Author: Mideast discourse

Sending in troops to help resolve the crisis between Armenia and Azerbaijan is off the table for now, the CSTO chief of staff says The Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will not be sending its forces to the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. The news comes from the bloc’s chief of the joint staff, General Anatoly Sidorov, who spoke to journalists on Thursday. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Sidorov said when asked if the CSTO is considering sending in its military to help stabilize the region, which has recently seen yet another escalation in tensions. “On September 13, our heads of state…

The Palestinian Resistance movement cements its supportive stance for Syria, which has been enduring years of aggression from “Israel. Palestinian Resistance movement Hamas has condemned the ongoing Israeli aggression against Syria in addition to attempts to normalize and integrate “Israel” into relations in the region. The organization also condemned the theft of commodities from the country in addition to sowing discord and war between the population and other countries. In a statement, Hamas said that “Syria has embraced our Palestinian people and its resistance factions for decades, which requires us to stand in solidarity with it in light of the brutal aggression…

The Chinese president emphasized that “Taiwan is part of China” Chinese President Xi Jinping highly appreciates Russia’s commitment to the one-China principle, China Central Television said in a report published following Xi Jinping’s meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand on Thursday. “Xi Jinping highly appreciates Russia’s commitment to the one-China principle,” the report reads. According to the media outlet, the Chinese president “emphasized that Taiwan is part of China.” Taiwan has been governed by its local administration since 1949 when the remaining Kuomintang forces led by Chiang Kai-shek…

Syrian missiles and Russian warplanes hit positions of ultra-radical rebel groups in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib on Wednesday, the state news agency SANA reported. A number of rebels, including their foreign coaches, were either killed or wounded in the coordinated Syrian-Russian strikes that targeted rebels’ training camps in the countryside of Idlib, said SANA, adding that foreign trainers were teaching local rebels about carrying out drone attacks. The nationalities or the number of the targeted foreign trainers were not revealed by SANA. Meanwhile, the report said the rebels’ positions, vehicles and drones were destroyed during the attack, which was…

Source told the newspaper the West needs “to close loopholes” The US and the EU are stepping up pressure on Turkey’s financial sector to prevent Ankara from helping Moscow evade sanctions. The issue is particularly about Turkish banks that are integrated into Russia’s domestic payments system Mir, the Financial Times wrote on Thursday citing sources. The US is focusing on Turkish banks that have integrated into the Mir processing system, the newspaper said. Brussels is also preparing a delegation to Tukey to express its concerns to the country’s officials directly, according to the publication. The EU’s financial services commissioner Mairead…

Turkey has informed the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, commonly known as the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC), that it should leave its territory before the end of the year, Sputnik reported on September 13. Sources informed on the matter told the Russian news agency that the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made the decision to close the SOC offices in Turkey before the end of the year. “A number of SOC members were informed by Turkish security services that they should find another place outside Turkish territory to conduct political activities related to the Syrian…

China accused the US of violating its commitment to the “One China” principle and interfering in internal Chinese affairs Thursday, after the US Senate Foreign Relations committee approved a new bill that could significantly increase American defense support for Taiwan. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing that China had “lodged serious complaints” with Washington over the legislation, which still needs US House and President Joe Biden’s approval to become law, AP reported. “The one-China principle is the political foundation of China-US relations,” she said. “If the bill continues to be deliberated, pushed forward or even signed into law,…

Afghanistan has never recognized the 2,790-kilometer-long Durand Line as the official border with Pakistan. Since storming to power in Kabul last August, the Taliban* has opposed Pakistan’s efforts to fence the Durand Line. Taliban fighters and the Pakistani Army have also clashed with each other over differing perceptions of the boundary line. Taliban border guards have cut the fence at the Durand Line and crossed over into Pakistan, as per a recent video circulating on social media. The footage surfaced amid renewed tensions following deadly clashes between the two sides on Tuesday that left three Pakistani soldiers dead. Taliban deputy…

The United States will be dragged into a military confrontation with Russia if Ukraine receives longer-range missiles or strikes Russian territory, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said. “Of particular concern is the fact that for many months Ukraine has been soliciting the supply of ATACMS operational-tactical missiles, which are designed to strike targets at a distance of up to 300 km (187 miles). If Kiev obtains such weapons, large Russian cities, as well as industrial and transport infrastructure facilities will fall into the area of possible destruction,” Antonov told Sputnik. “Such a scenario would mean direct involvement…

The CSTO page went down for several hours while attempts were made to edit some informational messages on the site The Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) has reported that its website has been targeted by hackers who tried to take the site down via a DDOS attack, the organization said on Wednesday. The military bloc, which includes Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, announced on its Telegram channel that the attack on the website began on Tuesday night at around 11pm and lasted until at least 7am the next day. While the website has since partially regained functionality,…