Author: Steven Sahiounie

Iran Currency Exchange (ICE) lists the ruble-rial pair ticker, as the first phase of the Iran-Russia banking measures package agreed upon during the CBI governor’s trip to Moscow. Iran and Russia have agreed to double their trade volume to 8 billion dollars in the short-term and to 15 billion dollars in the mid-term, while it stood at 4 billion dollars last year with 100 percent surge compared to the year before. The two oil- and gas-rich countries, both targeted by sanctions, have joined forces to neutralize economic pressure exerted by the US and Europe. Tehran and Moscow have agreed to…

“So far, Kiev officials have not shown any willingness to resume talks,” Leonid Slutsky said Russia will put forward tougher conditions in terms of both substance and time if talks with Ukraine are resumed, Leonid Slutsky, leader of Russia’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) and a member of the Russian delegation to the talks with Ukraine, said on Tuesday. “Today the conditions from our side will be tougher both on demilitarization and denazification, tougher in essence and in time of their execution. I emphasize that this is if the negotiation process is resumed,” Slutsky said at a press conference. “So far,…

In the United States, there are more guns than people, but they threaten mostly black people, said Vice President Kamala Harris. “The number of weapons produced in this country has tripled in the last 20 years. Today we have more weapons in the country than people,” she said, The Storiest reported. Harris emphasized that blacks are the vast majority of victims of armed attacks. “Black people make up 13% of the US population, but 62% are the victims of armed homicides” she added. According to the Gun Violence Archive portal, which collects statistics on incidents involving firearms, since the beginning of the…

Locals of Tanouryeh al-Ghamr village in Qamishli city staged a protest in condemnation of US backed-SDF militia’s acts against the people. Locals in Tanouryeh al-Ghamr village with participation of locals of neighboring villages staged a protest against SDF militia a day after a vehicle of the militia ran over a child, causing his death, local sources told SANA. The sources added that the angry protestors closed the highway with burning tires and threw SDF militia vehicles with stones, amid calls to expel the militia from their areas, prevent it from entering villages and towns of the area. Source: SANA

The trilateral talks will focus on Syria but other key issues will also be addressed in the Iranian capital, the Kremlin has said Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to arrive in Tehran on Tuesday for talks with his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It will be his second foreign trip since the launch of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine on February 24. In late June, he visited Turkmenistan and Tajikistan to meet the countries’ leaders and attend the sixth Caspian Summit, in which Iran also took part. The trilateral negotiations in the Iranian capital…

Thirteen prisoners were killed at a prison in the Ecuadorean city of Santo Domingo on Monday, Ecuador’s prison agency said, the latest incident of deadly jail violence in the Andean country. The government of conservative President Guillermo Lasso attributes prison violence to fights between gangs over control of territory and drug trafficking routes, Reuters reported. Last year, 316 prisoners died during riots in various prisons across Ecuador. The police and the armed forces were retaking control of the penitentiary, the SNAI prisons agency said on Twitter. It earlier called the incident a “dispute”. “Unfortunately, personnel from the center report up…

North Macedonia and Albania are a step closer to membership after Skopje resolved its disputes with Bulgaria The European Union has initiated accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Tuesday. Speaking at a press conference in Brussels, von der Leyen hailed Skopje and Tirana for their progress on the path to joining the bloc, including strengthening the rule of law, fighting corruption, and implementing a range of reforms. She said the governments of the two Balkan nations have been making headway to become EU members because those steps are “good for…

The State Department told Antiwar.com ‘Crimea is Ukraine’ when asked if the ban on using HIMARS on Russian territory applies to Crimea Originally published by AntiWar The State Department on Sunday implied that Ukrainian forces are allowed to use US-provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) against Russian targets in Crimea, which Russia has controlled since 2014. When the US first announced it was sending HIMARS to Ukraine, Biden administration officials said they received “assurances” from Ukrainian officials that the rockets won’t be used to target Russian territory. When asked if the ban on Ukraine using the HIMARS to target Russian territory…

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov says that “sanctions against Russia began to be introduced long before the special operation, now they measure in the hundreds and thousands”. Ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Iran, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has issued several statements, emphasizing that “restrictions and sanctions are the price that Russia and Iran must pay for sovereignty”. In an interview with the Iranian state-run TV, Peskov stressed that “sanctions against Russia began to be introduced long before the special operation, now they measure in the hundreds and thousands.” It is worth noting that Russia and Iran are stepping up efforts to…

The US treasury secretary campaigns in Asia, seeking a price cap on Russian crude The US has held ‘encouraging’ talks with India about a price cap on Russian oil that Washington wants to introduce in order to limit Moscow’s revenues and push down global crude prices, Reuters reported on Monday. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who’s currently on a trip to Asia, told the agency that she was feeling generally positive about the proposed measure. “We’ll see where they come out. The conversations I’ve had have generally been encouraging,” Reuters quoted Yellen as saying. According to a senior Treasury official cited…