The ongoing fighting has largely escaped attention from western media up until recently, but the scale of devastation is staggering and cannot continue to be ignored.

In the current round of nuclear talks with Iran, the international community must not be guided by dreams but by reality. Too often, the world has been deceived by the regime in Tehran. The sanctions have to be kept in place.

The EU somehow managed to cover up its failure in Libya and Mali, but the disaster of its Syria policy cannot be squashed as easily. The time has come for the member states to ask themselves how far they want to go in terms of a common foreign and security policy.

Guest Contributor: Robert Halfon MP 27th August 2013 There are always three and half arguments against intervention: first, that it is outside the framework of international law; second, that Realpolitik should be the order of the day; and third, ‘What ...