Feb. 27, 2025 (EIRNS)—The British prime minister did his best to convince the U.S. President to commit to positions that would all but guarantee either a continuation of the current NATO-Russia conflict playing out in Ukraine, or the placement of a fuse in the region to be ignited at will in the future.
He hoped to convince President Trump to make U.S. security guarantees to Ukraine, to commit to supporting a European “peacekeeping” force whose establishment has already been rejected repeatedly by Russia, and to demand more from Putin in the negotiations.
“Sir” Keir Starmer (as an American, it’s hard to write his title without cringing) brought with him a letter from castle-inhabiting “King” Charles (again, cringe), inviting President Trump to a second state visit to the U.K., reportedly the only elected leader to be twice “honored” in this way in modern times. They’re really pulling out all the stops to maintain the “special relationship” of—as they see it—American brawn and British brain.
At their joint press conference, Starmer gave lip service to supporting Trump’s efforts to achieve peace, while saying that the only way for peace to last (read: for war to be triggered again) is to have boots on the ground. The U.K. is trying to get into Trump’s good graces by announcing that it is putting more money than ever into Ukraine and into overall defense spending.
Activists with The LaRouche Organization welcomed Starmer by circulating in Washington a call to end the U.S.-British special relationship.
Trump held firm to his conviction that Ukraine would not, and should not, join NATO. “It’s just not going to happen,” he said in a press availability with Starmer, as he had the previous day at this cabinet meeting.
Russian diplomats have pointed out the unwholesome effect of British influence on U.S. policy. “London is always much more comfortable when there is a wall of misunderstanding between the Russian Federation and the United States,” said one Russian ambassador. “The Europeans, primarily France, as well as the British, are now trying to … fan the conflict further, suppressing any attempts to calm it down,” said foreign minister Lavrov.
Meanwhile, U.S. and Russian delegations met in Istanbul to advance the process of normalizing diplomatic relations.
On the potential for peace in the world’s other great current hotspot, Southwest Asia, the recent speech of one of the Israeli negotiators of the 1993 Oslo Accords includes a crucial insight. Asked how peace is possible if the majority of Israelis and Palestinians think it can never occur, Yossi Beilin said it is a question of leadership. Before the Oslo Accords, he said, no one believed in even talking to the Palestinians, but because of one man, then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, it happened, and was then supported by the government and the majority of the population.
Meanwhile, Israel has refused to withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor separating Gaza from Egypt (as it has refused to withdraw from locations in the West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria as well). And U.S. Rep. Brian Mast has instructed staffers of the House Foreign Affairs Committee to refer to the Palestinian West Bank as “Judea and Samaria.”
In a more positive development in the broader region, the leader of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) in Türkiye has called for the group’s members to lay down their arms and approach their activism through democracy and society.
Finally, let us allow Namibia and Morocco to point to the kinds of fights humanity should actually be engaged in: greening the deserts the approach of the LaRouche Oasis Plan, eliminating underdevelopment, and redirecting asteroids.
