That the West can't be trusted is the most important lesson Syria has learned during five years of civil war, Bashar Assad, Syrian president, said in an exclusive interview with Sputnik.

"The most important lesson we have learned, but I suppose we knew it all along, is that the West is not honest. Western countries are dishonest," Assad stressed.

The US, EU and their allies "are pursuing a policy far removed from the principles of international law and the United Nations" and because of that "it is impossible to rely upon the West to solve any issue," he said.

"We live in a world where there is no international law or morality in politics at present. Anything can happen anywhere on our planet," the Syrian president added.

Five EU countries remain firmly against Ukraine ever joining the union, French diplomat Pierre Vimont, who has helped negotiate the Ukraine - EU Association Agreement, told a Dutch publication ahead of next week's advisory referendum on the deal in the Netherlands.

Germany, France, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands all rejected the idea of Ukraine's potential EU membership during the five-year negotiation period in 2008-2012, Vimont told Volkskrant. Even after the 2014 Euro-Maidan revolution, the group of EU states refused to consider the matter of including a clause in the Association Agreement that would outline a roadmap for Ukraine's potential ascension into the Union - despite efforts by Britain, Sweden, Poland and the Baltic states to pave the road for Kiev. The EU states "consistently refused... to make any pledges about the future," Vimont explained.

An anonymous Lithuanian diplomat confirmed the fracture within the EU, telling the publication that countries which thought of including a clause in the treaty on membership went too far while France and the Netherlands "just kept saying 'no perspective, no perspective.'" Vimont said that France and the Netherlands are skeptical about Ukraine's prospects within the EU as both countries are "fed up with expansion," noting that both states also rejected the EU constitution in referendums in 2005.

The forgotten child of Western interventionism, Libya continues to battle its demons: terror, instability, mass migration, which NATO ever-so willingly unleashed onto the war-torn nation under the convenient label of "humanitarian interventionism."

If Libya stands today free of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's regime, and the violent nepotism his rule asserted as the predominant socio-political matrix, the North African nation is not exactly home free either. And while there is no denying that Gaddafi had to go ... if anything, because his people wished it so, Western interventionism literally exploded Libya's chance at a unified transition of power.

Should Libya been allowed to handle its own affairs, should Libyans been allowed to practice their free political will, it is likely the country would not have fallen prey to terror - it is likely war would not have broken out between tribal factions, and it is likely radical militants would never have had the opportunity to open a new front of terror in Africa - right at Europe's doorstep.

In true neocon fashion, NATO preferred to destroy first, bomb now, and then blame someone else later...in most cases - Russia. Funny though how strikingly different Western interventionism has been from Russia's careful, and lawful collaboration with its foreign partners: i.e. Syria. Wherever Western powers have dropped bombs, chaos, death and more radicalism have ensued - whenever Russia has stepped in however radicals have retreated, and IDPs* returned home. [*Internally Displaced Persons]

Are you still under the impression that Western capitals know best? Clearly they don't. Clearly their agenda lies not in the promotion of stability, but rather absolute chaos. Because it would be foolish to think that their actions are only the products of stupid politicking.

Attack Repelled; Casualties Include 12-Year-Old Artsakh Boy

Azerbaijan launched a full-blown attack on multiple positions on the Nagorno-Karabagh (Artsakh, NKR) contact line overnight on April 1-2. The Azerbaijani army employed tanks, military helicopters, drones, and various caliber weapons in an assault targeting the Line of Contact on the southern, southeastern, and northeastern fronts. The NKR Defense Army retaliated, and, according to the NKR Defense Ministry Twitter page, brought down two helicopters and two drones, and destroyed three tanks. There are multiple casualties on both sides. Civilians have also been targeted. According to reports, 12-year-old Vaghinag Grigoryan was killed in the Marduni region, while two other children were wounded, from a Grad BM-21 multiple rocket launcher attack.

During an emergency meeting of Armenia's National Security Council held on the evening of April 2, Armenia's President Serge Sarkisian announced that as a result of the attacks, the Armenian side suffered 18 casualties, while 35 people were injured. Azerbaijan's losses—including air force, personnel, and armored vehicles—were "significant," he added, according to PanArmenian. Azerbaijan has reported 12 combatant casualties, although the NKR Defense Ministry says the Azerbaijani side has 200 losses.

Armenia and Azerbaijan report hostilities are continuing in the Nagorny-Karabakh despite Baku's announcement of a unilateral ceasefire. People are reportedly being evacuated from the conflict zone.


The fighting is ongoing on the frontline in Nagorny-Karabakh, Armenia's Defence Ministry said, as cited by TASS.

Martakert region head, Vladik Khachataryan, said shelling is continuously ongoing from the eastern side. Several shells apparently fired by Azeri forces hit Martakert town center. In the last 24 hours, the town has reportedly been hit by 25 shells.

Open Letter to President Erdogan

H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
President of the Republic of Turkey
T.C. Cumhurbaşkanlığı Genel Sekreterliği
06689 Çankaya, Ankara
Turkey

Dear President Erdogan,

Welcome to Washington. Your visit comes at a critical moment in U.S.-Turkish relations.

Within the past decade, many of Turkey's friends here were optimistic about your country's potential to become a vibrant and stable democracy as well as an increasingly strong and capable U.S. ally. The salutary role Turkey can play, regionally and globally, has been demonstrated by the hospitality your country has extended to millions of refugees. Recent developments in Turkey, however, are deeply troubling. Today we would like to air the concerns of Turkey's many friends in the United States.


Over the past year, more than a thousand people have been charged with the crime of insulting you. Hundreds of academics have been investigated or faced disciplinary proceedings for questioning your government's anti-terror policies. Last year, the offices of Hurriyet, an independent paper, were attacked and set on fire by a mob led by a member of your former Justice and Development Party (AKP), a well-known columnist was attacked by thugs outside his home, and two editors of Cumhuriyet were arrested. More recently, your government has orchestrated the takeover of the popular daily Zaman. Why shouldn't people in the European Union and the United States be concerned about the prospects for a free media in Turkey?

Daesh was once described as the richest terrorist group in the world, but apparently these days are long since over. The caliphate's finances have crumbled thanks to the Russian and US-led multinational coalitions destroying the bulk of the group's oil infrastructure, the global slide in oil prices and territorial losses in Iraq and Syria.

The self-proclaimed Islamic caliphate, unlike other terrorist groups, generates its income locally. The militants mostly make money from taxes, extortion, kidnappings, oil smuggling and private donations. These sources have recently been affected, with Daesh losing territories, fighters, civilians, hard cash, oil fields and smuggling routes.Although many have warned against predicting Daesh's swift financial demise, more reports have emerged pointing to the group's major financial troubles. This might be indirect evidence, but it is nevertheless telling.

While senior Daesh commanders are said to have clashed over allegations of corruption, mismanagement and theft, some fighters have not been paid at all, the Washington Post reported, citing US counterterrorism officials.

In San Diego a veteran just attempted to take his own life inside the VA hospital because his mental health appointments had been repeatedly canceled on him with only a day's notice over the last several years dating back to 2013. Less than two weeks ago in New Jersey after walking nine miles from his home another 51-year old Navy veteran of the first Gulf War set himself on fire in protest directly in front of his New Jersey Veterans Affairs clinic to make his dramatic point that the US fails miserably in taking care of those who sacrifice their lives for their nation's wars. Veterans across the country are making dramatic statements willing to end their life due to their sheer frustration dealing with the largest and thoroughly broken health care system in the United States.

Having one Veterans Affairs Secretary two years ago resign replaced by another - both West Point graduates - still isn't getting the job done. Current Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald, no sooner appointed and on the job out in LA with television cameras rolling talking it up with homeless veterans, he lied claiming he served in the Special Forces. Funny how cadets get through four years at the academy never lying, cheating or stealing, but once they graduate their honor code goes right out the window... like Petraeus who graduated a year behind me lying to the FBI telling them he never violated top secret clearance as CIA director when he'd given his mistress binders chock full of classified material. McDonald graduated two years behind me.

Nearly two years ago the Phoenix Veterans Medical Center came under immediate fire when it was discovered that nearly 40 veterans had died while on a phantom waiting list among 1700 other veterans yet to be electronically scheduled much less ever seen by actual medical staff. A hospital whistleblower contacted the local press to trigger the biggest veterans scandal in history resulting in mounting pressures to fix the grossly incompetent and corrupted system entrusted to care for the medical needs of men and women who served our nation honorably and earned the right to be taken care of by the country they all were willing to die for. Now two years later they are still dying still apparently waiting for medical treatment on still forgotten waiting lists. But today some are choosing to die by choice making their bold yet desperate final statement just to show America that the promises to correct the corrosive system caught not caring for them a couple years ago still doesn't care. This latest incident is the second high profile suicidal act in as many weeks dramatically taking place on VA grounds.

Biggest ever leak of records passed on to Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) with the Guardian and the BBC; over 370 reporters spent a year verifying the documents.

370 reporters from 100 media organisations have spent a year analysing and verifying the documents.

The hidden wealth of some of the world's most prominent leaders, politicians and celebrities is to be revealed imminently by the leak of millions of documents showing the way the rich exploit secretive offshore tax regimes like Panama's.

The Guardian, one of several newspapers working with global partners, said journalists from more than 80 countries have been reviewing 11.5 million files leaked from the database of Mossack Fonseca, the world's fourth biggest offshore law firm.

The leak is one of the biggest ever - larger than the US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks in 2010, and the secret intelligence documents given to journalists by Edward Snowden in 2013.

A Maltese connection will surely surface with energy minister Konrad Mizzi having been outed as having used a Panamanian shell company, Hearnville, to hide his beneficial ownership; the company is owned by the trustees of his New Zealand trust.

The US has deployed 12 F-15C Eagles and around 350 airmen in Europe as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve (OAR), the Pentagon's demonstration of force designed to deter what the US calls Russian aggression against Europe.

The aircraft and troops were sent from the Barnes Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts and the Fresno Air National Guard Base in California for a six-month tour to Iceland's Keflavik and the Dutch Leeuwarden Air Base.

The American fighters "will conduct training alongside NATO allies and partners as part of OAR to strengthen interoperability, demonstrate US commitment to a Europe that is whole, free, at peace, secure, and prosperous and to deter further Russian aggression," the USAF said in a statement.