Author: Steven Sahiounie

Sweden announces an opening disbursement of $20 million for UNRWA amid promises of extra checks on its spending and personnel. Sweden revealed Saturday that it was going to proceed with providing aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) with an opening disbursement of $20 million after receiving promises of extra checks on its spending and personnel. “The government has allocated 400 million kronor to UNRWA for the year 2024. Today’s decision concerns a first payment of 200 million kronor,” the Swedish government revealed in a statement. It stated that in return for…

Yerevan’s Foreign Minister says that Armenia “do have European aspirations” and the idea of submitting a membership application to join the bloc is being internally discussed. Armenia is considering applying for membership in the European Union and is holding major internal discussions on the matter, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan told Turkish broadcaster TRT World.  “Well, especially having in mind all the challenges that we have been facing during recent couple of years, three years, four years, many new opportunities are largely being discussed in Armenia nowadays,” Mirzoyan said in a YouTube interview on Friday.  “That will not be a secret if I…

Thousands of protesters marched in central London on Saturday to call for a ceasefire in Gaza amid ongoing bombardments by Israel after the deadly Hamas attack on its territory on October 7.Regular marches protesting Israel’s military response to the attacks have seen dozens arrested for anti-Semitic chanting and banners, promoting a proscribed organization and assaulting emergency workers.The march, from Hyde Park Corner to the US Embassy, was the fifth major demonstration of the year so far in the capital.“We will continue to protest until a ceasefire is called, and until there is an end to all UK complicity with Israel’s…

Pakistani lawmakers elected Asif Ali Zardari as the country’s 14th president in a closely watched and hard-fought election on Saturday. Asif Ali Zardari, 68, the co-chairman of the center-left Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and widower of the late two-time Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, clinched victory as the candidate of the ruling coalition. He faced formidable competition from Mahmood Khan Achakzai, a seasoned politician representing the southwestern Balochistan province and a candidate of the opposition Sunni Ittehad Council, a religiopolitical group that has become the new political home for lawmakers associated with the incarcerated ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. The…

President of the International Committee of the Red Cross Mirjana Spoljaric Eggertoday said that the war in the Gaza Strip has destroyed “all meanings of common humanity.” Spoliatric said, in a statement, that after five months of the aggression, “the situation in the Gaza Strip is deteriorating by the hour, and there is no safe place to go.” She added, “This brutal war has broken all sense of common humanity.” “Israel, as the occupying power, must meet the basic needs of the population or facilitate the safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid,” Mirjana added. The head of the committee affirmed that…

China and Switzerland are working behind the scenes to get Russia invited to proposed Swiss-hosted talks aimed at ending the fighting between Kiev and Moscow, the South China Morning Post reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. Last month, Switzerland announced plans to organize a peace summit “by the summer.” No specific date has been named yet. The number of potential participants has also not been revealed. However, Ukraine indicated that Russia can only be invited if it agrees in advance to a litany of preconditions. According to the news website, China’s envoy for Eurasia Li Hui told EU officials…

Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman has rejected a report by a mission mandated by the United Nations over the 2022 riots in the country, lamenting that human rights mechanisms of the world body have turned into “a plaything” in the hands of some regimes to advance their sinister and unlawful goals. In a statement on Saturday, Nasser Kan’ani vehemently denounced the contents of the report published the previous day by the UN Human Rights Council’s so-called Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran. He said the report repeats groundless allegations rooted in inaccurate and biased information, and therefore,…

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Friday that a permanent cease-fire has to be reached in the Gaza Strip and the door should be opened to a two-state solution between Palestine and Israel. “It has become an indispensable responsibility to end this great tragedy and massacre experienced by our Gazan brothers as soon as possible and to ensure that concrete steps are taken towards this end,” Fidan told Turkish reporters at a news conference in Washington. Fidan is on a two-day visit to the US to meet Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss relations, regional and international issues, particularly…

Iran’s foreign minister condemns Meta’s removal of Instagram and Facebook accounts of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei as “illegal and unethical.” Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, in comments to the UK-based news website Middle East Eye, lambasted the “Silicon Valley Empire” for trying to censor a prominent supporter of the Palestinian cause. He condemned the suspension as “illegal and unethical” and said it was indicative of the “collapse of morality and the moral system of the world.” “Blocking the media accounts of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution is not only a violation of freedom of speech, but also an…

The Yemeni military says it has targeted a US vessel and several destroyers with naval missiles and drones in the Red Sea in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, amid the Israeli regime’s US-backed genocidal war on the besieged territory. Brigadier General Yahya Saree, the spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces, said in a video statement on Saturday that Yemeni forces implemented “two qualitative military operations” targeting a ship and a number of American warship destroyers in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden with a “number of naval missiles and 37 drones.” “The first operation targeted the…