Author: Steven Sahiounie

Washington’s lifting of sanctions is “good but not enough,” Iranian foreign minister says Iran’s foreign minister has welcomed the US’ lifting of some sanctions on his country’s civilian nuclear program, but said that the move is “not enough.” The sanctions were waived as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to talk Iran back into the 2015 nuclear deal. “The lifting of some sanctions can, in the true sense of the word, translate into the good will Americans talk, but it should be known that what happens on paper is good but not enough,” Amir-Abdollahian told Iran’s state-run INSA news agency on Saturday. “Good…

Late on February 4, one of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) units deployed in the Kurdish-held pocket in the northern Aleppo countryside targeted a pickup truck of the Turkish-backed Mu’tasim Division near the town of Marea with an anti-tank guided missile. According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a militant was killed and two others were wounded as a result of the missile attack. The casualties were identified as Ali Abu al-Hasan, a commander of the Mu’tasim Division, his brother Mustafa and a militant called Mahmod al-Ahmad al-Abbas. It remains unclear who of them was killed. The missile…

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has revealed that he contracted the Omicron variant of the virus Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed that he has become infected with Covid-19 on Saturday afternoon. “Thank God, I have a mild illness, which I learned is an Omicron variant. I’m on duty. I will continue to work from home,” Erdogan announced on Twitter. The Turkish leader was due to attend the opening of a road in Turkey’s northern Zonguldak Province on Saturday, but decided to participate in the event via video link. The president visited Kiev on Thursday, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He flew back…

Kremlin responds to Bloomberg’s false ‘Russia invades Ukraine’ alert Bloomberg’s ‘Russia invades Ukraine’ blunder “perfectly demonstrates the dangers of the [tensions] whipped up by countless aggressive statements coming from Washington, London, and other European capitals,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday. “It’s an illustration of the consequences an atmosphere of extraordinary tensions can have,” the spokesman told RIA Novosti. He also warned that what happened serves as an example of how such announcements could lead to “irreparable damage.” “I guess, instead of ‘fake news’, we can now say ‘Bloomberg news’, which makes sense [given the circumstances],” Peskov added. The New York-based business news agency…

Hasaka, SANA-The US occupation backed-SDF militia continued its siege of Ghwairan and al-Zohour neighborhoods, amid increasing of locals’ suffering who were unable to flee to the center of Hasaka city and to safe neighborhoods during clashes and shelling of the US occupation forces under the pretext of pursuing those who ran away from the Industrial High School Prison since January 20th Local sources from al-Zohour neighborhood told SANA that SDF militia closed the neighborhood, raised the earth mounds in its vicinity, and prevented the entry of the vehicles and individuals completely, amid great suffering due to lack of services and foodstuffs.…

The five-year-old boy fell into a well in the northern town of Bab Berred four days ago. Rescuers in Morocco are nearing the end of a rescue mission to save a five-year-old child, Rayan, who fell in a northern town’s 100-foot-deep well on Tuesday. According to his mother, he was playing nearby when he suddenly disappeared. Rayan’s mother has been distraught and the north African country has been on high alert awaiting his rescue. “I ask Moroccans to pray for the safe return of my son,” she said to local media. Rescuers used bulldozers to excavate a parallel shaft through…

The Sadrist bloc, led by Muqtada al-Sadr, has decided to halt negotiations with all political blocs regarding the formation of a government. The Sadrist bloc in Iraq announced Saturday the halting of negotiations with the political blocs regarding the formation of the government. The bloc also announced its intention to boycott Monday’s parliamentary session to elect a president. During a press conference, the head of Sadrist bloc, Hussein Al-Azari, told reporters that all talks with the parliamentary factions to form a future government had been suspended by an order of Sadrist bloc leader Moqtada Sadr, adding that its members wouldn’t attend Monday’s…

The waivers were withdrawn by Trump in 2019 and 2020 following his abrupt and much-maligned exit from the nuclear agreement which took years of negotiations to implement. The US administration has restored sanctions waivers to Iran as the indirect negotiations in Vienna concerning the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal nears its final stages. The waivers would now allow international nuclear cooperation projects to take place. The waivers previously allowed European, Russian and Chinese companies to perform non-proliferation work that would largely obstruct the use of Iranian nuclear sites for weapons development – an accusation that does not fall in line…

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator The diplomatic situation and military buildup between the US-NATO and Russia over Ukraine seems to be taken out of an old drama called The Cuban Missile Crisis, which was one scene from the Cold War of 1947-1989. The difference in this new revised version of the drama is the main roles are reversed. Not lost on the similarities between then and now, is the fact the 1962 Soviet missiles had been boarded into the ships at Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea and a major port on the Black Sea. This present crisis comes…

On 1 January 2022, six Muslim female students at Government Pre-University College in Karnataka state’s Udupi District accused the principal of not allowing them to attend classes because they were wearing hijabs. They therefore boycotted their lessons and sat outside in protest. The hijab controversy, which broke out in the Udupi district of India’s Karnataka state in January, has intensified as more Muslim students studying in other colleges have been forbidden to enter the classrooms wearing their traditional headscarves.Hindu students began wearing saffron shawls as a mark of protest against their Hijab-clad classmates.The latest incident took place on World Hijab Day…