Next Tuesday, April 6, based in Vienna, talks are slated to take place involving the principals of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) to move things in some way out of the present danger zone, including the potential to lift the sanctions against Iran. This came out of an online meeting today, based in Vienna, among five of the original six JCPOA principals (the P-5 plus one)—China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, and Germany, without the U.S.), and Iran, hosted by the European Union, which issued a statement on the April 6 meeting as the next step. The EU said the April 6 meeting will take place, “in order to clearly identify sanctions lifting and nuclear implementation measures, including through convening meetings of the relevant expert groups.” EU officials are to confer with the U.S. separately.

In the abstract, this dialogue could be good, though in practice it comes in the context of fierce conflicts stoked by the London geopolitical axis. Positive initiatives will continue to go nowhere, except to war, without the initiation of development in the greater Southwest Asia region, and other locations now devolving into horrible humanitarian catastrophes.

The perspective of development, and concrete programs were put forward at the March 20-21 international Schiller Institute conference, whose dialogue process is presently expanding tremendously. Panel 3, on March 21 was titled, “The Indo-Pacific, the Caucasus, Eastern Europe and Southwest Asia: Pivots for War, or Peaceful Development with the New Silk Road.” The 10 speakers came from Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Pakistan, and elsewhere.

(A full report on this panel will be published in the EIR weekly, cover date, April 9).

Yesterday, Hussein Askary, EIR Arabic Editor, gave an online briefing in Arabic to an audience of over 3,000 people, mostly in Iraq—with 6,600 views within 24 hours—which focused on the development perspective, in two ways. First, as the necessary reaction to the hopeless strategic conflict situation. Secondly, Askary spoke of the meaning of “development corridors” as presented by economist statesman Lyndon LaRouche, and as distinct from transportation corridors, which are routes of trade, not development. Despite the terrible suffering, there is hope and excitement for actual development to happen.

It is notable that on March 30, Wang Yi, China’s Foreign Minister and State Councillor, finished a week-long trip to six countries in this Southwest Asian/Persian Gulf region. At his first stop, he issued a five-point program in an interview with Saudi media, the last point of which stressed China’s commitment to economic cooperation in development projects. Speaking to Al Arabiya, Wang said, “China has signed documents on Belt and Road cooperation with 19 Middle East countries and carried out distinctive collaboration with each of them…. As it fosters a new development paradigm, China is ready to share with Middle East countries its market opportunities, work with Arab countries to actively prepare for the China-Arab states summit, promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and expand new areas of growth, such as high and new technologies….”

Despite all the terrible losses and obstacles, development is finding its place on the world agenda. This is reflected in the continued circulation of the statement released March 21 at Panel 3 of the conference, by Helga Zepp LaRouche, entitled, “Declaration of China Experts from All Over the World.” There is no denying the reality of China’s commitment and record to implement development—from lifting over 800 million people out of poverty, to reacting swiftly to defend against COVID-19, and aid nations around the globe.

What is the likelihood this positive, action-outlook can prevail? Zepp LaRouche addressed this yesterday in her weekly Schiller Institute webcast, after reporting on the upcoming crazed deployment by U.S. Presidential Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry to India, and to the U.A.E. and Bangladesh, to attempt to coerce them to shut down their economy, for the purpose of cutting carbon emissions to “save the planet.” She also blasted the lies about so-called human rights violations in Xinjiang, which is a geopolitical fraud aimed at destabilizing China.

Zepp-LaRouche concluded her webcast: “I think people realize that this is an effort to regulate everything in the direction of a green dictatorship, which will make life impossible to billions of people. So I think this Great Reset can be defeated and it can be replaced by an alliance for development, which is needed. We need European countries and the United States, hopefully, to work with Russia, China and India, to develop Southwest Asia, to develop Africa, Latin America, and say ‘No’ to this policy of genocide. Because there you find the genocide and not in Xinjiang.”