Author: Mideast discourse

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Moscow does not consider the decision to leave Kherson humiliating. “No, no,” Peskov said, answering a relevant question. The Kherson region is a subject of Russia, and its status cannot be changed, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “This is a subject of Russia. [The status of] this subject is legislatively fixed, defined. There are no and can be no changes,” Peskov said, when asked whether Russia continued to consider the entire Kherson region as its own territory and whether it would legally define the status of the region’s right-bank part. The Russian…

Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine in February in response to calls by the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics for protection against Ukrainian troops. Moscow launched strikes using precision-guided weapons against Ukraine two days after the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge which, Russia believes, was carried out by the Ukrainian special services. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin told the Russian Security Council on 10 October that the country had launched retaliatory strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure, in response to the crimes committed by Kiev against Russian civilian infrastructure. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on 1 November that about 40…

The ex-president previously blasted Florida Governor Ron DeSantis while hinting at another bid for the White House Former US President Donald Trump has taken aim at yet another potential challenger should he decide to run for the Oval Office again in 2024, this time targeting Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, suggesting his name “sounds Chinese,” while taking credit for his gubernatorial win last year. In a post to his Truth Social account on Friday, Trump highlighted his endorsement of Youngkin in Virginia’s 2021 governor’s race, insisting the Republican could not have won without his help. The former commander in chief also mocked Youngkin’s name, which…

The US and the West as a whole are attacking Russia “almost without limits,” prompting a natural defensive reaction, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday, while returning from a summit of Turkic nations in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Noting that Russia is not an “ordinary,” but “powerful,” state, Erdogan commended its “great resistance” against the hostile actions of the collective West. “The West, and especially the US, is attacking Russia almost without limits. Of course, Russia is showing great resistance in the face of all this,” he said. Türkiye is set to continue its efforts to mediate between Russia and Ukraine amid the conflict, Erdogan signaled, recalling a recent…

Lebanon’s House Speaker Nabih Berri said Monday that Lebanon can no longer bear the consequences of leaving the presidency vacant for long periods, the National News Agency reported. “Lebanon cannot bear longer periods of presidential vacancy, and the Lebanese cannot endure further deterioration,” Berri said during his meeting with a delegation from the Lebanese Press Syndicate. “The accumulation of crises which drove 80 percent of the Lebanese people under the poverty line, and the necessity to have a dialogue with the International Monetary Fund should all lead to accelerating the election of a new president for the republic,” Berri said.…

Following his appointment as commander of all Russian forces in Ukraine last month, General Sergei Surovikin stated that the situation in the zone of Russia’s special military operation is tense, as Ukrainian forces keep making attempts to attack Russian positions. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has agreed to the suggestion of Sergei Surovikin, the Russian Army general appointed commander of all Russian forces in Ukraine, to withdraw troops from parts of Russia’s Kherson region to the left bank of the Dnepr River. The decision was made as Surovikin delivered a report to Shoigu on the course of the special military…

Israeli regime forces killed a 29-year-old Palestinian man, identified as Rafat Ali Ayyaseh, during a military raid in the northern West Bank city of Jenin on Wednesday, according to local reports. Citing the Palestinian health ministry, media reports said the young Palestinian man was killed after the heavily-armed regime soldiers opened fire at him near the apartheid barrier west of Jenin. A report in WAFA news agency quoted the head of the Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance service as saying that Ayyaseh, who belonged to Sanur village south of Jenin, was shot in the leg by Israeli regime soldiers near the barrier that…

A convoy of tankers carrying fuel from Iran to Lebanon has come under attack on the Iraqi-Syrian border, according to Iranian and Iraqi media reports. The reports said the attack occurred early on Wednesday, when 22 tankers were carrying diesel fuel from Iran to Lebanon through Syria. An IRIB correspondent said an “Israeili drone” targeted two of the tankers in the incident, after eight tankers passed from Iraq’s al-Qa’im border crossing into Syria. There have been conflicting reports about the attack and the casualties caused. Iranian authorities have not yet commented on the reports. Iraqi sources said earlier that at…

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator According to MiddleEastMonitor, a leading Israeli newspaper said that Israel “is now closing in on a right-wing, religious and authoritarian revolution” aimed at destroying democracy. The recent Israeli elections have brought Benyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party back to power, but with the ultra-right wing religious party led by Itamar Ben-Gvir as an allied partner. Israel defines itself as a Jewish and democratic state. It has democratic institutions, such as elections to the Knesset, but has been officially labeled by the UN and human rights organizations as an apartheid state. Zionism is Israel’s national ideology. Zionists…

“We believe that the Chinese and American people have the wisdom, the opportunity and capability to find a way for peaceful coexistence. But China will not allow others to bully it and the historic process of China’s national rejuvenation cannot be held back by anyone or any force,” said Sun Yeli, a Communist Party spokesman in Beijing on October 15. The US has been committed to providing Taiwan with the means of defending itself, although it does not officially recognize the island as a country, while the US maintains diplomatic relations with Beijing. With increased US rhetoric, including high level…