Author: Steven Sahiounie

Saudi Arabian authorities have launched a new campaign of “arbitrary” arrests against Palestinian expatriates living in the conservative kingdom on charges of supporting the Hamas resistance movement. The Prisoners of Conscience, a non-governmental organization advocating human rights in Saudi Arabia, announced in a post on its official Twitter page that the kingdom had detained a number of Palestinians, including the relatives or children of those imprisoned last April for the same reason. On October 21 last year, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told Arabic-language Shehab news agency in an exclusive interview that Palestinians being held at prisons and detention centers in Saudi Arabia…

Moscow has called for restraint after a Turkish parliamentarian blamed Russia for the recent deaths of Turkish troops in clashes with Syrian government forces attempting to liberate the militant-held Idlib province. Devlet Bahceli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, MHP), had argued in the Turkish parliament that Moscow and Damascus were responsible for the deaths of 13 Turkish soldiers over the past week. “We consider it unacceptable to use the tragic events to ‘score points’ in the domestic political debate,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday, adding that Turkish lawmakers ought to “refrain from provocative comments,…

Syria’s air defenses have thwarted a missile attack, intercepting several “hostile targets” launched towards the capital, Damascus, Syrian state media reported. The attack reportedly did not result in any damage or casualties. “The hostile missiles came from the occupied Golan… and they were downed before they reached their targets,” a military source said, as cited by Syrian SANA news agency. The agency reported earlier, citing its own correspondent, that the missiles came from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel, which usually does not comment on its bombing incursions into Syria, is known to have repeatedly struck the Damascus countryside,…

by Demond Cureton The Chinese telecoms giant hit back at US officials publishing an alleged ‘bombshell’ report accusing them of using secret technology to spy on its customers. The news comes as tensions grow between the US and European allies as member-states have announced they will not block Huawei on 5G cooperation. Huawei Technologies slammed a Wall Street Journal report stating that the tech giant has a capability to extract data from mobile networks using “backdoors” in their 5G equipment, Huawei Central reported on Thursday. “The Wall Street Journal is clearly aware that the US government can’t provide any evidence to support their allegations,…

Tensions between Tehran and Washington have been simmering for over a month now after a US drone strike assassinated Soleimani in Baghdad on January 3. Meanwhile, this week, Iran and Israel once again exchanged threats, this time regarding one another’s operations in Syria. The US assassination of long-time Revolutionary Guards Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi Shia militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis will lead to the “liberation of Jerusalem” from Israel, IRGC spokesman Brig. Gen. Ramezan Sharif has announced. “The cowardly and craven assassination of commander Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis by the Americans will lead to the liberation…

There have been no immediate reports of casualties. A rocket attack hit an Iraqi base in the province of Kirkuk where US troops are stationed, AFP reported, citing Iraqi and US security sources. The Katyusha rocket hit the base at about 8:45 local time (17:45 GMT), the agency added, quoting three separate Iraqi security sources. No reports of casualties have been made so far. The base is located 15 km to the northwest of Kirkuk and it houses US military forces as well as Iraqi forces from the Federal Police and Counter-Terrorism Service. Last time the K1 base was attacked was on…

A financier of the Daesh terror group*, who has raised over 25 million rubles ($3.94 million) for the needs of terrorists, has been detained in the Moscow region, the Russian Federal Security Service said on Friday. “We have thwarted the activity of a member of an undercover cell that raised and transported funds for the needs of the Daesh,” the Federal Security Service said in a press release. The service added it had exposed the scheme of Daesh funding, through which over 25 million rubles had been raised. A criminal case has been opened against the detained financier, who is…

India abrogated the statehood and special status of Jammu and Kashmir on 5 August 2019, evoking objection and protests from neighbouring Pakistan and further worsening Indo-Pak relations. Since India’s move to split Kashmir into two federally-administered territories, Pakistan has been raising the Kashmir issue internationally. Reiterating his stance on Kashmir and blaming India for taking “unilateral steps”, Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated that the Kashmir dispute must be resolved through dialogue and peaceful means that are grounded in justice. “Our Kashmiri brothers have been living under difficult circumstances over the years. However, the recent unilateral steps have further…

With the number of non-dollar deals rising, Moscow and Brussels are discussing ways to boost the volume of settlements in euros or rubles, says Russia’s envoy to the EU Vladimir Chizhov. The talks about the switch-over come as the greenback still remains a “powerful weapon” of the US, the permanent representative to the EU said in an interview with Sputnik. Sanctions are another tool for Washington, as foreign companies dependent on the American market have to stop dealing with firms, as well as whole countries, that the US targets. We have dialogue [about switching to rubles and euro in settlements], and the…

By Andrew Korybko Shishir Upadhyaya, a former Indian naval intelligence officer and one of RT’s newest columnists, is incorrect in recently writing that the latest Russian-Indian oil deal is an “unpleasant surprise for Washington” since it’s actually an “unpleasant surprise” for Tehran because the Islamic Republic is powerless to stop two of its closest economic partners from taking advantage of the US’ unilateral anti-Iranian sanctions to strengthen their energy ties with one another at its expense, which in no way goes against America’s “Indo-Pacific” strategy but actually complements this grand strategic vision in its own way. *** New RT columnist and…