March 29, 2025 (EIRNS)—The 95th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) was held on March 28, with speakers from Germany, France, Iran, Argentina and Mexico. People from 32 countries participated in the online event. Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute and initiator of the IPC, opened the meeting by warning that the effort to restore relations between Russia and the United States by U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and to end the war in Ukraine, was endangered by attempts to draw the U.S. into a war on Iran, and by the mass remilitarization policy being pushed by the British and EU leadership under the false claim that Russia is a military threat to Europe. She said that a war on Iran would provoke chaos—economically, militarily and politically—and could lead to world war.
The “Coalition of the Willing,” promoted by French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and other European leaders, held a meeting of 30 countries this week, trying (unsuccessfully) to get a united European policy of deploying NATO troops into Ukraine, a policy certain to provoke full scale war with Russia. The German population, she said, is horrified at the billions of euros being proposed for a military build-up, even while the economies across Europe are in a state of collapse. She noted that within the U.S., even within the Republican Party, there is division over the bombing of Yemen and a threatened war against Iran, since Trump had campaigned to stop the perpetual wars.
Two Trumps}
The first guest speaker was former Iranian Ambassador to Germany Seyed Hossein Mousavian. The Ambassador said that in regard to U.S. policy toward Iran, there were two Trumps: The first Trump, before the U.S. presidential election, wanted peace with Iran, and said that the only requirement was that Iran not build a nuclear weapon. He promoted a new agreement between the nations, to which Iran responded positively. But the second Trump, after the election and the inauguration, turned more to the Zionist lobby, announcing a return to the “maximum pressure” policy from his first term, which was announced while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was with him in Washington. Trump expanded the demands to include a general dismantling of the nuclear program, announced by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, which is impossible according to the Ambassador.Trump’s letter to Iran’s leadership, the Ambassador said, had all the major points from the anti-Iran policy from Trump’s first term. He said both Trump and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei were opposed to a war, but Trump’s problem is that his Administration is not united. Several U.S. policies indicate a preparation for war, including the bombing of Yemen, more weapons to Israel, aircraft carriers deployed to the Persian Gulf, B-2 bombers sent to the Diego Garcia military base, and Israel breaking the ceasefire in Gaza with U.S. approval. To prevent war and to build peace, he said there must be “mutual respect” which follows international law, and which includes economic cooperation and people-to-people relationships. The U.S. and Iran have never been enemies, he asserted, and should be friends.Col. (ret.) Alain Corvez, a consultant in international affairs and former advisor to the French Ministry of the Interior, who has addressed the IPC several times, said he considers the accusation by certain U.S. leaders that Iran is developing a nuclear weapons capability to be “propaganda.” The real issue is that it does have an advanced missile capability, representing a powerful deterrence capacity, which was demonstrated by its successful breach of Israeli defenses in the April 2024 military exchange between the two countriesDisdain for the EUThe recent Iran-Russia-China joint naval drills in the Gulf of Oman show that any attack against Iran will likely see Iranian support from both Russia and China. He concurred with Ambassador Mousavian that the Trump Administration is divided, and that the so-called “Signalgate” leak of Yemen war plans by The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg was run by the Deep State to undermine Trump. He praised U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s show of disdain for the European Union, adding that “I share this disdain.” The British Empire has been weakened, but the British retain their power over the world’s monetary system, while the financial oligarchy controls the media, feeding the population with anti-Russia, anti-China and anti-Iran lies.
Carolina Domínguez, a long-time leader of the LaRouche Youth Movement in Mexico, reported on three forums held on campuses in Mexico, with over 400 students and professors, addressing the issue of participation in an international peace movement. She said the meetings demonstrated that “youth do not want war.” According to Dominguez, there was a strong response to the call for youth to join the IPC, to participate in an April 22 online international youth conference with Helga Zepp-LaRouche, and in the May 24-25 [international conference of the Schiller Institute.
Cliff Kiracofe, a former senior professional staff member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and author of the book Dark Crusade: Christian Zionism and U.S. Foreign Policy, concurred with Zepp-LaRouche that there is a divide in the Republican Party, including within the Trump team. Vice President JD Vance, DNI Tulsi Gabbard, FBI chief Kash Patel, and CIA Chief John Ratcliff are firmly in Trump’s camp, but National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and his assistant Alex Wong, Kiricofe said, are not.
Wong allegedly included Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic magazine in the Signal chat group used by top-Trump officials to discuss plans for bombing Yemen. Both Waltz and Wong were part of Sen. Mitt Romney’s 2012 U.S. presidential campaign, which was part of the neoconservative movement against Trump. Wong has also worked as an aide to arch-neocon Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR). Jeffey Goldberg, who leaked the contents of the Signal chat to the press, Kiricofe said, is an avid Zionist who once served in the Israel Defense Forces as a prison guard.
Alberto Portugheis, an Argentine pianist who has performed as a soloist in leading concert halls worldwide while also promoting peace, asserted that as long as the military-industrial complex exists, there will be no end to war. He praised U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt for saying that “no war is an accident.” The military-industrial complex destroys nations as well as the environment, and must be eliminated.
Zepp-LaRouche closed the meeting by encouraging everyone to subscribe to the EIR Daily Alert service, in order to keep informed on the rapidly changing political crises around the world and the necessary solutions. She said we must stop the “remilitarization” insanity in Europe, which is wasting trillions of euros on the false claim that Russia is preparing to invade Europe. She said that EIR is preparing a report on this.
