Author: Mideast discourse

US arms maker Raytheon is to produce the NASAMS systems by August 2024 under the contract The Pentagon has signed a $182-million deal with US arms manufacturer Raytheon to produce NASAMS (National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems) for the Ukrainian military. The work on short-and medium-range air defense weaponry will be conducted at Raytheon’s facilities in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, with an estimated completion date of August 23, 2024, the US Department of Defense said in a statement on Friday. Earlier this week, US President Joe Biden announced yet another military aid package for Ukraine amid its conflict with Russia. At $2.98 billion…

On August 27, forces loyal to Fathi Bashagha, the interim prime minister of Libya, reached the eastern entrance of Tripoli, where intense clashes broke out a day earlier. Back in February, Bashagha was selected as prime minister-designate by the eastern-based Libyan House of Representatives. However, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, head of the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity, rejected Bashagha’s appointment as prime minister, stating that he will only hand power after a national election. Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, Commander-in-Chief of the Libyan National Army, backed Bashagha’s appointment, despite their previous disagreement. The forces advanced towards Tripoli set off from the city…

Russia took back an advanced S-300 long-range air-defense system which was handed over to Syria a few years ago, an Israeli satellite intelligence firm revealed on August 26. ImageSat International (ISI) released satellite images showing that the S-300 system stationed near the town of Masyaf in the western countryside of Syria’s Hama had been shipped back to Russia in recent weeks. The S-300 system’s main radar was taken to Russia’s Hmeimim Air Base in the southern countryside of Lattakia, while the remaining parts of the system were shipped to the Russian naval base in Tartus port. There, they were loaded…

Four Islamic State (IS) militants were killed on Saturday in Iraq’s eastern province of Diyala, the media office of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a statement. The IS militants from Himreen Lake in Diyala were trying to destroy surveillance cameras, which were installed by the security forces to monitor IS militants’ movement along their routes in the mountainous Himreen area, according to the statement. The security forces tracked down the militants and clashed with them, leaving four militants killed and two others wounded, it added. In a separate statement, the JOC said Iraqi security forces, backed by…

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator On August 24, the US military in Syria carried out a retaliatory airstrike on a militia that the US claims previously attacked the Al Tanf base on August 15.  US F-15 and F-16 jets dropped guided bombs on nine ammunition and storage bunkers in Ayyash, near Deir al-Zour in the early hours of Wednesday; however, the militia may not have been responsible for the August 15 attack. The Al Tanf base is an illegal US military base in southeast Syria established in 2016, on the Damascus to Baghdad highway, near the borders of Iraq…

Shipments from Ukrainian ports continuing under historic deal reached this July in Istanbul, says Turkish National Defense Ministry Three more ships have left Ukrainian ports under the Istanbul grain export deal, the Turkish National Defense Ministry said on Saturday. Shipments from Ukrainian ports are continuing, said the ministry in a statement, adding: “Three more ships loaded with grain departed from Ukrainian ports this morning.” In July, Türkiye, the UN, Russia, and Ukraine signed an agreement in Istanbul to resume grain exports from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports which were halted due to the Russia-Ukraine war, now in its seventh month.…

“We categorically reject the neocolonial `rules-based order’ being imposed by the US-led West,” Lavrov emphasized The Western-imposed “rules-based order” envisages a racist division of the world, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Saturday. In a video address to the fifth Global Young Diplomats Forum, Lavrov reiterated Russia’s adherence to the basic principles of the UN Charter and said his country had consistently supported the cultural diversity of peoples and their right to determine their own path. “We categorically reject the neocolonial `rules-based order’ being imposed by the US-led West,” Russia’s top diplomat emphasized. “This order provides for a racist…

The military also says it hit a military train at a railway station in the town of Chaplino Two separate attacks by Russian forces have destroyed or disabled eight Ukrainian Air Force planes, the Defense Ministry in Moscow claimed on Thursday. In one sortie, Russian warplanes launched precision munitions at a Ukrainian airfield near the city of Mirgorod in the central Poltava Region, military spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov said during a daily briefing. Two warplanes, a Su-27 and a Su-24, were destroyed while two other Su-27s and a Su-24 were critically damaged in the raid, he said. The Ukrainian…

Türkiye said on Thursday that Greek warplanes “harassed” its jets again during a NATO mission over the Aegean Sea, the second such act in three days, the semi-official Anadolu Agency reported. Greek pilots put two Turkish F-16s under a radar lock on Wednesday while they were on a NATO mission with the Alliance’s AWACS reconnaissance plane at the Nexus Ace exercise, the agency quoted anonymous Turkish sources as saying. The Turkish F-16 fighter jets responded by putting the Greek aircraft under radar lock, the report said. On Tuesday, Türkiye summoned the Greek military attache in Ankara after Greek F-16 jets…

The Syrian air defenses confront an Israeli aggression in the sky of the city of Misyaf in Hama Governorate. SANA news agency confirmed Thursday that the Syrian air defenses engaged hostile targets in the sky of Misyaf city in the countryside of Hama Governorate. Sputnik reported that violent explosions were sounded in the vicinity of the Misyaf area in the western countryside of the Hama governorate caused by the Syrian air defenses’ response to Israeli aggression in the area. According to the agency’s reporter, the Israeli aggression was carried out by warplanes that fired a number of missiles toward some targets in…