Author: Steven Sahiounie

The news comes amid another surge of unrest in the Middle Eastern country, as protesters are taking to the streets to oppose the government, with numerous violent clashes resulting in deaths. According to Reuters, Iraqi protesters have blocked the entrance to an oil refining facility in the city of Nasiriyah, which is located about 370 kilometres (225 miles) southeast of Baghdad. The agency reported, citing sources, that the blockage has already resulted in fuel shortages across Dhi Qar province. Mass rallies broke out again in the country this autumn, as numerous people protested against deteriorating public services and corruption, urging for the resignation of the…

by Tim Korso The US is keeping a military presence in Syria despite achieving its stated goal of defeating Daesh*, prompting several countries, including Syria itself, to slam it as illegal. The Pentagon has argued that troops will stay in the Arab Republic to defend oil facilities from Daesh* remnants, but Moscow insists this should be done by Syrian forces. US President Donald Trump announced early in October his intention to bring the US troops stationed in Syria “back home”, but, according to the latest reports, a significant American contingency remains stationed in certain regions of Syria that are controlled by the Kurdish…

Israeli authorities have released two Jordanian citizens, who were arrested after crossing the kingdom into the occupied West Bank and being held in detention without charges for the past two months. Jordanian television network confirmed on Wednesday that Heba Abdel-Baqi al-Labadi and Abdul Rahman Mari had been freed and arrived in the capital Amman. Labadi’s father said his daughter had met with her family on the Jordanian side of the border, adding that she will undergo medical examinations at King Hussein Medical Center in Amman. “We are very excited and happy that Heba is back home and free. We were very…

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is expected to allow tourists holding Israeli passports to take part in the Expo 2020, which the Persian Gulf state’s biggest and most luxurious city of Dubai is going to host for 173 days. “Israeli and the UAE’s authorities have been in talks for a while, in order to allow those with Israeli passports to attend the Expo in Dubai,” an unnamed source within the Expo’s management team told Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. The source added, “These talks are happening because both sides want to see the Expo turn into the biggest exhibition in the world.…

By Nauman Sadiq In response to Washington unilaterally cancelling the Iran nuclear deal and imposing sanctions on Iran, Tehran has announced on Tuesday that it will begin injecting uranium gas into 1,044 centrifuges at Fordow nuclear facility. Though like the previous retaliatory measures taken by the Hassan Rouhani government, this step too is reversible. Donald Trump has repeatedly said during the last three years that the Iran nuclear deal signed by the Obama administration in 2015 was an “unfair deal” that gave concessions to Iran without giving anything in return to the US. Unfortunately, there is a grain of truth in Trump’s…

A trade war between the world’s top two economies cut US imports of Chinese goods by more than a quarter, or $35 billion, in the first half of this year and drove up prices for American consumers, a UN study showed on Tuesday. Beijing and Washington have been locked in a trade feud for the past 16 months although there are hopes that an initial deal offering some relief may be signed this month. If that fails, nearly all Chinese goods imports into the United States – worth more than $500 billion – could be affected. US imports from China…

Two months ago, Iran opted to refuse to fulfill another part of the nuclear deal’s obligations, giving its member states ⁠— the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia and China ⁠— another 60 days for its rehabilitation in an attempt to protect Tehran’s interests, which expire on 5 November. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is expected to announce the fourth stage of nuclear obligations’ reduction. The immediate details of the measures involved and the contents are not yet known, but the spokesman for Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi has previously stated that Tehran did not have many options that fit…

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 kingdom’s southern border region of Najran, in retaliation for the alliance’s military aggression against their conflict-stricken country. The spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, wrote in a post published on his Twitter page that Yemeni forces and their allies shot down the drone over al-Sawh area of the region, situated 844 kilometers (524 miles) south of the capital Riyadh, on Tuesday morning. He added that Yemeni army forces and Popular Committees fighters targeted the unmanned aerial…

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says Iran gives a response to the United States’ policy of pursuing “economic terrorism” and “blackmail” in a way quite opposite of what US President Donald Trump was led to believe. Zarif made the remarks in a tweet on Tuesday after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the country will start injecting uranium gas into centrifuges at the Fordow enrichment facility on Wednesday, in the fourth step Tehran is taking away from the multinational nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in response to the United States’ withdrawal. In a speech…

By Scott Ritter In the past month, the name and image of General Mazloum Adbi, the commander of the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, has become well known to Americans. The decision by President Trump to precipitously withdraw U.S. forces from northeastern Syria, thereby greenlighting a Turkish military incursion which targeted Mazloum and his forces, prompted a widespread discussion about the American “abandonment” of its Kurdish allies, and General Mazloum quickly became the face of the Kurds. After the targeted killing of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, by elite commandos from the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), General Mazloum’s status as a heroic figure was cemented,…