Author: Steven Sahiounie

Iran’s copper sector seeks massive expansion of activities in an industrial province northwest of the country as it eyes more exports to Turkey where demand for the precious metal is expected to surge in the coming years. Head of the National Iranian Copper Industries Company (NICICO) said on Thursday that around $1 billion had already been invested in mining and production of copper in the East Azerbaijan province, a center of industry and business near the Iranian-Turkish border. Ardeshir Sa’ad Mohammadi said that the investment plans  were aimed to allow Iran raise its share of copper exports to Turkey, a…

The United States has been pillaging Syria under the pretext of securing its oil fields and funnelling ill-gotten money to anti-government forces, senior Russian defence official Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev said. “A number of US troops has been returned to positions east of the Euphrates River allegedly to protect oil rigs when in fact they are looting hydrocarbons for profit and with the goal of funding anti-government forces”, he said. The general, who heads Russia’s National Center for State Defence Control, said at a joint meeting of the Russian-Syrian coordination headquarters that US plundering deprived the Syrian people of their…

Turkey has rejected a demand by the United States to abandon the S-400 missile defense systems it has bought from Russia, calling such a request unacceptable and an infringement of sovereign rights. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was faced with the demand during a meeting with his American counterpart Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday. Trump told him that Ankara would be receiving US-made Patriot missile systems if it submitted to the request. Erdogan addressed Turkish media afterwards, denouncing the US for its meddling in Ankara’s affairs. “We said, ‘We see the proposal to remove the S-400s completely…

By Stephen Lendman Without establishment media support, US planned aggression, color revolutions, old-fashioned coups, and other hostile to peace, equity and justice actions wouldn’t get out of the starting gate. Propaganda support is crucial, manipulating the public mind. Media operate as gatekeepers, proliferating the official narrative, suppressing vital hard truths essential for everyone to know. Orwell called it “reality control,” substituting managed news misinformation and disinformation for truth-telling. Discussing the coup in Bolivia, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) said the following: Bolivian “(a)rmy generals appearing on television to demand the resignation and arrest of an elected civilian head of state seems like…

Anti-government rallies swelled in Iraq’s capital and south on Wednesday as Baghdad faced new pressure from both the street and the UN to respond seriously to weeks of demonstrations. Protests demanding a new leadership have rocked the capital and Shiite-majority south for weeks. Demonstrators appear to have been revived after the country’s top Shiite religious authority Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani said they “cannot go home without sufficient reforms.” The head of the UN’s mission in Iraq (UNAMI), Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, planned to address the main political blocs and brief lawmakers on her meeting with Sistani, who in a significant move backed a…

 A US military convoy consisting of 22 military vehicles and two trucks have crossed the Syrian-Iraqi border and positioned itself near several oil deposits in northeastern Syria, the Al-Ikhbariya broadcaster reported. According to the media, the US troops came from Iraq via the al-Walid border crossing and concentrated near the Auda oil field in the Qahtaniyah region and the Jibsa oil field. About 90 percent of Syrian oil reserves are concentrated to the east of the Euphrates River, the region that was previously a stronghold and main source of income for Daesh* terrorists and is now mainly controlled by the Syrian Democratic…

Tensions in the Gaza Strip escalated on 31 October when a rocket was launched at Israeli territory from the enclave. Since then, airstrikes have been continuously exchanged between the Israeli defence forces and Islamic Jihad militants. Islamic Jihad leader Zeyad al-Nakhala has presented the group’s terms for an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire with Israel in the Gaza Strip in an interview with Al-Mayadeen TV, Reuters reported. If the conditions are not met, the cross-border rocket exchange would continue indefinitely, al-Nakhala said. Earlier in the day, the Israeli military reported hundreds of rockets launched from Gaza at Israeli territory, with ”one rocket every seven…

US President Donald Trump lauds his relationship with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan amid S-400 tensions between Washington and Ankara. Pro-Kurdish protesters gathered outside the White House Wednesday to censure Erdogan’s visit and slam Trump’s abandoning of Kurds ahead of Turkey’s assault on Syria. “America Stand With Your Kurdish Allies,” read one sign, according to Reuters. “We’ve been friends for a long time, almost from Day 1. We understand each others’ country. We understand where we are coming from,” Trump told Erdogan in the Oval Office. “We’re also talking about the trade deal…Frankly, we’re going to be expanding our trade relationship…

A high-ranking official from the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah says the United States and its allies in the Middle East are taking advantage of the anti-government protests in the country in order to attain their own political objectives. Vice President of the Executive Council of Hezbollah Sheikh Ali Damoush said on Wednesday that his movement distinguishes between the righteous demands of protesters and the political schemes of those who are exploiting the mass protest movement to achieve their own goals. “It is wrong to confuse the sufferings of people and their real demands with the political projects, which seek to take advantage…

By Tony Cartalucci After the supposed US “withdrawal” from Syria – Western media outlets have causally reported on US troops now preparing to occupy Syria’s oilfields east of the Euphrates River. Articles include carefully selected “experts” who avoid any mention of how illegal or indefensible the presence of US forces in Syria is to begin with, let alone any mention of “why” US troops are preparing to “claim” Syria’s natural resources. The Guardian in its piece, “US plans to send tanks to Syria oil fields, reversing Trump troop withdrawal – reports,” illustrates a voluntary dereliction of due diligence in investigating or…