Author: Steven Sahiounie

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani reiterates that Western sanctions against Tehran are illegal, describing their position as unacceptable and non-constructive. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani blamed Germany, France, and the United Kingdom for breaking vows they made under the 2015 nuclear deal, which has been unraveling ever since President Donald Trump decided to pull out of the accord and sanction Iran in 2018. “The US government quit the international agreement illegally and European governments refrained from delivering on the commitments they made under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and to make up for US absence. We are convinced that…

Erdogan makes a series of comments to reporters on Sweden, F-16 jets, and the grain deal as he headed to the NATO summit in Lithuania. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sweden’s accession to NATO is contingent on Turkey’s accession to the European Union. “We want all the promises made to us to be implemented… Turkey has been made to wait for 50 years at the door of the EU. I say to these countries that keep us waiting, I will say this in Vilnius: first, open the doors for Turkey to the EU, then we will open the way…

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi congratulated his Uzbek counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev on election victory, hoping for the expansion of relations between Tehran and Tashkent in accordance with an already-formulated road map. In a message on Monday, the Iranian president congratulated Mirziyoyev on his re-election as the president of Uzbekistan. Highlighting the determination of the two countries’ officials to promote relations, Raisi expressed hope that during the Uzbek president’s new term, the two countries would enhance ties according to the road map to cooperation and the previous agreements. He also expressed hope that the bilateral relations would serve the mutual interests and…

Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, said that Russia and Gulf Cooperation Council countries support Syria’s sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity, adding that solution to the crisis in the country should be political. “We have discussed, in detail, the situation in Syria, and we had a mutual stance to support its sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity,” Lavrov said during a press conference in Moscow at the conclusion of the 6th round of the strategic dialogue between Russia and Gulf Cooperation Council. He added that the two sides support the right of Syrians to determine the future of their country. In another…

Despite no organization claiming its responsibility, local officials blame the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab terrorist group for the attack. At least eight people, including six children, were killed on Sunday in Somalia after their modified auto-rickshaw detonated as a result of a planted landmine, Anadolu Agency reported, citing local officials. According to the agency, the incident took place in Hirshabelle state, between the villages of Jicibow and Bulaburde. Ibrahim Abdi Ali, a security officer in Jowhar, the state’s administrative capital, told Anadolu that the dead were two families driving together to their farms in the same auto-rickshaw. “A father, a mother and six children from two…

One of the survivors spoke of a rope being attached to the trawler by the “Greek army” and said they were being towed for 10 minutes before the boat sank, contradicting other accounts. A joint investigation carried out by The Guardian and several other media outlets revealed that the coastguard’s official account of the June 14 incident — during which a vessel sank and left many migrants lost at sea — contains several inconsistencies with the evidence that was gathered by investigators. On June 14, a trawler carrying hundreds of migrants sank off the coast of Greece, resulting in an unknown number…

Israeli media claim that the Palestinian attempted to plant an explosive device near the illegal “Halamish” settlement. Al Mayadeen correspondent in the West Bank reported that a Palestinian youth was shot and killed in cold blood by Israeli occupation forces near the village of Deir Nidham, west of the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the martyrdom of Palestinian youth Bilal Ibrahim Kadah, 33, from the village of Shuqba, near Ramallah. State-run Palestinian news agency WAFA cited witnesses as saying that Israeli occupation forces prevented Red Crescent ambulances from reaching Kadah for treatment and kept…

The Ukrainian president said that NATO would adopt a long-term program of military assistance to Ukraine to be implemented regardless of how the conflict with Russia was progressing Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky will arrive in Vilnius to take part in a NATO summit on Wednesday, July 12, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing its sources. Earlier on Monday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed Zelensky’s participation in the Vilnius summit. He said that the Ukrainian president will attend the first meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council. He said earlier that Ukraine will not be invited to join NATO during the summit in Vilnius but…

The head of Russian diplomacy described the relations with Gulf countries as “friendly, cooperative and based on mutual trust, due account of each other’s interests, and the desire to form consensus approaches to any issues under discussion” Cooperation between Russia and member countries of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), does not seek to hurt anyone, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday. “Today’s meeting confirmed that we always lay bare our positions honestly and no one of us is seeking to cooperate against anyone else,” he…

Joe Biden was met at the airport by Lithuanian president Gitanas Nauseda US President Joe Biden has arrived in Lithuania to attend the upcoming NATO summit. After Air Force One landed in Vilnius, Biden was met at the airport by Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda. They are scheduled to hold talks on Tuesday. This is the second time a US president visits Lithuania. Former US President George W. Bush traveled to the country in 2002. Source: Tass