This article appears in the April 10, 2026 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
EIR’s April 6 Emergency Roundtable Lights a Pathway Out of Catastrophe
April 6—Today’s EIR Emergency Roundtable, the third since January, saw an extraordinary online dialogue among 13 international experts from 10 countries, dedicated to shifting the world off its current course of war, and onto the plane of global development and peace. The title of the event, convened on very short notice, was, “A Dialogue of Civilizations: Is There Still Time to Prevent the War Against Iran from Escalating into a Global Nuclear Conflict?”
The event was an urgent and dramatic call to action, occurring as the United States is unleashing hell on Iran and President Donald Trump is threatening to bomb them “back to the Stone Age.” As was made crystal clear during the proceedings, this has the very real potential of triggering a nuclear exchange, which could quickly lead to a global nuclear war. In addition, the event brought together representatives of the Iranian government to dialogue with forces from around the world who are intent on stopping this trajectory.
The 4.5 hour-long event was organized into two panels, with the first titled, “Can the Iran War Be Stopped Before Nuclear Escalation?” followed by, “Global Infrastructure Developments Is the New Name for Peace.” There was simultaneous interpretation available in English, French, German, and Spanish.
From Europe was Helga Zepp-LaRouche (Germany), EIR Editor-in-Chief and founder of the Schiller Institute, who opened the discussion. Moderator Dennis Speed opened Panel I by pointing out that the panelists came together in fewer than 10 days, and represent views, “not just diverse, even divergent, but opposed.” However, they share a common commitment to wanting emergency action to stop warfare—potentially nuclear warfare—and believe reason and diplomacy, even at this late moment, can work, and create conditions for peace and benefit for all nations.
The full video of Panel I is available here. The weekly EIR, and , will be providing selected video excerpts and transcripts in the coming days. Follow-up action was discussed.
Asia Led the Roster
There were six speakers from Asia, beginning with Dr. Khalil Shirgholami (Iran), Iran’s Ambassador to Armenia and former Director General of the Institute for Political International Studies in Tehran. The others included Prof. Zhang Weiwei (China), Professor of International Relations at Fudan University in Shanghai and Director of its China Institute; Ambassador Prof. Dr. Manuel Hassassian (Palestine), Palestine Authority; Purnima Anand (India), President of the BRICS International Forum; Chandra Muzaffar (Malaysia), founder and President of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST); and Mohamed Awadh Ali Al Mashikhi (Oman), former Dean of Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman.
From North America: Chas W. Freeman, Jr. (United States), former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and former Assistant Secretary of Defense; Dr. Theodore Postol (United States) professor emeritus of Science, Technology, and International Security at MIT; Dennis Small (United States) EIR Ibero-America Editor. From South America: Donald Ramotar (Guyana) former President of Guyana.
Oasis Plan
Several speakers focused on the Oasis Plan approach to Southwest Asia and the eastern Mediterranean, which Helga Zepp-LaRouche first introduced in her opening remarks as central to the solution: peace through development. She reported in detail on crisscrossing the region from India to Egypt, from the Caucasus to the Arabian Sea, highlighting corridors of rail and road development, designs for water desalination and conveyance, and advanced technologies of all kinds.
Amb. Hassassian called the Oasis Plan the key to “incentivizing development and dialogue” in Palestine and the region. Prof. Zhang noted that China had succeeded in “turning its deserts green” and could help build the Oasis Plan in Southwest Asia. Zepp-LaRouche added that the concept must be made known to the youth to inspire optimism. Amb. Freeman compared the Oasis Plan to the phoenix, which emerges from the ashes of its predecessors, suggesting the Oasis Plan could emerge from the ruins of the destruction of Gaza.
The hopeful reality of advanced technology was reinforced as beautiful imagery from the Artemis II spacecraft, mid-way on its mission to circle the Moon, was shown to Roundtable attendees.
Backlash to U.S.-Israel Warfare
The other major point of discussion was the fact that the era of Pax Americana and the authority of the Transatlantic oligarchy in world affairs are now over. Several speakers noted the backlash to President Donald Trump’s war on Iran. Amb. Freeman said the war has driven certain nations to make peace with Iran rather than join an illegal and unjust war alongside the United States. He added that the United States had killed the anti-nuclear weapon leaders of Iran, who were replaced by pro-nuclear weapon “realists.” Prof. Postol in particular emphasized the acute danger of nuclear war today.
The U.S.-Israeli warfare has elicited the first calls in Europe for the removal of U.S. forces. Prof. Zhang said simply that the war had driven the collapse of the unipolar U.S.-led world order and escalated the de-dollarization process.
The Way Ahead
Common to all discussants was the notion that Washington has gone “morally insane,” as Prof. Postol stated, and from there came various proposals and initiatives. Chandra Muzaffar urged people around the world to contact the U.S. Congress and other institutions, and call on them to utilize their leadership roles to stop the warfare and launch win-win development, particularly in longstanding cases of injustice like Palestine.
Ms. Anand of India spoke of mobilizing the BRICS nations “to showcase their unity” on stopping the warfare, and to “not leave Iran to die.” EIR’s Dennis Small, who outlined the economic dimension of the collapse of the Collective West, advocated for a new international security and development architecture to replace the current military-industrial-financial complex which is part and parcel of the current war.
Zepp-LaRouche, after discussing many initiatives concretely, returned to the question of personal responsibility. There are two choices, he said. Either one becomes “small” by denial, indifference, preoccupation with what you know to be lesser matters, and so on; OR, you “reach into yourself for something better. You connect your activity and destiny to the larger issue of humanity.”
