Author: Steven Sahiounie

The European Union might sanction two Israeli far-right extremist ministers in an attempt to restore its credibility in the Middle East, The Guardian reported.  EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell will pan out potential sanctions to be imposed on Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for the genocidal statements and behavior they have been exhibiting throughout the 10-month Israeli onslaught in Gaza and aggression in the West Bank.  Two weeks ago, Ben-Gvir was internationally blasted after he raided the courtyards of the al-Aqsa Mosque, alongside at least 2,200 settlers, under the protection of occupation police forces, on the anniversary of…

Reuters news agency confirmed that its safety adviser Ryan Evans, who worked as part of the agency’s team covering developments in Ukraine, was killed in Kramatorsk, a Kiev-controlled city in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the agency reported on Monday. According to the agency, “Evans, a former British soldier, had been working with Reuters since 2022 and advised its journalists on safety around the world including in Ukraine, Israel and at the Paris Olympics. He was 38.” “We send our deepest condolences and thoughts to Ryan’s family and loved ones. Ryan has helped so many of our journalists cover events…

Hamas’ delegation left Cairo after being briefed about the results of the latest round of Gaza ceasefire talks, Hamas spokesman Izzat al-Risheq said. “The Hamas negotiators have left Cairo after meetings with mediators from Egypt and Qatar who informed them about the results of the latest round of talks. The movement’s representatives demand that Israel be bound to implement the conditions that were accepted by Hamas on July 2 and that were based on the initiatives advanced by [US President Joe] Biden and the UN Security Council resolution,” he wrote on his Telegram channel. According to the spokesman, Hamas confirmed…

The foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia agree that there is an urgency to stop the crimes of Israel against the Palestinians and deliver humanitarian aid to the war-stricken people in the besieged Gaza Strip. In a phone conversation on Sunday, Prince Faisal bin Farhan and his newly appointed counterpart Abbas Araqchi discussed the latest developments in Gaza amid the continuation of the Israeli regime’s crimes in the Strip and the intensification of tensions in the region. The top Iranian and Saudi diplomats also said that mutual relations are on the right track and discussed ways to further enhance…

Following the arrest of Telegram messaging platform creator Pavel Durov the Russian embassy in France accused French authorities on Sunday of “refusing to cooperate.” The billionaire co-founder and CEO of Telegram was arrested at Le Bourget airport near Paris on Saturday evening, according to TF1 TV. Durov, who was traveling from Azerbaijan on his private jet, was detained around 8 p.m. local time due to an outstanding arrest warrant in France. According to French media, this comes as part of a preliminary police investigation. The 39-year-old Russia-born entrepreneur has been residing in Dubai and holds dual citizenship in France and the UAE. The embassy…

Pope Francis condemned Kiev’s legislative ban on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on Sunday during his weekly prayers. “Do not touch churches,” the pope said, one day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky enacted the bill into the legislation on the country’s independence day from the Soviet Union. “In thinking of the law recently adopted in Ukraine, I fear for the liberty of those who pray,” the Catholic Church leader added. Ukraine has sought to distance itself from the church since 2014. The efforts were expedited following the start of its war with Russia in February 2022. Although the church severed ties with the Moscow Patriarchate in 2022, Ukrainian…

Relations between Syria and Turkey cannot be restored without settling problems that caused their severance, Syrian President Bashar Assad said. “Amid the current global crisis <…> we tried to consider all the initiatives proposed to us in the context of restoring relations with Turkey as soon as possible and in a positive manner. But no problem can be resolved if it real causes are ignored and relations cannot be restore without settling the problem that caused their reverence,” the SANA news agency quoted him as saying in his address to the new People’s Assembly (parliament). According to Assad, to settle…

The Ministry of Health said today that nOPV polio vaccines have finally been delivered, and coordination is underway to bring them into the Gaza Strip. The Ministry added in a press statement that the necessary cold-chain equipment to preserve the vaccines in the Gaza Strip has been brought in. The equipment will be distributed to centers designated for vaccination. It called on international institutions to work and pressure the occupation authorities to stop the ongoing aggression against Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip so that medical teams can vaccinate children and limit the spread of the polio virus. source: WAFA

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator The late US President John F. Kennedy is not alive today to voice his opinion on the Israeli war on Gaza, but we know he would stand with the Palestinians, not the Israeli government.While yet a young senator, Kennedy in July 1957 delivered a famous speech where he voiced his opposition to then President Eisenhower’s military and political support for French colonialism, and called on the US administration to support the fight for freedom and independence in Algeria. The situation in Gaza, the Occupied West Bank, and Occupied East Jerusalem today is very similar…

Five people were killed by the Ukrainian shelling of the settlement of Rakitnoye in the Belgorod Region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on his Telegram channel, adding that 12 people, including 3 children, were injured. “The Ukrainian Armed Forces carried out a brutal terrorist strike at the settlement of Rakitnoye in the middle of the night. To our great grief, the enemy strike took lives of 5 civilians. […] 12 people, including 3 minors, were injured in the shelling,” Gladkov said. The governor specified that 4 people are in severe condition; all injured people currently receive medical aid in hospitals. In…