Author: Steven Sahiounie

French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a joint statement on Sunday that they remained committed to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and urged Tehran to cancel all measures that go against the Iran nuclear deal. “We stay committed to JCPOA and its preservation; we call on Iran to cancel all measures incompatible with the agreement,” the statement, released by the Elysee Palace’s press office, read. Paris, Berlin and London also urged Tehran to refrain from further proliferation and reaffirmed their readiness to continue dialogue with Iran in order…

The commander of the Iranian Armed Forces’ Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, has apologized for shooting down Ukraine’s Boeing 737, Iran’s ISNA news agency reported. “Never in my life was I so ashamed. Perhaps we made a mistake that caused many of our compatriots to die. However, we did it unintentionally, we apologize,” the media outlet quoted Salami as saying during his speech in the Iranian parliament. Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 crashed near Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport minutes after takeoff on Wednesday. All 176 people on board were killed, including citizens of Iran, Ukraine,…

On January 2, the US launched an airstrike at Baghdad International Airport, killing Iranian Gen. Qassem Suleimani, and multiple Iraqis. It turns out that was not the only US assassination bid that day. US officials are now reporting that they also took a shot at Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander Gen. Abdul Reza Shahlai, who was in Yemen at the time. They failed to kill him. Officials are declining to offer specifics, but the Treasury Department accused him of “a long history of targeting Americans and US allies globally.” Officials are also not talking about what specifically the justification for the attack…

Warplanes of the Syrian Arab Air Force (SyAAF) carried out on January 11 morning a series of airstrikes on Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) so-called “security zone” in Idlib’s city center. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that the Syrian airstrikes targeted the outskirt of the “Cultural Center” in the city’s center. Several headquarters of al-Qaeda-affiliated HTS are believed to be located in that part of the city. Syrian warplanes also targeted the towns of Khan Assubul, Deir Sunbul, Sarmin, al-Nerab, Binish and the city of Ma`arat al-Nu`man, which are located to the east and south of Idlib’s…

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) has repelled a ground attack led by al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) on its positions in the southeastern Idlib countryside, commander of the Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria revealed on January 11. In an official statement, Maj. Gen. Yuri Borenkov said that the attack, that targeted the town of Jarjanaz on January 10, was launched from the nearby town of Talmenes. “Up to 200 militants and 30 pickups with large-caliber machine guns were involved in the attack. With point fire from the tanks and artillery of Syrian government forces, the attack was repulsed, the militants…

US President Donald Trump has appealed directly to the protesters in the streets of Iran, wading into the grief and fueling anti-government discontent, after Tehran admitted to have accidentally shot down a Ukrainian jet. “To the brave, long-suffering people of Iran: I’ve stood with you since the beginning of my Presidency, and my Administration will continue to stand with you. We are following your protests closely, and are inspired by your courage,” Trump wrote both in English and Farsi, addressing the protesters in Iran. “The world is watching,” Trump said in a separate tweet, warning the government of Iran against “another massacre of…

Caretaker Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi has asked the United States to send a delegation to Iraq to begin preparing for a troop pullout, his office said on Friday. In a phone call late on Thursday with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Abdul-Mahdi “requested that delegates be sent to Iraq to set the mechanisms to implement parliament’s decision for the secure withdrawal of [foreign] forces from Iraq,” AFP reports. Some 5,200 US soldiers are stationed at bases across Iraq to support local troops preventing a resurgence of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS).They make up the bulk of a broader US-led coalition, invited…

Stocks fell on Friday, reversing from an all-time high of 29,000 at the end of a volatile week full of geopolitical concerns. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 133.13 points lower, or 0.5% at 28,823.77. Earlier in the session, the 30-stock average broke above 29,000 for the first time ever. The S&P 500 lost 0.3% to end the day at 3,265.35. The Nasdaq Composite also dipped 0.3% to 9,178.86. Boeing shares dropped 1.9% on Friday to lead the Dow lower. The financials and industrials sectors dropped at least 0.7% each to drag down the S&P 500. The major averages, however, posted…

On Friday, two reporters were shot dead in Basra, Iraq by unidentified armed men after filming protests in the country, according to the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory. Ruptly stringer cameraman Saaf Ghali has been killed in Iraq, according to Sputnik and RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan. The operator was killed after filming a demonstration in Iraq related to the ongoing US-Iran tensions, Teller Report stated. “In Iraq, unknown armed people killed our stringer cameraman Saaf Ghali. Saaf actively filmed materials for our Ruptly video agency in the region. We will do everything to help his family”, Margarita Simonyan wrote on her Telegram…

US NATO ally Turkey has been increasingly distancing itself from Washington recently over their ongoing row over Ankara’s purchase of Russian air defence systems. Turkey might turn to Russia even more in search of air defence technologies and weapons like S-500s if western countries, specifically the US and France, continue to deny Ankara access to their technologies, Defence News online media outlet reported, citing anonymous Turkish officials. “Any Western reluctance to share technology for political reasons would lead us to look for alternative technologies in countries with which we do not have political problems. Most exclusively including Russia”, a Turkish…