Author: Steven Sahiounie

Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan accused Turkish authorities of transporting foreign fighters to neighboring Azerbaijan.This came in a press conference held by Mnatsakanyan with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry, within the framework of his current visit to Cairo.Mnatsakanyan’s accusation against Ankara came in response to a statement by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last July, in which he said:“We will never hesitate to confront any attack on the rights and lands of Azerbaijan.”Armenia considers this statement an implicit threat to Turkey to use force in the conflict with Azerbaijan over the mountainous Karabakh region.There have been several allegations, mostly from…

The United States has welcomed Serbia’s intention to recognize the Lebanese-based Hezbollah movement as a terrorist organization, calling on other countries to follow the lead, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Sunday.Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic signed an agreement committing Belgrade to recognizing Hezbollah as a terrorist organization during his visit to Washington last week, where he attended talks with US President Donald Trump and Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti.Kosovo already designated Hezbollah’s military wing last year and extended the designation upon its political wing in June.“Serbia’s announcement that it will designate Hizballah as a terrorist…

Russian sociologist Maxim Shugaley became a member of the Komi State Council and the first parliamentarian to be held hostage in an foreign prison. The list of the Motherland party in the Komi State Council elections was headed by Maxim Shugaley, an employee of the Foundation for the Protection of National Values, who is being illegally detained in Libya for already more than a year. The party believes that the scientist’s absentee participation in the elections will accelerate his release from Libyan captivity. The Komi Republic, or Komi, is a federal subject of the Russian Federation in northwestern Russia, with the city of Syktyvkar…

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…