Author: Steven Sahiounie

explains Steven Sahiounie is a journalist and political commentator A high level Russian delegation met recently with President Assad in Damascus. In an effort to further understand the importance and implications of the meeting, Steven Sahiounie at MidEastDiscourse reached out to Andrey Ontikov, a Special Correspondent at Izvestia daily newspaper, in Moscow and a political commentator specializing in the Middle East. Steven Sahiounie (SS):  Recently, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and a delegation were in Damascus for a high level meeting. What was the outcome of this meeting? Andrey Ontikov (AO): To my mind those negotiations demonstrate a change…

The Palestinian resistance movements have called for the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) to withdraw its membership from the Arab League after its disavowal to support the Palestinian cause and fight normalization with Israel, Anadolu Agency reported. Palestinian factions accused the Arab League of implementing the US and Zionist agendas, expressing their rejection to the normalisation and considering it a “treachery” for the Palestinian cause and a “stab in the back” of the Palestinian and Arab sacrifices. Head of the political department of the Islamic Jihad movement Mohamed Al-Hindi indicated: The Arab League represents states that gave up Palestine and stood beside…

Militants of the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have abducted a number of locals in a town in Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah and forced them to fight in the group’s ranks, a report says. Syria’s official news agency SANA, citing civil sources, said that the SDF militants had raided al-Shaddadi town earlier in the day and kidnapped a number of youths, taking them into training camps to forcibly recruit them in the ranks of the militant group. It added that the SDF militants on Friday also stormed houses in the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in the province and kidnapped a number…

Crews were to resume searching for the dead on Sunday among blackened ruins left by massive wildfires raging in three western US states, where millions of acres have burned in weeks and “mass fatality” incidents are feared in Oregon. A blitz of wildfires across Oregon, California and Washington have destroyed thousands of homes and a half dozen small towns this summer, scorching a landscape the size of New Jersey and killing at least 26 people since early August. After four days of brutally hot, windy weather, the weekend brought calmer winds blowing inland from the Pacific Ocean, and cooler, moister…

A large number of Russian warships were recently tracked off the coasts of Syria and Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean region, the Russian publication Avia.Pro reported. According to the online publication, “experts are seriously concerned about the presence of at least 15 Russian warships and submarines off the coast of Syria. This is the first time such a large military formation has been seen here, which raises suspicions about whether Russia plans to engage in a military special operation against jihadists using the navy. In a photo shared on their site, the 15 Russian warships and submarines can be seen positioned between…

The former Lebanese MP, Hassan Hoballah, met on Friday with a leading delegation from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Hoballah, the official in charge of Palestinian relations in Hezbollah, discussed with the Palestinian delegation headed by the Secretary-General of the PFLP, Abu Ahmed Fouad, “the latest developments in the Arab and Palestinian arenas,” according to the National News Agency in Lebanon. Fouad expressed his satisfaction with “the results of the General Secretaries General Conference held in Beirut and Ramallah,” stressing “the importance of the conference in terms of consolidating Palestinian national unity and launching the popular…

Lebanon’s parliamentary speaker said his group opposed the way the prime minister-designate was forming a new cabinet and that it would not join on those terms, but that he would still cooperate to stabilise the nation in crisis, his office said. The office of Nabih Berri, head of the Muslim Shi’ite Amal Movement which is allied to the powerful Hezbollah group, listed in a statement criticisms of the way the cabinet was being formed by Mustapha Adib, including a lack of consultations. “The problem is not with the French, the problem is internal,” Berri’s office said in its statement, after…

The US Embassy in Libya welcomes the assurance of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the head of the Libyan National Army (LNA), that the energy sector in the country would reopen no later than 12 September. “As responsible Libyan parties come together in UN-facilitated peaceful dialogue, the U.S. Embassy is encouraged by an apparent sovereign Libyan agreement to enable the National Oil Corporation (NOC) to resume its vital and apolitical work,” the embassy said in a Saturday statement. According to the release, in an exchange of letters between US Ambassador to Libya Richard Norland and head of the LNA, Norland stressed US support…

Israel and Bahrain have agreed to establish diplomatic ties, less than a month after the United Arab Emirates did so under a peace deal brokered by the United States earlier in August. The move drew condemnation from Iran and the Palestinians. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned that Bahrain could face “harsh revenge” from its own people along with the Palestinians, after the kingdom decided to normalize relations with Israel. “The executioner ruler of Bahrain should await the harsh revenge of the Mujahideen (Islamic fighters) aiming to liberate Quds (Jerusalem) and the proud Muslim nation of this country”, the IRGC…

On 11 September, the Kingdom of Bahrain has reportedly agreed to a peace deal with Israel, becoming the fourth Arab country to formally recognise the Jewish state and the second in the last 30 days. International observers have discussed the new announcement as well as its potential impact on the 2020 presidential race in the US. A joint statement by the US, Israel and Bahrain hailed the development as highly positive, while Palestinian Arabs, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Turkey condemned the agreement, reiterating that the Gulf nations’ reconciliation with the Jewish state is upending the Palestinian cause. Earlier, on…