Author: Steven Sahiounie

“We do not see today any concrete preparations for the potential use of nuclear weapons,” William Burns said The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States sees no signs of Russia’s preparations to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, CIA Director William Burns has told the Aspen Security Forum. “We do not see today any concrete preparations for the potential use of nuclear weapons,” he said, adding that “the nuclear saber rattling <…> is reckless and deeply irresponsible.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in late September 2022 that all situations where Russia may potentially use nuclear weapons had been…

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Riyad Al-Malki, called on today on Australia to recognize the State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital. During a meeting with the visiting Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives, Milton Dick, at the Foreign Ministry’s headquarters in Ramallah, Al-Maliki discussed the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory in light of the ongoing attacks and human rights abuses against our people by the right-wing Israeli government and its racist members, including Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir. He emphasized that the absence of international accountability for Israel’s violations and crimes encourages it to…

Maria Zakharova stressed that the West is using the EU-SEAC summit “not to discuss ways out of the Ukrainian crisis, but to impose a Western point of view and force Latin America to subscribe to it” Those who hope to sow discord between Russia and Latin American countries can not and will not be able to do so, as relations between the countries are only getting stronger, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Thursday. Commenting on the summit between the EU and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in Brussels, the spokeswoman…

Maria Zakharova described plans to build the factory as the latest Western “provocation” Plans for the construction of a tank factory in Ukraine by German defense giant Rheinmetall would constitute a “global provocation,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said. “Such a plant, if it is built, will be a legitimate target for the Russian forces on par with any other object of the Ukrainian defense industry,” she said during a briefing on Thursday. Zakharova referred to the project while discussing Kiev’s mistreatment of the ethnic Hungarian minority in Ukraine. The plant would reportedly be located close to a predominantly Hungarian settlement…

Iraq fulfills its vows and cuts ties with Sweden over its approval of yet another Quran burning despite warnings regarding the issue. The Iraqi government on Thursday expelled Sweden’s ambassador to the country and severed its ties with Stockholm in response to the repeated Quran burnings in Sweden, which were permitted by the Swedish government. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia Al-Sudani directed the Iraqi foreign ministry to summon the Iraqi Charge d’Affaires in Stockholm over the Swedish violations. Moreover, the head of the media association in Iraq suspended the license of Swedish telecom company Ericsson on Iraqi soil following the…

The decree introduced restrictions on imports and exports of specific goods and raw materials according to a government-approved list Russian President Vladimir Putin extended the effective term of his previous presidential decree restricting imports and exports of specific products and raw materials in response to Western sanctions until the end of 2025. The new document was posted on the Russian government’s official website for legal information. The previous version of the decree on the use of special economic measures in foreign trade took effect on December 31, 2023 and has now been extended until December 31, 2025. The decree introduced…

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates called today on the international community to immediately intervene to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression against our people, their land, property and sanctities, and to provide international protection for the Palestinian people. In a press statement, the Foreign Ministry condemned the storming of the city of Nablus last night by the occupation forces and illegal settlers, which resulted in the murder of 19-year-old Badr al-Masri, and the injury of many others. It also condemned settler incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque and the religious, archaeological and historical sites in the West Bank, as well as…

Speaking about the meeting of the EU Council at the ministerial level, Peter Szijjarto said: “To sum up briefly what has been said in recent hours, I can tell you that they don’t really want to talk about peace” The EU leadership’s proposal to allocate 20 billion euros in military assistance to Ukraine over four years will prolong hostilities in the country for years to come. Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations of Hungary, Peter Szijjarto voiced this opinion on Thursday. He was taking part in a meeting with his colleagues from the EU countries in Brussels. Szijjarto…

A Palestinian youth was Thursday killed, while three others injured and dozens suffocated, during confrontations that broke out with Israeli forces in the eastern area of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus after Israeli forces raided area of Joseph’s Tomb shrine. WAFA correspondent said that large forces of the occupation army stormed the eastern area in order to secure the settlers’ storming of Joseph’s Tomb shrine, and also closed Amman Street with dirt mounds. The Ministry of Health confirmed Bader al-Masri, 19, succumbed to his wounds, while three others were injured with live bullets. Two of the casualties were described as…

Sanctions were introduced for the first time on August 1, 2014 and have been renewed every six months since then based on claims that there has been no progress on the Minsk Agreement agreements The EU Council has issued a six-month extension on all economic sanctions against Russia until the end of January 2024, the Council said in its statement. “Today, the Council decided to prolong by six months, until January 31, 2024, the restrictive measures targeting specific sectors of the economy of the Russian Federation,” the EU Council said. The sanctions “currently consist of a broad spectrum of sectoral…