HARLEY SCHLANGER: Hello and welcome to our weekly dialogue with Helga Zepp-LaRouche. She's the founder of the Schiller Institute and the initiator of the International Peace Coalition Zoom call every Friday morning. It's July 15, 2026. I'm Harley Schlanger and I'll be your host. You can send your questions and comments to Helga at questions@schillerinstitute.org or you can post them on the chat page.
Well, Helga, with the U.S. launching a fifth wave of strikes in the last week at targets in Iran, President Trump acknowledged the obvious. The war is back on, confirming that the memo of understanding is dead. Iran fired back, hitting U.S. bases in the region. Is there a way to break the pattern which is heating up with each day seeing a new escalation?
HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, I think the problem is that because of the continuous breaking of promises, not keeping to diplomatic behavior, I think we have reached a point where the Iranian leadership is basically convinced that no matter what they negotiate with the United States, it will not be of any value. So, I think that they have somehow abandoned the idea that there can be an agreement with the United States, like a memo of understanding, because if it can be dropped by the drop of a hat or the turn on a dime, it's worth pretty much nothing. And it's quite interesting that despite the fact that the whole Middle East war was really instigated by Israel, they seem to be somehow out of the equation right now, and the United States is left holding the bag, very much to the detriment of President Trump; and naturally the whole U.S. economy, and actually world economy, which I think cannot hold out for very much longer. Because when these strategic reserves are used up, we will have an energy price crisis, which could really lead, and probably as of now is leading, to a depression, a world depression of the economy.
So I think Trump probably would like to find a way out to stop this, but I don't think he sees a way, and his repeated remarks that he will do everything to hit Iran hard and bomb them back to the Stone Age, and all of these many statements he has made in this direction, do not really improve the situation on iota. So I think unfortunately, unless there is a real intervention coming from all the neighboring countries to really turn the table and say this has to stop, we have to have a new security architecture for the entire region, and they have to find a way of imposing it.
Now the Omani Foreign Minister Al Busaidi just made a new proposal for a new security architecture for the region. He said that the old architecture was built on a myth, and that led to basically the U.S. building military bases in all the Gulf countries, and so forth. That clearly has not worked. So I don't know the details of what the Omani Foreign Minister proposal involves. He has played a very useful role previously. For example, he was involved in the negotiations in Geneva just before the second war broke out, which was a complete breach of trust in anything from the side of the United States.
So I think if this proposal by Oman, and a similar proposal made by the former Turkish Prime Minister Davutoğlu, and the Schiller Institute proposal for an Oasis Plan, if these proposals are somehow put together; in other words, that there is a new security architecture involving all the war parties, that they find a way of making sure that the Lebanon issue is resolved, so that the sovereignty of Lebanon is guaranteed—because I think without that, Iran will never agree to a proposal—that the interests of Yemen and other places is all respected and taken care of; and then there would be a real development perspective for the entire region from India to the Mediterranean, from the Caucasus to the Gulf, with development corridors along the arteries of the old Silk Road, an extension of the CPEC economic corridor, the North-South transport corridor. These are beginnings of an infrastructure network, which could be the beginning of industrializing the whole area by applying the extremely successful model of the Chinese conquering back the desert, which they have done now in Xinjiang and also in the northwest of China. So if these proposals would be all merged into one comprehensive plan, then I think this can come to an end, but it would require bold action now. And I think that people would have to think to make sure that the incentive for Israel and the United States to again not participate in that, is changed in such a way that this proposal can float.
So there is an option, it's very clearly there, but it does require energetic, courageous, bold initiatives from all the leaders of the region, of all the countries, and then it could work.
SCHLANGER: Well, it also requires breaking through the delusions of the people around Trump. Last week we talked about the danger of inflation because of the oil price, and then yesterday an inflation report came out where the inflation rate, month to month, dropped a little bit in the United States, and there were reports everywhere, "Well see, there's no problem, the U.S. is still strong." I think that kind of delusion is something that's fed to Trump to keep him on course for war.
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, I think from everything one can observe at a distance is that, you know, Trump is being fed so many falsehoods, you know, because he says things which don't make any sense so many times, and I think he probably has a web of disinformers around him, probably more than any President before him.
SCHLANGER: Well, the latest is that he was threatening to attack Pickax Mountain, which apparently is a site of the nuclear work where the centrifuges are stored and the work is done on enriching uranium, but it's so deep underground, the report is that it might require nuclear weapons to do that. Do you think it's even conceivable that Trump would think about doing something like that?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, unfortunately, I mean, I'm not in a position to look into the mind of President Trump. I cannot follow the sudden zigzag movements of his thoughts. What is a fact is that the United States has lost that war already, and now the only remaining option would be ground troops. Trump has mentioned or hinted in that direction several times. That would be a complete unmitigated disaster, because first of all, it's now extremely hot, not only in Iran, but in Iran especially. So if you would now send in ground troops to attack this mountain, it's very well fortified because that is in all likelihood where some of the research of nuclear weapons has been taking place. I don't know what the status of it is now. So you can be sure that the Iranians have fortified this place very well, so ground troops would be associated with massive, massive losses.
And what is unfortunately also mooted as an option in the air, the use of a tactical nuclear weapon, because the usual bunker buster bombs are not sufficient, because this is a mountain where the facilities are 80 or 100 meters deep into the mountain. The rock quality is one of the hardest granite. And therefore, you know, it's even doubtful if a nuclear weapon—naturally, if you have a big enough one, anything goes—but if that would be sufficient. That would throw civilization into a … I cannot even foresee what the consequences of such an action would be if after Hiroshima, for the first time, a nuclear bomb would be used again by the United States.
I think that would completely, you know, throw the world into a chaos and reorganization, and nobody has an answer as to what would be the result of it. It could lead to a global nuclear war, among other things.
SCHLANGER: I have a question for you from an Algerian political scientist who said that to him, the big question is, "How do you break out of the controlled narratives that lead to endless wars?" And he referred to the Emergency Roundtable discussion that you've organized for July 31st on the question of the immigration crisis. And he said, "Well, coming from Algeria, we're very familiar with the immigration problem. And I agree that development rather than war is the solution to the immigration crisis. But I'm not sure that immigration is the leading issue behind the danger of war. Help me to understand this," he asked.
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, it's not the leading issue behind war. The leading issue behind war is geopolitical control. The war danger comes from the fact that some forces want to keep dominance, and they find themselves in a geopolitical fight with other major powers. And, you know, as long as that kind of thinking persists, that horrible chain of wars will continue.
The reason why we focus on the migration question is because we always think about how do you solve problems? You know, the problem right now is the populations of Western Europe and of the United States, with the exception, obviously, of a small, very intelligently active part of the population. But the vast majority of people who are listening to the mainstream media, who are emotionally detached from trying to find out the truth themselves, naturally believe all the stories which they hear from the main politicians, even if they are a little bit contradictory between the different camps.
So, the question is, how do you get the ordinary citizen to start to focus on those issues which represent a way out of the crisis? And if you look at the migration issue, first of all, it is a terrible, terrible thing for the people who are affected. If you are running around from one country to the next to try to save your life, running away from war, living in camps, living in danger, I mean, this is not a quality of life which you would want to do to any human beings, because it's a human rights violation. To be forced to be a refugee is a human rights violation, as is hunger, as is war. So, it has to be remedied.
Now, it is a huge crisis for the countries where the refugees are running away from, because there's war, hunger, or whatever; but it is also a big problem for the countries they want to immigrate to. You can see that in part it is ideology, racism, but in part it's also real. For example, in Germany, when Merkel was chancellor, in 2015 she more or less opened the borders and said, "We will manage that." And she is being accused now by everybody, that she is the cause for this refugee crisis. Now, I think that's too short-sighted, because the European demographic curve is collapsing. I mean, we will be without people in one or two generations if this continues, because people don't want to have children anymore, because if you have no future, why would you want to have children? So, even to maintain the present levels of population, you do need an influx of people from elsewhere. You cannot compensate for that loss of demographic curve unless you would have 5% growth or 10% growth, like some countries in the Global South actually have, then you could compensate for it, but the growth, as you know, in Germany is negative. So, you have a negative population curve, you have a negative economic growth, and these are the hallmarks of a collapse. So, it would be in the interest of Germany and other European countries and even the United States, to have a certain influx of people, which would compensate for the negative demographic development, but that is only, that can only be part of the solution.
And Pope Leo has said this in all his recent speeches and sermons in Spain, in Lampedusa, in Italy, he said we have to treat the migrants basically as in the image of God, as equipped with full dignity as human beings in the image of God. But we also have to eliminate the reason why they are running away from their own country, because they have a right to stay home. And the only way that can be done is by having massive economic development. I've said this elsewhere; by 2050 Africa will have 1 billion people more, 2.5 billion. Now, that means in 25 years we better build 1 billion productive jobs or all these people will come to whatever place in Europe. And I'm always making the point, because people have to realize this is not a question of choice, this is a question of absolute necessity that we do this.
Likewise, you know, the atrocities committed by ICE in the United States. What a disgrace for America, which used to be correctly called a melting pot. I think it was Kennedy who said we are a nation of immigrants, and the United States, but for the immigrants, would be a very small population of Native Americans. But the very character of America for the last 250 years was that people from all over the world would come there and integrate into the country and become American. Now, if Trump is ending that, I think he's ending that model of American identity and turning it into something much more ugly.
So, I think for the United States as well, it would be in their fundamental interest to cooperate; especially with China and Latin America to build up things like the bioceanic railway in Brazil, connecting the two oceans; using that as a transport artery for developing all the infrastructure projects which essentially were already conceived by Alexander von Humboldt in the 19th Century. So, if that would happen, then people would have a reason to stay in their own country, which is what everybody would much prefer. So, that is why we are making that the issue, because once people start to behave human again on the issue of migration, then they're also more readily opposing the war.
SCHLANGER: We just got a message from Lawrence Kidd, who said, "Being reasonable means humbly accept facts and dismiss propaganda," which is basically what you were just saying.
Now, here's a question that goes back to what you were saying about the possibility of an outside intervention. "What do you think about China, Pakistan, or other BRICS countries being able to put pressure on the U.S. and Trump; or is he totally controlled by Netanyahu and the Zionist fascists?"
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, I think China for sure is giving support to Pakistan, at least from the background. Pakistan has taken a leadership role in trying to negotiate that in a very successful way, as far as it went. Once you are running up against the moneybags who are trying to influence Trump in the direction of the war, then, who will win out in that one, unfortunately, we have to see. I think China for sure, the other BRICS countries, have a fundamental interest that this war stops. But, you know, how this will play out, it's very difficult to predict, because, you know, in the final analysis, it is the American people who have to assert enough pressure on the Congress, on the Senate, on the political process now with the midterm election and beyond, who will tilt the balance. I mean, the popularity of Netanyahu and Israel in general has completely collapsed in the United States. But that message must probably get out even stronger.
SCHLANGER: Well, speaking of moneybags, Lindsey Graham passed away during this last week, and his fellow war hawks in the Senate are proposing passing his proposed Sanctioning Russia Act to honor him, which would put huge penalties to any country which purchases Russian oil. Republican leader John Thune says it has 85 co-sponsors. A London anti-war activist asked, "Trump was opposed to it, now he says he's for it. Can it be stopped?" And he also asked if you have an update on what's happening with Section 219, the bill that would merge Israel and the U.S. military as part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2027.
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I think the spearhead, again, for stopping all of that is exactly that this NDAA Section 219 in the Congress Bill and whatever it is in the Senate Bill, is the key issue right now. If that can be defeated, then we have at least stopped the immediate threat to the United States. I mean, this is a fundamental threat to the Constitution, to future generations, to the question of sovereignty. So this, I can only say this is the most important issue.
SCHLANGER: Now, Hakeem Jeffries, who's the House Majority Leader, said that he admitted that a change of direction may be needed in terms of the wars. But then he said he's going to oppose Representative Massie's bill, which would cut military aid to Israel. And I have a question from someone who identifies as a "former Democrat, but not yet a Republican." "What's going on with the Democratic Party? Why is it not supporting an anti-war policy?"
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, because I think the political party system in the United States, it's not two parties. It's a one party system, which we have made an issue out of for a very long time, because the leaderships of both are so much linked to Wall Street, the military industrial complex, and more recently, Silicon Valley. I mean, how many people are in opposition? It's a few. It's Massie, who will go out by the end of the year. It's Ro Khanna, it's a few other people like that.
But the majority of these Congressmen and Senators are clearly not independent minded at all. And if one looks for the reasons for it, in many cases, it is the question of who contributed to their election victory. You know, I think the United States has, for a long time, changed from a republic into a plutocracy.
SCHLANGER: Well, and Lindsey Graham was right in the center of that raising money from AIPAC and the pro-Israel lobby. At the same time, he was working very hard on behalf of the military cartels.
Now we have a question from, I think this is from a Palestinian who lives in, I think it says Italy. He says "Supporters of Netanyahu are still committed to ethnic cleansing. And they're not only driving out Palestinians from Israel, but now they're attacking neighboring states. Genocide continues. Why is nothing being done to stop it? What happened to the case before the International Court of Justice?"
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, I think it was essentially, I think the Trump administration even sanctioned some of these judges, you know. I mean, President Trump declared at the beginning of the year in an interview with the {New York Times}, that he does not respect international law; international law is dead. This is why it is so absolutely urgent to revive it. And I think this upcoming UN General Assembly this September will be a very crucial opportunity, because I'm pretty sure that the Chinese will introduce their Global Governance Initiatives. And any country and anybody who wants to revive international law should support this proposal or come up with an equivalent proposal, because international law at this point is dead.
And the fact that this genocide continues is just a very, very horrible reflection of the moral condition of humanity. I think it should wake up anybody, because do we really want to go under as a civilization with that image, you know?
SCHLANGER: Now, I have a question for you from a retired teacher who actually was in my high school class, so this is from almost 60 years ago, who called my attention to an article in {The Atlantic} by someone named Rose Horowitz, called "The End of Reading is Here." And what it talks about is the post-literate era, people don't read books anymore. She said her last year teaching her students said, reading is an old technology. So she asked, "Is it possible to replicate the benefits of the Humboldt Reform, which the Schiller Institute recommends, if students and their parents don't read?"
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, I think the only hope is that we are able to increase the activities of the Schiller Institute internationally, massively. And that people who are concerned with the mental collapse of people in terms of not being able to read, not being able to comprehend a text of a page; this is not a new problem. It has gotten worse for decades.
I remember already 30, 40 years ago, there was a report that even in the U.S. Air Force, people were not able to comprehend difficult texts, and that they had to explain everything in terms of comics, how it functions. Now, can you imagine this? I mean, I think the cognitive level of the population has gone down and down and down. And that is a conscious result of an oligarchy manipulating the entertainment industry by turning people into morons, into complete mush minds, nothing there.
I made the mistake a couple of weeks ago of watching a movie, if I can call it a movie, it was on German TV, it was a criminal story, and it was so absolutely full of mindless violence, just beating and punching people in the face, blood coming out, eyes jumping out.
SCHLANGER: It sounds like a Trump festival.
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: No, it's insane, you know, and that has a method. I remember when the movie "The Gladiator" came out several years ago, there was an article in the British press where they discussed that the oligarchy needs these kinds of depraved entertainment movies like "The Gladiator," where the population has to decide if the Gladiator dies or lives; that way they become complicit in the brutalization. And that the oligarchy needs that because only if people become depraved and live out their lower instincts, are they manipulatable. What the oligarchy cannot have is smart people, creative people, who do creative things, who are, you know, because they don't accept this kind of mind control. And that is why I think we need a network of private citizens who take the initiative to fight to get this kind of top-level education like the Humboldt system back.
So, I'm inviting you to join the Schiller Institute, become a member, and help us in the fight. Don't sit on the fence and complain about it, but become an active member. We need a lot more people joining us in this fight because the danger that civilization plunges into a dark age has never been as big as now. As a matter of fact, I can almost say we are in a dark age already, and we have a few voices who have not yet totally given up, like mine and yours, Harley; but we need a lot more people to join.
SCHLANGER: Well, speaking of a dark age, here we are in a heat wave in Europe that so far has taken at least 10,000 lives, and yet there are blackouts in cities throughout parts of Europe. This is largely due to the environmentalists and the zero-carbon policy, money spent on war, and also fake programs to fight global warming. And the need is to create more electricity. How do we get that fight? It's pretty much the same of what you're talking about in terms of a citizen's mobilization to learn what really does affect the weather and what real economics is about.
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, I think we have one more problem in Germany, which is not a German problem but a world problem, which is the absolute insanity of the German government. A deal which Defense Minister Pistorius made with War Secretary Hegseth in Ankara, whereby Germany is now intending to buy Tomahawk cruise missiles from the United States. You remember, the Tomahawk is a medium-range missile, but it's nuclear capable, and it's essentially an offensive weapon. It can be turned into an offensive weapon within no time, so it's regarded as such. And Putin already in 2024 had said that Russia will respond symmetrically. In other words, they will put up similar weapons along the Russian border.
Then we will have a repeat of the medium-range missile crisis of the beginning of the 1980s, the Pershing II and SS-20, but in a much, much more devastating environment than even then. So, if that happens, then we have a ... This is insane. Former Chancellor Scholz and Biden imposed that without discussion in the parliament, without discussion in the population, or even asking the neighbors of Germany. So they decided to put these missiles into Germany. This was supposed to happen this year. And then Trump, that was probably the best thing he ever proposed, said no, they don't want to do that anymore, because he wants to more or less disengage from Europe and shift all his attention to Asia.
Now, instead of being happy to have gotten rid of this absolutely insane, provocative weapons system, these people who I can only... I have to calm down because it's so upsetting, so that I'm not using words which I would regret later on, not because I don't believe the content, but because it gets you into legal trouble. So I'm trying to remain ladylike in what I'm saying. But behind it is really a strong disapproval, if you can read my intention of what I want to say.
And now, Germany is paying for what was for nothing before. But since the Tomahawk is just a spearhead of a very complex system, which includes data, various logistical elements and so forth, which, given the fact that Germany will have no control over these, the dependency on the United States will remain the same, but probably without a U.S. nuclear umbrella. Germany has to pay, Germany has more risk, but Germany has no increased security. So from every standpoint, this is an absolutely crazy idea. And I can only hope that the German population is waking up before it is too late.
And that is just one more thing, which is breaching global warming for years and years, and then doing absolutely nothing to protect the citizens against the effect of it. So the Green Deal was a gimmick.
SCHLANGER: Now, I want to remind our viewers again to put on your calendar July 31, for the next Emergency Roundtable Discussion of the {Executive Intelligence Review}, "Solve the Immigration Crisis with Development."
Now, this Friday, we'll have another of the weekly Zoom calls for the International Peace Coalition. Can you give us a synopsis of what you're expecting to talk about there?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, we for sure will discuss the ongoing escalation in the Middle East, because that is, at this point, open-ended. And the effects of it will be felt in the whole world. So that will be a big topic. Then naturally also the extremely dangerously escalating situation around Ukraine, where the West continues to completely ignore what the Russians are saying. Von der Leyen travels to Kyiv to beef up the joint weapons production once again. This thing is also escalating to a point of no return with the Tomahawk issue.
We will also discuss the initiatives coming from around Pope Leo XIV, the impact of his warnings against the war, and the mobilization which has been initiated by parts of the American Pax Christi. We probably will get a report from Scott Ritter, who was just in Moscow for a long time.
So please come and join because it will be an extremely rich program out of which many, many actions will be generated.
SCHLANGER: Okay, Helga, thank you for joining us today. And I hope people take seriously this opportunity to join you on Friday, and then prepare for July 31st.
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Until Friday then, I hope.
