Author: Mideast discourse

Earlier in the day, media reported that two Israeli drones crashed near Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut overnight, while one of them exploded in the air. The blast reportedly caused significant damage to the Hezbollah press service’s building and left three people injured. According to other reports, one of the drones was shot down by the Hezbollah movement, while the other one was seized. Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, said on Sunday that the Israeli drone attack is the first dangerous incident and breach of rules between the two countries since August 2006. He went on to say that one…

A digital currency backed by a group of nations is needed to compete with the US dollar, which has reached a level of dominance that poses a barrier to economic growth in much of the world, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said in a speech to fellow central bankers on Friday. “If the share of trade invoiced in SHC [Synthetic Hegemonic Currency] were to rise, shocks in the US would have less potent spillovers through exchange rates, and trade would become less synchronized across countries,” Carney said. In addition, reducing the influence of the US dollar on the global…

Jihadist dress code used by CNN Steven Sahiounie, Middle East observer Senior international correspondents for CNN, Arwa Damon, and Clarissa Ward have both been inside the territory in Syria under the occupation of terrorists, such as Al Qaeda following Radical Islam, which is a political ideology and is not a religion or sect. Damon and Ward dress-up for their part in the drama, and choose to wear headscarves and clothing which are the fashion statement of Radical Islam. Dressing up like the terrorists are not required, and can only mean they do this costuming to move the audience of CNN…

The Syrian army has regained control over the city of Khan Sheikhoun, located in Idlib province in the northwest of the country, and is currently conducting mine clearance and security sweep operations there. Exclusive footage obtained by a Sputnik correspondent shows the situation in Khan Sheikhoun in Syria’s Idlib province after the Syrian army regained control over the town. The government forces have occupied key positions around the town and cut off the supply lines of militants from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist group, formerly known as the Nusra Front* and banned in Russia. The video shows the extent of destruction…

By Andrew Korybko There have been wild reports over the past few weeks about Russia’s activities in the Iranian port of Chabahar, with some sources even alleging that Moscow plans to open up a naval base there. An interesting sequence of events has recently taken place that makes many wonder what Russia’s up to in the Iranian port of Chabahar. It’s widely known that Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, and India are cooperating on the North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC) project to integrate each of their economies more closely together, with Chabahar being this initiative’s terminal port in connecting India to the other three…

By Mark Taliano When we play their game, we will always lose, and they will always win. “They” are the largely unelected “Permanent State”, sometimes called the “Deep State”. “They” are the publicly bailed-out transnational, corporate monopolies and their political fronts that destroy domestic and foreign economies with their supranational “trade” agreements, their parasitical “neoliberal”, publicly bailed-out “privatization” schemes, their permanent warmaking, and their terrorism. A large part of their game is indoctrination. They are experts at war propaganda. They can make broad-based domestic audiences believe almost anything. And they are doing it now. They have largely succeeded in fabricating Canadian…

Steven Sahiounie, Middle East observer It has been six years since Manar Nakour’s brother died August 17, 2013, in Marmarita, Syria. The hurt, loss, and shock came flooding back when he saw the National Geographic Documentary Films’ Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS, by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker and best-selling author Sebastian Junger and his Emmy-winning producing partner, Nick Quested. Manar was shocked to see his brother’s name, Amin Nakrour, and photo used in the film, prominently and emotionally used under the title “In Memoriam MAYA BARSHINI AMIN NAKROUR ATALLA ABBOUD IBRAHIM SAADI Killed by…

Yury Veselov, military observer, It was expected that the Levant Liberation Committee (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly known as Habhat al-Nusra, a Muslim terrorist organization banned in Russia) together with other Islamic extremist groups began on a counteroffensive operation in the south of the “Idlib de-escalation zone” in the early hours of August 13. A deception operation also began in the northwest of the province. The Syrian Air Forces and the Russian Aerospace Forces drastically augmented mass strikes on terrorists’ troops and facilities along the separation line and deep in the territory of the Idlib, Hama, Aleppo and Latakia provinces. Simultaneously,…

Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, who currently leads Sudan’s Transitional Military Council (TMC), will head the Sovereign Council, a transitional national administration, for the first 21 months after its creation, the TMC said on Saturday. “Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan will be the head of the Sovereign Council during the first period of its work. It [the council] will also include his deputy, Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo”, a TMC spokesman told the Sky News Arabia TV channel. Meanwhile, Burhan said on Saturday, after signing the power-sharing deal with the opposition, that Sudan is entering a new, constructive, period in its development. “I stand before you…

Steven Sahiounie, Middle East observer There are two separate war zones inside Syria today. One battlefield is the north-west province of Idlib and is occupied by the Al Qaeda branch in Syria. The north-east corner of Syria is occupied by a mercenary militia, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who is on hire by the U.S. Pentagon, and was originally founded to combat ISIS in Reqaa. Idlib is under the occupation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and the Russian military are battling the terrorists in ground and air operations. The current military operation is the biggest escalation…