Author: Steven Sahiounie

Nader Entessar, Professor Emeritus of Political Science from university of South Alabama says that if an agreement is reached in Vienna, unfreezing Iran’s assets in South Korea will be among the priorities of such an agreement as Seoul seems to favor solving its problems with Tehran and returning to the status quo ante in Iran-Korean relations. He also says “At this time, I do not think the Europeans are inclined to activate the snapback mechanism because this will, for all practical purposes, kill any prospect of reviving the JCPOA.” Following is the full text of the Bazaar interview with Professor Entessar: Bazaar:…

The years-long war in Yemen sees no end, and 2022 is not an exception. The year began with a large-scale operation, dubbed Southern Storm aimed to expel the Houthis (Ansar Allah) from Yemen’s central-southern province of Shabawah. The operation is mainly led by the UAE-backed Giant Brigades, a force of an estimated 15,000 fighters, with support from the Yemeni Armed Forces and backed by air cover from Coalition warplanes. The operation took the Houthis by surprise and resulted in significant gains since its first days. On January 2, the Giants Brigades managed to capture the center of Usaylan district. On…

2022 is not off with a great start for the world’s largest cryptocurrency, as Bitcoin has dipped Monday below $40,000, the coin’s lowest price since September, as it shows no end to its volatility. The leading cryptocurrency had dropped to $39,663.18 down from its record high of over $66,000 in October. It had an upward trend from August thereon when it topped $50,000 in a first since May, rebounding from its then-highest value of $64,000. According to data from CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin recovered from the blow it took on Monday, rising to $41,684.67. Whenever the BTC rises, it takes up the entire…

The Pentagon has published its first Airpower Summary since US President Joe Biden took office about a year ago. According to a commentary article by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas Davies published in the Salon, the Airpower Summary is a report that has been published since 2007, which documents the number of bombs and missiles dropped by the US forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and other countries since 2004. Former US President Donald Trump stopped publishing the documenting report after February 2020, covering up on the 3,246 bombs and missiles on Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and other countries (2,068 under Trump and 1,178 under Biden), the writers…

China’s imports of Iranian crude oil last year hit a record high since the US imposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic in 2018 with the aim of bringing the country’s oil sales down to zero, Bloomberg reports. Chinese refiners brushed off the risk of the sanctions to take in 324 million barrels from Iran and Venezuela in 2021, about 53% more than the year before, data from market intelligence firm Kpler cited by the news provider showed. “That’s the most since 2018, when China took 352 million barrels from the two nations,” it added. According to Braemar and industry consultant…

A Lebanese prosecutor has issued a travel ban against Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, who is among the top Lebanese officials widely blamed for an unprecedented financial crisis in Lebanon. Judge Ghada Aoun on Tuesday issued the travel ban against Salameh, who has been at the center of investigations at home and abroad into his conduct launched after Lebanon plunged into a deep financial crisis. Aoun said she had imposed the ban as part of a Lebanese investigation she is leading into the conduct of Salameh, whose tenure as the country’s central bank governor has come under scrutiny since the…

Today, Monday, the Security Media Cell announced that it had thwarted a suicide attack by a motorcycle in Al-Anbar. The Cell revealed in a statement that “a qualitative pre-emptive operation was carried out according to accurate intelligence information of the Intelligence Division of the Fifth Division, in which it indicated the presence of a booby-trapped motorcycle that was hidden inside the Rutba desert, the northern side in the Wadi Houran region, with a large number of explosives.” It revealed that the terrorists were planning to seize the opportunity and release the bombs at the crowded Rutba District market and detonate…

Foreign ministers from oil-rich Gulf states arrived in Beijing on Monday for a five-day visit, amid concerns about China’s energy security due to unrest in neighboring Kazakhstan. According to the Foreign Ministry, officials from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain, as well as the Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Nayef bin Falah Al-Hajrah, will be in China until Friday. Recent unrest in Kazakhstan’s oil and the gas-rich region has alarmed China, which has long invested heavily in its central Asian neighbor’s energy industry. The visit comes after a flurry of diplomatic activity by China’s Foreign Minister, including a tour of Africa…

Member of the Supreme Political Council in Yemen, Mohammad Ali Al-Houthi, commented on the Saudi-led coalition’s claims regarding Yemen’s ballistic missiles, saying that the fabricated images of the missiles that were evidently extracted taken from an American movie are proof that the aggression forces continue to market their lies against Yemen after 7 years. The head of Sanaa’s negotiating delegation Mohammad Abdul Salam considered that the Saudi-led coalition states are moving from one scandal to another and from one bankruptcy to another by showcasing what they claim is a missiles site at Al-Hudaydah port. Abdul Salam also shared the video,…

According to state news agency SANA, the US and Kurdish armed groups have begun construction of an oil refinery in Al-Hasakah governorate in northeastern Syria. The new plant at Rmelan fields in Al-Hasakah’s northeast is expected to have a capacity of 3,000 barrels per day, according to the Syrian agency. Rmelan is home to one of Syria’s largest oil resources. The US forces illegally occupy territories in the northern and northeastern parts of Syria, where the country’s major oil and gas fields are located. Damascus has decried the US presence there as occupation and pillaging. US occupation base in Syria targeted…