Author: Steven Sahiounie

Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has held a phone conversation with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as the Damascus army inches closer to win the war against foreign-backed terrorist groups. In a post on his Twitter account on Friday, bin Zayed said that he had exchanged views with Assad on the novel coronavirus, COVID-19 and vowed to support the Arab country during the pandemic. For his part, Assad welcomed the UAE’s initiative and praised the Persian Gulf country’s humanitarian stance in light of the pandemic that is wreaking havoc in the region and the world. Syria has recorded five…

Local Yemeni sources have confirmed a missile attack on the Saudi capital, Riyadh, in reprisal for the regime’s air raids on the impoverished country. Speaking to Press TV, the unidentified sources said the Yemeni army targeted Riyadh with ballistic missiles late Saturday without giving any further details. Earlier in the day, Saudi state media reported that at least one ballistic missile and a rocket had been intercepted in the sky above Riyadh and the southern city of Jazan. However, a spokesperson for Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defense said two people were wounded in the strikes. The contradictory accounts have not been explained…

Turkish forces and allied Takfiri militants have once again cut off drinking water supply to people in Syria’s northeastern city of Hasakah and surrounding areas, only a few days after the Damascus government complained to the United Nations and the Security Council over the issue. Director General of Hasakah Water Company, Mahmoud al-Ukla, told Syria’s official news agency SANA in a statement on Sunday that the Turkish troops and their allies stopped the pumping of water from the Allouk water station at 10 p.m. local time (1900 GMT) last night, and have refused to reverse their decision. He emphasized that the…

The Syrian government has decided to restrict traffic between the country’s provinces until 16 April as part of measures taken to curb the COVID-19 pandemic, the SANA news agency reported. The first death from the coronavirus has been confirmed in Syria, the state news agency reported. Authorities in Syria have so far confirmed five COVID-19 cases. A curfew was imposed across the country on 25 March. The World Health Organisation declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic on 11 March. According to the Johns Hopkins University count, over 684,000 coronavirus cases have been confirmed globally and more than 32,000 people have…

Tensions between Tehran and Washington further deteriorated in early January, when top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was assassinated in a US drone strike on his car in Baghdad. Major General Hossein Salami, Chief Commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), has urged the US to use its military for domestic purposes instead of sending it abroad. “When the Americans are in the region, they will both harm themselves and the nations [in the region], and their existence results in nothing but the deterioration of their own power and damage to these nations”, Salami pointed out on Saturday. He referred…

Last week, the US Department of Energy announced plans to purchase 77 million barrels of oil on the domestic market to shore up the country’s strategic reserve amid the increasing coronavirus outbreak. US pipeline operators are asking producers to cut oil production amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that has led to drastic cuts in global crude output, Bloomberg reports. The news agency quoted Plains All American Pipeline LP, one of the country’s largest shippers of crude, as saying in a letter earlier this week that the company is “sending this proactive request to our suppliers to ask that you take steps to…

The US-led coalition forces led by the United States officially transferred K1 Air Base in the northern Iraqi province of Kirkuk to the Iraqi Armed Forces on Sunday, Brig. Gen. Vincent Barker, the sustainment director of combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) said. “K1 has served as a critical location for the Coalition, the ISF and Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service in the fight to find and destroy ISIS safe havens in the rugged Hamrin Mountains. It will continue to be a key location in our partnered efforts to eliminate the evils of Daesh [Islamic State terror group,…

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator More than 15 military transport planes flew from Russia to Italy delivering disinfection units, 180 doctors, 100 personnel which include specialists in biological protection, nurses, ventilators, and masks.  The experts sent to Italy have worked on international epidemics including African Swine Fever and in developing an Ebola vaccine. Italy’s Prime Minister Guiseppe Conte had requested help from Russia, and the government commissioner for the coronavirus emergency, Domenico Arcuri, confirmed the help had arrived.  ‎‎Luigi Di Maio, Italy’s Foreign Minister, personally welcomed the first Russian plane to arrive on Sunday.   Videos emerged online of…

On March 20, forces loyal to the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Libya shot down a Turkish unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that was supporting them by mistake. GNA sources released a video showing government fighters showing off the wreckage of the downed UAV. The fighters laugh as they falsely claim that the drone was being operated by the Libyan National Army (LNA). The UAV was identified as a Bayraktar Mini, manufactured by Turkey’s Baykary. The drone has a range of 10 km with an endurance of up to 60 minutes. This type of Turkish UAVs was not spotted in…

Iranian-backed forces, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, are establishing dozens of positions south of the Syrian capital, Damascus, Zaman al-Wasl reported on March 25. According to the pro-opposition outlet, the new positions include barracks, training camps, intelligence bases, technical workshops and a drone base. All the positions are allegedly located near the Shiite-majority area of Set Zaynab. The outlet revealed one of the positions, a supposed “drone base” located 5 km to the south of Set Zaynab. The base is supposedly being operated by Hezbollah and hosting several Iranian-made Muhajir-4 drones. Zaman al-Wasl contradicted its own narrative by acknowledging that the supposed “drone base”…