Author: Steven Sahiounie

Fishery officials from Iran and Russia have agreed that a ban on fishing sturgeon and other fishes that produce caviar eggs should be extended for another year. Head of Iran’s fishery organization said on Thursday that the two countries had agreed that the beluga sturgeon, the source of caviar, is still among the endangered species in the Caspian Sea, where more than 90 percent of the world’s caviar is produced. “We agreed that the ban on commercial fishing for this fish from the Caspian Sea should continue,” said Nabiollah Khunmirzaei, adding that Iran and Russia both shared same concerns about…

The US intelligence chief has publicly broken with President Donald Trump and some Republican lawmakers, saying the whistleblower who filed a complaint against Trump over his phone call with Ukraine’s president “did the right thing” and “followed the law every step of the way.” The acting Director of National Intelligence, Joseph Maguire, testified for more than three hours on Thursday before the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee to discuss the complaint about a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. A declassified version of the complaint was released publicly by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence…

Saudi-led coalition air strikes killed seven children in Yemen on Tuesday, a local official and doctor said The seven children were among 16 people killed during the air strike, as Saudi Arabia continues to pound the country already facing a humanitarian disaster. “Sixteen people, including women and children, were killed and nine others injured” in a raid targeting a home in Daleh, a local official told AFP on condition of anonymity. A doctor at Al Thawra hospital in nearby Ibb province, which received the bodies of those killed, told AFP that seven children and four women were among them. The Houthi rebels…

By Pepe Escobar “It is clear to us that Iran bears responsibility for this attack. There is no other plausible explanation. We support ongoing investigations to establish further details.” The statement above was not written by Franz Kafka. In fact, it was written by a Kafka derivative: Brussels-based European bureaucracy. The Merkel-Macron-Johnson trio, representing Germany, France and the UK, seems to know what no “ongoing investigation” has unearthed: that Tehran was definitively responsible for the twin aerial strikes on Saudi oil installations. “There is no other plausible explanation” translates as the occultation of Yemen. Yemen only features as the pounding ground of a…

Syrian families held captive by Trump Regime Forces and their ISIS affiliates of Maghaweer Thawra terrorists at al-Rukban Concentration Camp went out of their tents in the high heat of the desert to protest for food the day before yesterday, 11th of September, they were faced with live bullets by the US occupation forces. Russian Coordination Center called on the US occupation forces in Rukban Concentration Camp to exert pressure on US-sponsored Maghaweer Thawra terrorists to stop their terrorist acts against the displaced Syrians held in the camp, these terrorist acts have exacerbated the already dire humanitarian situation of the families there. A…

Sarah Abed, political analyst The 74th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is in full swing in New York this week with discussions and debates ranging from climate change to trade deals and the growing tensions in the Middle East. A few days prior to the UNGA however, there was a climate strike that took on September 20th, Participation took place in dozens of cities around the world with the largest being in New York and led by Greta Thunberg a Swedish youth climate activist who began the “Fridays for the Future” movement last year. On Monday, the UNGA was mostly…

Yemen’s Houthi rebels said on Wednesday their offer to halt all attacks on Saudi Arabia still stands despite new airstrikes allegedly launched by a Arab-led coalition fighting the insurgents. Twenty-two civilians, including children, were killed in air raids earlier this week in Dhale and Amran provinces, according to the United Nations. The strikes came after the Houthis offered to halt drone and ballistic missile attacks on Saudi Arabia. “The initiative is still on, and we are patient,” Hisham Sharaf, the Houthis’ foreign minister, told AFP. “If they want peace, we are for peace. If they don’t want peace, they know how we can…

The foreign ministers of Russia, Iran and Turkey have agreed to help convene the first session of the Constitutional Committee on Syria in Geneva, a joint statement released on the official website of the Russian Foreign Ministry says. The statement stressed that Russia, Iran and Turkey reaffirmed their commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Syria. The ministers “agreed to help convene the first session of the Constitutional Committee in Geneva” and “emphasized that this crucial step will pave the way for a viable and lasting Syrian-led, Syrian-owned and UN-facilitated political process in line with the decisions of the…

The Unites States has imposed new sanctions on Chinese firms and individuals over violation the US illegal sanctions on Iran. The US Treasury Department announced Wednesday that five Chinese nationals and six entities, including two Cosco Shipping Corporation subsidiaries, were targeted in the new measure. “And we are telling China, and all nations: know that we will sanction every violation,” claimed hawkish Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a conference on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. “The more Iran lashes out the greater our pressure will and should be… That path forward begins now…

Saudi Arabia’s state-run oil company Aramco, the world’s largest, has asked banks for loans of up to $1 billion after attacks on its giant oil facilities earlier this month that shut down a bulk of daily production. A Tuesday report by Reuters news agency showed that Aramco had submitted request for proposals (RFPs) to banks earlier this week to receive the loans. The company has used the RFPs for securing the loans to finance an unspecified project, said the report, citing sources with direct knowledge of the matter. The sources said, however, that the RFPs did not make it clear…