Author: Steven Sahiounie

The spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry mocked recent comment by a former Israeli military official about partitioning Iran through ethnic discord, saying the Zionist criminals won’t live to see their wishes fulfilled. In a post on his X account on Saturday, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Nasser Kanaani ridiculed the comment by Mordechai Kedar, a former Israeli military intelligence officer who has proposed a regime change in Iran instigated by ethnic minorities. Kedar has, in an op-ed article issued by the Jerusalem Post on March 13, argued that Iran should be disintegrated into five to six ethnic states. In response, Kanaani…

Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas has handed in his resignation to Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte, the government’s press office said in a statement on Friday. Anusauskas was also scheduled to meet with President Gitanas Nauseda on Saturday, according to the agenda of the head of state. Journalist Edmundas Jakilaitis launched a wave of speculation on Friday evening, when he wrote on Facebook: “Thanks to Arvydas Anusauskas. We’ll see how Laurynas Kasciunas will do.” Anusauskas jokingly directed all questions to Jakilaicius after the post. “I promised him to refer all interested parties to him for that message, so go ahead, call, ask,” he…

The second load of food aid is ready to depart by sea from Cyprus to Gaza, according to the island’s president, after the first aid shipment landed in the besieged Palestinian enclave overnight. “The first ship has started its return to Cyprus, and we are ready to dispatch the second ship,” Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides told journalists. The second ship, with 240 tonnes of aid, is moored at Larnaca port awaiting a signal to sail. US charity World Central Kitchen, which arranged the mission with the UAE and Spanish NGO Open Arms with support from the Cypriot government, said the…

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged Israel to allow humanitarian aid access to Gaza on a larger scale ahead of a two-day trip to the Middle East. “It is necessary for aid to reach Gaza on a larger scale now. That will be a topic that I also have to talk about,” he told journalists ahead of his trip. Scholz will travel to the Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba to meet on Sunday with Jordan’s King Abdullah II before flying to Israel to see Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He also voiced concern about Israel’s planned offensive in the southern…

Sorrow and misery linger over the tents of displaced individuals in the Gaza Strip, particularly in the city of Rafah, where over 1.5 million Palestinian citizens are crowded due to the ongoing Israeli war of genocide. They find themselves prey to hunger and thirst even during the holy month of Ramadan. Maysaa Al-Balbisi, a 39-year-old woman from Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, stood tearfully, holding her infant daughter in her arms, in front of a simple tent. Inside, she resides with her husband and two children in a makeshift shelter set up in the playground of the Shaboura market…

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirms that Russia is determined to revive and renew Crimea on the 10th anniversary of the reunification. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the only right development from the Euromaidan coup in Ukraine was the reunification of Crimea with Russia. In a video recording on the 10th anniversary of the peninsula’s reunification with Russia on Saturday, Lavrov said, “As the further development of the situation shows, this decision was the only right one. It [reunification] made it possible to protect the lives, honor, and dignity of Crimeans from the encroachments of the Russophobic Kiev regime.” Lavrov…

Israel’s foreign intelligence agency boss is expected in Qatar soon to spearhead talks on a potential truce and captive-prisoner exchange with Hamas, a news report says. David Barnea was involved in previous significant pushes for a truce deal. A short-lived ceasefire in November was agreed and came into effect after his participation in talks in Doha. Barnea, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, and Egyptian officials will focus on remaining gaps between Israel and Hamas, including over prisoner releases and humanitarian aid, the Reuters news agency quoted an unnamed source as saying. Hamas this week presented a new ceasefire…

The efforts of unfriendly countries will not interfere with the Russian presidential election in the country and abroad, Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov said. “Let me point out that the enemies’ efforts cannot disrupt the elections of the President of Russia, which are successfully and actively conducted throughout the country as well as abroad. On March 17, Russian diplomats in Washington, D.C., New York and Houston will not only exercise their constitutional right, but will also ensure by all possible means that Russian citizens can go to the polls in a calm and safe environment and make their fateful…

The Biden administration is weighing how to respond if Israel defies warnings against launching a military invasion of Rafah without a credible plan to protect Palestinian civilians, the US network NBC News has reported. According to one former and three current US officials, there is growing concern that Biden’s pleas will be ignored. Netanyahu announced earlier this week that he had approved plans for an incursion into the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip, where more than one million people are sheltering. Failing to comply with the US request for Israel to present a plan for the evacuation of civilians in Rafah…

In a statement, Palestinian resistance factions called the forming of a government without national consensus a “reinforcement of policy of exclusion.” Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups warned on Friday that President Mahmoud Abbas’ selection of a new Palestinian prime minister this week might exacerbate differences while the war in Gaza continues. In a statement, the factions which include Islamic Jihad Movement, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Palestinian National Initiative, noted that “Making individual decisions, and engaging in formal steps that are devoid of substance, like forming a new government without national consensus, is a reinforcement…