Author: Steven Sahiounie

Syrian and Russian companies began joint work on oil and gas geological exploration in the Mediterranean Sea, Bouthaina Shaaban, an adviser to Syrian President Bashar Assad, said Wednesday. “This is the first time I say this — Syria began joint work with Russian companies on oil and gas geological exploration in the Mediterranean Sea,” Shaaban said in an interview with Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen broadcaster. She added that the Syrian authorities began preparing for this project several years ago. In 2017, Syrian President Assad said that the Syrian government has reached contracts with a number of Russian oil and gas companies and would continue…

By Tim Korso The Trump administration is trying to find a new approach to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as it believes that further pressure on him and his country over the purchase of Russian defence systems and Turkey’s operation in Syria could push Ankara to develop closer ties with Russia, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources in the US. Despite this understanding, however, the US still intends to impose economic sanctions against Turkey, the sources told the media outlet, explaining that President Donald Trump would have to “contend with angry US lawmakers”, who recently passed bills that envisage…

Twenty American soldiers have been recorded this year among those killed during the US conflicts in Afghanistan, making 2019 the deadliest year since Washington officially announced an end to operations in 2014. A 33-year-old US Army Green Beret was the 20th person to die on Monday after sustaining injuries in an explosion in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz on December 22. Sgt. 1st Class Michael James Goble was on his third tour of duty in Afghanistan, when he got killed. Sgt. 1st Class Goble was more than just a member of the 7th Special Forces Group,” the group’s commander,…

Hong Kong marked Christmas Eve with a new round of clashes between rioters and Police officers. The main clashes took place in the shopping hubs of Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok. In order to contain the violence, in some cases, Police were forced to use tear gas and pepper balls at the rioters. Police added that a “large group of rioters” had built barricades, damaged traffic lights and dug up bricks on the area pf Peninsula Hotel. The scale of riots in comparison with the previous rounds of violence remained relatively low. However, the fact that the leaders of the…

Drones from the US base in Al Tanf conducted a strike against oil facilities in the Syrian province of Homs on December 12, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on December 23 at the meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. “The US, using its illegal military base in Al Tanf, sent drones to Homs and committed air strikes by them against the oil refining infrastructure. It took place four days ago,” the Minister commented. “I would like to note that this occured in winter, when we have a pressing need for oil and gas. Yesterday Israel made an attack…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claims that 2,000 Russian and 5,000 Sudanese mercenaries are participating in the Libyan conflict on the side of the Libyan National Army (LNA). The Turkish President made this claim in Tunisia on December 25. He arrived in the country to discuss with its leadership the situation in neighbouring Libya, in which Ankara supports the LNA’s rival – the Government of National Accord (GNA). The main reason of the Turkish ‘friendship’ with the GNA is that it had signed a maritime memorandum that helps Ankara to legalize its controversial drilling activities in the Eastern So, now,…

Steven Sahiounie, political commentator The more than 1,200 US troops illegally occupying eastern Syria are not coming home anytime soon. They are acting as the security guards of the newest American ‘state-owned’ oil company.  The US has always billed itself as a Capitalist nation, and the current US administration has used the word, Socialist as if it was the plague; however, the Trump government is now operating as a Socialist regime, with ‘state-owned’ companies generating revenue, and the US soldiers working as security guards.  The Pentagon lawyers are busy trying to find a legal footing to defend the US position…

At least 12 people were killed, and 15 more wounded: In non-protest-related violence: An ISIS attack on a police outpost at an oil facility in Baiji left four solders dead and another wounded. One militant was also killed. In Mukhisa, a sniper killed a soldier. A bomb wounded three soldiers. Two people were killed and another was wounded during an ISIS attack in Shoura. Gunmen killed a militiaman and wounded three more in the Hamrin region. In Baghdad, a motorcycle bomb wounded three people in the Bayaa neighborhood. Four people were wounded when a bomb on a motorcycle blew up in Shoala. At least one person was killed in the bombings. These attacks do not appear to be related to protests. Protest News: Gunmen killed…

Hostilities between the United States and its Arab allies, on one side, and Iran, on the other side, shaped this year’s political landscape in the Middle East and brought the region to the brink of an armed conflict. Prince Turki Al-Faisal, the former head of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence agency, has warned that the possibility of a military conflict in the Middle East persists, even though the escalation of tensions stopped in the past two months. Prince Turki spoke to reporters on Friday as he visited London to promote an exhibition about his father, the late King Faisal. “We have seen…

Militant groups have recruited dozens of former French soldiers, a troubling new report revealed less than three months after a terrorist attack by a staff member at police headquarters in Paris shocked the nation. More than a third of the ex-servicemen are converts to the Wahhabi Islam promoted by Saudi Arabia and groups like Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) and nearly half served in the elite Foreign Legion, parachute, commando or marine units where they acquired expertise in combat and handling weapons and explosives. The conservative newspaper Le Figaro published excerpts on Wednesday from the forthcoming report by the Center for…