Author: Steven Sahiounie

Tehran has allegedly taken advantage of the ongoing unrest in the neighboring nation to stockpile its secret arsenal of short-range ballistic missiles, US intelligence and military officials claim. A possible offshore Iranian arsenal could allegedly provide superiority to Tehran and the nation’s military in a possible standoff with the United States and its regional allies, The New York Times said Wednesday, citing US military and intelligence officials. According to the media report, the intelligence sources declined to name the exact type of missiles allegedly smuggled into Iraq, noting however, that short-range missiles have a range of just over 600 miles, meaning that one fired…

The Pentagon may further reduce the number of US troops in Syria if European allies contribute to the mission there, US Defence Secretary Mark Esper said in an interview with Reuters that was published Thursday. “The coalition is talking a lot again. We could see some allies want to volunteer troops,” Esper said. According to the agency, the defence secretary gave no indication that a new contribution was imminent. “If an allied country, a NATO country, decided to give us 50 people, I might be able to turn off 50 people,” Esper added in the interview, which was taken on…

Steven Sahiounie, political commentator The Uyghur people are an ethnic group of Muslims in western China and they speak the ancient Turkic language, which is the root of the modern Turkish language. Their province is Xinjiang, and their capital city is Urumqi. China is a huge country, and to keep peace and harmony all ethnicities work together, and while respecting each other’s rights, they live as one people, like America. Recently, both US President Trump and the US House have made dramatic accusations against the Chinese government on sensitive domestic policies involving counter-terrorism measures and domestic safety issues. The US…

By Pepe Escobar We are cruising on a pristine, 380 km-long four-lane superhighway from Almaty to Khorgos – finished in 2016 for $1.25 billion, 85% of the cost covered by a World Bank loan. And then, suddenly, riding parallel to us, there’s the real superstar of New Silk Road connectivity. Meet Yuxinou, the container cargo train plying back and forth along the 11,000 km-long railway corridor connecting Chongqin in Sichuan province via Xinjiang and Kazakhstan to Russia, Belarus, Poland and finally Duisburg in the Ruhr valley. And all that in a mere 13 days. Along the way, the Yuxinou stops in,…

By Douglas Valentine, Heidi Boghosian, and Michael Steven Smith In the following interview, Valentine reflects on a variety of issues including the Phoenix Program, plausible deniability, paramilitary wars, drug trafficking, sabotage, blackmail, propaganda, Operation GLADIO, class interests of the CIA establishment, Trump, the Mueller Report and the Bidens. Heidi Boghosian: In 1947, Congress passed the National Security Act, which led to the formation of the National Security Council and, under its direction, the CIA. Its original mandate was to collect and analyze strategic information for use in war. Though shrouded in secrecy, many CIA activities such as covert military and cybersecurity operations have…

Additional forces could reportedly join some 14,000 US soldiers that have been sent to the region since May, when US intelligence analysts alleged a threat from Iran. The new US deployment may be a deterrent against possible retaliation by Tehran for mounting sanctions under Washington’s ongoing campaign of economic pressure. The Trump administration is currently considering a significant expansion of the US military presence in the Middle East, including dozens more vessels and other military hardware and as many as 14,000 additional soldiers to counter Iran, US officials said, cited by The Wall Street Journal. According to the sources, cited…

BY WILLIAM BRIGGS In an often-confused world, some things have a ring of certainty. The steady rise in anti-Chinese rhetoric is an example. It is disturbing, and largely baseless, but is becoming one of life’s truisms. This is not to suggest that China is beyond criticism or that its internal politics are in any way defensible. A country that can treat its working-class in so poor a fashion, that can ride roughshod over human rights, is difficult to defend. But then, Australia has allowed for a massive casualization of the workforce and has been more than once criticized by the UN…

Private sector industry began to recover as a result of governmental supported steps which were adopted to provide legislative and financial facilitations, especially to establishments suspended or damaged due to the crisis. Industry Ministry has recorded the rehabilitation and development of 82.117 industrial and craft facilities, some of which resumed production, while others are still under maintenance. Statistics of Industry Ministry showed that the number of industry facilities which resumed production reached at 18.543 industrial ones, and 8735 craft facilities, while the rehabilitation process is underway to 4573 industrial facilities, and 50266 crafts ones. The ministry indicated that the said…

A Yemeni maritime official says the Saudi-led coalition has impounded more than a dozen ships carrying energy derivatives and food destined for the conflict-plagued and impoverished Arab country, despite the fact the vessels had earlier acquired necessary permits from the United Nations. The unnamed official at Hudaydah port told Arabic-language al-Masirah television network on Wednesday that 13 ships have been marooned at the port of Jizan in southwestern Saudi Arabia. He added that the vessels had undergone inspection by the United Nations and obtained the relevant papers. The remarks come a day after Yemen Petroleum Company announced in a statement that the Saudi-led coalition…

The Iranian consulate building in Najaf was set on fire several times last month amid protests that rocked the south of Iraq. An attack on Iran’s consulate in Najaf showed signs of being organised and was not carried out by Iraqi demonstrators, Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei said. “According to our information, the attack on the consulate was not perpetrated by the Iraqi people, it was an organized attack,” Rabiei said, as cited by the government information website. On Tuesday, media reported that anti-government protesters in Najaf set the Iranian consulate on fire for the third time. The consulate was first…