Author: Steven Sahiounie

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Friday approved the go ahead of the initial public offering of state oil giant Aramco, which will be announced on Sunday, five sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The world’s top oil company will announce its intention to float on November 3, the sources told Reuters, adding that “the crown prince finally gave the green light.” Saudi Aramco officials and advisers have held meetings with investors throughout the past few days trying to achieve as close to a $2 trillion valuation – the largest IPO in history – as possible ahead…

Iran and Syria struck an agreement on long-term cooperation in electricity market on Saturday, with Tehran hoping to export electricity to the Arab Republic in the future, the Iranian Energy Ministry said. The memorandum of understanding was signed by Syrian Electricity Minister Zuhair Kharboutli and Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian. “We plan and intend, after creating the necessary infrastructure to implement this program, to sync power grids of Iran and Syria within three years”, Ardakanian said. He noted that, in the future, there would be a possibility of electricity transfer between Iran and Syria through Iraq. The minister recalled that Iran and…

BY KHALED ISKEF For many years, Abu Malik Cheg Cheg had been known in the south of Syria for being the biggest arms dealer, selling a variety of arms, ammunition and military equipment to all factions. Taysir al-Sharif was known as Abu Malik Cheg Cheg after he was introduced to the world of weapons trading and expanded his activities to supply the armed factions leaders with ammunition and weapons. He also had a wide network of connections with arms dealers in Syria and the region, especially Bedouin traders in Lejat known as “the Birds” who acted as brokers in arms trade…

Over a dozen people, including children, have lost their lives and several others sustained injuries when a car rigged with explosives went off in Syria’s northern province of Raqqah. The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the car bomb exploded on Saturday at a busy marketplace in the center of the border town of Tal Abyad, located about 500 kilometers (310 miles) northeast of the capital Damascus. The Britain-based war monitor added that at least 14 people were killed and 21 injured in the terrorist attack. It noted that Turkish-backed militants from the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) were among the dead and injured in…

The spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces says more than 4,000 Sudanese militiamen fighting alongside Saudi-led military forces against Houthi Ansarullah fighters have been killed and many more injured ever since the Riyadh regime and its allies launched a military aggression against Yemen. Speaking at a press conference in the capital Sana’a on Saturday afternoon, Brigadier General Yahya Saree said 4,253 Sudanese militants have lost their lives in clashes with Yemeni forces, noting that the total number of the Saudi-paid Sudanese mercenaries killed in Yemen since the beginning of the current year stands at 459. Saree pointed out that 185 Sudanese militiamen have been…

A supposed champion of the rule of law, the US is violating its own anti-Syrian sanctions by smuggling crude from oil fields it seized from Damascus, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said. Each month the US smuggles crude worth $30 million out of Syria, according to Zakharova. The fuel comes from fields in the northeastern part of the country, where the US maintains a military presence after pulling its troops back from the Syrian-Turkish border. “A nation that repeats ad nauseam that it sticks to democratic values and rule of law in international relations, is pumping oil… under…

US President Donald Trump’s administration is withholding $105 million in security aid for Lebanon, Reuters reported, citing US officials. The State Department told Congress on Thursday that the White House budget office and National Security Council had decided to withhold the foreign military assistance, the officials said. It was not immediately clear why the aid was blocked. The administration had sought approval for the assistance starting in May, arguing that it was crucial for Lebanon, an important US partner in the Middle East. Following PM Saad Hariri’s resignation on Tuesday amid huge protests against the ruling elite, US Secretary of…

Iraq’s top cleric warned foreign actors on Friday against interfering in the country’s anti-government protests as they entered their second month. As the demonstrations have evolved since October 1 from rage over corruption and unemployment into calls for the “downfall of the regime,” more than 250 people have died and 10,000 have been wounded in the past month, AFP reported. In his weekly sermon, read by a representative, the top Shiite religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said that “no regional or international actor may seize the will of the Iraqi people and impose its will on them.” Sistani’s statement came…

The secretary general of the Lebanese resistance movement says fighters from his groups are determined to clear Lebanon’s airspace of the presence of any Israeli military aircraft, emphasizing that they will not hesitate to target any intruding machine capable of flying. Addressing his supporters in a televised speech broadcast live from the Lebanese capital city of Beirut on Friday evening, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said fighters of the Islamic resistance confronted a hostile Israeli drone in southern Lebanon’s skies with appropriate weapons the previous day, and forced it to leave the area. “This proves that the resistance has a military leadership, which works…

A World Trade Organization (WTO) panel says that China was entitled to slap compensatory sanctions on US imports worth $3.579 billion annually for the US failure to remove anti-dumping duties – roughly half the amount China had sought. The decision came as the world’s two biggest economies try to clinch Phase 1 of a trade deal. President Donald Trump and US negotiators are “very optimistic” about concluding it, White House adviser Larry Kudlow said. In the WTO ruling, a three-member arbitration panel said Chinese exporters suffered impairment to trade valued at $3.579 billion annually. China may now ask the WTO’s…