Author: Steven Sahiounie

The tensions between Washington and Tehran have escalated after Iran’s top military commander was killed in a targeted US drone attack at the Baghdadi International airport on 3 January. In response to the Iranian threats of retaliation, Trump suggested striking 52 Iranian cultural sites if attacks against US assets were to take place. US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the US is prepared for any retaliation on the side of Iran and that Washington is ready to retaliate in return. He added that he wants to obey international law when it comes to striking cultural sites. “If that’s what the…

Utah’s Hill Air Force Base put on a powerful show of force, practicing a maneuver known as an “elephant walk,” in which they launched more than 50 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters in just minutes. However, the US Air Force swears it has nothing to do with simmering tensions with Iran. Two fighter wings at Hill Air Force Base practiced a rapid deployment method called an “elephant walk,” quickly launching 52 F-35 Lightning II stealth aircraft with just seconds between each takeoff. The whole exercise took just over 10 minutes, according to local paper The Standard-Examiner. ​“Today’s exercise marks the accomplishment of…

Steven Sahiounie, political commentator Iraq’s parliament met on Sunday and passed a resolution asking all 5,200 US troops to be expelled.  After hearing of the Iraqi decision, US President Trump refused the request, balking at the democratic process of an elected body of a sovereign nation, and insisted,  “We’re not leaving unless they pay us back for it,” referring to a US air force base in Iraq, one of 12 US military facilities there.  US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, “We are confident the Iraqi people will want the U.S. to remain.” He also disregarded the democratic process in…

By: Craig Murray For the United States to abandon proxy warfare and directly kill one of Iran’s most senior political figures has changed international politics in a fundamental way. It is a massive error. Its ramifications are profound and complex. There is also a lesson to be learned here in that this morning there will be excitement and satisfaction in the palaces of Washington, Tel Aviv, Riyadh and Tehran. All of the political elites will see prospects for gain from the new fluidity. While for ordinary people in all those countries there is only the certainty of more conflict, death…

By: David Stockman By the twisted logic of Imperial Washington you could say the Iranians were asking for it. After all, they had the nerve to locate their country right in the middle of 35 U.S. military bases! Then again, your saner angels may ask: What in the hell is Washington doing with a massive military footprint in a region and in a string of backwater countries that have virtually no bearing on homeland security, safety and liberty? Djibouti? Oman? Kyrgyzstan? Uzbekistan? Afghanistan? Bahrain? Kuwait? And, yes, Iraq and Iran? In fact, Washington destroyed the former for no good reason…

US stock indices fell the day after Washington’s assassination of a top Iranian general, precipitating an international crisis that could lead to a shooting war. However, the stocks of US defense contractors soared. As the closing bell rang at the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, the Dow Jones registered a 233.92-point drop, while the S&P 500 fell by 23 points and the Nasdaq by 71.42 points. Late Thursday night, the Pentagon confirmed it had assassinated Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the elite Quds Force unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), in an airstrike at Baghdad airport. The same…

On Friday, a US drone attack killed Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) elite Quds Force in Baghdad, prompting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to state that Tehran will take revenge for what it views to be a terrorist action by Washington. An unnamed US official claimed that Iranian missile forces across the country were on a “heightened state of alert”, noting that the US military have been closely watching for further moves by Tehran, Reuters reported. According to the report, the official said that “it was unclear whether the higher readiness level was defensive in…

The dramatic move to expel US troops followed nearly two weeks of violence and escalations which culminated in the US assassination of a senior Iranian military commander on Iraqi soil. Iraq’s parliament was convened for an extraordinary session on Sunday, voting to terminate the operation of the US-led coalition against Daesh (ISIS),* and passing a resolution demanding the withdrawal of all foreign military personnel stationed in the country, including an estimated 5,000 US troops. Here’s what the move means in practice: US troops were originally withdrawn from Iraq in late 2011, in accordance with the 2008 status of forces agreement and ‘Strategic…

The U.S. should be awaiting attacks on its assets in European states in response to the assassination of Iran’s Quds Force Commander Maj. Gen. Qassim Soleimani, head of the political bureau of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on January 5. In an interview with the Tehran-based al-Alam TV, Brig. Gen. Yadollah Javani also revealed that Syria, a key ally of Iran, will play a role in the response to the killing of Solimani. “The response to the assassination of General Soleimani and revenge against America will be strong in the right time and place,” the commander said, adding…

Earlier on Sunday, about 50 members of the UK’s Special Air Service (SAS) were sent to Iraq to help with the potential evacuation of Britons following Friday’s US drone strike which killed Qasem Soleimani, head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)’s elite Quds Force. A UK Royal Navy nuclear-powered attack submarine will be “in position to strike Iran” if the current tensions between Tehran and Washington over the killing of an Iranian general result in a full-fledged armed conflict, The Sun reports . The newspaper cited unnamed senior UK defence sources as saying that an Astute-class hunter-killer sub armed with Tomahawk cruise…