Author: Steven Sahiounie

Washington wants a trade deal with Beijing, but it won’t turn a blind eye to Hong Kong, National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien stated, adding that the US is very close to having a phase one deal done by the end of the year. “At the same time, we’re not going to turn a blind eye to what’s happening in Hong Kong or what’s happening in the South China Sea, or other areas of the world where we’re concerned about China’s activity,” he said, according to RIA Novosti. He continued on by saying that the US wants the Hong Kong district…

The Russian military police continue patrolling Syria’s provinces of Aleppo and Raqqa, Major General Yuri Borenkov, the head of the Defence Ministry’s Reconciliation Center in Syria, said on Tuesday. “The Russian military police units continue patrolling routes … in the Raqqa province, … in the Aleppo province”, Borenkov said during a briefing, adding that air patrolling was also being conducted by the Russian forces. Borenkov also called on the US Armed Forces to apply the necessary pressure to armed groups operating in the area of the At Tanf military base to facilitate the evacuation of refugees from the Rukban camp…

Sirens went off in Gaza Strip and Sderot, Israeli Defence Forces reported on their twitter page on Tuesday. Following the sirens, two launches from Gaza Strip at Israeli territory were identified, according to the IDF. The military added the Iron Dome air defence system managed to intercept one projectile. “2 rockets were just fired from Gaza at Israeli civilians. 1 rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome Aerial Defense System,” the IDF wrote on its Twitter page. This month, border tensions escalated again. They were triggered by Israel’s killing of Baha Abu al-Atta, a top commander from Palestine’s Islamic Jihad…

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Sa’ad Hariri, who has stepped down in the face of sweeping protests, says he will not be heading the country’s next government. Hariri resigned on October 29 following the launch of the protests, which have accused the government of economic maladministration and corruption. He and his cabinet now will remain in office on a provisional basis until the country gets a new administration. Speaking on Tuesday, Hariri claimed that his choice for not running the next government was meant to pave the way for the appointment of new officials, AFP reported. “I strongly adhere to the…

Yemen has revealed information about Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the 1977 assassination of a former popular Yemeni president, who was uneasy with Riyadh’s interference in Yemen’s affairs. Ibrahim al-Hamdi served as the head of state in former North Yemen from 1974 and 1977. He was assassinated on October 11, 1977, two days before making an unprecedented visit as a North Yemeni president to South Yemen. In a presser on Tuesday, Brigadier Abdullah bin Amer, a senior official at the Yemeni Defense Ministry, said Sana’a was in possession of important documents that include the names of those involved in the assassination. He added…

This comes amid the visit of US Under Secretary of Defence John Rood to Iraq for talks with senior officials in Baghdad and Erbil on regional security and the fight against terror. At least six people were killed and 15 more injured in three blasts that rocked the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, Reuters has reported, citing security and medical sources. Three people were killed and five others wounded when a motorcycle exploded in the northern Shaab district. When another motorcycle exploded in the southwestern Bayaa district, two people were killed and six more injured, the agency says, quoting its sources.

A Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen says it has released 200 Houthi rebels to advance a UN-brokered deal aimed at ending the war in the Arab world’s poorest country, AP reports. Coalition spokesman Col. Turki al-Malki was quoted by Saudi Arabia’s state-run news agency as saying on Tuesday that the move was aimed at paving the way for a larger and long-delayed prisoner swap agreed upon last year. The coalition will also work with the UN to fly patients out of the rebel-held capital, Sanaa, for treatment abroad, Al-Malki said. The coalition has been battling the rebels since 2015. The…

The Iraqi Air Forces have carried out a successful airstrike on the Daesh* terror group fuel and vehicle storage facilities and bed-down locations, Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) said in a press release on Tuesday. “Two Iraqi Air Force 9th Fighter Squadron F-16s dropped two precision-guided munitions weighing 2,000 pounds each during an Iraqi-led operation to defeat Daesh [Islamic State] fuel and vehicle storage facilities and bed-down locations,” the release said. “The Iraqi Air Force led the effort to include the pre-brief, execution and debrief of the mission.” After the strike, Salah ad-Din operations commander Iraqi…

The tragedy comes just days after another car explosion left at least 10 people dead and 25 injured in the town of Tell Abyad near the Syrian-Turkish border. A car bomb attack near the city of Ras al-Ain in northern Syria has claimed the lives of 17 people, the Turkish Defence Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. The Ministry said that the Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara labels a terrorist group, was responsible for the attack. Earlier, SANA news agency reported that a number of civilians were killed while others were critically injured after a car bomb exploded in the…

US troops stationed nearly Deir ez-Zor have joined back up with Kurdish allies for a new operation against Daesh remnants in eastern Syria, despite triumphalist claims by the Trump administration to have defeated the militant group. Only a small contingent of US troops is slated to stay in Syria to protect oil wells in the country’s east, but that doesn’t mean they’re sitting around doing nothing: Combined Joint Task Force — Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR), the US-led coalition against Daesh, has announced a new clearance operation against Daesh in conjunction with Syrian forces. CJTF-OIR commander US Air Force Maj. Gen. Eric Hill…