Author: Steven Sahiounie

Amid growing calls for the expulsion of American forces from Iraq, a US military convoy has been attacked in the country’s central part, a news outlet affiliated with Iraq’s resistance groups reports. The logistics convoy was targeted in Babylon Province, Sabereen News reported on Wednesday, without providing further details. Sabereen News also reported that a huge explosion had occurred near a US military base in Iraq. The nature of the incident is still unknown, it added. Dozens of attacks on US forces have been reported across Iraq in recent months, as calls for the expulsion of American troops from the Arab…

Plenty of Persian-speaking Twitter users have mocked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over his recent remarks that anyone seeking to move “even a tiny stone” across the region must first come to Turkey for permission. “Anyone who wants to move even a tiny stone in our region will first have to look at Turkey, seek its consent and evaluate its approach to peace and stability,” Erdogan said on Sunday. He made the remarks while addressing a ceremony held in the northwestern Turkish province of Tekirdag, during which the Bayraktar Akıncı, an unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), entered the inventory of the Turkish military.…

The Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin has now become a center of resistance in the wake of intensified Israeli settler violence and an increase in attacks by Israel’s military there. According to a Wednesday report by the Al Jazeera television network, assaults by Israeli settlers and soldiers are not the only grievance shared among the Palestinian refugees at the camp. They are also frustrated with the leadership of the Palestinian Authority (PA), whose President Mahmoud Abbas met Israel’s Minister for Military Affairs Benny Gantz in Ramallah on Sunday in the first top-level meeting between the two sides in a decade.…

A military facility housing US occupation forces in Syria’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr has been targeted by rockets fired from nearby areas. Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Syria’s official SANA news agency that two rockets hit the base, located inside the Conoco gas field, on Tuesday evening. There were no immediate reports about possible casualties or the site where the projectiles had been fired from, according to the source. There has been a rise in such attacks on US-run bases in Syria’s oil-reach eastern regions in recent months. On June 28, a rocket attack hit the US-occupied al-Omar…

The German government has pushed for Iran to reenter stalled talks about the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal after reports that Iranian uranium enrichment levels have reached a new high. Speaking at a media briefing on Wednesday, a German Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that Berlin “vehemently asks Iran to return to the negotiating table constructively and as soon as possible,” adding that time is running out for the talks. “We [Germany] are ready to do so, but the time window won’t be open indefinitely,” they stated. Germany is urging Tehran to rejoin talks about reviving the nuclear deal – or the…

The number of natural disasters driven by extreme weather increased fivefold over the past 50 years, leading to the deaths of over two million people and causing damage worth $3.64 trillion, the UN’s meteorology agency has said. During the past half-century, weather-related disasters such as heatwaves, storms, floods and droughts occurred somewhere on Earth every day, killing 115 people and delivering losses of $202 million on the average, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has revealed. The figures came from Wednesday’s report by the WMO, which was based on the agency’s ‘Atlas’, described as the most comprehensive review of mortality and economic losses…

Europol has released video footage of a huge raid involving hundreds of police, both on foot and in choppers, breaking up an Albanian drug ring across Spain and seizing thousands of cannabis plants as well as cash and vehicles. The pan-European law-enforcement agency made 107 arrests, discovered 51 cannabis farms and seized 25,000 cannabis plants, in a massive coordinated raid carried out at 42 locations across Spain. The agency said the operation took down an ‘Albanian clan’ running an industrial cannabis operation across Europe. Albanian, Spanish and German authorities were involved in the bust. The video depicts dozens of police…

Aviem Sella, who the US tried for decades to extradite from Israel to stand trial on espionage charges, has been given a symbolic promotion in rank. It was announced days after a meeting between the leaders of the two nations. Sella, 75, was the focus of a big scandal that put a rift between the US and its Middle-Eastern ally back in the 1980s. The Israel Air Force fighter pilot was taking a sabbatical in the US and, while there, had recruited US Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard. Pollard abused his access to American secrets to sell them to the…

US President Joe Biden had instructed the ousted Afghan leader Ashraf Ghani to fix his government’s “perception” problem just weeks before Kabul fell to the Taliban, a report says, citing an official phone call. The conversation, audio and transcripts of which were obtained by Reuters, took place on July 23, three weeks before the Taliban captured Kabul and forced Ghani to flee the country. Biden urged his Afghan counterpart to fix the country’s image in terms of its capability of fighting the militants after the US withdrawal. I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts…

Victoria’s premier has announced that a statewide lockdown will remain in place until most residents are vaccinated, just days after Australia adopted new legislation giving sweeping surveillance and spy powers to police. Draconian measures covering the entire southeast Australian state will only start to be eased once 70% of the population receives at least one dose of the Covid vaccine, Premier Dan Andrews decreed on Wednesday. The government said it hoped to reach this target on or around September 23. In a written statement, Andrews claimed that lifting restrictions would “overrun” the state’s healthcare system. With a population of around…