Author: Steven Sahiounie

Steven Sahiounie, Middle East observer Turkish President Erdogan began a military invasion in northeastern Syria on Wednesday, named “Operation Peace Spring”.   The perceived threat to Turkey lies in the autonomous state of ‘Rojava’, also known as the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES). In July 2016, NES Assembly co-chair Hediya Yousef stated that a federal system is the ideal form of governance for Syria. Pres. Erdogan will not tolerate an autonomous state on his border, as this could influence and inspire Turkey’s fifteen million Kurds to fight to achieve a similar state. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)…

Egypt’s government sentenced 42 people to death in September amid calls for an end to executions ordered after “unfair” trials, a report says. The London-based al-Araby al-Jadeed newspaper reported on Wednesday that the figure was according to data provided by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, an independent human rights organization. The death sentences were related to 13 different cases. The sentencing papers of 21 other defendants in five cases were referred to the grand mufti, Egypt’s top Muslim religious authority, who reviews all death sentences. The daily noted that Egyptian rights groups, including El Shehab for Human Rights, have launched a…

By Paul Antonopoulos  The Missile Attack Alert System (SPRN), which Moscow is currently helping Beijing set up, will dramatically increase China’s defense, protecting it against any possible “strategic surprise” from the US, experts say. Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled these plans while speaking at the Valdai International Discussion Club last week. Russia has just set up a similar system covering its entire territory in 2017. Protection against unexpected attack Experts noted that the new Chinese system would avert the risk of any unexpected first attack from the United States, while noting that such an attack appears to be purely theoretical. Miles…

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said that the Syrian military is the only power that can ensure security along the country’s northern borders with Turkey. “The solution to achieving security in Syria’s northern and Turkey’s southern border region lies only in the presence of the Syrian military there,” President Rouhani said on Wednesday. He added that all sides involved needed to help set the sage for conditions that would allow the Syrian army’s presence in the region, adding that Iran had conveyed this position during talks with Russia and Turkey in Ankara last month. The Iranian president added that security in the…

Last week, Turkey announced that it would launch a military incursion in northeastern Syria to drive away Kurdish militants from the area and set up a “safe zone” in the region to accommodate Syrian refugees there. The US said it would never back the Turkish operation and would withdraw its troops from the Kurdish-held territory. Turkey’s Operation Peace Spring in northeastern Syria has officially begun, President Erdogan announced via Twitter on Wednesday. Civilians are Reportedly Leaving Ras al-Ain After Start of Operation Peace Spring People are fleeing the Syrian town of Ras al-Ain in search of safer places after the beginning…

US Republican and Democratic lawmakers are finalising legislation that would impose economic sanctions on Turkey, which has begun a military invasion of northern Syria to clear a border region of US-allied Kurdish forces, Senator Chris Van Hollen said Wednesday. “Turkey must pay a heavy price for attacking our Syrian Kurdish partners,” Van Hollen said in a Twitter message. “Senators on both sides of the aisle won’t support abandoning the one regional group most responsible for putting ISIS [Islamic State terror group, banned in Russia] on its heels. Our bipartisan sanctions bill is being finalized now.” Van Hollen, a Democrat, partnered…

Kurdish communities in northern Syria have welcomed an offer of dialogue with the Syrian government made by Russia amid Turkey’s operation against Kurds in the region. “We view positively Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s statements about the matter of dialogue between the self-administration and the Syrian government,” a statement from the Kurds said on Wednesday. “We look to Russia having a role … as a supporter and guarantor.” The Kurds believe intra-Syrian dialogue is the best way to resolve the crisis in the Arab country. Earlier on Wednesday, Russia called for dialogue between the government in Damascus and the Kurdish…

A US airstrike that was carried out in Afghanistan in May and was said to have targeted Taliban militants in fact killed at least 30 civilians, a United Nations (UN) probe has found. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) conducted the investigation over four months looking into what happened on May 5 when the US military bombed dozens of sites it had identified as Taliban methamphetamine labs. Soon after the strikes in the Bakwa district of Farah Province, and parts of the bordering Delaram district in Nimroz Province, UNAMA said it began to receive reports of “significant civilian…

BY JAMES O’NEILL Iran is a modern society with an ancient history. Together with China it is one of the world’s oldest continuous civilizations. For centuries it was the center of an ancient and vibrant culture, that can trace its origins back at least 7000 years before the Christian era. Its more modern origins as a unified state go back at least to the seventh century BC. Over the centuries it has suffered the invasions from groups as diverse as the Mongolians and the Greeks. Yet it has always managed to survive those invasions and retain its own unique and distinctive…

BY ABDEL BARI ATWAN The interview with Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin-Salman aired by the American CBS channel on Sunday was noteworthy in three respects. First, he spoke and behaved like Saudi Arabia’s absolute ruler. He barely mentioned his father King Salman and accepted responsibility for the murder of Jamal Kashoggi in his capacity as the country’s chief executive in charge of its three million state employees. Second, he was unusually conciliatory towards Iran and its allies, completely abandoning the hawkish escalatory tone that has characterized most if not all his previous interviews. Third, the man who launched the Yemen war…