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Trump’s shadow looms over Davos as Leyen warns of global economic shifts

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This year’s summit of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, began under the shadow of Donald Trump’s potential second term in the White House.

The former president, Donald Trump, is set to address Davos participants via video conference today. Meanwhile, his tariff threats and their potential impact on the global economy have become a central topic of discussion.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned in her speech on Tuesday that the global economy is “beginning to break along new lines.” She emphasized that “it is in no one’s interest to sever ties in the global economy” and opposed a “race to the bottom” in global trade, referencing both China and the US.

Leyen stressed that the EU and the US must negotiate to preserve trade relations, given the €1.5 trillion trade volume and the scale of transatlantic investments. “Our priority will therefore be to engage early, discuss common interests, and be ready to negotiate. We will be pragmatic but always stand by our principles. We will defend our interests and uphold our values,” she said.

EU divided on response to Trump

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, speaking in Davos, adopted a pragmatic stance, suggesting that the US must address its trade deficit. “Maybe we can buy more from your side and try to link what is economically favorable for us with what is geopolitically favorable for our American allies,” De Croo said.

However, Trump has not yet imposed tariffs on the EU. EU officials told the Financial Times (FT) that they believe business leaders who funded Trump’s campaign have dissuaded him from targeting Europe due to the potential economic fallout. One official noted, “It’s the same agenda as last time. It will be very transactional. He will look at what is good for the US and US industry. Last time, there were many exemptions, even on steel tariffs because they needed our materials.”

A ‘wake-up call’ for Europe

One of the key challenges for Europe in a Trump-led world is to enhance its “strategic autonomy” and competitiveness. A special roundtable discussion hosted by Massimo Andolina, CEO of Philip Morris International Europe, and Claus Strunz, CEO of Euronews, and moderated by Christoph Keese, CEO of World Minds, highlighted the need for Europe to become more competitive, innovative, and united.

Charles Michel, former President of the European Council, warned of the risks of a trade war, stating, “If a trade war starts, it means that everyone will be poorer.”

Some, however, see Trump’s potential return as an opportunity. Laurent Saint-Martin, France’s Minister for Foreign Trade, told CNBC that Trump’s election victory could be a “real opportunity” for Europe. “We have to stay together; it’s very important,” he said, emphasizing Europe’s industrial strength, savings, purchasing power, and the single market. “I think it is time to be more united in terms of industry and trade,” he added.

‘America First, then Europe’?

European business leaders have mixed feelings about Trump’s potential return. Richard Edelman, CEO of global communications firm Edelman, suggested that Trump’s leadership could be “invigorating” for businesses. Meanwhile, ING CEO Steven van Rijswijk described it as a “wake-up call for Europe.”

Finnish President Alexander Stubb emphasized the importance of Europe adopting a pragmatic, day-to-day approach to Trump’s tariff threats. “In foreign policy, especially when you come from a small state and you realize that you are working with whoever the president of the world’s biggest superpower is, you always have to react to a particular situation,” Stubb told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick at the WEF.

Stubb added that Trump’s desire for the US to remain a superpower means he needs allies, and those allies “come from Europe.” He quipped, “If I simplify it a bit, it’s ‘America first,’ but maybe it should be Europe second, which is just as well.”

Praise for competitiveness

Polish Finance Minister Andrzej Domański argued that Europe’s “best answer” to potential tensions with the US is to restore competitiveness and strengthen its economy. “We know how to do this, and we will do it step by step. Poland’s relations with the US are very, very good, and as you said, we buy a lot of US military equipment—tanks, fighter jets. In fact, we buy everything you can think of,” Domański said.

However, he stressed that the EU “needs to be united” in its relations with the US.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also emphasized the importance of strengthening transatlantic relations, warning that a trade war with the US would be a “zero-sum game.” “We share a strong transatlantic bond… our economies are very interconnected, and I believe that a trade war is in the interest of neither the United States nor the European Union,” Sánchez told CNBC.

He added, “We need to focus on how to strengthen our transatlantic relationship, which is more important now than ever.”

Diplomacy

Russian Senator Shenderyuk-Zhidkov speaks at the East-West Forum: “Türkiye should be an independent pole”

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Editor’s note: Alexander Shenderyuk-Zhidkov, Representative of the Kaliningrad Region in the Federation Council of Russia and First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Budget and Financial Markets, evaluated post-Cold War Russia-West relations and current geopolitical fault lines in his address at the East-West Forum held in Istanbul on September 26. Stating that Moscow opened its doors in good faith to the liberal world in the 1990s but faced hunger and conflict in return, Shenderyuk-Zhidkov noted that the West’s anti-sovereignty stance triggered these crises. Grounding the Russian conception of civilization in the legacies of Dostoevsky and Immanuel Kant, the Russian representative expressed that genuine universalism lies in understanding the other without compromising one’s own identity. Pointing out that artificial intelligence technology must not turn into a new tool of unipolar domination, the senator called for the preservation of a multipolar world order.


I’m from Kaliningrad. I was born in Kaliningrad. I have lived in Kaliningrad for 43 years. And you know, Kaliningrad was previously named Königsberg and it is the motherland of Immanuel Kant. And you know, for example, my wife, she’s now in Holland. She walks past the so-called philosophical path of Immanuel Kant every day because she has to go to university. And that is why if you are born in Kaliningrad, it’s very difficult not to be a philosopher, you know. And of course, perpetual peace.

That said, as Ulrike Guerot said a few hours ago, it is in the heart of any Kaliningradian, so let me talk a little bit about our view on peace and our view on the story. Everybody on this panel talked about 1992. Let me start from this. And you know, in 1992, we were very open to the new liberal world. American analysts sat in the Kremlin and helped our president Boris Yeltsin to make a new Russia. And what we got was hunger. And as a result, the Chechen war. So we opened our heart to the liberal world and received a war in our home.

And we were so sad. And we understood that the liberal world doesn’t need our happiness, they need our sovereignty. And when Putin in 1999 came to become Russian president, he came with only one phrase: let’s make Russia great again, 16 years before Trump, you know. And you know, we tried to build our sovereignty again. We tried to rebuild our country brick by brick. We tried to gather our lands. And as a result, the liberal world was not happy with this and brought us war in 2022 again. And of course, we are not so happy again.

And you know, I have a Ukrainian last name. I have two last names, Shenderyuk and Zhidkov. And both of them are Ukrainian. The founder of my family, Yakov Zhidkov, who was a Ukrainian Cossack, came to Emperor Peter the Great in the 18th century and asked him for land in the center of Russia, more than 1,000 kilometers from Kyiv. And the Russian Empire was not against it. It did not divide Russians into Ukrainians and Russians. We were all one nation. And you know, Oswald Spengler called us a young Russian civilization. He called us children of Dostoevsky. He called all Russians children of Dostoevsky.

But maybe some of them have not read Dostoevsky. I read Dostoevsky. I made a monument to Dostoevsky in the center of Kaliningrad and would like to say a few words about how we see Dostoevsky’s civilization, Russian civilization, and our Russian future. You know, that is why I need to look into my notes.

You know, Dostoevsky spoke of universal responsiveness of Russians. Not about dissolving into what is foreign, but about understanding the other while remaining oneself. That is the gift to enter another world without giving up your own. Liberal universalism offers the opposite from my point of view: first give up your history, your tradition, your form of life, then perhaps we will recognize you. And that is not openness from our point of view. You can’t be open to other nations and other countries if you are not a pure Russian.

You can’t be open to other countries if you are not your own nation. And this is our view and Dostoevsky’s view on this. But anyway, we are open to any country. And from my point of view, it is very close to perpetual peace. What Immanuel Kant was talking about. I can give you an example.

In 2005 we celebrated 750 years of Königsberg. And Mr. Putin attracted the President of France Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister of Germany Schröder to celebrate with us in Kaliningrad 750 years. And moreover, Mr. Putin named my university, my alma mater, after Immanuel Kant. And as of today, my alma mater is called Immanuel Kant University. Without link to any situation in the world. But times have changed. And my view is that mostly it was changed by Europeans and Americans. And now the situation is different. And all of us are talking about AI. And I would like to say that from my point of view, I like the Chinese way of viewing AI.

And I fully agree that one of the very important things with AI is that it should be open to all of us and we should know how it works. It is because of two things. First of all, I think all of us are worried that AI will destroy our lives. And the second is also very important. We should do our best to ensure that AI does not return us back to a unipolar world. Our world today is multipolar. And no country should have a chance to turn us back.

You know, I would like to say a few words about Germany, if you are not against it. Mr. Brzezinski in the middle of the 90s wrote his famous book The Grand Chessboard. And in this book he pointed out that Poland and Türkiye should be… That Americans should focus on Poland and Türkiye to help them stop Russia. And of course, this is the idea of sea civilization. If you are a civilization like America, you should turn your attention to very important centers like Istanbul, where the whole sea… And it was a very good idea from the NATO point of view.

But now Türkiye has the second largest NATO army in the world. First is the US. The US is only the fourth or fifth trade partner of Türkiye. China and Russia have much more, and the EU has a bigger trade turnover with Türkiye than the US. And my question is, why do you need Türkiye to be a partner of the USA? First, maybe you should be a new pole, part of our multipolar world. And Poland.

You know, Brzezinski was a very clever guy. And if you look at our Ukrainian war, it was taken from the pages of this book. But you know, this story with Poland turned out bad not only for Russia, it turned out bad also for Germany. My house is 40 km from the Polish border. And I know how for the last 30 years the Polish built their economy, used EU money, and built their roads. And I know that today Polish roads are better than German ones, unfortunately. I know that Mr. Dostoevsky lived in Germany for a long time and he liked Germans.

And I feel that anywhere, anywhere in this multipolar world, every one of us can find a vector, a multi-vector, how to link to each other and have peace between each other. And we believe that we can build new bridges. You know, Kaliningrad, that’s also like Istanbul, a city of bridges. Maybe you know the Seven Bridges of Königsberg puzzle. And you know, in April we built a new pedestrian bridge in our city in Kaliningrad to the grave of Immanuel Kant. I hope this forum can give us a chance to build a new bridge. Thank you very much.

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We are no longer in 1992, the US has lost its military superiority, Ret. Lt. Col. Davis says

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Editor’s note: In a presentation delivered at the East-West Forum in Istanbul on September 26, retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Davis argued that Washington has lost its post-1992 unipolar military superiority. Stating that the American administration and its European allies fail to read new military realities, Davis noted that China, Russia, and Iran are fully aware of shifting balances. He stressed that UAV systems such as the Bayraktar TB2 rendered conventional armored warfare doctrines obsolete in the Karabakh War and on the Ukrainian front, while the US has fallen far behind its adversaries in the unmanned systems race. Pointing out that Iran has built a formidable line of defense with underground mountain facilities and ballistic missile capabilities, the senior officer noted the necessity of returning to realistic diplomacy rather than military impositions.


So I have some breaking news to report. It is no longer 1992. Apparently I have to break that news because there are Those in Washington D.C. and in Europe that don’t seem to know that in 1992 the United States had just finished Operation Desert Storm where it completely took down the military of Iraq in just record time with its coalition.

The Soviet Union had just disbanded, the Warsaw Pact had disbanded. The surviving Russian military was. Its navy was rusting in ports and it couldn’t do anything on any conventional level. It had its nuclear weapons, of course, but on a conventional level it was nothing. China was still basically an infantry based army.

And so up until that point, the United States was definitely the supreme military power all on the on the global stage, we could deploy power better than anybody else. We could use it conventionally. And of course, we had our nuclear weapons.

It’s not 1992 anymore. The United States acts like today. It’s still 1992, and we are still this unipower military power dominant. But China’s not confused on this point. Russia’s not confused on this point. Now Iran is not confused on this point. They know that we are no longer the most powerful military force on the planet.

And you’ve had President Trump, you’ve had Secretary of War Pete Hexth, the Speaker of our House, Johnson. They commonly and routinely say we are the most powerful military force on the planet in history. Nobody else is even close. Well, there’s a lot of people that are close, but they’re close. Like on the other side of us right now.

We’re still trying to operate in the 21st century militarily, like it’s still the 20th century. We’re behind the scales here, and that has enormous implications.

You can’t be a unit power force, and you can’t tell people what they’re going to do, and you can’t try to dominate over people unless you have a military to do it. We no longer have that military. And it’s now becoming evident to everybody except us.

And, and that is so dangerous because if our leaders believe what they’re saying, that we’re the most powerful military, we can do whatever we want.

And unfortunately, one of the worst examples of that appearing to be true was Venezuela. So President Trump had what a colleague of mine called catastrophic success. He thinks that he was told by many people there could be a lot of problems with it, and there would have been if Venezuelans had actually fought.

But, but because we had some insider information and some people cooperating on the inside, it was basically a bloodless, near bloodless coup. There was still about 80 people that got killed. So definitely wasn’t bloodless for them, but it was a big success for Trump.

And so he came to the conclusion that all the people who said, all these naysayers said it would be a problem, it would be difficult, it would turn into a new Vietnam, something like that. They’re not. They’re nuts. So now then, he thinks everything will work.

And so he’s operating on this belief that we could go into Iran, that we could maybe go into Cuba, maybe go at least up until recently, maybe Greenland. Basically, he sees there’s. There’s nothing that we can’t do.

But we have now proven graphically that that is not true. And you know, and you and I were talking about this a couple of days ago.

To me, as a, as a former tank officer, I fought in a Desert Storm. Just so you know, I fought in the biggest tank battles Since World War II up until that point, the Battle of 70 Easting, I was the second in command of an armored cavalry squadron for the U.S. 1st Armored Division in the, in the 2000s in Germany. And so I was responsible for training and getting ready for combat. And then was the modern war.

So that was after the 2003 Iraq war that we fought, which was also conventional. It’s also not 2003, by the way, because in those fights we didn’t have to worry about an enemy that had air force, drone force, ballistic missile force. We didn’t have to worry about any of that kind of stuff.

The war that I fought in in 2000, my first one in 1991 in Desert Storm, we couldn’t do that today because of the presence of missiles, as Iran has absolutely graphically shown.

But in 2020, the Armenia, Azerbaijan War and the Baktiyar 2 drone, et cetera, showed that conventional warfare had radically changed forever. I thought there’s going to be a radical transformation in the U.S. army, especially our ground forces. And I thought ground forces all over the world, I thought everybody is so.

But you can never again fight on the ground the way we did even as recently as 2003 in Baghdad. You just can’t do it anymore because now you mass formations on the ground and armor, it doesn’t matter how good your tanks are, they’re going to blow up. And same with armor, so you can’t move in mass anymore. So you’re going to have to come up with some new ways to fight.

Russia, to my surprise, didn’t get that memo because when they had their initial operations into Ukraine 2022, they were still behind the curve. Ukraine was actually ahead of them at that point. They had, in fact, they used the Bakyar 2 drones in the early phases to significant effect.

Russia came around though. They definitely figured it out. And now then they are, in my view, the global leaders. Now Ukraine is very close and they’re really good at this sort of thing. But I think Russia has overtaken them, certainly in mass and scale.

We’re way behind. We’re still in the, in the 20th century. We haven’t even caught up. We’re just to show you we’re thinking now we would like to have at the end of 2027, about 300,000 drones of various types.

Russia’s making that many in what, two weeks? Something like maybe less than that. And Ukraine as well, even with their limitations and far cheaper, way cheaper. That’s just as important. So our mentality is still like a snail’s pace. And so we don’t understand it.

Well, we can’t do this, tell everybody what they’re going to do anymore, but we’re still trying. So President Trump won’t use the leverage he has to end the Russia, Ukraine war.

And he keeps having this fiction that we can keep helping them strike deeper into Russia and to make it more difficult than with some fantasy that that’s going to cause Russia to say, all right, I tell you what. Sure, go ahead. We’ll do whatever Ukraine wants to do. We’ll end it on their terms here. It’s absurd to even say, but that’s what we’re acting like.

Even more absurd in a certain sense is our war against Iran right now. I was screaming this from the rooftops before the war started, that militarily it can’t be won.

If you look at what the Uranian defensive systems are and in their attack systems with their ballistic missiles and their drones and a lot of the technology they got from Russia, which Russia improved upon and then probably returned some of that technological capability.

So Iran has this ability, they Learned from our 2003 war, that don’t put all your factories on the ground that can be easily hit by American missiles, put them under the mountains that we can’t reach. And they did all that.

And so now they have shown that whatever they shoot, they’re going to hit whatever our defensive capabilities are with PAC 3 interceptors or THAAD interceptors. It’s not sufficient. And Iran can hit whatever they shoot.

It is. It is remarkable how much restraint Iran has shown up to this point, because they could already have burned the Middle east down, which would have catastrophically impacted all of our national security and economic security for the world. They haven’t done that yet.

But you see President Trump in his nice speech that he gave the other day at the United Nations General assembly, which you may have seen some of you, that something I published on that right afterwards.

I was humiliated as an American and angry because I think of some of the great Americans like John Kennedy and Eisenhower, who had made some great speeches about, let’s find a way to get together with people. It’s work, peace and all this.

And now that here he’s setting himself up like a godlike thing that I can either grant peace and security for Iran or annihilate their country. And of course, that almost certainly means nuclear weapons, because you can’t do it conventionally.

He didn’t say it out loud, but whatever he was thinking, he’s thinking that we can and we can’t. We can kill a lot of Iranian people, no doubt about that. But you can’t take out their military capacity or prevent them from having a catastrophic impact on everywhere else.

The United States has got. I pray to God can come to sober recognition. It’s not 1992 anymore. And we can’t just tell people what to do.

There’s still an out. There’s an out in the Russia, Ukraine war, there’s an out in the Iranian war if we’ll sober up and take it. And we don’t even have to surrender. We just have to acknowledge reality.

But if we don’t, if we keep going down and thinking that we are this, this unipower, it’s still 1992 and we can, then everybody else has to do what we tell them, then it’s going to be catastrophic for everybody.

And I’m almost surprised more at the Europeans than the Americans. I’m disgusted about what a lot of the American leaders are doing, but I’m puzzled about the Europeans because this stuff is self evident. It’s not hard to see.

They, you see what we’ve tried to do, what we failed to do. And I’m talking like through nearly five years in Russia, Russia, Ukraine, war, and then all these years in Iran and none of it is militarily working. And yet we keep claiming the next time it’s going to work.

And you know, Trump, if they don’t do this, then I will not. You can’t. And it would. You see, Saudi Arabia, they recognized that that wasn’t going to work and they begged Trump not to attack the last time because they knew they were in the crosshairs and they could be devastated. And who knows if they’re going to survive if they lose their oil capabilities.

It is time for us. And that’s why I’m so excited about this opportunity here. That’s why I didn’t hesitate to come to this, because we’ve got to get recognition that we are not this military dominant power that can do anything at once.

And that’s good, because if you think you can, too many people die because you just say, if you don’t do what I tell you, I’m going to kill you. That’s not diplomacy.

A lot of the stuff we’re doing with Iran is not diplomacy. We’re saying, if you’ll agree to our terms, we won’t kill you. That’s not diplomacy.

And now then they have the ability to resist and they’re going to. And Russia is not going to just give in to that and say, okay, yeah, sure, if you say you’re going to hit us, then yeah, we’ll just do whatever you say. They’re never going to do that. It’s an existential threat for them too.

All of these things are self evident. And I just pray to God that we can find some way to come back to sanity before it’s too late.

Because there’s too much chance for a nuclear threshold to be crossed in both the Middle east and in Europe. And that would be catastrophic for all of mankind, no matter where it comes from.

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Middle East faces insecurity, massacres, and genocide; Iranian diplomat Soltanieh declares

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Editor’s note: In his address at the East-West Forum held in Istanbul on September 26, Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s former representative to the IAEA, nuclear scientist, and diplomat, examined the unraveling of Western hegemony and the dynamics driving the transition toward a multipolar new world order. Drawing on more than four decades of international diplomatic experience, he shared firsthand accounts of how global bodies such as the UN, the IAEA, the CWC, and the BWC have been weaponized, particularly by the US and its Western allies. He stressed that the Middle East has been forced to pay the price for historical European crimes and antisemitism through the expulsion of Palestinians and the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Furthermore, he presented concrete instances showing how the NPT regime and international nuclear inspection mechanisms are applied with double standards favoring the West and Israel, with Israel’s acts of aggression being actively covered up by these very institutions.


In the name of God, the most gracious and the most merciful distinguished colleagues,

At the outset allow me to express my sincere appreciation to organizers, Harici and European Transcontinental Initiative, for invitation to this important conference, at this crucial historical time juncture in the fragmented world, and to wish a successful conference.

Some scholars are of the view that we are at the verge of the End of the Western Century and beginning of a Post-Hegemonic World Order.

The simple question is: How has the historical relationship between East and West evolved from Western imperial and liberal dominance toward a contested multipolar order, and how can the transition be managed without reproducing the cultural homogenization, geopolitical confrontation and technological domination associated with hegemony?

In order to make a careful analysis of the “Transition of the East–West Relations, From Western Hegemony to a Multipolar World Order”, one has to identify the main characteristics in Western domination structure that caused it to undermine itself, which in turn would point to some key features in the building block of a new Eastern-oriented Multipolar System.

The emerging multipolar order should not be understood simply as the replacement of western (mainly American) hegemony by Chinese, Russian or another national hegemony. Rather, it represents a deeper contest over the political meaning of modernity itself: whether the future international system will continue to be organized around a universalizing liberal model historically associated with the West, or whether different civilizations and political traditions will coexist within a pluralistic system of states. A peaceful transition will depend not on the restoration of unipolarity or on a new “clash of civilizations,” but on reconstructing international institutions around political equality, cultural pluralism, strategic restraint, technological governance and social solidarity.

In this paper the new world order is analyzed from the prism of West Asia, nowadays known as Middle East.

It has to be recalled that bitter fact that European Jewish communities experienced centuries of discrimination, persecution and antisemitic violence.

European antisemitism created conditions in which the search for a secure Jewish homeland became increasingly urgent. In fact, western powers decided to expel almost all Jews from Europe to the Middle East, to establish a western entity in the heart of East, West Asia, Middle East, by expelling millions of Palestinian from their homeland. Since then, Middle East is facing continuous insecurity, carnage and lastly genocide, in a nutshell Middle East is paying the Price for crimes in Europe.

Given the over 40 years of experience in multilateral diplomacy, working closely with UN and other international organizations, I was asked to focus my analysis on performance of such international institutions during so called “World Order or the Post World War-II era”. The following are part of my own memoir with well documented evidences on instrumental uses of western countries, mostly United State of international organizations.  They are neither the position of Iran nor that of VIIMES:

Having in mind the inherited shortcomings of the UN Charter, statutes of such organizations, provisions of relevant treaties and conventions, one could easily notice very disappointing record of negative performance of UN and other international organizations, due to western countries manipulations and imposed obstacles.

I just try to inform distinguished participants some real events which I have personally been involved and witnessed:

Based on text of NPT, it is the most discriminatory security treaty, dividing its parties into “Haves “ , P5, and  “ Have Nots”. NWSs are exempted from any inspections by the IAEA. Its article 6, calling for nuclear disarmament has no deadline, no accountability.

Countries of NAM (Non-aligned Movement) proposed a paragraph on Banning nuclear tests for the final document. US, UK, USSR, the 3 Nuclear possessors and party to NPT opposed.

Note: France and China had not joined NPT then.

After 8 hours negotiation until 4 am, at the sideline of the plenary, at the Mission of Sweden, between 3 representatives of NAM, including myself, with representatives of three NWSs, no agreement was made, due to objection of US delegation even to Chair proposal which all agreed to go along with. Therefore, the Conference could not have final document and failed.

NAM, specifically countries in the Middle East emphasized on Establishment of Nuclear Weapons Free Zone in ME. I recall Iran and then Egypt originally had proposed in 1974. Western countries, specially US agreed with condition of indefinite extension of NPT, which would have expired after 25 years. As today, US has not only not complied with the 1995 obligation, but has prevented any other attempt in this regard, to fulfilling Israeli demands, not giving up nuclear weapons and not joining NPT.

US opposed the adoption of the agenda of conference which included the tradition f item of review the implementation of decision of last Review Conference in 2000, since the conference had adopted 13 unequivocal undertakings for nuclear disarmaments. The Conference collapsed.

The first time, after intensive negotiations, the conference accepted by consensus to convene a conference on “Nuclear Weapon Free Zone in the Middle East “ in 2012. After 2 years preparation, shortly before the conference planned to be held in Helsinki, the US (Obama Administration, who has adopted the decision in 2010) unilaterally indefinitely postpend the conference, with disregards of all state parties, in order to satisfy Israel.

The Conference collapsed due to objections of US , UK and Canada to the text of Nuclear Weapon Free Zone in the Middle East.

IAEA was established after the Moto of “Atom for Peaces” by President of US, the only country used nuclear weapons in history. Since then, quantity and quality of US nuclear arsenal have been drastically increased. More countries have joined nuclear club!

IAEA Members States are 3 groups: NNWS parties to NPT subjected to IAEA Safeguards, NWSs parties to NPT (P5), and Non- party to NPT (India, Pakistan, Israel, North Korea), exempted from any inspections. Absolute discrimination

IAEA safeguards, inspections which has to be “Nuclear material-oriented Safeguards” is changed into “Intelligence information-oriented Safeguards” which in in full contravention with the spirit and letter of the IAEA Statutes.

Number of seats are 35 as was the case over 40 years ago, 10 seats called “designated seats” are permanent, and their distribution is in favor of the West. Impartial analyses shall show the murky records of its decisions/resolutions, which have politicized and polarized this so-called international technical organization. The organization expected to promote peaceful uses of nuclear energy has turned into self-styled UN Watchdog with discrimination among member states, P5 and 4 others are exempted from any inspections while others are under comprehensive safeguards, and even a couple of them such as Iran are under the most intrusive inspections much beyond the routine safeguards. The IAEA has shamefully been blocked from conducting preventive or remedial actions in cases of military attacks against peaceful nuclear facilities under its full scope safeguards. Provisions of the IAEA Statutes on structure, mandate, and authority of the Board of Governors has to be reformed by Amendment Conference.

Attacks against nuclear facilities under the IAEA safeguards:

The taboo was broken for the first time ion history by Israel, attacking Iraqi research reactor under construction by France, in 1981.

During the IAEA General Conference in 1982, the US threatened that f a resolution condemning Israel violation is passed, US shall; withdraw from Agency’s membership thus almost 25% of budget will disappear! Iran, myself as representative was sure it was a bluff since US shall not leave IAEA, it need it to put pressure on developing countries, proposed that if US leave, it will compensate financial gap, thus encouraged like minded countries, in the ME and NAM at large to support the draft resolution, even if was proposed by Iraq, Sadam regime, having war imposed on Iran. The resolution passed, US and French delegations left conference room as a protest to decision by General Conference, but continued membership!

Sadam Regime several times attacked Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant in Iran from 1984 to 1988, but neither the IAEA Board of Governors, nor the General Conference condemned, since the whole west were supporting Sadam Regime.

During General Conference in 1990, I propose a resolution which was adopted. According to the resolution 533, any attack and threat of attack against nuclear installations under IAEA Safeguards, constitute violation of UN Charter, IAEA Statute, and international law, and UNSC has to immediately act. All member states are called upon to assist the attacked country.

Israel attacked Syrian site under the pretext of constructing a research reactor, not nuclear weapons. Despite all inspections made and IAEA was not able to definitely prove the allegation, the western countries, US and EU proposed a resolution to the Board of Governors, which was marginally, with only 17 votes, approved. Rather than the aggressor, Israel, the attacked country was sent to UNSC.

Israel and US attacked all nuclear facilities under full scope safeguards in June 2025 and again after February 2026. The IAEA Board of Governors and the Director General did not passed resolution or condemned the aggressions which were in full contravention with IAEA resolution 533.

Note: In a clear double standard and hypocrisy, US and EU summitted a resolution against Rusia on Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant, based on resolution of 533 of 1990, which I proposed, and S and some EU members voted against it then.

Paradoxically, Board of Governor in its recent session decided to remove Syrian issue from agenda after almost 2 decades, under the unfounded technical allegations, since western countries has good relation with new Government. Double Standard and proof of politization of the IAEA

After Chernobyl Nuclear Accident in 1986, negotiation on drafting two conventions, “Early Notification of Nuclear Accident”, and “Emergency Assistance in Case of Nuclear Accident” was intensive held in Vienna, where I was representing on behalf of Islamic Republic of Iran.

The first week, US and Russia announce that both should be exempted from reporting any accident in their nuclear facilities. I rejected any discrimination, specifically by exemption of countries having very active nuclear activities and facilities with more probability of nuclear accidents which shall have transboundary release of radioactive material to other countries in world.

I am proud that after 3 weeks of political challenges, finally they were forced to compromise, and we sat together and prepared the text of article -1 , on scope of the convention accepted by all member states.

Sadam used chemical weapons. About 100 thousand Iranian were killed and injured. Undeniable published documents are available that western countries gave Chemical weapons to Iraq.

Islamic Republic of Iran actively participated in negotiation on Chemical Weapon Convention (CWC) in Geneva, signed and approve it. US and Russia did not destroy their huge chemical weapons, within 10 years dead line envisaged by the convention, thus asked General Conference to exceptionally extend time, bad precedent. Russia did so, but used even went beyond the dead line.

Syrian join CWC, with encouragement of Russi and Iran. It compromised its national security, since Israel has not joined the CWC, for the sake of international security. While parts of Syria were under the control of foreign forces and terrorist, it obviously could not give complete declaration. Western countries created political tension and agenda at the OPCW, to put political pressure on Assad Government. Now the agenda on Syria which involved the OPCW, under technical pretext, obviously with political motivation for over a decade, will be removed since wester countries have good relation with new government.

Almost 10 years of negation on Protocol for Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) in Geneva, aiming at establishment of an international organization, similar to the IAEA and OPCW, collapsed, by US official objection in 2002. The rolling text is now in archive. Absolute disregards for all countries genially opted for disarmament of WMD. Had the such organization been established, it could have helped the world public, facing panic with thousands of dead as the result of Covid outbreak. Being involved in that negotiation, I proposed our EU counterparts to let establish the said organization based on Rolling text, though US is absent, but they privately said that bioindustry in EU will not permit governments to do so, as long as their competitors in US are not covered by the protocol of the BWC. This is another indication that such humanitarian safety and security concerns have no place in western policy.

Due to time constraint, it suffices just to remind some factual cases:

UN has not been able to implement its resolution, on Palestine Statehood since 1948. UNSC has been blocked by US veto, and General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding! Insecurity and bloodshed in the Middle East continue.

UNSC was paralyzed during 2-year genocide in Gaza by Israel, was not even able to force a ceasefire, since US vetoed the resolutions in this regard.

US was humiliated by Israeli Ambassador, who put the Charter of United Nation in shredder machine, in the General Assembly.

ICJ and ICC ruling on Genocide in Gaza has not been implemented, as the results of defiance by most of western countries.

At the General Assembly, this week, US President officially declared the intention of his country for total annihilation of a UN member state, Iran, which is flagrant violation of UN Charter, specifically article 2. EU and other western countries kept silence.

Exceptional developments such as emergence of new multilateral institutions, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS shall have serious impact on the process of such transition, with colorful contributions of new eastern emerging powers.

The transition from Western hegemony to multipolarity will have little historical meaning if it merely replaces one form of external domination with another. Its deeper promise lies in creating an international system in which East and West can participate as historically distinct, but coexisting in equal footing with mutual respect.

UN and other international organizations, institutes of Post World War -II so call “World Order”, have continuously instrumentally used mostly by western counties, therefore lack utility and stalemate. There is an immediate need for a fundamental reform, and establishment of a new Multipolar order is a must.

Memories of centuries of peaceful coexistence of followers of three Devine religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam shall be revitalized in the Middle East.

Scholars enlighten the public to stand vis-à-vis the status quo and make a new world order based on justice and equality in order to create sustainable Peace and Prosperity in the Middle East and World at large.

Thank you for your kind attention.

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