Author: Steven Sahiounie

The European Union has prolonged for six months individual restrictive measures against 170 citizens and 44 legal entities of Russia and Ukraine, the Council of the EU said in a statement released in Brussels on Thursday. “The Council has extended the restrictive measures over actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine for a further six months, until 15 March 2020,” the statement says. The decision was adopted by the council “by written procedure,” and the legal acts will be published in the Official Journal on September 13, 2019. The EU previously extended individual sanctions against Russia in…

A string of nighttime explosions at a Turkish military base in northern Cyprus has damaged a nearby seaside hotel and injured 12 people, prompting the evacuation of terrified tourists, officials say. The blasts rang out at intervals over a three-hour period in the arms depot at the base in Catalkoy, west of the town of Kyrenia, sparking a fire. The luxury Acapulco Hotel was damaged, with windows shattered and ceilings collapsed, and guests evacuated to a safe area. Turkish Cypriot authorities said 12 people were injured, two of whom remained in hospital several hours later. A probe was launched to…

By Pepe Escobar Afghanistan was bombed and invaded because of 9/11. I was there from the start, even before 9/11. On August 20, 2001, I interviewed commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, the “Lion of the Panjshir,” who told me about an “unholy alliance” of the Taliban, al-Qaeda and the ISI (Pakistani intel). Back in Peshawar, I learned that something really big was coming: my article was published by Asia Times on August 30. Commander Massoud was killed on September 9: I received a terse email from a Panjshir source, only stating, “the commander has been shot.” Two days later, 9/11 happened. And yet, the day before,…

By Andrew Korybko Chinese-Indian relations are worsening after reckless statements by the latter’s media and officials, proving that ties between the two Asian Great Powers are much shakier than either side publicly acknowledges and thus raising the risk that President Xi’s unconfirmed visit to the South Asian state next month might not happen at all if this worrying trend isn’t reversed. CGTN opinion editor Huang Jiyuan published a thought-provoking piece earlier this week titled “Is this a turning point in India’s foreign policy towards China?“, which raised awareness about worsening Chinese-Indian relations as a result of the latter’s recklessness. The…

Sarah Abed, independent journalist and analyst On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump finally fired his third national security advisor, John Bolton after eighteen long and grueling months. John happens to be the thirty-fifth member of Trump’s revolving door administration to get fired or resign, since he took office in 2016. Bolton gives a different version of events but regardless of whether he was fired or resigned, Bolton is not in a powerful position anymore (and hopefully nevermore), and the world is a better place for it. Now some might think is an overly optimistic way to look at things and that his…

Steven Sahiounie, Middle East observer The backbone of a Muslim family is the mother.  She is the soul of the family, teaching right from wrong, and the one to teach her children how to pray.  Inside the al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria are thousands of mothers and their children.  These are the wives and mothers of ISIS terrorists, and while most are Syrian or Iraqi, there are 10,500 who are foreigners originally from Finland to Spain, and everywhere in between.  Al-Hol houses about 70,000 persons, of which 50,000 are children, and 20,000 are women.  The fathers, husbands, and brothers of…

By Elijah J. Magnier French President Emmanuel Macron failed to promote successfully his Iranian initiative with the US administration despite the initial blessing of his US counterpart. This failure led Iran to make a third gradual withdrawal from its JCPOA nuclear deal commitment, raising two main issues. Iran has become a regional power to be reckoned with, so we can now scrap from reactions to its policies the words “submit,” or “bow to the international community”. Moreover, since Europe is apparently no longer in a position to fulfil its commitments, Iran will now be headed towards a total pull-out following further gradual…

A number of Syrian families who had been displaced due to terrorist acts returned home on Wednesday coming from Azraq Camp in Jordan via Nassib border crossing with Jordan. bodies concerned provided all the facilitations for receiving the displaced returnees, including buses, ambulance, and medical services. The returnees, numbered 27400 since the re-opening of the border crossing on October 15th, returned to Syria, using temporary passage tickets, head of the Immigration and Passports department at Nassib crossing Mazen Ghandour said.

Washington should give up its policy of aggression toward Tehran, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said. His remarks come hours after outspoken regime-change connoisseur John Bolton stepped down as national security adviser. During a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Rouhani pressed the US to “abandon warmongering and its maximum pressure policy” on Iran, and warned that failing to reverse course would further degrade Tehran’s commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal. Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif made similar calls for a US policy U-turn, tweeting on Wednesday that Washington’s “thirst for war” should end with the departure of its “warmonger-in-chief” Bolton. A government spokesman said after the…

Jordan’s house speaker said on Wednesday that a pledge by “Israel’s” prime minister to annex a key part of the occupied West Bank if re-elected could put its peace treaty with Israel “at stake,” AFP has said. The house of representatives “confirms that dealing with this occupier requires a new path that would place the peace treaty at stake,” Atef al-Tawarneh warned, according to Petra news agency. He also accused Israel of having “studiously broken all international treaties and [UN] resolutions.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Tuesday to extend Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea –which account…