Author: Steven Sahiounie

Earlier this week, the US said that 11 vessels from the IRGC Navy had been spotted at a dangerously close distance to US ships in the Gulf. Iran will give a ‘decisive’ response to any US provocation in the Gulf, the country’s Revolutionary Guards Corps Navy said, as quoted by Reuters. “We advise the Americans to follow international regulations and maritime protocols in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman and to refrain from any adventurism and false and fake stories,” the statement from the Guards navy said, as cited by the agency. “They should be assured that the…

The United States government and the Federal Reserve have taken unprecedented fiscal measures to keep the economy afloat and prevent a new Depression in recent weeks, introducing round after round of new spending and loan guarantees to the tune of trillions of dollars. The US’s national debt and American corporate debt have hit record levels thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, with fears growing that liabilities soon may reach a “tipping point” that the country may find impossible to dig out of, the Washington Post has reported, citing multiple economists and bank analysts. Congress and the Federal Reserve have moved to inject…

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has demanded the protection of Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails and detention facilities amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. The UN chief has also asked his Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nikolay Mladenov, to remain in contact with Israeli officials to ensure that due attention is paid. In a letter addressed to the Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee Saeb Erekat on Friday, Guterres pointed to the reduction of prison overcrowding and restrictions on family visits in order to improve public health conditions. He also stressed the need…

An Israeli TV network claims that US intelligence agencies knew of an emerging coronavirus outbreak in China and gave Israel an advance warning in mid-November 2019, more than a month before clusters of infection in China started to be globally reported. US intelligence agencies had become aware of the outbreak as it spread early on in central China’s Wuhan City, Israel’s i24 news website cited a report by Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 as saying on Thursday. The agencies decided to warn US allies, such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries and Israel, after initially passing the information on…

The price for WTI oil has fallen below $19 per barrel for the first time since 31 January, 2002, trading data showed on Friday. As of 10.06 a.m. Moscow time (07:06 GMT), the price for WTI futures for delivery in May was falling by 4.28 percent to $19.02 per barrel, while mere minutes earlier it was down to $18.96 per barrel. At the same time, the price for Brent oil futures for delivery in June was up by 0.86 percent to $28.07 per barrel. On Sunday, OPEC+ signed a landmark deal that commits member nations to reduce crude oil production by 9.7…

Russia and the United States are parties to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), which is set to expire in 2021. It is the last remaining arms control treaty in force between Russia and the United States after the collapse of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Any future negotiations on arms control between Russia and the United States must include China, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in a phone conversation on Friday, according to the spokesperson for the United States Department of State Morgan Ortagus. “Secretary Pompeo and Foreign Minister Lavrov discussed next…

Air forces of the Saudi-led coalition have conducted 23 air raids on Yemen’s northeastern and northwestern provinces despite the coalition announcing a halt of activities amid the COVID-19 crisis, the Houthi rebel movement said on Friday. “The coalition’s air forces conducted 16 air raids on the Yemeni northeastern province of Marib, 10 of which were launched on its Majzar district, and six on Medghal”, the movement said via its Al Masirah TV broadcaster. According to the channel, the coalition has also attacked the northwestern province of Jawf, which borders Saudi Arabia, by seven airstrikes. On 8 April, the coalition announced…

US and Syrian forces and local residents have engaged in a tense war of position in the country’s northeast in recent months, with Syrian troops and locals repeatedly blocking American convoys attempting to make their way through local communities. Fortunately, most of these incidents have taken place without either side resorting to deadly force. Residents of the villages of Abu Qasaeib and al-Rhaia al-Souda in the al-Qamishli district, Al-Hasakah governorate banded together to intercept and turn back a US convoy of five vehicles, preventing them from traveling through their communities along a key local road, the Syrian Arab News Agency…

The Houthis announced on April 16 that they had repelled two attacks by the Saudi-led coalition and its proxies in northern Yemen. The first attack targeted the area of Abuab al-Hadid on the Yemeni border with the southern Saudi province of Asir. The Yemeni group’s artillery pounded the attackers, their positions and equipment, forcing them to retreat. The Saudi-led coalition’s second attack targeted the Houthis’ positions in the area of Rasha al-Sharqiyah on the border with the Kingdom’s southern province of Najran. Houthi fighters clashed with Saudi-backed fighters targeting them and their vehicles with machine guns and rocket propelled grenades.…

an unidentified group of gunmen killed six Afghans workers, and injured three, at the Bagram Airfield, the US air base in Afghanistan. Some sources claim there’s 5 victims and 4 injuries, and there is also a lack of clarity regarding who actually carried out the attack. All of the injured and fatalities are Afghans, not US citizens. The Bagram air base, located in Afghanistan’s Parwan province, is the largest US base in the country. No group has claimed responsibility for the incident and US military officials have not yet issued a release on the reported attack. In a separate report…