Author: Steven Sahiounie

By Pepe Escobar This is arguably the ultimate road trip on earth. Marco Polo did it. All the legendary Silk Road explorers did it. Traveling the Pamir Highway back to back, as a harsh winter approaches, able to appreciate it in full, in silence and solitude, offers not only a historical plunge into the intricacies of the ancient Silk Road but a glimpse of what the future may bring in the form of the New Silk Roads. This is a trip steeped in magic ancient history. Tajiks trace their roots back to tribes of Sogdians, Bactrians and Parthians. Indo-Iranians lived in…

A series of hostile moves between the United States and Turkey began after Ankara’s purchase of Russian S-400 air defence systems and the country’s operation in northern Syria. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated that Ankara could seek to shut down the Incirlik airbase if the US were to move forward with imposing sanctions against Turkey. “It is important for both sides that the US does not take irrevocable measures… Turkey will, of course, respond to any US sanctions. If needed, we will close both Incirlik and Kurecik”, he said. Prior to this, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, in…

BY RANIA KHALEK The US is desperate to ride the revolutionary wave in Lebanon, hoping it can fracture a governing coalition that includes Hezbollah, a top target of the Trump administration and its friends from Tel Aviv to Riyadh. To this end, political figures Washington has cultivated and parties the US backs have penetrated the protest movement that has swept the country and are now on the frontlines of blockades obstructing roads around the country. In the first part of this report, I surveyed the role of the US in weaponizing NGO’s and civil society activists to co-opt the nationwide anti-corruption protests.…

The Syrian Arab Air Force (SyAAF) resumed on December 15 its combat operations against terrorists’ positions in the so-called Greater Idlib region in northwest Syria. According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), Syrian attack helicopters carried out in the early morning a series of airstrikes on the towns of Alteh and Ma’ar Shoreen in the southern Idlib countryside. Terrorists’ fortifications around the town of Kabani in the northern Lattakia countryside were also targeted with several airstrikes. Earlier this week, the SyAAF halted its combat and even reconnaissance operations over Greater Idlib as a result of bad weather…

Saudi oil giant Aramco is planning to invest in one of Syria’s largest oil fields in the governorate of Deir Ezzor, the local Deir Ezzor 24 blog reported on November 14. According to the blog, which is well-known for its connections in Deir Ezzor, a team of Aramco’s experts has already visited and inspected the al-Omar oil fields in southeastern Deir Ezzor. “The investment will be done through contracts that will be signed by Aramco and the U.S. government, whose forces control the majority of oil and Gas fields in northeast Syria,” Deir Ezzor 24 quoted a source as saying.…

By: Mikhail Khodarenok To avoid any potential incidents, Americans should simply withdraw and end the unlawful presence of their forces in Syria. And abstain from alarmist headlines foreshadowing a shooting war. American commanders in Syria are scrambling to protect their forces from an expected surge in activity by military units from Turkey, Russia, Iran and the Syrian government. They believe these countries pose a greater danger than Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) forces, the New York Times reports. Anonymous sources, questionable statements According to anonymous Department of Defense officials, “commanders have requested guidance outlining how American forces might deal with an attack…

The Turkish government has sent to the parliament the text of a military agreement it reached with Libya’s internationally-recognized government for approval, moving closer to military support for the Tripoli-based unity Government of National Accord (GNA). Since 2014, Libya has been divided between two rival governments: the House of Representatives based in the eastern city of Tobruk and the GNA, led by Fayez al-Sarraj. Renegade Libyan general Khalifa Haftar, who is commander-in-chief of the so-called Libyan National Army (LNA), supports the eastern government. In April, he launched an offensive to capture the capital Tripoli and oust the GNA. Despite intense and deadly clashes…

Lebanon’s caretaker Interior Minister Raya El-Hassan has ordered the country’s law enforcement agencies to open a “rapid and transparent” inquiry, after dozens of people were wounded in clashes during recent demonstrations that had erupted in a barricaded central district of Beirut. In a statement released on Sunday, Interior Minister Raya El-Hassan demanded the identification of those responsible for the most violent episode since the largely peaceful anti-government protests began on October 17. “I have asked the command of the Internal Security Forces to conduct a speedy and transparent probe to identify the culprits and the responsibilities in order to take…

Two gas fields with a capacity of one million cubic meters, located to the east of the Syrian city of Homs, were put into operation, the Syrian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources said on Sunday. “Local specialists in record time … provided one million cubic meters of gas by putting into operation and connecting to the common network of the Sharifah-2 and Sharifah-104 fields east of Homs”, the ministry said in a press release seen by the media The ministry added that due to the growing demand for gas, it took 15 days to connect the fields to the…

Russian military police continued on Saturday to patrol Syria’s provinces of Aleppo and Hasakah, Major General Yuri Borenkov, the head of the Russian Defence Ministry’s Reconciliation Centre in Syria, said. “Patrols by the Russian military police continued on routes Qamishli -Tel Abu Ras Ain, Ain Issa – Mabruk, Qamishli – Mabruk in Hasakah province, Ajami – Karakozak and Ajami – Bozgekli in Aleppo province”, he said. Earlier in the month, an improvised explosive device has gone off in front of a Russian police armoured police vehicle near Kobane injuring three servicemen. Patrols are part of the Russia-Turkey deal on a buffer zone in northern Syria…