Author: Steven Sahiounie

By: Sarah Abed, independent journalist and analyst On Tuesday, the biennial MAKS-2019 International Aviation and Space Show kicked off in Russia’s Zhukovsky International Airport. This important event has drawn spectators, journalists, and photographers from around the world every odd year since 1992. What began as an entertaining event has now become a marketplace for Russian aerospace companies to negotiate export contracts and for Russian air carriers to make foreign contacts This year by special invitation Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan was given a personal tour by President Putin and other officials, to gain insight into Russia’s latest aviation developments. Turkey was recently ejected from…

Steven Sahiounie, Middle East observer Netanyahu attacks Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon to win re-election Benyamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of “Israel”, the occupier of Palestine, may lose the election on September 17th.  He is the longest-serving prime minister in the history of the occupation; however, he is facing possible defeat even though he is the best friend of Pres. Trump, who enjoys a 70% approval rating in “Israel”.  Netanyahu is facing 3 serious corruption charges in a hearing set for October.  Some analysts predict he will lose the election, lose his case, and go to jail.  To win the election, Netanyahu…

Washington earlier suspended Ankara’s participation in the F-35 procurement programme after it refused to fulfil the American ultimatum, demanding that it cancel its deal with Russia on S-400 air defence systems. Pentagon chief Mark Esper expressed hope that Turkey would get rid of its S-400 air defence systems, which it has bought from Russia, saying that if it does so, then the country can count on returning to the F-35 programme and acquire the jets it ordered. He further stressed that Ankara must fully cease its participation in the S-400 programme, removing the systems for good from the country, in order…

Lebanon’s army has opened fire at an Israeli drone in the south of the country, Reuters reported, citing Lebanese security sources. According to the source, the troops fired shots from M16 assault rifles. The National News Agency reported that the incident took place at the village of Odeisseh, near Marjayoun, near the border with Israel. The Lebanese Army stated that it had forced the two drones to return by firing at them. In the meantime, an Israeli military spokeswoman has stated that they’re “checking the report”. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) has posted an image with a list of what…

The battle for Ta’manah has begun this evening as the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies attempt to take hold of this key town in the southern region of the Idlib Governorate. Led by the Tiger Forces and Republican Guard, the Syrian Arab Army began their assault by storming Ta’manah and the nearby town of Khuwayn Al-Kabir. According to a source from the Republican Guard, their troops captured at least three quarters of Khuwayn Al-Kabir, leaving only a small portion of the town left under the control of the jihadist forces. At the same time, the Tiger Forces are…

By Andrew Korybko Turkish President Erdogan’s visit to Moscow on 27 August will see him and his Russian counterpart hashing out the details of the Syrian end game. The kinetic (military) phase of the War on Syria is rapidly drawing to a close and being replaced by a potentially much more complex non-kinetic (political) phase of the conflict as evidenced by recent events pertaining to the the Syrian Arab Army’s (SAA) anti-terrorist operation in Idlib and the upcoming plans to finally form a long-awaited constitutional committee for reforming the country’s founding document. All of these developments concern core interests of Turkey…

By: Yuri Veselov, military observer, Inforos news agency Regional Arab news agencies with a focus on Arab monarchical regimes are trying to present the defeat of terrorists in the city of Khan Shaykhun and in the north of the Hama province as “an organized forced withdrawal of troops from the combat zone.” Concurrently, they make no secret of the fact that the loss of control over the area opens up a real opportunity to government forces to develop a powerful offensive deep into the provinces of Idlib and Hama. It must be admitted that the advancing troops lost up to…

 Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Monday called Israeli attacks on the southern suburbs of the capital of Beirut and the town of Qousaya a “declaration of war”. “Attacks on the suburbs and the Qousaya area violate the 1701 resolution; these attacks allow Lebanon to use the right to protect its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity”, Aoun said during a meeting with UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis. The president added that the Lebanese people were seeking peace, not war, and “we do not accept that anyone threatens us in any way”. Earlier in the day, Israel reportedly carried out airstrikes against…

BY TIM ANDERSON Having launched hundreds of attacks on Syria, while Damascus was distracted by its anti-terrorism operations, Israel has unleashed a wave of terrorism through drone attacks on Iraq’s popular mobilization forces (Hashd al Shaabi), followed by attacks on Lebanon, Syria and Gaza. In most cases the pretext is ‘Iran’, though Israel has not yet had the courage to mount open attacks on the region’s largest independent state. However, in the past, Mossad has assassinated some of Iran’s nuclear scientists, as detailed in Ronen Bergman’s 2018 book Rise and Kill First. Washington’s state media (Radio Farda) reported Israeli leader Benyamin Netanyahu…

The USA has illegitimately sent a new convoy containing tens of vehicles loading military and logistic equipment to Qamishli city in support of the separatist Qasad militia, which is besieging tens of thousands of civilians in the areas of its spread with a support of the US occupation forces spread in Syrian al-Jazira region. Local sources from Qamishli city monitored the entry of 200 trucks loading military and logistic equipment provided by the US occupation forces to Qasad militia as they were entered illegitimately through the river crossing of Simalka linking Kurdistan region of northern Iraq with Hasaka province. According…