Author: Steven Sahiounie

An Israeli TV network claims that US intelligence agencies knew of an emerging coronavirus outbreak in China and gave Israel an advance warning in mid-November 2019, more than a month before clusters of infection in China started to be globally reported. US intelligence agencies had become aware of the outbreak as it spread early on in central China’s Wuhan City, Israel’s i24 news website cited a report by Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 as saying on Thursday. The agencies decided to warn US allies, such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries and Israel, after initially passing the information on…

The price for WTI oil has fallen below $19 per barrel for the first time since 31 January, 2002, trading data showed on Friday. As of 10.06 a.m. Moscow time (07:06 GMT), the price for WTI futures for delivery in May was falling by 4.28 percent to $19.02 per barrel, while mere minutes earlier it was down to $18.96 per barrel. At the same time, the price for Brent oil futures for delivery in June was up by 0.86 percent to $28.07 per barrel. On Sunday, OPEC+ signed a landmark deal that commits member nations to reduce crude oil production by 9.7…

Russia and the United States are parties to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), which is set to expire in 2021. It is the last remaining arms control treaty in force between Russia and the United States after the collapse of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Any future negotiations on arms control between Russia and the United States must include China, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in a phone conversation on Friday, according to the spokesperson for the United States Department of State Morgan Ortagus. “Secretary Pompeo and Foreign Minister Lavrov discussed next…

Air forces of the Saudi-led coalition have conducted 23 air raids on Yemen’s northeastern and northwestern provinces despite the coalition announcing a halt of activities amid the COVID-19 crisis, the Houthi rebel movement said on Friday. “The coalition’s air forces conducted 16 air raids on the Yemeni northeastern province of Marib, 10 of which were launched on its Majzar district, and six on Medghal”, the movement said via its Al Masirah TV broadcaster. According to the channel, the coalition has also attacked the northwestern province of Jawf, which borders Saudi Arabia, by seven airstrikes. On 8 April, the coalition announced…

US and Syrian forces and local residents have engaged in a tense war of position in the country’s northeast in recent months, with Syrian troops and locals repeatedly blocking American convoys attempting to make their way through local communities. Fortunately, most of these incidents have taken place without either side resorting to deadly force. Residents of the villages of Abu Qasaeib and al-Rhaia al-Souda in the al-Qamishli district, Al-Hasakah governorate banded together to intercept and turn back a US convoy of five vehicles, preventing them from traveling through their communities along a key local road, the Syrian Arab News Agency…

The Houthis announced on April 16 that they had repelled two attacks by the Saudi-led coalition and its proxies in northern Yemen. The first attack targeted the area of Abuab al-Hadid on the Yemeni border with the southern Saudi province of Asir. The Yemeni group’s artillery pounded the attackers, their positions and equipment, forcing them to retreat. The Saudi-led coalition’s second attack targeted the Houthis’ positions in the area of Rasha al-Sharqiyah on the border with the Kingdom’s southern province of Najran. Houthi fighters clashed with Saudi-backed fighters targeting them and their vehicles with machine guns and rocket propelled grenades.…

an unidentified group of gunmen killed six Afghans workers, and injured three, at the Bagram Airfield, the US air base in Afghanistan. Some sources claim there’s 5 victims and 4 injuries, and there is also a lack of clarity regarding who actually carried out the attack. All of the injured and fatalities are Afghans, not US citizens. The Bagram air base, located in Afghanistan’s Parwan province, is the largest US base in the country. No group has claimed responsibility for the incident and US military officials have not yet issued a release on the reported attack. In a separate report…

a checkpoint of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) security forces, Asayish, in the northern al-Hasakah countryside was attacked with two hand grenades. One of the grenades exploded inside the checkpoint, which is located in the southern part of al-Qamishli city. The other grenade was defused by Asayish. No SDF member was killed. In an official statement, Asayish accused fighters of the pro-government National Defense Forces (NDF) of carrying out the attack, vowing to punish the perpetrators. We will not tolerate any side that attempts to create problems in the region,” the statement reads Earlier this month, al-Qamishli witnessed a similar…

mysterious combat drones carried out a new series of strikes on the northwestern Syrian region of Greater Idlib. The strikes targeted militants’ positions and equipment in the town of al-Enkawi in northwest Hama and the town of Kafar Aweed in Idlib’s southern countryside. According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the strikes didn’t result in any casualties. On April 16 morning, two drone strikes targeted militants’ vehicles in al-Enkawi. Three Turkish-backed militants were killed and at least six others were injured. Opposition activists claimed that the strikes were carried out by Iranian or Russian drones. Both countries are known…

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator The chaos that Iraq is experiencing today has roots in the 2003 US invasion, which set-up sectarian divisions that have been used to keep the country in turmoil. The US foreign policy is based on creating chaos in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Syria, and Lebanon to further the US agenda. Iraq today stands on the edge of breaking free of the shackles of US domination. Iraq has a new Prime Minister On April 19, the President of Iraq named former spy-chief Mustafa Kadhimi as Prime Minister-designate. Kadhimi announced on April 14 that he had…