Author: Steven Sahiounie

A report in the American newspaper the Wall Street Journal shows that Saudi Arabia has moved to import oil from neighboring Iraq to cover for lost production that came following attacks on crude processing installations east of the country. The WSJ said on Thursday that Saudis had demanded for as much as 20 million barrels of Iraq’s crude mainly for oil supplies for the kingdom’s domestic refineries. Sources within the global oil trade told the newspaper that it was absolutely critical for Riyadh to keep its position as the number one exporter of oil in the world despite Saturday attacks…

By Pepe Escobar We are the Houthis and we’re coming to town. With the spectacular attack on Abqaiq, Yemen’s Houthis have overturned the geopolitical chessboard in Southwest Asia – going as far as introducing a whole new dimension: the distinct possibility of investing in a push to drive the House of Saud out of power. Blowback is a bitch. Houthis – Zaidi Shiites from northern Yemen – and Wahhabis have been at each other’s throats for ages. This book is absolutely essential to understand the mind-boggling complexity of Houthi tribes; as a bonus, it places the turmoil in southern Arabian lands way beyond a…

Iran’s retaliation to any military attack will not be “limited to its source,” Tehran said in an official note to Washington, semi-official ISNA news agency reported on Wednesday. The note was sent to the United States via the Swiss embassy. Iran has reiterated that it was not behind recent attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities. Tehran has also warned that any move by the US against Iran “will get immediate reaction,” the report said. Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami said Tehran had no involvement in the attacks on Saudi Arabia’s Aramco oil installations, the Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.

The Chinese tech company Huawei said on Wednesday that it will offer more than $1 billion in investment over the next five years to attract global developers. The offer is part of the company’s broader computing strategy, which includes investing in basic research around its products to support new technology such as artificial intelligence. The firm also said it will make its hardware and software more readily available to its customers and partners. Huawei announced its developer program four years ago. The company says it has supported more than 1.3 million developers since then, as well as 14,000 independent software…

Earlier in the day, Saudi ambassador to London Prince Khalid bin Bander bin Sultan Al Saud said that the recent attack on the kingdom’s oil facilities was “almost certainly” backed by Iran. On Wednesday, the Saudi Defence Ministry organised a news conference to show journalists what it describes as an Iranian cruise missile and Delta Wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). “The investigation has shown that the drone’s type is Delta Wing, and the information obtained by the ministry indicates the drone’s technology is Iranian,” the department’s spokesman Col. Turki al-Maliki said. Speaking at the conference, the official said that the attack…

US President Donald Trump has picked hostage negotiator Robert O’Brien as his new national security adviser. Trump on Wednesday announced he intends to name O’Brien as his next national security adviser. “I have worked long & hard with Robert. He will do a great job!” Trump tweeted. O’Brien who is replacing sacked John Bolton. O’Brien has served as Trump’s special envoy for hostage affairs at the State Department since May 2018. He has also served as foreign policy adviser to several Republican presidential campaigns. He once served as foreign affairs adviser to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. O’Brien is the…

Yemeni army forces, supported by allied fighters from Popular Committees, have intercepted and targeted an unmanned aerial vehicle belonging to the Saudi-led military coalition in the skies over the country’s southwestern province of Ta’izz, in retaliation for the alliance’s military aggression against their conflict-stricken country. The media bureau of the Houthi Ansarullah movement announced in a statement that Yemeni forces and their allies shot down the drone as it was on a reconnaissance mission over al-Wazi’iyah district on Wednesday afternoon. Separately, dozens of Saudi-sponsored militiamen loyal to Yemen’s former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi were killed and injured when Yemeni army soldiers and their allies launched an…

By Sarah Abed The fifth Syria-focused Astana process summit took place in Turkey’s capital, Ankara on Monday. Since the summit’s inception in 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have engaged in trilateral discussions regarding resolving the Syrian conflict. The focus of this particular summit was on restoring peace and stability in Syria by forming a committee to draft a new Syrian constitution, as well as defeating terrorist factions in Idlib.  Immediately prior to the summit in Ankara, President Rouhani blamed Israel and the United States for tensions in the Middle East. He stated, “Today, what is taking place in this region and has…

By Miri Wood As NATO media are currently mourning the departure of  Neocon, John Bolton, and incited support for US bombing of Iran because Yemeni patriots engaged in a retaliatory bombing of an oil refinery in Saudi occupied Arabia, no attention is given to ongoing war crimes by the Trump and Erdogan regimes, against Syria, nor of the continuing terror attacks, including the bombing of a real hospital. On 15 September, illicit US forces brought a convoy of dozens of military vehicles from Iraq into Syria, turning them over to the SDF separatist terrorists to strengthen them in al-Jazira, northeast of the country near…

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said that its oil supplies had resumed and that its oil market would be “fully back online” by the end of September following attacks which Washington blames on Iran while Riyadh is still probing. Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told the media that oil production in October would reach 9.89 million barrels per day and 12 million bpd by the end of November. “We are asking the world to help us to help secure oil,” he said, adding that Riyadh expect no decline in oil exports and “no oil cargoes were canceled.” He also said Riyadh did not yet…