Larry Johnson: Not an Islamic NATO; The Mecca Agreement Is Building the Post-American Security Architecture — and Iran Is About to Walk In
by Larry Johnson(opens in new tab) [8-24-2026] Larry C. Johnson(bio)(opens in new tab). The Western commentariat filed the Mecca agreement under a comfortable heading. When Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan signed the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement on August 7 – an armed attack on one to be treated as an attack on all – the…
Pepe Escobar, Larry Johnson, Zulfiqar Ali: EXCLUSIVE- Hormuz Deal in 24 Hours? Iran–US Deal; Sequencing Agreed; SANCTIONS LIFTED
by Transition Protocol(opens in new tab) [8-26-2026] Larry C. Johnson(bio)(opens in new tab), Pepe Escobar(bio)(opens in new tab). A source described by Zulfiqar Ali as the person drafting a Pakistani announcement says Iran and the United States have agreed on a contemporaneous first step: a controlled reopening of the Strait of Hormuz alongside U.S. sanctions…
Larry Johnson: Sanctioning the Dollar Iran Already Left; Why Bessent’s “Economic D-Day” Is Toothless
by Larry Johnson(opens in new tab) [8-24-2026] Larry C. Johnson(bio)(opens in new tab). There was one sentence in Scott Bessent’s Monday sanctions announcement that gave the whole game away. Anyone who launders money for the Iranian regime, the Treasury Secretary warned, “will be removed from the US dollar system.” He meant it as a threat…
Pepe Escobar: Exclusive- can Trump get an exit without calling it an exit?
by Pepe Escobar(opens in new tab) [8-26-2026] Pepe Escobar(bio)(opens in new tab). Realpolitik? A serious misunderstanding? Or an exit without calling it an exit? This is what’s really happening inside the room – actually rooms: deeply privileged, confidential information coming from both centers of gravity in the current drama, Tehran and Islamabad, point towards an emerging…
Larry Johnson: The $25 Trillion Misunderstanding – What CIPS Actually Moves, and Why “2% of SWIFT” Misleads Washington
by Larry Johnson(opens in new tab) [8-25-2026] Larry C. Johnson(bio(opens in new tab)). Mario Nawfal, based on our discussion today, inspired me to write this article. In the companion to this essay(opens in new tab), I argued that Scott Bessent’s latest sanctions on Iran are toothless because Iran’s oil trade has walked out of the dollar…
Vijay Prashad, Zulfiqar Ali: Iran Has Green-Lit 90% Enrichment; China, Russia Held Emergency Talks in 48 hour of Bessent’s Threat
by Transition Protocol(opens in new tab) [8-25-2026, recorded 8-23-2026].
Pepe Escobar, Zulfiqar Ali: BREAKING- MUNIR GETS IRAN’S GREEN LIGHT; HE Met the Man Who Threatened to Shut Off Gulf Oil
by Transition Protocol(opens in new tab) [8-25-2026] Pepe Escobar(bio)(opens in new tab). Iran has told Washington that if the United States succeeds in economically suffocating it, not a drop of oil will leave the Gulf – not from Saudi Arabia, not the UAE, not Qatar, not anywhere. That message was carried out of Tehran this…
Sabrina Salvati, Zulfiqar Ali: Iran Just Crossed the NUCLEAR Threshold; Trump Secretly BEGS Pakistan to Broker PEACE With Iran
by Transition Protocol(opens in new tab) [8-25-2026]. Trump’s Treasury Secretary promised the harshest sanctions Iran has ever faced – and the announcement landed like a mouse fart. In this episode, host Zulfiqar Ali and returning contributor Sabrina Salvati break down what Scott Bessent’s sanctions rollout actually means, why Pakistan’s finance minister is telling Washington to…
Larry Johnson, Zulfiqar Ali: Bessent’s “Biggest Sanctions” FAILS; Iran Moves Toward Mecca Pact as Trump Begs Pak for an Off-Ramp
by Transition Protocol(opens in new tab) [8-24-2026] Larry C. Johnson(bio)(opens in new tab). Iran has been formally invited to join the Mecca Agreement – the trilateral defense pact between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey – with enthusiastic engagement already underway between Islamabad and Tehran, according to sources detailed in this episode. The same day, Treasury…
Pravin Sawhney, Zulfiqar Ali: Iran Answered BESSENT Before He Spoke; SANCTION US and You Are an Enemy; China, Russia Told Bessent NO
by Transition Protocol(opens in new tab) [8-24-2026]. Iran’s Supreme National Security Council secretary went on state television on 22 August and said that any country joining the American economic war will be treated as an enemy, and that Iran will strike its interests. Two days later, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announces what he has called…
How China destroyed US sanctions against Iran, Russia, and North Korea
by Inside China Business(opens in new tab) [8-22-2026]. Iran has been the target of economic sanctions for decades. North Korea and Russia are also under heavy sanction, and locked out of most of the USD and SWIFT financial networks. But China has developed comprehensive alternate platforms, and massive volumes of global trade are now conducted…
Pepe Escobar, Zulfiqar Ali:Maximum Pressure Just BACKFIRED in Bessent’s Face; Iran Secretly Invited Into the MECC PACT
by Transition Protocol(opens in new tab) [8-23-2026] Pepe Escobar(bio)(opens in new tab). Ten minutes before we went to air, sources inside the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader told us that Speaker Ghalibaf was discussing Pakistan’s invitation for Iran to become the fourth member of the Mecca Pact – hours before Field Marshal Asim Munir landed…