Author: Steven Sahiounie

A senior Lebanese journalist has identified a US embassy employee as one of the snipers who opened fire at supporters of Hezbollah and Amal movements who were marching peacefully towards the Palace of Justice in central Beirut. In a post on his twitter account, Hosein Mortada released a photo of Shukri Abu Saab, a member of the Lebanese security forces and a US embassy employee, and said he had been one of the snipers involved in the recent deaths in Beirut. On Thursday, at least seven people were killed and 60 others injured after unknown gunmen attacked Hezbollah and Amal supporters…

By Julie Gordon and Fergal Smith Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new government is set to impose higher taxes on Canadians, which will help fund some campaign promises but are not broad enough to also start paying down the country’s record levels of debt, leaving Canada vulnerable to the next economic crisis, analysts say. This could be a risky strategy for the country, which piled on new debt at a faster pace than any of its Group of Seven peers during the pandemic. The high level of indebtedness could limit Canada’s ability to manage long-term challenges that require massive government funding, like transitioning from…

China said Monday its launch of a new spacecraft in August was merely a test to see whether the vehicle could be re-used, denying a Financial Times report that they had tested a rocket carrying a hypersonic missile, as the US expressed concern about hypersonic missile technology and its potential military applications by China and Russia. China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Monday the August launch involved a spacecraft rather than a missile and was of “great significance for reducing the use-cost of spacecraft and could provide a convenient and affordable way to make a round trip for mankind’s peaceful use of…

“The real endgame of the Lebanese Forces is to ignite a civil war that would lead to demographic change.” This is what the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, revealed in his speech on the recent developments in Lebanon after the Tayouneh ambush. Sayyed Nasrallah confirmed the desire of a party [The Lebanese Forces] to make “our people in Ain al-Remmaneh and Furn El Chebbak believe that” their surrounding neighbors in the Southern Suburbs are their enemies, decrying the labeling of the murder of demonstrators as “an act of resistance” by some of the LF’s officials. The Secretary-General pointed out that…

In October, French Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly confirmed that “14 Rafale aircraft of the French Air Force are tightly nailed to the ground because they are simply disassembled for spare parts.” According to data revealed in 2020 , the French Air Force have 102 Rafale fighter jets in service. It turned out that at least 14 of them cannot be used for flights. They were partially disassembled to maintain the other aircraft of this type. Such a practice is widely used by military forces with insufficient funding. This ineffectiveness was the result of the 2009-2014 Law on…

The family of the former US secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff wrote on his Facebook page announcing Colin Powell’s passing on Monday.General Colin L. Powell passed away due to complications from COVID-19 at the Walter Reed National Medical Center, according to the statement. “We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American”, the family wrote.According to the post, Powell was fully vaccinated. The first Black US secretary of state, Powell had a remarkable career path, having served as the first Black national security adviser during the end of Ronald…

Two questions need to be answered to understand America’s paradoxical behavior towards Syria and Lebanon in recent weeks. Years of US-sponsored asymmetrical warfare have kept these nations in states of chaos and war, but now, quite inexplicably, Washington appears eager to secure vital energy resources for the two states – both still under crippling US sieges – by importing Egyptian gas via Jordan. Is the US offer aimed at preventing an economic and humanitarian implosion within these nations? Or is this America’s way of advancing stealthy “energy normalization” with Israel so it can become an energy hub supplying the strategic…

The Director of the Media Office of the Palestinian Popular Resistance Committees Muhammad Al-Buraim (Abu Mujahid) stated on Monday, that the “Wafa Al-Ahrar” deal is considered a complete shift in the history of the Palestinian resistance, and proved that the will and determination of the Palestinian resistance are stronger than Zionist tyranny. Abu Mujahid emphasized that the Wafaa Al-Ahrar deal remains engraved in the memory of our Palestinian people symbolizing a crucial victory over the Zionist enemy. In October 2011, after an Israeli soldier was kidnapped and held captive for over five years, more than 1,400 Palestinian prisoners were released…

Moscow has announced that it will completely suspend the operations of its mission to NATO, two weeks after the US-led bloc expelled eight Russian diplomats for alleged ‘undisclosed espionage’ at its Brussels headquarters. Speaking on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also revealed that the NATO information bureau in Moscow will also be forced to shut down as part of retaliatory measures. Earlier this month, NATO officials decided to slash the size of the permanent Russian delegation to the bloc, revoking the credenitals of eight envoys, in response to what it called “suspected malign Russian activities.” Following NATO’s decision, Foreign Ministry…

The blaze at the key Mina al-Ahmadi oil refinery along Kuwait’s Persian Gulf coastline north of its border with Saudi Arabia did not affect the electrical supply or oil exports, according to Kuwait’s National Petroleum Company. Several oil contractors were receiving treatment for their burns at a nearby hospital, the company added. The refinery was built to handle 25,000 barrels of oil a day to supply Kuwait’s domestic market primarily with gasoline and diesel and recently underwent an expansion to reduce its emissions and boost capacity to 346,000 barrels a day, Star Tribune reported. Firefighters were working to extinguish the…