Author: Steven Sahiounie

The Energy Ministry of Saudi Arabia will soon announce the opening of two new oil fields that were discovered in the first three months of this year, Arab media reported, citing a communication from the kingdom’s oil company Saudi Aramco. According to Al Arabiya broadcaster, the Saudi Energy Ministry will announce the opening of the new fields after putting together the data about their discovery in accordance with all legal requirements and regulations. Saudi Arabia is the third-largest producer of oil and one of the world’s largest exporters.

Gulf kingdoms’ move to deepen oil supply cuts in June following the OPEC+ group’s decision to slash output by a record 9.7 million bpd has sent oil prices higher. International energy experts discuss whether additional cuts could become a panacea for the fragile oil market. Saudi Arabia signalled Monday that it would further reduce crude output by another 1 million barrels per day next month, while the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait vowed to additionally slash oil production by 100,000 bpd and 80,000 bpd in June, respectively. “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s initiatives aim at urging the countries participating…

The order, launched in May last year, placed Huawei, ZTE and dozens of other Chinese tech firms on an Entity List, citing national security. US president Donald Trump extended on Wednesday an executive order barring US firms from buying and using Huawei telecom equipment, Reuters reported. The news comes as the US Commerce Department is set to extend a licence allowing US firms to continue buying and selling with the Chinese tech giant, according to a source cited by Reuters. But such licence extensions were slammed by wireless trade association CTIA, who urged US authorities to back a “long-term” licence extension.…

The president’s comments follow in the wake of increasingly bellicose statements by US officials in recent days threatening to sanction, sue or tariff China over its alleged mishandling of the coronavirus crisis. Beijing has warned that it would retaliate to any hostile US measures. The United States could cut off diplomatic relations with China entirely over the coronavirus crisis, and save half a trillion dollars doing so, President Donald Trump has announced. “There are many things we could do. We could cut off the whole relationship. Now if you did, what would happen? You’d save $500 billion dollars if you…

A lightning-quick rally in US equities is showing cracks, as investors face mounting evidence that the economy’s coronavirus-fueled woes may be far longer-lasting than many had anticipated. For weeks, hopes that massive stimulus from the Federal Reserve and U.S. government would set the stage for a recovery later in the year fueled a blistering rebound in stocks even as the worst drop-off in jobs since the Great Depression slammed the economy. But recent comments from top officials have undercut the case for a speedy economic recovery even as states ease lockdown restrictions, forcing investors to factor in a protracted downturn…

China says the United States is smearing the Asian country after Washington alleged that Chinese hackers were attempting to break into US COVID-19 research on developing a vaccine against the contagious disease. The US claimed on Wednesday that Beijing-linked hackers were trying to capture data from its research on ways of treating COVID-19-hit patients and developing vaccines for the disease. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) alleged that China’s purported efforts posed a “significant threat” to the US response to the pandemic, fueling already heightened tensions between the two countries. On Thursday, Beijing strongly rejected the…

Israeli military forces have shot dead a young Palestinian man in the West Bank as tensions continue to rise in the occupied territories on the eve of the 72nd anniversary of Nakba Day (the Day of Catastrophe). The Israeli military, in a statement released on Thursday, alleged that a 19-year-old Palestinian, whose identity was not immediately available, drove at high speed into soldiers standing next to a military observation post outside the Negohot settlement in the southern part of the West Bank city of al-Khalil, located 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of Jerusalem al-Quds. The statement added that a 21-year-old soldier was injured in the…

A US-Taliban peace agreement has not put an end to the militant group’s attacks across Afghanistan. According to a report by Afghanistan’s interior ministry and the country’s intelligence body, National Directorate of Security, the Taliban have carried out more than 3,700 attacks since February 29th when the deal was signed. Four hundred and sixty-nine civilians, including women and children, were killed in the attacks across the country and 948 others were wounded. During the same period, Afghan forces who were on the defensive killed more than 2,000 Taliban militants and captured 173 of them in their operations. The Daesh terrorist group also recently…

The United Nations food agency says a record 9.3 million people are now food insecure in Syria, which has endured almost a decade of foreign-backed militancy and is under rounds of crippling economic sanctions imposed by the United States. The World Food Program said on Thursday that spiraling prices and the coronavirus pandemic have compounded the damage of the nine-year war. “Record high food prices & now COVID-19 have pushed families in Syria beyond their limits,” the WFP wrote on Twitter. “WFP estimates that a record 9.3 million people are now food insecure,” it added. A WFP spokeswoman said the figure has leapt from 7.9 million…

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator The US military has created a new base at Deir Ez Zor, in eastern Syria, after bringing in military supplies, the ‘Syrian Observatory for Human Rights’ (SOHR) reported on Friday. Massive reinforcements were observed in the al-Jazat area, just west of the oil-rich area of Deir Ez Zor.  Reports indicated some 300 trucks entered eastern Syria from western Iraq. 300 US military shipments reached al-Jazrat over the past few days, according to ‘SOHR’, based in the UK.  They further reported the US troops are expanding their base at the al-Omar oil field, to the…