Author: Steven Sahiounie

The Turkish naval forces held surface and air defense fire exercise in the Eastern Mediterranean amid escalating tension with Greece over drilling activity in the region, the Turkish Defense Ministry said on Friday.“Our TCG GEDİZ Frigate successfully performed its surface and air defense fire practice under the activities of operational readiness in eastern Mediterranean Sea on 17 September 2020,” the ministry said on Twitter.Tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean have been brewing for many months around Turkey’s exploration for gas in waters that Cyprus and Greece claim as their exclusive economic zones. The situation was exacerbated this summer, as Turkey sent…

The oil deal between the United States and Syrian Kurds is a blatant breach of international laws, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Sputnik.“There have recently been statements of illegal US group in the east of Syria, which signed a deal that allows a US oil company to extract hydrocarbons on the Syrian sovereign territory — in the most outrageous breach of all possible principles of the international law,” the minister said.Washington actions east of the Euphrates river are stoking tensions with the Kurds’ issues, the minister said.“The situation on the eastern bank of the Euphrates is worrying, as the…

An ammunition explosion has stricken the Iraqi-based Majid al Tamimi military facility, formerly known as the Speicher operating base, in the northern province of Saladin, the Iraqi Security Media Cell, which provides official information on security incidents, said on Friday.“The blast of an ammunition container with various explosive devices occurred at the Majid al Tamimi ‘Speicher’ base. The reason for the explosion was poor storage conditions, according to the Saladin Operations Command,” the service said in a statement.No casualties have been reported as a result of the incident.The official Iraqi News Agency reported that the explosion took place inside an…

The UK Royal Air Force (RAF) said its fighters had intercepted two Russian military planes over the North Sea.“RAF Typhoon fighters were scrambled for the third time in six days today. This time they intercepted Russian military aircraft operating over the North Sea near UK airspace,” RAF wrote on its Twitter page on late Thursday.The RAF airbase of Lossiemouth said that the two intercepted planes were Tu-142 anti-submarine jets.Russian strategic and long-range aircraft regularly carry out flights over the Arctic region, Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean and the Black Sea. The Russian Defense Ministry has repeatedly said that all flights of…

The Russian Armed Forces detected 44 foreign jets that were engaged in reconnaissance activities close to Russia’s airspace last week, the military’s official newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda reported on Friday.A weekly infographic published by the outlet showed that Russian fighter jets had been scrambled five times to intercept foreign aircraft.The foreign jets had been prevented from illegally entering Russia’s airspace, the newspaper said.Within this period of time, Russia has also spotted 10 unmanned aerial vehicles, which were carrying out reconnaissance missions near the Russian borders.Source: Sputnik

US Coordinator for Counterterrorism Nathan Sales on Thursday accused Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Lebanese movement, of stockpiling across Europe ammonia nitrate – an explosive fertiliser that destroyed the port in Beirut.“Today the US government is unveiling new information about Hezbollah presence in Europe. Since 2012 Hezbollah has established caches of ammonium nitrate throughout Europe. Today I can reveal that some caches has been moved from Belgium to France, Greece, Italy, Spain and Switzerland,” Sales said during a webinar. “I can also reveal that significant ammonium nitrate caches have been discovered and destroyed in France, Greece, Italy. We have reasons to believe…

The Ansarallah-aligned Yemeni armed forces announced on Thursday, September 17th, that a drone targeted the Abha International Airport in southern Saudi Arabia.According to the report, the Ansarallah forces targeted the Abha Airport using their domestically-made Samad-3 drone.The spokesman for the Yemeni armed forces, Brigadier General Yahya Sare’a, said in a statement via his Twitter account: “The air force conducted an attack with a Samad-3 drone on a military target at Abha International Airport in southern Saudi Arabia.”“This targeting comes in response to the escalation of the air aggression and its continuous siege,” he added.The Saudi-led Arab Coalition has launched several…

The United States has announced new sanctions targeting several Lebanese companies for their alleged links to Hezbollah.Among the blacklisted companies is Arch Consulting and Meamar Construction, which has several recycling contracts with the Lebanese government.In addition, the US government added Hezbollah Executive Council Sultan Khalifa Asaad to its OAFC list of sanctioned individuals.Prior to today’s announcement, the US also added two former ministers to its blacklist last week.US Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, justified the sanctions and accused Hezbollah of “exploitation of the Lebanese economy and manipulation of corrupt Lebanese officials”.The recent move by the US government comes in…

Russian and Turkish army officials met on Wednesday to discuss the situation inside Syria, where both countries currently have a large military presence.According to a source in Damascus, the two sides discussed a number topics, including the ceasefire in the Idlib Governorate and the Turkish presence in areas controlled by the government.The source said Turkey rejected the Russian proposal to handover their observation posts, which are currently surrounded by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA).He added Turkey proposed a plan that would require the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to withdraw from Tal Rifa’at and Manbij in northern Aleppo and handover these…

In this handout image provided by Albatross, The Tamar drilling natural gas production platform is seen some 25 kilometers West of the Ashkelon shore in February 2013 in Israel. The offshore Tamar drilling site which was originally dispatched from a shipyard in Texas at the end of last year is due to start producing natural gas next week. Over the past few years Israel has suffered from a shortage in natural gas, but with the new platform that weighs 34,000 tons and will be mainly operated by Israelis, the US company Nobel Energy which owns a 36% stake in Tamar,…