Author: Steven Sahiounie

By Morgan Artyukhina After a seven-month hiatus, negotiations between the United States and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons and achieve peace are set to resume this weekend. Officials in both Washington and Pyongyang have confirmed the meetings are set to resume at the end of the week, signaling a return to diplomacy after seven tense months of posturing. “The DPRK and the US agreed to have preliminary contact on Oct. 4 and hold working-level negotiations on Oct. 5,” North Korean First Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Choe Son Hui said in a Tuesday statement,…

Earlier in September, Iran reported an explosion in its space center before a satellite launch, the third failure involving a rocket in a year. Iran plans to send three satellites into orbit in the next three months, Iran’s state TV reported. According to state television, quoting the head of Iran’s space agency, Morteza Barari, the satellites will transmit data for civilian purposes such as navigation, agriculture and the environment. Iran attempted to launch satellites into orbit in January and February of this year, but those launches all failed. The January launch involved the Simorgh rocket, and sought to take a domestically-developed environmental data-gathering satellite…

While the US banned Huawei for alleged espionage and asked its allies to do the same, Moscow has rolled out the red carpet for the Chinese tech company, letting it develop 5G networks in Russia. Analysts say the move is as much a show of solidarity with Beijing against the US as it is a drive to bring ultra high-speed internet to Russian tech users. . This month, Huawei opened its first 5G test zone in Moscow in partnership Russian operator MTS, with a view to rolling out the service to the rest of the capital. Moscow authorities say the…

At least two people have been killed and 200 others sustained wounds in a protest rally against alleged corruption in Iraq’s capital city of Baghdad. More than 3,000 people took to the streets in central Baghdad on Tuesday to protest alleged corruption, unemployment, poor public services, and other grievances. Security forces resorted to tear gas, water cannon, and live fire to disperse the crowds. Iraq’s Ministry of Health said in a statement that 160 civilians and 40 security forces were injured in the clashes. The Iraqi government in a statement blamed “groups of riot inciters” for the violence and said…

The spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces says three Saudi military bases and more than 150 square kilometers of land have been taken during the second phase of a recent large-scale military offensive carried out by Yemeni Army troops and allied fighters from Popular Committees in the kingdom’s southern border region of Najran. Speaking at a press conference in the capital Sana’a on Tuesday evening, Brigadier General Yahya Saree said video footage recorded by Yemeni forces on the second phase of Victory from God Almighty Operation attests to their full control over the Saudi military sites and seizure of considerable amounts of…

BY DAVID MACILWAIN As a continuing series of dramas and crises distract our attention from the unresolved questions around the Yemeni attacks on Saudi Aramco, it’s vital to state certain points that are beyond contention. Already there are new developments in Yemen and Iran which cannot be properly assessed against a background of false information. The first and obvious point about the drone/missile attacks on the Saudi refinery and oilfield is that they were indisputably the work of Yemen’s Houthi militia, as stated clearly by their spokesman Yahia Sarie, albeit apparently involving some local assistance. This has been well argued elsewhere, both in principle and…

An investigation indicates Israel’s involvement in attacks on the military sites of the Iraq-based Shia militia of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), known as Hashd Shaabi, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said on Monday. “Investigations reveal that Israel has carried out attacks on the Iraqi PMF’s depots,” the official was quoted as saying by the Al Jazeera news channel. Over the past two months, at least eight facilities of the PMF, which Israel accuses of having links to Iran, has been targeted in attacks, with over a dozen fighters killed. The PMF has repeatedly said that Israeli drones conduct raids…

Syria and Iraq on Monday held the ceremony to reopen the border checkpoint between the towns of Al Bukamal and Qaim, a major crossing point that has been closed for years following the defeat of Daesh*. The opening of the border crossing took place at noon local time (09:00 GMT) and was attended by a number of officials from both countries. This checkpoint and two others — between Iraq’s Al Walid and Syria’s At Tanf, and Iraq’s Rabia and Syria’s Al-Yarubiyah — were closed between 2013 and 2014 after Daesh terrorists gained control over them. Daesh is a terrorist organisation…

US President Donald Trump is warning that the Democrat-driven impeachment proceedings and any move to oust him from office amount to “treason” and would spark a civil war, prompting outrage from a Republican congressman. Trump tweeted a conservative pastor’s comment that removing him would provoke a “civil war-like fracture” in America. US Representative Adam Kinzinger, a former Air Force pilot who represents an Illinois district Trump won in 2016, tweeted on Sunday, “I have visited nations ravaged by civil war. … I have never imagined such a quote to be repeated by a President. This is beyond repugnant.” Trump on…

The spokesman for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s administration has confirmed that Saudi leaders have been sending messages to Iran’s president through a head of state, though refraining to give any details on the nature of those messages. Ali Rabiei made the remarks during his weekly press briefing in Tehran on Monday, when he was asked about reports denoting that the Saudi leadership has been sending messages to Iran’s chief executive. “Yes, this is true that they have sent messages to Mr. Rouhani through a head of state,” Rabiei noted, adding, “We must see signs of it [Saudi’s goodwill] without any ambiguity, and…