Author: Steven Sahiounie

The war-torn nation of Libya, which descended into a foreign-backed civil war in 2011 after NATO warplanes helped rebels topple Muammar Gaddafi, has faced a major escalation of fighting in the past year as Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) attempts a final push to drive the Government of National Accord (GNA) out of Tripoli. The murky web of backdoor alliances, arms deals and geopolitical infighting for control of oil-rich Libya seems to have become even murkier amid reports that the United Arab Emirates has quietly purchased an advanced Israeli-made missile system for Marshal Haftar’s LNA forces. According to…

Saudi Arabia, a major strategic ally of the US, has been at the centre of an oil output cut dispute with Russia that unleashed a price war and sent already-volatile crude prices to their 18-year lows. American senators from oil-producing states reproached the Saudi ambassador in a heated phone call and threatened to rethink diplomatic relations with the kingdom, according to their accounts of the conversation. “We are going to fundamentally, not only reevaluate, but take actions that will start to undermine the long term relationship that many of us have supported,” Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan said, recounting what he…

On the evening of April 9th, the Government of National Accord’s air force, and very likely with assistance from Turkey, carried out heavy drone strikes on Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) positions in Tarhuna. Tarhuna is located southeast of Tripoli. Around the same time LNA air defense reportedly shot down an UAV at Tenai near Bani Walid. A tweet reported that an Italian helicopter landed on the shore near Tripoli, in a tweet that has since been deleted. However, a photograph remains of the purported helicopter about to land. The GNA said that the situation in Tripoli…

A newly-established Iraqi armed group identifying itself as Qabdat al-Hudaa (QH) has threatened the American and British ambassadors in the capital, Baghdad. In a statement released on April 9, the mysterious group called on both ambassadors to depart the country within 48 hours, vowing to kill them “According to information we received, the American forces of evil are planning to carry out an attack against the blessed Islamic resistance factions and the Iraqi people, so we tell them that out eyes are monitoring you in everywhere, and to the American and British ambassadors in Baghdad [we say] if you don’t…

Hezbollah, a Lebanese political party and militant group, has played a key role in Syria’s fight against a broad collection of terrorist groups in recent years. At the same time, the group is designated as a terrorist organization by Israel and its US and European allies. The Israeli military has published a video which it says shows a meeting between a senior Syrian military commander and Hezbollah militia somewhere in Syria, warning that Tel Aviv “won’t allow” the militia “to entrench itself militarily” in the Arab Republic. “Look closely. See the man with white hair? That’s the head of the…

The first confirmed Covid-19 case has been recorded in war-torn Yemen as the devastated nation braces for the pandemic to hit. A local health official has warned that up to 90 percent of the population could become infected. The first case of the disease was recorded in the large eastern Hadhramaut Province, the country’s emergency committee to combat Covid-19 announced on Friday. The patient is in stable condition and is receiving treatment, the officials said. Yemen has been devastated by a bloody civil war, which began after the Houthi rebel movement toppled President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, who went into exile…

Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi says Iran is worried about the lives of nearly 6,000 Palestinian prisoners kept in Israeli jails as well as the people of the Gaza Strip who are living in the “world’s biggest prison” amid the coronavirus outbreak. “Today, nearly 5,800 Palestinian men and women are imprisoned by the Zionists, and we are worried about their lives, especially given the fact that over 200 women and children are jailed undersuch worrying situation,” Raisi said. Speaking in a phone conversation with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, Raisi said the release of Palestinian inmates innocently jailed by the Zionist regime is more…

Yemen has reported its first case of infection with the novel coronavirus in a southern province under the control of Saudi-sponsored militiamen loyal to the country’s former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. This has raised fears of an outbreak in an impoverished country where five years of a bloody campaign led by the regime in Riyadh have shattered the health system. The supreme national emergency committee for COVID-19 in Yemen said in a posting on its Twitter page on Friday that the case was diagnosed in the oil-producing Hadhramaut province. The committee said the infected patient has been identified in…

The Afghan government has reported that they released 100 Taliban prisoners on Wednesday, a move that came a day after the Taliban ended talks with them trying to secure the releases, declaring it to be a waste of time. The first releases of prisoners, 5,000 of which were promised in the US peace deal, was supposed to begin weeks ago. The Ghani government has repeatedly delayed releases since then, arguing that the Taliban can’t be trusted. The Taliban hasn’t been able to confirm the release yet, but they could either take the lesson that the Ghani government is slowly coming around, or…

Lebanese Prime Minister Dr. Hassan Diab received on Wednesday morning the Commander of the International Emergency Forces operating in southern Lebanon, General Stefano Del Cole in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Zina Akar, the Director of Intelligence in the Lebanese Army, and Brigadier Tony Mansour. “The situation is stable along the Blue Line,” Del Cole said. Diab said he “sent complaints about Israel’s violation of Lebanese airspace to the United Nations Secretariat and the UN Security Council,” stressing “the need to end Israeli violations with the help of the Security Council.” In turn, Diab expressed…