Author: Steven Sahiounie

Last week, Turkey announced that it would launch a military incursion in northeastern Syria to drive away Kurdish militants from the area and set up a “safe zone” in the region to accommodate Syrian refugees there. The US said it would never back the Turkish operation and would withdraw its troops from the Kurdish-held territory. Turkey’s Operation Peace Spring in northeastern Syria has officially begun, President Erdogan announced via Twitter on Wednesday. Civilians are Reportedly Leaving Ras al-Ain After Start of Operation Peace Spring People are fleeing the Syrian town of Ras al-Ain in search of safer places after the beginning…

US Republican and Democratic lawmakers are finalising legislation that would impose economic sanctions on Turkey, which has begun a military invasion of northern Syria to clear a border region of US-allied Kurdish forces, Senator Chris Van Hollen said Wednesday. “Turkey must pay a heavy price for attacking our Syrian Kurdish partners,” Van Hollen said in a Twitter message. “Senators on both sides of the aisle won’t support abandoning the one regional group most responsible for putting ISIS [Islamic State terror group, banned in Russia] on its heels. Our bipartisan sanctions bill is being finalized now.” Van Hollen, a Democrat, partnered…

Kurdish communities in northern Syria have welcomed an offer of dialogue with the Syrian government made by Russia amid Turkey’s operation against Kurds in the region. “We view positively Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s statements about the matter of dialogue between the self-administration and the Syrian government,” a statement from the Kurds said on Wednesday. “We look to Russia having a role … as a supporter and guarantor.” The Kurds believe intra-Syrian dialogue is the best way to resolve the crisis in the Arab country. Earlier on Wednesday, Russia called for dialogue between the government in Damascus and the Kurdish…

A US airstrike that was carried out in Afghanistan in May and was said to have targeted Taliban militants in fact killed at least 30 civilians, a United Nations (UN) probe has found. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) conducted the investigation over four months looking into what happened on May 5 when the US military bombed dozens of sites it had identified as Taliban methamphetamine labs. Soon after the strikes in the Bakwa district of Farah Province, and parts of the bordering Delaram district in Nimroz Province, UNAMA said it began to receive reports of “significant civilian…

BY JAMES O’NEILL Iran is a modern society with an ancient history. Together with China it is one of the world’s oldest continuous civilizations. For centuries it was the center of an ancient and vibrant culture, that can trace its origins back at least 7000 years before the Christian era. Its more modern origins as a unified state go back at least to the seventh century BC. Over the centuries it has suffered the invasions from groups as diverse as the Mongolians and the Greeks. Yet it has always managed to survive those invasions and retain its own unique and distinctive…

BY ABDEL BARI ATWAN The interview with Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin-Salman aired by the American CBS channel on Sunday was noteworthy in three respects. First, he spoke and behaved like Saudi Arabia’s absolute ruler. He barely mentioned his father King Salman and accepted responsibility for the murder of Jamal Kashoggi in his capacity as the country’s chief executive in charge of its three million state employees. Second, he was unusually conciliatory towards Iran and its allies, completely abandoning the hawkish escalatory tone that has characterized most if not all his previous interviews. Third, the man who launched the Yemen war…

By Stephen Lendman Trump is no peacenik, far from it. He’s the latest in a long line of US warrior presidents — waging endless wars of aggression, and by other means, against nonbelligerent states threatening no one. He’s the US liar-in chief, time and again saying one thing, then going another way, long ago proving he can never be believed or trusted. Candidate Trump falsely said “I was against (Middle East wars). And I was against (them) very early. And we shouldn’t have been in there. And I think it is probably perhaps the worst mistake we have ever made.” He…

Russia has called for dialogue between the Syrian government and Kurdish forces controlling northern Syria amid Washington’s green light for Ankara’s upcoming military operation against the Kurdish forces. Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, urged for “dialogue between the central government in Damascus and representatives of the Kurdish communities that traditionally reside” in the country. Lavrov said that Russia had contacted representatives of both Kurdish militants and the Syrian government in a bid to encourage talks between the two. The Russian foreign minister added that talks were “the only way toward stability”. Lavrov’s remarks come after Washington announced…

The Saudi Securities Depository Centre Company has already signed two contracts with the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and Bahrain Clear to allow foreign companies to make listings on Tadawul. The Saudi Capital Market Authority (CMA) has introduced measures to allow foreign companies to carry out listings on the country’s main stock exchange, Tadawul, Al-Arabiya broadcaster reported on Monday, citing Tadawul’s head, Khalid Al Hussan. Listing in corporate finance is a set of procedures referring to a company’s shares being on a list of stocks that are officially traded on a stock exchange. These changes are related to the importance of greater…

In October 2018, Qatar Petroleum announced that it would manage and operate the ISND oil field once the development and production sharing agreement signed with Occidental Petroleum of Qatar Ltd. expires in October 2019. Qatar Petroleum will manage and operate Idd El-Shargi North Dome (ISND) and Idd El-Shargi South Dome (ISSD) offshore oil fields, the company said on Monday. “Qatar Petroleum today assumed the management and operatorship of the Idd El-Shargi North Dome (ISND) and Idd El-Shargi South Dome (ISSD) offshore oil fields, following the expiry of the development and production sharing agreements with Occidental Petroleum of Qatar Ltd. (OXY)…