Author: Steven Sahiounie

Saudi Arabia is intensifying informal talks with the Houthi movement on a ceasefire in Yemen, Reuters reported sources familiar with the discussions as saying. Negotiations were launched in Jordan in late September, the sources said, with Riyadh taking sole responsibility for military efforts by the Arab alliance fighting in Yemen after the exit of its main partner, the United Arab Emirates. The discussions reportedly began after the Houthis offered to halt cross-border missile and drone attacks on Saudi cities if the Saudi-led coalition ended airstrikes on Yemen. A source said that “discussions on finalizing the security pact are moving very quickly…

By Paul Antonopoulos General Mohammad Baqeri paid tribute to the country’s missile system architect in a birthday speech. In recent years, amid a decades-old arms embargo by Western countries, Iran has created a wide range of internally designed ballistic and cruise missile systems, with officials repeatedly warning that these weapons would be widely used if Iran experiences any aggression. Iran owes its missile capabilities largely to the late Revolutionary Guards aerospace commander and ballistic missile designer Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Maj. Mohammad Baqeri said on Tuesday. “The efforts of the martyr Tehrani-Moghaddam have paid off and made…

by Tim Korso Islamic Jihad fired dozens of rockets at southern Israel after the country’s armed forces killed Baha Abu al-Ata, a senior commander in the organisation, in a strike on his home. Despite the two sides reportedly negotiating a ceasefire on 14 November, the Israel Defence Forces and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement have continued to exchange strikes for a third day in a row. Here is what you need to know about Palestinian Islamic Jihad and its history of confrontation with the Jewish state: Group’s Origins and Goals The group was founded by three Palestinian students, Fathi Shaqaqi, Abdul Aziz…

Iran’s copper sector seeks massive expansion of activities in an industrial province northwest of the country as it eyes more exports to Turkey where demand for the precious metal is expected to surge in the coming years. Head of the National Iranian Copper Industries Company (NICICO) said on Thursday that around $1 billion had already been invested in mining and production of copper in the East Azerbaijan province, a center of industry and business near the Iranian-Turkish border. Ardeshir Sa’ad Mohammadi said that the investment plans  were aimed to allow Iran raise its share of copper exports to Turkey, a…

The United States has been pillaging Syria under the pretext of securing its oil fields and funnelling ill-gotten money to anti-government forces, senior Russian defence official Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev said. “A number of US troops has been returned to positions east of the Euphrates River allegedly to protect oil rigs when in fact they are looting hydrocarbons for profit and with the goal of funding anti-government forces”, he said. The general, who heads Russia’s National Center for State Defence Control, said at a joint meeting of the Russian-Syrian coordination headquarters that US plundering deprived the Syrian people of their…

Turkey has rejected a demand by the United States to abandon the S-400 missile defense systems it has bought from Russia, calling such a request unacceptable and an infringement of sovereign rights. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was faced with the demand during a meeting with his American counterpart Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday. Trump told him that Ankara would be receiving US-made Patriot missile systems if it submitted to the request. Erdogan addressed Turkish media afterwards, denouncing the US for its meddling in Ankara’s affairs. “We said, ‘We see the proposal to remove the S-400s completely…

By Stephen Lendman Without establishment media support, US planned aggression, color revolutions, old-fashioned coups, and other hostile to peace, equity and justice actions wouldn’t get out of the starting gate. Propaganda support is crucial, manipulating the public mind. Media operate as gatekeepers, proliferating the official narrative, suppressing vital hard truths essential for everyone to know. Orwell called it “reality control,” substituting managed news misinformation and disinformation for truth-telling. Discussing the coup in Bolivia, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) said the following: Bolivian “(a)rmy generals appearing on television to demand the resignation and arrest of an elected civilian head of state seems like…

Anti-government rallies swelled in Iraq’s capital and south on Wednesday as Baghdad faced new pressure from both the street and the UN to respond seriously to weeks of demonstrations. Protests demanding a new leadership have rocked the capital and Shiite-majority south for weeks. Demonstrators appear to have been revived after the country’s top Shiite religious authority Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani said they “cannot go home without sufficient reforms.” The head of the UN’s mission in Iraq (UNAMI), Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, planned to address the main political blocs and brief lawmakers on her meeting with Sistani, who in a significant move backed a…

 A US military convoy consisting of 22 military vehicles and two trucks have crossed the Syrian-Iraqi border and positioned itself near several oil deposits in northeastern Syria, the Al-Ikhbariya broadcaster reported. According to the media, the US troops came from Iraq via the al-Walid border crossing and concentrated near the Auda oil field in the Qahtaniyah region and the Jibsa oil field. About 90 percent of Syrian oil reserves are concentrated to the east of the Euphrates River, the region that was previously a stronghold and main source of income for Daesh* terrorists and is now mainly controlled by the Syrian Democratic…

Tensions in the Gaza Strip escalated on 31 October when a rocket was launched at Israeli territory from the enclave. Since then, airstrikes have been continuously exchanged between the Israeli defence forces and Islamic Jihad militants. Islamic Jihad leader Zeyad al-Nakhala has presented the group’s terms for an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire with Israel in the Gaza Strip in an interview with Al-Mayadeen TV, Reuters reported. If the conditions are not met, the cross-border rocket exchange would continue indefinitely, al-Nakhala said. Earlier in the day, the Israeli military reported hundreds of rockets launched from Gaza at Israeli territory, with ”one rocket every seven…