Author: Steven Sahiounie

UN aid chief Martin Griffiths on Friday called for an immediate ceasefire and said Israel needs to lift all impediments to aid distribution to Gazans. “Limits to aid distribution within Gaza are set by those who block the movements of convoys meant to feed tens of thousands of critically hungry people,” Griffiths said in a post on social media platform X.Meanwhile, the Israeli government announced it was confiscating 800 hectares of land in the occupied West Bank, which activists called the largest such seizure in decades.An area of about 1,980 acres in the northern Jordan Valley has been declared “state…

Intelligence agencies have detained 11 people, including four terrorists, who were directly involved in an attack on the Crocus City Hall, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said in a statement. “The activities of intelligence and law enforcement agencies have resulted in the detention of 11 people, including four terrorists, who directly participated in the terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall,” the statement reads. Work is underway to identify terrorist accomplices and establish all the circumstances of the attack. “It has already been established that the terrorist attack was carefully planned. The weapons that the terrorists used had been placed…

The Israeli regime is “deliberately causing thirst” and spreading diseases in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Authority president said. Mahmoud Abbas made the remark on Friday, according to the Palestinian news agency, WAFA. Abbas made the remarks on World Water Day, which is celebrated annually on March 22. “World Water Day this year comes at a time when our Palestinian people in Gaza are experiencing, like never before, the most heinous inhuman crimes of the occupation, which have claimed the lives of thousands of innocent victims, including martyrs, wounded, mostly children, women, and elderly,” he said. Abbas added that Gazans…

The death toll from the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall music venue near Moscow has climbed to 133 people, the Russian Investigative Committee told TASS. “As the rubble was being removed in the concert hall of the Crocus City Hall, the number of people killed in the terrorist attack has risen to 133. The search operation is underway,” the statement said. Source: TASS

Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared March 24 a day of nationwide mourning after the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall mall. “I declare March 24 a day of nationwide mourning,” he said in a televised address to the nation. source: TASS

The UN on Friday announced Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ annual “solidarity trip” to Egypt and Jordan marking the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. “In a few hours, the Secretary-General will arrive in Cairo, Egypt. He will embark on his annual Ramadan solidarity trip, which comes this year in turbulent times, with the conflict in Gaza,” deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said at a news conference. Noting that Guterres would be visiting the northern Sinai Peninsula and the Rafah border with the Gaza Strip, Haq said the UN chief would meet with humanitarian aid workers. Haq added that Guterres will have a Ramadan…

Poland’s Foreign Minister says that if we go with what is presented in the media, the US knew about the Nord Stream attacks but did nothing to prevent them. The United States knew in advance about the impending attacks on the Nord Stream pipeline but did not step in to prevent them, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski revealed today. In September 2022, Sikorski was not yet foreign minister but was a member of the European Parliament. Back then, he insinuated that Washington was complicit in the attack on the Nord Stream gas pipeline. Sikorski tweeted a photo from the scene of the accident…

Algeria reiterated the need of respecting sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria, and putting an end to the repeated Israeli acts of aggression on the Syrian lands. Algeria Press Service quoted the Algeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Ammar Benjameh as saying that “We call for immediate cessation of these actions with emphasize on the respect of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and rejecting any external interference in its affairs.” Benjameh was speaking during a UNSC session about Syria on behalf of the Group A3+ (Algeria, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Guyana). Benjameh urged effective international coordination to provide…

The Palestinian Presidency has condemned the Israeli government’s decision to seize 8,000 dunams of Palestinian land as part of its efforts to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the official spokesperson for President Mahmoud Abbas, stated that “the timing of this decision, coinciding with the arrival of the US Secretary of State to the region, poses a challenge to the American administration and to the international community, which continuously condemns settlements.” He added that “the decisions of this extremist government will not succeed in imposing facts on the ground,” emphasizing that “all settlements are illegitimate. There…

 UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron has been asked by his Labour counterpart to break precedent and publish official advice given to the government on allegations of Israeli breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza.David Lammy, shadow foreign secretary, wrote in a letter to Cameron: “Given the gravity of the situation in Gaza, the degree of public and parliamentary interest and the risks to the credibility of the UK’s export controls regime, there is a compelling case to publish the government’s legal advice.”Lammy added that UK export licenses for weapons should not be granted if “there is a clear risk that…