Ishaan Tharoor and Julia Smirnova – The West dismissed Russian offer to help remove Assad in 2012, says top diplomat

Finnish diplomat and Nobel laureate Martti Ahtisaari suggested that there was a moment early on during Syria’s hideous war when a political solution could have been thrashed out. Ahtisaari claims that in February 2012, when the conflict had claimed under 10,000 lives, Russia’s envoy to the United Nations outlined a peace plan that could have led to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s …

Pepe Escobar – “Bomb Iran” plan simply won’t go away

Even before the upcoming August recess on Capitol Hill, the dogs of war, unleashed by remote control from Tel Aviv, predictably are trying to tear the Iran-P5+1 nuclear deal to shreds from all sides. It does not matter that the National Iranian American Council – which happens to be widely respected in Washington itself – has forcefully come out in defense …