Author: Steven Sahiounie

Khor Mor field produces around 452 million standard cubic feet per day, as per UAE-run company Dana Gas. The office of an Emirati oil company in the Khor Mor gas field in Iraqi Kurdistan was shelled on Wednesday. A source in the local security agency said, as quoted by Sputnik, that “a rocket fell near the office of the UAE oil company Dana Gas in the province of Sulaymaniyah.” They reported “no material damage or injuries”, an assessment confirmed by a security official who requested anonymity. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. On his account, the mayor of Qadir Karam subdistrict…

South Korea is looking to bolster its ties with the US-led bloc, citing the “unpredictable” international security situation South Korea is planning to set up a mission to NATO headquarters in Europe, the country’s National Security Adviser Kim Sung-han revealed Wednesday. Seoul, a long-time close ally of Washington, is seeking to bolster its cooperation with the US-led bloc in the face of an “unpredictable” international situation, the official explained. “By establishing a NATO mission in Brussels, Belgium, where NATO is headquartered, we will be able to increase information-sharing and strengthen our networks with NATO members and partner nations,” Kim stated during a news…

The summit will be held on June 28-30 The odds of a breakthrough on Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO at the alliance’s upcoming summit are minimal, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said on Wednesday. “It is absolutely obvious now, and it has been confirmed publicly, that the chances of a breakthrough regarding Finland and Sweden joining NATO at the upcoming summit of the North Atlantic Alliance on June 28-30 are minimal,” he said on the Rossiya-24 news channel. On May 18, the Finnish and Swedish ambassadors to NATO handed their countries’ applications for NATO membership to…

Erdogan sets differences, even murder, aside for Turkey’s economic crisis. Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Mohammad bin Salman, has taken a major step out of international isolation on Wednesday, paying his first visit to Turkey since the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 in the Kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul. The talks come a month before US President Joe Biden visits Riyadh in time for a regional summit, which will focus on the recent exacerbating energy crisis worldwide.   Erdogan’s decision to revive ties with Saudi Arabia was mainly driven by economics and trade, especially since the Turkish people’s living standards have recently plummeted…

Despite the fact that the operation is advancing much more slowly than many analysts and politicians expected, the offensive continues. The goals set for the allied Russian and LDPR forces in the Donbass are gradually being achieved. While in the Donetsk direction, due to the large number of fortified cities, Ukraine still controls quite a large area, in the Luhansk direction, it is actually only the territory of Lysychansk. Severodonetsk was abandoned by the Ukrainian military, which offered little resistance and withdrew to Lysychansk. At this point, the Ukrainians have only the territory of the Azot plant left in the…

The country is prepared to face retaliatory steps by Russia, Gitanas Nauseda has said Vilnius is ready to expand the list of goods banned from transit to Russia’s exclave of Kaliningrad should the European Union introduce new sanctions against Moscow, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said on Wednesday. The country is also ready to face any potential retaliatory measures Russia might introduce, he told Reuters in an interview. “We are ready and we are prepared for unfriendly actions from Russia, such as disconnection from the BRELL [power grid] system, or others,” Nauseda said. The president stressed that the transit restrictions were not…

The unyielding inflation growth in the United States suggests that the Federal Reserve needs to accelerate rate hikes, probably even make them restrictive, to curb price pressures already at 40-year highs, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday. “I think that the most recent inflation indicators, [the] various kinds, suggest to us that we need to accelerate the pace at which we can get up to a level that is neutral,” the Fed chief said in his biannual testimony to the US Senate Banking Committee. “And we know we need to have restrictive policy, and that’s where we’re headed.” “Neutral”…

It was noted that in this situation, Kaliningrad will organize a sea corridor and offer tit-for-tat measures Lithuania’s restrictions on freight transit to Kaliningrad looked like a mistake at first, but it’s now clear that’s deliberate policy, Kaliningrad Region Governor Anton Alikhanov told TASS. “Honestly, I was hoping they would say: ‘We made a mistake, let’s clarify.’ But no. In any case, the rhetoric that’s seen in the media suggests that this is a deliberate policy. ‘Sanctions are sanctions’ – that’s what it is,” he said in an interview. The governor said in this situation, Kaliningrad will organize a sea…

The US Air Force says that an Airman was taken into custody over suspected involvement in the attack that targeted a US military base in Deir-Ezzor. The Pentagon revealed that a US airman is currently in military custody for suspected involvement in an insider attack on a US base in Deir-Ezzor, in northeastern Syria earlier this year, as the suspect is expected to be charged in the coming weeks. US Air Force Spokesperson Ann Stefanek announced the arrest on Tuesday and told CNN that the suspect – who has not been publicly identified – was placed in custody earlier this month. “As part of…

Ukraine has reportedly used Chinese-made commercial drones to attack one of Russia’s largest oil refineries on June 22. Two drones struck the Novoshakhtinsk refinery in the Rostov region, which is located just five kilometers away from the border from Ukraine, at around 9:25 a.m. Moscow time. The refinery is reported to be one of the largest in Russia’s southern region with a capacity of up to 7.5 million tons per year. “As a result of terrorist actions from the western border of the Rostov region, two unmanned aerial vehicles attacked the technical facilities [of the plant],” the Novoshakhtinsk refinery said…