Author: Steven Sahiounie

Russia’s top brass has received the first regiment set of S-400 ‘Triumf’ anti-aircraft missile systems this year from Almaz-Antey defense manufacturer, the Company’s press office reported on Thursday. The official handover ceremony took place at the Kapustin Yar proving ground in the southern Astrakhan Region, TASS reports. “We have delivered the first regiment set of S-400 ‘Triumf’ systems this year to the state customer ahead of schedule. The delivery/acceptance tests have passed successfully,” the press office quoted Almaz-Antey CEO Yan Novikov as saying. Upon its delivery to Russia’s Defense Ministry, the military hardware was tested at the proving ground where…

Russian and Turkish servicemen conducted a regular joint patrol mission in Syria’s Aleppo governorate, Oleg Zhuravlev, chief of the Russian Center for reconciliation of the conflicting sides in Syria, told reporters on Thursday. “A regular joint Russian-Turkish patrol mission was conducted along the route Jarih-al-Fawkani-Shakhli-al-Fawkani-Zor Mgar-Mishko-Koula-Mutuluja-Siftek-Salib-Jarih-al-Fawkani in the Aleppo governorate,” he said. Units of the Russian military police also carried out patrolling in the Aleppo and al-Hasakah governorates. Russia’s air taskforce conducted an aerial patrol mission from the Qamishli airfield, TASS reports. Zhuravlev recalled that in line with the Russian-Turkish agreements, a ceasefire had been declared in the Idlib de-escalation…

The United States conducted precision strikes on Thursday against Kata’ib Hizbollah facilities in Iraq in response to an earlier attack on Camp Taji, the US Department of Defense said in a statement. “Earlier this evening, the United States conducted defensive precision strikes against Kata’ib Hizbollah (KH) facilities across Iraq. These strikes targeted five weapon storage facilities to significantly degrade their ability to conduct future attacks against Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) coalition forces.These weapon storage facilities include facilities that housed weapons used to target U.S. and coalition troops,” the statement said. “These strikes were defensive, proportional, and in direct response to…

The need for preventive measures in Russia amid the coronavirus pandemic should be reassessed after April 1, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday. “There is still a lot of time before April 22 [date of a nationwide vote on constitutional amendments],” Peskov said, commenting on whether Moscow had considered Tehran’s experience on holding elections amid the spread of coronavirus, TASS reports. “As you know, all preventive measures in Moscow, the Moscow Region and starting from today in St. Petersburg will be in effect until April 1,” Peskov said. “Then we will have to thoroughly weigh up the situation…

The Iraqi military and the presidency have condemned new US airstrikes, saying they killed soldiers, police officers and civilians overnight. “The Iraqi Presidency condemns airstrikes on several bases in Iraq, including a recently opened airport in the Holy City of Karbala which led to the death of security forces and civilians,” the presidency said in a statement on Friday. The Iraqi military also denounced the US strikes as a targeted aggression against the nation’s official armed forces and a violation of its sovereignty. According to the Iraqi military statement, three soldiers, two police officers and one civilian were killed in the attacks. The…

Turkey and Russia have agreed to begin joint patrols along a key highway in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib as part of a recent ceasefire agreement between the two sides, Turkey’s defense minister says. “Both sides have signed the prepared text, and it has entered into force. We will see the first application of this with joint patrols on March 15 along the M4 highway,” Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency quoted Hulusi Akar as saying on Friday. His remarks came after four days of talks between Russian and Turkish officials in Ankara aimed at working out the details of a…

By Michael Jansen Lebanon’s decision to default on the repayment of a $1.2 billion Eurobond was inevitable. Prime Minister Hassan Diab was absolutely right to put d needs of the Lebanese over the timetable for paying the country’s debilitating debts to international creditors. Lebanon should repay some $4.6 billion this year at a time Central Bank reserves have fallen to $20-30 billion. Diab revealed Lebanon’s debt now stands at $90 billion, or 170 per cent of GDP and pledged to restructure the debt as well as reduce the country’s outsized banking sector. Beirut can expect tough negotiations with creditors because governments have,…

By Stephen Lendman The longest bull market in US history began on March 9, 2009. It ended on March 11, 2020 when the Dow average closed down 20% from its 29,551.42 February 12, 2020 all-time closing high. The same goes for the S & P 500 and Nasdaq — the former way down from its 3,386.15 closing high, the latter far below its 9,817.18 record high valuation. According to stock market metrics used by most analysts, US equities reached bubble levels greater than before the 1929 crash and dot com peak. Even after declining around 20% through March 11, plunging…

By Michael Halpern The White House held dozens of meetings about coronavirus response that excluded government experts because the discussions were unnecessarily classified over the objections of HHS Secretary Alex Azar, reports Reuters. Experts were not just barred from speaking openly about what we knew about the emerging pandemic. Apparently, they weren’t even allowed in the room. “It is not normal to classify discussions about a response to a public health crisis,” an unnamed official from the Republican George W. Bush administration told the wire service. Yet this is President Trump’s approach to nearly every public health and environmental threat: find some way to exclude…

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator The western media has focused on Idlib as the last ‘rebel’ held area in Syria; however, it is held by Al Qaeda, not Syrian rebels.  The Syrian rebels, aka “Free Syrian Army” , ceased to exist years ago, when the Al Qaeda terrorists arrived through Turkey, supported by the US-NATO-EU bloc.  The western media have focused only on the suffering of the civilians in Idlib; however, they fail to acknowledge those civilians are not from Idlib.  The original residents of Idlib left years prior when the terrorists occupied the area. The people of Idlib…