Author: Steven Sahiounie

Iran’s Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Farhad Dejpassand says the country has managed to keep exports smooth and running over the past seven months despite a series of harsh sanctions imposed by the US that are meant to restrict the country’s access to the regional and international markets. Dejpassand said on Sunday that the value of exports of non-oil products from Iran since late March, when the current Iranian calendar year started, had reached $24.4 billion, slightly down compared to the similar period in 2018 when the country exported nearly $27.3 billion of goods and services. “It is clear that despite…

Tens of thousands of people in Lebanon have formed a 170-kilometer-long human chain stretching the length of the Arab country in a show of unity and solidarity with anti-government protests. According to organizers, the human chain on Sunday was successfully formed as protesters held hands from Tripoli in the north to Tyre in the south, running through capital Beirut, the main protest hub against the Mediterranean country’s economic crisis. In capital, men, women and children held hands, some waving Lebanese flags and many singing the national anthem. “I can confirm that the human chain was a success. The idea behind…

Steven Sahiounie, political commentator It is reported by numerous sources that the ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead, after CIA investigations uncovered his location in Barisha, in the northwest of Syria.  1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, aka Delta Force, entered the secluded rural compound which is surrounded by natural limestone caves.  The attack involved about 6 helicopters, 2 of which landed and carried out the mission and recovered evidence, and finally flew away, but not before executing an airstrike to destroy the place Baghdadi was reportedly killed at. Reports suggest that Baghdadi was accompanied by family members, some of…

The idea to set up a NATO-controlled safe zone in northeastern Syria will bring nothing good, as there is an existing agreement on resolving the situation in the country, reached by Russia and Turkey, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday. Speaking in Kirkenes, Norway, he said that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg “began making strange statements that some NATO members back this idea” and some others are not particularly enthusiastic about it, TASS reports. “Since they say that NATO wants to assume responsibility [for creating a safe zone in northeastern Syria], of course, there is nothing good about this idea.…

The US is taking steps to relax regulations blocking sales of food and medicine to Iran, amid sanctions imposed on the country by the Trump administration, AP reports. The Treasury Department said it had created a way to ensure humanitarian aid could continue “despite the administration’s effort to isolate Tehran.” The treasury plans to allow “permissible trade” to support the Iranian people, while maintaining efforts to deprive the Islamic republic’s government of the resources that Washington says it “needs to develop missiles and support militant activities around the Middle East.” The gesture, announced on Friday, addresses concerns by aid groups…

Earlier on Friday, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said he would carry out a cabinet reshuffle and change election laws amid a wave of anti-government protests. A second protester has died and more than 350 others were injured during the protests in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, the local police and hospital sources have said. According to AP citing a security official, 5 protesters have been killed during the demonstrations. Videos and photos are being posted online showing crowds of protesters in Tahrir square. ​Clashes between protesters and police happened when the people attempted to enter the so-called Green…

Yemen has been engulfed in an armed conflict between the government forces led by President Hadi, and the rebel Houthi movement for several years now. The Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis at Hadi’s request since March 2015. The conflict has resulted in a massive humanitarian crisis. The Houthi rebel movement, also known as Ansar Allah, launched an attack on the Yemeni and Saudi forces and gained control over the government forces’ positions in Yemen’s Saada governorate, which borders Saudi Arabia, a local military source said on Friday. “The Ansar Allah movement launched a large-scale attack…

The United Nations says Turkey’s now-suspended offensive against Kurdish militants in northern Syria has displaced about 180,000 people, including tens of thousands of children. Ursula Mueller, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights “has received concerning reports of civilian casualties and damage to critical civilian infrastructure” since the onset of the military operation. Addressing the UN Security Council (UNSC) in New York on Thursday, the humanitarian official noted that the offensive, which “severely impacted the humanitarian situation, forced “almost 180,000 people, including close to 80,000 children,” to flee south from the border areas between…

The secretary general of the Lebanese resistance movement has warned against fiendish attempts to target the axis of resistance in the wake of ongoing anti-government demonstrations over the country’s economic crisis, stating that Hezbollah is well aware of such conspiracies. “We have information that an anti-resistance scheme is being prepared for Lebanon. Several sides are exploiting popular protests to settle their account with Hezbollah and implement foreign agendas,” Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in an address to his supporters in a televised speech broadcast live from the Lebanese capital city of Beirut on Friday evening. “Social and livelihood demands have been diverted to…

By Manlio Dinucci “Some countries have nuclear missiles, but the West insists that we cannot have them. This is unacceptable”: this statement by President Erdogan reveals that the crisis goes beyond that which began with the Turkish offensive in Syria. In Turkey, during the Cold War, the United States deployed nuclear weapons against the Soviet Union. In 1962, in the agreements with the USSR for the resolution of the Cuban missile crisis, President Kennedy promised to remove these weapons from Turkey, but this was not done. After the end of the Cold War, about 50 U.S. B61 nuclear bombs (the same…