Author: Steven Sahiounie

The World Bank has updated its economic forecast for Iran, saying the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would slightly increase in the next two years. The update published on Friday showed that sanctions imposed by the United States on Iran’s oil and gas sector would continue to have an impact on the country’s economy in 2019/20, saying it would shrink by 8.7 percent in the period. The report said, however, that the Iranian economy would bounce back in the next two financial years, adding that the GDP would grow at 0.5 percent annually. It said inflation would remain controlled, above 20 percent,…

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) denied that Ankara-backed militants had taken control of the center of the strategic city of Ras al-Ain in northern Syria on Saturday. Ankara-backed militants claimed to have seized control of Ras al Ain’s city center in northeast Syria on Saturday, as Turkey’s offensive on Kurdish militia positions entered its fourth day. The Turkish Defense Ministry also confirmed militants’ claim that “Ras al-Ain’s residential center has been brought under control through the successful operation in the east of the Euphrates”. But, the SDF denied the reports, stating that Turkish-backed fighters had entered one neighborhood of Ras…

BY ABDEL BARI ATWAN US President Donald Trump is often derided as a fool and his foreign policy as a failure, especially in the Middle East. This description is unquestionably apt. But his surprise decision to pull the US’ 2,000-strong military force out of northern Syria, after deeming its mission ‘futile’, and to abandon his Kurdish allies there, is a smart act of strategic reappraisal. It is an admission of defeat and an attempt to cut Washington’s losses after it spent tens of billions of dollars engaging in the war in Syria. Turkey has now begun a military invasion of the…

Head of Yemen’s Supreme Revolutionary Committee Mohammad Ali al-Houthi called on the US to “learn from Vietnam” after Washington announced plans to deploy about 2,000 additional troops to Saudi Arabia. An “increase in numbers does not mean victory”, al-Houthi warned in a series of tweets, adding the US should also learn from its “useless wars” in countries such as Yemen and Iraq, PressTV reported. The official vowed that the Yemeni nation would continue its resistance against Saudi Arabia and other countries which are supported by the US in their war on the impoverished nation.  “Your previous forces, weapons and military commanders, which…

By Andrew Korybko It’s worthwhile to wonder whether “Operation Peace Spring” is a trap sprung by Trump on Turkey after the US created the conditions for Ankara’s invasion but then proceeded to threaten punitive measures against the country after its nominal NATO “ally” bit the bait and conventionally invaded Syria for the third time. *** Turkey formally launched its third conventional invasion of Syria earlier this week under the name “Operation Peace Spring” after the so-called “peace corridor” that it earlier tried to jointly establish with the US failed to remove the YPG (who Ankara regards as terrorists) from the borderland…

Turkey’s military operation in northeast Syria is a violation of the country’s territorial integrity, the Arab League’s secretary general has argued. Ahmed Aboul Gheit said on Saturday that Ankara’s actions constitute an “invasion of an Arab state’s land and aggression on its sovereignty”. His organization, comprised of 22 member states, held an emergency meeting at the ministerial level on Saturday to “discuss the Turkish aggression” on Syrian territory.

A total of 342 fighters from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been “neutralized” since the start of Ankara’s military operation in northern Syria, Turkey’ Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Friday, while Kurds announced that they have managed to kill 262 Ankara-backed rebels and Turkish soldiers. Akar’s comments came after his meeting with top military officials in Turkey’s capital Ankara, where he said “every kind of measures have been taken” in operation areas. Akar stated that the military operation continues “successfully as planned”. The SDF in a statement released on Friday claimed that Kurdish fighters have killed 262…

Syria must be freed from foreign military presence, this refers to all countries, says Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia is openly discussing the issue of the inadmissibility of illegitimate foreign presence in Syria with partners from Turkey and the US, the Russian president said in an interview with Arab media on the eve of his visit to Saudi Arabia. The president stressed that all those in Syria illegitimately should leave the country, adding that it covers all countries. “And as I will tell you now, I openly said to my colleagues: the territory of Syria must be freed from the…

The Turkish military struck some U.S. Special Forces personnel in northern Syria this week while they were attacking the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Newsweek reported on Friday. Citing an Iraqi-Kurdish intelligence official and a senior Pentagon official, the Turkish military mistakenly hit some U.S. Special Forces personnel that were embedded with the SDF troops in the border city of Kobani (var. ‘Ayn Al-‘Arab). The attack consisted of artillery fire and was reportedly carried out at Mashtenour Hill in Kobani. According to Newsweek, the senior Pentagon official said that the Turkish Armed Forces should be conscious of the U.S. positions in the…

The machine closely resembles mid-20th century US military experiments and will most likely give UFO hunters nightmares. A particularly strange-looking aircraft that is bound to attract the attention of UFO hunters and conspiracy theorists was spotted at the China Helicopter Exposition in Tianjin, according to The Drive report. Named “Super Great White Shark,” the device, which can best be described as a “flying saucer,” is circular and appears to have a cockpit in the center, with a huge rotary blade surrounding the pilots. The prototype does not have cockpit glass, but the plastic body clearly indicates where it would be. ​According to a…