Official News Outlet Reviews Schiller Institute’s ‘Operation Phoenix’ for Syria Reconstruction
Sept. 5, 2019 (EIRNS)—On Sept. 3, the Syria Times published a review of the 2016 Schiller Institute video “Operation Phoenix and the Rebuilding of Aleppo,” first shown during a Schiller Institute conference in Berlin in June 25-26, 2016, under the title “Creating a Common Future for Mankind, and a Renaissance of Classical Culture.” The author, Haifaa Mafalani, contacted EIR editor Hussein Askary, who has written extensively on Southwest Asia and Africa, a week before the review was published in order to obtain all EIR’s information on Operation Phoenix. The review, while mistakenly identifying EIR and the Schiller Institute as Swedish organizations, nonetheless captures the spirit behind Operation Phoenix and the necessity for the reconstruction of Aleppo, Syria for all mankind.
The review states that in November 2015,
“a delegation of the Schiller Institute and the Syrian-Swedish Committee for Democracy travelled to Damascus to bring humanitarian aid to the war-torn country, but more importantly, to present to the highest levels of the Syrian government the Schiller Institute’s Project Phoenix for the Reconstruction of Syria. A year earlier, the same delegation was approached by Syrian officials on the Schiller Institute’s views on this subject.”
It also cites the EIR 370-page special report “The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge” as an intervention into conditions created by both the Russian military intervention in Syria beginning in 2015 and the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. “This report presents a realistic and urgently-needed vision of history’s greatest peace and development project, connecting continents and nations through trade and development corridors,” the reviewer writes.
After describing the various component parts of the Land-Bridge, the review concludes:
“Not only Aleppo but all of Syria, with its people, culture and artifacts, represent a unique and living testimony to the co-existence and continuity of the different human civilizations. It is imperative on the world to defend and preserve it, and make it, when peace is established, the world capital for the dialogue of civilizations!”
The Syria Times is an official publication affiliated with the Syrian Ministry of Education. It describes itself as intending to become “a space for ‘continuous dialogue between media, government, citizens, civil society, expatriates and internationals in Syria.’ ”
The review is posted to Syria Times website on Sept. 3.
