Author: Steven Sahiounie

Former French leader Jacques Chirac has died at the age of 86, his family reported. Under his leadership, France enjoyed an independent foreign policy, distinguishing itself from European states eager to appease Washington. Outside of his native country, Chirac is perhaps best known for his principled opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Unafraid of then-president George W. Bush, the French statesman prevented his country from becoming entangled in the Middle East conflict, now widely regarded as a quagmire that was based on false pretenses. He was a fierce critic of Europe’s willingness to follow Washington’s lead. In…

The United States is deploying to Saudi Arabia a battery of Patriot missiles, four sentinel radar systems and about 200 support personnel, Pentagon Chief Spokesperson Jonathan Hoffman said in a press release on Thursday. “In light of recent attacks on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and at their invitation, Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper announced today that the US would deploy the following equipment to the kingdom: One Patriot Battery, Four Sentinel RADARs, approximately 200 support personnel,” Hoffman said in the release. In the early hours of 14 September, a drone attack targeted Saudi Aramco’s Abqaiq and Khurais oil processing…

Syrian government forces have carried out a string of clean-up operations in the country’s west-central province of Hama, discovering US-built missiles, munitions produced by NATO member states and communication devices from former strongholds of Takfiri terrorists. An unnamed military source told reporters that Syrian soldiers launched an operation in al-Lataminah town, located 39 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital city of Hama, on Thursday to clear the area of hidden explosive devices and ordnance left behind by militants, the Arabic service of Russia’s Sputnik news agency reported. The source added that the weapons were hidden inside a cave, which was part of a long underground network…

Fishery officials from Iran and Russia have agreed that a ban on fishing sturgeon and other fishes that produce caviar eggs should be extended for another year. Head of Iran’s fishery organization said on Thursday that the two countries had agreed that the beluga sturgeon, the source of caviar, is still among the endangered species in the Caspian Sea, where more than 90 percent of the world’s caviar is produced. “We agreed that the ban on commercial fishing for this fish from the Caspian Sea should continue,” said Nabiollah Khunmirzaei, adding that Iran and Russia both shared same concerns about…

The US intelligence chief has publicly broken with President Donald Trump and some Republican lawmakers, saying the whistleblower who filed a complaint against Trump over his phone call with Ukraine’s president “did the right thing” and “followed the law every step of the way.” The acting Director of National Intelligence, Joseph Maguire, testified for more than three hours on Thursday before the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee to discuss the complaint about a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. A declassified version of the complaint was released publicly by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence…

Saudi-led coalition air strikes killed seven children in Yemen on Tuesday, a local official and doctor said The seven children were among 16 people killed during the air strike, as Saudi Arabia continues to pound the country already facing a humanitarian disaster. “Sixteen people, including women and children, were killed and nine others injured” in a raid targeting a home in Daleh, a local official told AFP on condition of anonymity. A doctor at Al Thawra hospital in nearby Ibb province, which received the bodies of those killed, told AFP that seven children and four women were among them. The Houthi rebels…

By Pepe Escobar “It is clear to us that Iran bears responsibility for this attack. There is no other plausible explanation. We support ongoing investigations to establish further details.” The statement above was not written by Franz Kafka. In fact, it was written by a Kafka derivative: Brussels-based European bureaucracy. The Merkel-Macron-Johnson trio, representing Germany, France and the UK, seems to know what no “ongoing investigation” has unearthed: that Tehran was definitively responsible for the twin aerial strikes on Saudi oil installations. “There is no other plausible explanation” translates as the occultation of Yemen. Yemen only features as the pounding ground of a…

Syrian families held captive by Trump Regime Forces and their ISIS affiliates of Maghaweer Thawra terrorists at al-Rukban Concentration Camp went out of their tents in the high heat of the desert to protest for food the day before yesterday, 11th of September, they were faced with live bullets by the US occupation forces. Russian Coordination Center called on the US occupation forces in Rukban Concentration Camp to exert pressure on US-sponsored Maghaweer Thawra terrorists to stop their terrorist acts against the displaced Syrians held in the camp, these terrorist acts have exacerbated the already dire humanitarian situation of the families there. A…

Sarah Abed, political analyst The 74th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is in full swing in New York this week with discussions and debates ranging from climate change to trade deals and the growing tensions in the Middle East. A few days prior to the UNGA however, there was a climate strike that took on September 20th, Participation took place in dozens of cities around the world with the largest being in New York and led by Greta Thunberg a Swedish youth climate activist who began the “Fridays for the Future” movement last year. On Monday, the UNGA was mostly…

Yemen’s Houthi rebels said on Wednesday their offer to halt all attacks on Saudi Arabia still stands despite new airstrikes allegedly launched by a Arab-led coalition fighting the insurgents. Twenty-two civilians, including children, were killed in air raids earlier this week in Dhale and Amran provinces, according to the United Nations. The strikes came after the Houthis offered to halt drone and ballistic missile attacks on Saudi Arabia. “The initiative is still on, and we are patient,” Hisham Sharaf, the Houthis’ foreign minister, told AFP. “If they want peace, we are for peace. If they don’t want peace, they know how we can…