Author: Steven Sahiounie

Medhat al-Saleh, a liberated Syrian prisoner, was martyred after being targeted by the Israeli occupation, according to Al Mayadeen’s correspondent. Our correspondent reported that the Israeli occupation targeted al-Saleh in Ain al-Tineh, facing the town of Majdal Shams in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. In his last interview with Al Mayadeen, the martyr affirmed that the Golan Heights is an Arab Syrian land, and the occupation has no right to establish any project on it. He also stressed that the people of the occupied Golan Heights are determined to confront the occupation’s plans, no matter what it takes. Al-Saleh, from the village of…

WASHINGTON, Oct 15 (Reuters) – The White House on Friday will lift COVID-19 travel restrictions for fully vaccinated international visitors starting Nov. 8, ending historic restrictions that had barred much of the world from entering the United States for as long as 21 months. The unprecedented travel restrictions kept millions of visitors out of the United States from China, Canada, Mexico, India, Brazil, much of Europe and elsewhere; shrunk U.S. tourism; and hurt border community economies. They prevented many loved ones and foreign workers from reuniting with families. “Oh how I’ve missed Christmas in NY,” Alexandros Koronakis, an executive with…

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz took a step closer to succeeding Angela Merkel as chancellor, as his Social Democrats, the ecologist Greens and liberal FDP on Friday announced a preliminary deal to form a new government. The three parties have been holding talks since Scholz’s centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) won the general elections on September 26 with Merkel’s conservatives in second place as she prepares to leave politics. “Overall, we can sense here that a new beginning is possible, brought about by the three parties that have come together here,” Scholz told reporters. “We have agreed on a text from the…

Iran has condemned as an anti-human crime a terrorist attack by Takfiri groups at a Shia mosque in Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar, underlining the need for unity among Shia and Sunni Muslims to counter divisive plots by enemies. In a statement on Friday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry warned against enemy schemes for the Muslim world and called for reinforcing unity and integrity among Muslims and avoiding violence and extremism in the name of Islam. More than 60 people were killed in three back-to-back explosions that hit the Bibi Fatima mosque during Friday prayers, one of the biggest blasts in Kandahar…

The Cypriot government announced on Friday that it has decided to formally strip passports from 39 people who obtained citizenship under a disgraced investment scheme, as well as six of their dependents. The Council of Ministers has decided to remove “Cypriot citizenship for 39 investors and 6 members of their families,” government spokesman Marios Pelekanos said, although he didn’t specify the names of the individuals impacted. The government is also investigating a further six cases, and has put another 47 “under continuous monitoring… on the basis of the procedures provided.” Cyprus agreed in October last year to end its Golden Visa scheme on…

Poland’s prime minister has lashed out with accusations that EU institutions impede on the rights of its member nations following a ruling by the country’s Constitutional Tribunal that Warsaw’s laws reign supreme over Brussels’. Speaking to the Polish parliament on Thursday, Mateusz Morawiecki proclaimed that “we are at a crucial moment, you could say at a crossroads in the EU’s history.””Democracy is being tested – how far will European nations retreat before this usurpation by some EU institutions.” Morawiecki’s accusations come as he is due to appear before the European Parliament next week to defend Poland’s case after a landmark court…

Addressing the UNGA’s 76 First Committee’s Combined Thematic Discussions: Nuclear Weapons, Other WMDs, Outer Space, and Conventional Weapons, Heidar Ali Balouji said, “Achieving global nuclear disarmament remains one of the most long-lasting goals of the United Nations. Today, international security is under threat by the existence of almost 14,000 nuclear weapons with well-funded, long-term plans to not only modernize but also strengthen the arsenals of NWSs and so nuclear arms race.” Balouji pointed out that the US withdrawal from the INF spelt an end to the commitment to eliminate an entire class of nuclear missiles, saying, “Similarly, its withdrawal from the JCPOA, and…

Major General Hossein Salami made the remarks during a visit to the IRGC’s naval units in the Persian Gulf islands and the strategic Strait of Hormuz. The IRGC’s naval forces have reached the “quick reaction” capability in face of any threat, stressing that enemies have to come to terms with the reality of Iran’s offensive and defensive power. “Using modern electronic warfare systems, the IRGC Navy has been able to gain complete control over the geography of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, which is one of the honors of our Navy today,” he added. Salami said the IRGC Navy…

MOSCOW, October 15. . Russia’s COVID-19 cases surged by 32,196 in the last 24 hours to 7,925,176, which is an all-time high since the onset of the pandemic, the anti-coronavirus crisis center said on Friday. In relevant terms, the COVID-19 incidence in Russia increased by 0,41% over the past day. In particular, over the past day, some 2,632 COVID-19 cases were registered in St. Petersburg, 2,110 cases were confirmed in the Moscow Region, some 791 cases were disclosed in the Samara Region, as many as 695 people were infected with COVID-19 in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, while 668 cases of…

NOVO-OGARYOVO, October 15. Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that interaction should be maintained with the Taliban movement (outlawed in Russia), but there should be no haste to recognize them officially. “There should be no haste to recognize the Taliban officially. We are aware that they should be cooperated with, but there is no place for haste,” Putin said at the CIS summit on Friday. He added that Moscow was going to discuss these questions with its CIS counterparts. Putin stressed that the Taliban’s interim government regrettably failed to reflect the entire diversity of Afghan society. “At the same time, an…