Author: Steven Sahiounie

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator The Kurdish National Unity Parties (PYNK), a newly-established umbrella group consisting of 25 parties, was formed on May 20 to support the Kurdish unity talks, which have resulted in a “common political vision” on governance and partnership following a series of US-backed talks.  The statement released on June 17 by all parties is the culmination of talks which first began in October 2019, and are based on the 2014 Duhok Agreement, in which the parties reached a power-sharing compromise, but the agreement was never implemented. Talks will continue until a final agreement on matters related to…

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator Lebanon was founded in 1920, after the end of WW1.  Lebanon was formed from part of Syria, and the Lebanese and the Syrian people share ethnicity, history, culture, religion, and geography.  However, Lebanon has a distinctive culture of its own. Some of the problems in Lebanon today are caused by the US sanctions on Lebanon, and the interference of the US Embassy in Lebanon.  The US is waging an economic proxy-war on the Lebanese people because of the resistance movement in Lebanon.  In what can only be termed ‘collective punishment’, the Lebanese residents are…

Stock markets in Europe opened lower on Monday after their Asian peers sank amid new coronavirus concerns. The negative sentiment comes after Wall Street suffered its worst weekly performance in nearly three months. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei shed over three percent, making it one of the worst performers in Asia as the week began. South Korea’s Kospi fell even lower, losing more than four percent. Chinese stocks were mostly down, with the Shanghai Composite shedding around one percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index declined around two percent. Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific, both S&P/ASX 200 in Australia and India’s Mumbai Sensex…

Large-scale protests in the US are a result of deep-seated problems in society, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, noting that tensions have been developing since the Democrats’ failure to accept defeat to Donald Trump. “What has happened is a manifestation of some deep-seated internal crises in that country,” Putin said about the massive and often violent protests against police brutality, which engulfed the US after African American man, George Floyd, died during his arrest in Minneapolis in late May. Things have been like that in America “for a long time,” since Donald Trump became president in 2016, the Russian leader said…

In response to the new coronavirus outbreak connected to Xinfadi wholesale market in Beijing, the city has introduced strict quarantine measures in 10 neighborhoods in Haidian District. For the second day in a row, after months of almost no new Covid-19 cases, China has reported dozens of new locally-transmitted infections – including 36 in Beijing, where a new cluster was discovered several days ago. The new outbreak in the capital was linked to a large food market, Xinfadi, which was promptly shut down on Saturday, along with several other markets in the area, as well as schools and kindergartens. Mass screening…

A US Air Force aircraft has plummeted into the North Sea during a routine training mission, according to a press release issued by the US military. The status of the pilot is currently unknown. The fighter jet, identified as an F-15C Eagle, crashed on Monday morning. The aircraft was assigned to the 48th Fighter Wing based at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, England. The cause of the accident, as well as the status of the pilot, is still unknown, according to a statement issued by the Air Force. British search and rescue teams have been deployed to the scene.

Russia is preparing to establish a military base near the ancient city of Palmyra in central Syria, the Zaman al-Wsl news outlet reported on June 14. Citing a special source, the outlet said the base will be established at the Palmyra Air Base. A Syrian military delegation headed by Maj. Gen. Tawfiq Khaddour, commander of the air forces’ 22nd Air Division, reportedly handed the base to the Russian military a while ago. “The Iranians have evacuated the air base, in addition to everything related or belong to regime forces, whether it is military or logistical,” the source said. The air base…

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) security operation against ISIS remnants in the southeastern Hama countryside is still ongoing. On June 14, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported intense clashes in the region between pro-government forces and ISIS cells. “Violent battles erupted, again, between the Islamic State on one hand, and regime forces and its armed forces on the other, at the Hama-Aleppo-Raqqa triangle, from the direction of the eastern Hama desert,” the monitoring group said in a report. During the clashes, warplanes of the Syrian Arab Air Force provided SAA troops with an air support. A number of…

A suspected U.S. drone strike on Idlib’s city center has killed two senior commanders of al-Qaeda-affiliated Horas al-Din: Qassam al-Urduni and Bilal al-Sanani. The strike targeted the commanders’ SUV as it was passing on a road in the western part of Idlib city. The SUV, a silver Hyundai Santa Fe, was struck with what appears to be two U.S.-made AGM-114R9X Hellfire missile. The AGM-114R9X Hellfire, dubbed “Ninja Bomb,” is armed with a kinetic warhead with pop-out blades. The missile has been deployed in secret since 2017, with its existence revealed in 2019. Pro-militant sources revealed that Qassam al-Urduni was the…

The visit of Russian foreign and defense ministers to Turkey was postponed to a later date, the Turkish Foreign Ministry announced. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu had been scheduled to meet with their Turkish counterparts to discuss the regional situation, including the conflicts in Libya and Syria, in Istanbul on June 14. According to the Turkish side, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov decided in a phone call to have the ministerial talks at a later date. The contacts and communications between the deputy ministers of the two countries would…