Author: Steven Sahiounie

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has suspended public duties to “stop and reflect” on whether to remain in the job, after a court opened a preliminary inquiry into alleged illegal activities by his wife. The prime minister issued a four-page letter on Wednesday, saying he was taking a five-day break from public duties and would announce his decision to stay or quit on Monday. Sanchez has been in office since 2018 and last year secured another term for his Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) as leader of a minority coalition government. “I urgently need to answer a question that I keep asking…

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will meet with Bolivian Foreign Minister Celinda Sosa in Moscow on Friday. The top Bolivian diplomat is paying a two-day visit to Russia on April 26 and 27. The Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said earlier the two ministers would discuss bilateral ties, political dialogue, ways of broadening cooperation in various sectors and improving the legislative and contractual framework. “Special attention will be paid to a discussion on ways to improving bilateral cooperation on the international arena,” the diplomat said. Celinda Sosa was appointed Bolivia’s top diplomat in November 2023. Her upcoming visit to…

The US is challenging China ’s core interests and suppressing the country’s development, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi stated on Friday during talks with his US counterpart, Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The “giant ship” of China-US ties had stabilized, “but negative factors in the relationship are still increasing and building,” Wang said during a meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing. Blinken arrived in Beijing on Thursday from Shanghai, where he urged the Chinese government to provide a level playing field for US firms in the country. Bilateral ties face “all kinds of disruptions. China’s legitimate development rights have been unreasonably suppressed and our core…

Iran’s Army Chief Commander Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi says in any “war of wills” the Islamic Republic will respond to any act of aggression in a more crushing style than ever before. Addressing a meeting with a number of Iranian Army commanders in Tehran on Thursday, Mousavi stressed the importance of remaining vigilant in the face of any possible threat but reiterated at the same time that Iran has no intention to spread war. He added that a series of Iran’s retaliatory strikes against the Israeli-occupied territories earlier this month manifested unity among Iran’s Army, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps…

Iran has called on the BRICS group of emerging economies to play a role in putting an immediate stop to Israeli crimes against the Palestinians. The call by Iran’s deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani in Moscow on Thursday came as his counterparts and special representatives of BRICs nations met to discuss the latest developments in the West Asia and North Africa region. “The manner and quality of role-playing of individual countries and international organizations in relation to the Israeli regime’s crisis mongering and the position they adopt in this regard is effective and will be recorded in history,” he said.…

Hala Rharrit, the Arabic-language spokeswoman for the US State Department, has resigned from the post in protest against the Biden administration’s Gaza policy. Her resignation, effective Wednesday, was confirmed through her State Department biography page, where she had also served as the Deputy Director of the Dubai Regional Media Hub. In a statement attributed to her on a LinkedIn page believed to be hers, Rharrit stated, “I resigned April 2024 after 18 years of distinguished service in opposition to the United States’ Gaza policy. Diplomacy, not arms. Be a force for peace and unity.” Having commenced her Foreign Service career…

The Gaza Government Media Office confirms the martyrdom of a Palestinian journalist following an Israeli strike on his house in Rafah. Palestinian journalist Mohammad Bassam al-Jamal and several members of his family were martyred after their home in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, was bombed by the Israeli occupation forces. The Gaza Government Media Office confirmed the martyrdom of al-Jamal, who worked for the Palestine Now news agency. With the announcement, the number of journalists killed at the hands of Israeli occupation forces since the beginning of the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip now stands at 141, according to the Office. In…

The Israeli occupation forces are heavily mobilized in Al-Aqsa Mosque in a bid to provide protection for the illegal Israeli settlers storming the holy site. The Islamic Endowments Department in Palestine reported on Thursday that more than 900 Israeli settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque in groups through Al-Mughrabi Gate to mark the third day of Jewish Passover. Meanwhile, Israeli occupation forces imposed severe restrictions on Palestinian worshipers, inspecting their IDs at the gates of al-Quds, and preventing many of them from entering the mosque. Al-Quds has been turned into a military fortress, with over 3,000 Israeli police officers deployed throughout the city. It…

The West introduces sanctions banning Russian goods, then bends the rules when their industries need these products to survive, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “We understand [the West’s] selective approach. We see that, according to some parameters, companies in Europe and other regions can hardly maintain their competitiveness if they completely abandon our products,” the Kremlin official said, commenting on the Canadian government granting permission to use Russian titanium for Airbus. According to Peskov, “in such cases, Westerners act at their discretion, without paying attention to conventions.” On Wednesday Reuters reported that the Canadian government had given Airbus the…

The Iranian foreign minister abhorred the US police’s violent clampdown on the university students and professors attending demonstrations in support of Palestine, saying it lays bare Washington’s double standards on freedom of expression. In a post on his X account on Thursday, Hossein Amirabdollahian said the American police and security forces’ violent crackdown on university students and professors protesting against the Israeli regime’s genocide and war crimes is deeply worrying and abhorred by the world’s public opinion. “Such a crackdown is in parallel with the continuation of Washington’s full-scale support and backing for the Israeli regime and clearly reveals the…