Prime Time!!! IF, he ever was.
Seriously, “It was over when Biden reneged on the promise of $2000 checks, which foretold all the betrayals to come.” (Jeffrey St.Clair)
Joe “The Political Corpse” Biden is nearing his ninth decade of life. There is the background to the present crisis itself, which arises out of the 2014 regime change operation. However, executive function is no small matter. JOE “The Political Corpse” ” BIDEN “Never F/EVER had a signature foreign policy achievement in Congress or as Obama’s No. 2.” Ugh! “President OhBama, who hoped to sow peace, instead led the nation in war.” OBAMA, the ONLY, two-term, POTUS WHO executed perpetual war, 24/7, 365 days a year, for EIGHT (8) Years.
“E N O U G H!” POTUS needs to END the WAR he ”Fired Up!!! Reports suggest, “It’s OVER! Delaware or Bust?!? Buh-bye, Biden-Harris.”
Don’t you just love it when common sense and diplomacy rule the day !
Thank you CN and Patrick Lawrence for this outstanding report.
Absolutely marvellous!!!!! Thank you to Patrick and to Consortium News!!! Everyone needs to read this.
The author of this article might be interested to watch the YouTube report entitled “Putin. Miller. Gazprom.” So far it has garnered 9.3 million views. The report is in Russian but with English subtitles. It will put a lot of the info in the above article into even sharper perspective.
“…one even more giant step for the non–West as it advances toward parity with the West.”
I don’t think there is any reason to believe the process will stop at parity.
Bravo!
An honest look at the global political situation.
usa will get left behind OR it will bomb the world to hell.
Stop War!
So, speaking of addled American politicians and “diplomats,” what are the odds that our dingbat Speaker of the House, Pelosi, cancels her ill-conceived trip to Taiwan? I think even Blinken understands that the Chinese aren’t kidding around with their warnings.
Thank you as always, Patrick. I never miss an article. I would like to make one somewhat related observation about the “international rules based order” that the Biden admin has been promoting so hard since taking office. I suggest that the IRBO is better referred to as uni-polar despotism. And we can see why it is so important to America’s aims. It’s because under international law, America’s actions have been consistently and blatantly illegal.
The IRBO, articulated or not, has underlain US foreign policy since it became the planets sole “super power” some 30+ years ago. It has nothing to do with cooperation, equality, or rule of law, but submission. Cooperation of course is the single key ingredient to our survival as a species on this planet for a lot of reasons but in particular the looming effects of global warming make that both irrefutable and urgent. There is nowhere to escape to and humanity as a species will either sink or swim together. Our choice.
Has any American official ever been prosecuted for the America’s illegal and criminal invasion of Iraq? Or Libya, or Syria, or for sponsoring coups in Latin America and elsewhere, or now in Ukraine? That is the “international rules based order” in action. Obviously, it does not work for the sake of the world. The IRBO is the very antithesis of international law.
International law must be upheld. A “rules based order” is no substitute. But then, all are equal before the law. Due process protects individuals from the power of the “state.” How inconvenient. We can see why the US wants to do away with it. It seems to me that the constant rhetoric about a “rules based order,” as opposed to international law which we already have and which should be strengthened, is in fact an effort to do away with or gut international law and instead make the IRBO the new standard for international relations. Of course, under the IRBO, America is at the apex, making the rules and giving the orders; uni-polar despotism. Ironically, it is the Western “democracies,” in particular the pathetic “five eyes,” who are supporting this. What does that tell you?
I think the term “international rules based order” should be constantly challenged. It is, to borrow your term, horseshit, just another dangerous neocon/neodem fever dream that leads to a pathetic end.
The US operates a gangster-capitalist protection racket.
Put the oligarchs on trial; Nuremburg Trials.
“International Rules Based Order” is similar to the Golden Rule: He who has the gold makes the rules. With so many countries beginning to trade in other currencies, who has the gold is changing rapidly. I look forward to the rules changing soon too.
Not only does the US not recognize International Law, nor its own war crimes, American Elites and their operatives are shielded from domestic law as well. How could they get anything done if they were not above the Law? They are EXCEPTIONAL!
The U.S. has been a pathetic, floundering, idiotic, military giant for decades. If we don’t change our ways, we’re destined to become, not a 2nd rate country, but a 3rd rate country.
Even on the fourth read it’s still excellante. That doesn’t mean that I can’t make some observations
1. Our “rules-based international order” should be replaced with “America’s Calvin Ball Rules based International Order.” reflecting the fact that we change the rules so that we can win all the time.
2.All the transportation corridors and whatnot that you mention. They are beyond the reach of “The West” and our sanctions. I kinda suspect that was China’s object all along.
3, The US is losing for one reason. “The West” no longer controls the market where everything is sold and “The West’s” buyers no longer purchase the bulk of the world’s production. Surely somebody’s going to look down and notice that we, like Wily E Coyote, have nothing holding us up…..
If the world manages to somehow survive climate change intact, the new word has already begun to emerge, and it isn’t run by the Americans and Europeans. However, if change is less severe than scientists predict, and that’s almost unrealistic, it will be under a totally different set of rules than now in place. This is an interesting opinion article that, unfortunately, doesn’t factor destructive rapid climate change we have begun to experience worldwide.
“This is an interesting opinion article that, unfortunately, doesn’t factor destructive rapid climate change we have begun to experience worldwide.”
The world cannot deal with “destructive rapid climate change” until the world citizens can wrestle control of the economy and the instruments of political decision making away from the 1% ruling class. The end of the unipolar US/NATO power is a good start.
What seems to be missing in this outline of a new alignment of powers is the notion of climate change. Some, many, would say it is the preeminent issue of our time. New pipelines and gas fields will be of little consequence when the ice caps disappear.
My second comment in response to the mention of climate change.
So what is the rest of the world to do? Sit quietly and obediently while the U.S. engages in war after war, bombing campaign after bombing campaign? There is no doubt that apocalyptic climate change is on the way, but I see no effort in the U.S. even for conservation, a word that is never mentioned any more. We are making little effort to change our ways, so-called renewables are net energy losers, so somehow you must hold the thought in your mind that this way of life is doomed but that other nations have a right to make alliances.
Thanks Mr. Lawrence. Spot on as per normal.