Author: Steven Sahiounie

Iran doubts the readiness of participants in the nuclear deal to promptly get back to full compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and for this reason it gives Europe some time to do so, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. “Europe has another two-month deadline for negotiations, agreement, and a return to its commitments,” the news agency Mehr quotes President Hassan Rouhani as saying. Rouhani said that in the future Iran would declare a third stage of reducing its commitments under the nuclear deal. “In my opinion, this step is the most important…

The Iranian authorities have decided to release seven crewmembers of the British Stena Impero tanker, including one Russian citizen, spokesperson for the Russian embassy in Iran Andrey Ganenko told TASS on Wednesday. “We can confirm that the Iranian authorities made the decision to free seven crewmembers at the request of the ship-owner company and in accordance with the opinion of the vessel’s captain. One Russian citizen is among those released,” he said. According to the spokesperson, the decision “was made because these seven people can leave the tanker without any ramifications.” “The remaining sixteen people can ensure that the tanker…

China and Russia have fully agreed upon and signed a commercial contract on a joint heavy helicopter development project, said Miao Wei, China’s Minister of Industry and Information Technology. “For the next step, the Chinese government will accelerate the progress for a project approval and finish it as soon as possible, so the project can officially start,” Miao said at a press conference held with the Russian Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov. China is the first partner country for the Russian event, as the two ministers held an opening ceremony at the stand-alone China Pavilion on Wednesday morning. The…

By: Marwa Osman In the past few days, Hezbollah’s retaliatory attack and destruction of a small Israeli Wolf combat vehicle in the upper Galilee has made headlines in both Arab and international media. The attack was in response to the Israeli aggression on Damascus on August 24 resulting in the killing of two Hezbollah engineers and also to an Israeli drone attack on the capital Beirut, the first of its kind since August 2006, in violation of the “rules of engagement” that have been established between the two sides. When the decision was taken by the leadership of the resistance to respond…

By: Andrew korybko Credible reports have been circulating that this year’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok will see the formalization of the Vladivostok-Chennai Maritime Corridor between the Russian Far East and India, which would be the key to comprehensively diversifying Russia’s “Pivot to Asia” and “balancing” China. “Rusi-Hindi Bhai Bhai” (“Russians and Indians are brothers”), the Soviet-era slogan celebrating the Russian-Indian Strategic Partnership, is back with a bang as these two Great Powers take their relations to the global level ahead of Prime Minister Modi’s upcoming visit to the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok later this week as President Putin’s guest of honor. Credible reports have…

By: Mark taliano U.S-led NATO and its allies support ISIS and al Qaeda globally. They supported al Qaeda to destroy Libya, they support al Qaeda/ISIS and their affiliates in Syria and in Iraq, and now evidence demonstrates that they are also supporting al Qaeda/ISIS in Yemen. The irrefutable evidence that the West supports these internationally-proclaimed terrorists in Syria, Iraq, and Libya has been available for years. Now, thanks to the efforts of investigative journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva, we see strong evidence that the West supports ISIS in Yemen as well. In her September 1, 2019 article, “Islamic State weapons in Yemen traced…

Steven Sahiounie, Middle East observer Within hours of an announced ceasefire in Idlib, the US launched an attack there, which undermines the effort to end the fighting in Idlib, violates agreements, and threatens the safety of Russian and Turkish military in the area because of the US failure to notify them of the attacks, according to senior Russian lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev, who said, “The US airstrike on the de-escalation zone in Syria’s Idlib … was delivered in order to, first of all, show that Washington is not planning to reckon with anyone else and second, that it keeps an active…

The trade war finally caught up with US crude oil exports to China, but this doesn’t mean that US crude flows to East-Asia will dry up all of a sudden. It’s been a year since the China-US trade war began, and up until this last week, China had refrained from slapping import tariffs on US crude oil, even as it announced other measures in retaliation to US import tariffs on Chinese goods. Those days are over. Last week, the trade war finally caught up with US crude oil exports to China. What does this mean for the US oil industry?…

A Red Cross official has estimated that Saudi airstrikes killed at least 100 people at a Yemeni prison. Medics have been dispatched to the scene of what looks like the deadliest strike in Yemen this year. Airstrikes pounded the detention center located in a college building in Dhamar City on Sunday. The facility housed some 170 detainees. “We estimate over 100 people were killed,” International Red Cross head in Yemen, Franz Rauchenstein, told AFP. Rauchenstein said that rescue teams are combing the rubble for survivors, but their chances of success “are very low.” Earlier, the Red Cross dispatched medical teams to the strike…

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has informed French leader Emmanuel Macron in a phone call that Tehran will launch the third stage in reducing its obligations under the nuclear deal later in September if Europe fails to live up to its part of commitments, noting that this step, as well as the previous ones, will be reversible. The phone conversation took place on Saturday. It comes as Macron, a staunch advocate of saving the Iran nuclear deal, has been stepping efforts to engage Iran diplomatically. “If Europe cannot put its commitments into operation, Iran will take the third step in reducing its JCPOA…