Author: Steven Sahiounie

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator On Friday, Tunisia’s foreign ministry summoned an official from the US Embassy after Secretary of State Antony Blinken caste aspersions on Tunisia’s democracy. Othman Jerandi, Tunisia’s Foreign Minister, told Natasha Franceschi, US acting chargé d’affaires that the statement was an unacceptable “interference in the national internal affairs”. On Thursday, Blinken had said, “Tunisia has experienced an alarming erosion of democratic norms over the past year and reversed many of the Tunisian people’s hard-won gains since 2011.” Blinken’s assessment was in response to the new constitution giving President Kais Saied more power than the 2014…

Dozens of neo-Nazis have been eliminated over the last two days, including fighters from the Kraken formation, the military said Russia’s armed forces destroyed an ‘elite assault battalion’ of the Ukrainian president and dozens of fighters from the notorious Kraken neo-Nazi formation, Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said on Saturday. Providing an update on the progress of Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine, Konashenkov said that on July 28, at the Krasnoarmeysk railway station in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the Russian military conducted a direct strike “with a high-precision air-based weapon” on a train transporting “an elite assault…

At the same time, the source noted that the real discussion regarding the new Secretary General “will not begin until next year, considering the rapidly changing situation” Outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson does not have a single chance to become a NATO Secretary General candidate, a source in Brussels international institutions told TASS Saturday, adding that Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas is currently being considered the most optimal option. “Johnson has no chances even to challenge the NATO Secretary General’s office for three reasons. The first one is his role in the Brexit process, and implementation of the Northern Ireland…

On July 30, militants from the Liberation and Building Movement, a coalition within the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army, attacked several positions of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) near the village of Tadef in the northern Aleppo countryside. Tadef is located around a kilometer to the south of the town of al-Bab, the main stronghold of Turkey’s proxies in northern Syria. Turkish-backed militants shelled SAA positions with mortars and other heavy weapons then clashed with army personnel for around an hour. The militants claimed they have destroyed a field headquarters, a mortar post, a fortified position and a machine gun of…

The Sadrist Movement is coordinating and organizing the entry of demonstrators into the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, as well as Parliament. Supporters of the Iraqi Sadrist Movement have once again stormed the Iraqi parliament in the Green Zone, Baghdad, Al Mayadeen’s correspondent reported, noting that the Sadrist Movement itself was organizing the entry of protestors into the Green Zone. Demonstrators are still storming parliament for the second time this week to protest the Coordination Framework’s nomination for Prime Minister. The demonstrators also renewed their rejection of the proposed PM Mohammad Shiya Al-Sudani, who was nominated for this position by the…

An explosive device on Saturday went off in a Kia Rio car at Khirbat Ghazaleh roundabout on the entrance of Daraa north-eastern entrance leading to Damascus-Daraa highway. A police source told SANA that ambulances and fire engines rushed to the place of the explosion and put out the fires. No casualties were reported and losses were limited to materials. Source: SANA

On July 29, ISIS’s official news agency, Amaq, released photos documenting the activities of the terrorist group’s cells in Syria’s central region, where an insurgency against government forces and their allies have been ongoing for a few years now. Some of the photos released by Amaq show ISIS terrorists going around their daily activities, for example cooking, sewing, cleaning their weapons and training. Other photos show the terrorists during recent attacks on government forces. One particular photo shows two Russian Ka-52 attack helicopters, which were apparently hunting for ISIS terrorists in the central region. ISIS insurgency in central Syria slowed…

The Iranian Intelligence Ministry has recently arrested a citizen of Sweden for “espionage” charges, the ministry announced in a statement on Saturday. The detainee had some “suspicious behavior and communication during his previous multiple trips to Iran,” according to the statement. The ministry noted that the suspect had communicated with a number of “European and non-European suspicious elements who were under surveillance in Iran.” The suspect entered Iran a few months ago “after the arrest of another European spy, with the mission of obtaining information on how the identity of that spy had revealed and the type and amount of…

Yemeni sources reported this Saturday that the Saudi coalition had violated the Yemeni ceasefire 155 times in the last 24 hours. The ceasefire in Yemen, which has been repeatedly violated by the aggressor Saudi coalition, was extended for another two months following the UN consultations to renew it, but the Saudi coalition violates it every day. According to the official Yemeni news agency (Saba) report on Saturday, the Saudi coalition violated the UN ceasefire by carrying out reconnaissance flights over Hodeidah, Marib, Taiz, Hajjah’s provinces Jouf, Saada, Dhaleh, and the border operational axes. According to this report, the Saudi coalition…

Despite Russia’s repeated warnings, NATO plans to hold military exercises near the Russian border with the presence of the Royal Air Force and the British Army. The British Ministry of Defense announced on Saturday that about 150 Royal Air Force and British Army (RAF), along with the armed forces of the United States and Finland, have been deployed for a training exercise in Finland near the Russian border. The British newspaper “Independent” reported that the NATO exercise called “Exercise Vigilant Fox” includes more than 750 soldiers from England, America, and Finland, which this week in “Niinisalu” in western Finland to…