The Lead
On the Highway to World War
by Stewart Battle (EIRNS) — Jun. 29, 2026
Conflicts in both Iran and Ukraine have evolved over the recent days and weeks. Schiller Institute founder, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, summarized the strategic situation as follows in a discussion with associates: “The world situation remains one where the overall trajectory is towards World War III. And while the focus tends to shift between the Middle East and the Ukraine-Russia theater, the underlying dynamic is that the collective West, which is quite uncollected, is nevertheless not giving up their effort to keep dominance in the situation and suppress the legitimate demand by the Global Majority for a new, more just world economic order.”
Indeed, both the United States and Iran have resumed strikes over the recent days, at least to some degree. Despite President Donald Trump having claimed that “Iran has requested a meeting” to salvage the ceasefire, and that both sides would send negotiators to Doha, Qatar for talks on Tuesday, June 30, the President was quickly rebuffed by Iranian officials. Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei stated that there will be no talks, technical or otherwise, with the U.S. this week. An Iranian technical delegation will visit Qatar this week, but it has no relation to US officials visiting the country.
At the same time, Israel is rapidly accelerating its involvement in conflicts throughout the region, as if designed to stymie any potential cessation of hostilities. It has continued strikes into southern Lebanon despite the ceasefire signed between the two. And with regard to the so-called ceasefire, a closer look shows that it has clearly been arranged to give Israel full leeway for continuing its provocative behavior. A similar situation is also happening In Syria, as Israel expands its presence there.
While the situation remains distantly hopeful that the U.S.-Iran MoU can become the starting point for a broader regional peace, even despite Trump’s short falls, this requires an immediate and clear decision to reign in Israel—a decision which has evidently not yet been made.
In Ukraine, the situation is becoming markedly worse. Ukraine has dramatically increased and intensified its drone strikes deep into Russia over the recent period, hitting many oil infrastructure facilities. President Putin has now had two meetings with oil principals in Russia over the previous few days. While the attacks have not caused major problems along the lines crowed about in the Western media, Putin did say they have caused “certain shortages.” Russia is currently drawing on its petroleum reserves, he noted, but they are at almost the same level as this time last year. The real aim of these strikes, he said in an interview Sunday, is “to fuel … an information operation as part of the broader confrontation with Russia.”
However, as has been stated numerous times by the Russians, as well as this news service, these strikes are being done with the direct assistance of European governments, putting Europe in the crosshairs of a war which is becoming increasingly defined by terrorist strikes against civilian infrastructure. This is being accompanied by a growing drumbeat across the mainstream media in the West, egging on Ukraine and its supporters to pour even more into the war against Russia—despite Ukraine’s losing of the war and lack of people left to fight.
This mad game of psychological warfare and manipulation is a highway to nuclear war. Has mankind really lost the moral fitness to survive that it will allow fanatics in Europe and the United States, who have gone beyond the point of clinical insanity, to drag the world into civilization-ending war? Europe is now even seizing Russian oil tankers in international waters. What if Russia responded in kind, and seized a French vessel? Or bombed one of the drone facilities in Europe that is manufacturing drones for use against Russia? What would the United States do then?
As is obvious, mankind is on the precipice of disaster—not because of any of the details within Southwest Asia or Ukraine, nor even because of the individuals in the Trump administration, as disastrous as they are. Rather, these are the geopolitical land mines that were set by the British Empire over the past 50 years, using their agents such as Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and others, that prevent the global powers from finding a common paradigm of cooperation. The recent upsurge of popular political action in the wake of the genocide in Gaza, the war in Iran, and the flagrant crackdown on free speech and other guaranteed rights by citizens across the world, is indicative of a situation ripe for rejecting the failed status quo. The recent elections in New York state, and the upset victories by so-called socialist candidates who merely told the truth about some of these issues, is a case in point. But what replaces the dying and failed system?
Now is the time for a true citizens movement that uplifts the level of outlook that has tolerated these crimes and accepted this condition of the world. We are now only days away from the July 4 celebration of the anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence—an occasion for Americans and citizens around the world to reflect on the principles that launched a fight against empire 250 years ago. That fight is not settled today. Will we live up to the challenge?
Contents
Strategic War Danger
- Lebanon-Israel Agreement Is a Charade (↓)
- Putin: Fuel Shortages Real But ‘Not Critical’; There’s an ‘Information Operation’ Besides Actual Damage to Russian Refineries (↓)
- State Department Official Claims Ukraine Is 'Winning the War' (↓)
- Western Media Blaring About 'Vibe Shift' in Ukraine (↓)
- Putin’s d’Horizon of the Military Frontlines (↓)
Collapsing Imperial System
- Machine Democrats in Meltdown Over New York Election (↓)
- The BIS: The (Western) Economy Is Driven by The AI Bubble (↓)
New World Paradigm
LaRouche movement
Harley Schlanger Update
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