Author: Steven Sahiounie

The Libyan National Army (LNA) has shared a video documenting an arms shipment from Turkey to forces loyal to the Government of National Accord (GNA). Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Mesmari, a spokesman for the army, presented the video during a press conference held on May 21. The video was recovered from a Turkish-made BMC Kirpi mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) captured from GNA forces in a recent battle. The video documents the journey of a large batch of BMC Kirpi vehicles from Turkey to GNA forces, according to the following timeline: From February 14 to April 28 of 2019, the vehicles were still in…

Late on May 21, the U.S.-led coalition and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) carried out a new security operation in the southeastern Deir Ezzor countryside. The operation took place in the town of al-Shheell. A joint force of the coalition and the SDF raided several houses in al-Shabkah neighborhood in the center of the town. Heavy clashes broke out as a result. “A new operation carried out by our special units with the international coalition, through a raid on two positions of the terrorist organization ISIS in al-Shheell,” the SDF’s Coordination and Military Operations Center said in a short statement.…

The United Nations warns that urgent funding is needed to contain the novel coronavirus outbreak in Yemen, where the healthcare system has collapsed as a result of the Saudi-led coalition’s devastating campaign. Many of the aid agencies operating in Yemen say the country is “really on the brink now,” Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told a Friday briefing in Geneva. “The situation is extremely alarming, they are talking about that the health system has in effect collapsed,” he said, quoting the aid agencies working in the war-torn state. Laerke went on to say…

The US Labor Department has said that unemployment rates rose in all 50 American states and the District of Columbia in April. The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Friday that this happened because businesses were closed across the United States in an effort to contain the coronavirus pandemic that has killed at least 95,000 and infected more than 1.58 million people in the US. According to the data, 43 states set record-high levels of unemployment last month, with the highest being in Nevada, the state with the greatest reliance on the hard-hit food services and hospitality industry.…

Russia says a planned move by the United States to withdraw from a major international treaty on unarmed surveillance flights would undermine global security. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Friday that Washington had provided no concrete evidence proving its claims that Moscow had violated the terms of the Open Skies Treaty, a pact which gives its 35 member states the right to unarmed overflights. However, Ryabkov regretted the planned US withdrawal from the treaty, saying it would undermine international security. Other members to the 35-nation pact also regretted a Thursday announcement by the US government on the…

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has reiterated Lebanon’s rejection of US President Donald Trump’s plan for the Middle East, warning that it aims to destroy the Palestinian cause and pave the way for the disintegration of the region. In a speech on the occasion of the International Quds Day, Speaker Berri reiterated Lebanese rejection of the “humiliating” plan as well as the Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian land. Berri emphasized the legitimacy of the Palestinian resistance against Israel. International Quds Day, celebrated on the last Friday of the Islamic month of Ramadan, is seen as the legacy of the…

Hezbollah’s stance on the Palestinian cause has not changed in the face of recent developments in the occupied territories, says the Secretary General of the Lebanese resistance movement, insisting that the Palestinian land should return to its rightful owners. “Palestine belongs to the Palestinian people, and it must return to the Palestinian people,” Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech marking the International Quds Day on Friday. Hezbollah’s position on the Palestinian issue, he said, has remained the same since the establishment of the resistance movement several decades ago. He added that Israel’s recent attempts to seize more Palestinian…

Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab said on Thursday that the country’s Central Bank would interfere with the currency exchange market to support the Lebanese pound rate against the US dollar starting on Thursday as part of measures to recover the national economy. “I am well aware of people’s suffering from the increase in the US dollar-Lebanese pound exchange rate and of an impact of this rise on the food and consumer goods’ prices. … I hereby declare that we have already taken some measures, and Central Bank Head [Riad Salameh] has made a promise to intervene in the currency market…

British and US troops invaded Iraq in 2003 and ousted Saddam Hussein, claiming he possessed weapons of mass destruction. Sanctions against the Iraqi oil industry were immediately dropped and dozens of Western companies rushed in to make money. A barrister representing a British businessman accused of bribing an Iraqi oil official has told a trial in London the evidence against him included the “flimsiest of innuendos.” Adrian Eissa QC said his client, Stephen Whiteley, 65, had not been a party to any corrupt payments made by his employer, Monaco-based Unaoil via an intermediary, Basil al-Jarah. ​Whiteley is accused, along with…

The staggering increase in wealth inequality comes despite, or perhaps in part because of, several rounds of cash injections by the federal government to corporations, big banks and to a lesser extent, ordinary Americans which have added trillions of dollars to the US national debt. The wealthiest 600+ Americans saw their total wealth increase by $434 billion between March 18, when the government began implementing coronavirus-related lockdowns, and May 19, Americans for Tax Fairness, a Washington-based nonprofit, has reported, citing Forbes data. The payday added about 15 percent to the exclusive group’s portfolios, with their total wealth jumping from about $2.948…