Author: Steven Sahiounie

BY ELIJAH J. MAGNIER “There is no alternative to war. One day it will be war on a large scale”. This is what one of the decision-makers within the “Axis of the Resistance” has said with confidence. However, the timing may not be as close as repeatedly advertised by Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, despite signs to the contrary. Such a war is most unlikely to happen any time soon. Examining the reasons may be quite revealing. For the first time in the history of Israel, the election of a Prime Minister is stumbling. Netanyahu needs to remain in power to…

Hezbollah poses a considerable threat to the scenarios developed by the United States and the Israeli regime to be implemented in the Middle East, says the secretary general of Lebanon’s resistance movement, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. “The US is doing its utmost to depict Hezbollah as a threat to Lebanon. Americans are actually vying for their own interests and those of Israel. The interests of the Lebanese nation are not a matter of concern to them at all. The US is paying out millions of dollars as part of its attempts to sully the image of Hezbollah, yet such bids are…

BY PHILIP GIRALDI One might postulate that the United States is regularly supporting so-called allies whose very nature will eventually generate blowback that will do terrible damage to actual American interests. The recent example of the mass shooting at the Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida by Saudi Second Lieutenant Mohammed Alshamrani is illustrative. Alshamrani killed three American sailors while three other Saudi students filmed what was taking place, presumably for posting on social media. Though the U.S. and The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have no actual alliance, the American and Saudi militaries have a relationship that began during the Second World War. Currently,…

The head of Libya’s eastern-based parliament said on Thursday he disagreed with an accord between Libya and Turkey establishing maritime boundaries which has infuriated Athens. Greece expelled the Libyan ambassador last week over the November 27 accord establishing a sea corridor between Libya and Turkey and in areas where Greece considers it has maritime rights. “We are here to stress that this specific agreement is rejected,” Reuters quoted Aguila Saleh Issa, speaker of the Libyan House of Representatives, as saying. “Those that signed it do not have any legal authority to do so, since the government itself was rejected. It did fail…

The Syrian and Russian fighter jets in joint operations hit the military positions of the ISIS terrorists several times in the surrounding regions of al-Sukhneh desert in an area located near Deir Ezzor province, the Arabic-language media outlets reported. The Arabic-language service of the Russian Sputnik news agency reported that the Russian and Syrian warplanes launched a joint operation to support the Syrian Army which was engaged in heavy clashes with the ISIS terrorists in the surrounding areas of Avirez Dam in the easternmost part of Badiyeh (desert) Homs. A battlefield source told Sputnik news agency that the major part…

The White House has reached a “deal in principle” with Beijing to resolve the 17-month U.S.-China trade war, according to a source briefed on the trade talks. The White House was expected to make an announcement later on Thursday, the source said. “The written agreement is still being formulated, but they have reached an agreement in principle,” the source said. No details were immediately available. In an attempt to secure a “phase one” trade deal, U.S. negotiators offered to cut existing tariffs on Chinese goods by as much as 50% and suspend new tariffs that were scheduled to go into…

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) recently blocked a U.S. military convoy from passing their posts at the Qamishli Airport in northern Al-Hasakah. In a video that was captured on Thursday, the Syrian Army can be seen forcing the U.S. convoy to turn around, despite the possibility of a confrontation between the two forces. Since the Syrian Army took over the Al-Qamishli District, they have deployed their forces to several areas that were previously under the control of the U.S. Armed Forces. While the U.S. military continues to carry out patrols in the Al-Hasakah Governorate, the Syrian Army has become more…

Yemeni forces have launched a ballistic missile at a gathering of Saudi mercenaries in Yemen’s northern province of al-Jawf in retaliation for airstrikes by the kingdom, the army says. The spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, said Yemeni soldiers and allied fighters hit the gathering with a domestically-developed and medium-range Qassem (Raider) ballistic missile on Thursday afternoon. The missile hit the designated target with high precision and its explosion either killed or wounded dozens of mercenaries, the Arabic-language al-Masirah television network further quoted the general as saying. Saree said Yemeni forces also managed to completely block the advances of Saudi mercenaries, who…

Three more fighters have been injured, the military said in a statement as quoted by Reuters. Seven Iraqi paramilitary fighters have been killed in a suicide attack near the city of Samarra north of Baghdad on Thursday, Reuters reported, citing a statement by the military. Three more fighters were injured in the attack, the statement said, adding that no group has claimed responsibility for it. Iraqi forces and paramilitary groups, mostly Shi’ite Muslim, are fighting an insurgency by Daesh* militants, who used to have control over the territory two years ago.

The US military evacuated about 300 family members of militants of the Daesh* terrorist group from the Al-Hawl camp in northern Syria to Iraq, Syrian state television reported on Wednesday. “US military occupiers have taken out 300 family members of Daesh* militants of foreign origin from the Al-Hawl camp to Iraq”, the broadcaster reported. Earlier in the month, US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper did not rule out sending additional troops to Syria despite having previously said that the total number of US troops on the ground would remain at around 600. According to the UN, as of late November, about 69,000 people lived…