Author: Steven Sahiounie

US President Donald Trump’s administration is withholding $105 million in security aid for Lebanon, Reuters reported, citing US officials. The State Department told Congress on Thursday that the White House budget office and National Security Council had decided to withhold the foreign military assistance, the officials said. It was not immediately clear why the aid was blocked. The administration had sought approval for the assistance starting in May, arguing that it was crucial for Lebanon, an important US partner in the Middle East. Following PM Saad Hariri’s resignation on Tuesday amid huge protests against the ruling elite, US Secretary of…

Iraq’s top cleric warned foreign actors on Friday against interfering in the country’s anti-government protests as they entered their second month. As the demonstrations have evolved since October 1 from rage over corruption and unemployment into calls for the “downfall of the regime,” more than 250 people have died and 10,000 have been wounded in the past month, AFP reported. In his weekly sermon, read by a representative, the top Shiite religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said that “no regional or international actor may seize the will of the Iraqi people and impose its will on them.” Sistani’s statement came…

The secretary general of the Lebanese resistance movement says fighters from his groups are determined to clear Lebanon’s airspace of the presence of any Israeli military aircraft, emphasizing that they will not hesitate to target any intruding machine capable of flying. Addressing his supporters in a televised speech broadcast live from the Lebanese capital city of Beirut on Friday evening, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said fighters of the Islamic resistance confronted a hostile Israeli drone in southern Lebanon’s skies with appropriate weapons the previous day, and forced it to leave the area. “This proves that the resistance has a military leadership, which works…

A World Trade Organization (WTO) panel says that China was entitled to slap compensatory sanctions on US imports worth $3.579 billion annually for the US failure to remove anti-dumping duties – roughly half the amount China had sought. The decision came as the world’s two biggest economies try to clinch Phase 1 of a trade deal. President Donald Trump and US negotiators are “very optimistic” about concluding it, White House adviser Larry Kudlow said. In the WTO ruling, a three-member arbitration panel said Chinese exporters suffered impairment to trade valued at $3.579 billion annually. China may now ask the WTO’s…

By Stephen Lendman On Monday, anti-Trump Speaker Pelosi released the text of the undemocratic Dems’ impeachment resolution, aiming to remove Trump from office for the wrong reasons, ignoring legitimate right ones. For Dems and supportive media, it’s the second time around against DJT after the failed Russiagate witch hunt scam, Ukrainegate with no legitimacy its spinoff. The resolution outlines procedures for conducting the impeachment probe — to be voted on Thursday, according to Pelosi, passage virtually certain in the Dem controlled House. House Rules Committee chairman James McGovern said the Dem-led House “continue(s) (its) investigation (into) whether sufficient grounds exist for the House…to exercise…

By Pepe Escobar What happened in Geneva this Wednesday, in terms of finally bringing peace to Syria, could not be more significant: the first session of the Syrian Constitutional Committee. The Syrian Constitutional Committee sprang out of a resolution passed in January 2018 in Sochi, Russia, by a body called the Syrian National Dialogue Congress. The 150-strong committee breaks down as 50 members of the Syrian opposition, 50 representing the government in Damascus and 50 representatives of civil society. Each group named 15 experts for the meetings in Geneva, held behind closed doors. This development is a direct consequence of the…

By Sarah Abed Exactly two weeks after announcing a thousand US troops would be withdrawn from northeastern Syria with a portion relocated to Syria’s Jordanian and Israeli borders and others sent to Iraq, US President Donald Trump announced on Sunday plans to keep US soldiers in Syria to “secure” oil fields. President Trump even mentioned that he intended to make a deal with ExxonMobil or another company to go in there and do it “properly”, that the goal would be to “spread the wealth” from “massive amounts of oil”. With 500 US troops, Trump also said if need be, they would fight for the…

Steven Sahiounie, political commentator In a shocking reversal in Syria, President Trump has ordered the US military to occupy the oil field at Deir Ez Zor, in eastern Syria.   At first glance, it would appear to be a businessman’s plan to plunder the profits of Syria, and he has quoted profits expected and even ear-marked the profits to support the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who are a Syrian Kurdish militia who had been on the US payroll as mercenaries in the past fight against ISIS. The oil production facility at Deir Ez Zor is destroyed, and incapable of production…

By Mark Taliano Western stories about Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi are meant to confuse, to distract, and to strengthen fake narratives. First, the West supports Daesh in Syria (and beyond). It isn’t a secret. High profile people such as Tulsi Gabbard even admit it. . . CNN Politics✔@CNNPolitics Tulsi Gabbard: “This current President is continuing to betray us. We were supposed to be going after al Qaeda, but over years now, not only have we not gone after al Qaeda … our President is supporting al Qaeda” #DemDebate7144:37 AM – Aug 1, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy389 people are talking about this Second, it provides…

With an overwhelming majority, the US House of Representatives voted in favor of passing a resolution to label the Ottoman Empire’s killing of approximately 1.5 million Armenians from 1915 to 1923 as a genocide. On Tuesday, the House voted 405-11 in favor of both recognizing and condemning the Armenian genocide, an act the Turkish government has historically denied and argued accusations did not take into account the death of Turks.  “Many American politicians, diplomats and institutions have rightly recognized these atrocities as a genocide, including America’s ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the time, Henry Morgenthau, and Ronald Reagan,” House…