Author: Steven Sahiounie

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri has reportedly given the nod on a package of reforms with government partners in an attempt to tackle an economic crisis that has triggered nationwide protests in the recent past. Official sources told Reuters on Sunday that a cabinet meeting would be held on Monday to approve the reforms. The package urges a 50-percent reduction in the salaries of current and former officials and $3.3 billion in contributions from banks to achieve a “near zero deficit” for the 2020 budget. It also includes a plan to privatize Lebanon’s telecommunications sector and an overhaul to its…

By Stephen Lendman One of the trilogy’s most memorable scenes was in pre-liberated Cuba where mafia dons are seen carving up a cake representing the country. The Hyman Roth character explains that “all of you will share” in plundering the island state in collaboration with its ruling authorities, adding: “These are wonderful things that we’ve achieved in Havana, and there’s no limit to where we can go from here.”“This kind of government knows how to help business to encourage it…(W)e have now what we have always needed —real partnership with the government.” Cuba’s strongman despot Fulgencio Batista was like Nicaragua’s Anastasio Somoza, a figure Franklin…

The Syrian army clashed on Saturday with the Turkish-backed militants near the border city of Ras al-Ayn, the SANA news agency reported. According to the outlet, the incident took place in the Tall Tamr district in the Al-Hasakah province, with the army having prevented the militants from seizing a village, controlled by Damascus. At the same time, the militants reportedly managed to seize two villages on the road, connecting Tall Tamr with Ras al-Ayn. The situation in northern Syria sharply escalated in October after Turkey had launched a military operation against the Kurdish units in the area. On October 9, Turkey began “Operation…

Russia views with alarm NATO’s expansion toward its western border and it will make not only a political response but a military one as well if need be, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said. In an interview with the Serbian newspaper Vecernje Novosti, the Russian official said NATO’s maneuver toward Russia’s border is a threat to its “national security,” Tass news agency reported on Saturday. “We are a large country, we are a nuclear state, and the desire to place NATO bases in our immediate vicinity obviously cannot fill us with positive emotions,” Medvedev said. “We have always responded and will…

Deir Ezzor, Raqqa, The ministerial committee assigned with following up on the implementation of service and development projects in Deir Ezzor and Raqqa provinces inaugurated a number of projects and got acquainted with the service and livelihood reality in the two provinces. In Deir Ezzor, the Committee, which was headed by Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Ghanem, accompanied by Health Minister Nizar Yazigi, inaugurated al-Thawra medical center and the Cardiac Clinic Care and the Internal Medicine Departments in al-Furat Hospital. The committee also inspected the reality of the health situation in the province and participated in the national…

Syrian army expanded on Friday deployment in Hasaka countryside and entered three new villages in the surroundings of Tal Tamer. SANA reporter said that units of the army entered the villages of Salmas, Um al-Kheir and Ghirnata in the western countryside of Tal Tamer amid welcome by the families who gathered on the entrance of the villages to greet the army.

A centuries-old al-Saqatiyah souk (market) was re-opened recently in the old city of Aleppo after the completion of restoration works and repairing the damages caused to its shops due to terrorism. Re-opening of this souk means the return of former way of life and for traders and shoppers, being back in the al-Saqatiyah souk represents a partial return to their old lives. The souk includes more than 53 shops dedicated to the sale of desserts and nuts. It is considered as the main center of the markets of the old city of Aleppo. Al-Saqatiyah souk’s significance comes from being the…

Almost 166,000 Syrians had to leave their homes over the past seven days because of hostilities, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Friday. “Newly displaced families continue to seek shelter in camps, makeshift sites, communal shelters, with family, friends or acquaintances,” TASS quoted UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic as saying in Geneva. “Many of them have been displaced multiple times,” he added. The UN says over 1,600 Syrian refugees have been transported from the border areas to Iraq as of Friday morning. Most of them come from the towns in northern Syria, including Kobani, Amuda and Qamishli.…

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says Israel has “fundamental rights” and retains “operational freedom” to operate in Syria, adding Washington will closely watch the Iraqi-Syrian border despite withdrawing troops. “Israel has the fundamental right to engage in activity that ensures the security of its people. It’s at the very core of what nation states not only have the right to do but an obligation to do,” Pompeo told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview. Pompeo made the interview shortly after completing a two-hour meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss developments in Syria and “the continued need to counter” what he called…

Secretary General of the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has expressed opposition to calls for the resignation of Lebanon’s government, vowing not to allow anyone to “burn” Lebanon and cause chaos in the country. Speaking on Saturday following days of protest rallies across Lebanon, Nasrallah expressed solidarity for recent economic and anti-corruption demonstrations in the country, saying that the Hezbollah party is “determined to work hard” to solve the country’s problems and “not allow anyone to drown this country and take it to the abyss”. Nasrallah explained that the problems in the country were “systematic” and would not be fixed by a…