Author: Steven Sahiounie

Steven Sahiounie, Middle East observer The US and Russian military officers met late last night in Al Farat, a small village north of Manbij, northeast of Aleppo, according to media ‘Al Mayadeen’.  The purpose of the meeting was to coordinate military movements in the area. As a result, the US military removed equipment from Manbij to an unknown location.   According to eyewitnesses, who reported to the Russian media ‘Sputnik’, 4 US military vehicles left Manbij traveling toward Al Golan Bridge, which connects Manbij with Ayn al Arab (Kobane). Analysts believe this paves the way for a major Syrian Arab…

Around 100 people have escaped from a camp guarded by Syrian Kurdish-led security forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Those who have escaped are women affiliated with Isis, the monitoring group said. There is a state of “anarchy” inside the Ain Issa camp, according to SOHR director Rami Abdulrahman, citing sources inside the holding facility. On Friday, five Isis fighters broke free from a jail in northeast Syria, amid Turkish shelling. Turkey last week launched ‘Operation Peace Spring,’ in northern Syria, after the US effectively green-lit the offensive. Kurdish authorities have maintained they are unable to monitor such…

Some 100,000 people have left their homes in northeastern Syria with a growing number staying in shelters and schools following this week’s Turkish military incursion in the region, the UN said on Friday. The autonomous Kurdish administration in northeast Syria said it started evacuating a camp housing 7,000 displaced people to protect them from Turkish shelling, AFP reported. The Mabroka camp, 12km (7 miles) south of the border, was hit by shelling “which posed a direct threat to the lives of more than 7,000 displaced people,” according to the statement. The civilians are due to be transferred to a camp known as…

Uzbekistan’s Foreign Ministry says more than 60 children have arrived in the Central Asian country from Iraq, where their parents are being held over membership in the terrorist group of Daesh and other militant outfits. The ministry announced in a statement released on Friday that 64 children were brought home by plane on Thursday night thanks to a joint effort involving the authorities of both countries and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). It added that the children – fourteen of them under the age of three – had suffered “moral, psychological and physical problems” after their parents…

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are reportedly investigating whether President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani’s dealing with Ukraine broke lobbying laws. Two people familiar with the probe told The New York Times that prosecutors are investigating Giuliani’s efforts to undercut Marie Yovanovitch, the US Ambassador to Ukraine who was ultimately recalled in the spring as Trump sought to pressure Kiev into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden, a chief political rival. The investigation into Giuliani is affiliated with the case against two of his associates who were detained this week on allegedly violating campaign finance laws. The Ukraine-born businessmen, Lev Parnas…

The owner of Iranian oil tanker the Sabiti reported on 11 October that the vessel had sustained two missile strikes within 30 minutes, damaging two of its oil tanks and leading to a spill. The ship, however, retained its ability to sail and will reach Iranian waters in a week. The spokesman of the General Directorate of Saudi Arabian Border Guards stated that the country had received a distress call from the captain of Iranian oil tanker the Sabiti, reporting that it had sustained damage to its tanks and experienced a subsequent oil spill, the Saudi Press Agency reported. The spokesman added…

by Tim Korso The US and EU countries have previously threatened to impose sanctions against Turkey unless it stops its military operation directed against Kurdish forces in northern Syria, east of the Euphrates. Ankara has refused to listen to these countries, insisting that the operation is a matter of national security. Germany will stop selling weapons to Ankara, which is currently conducting a military operation against Syrian Kurds, Bild newspaper reported, citing Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. “In light of the Turkish offensive in northern Syria, the German government has decided to stop issuing permissions to sell any military equipment that can be used…

The World Bank has updated its economic forecast for Iran, saying the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would slightly increase in the next two years. The update published on Friday showed that sanctions imposed by the United States on Iran’s oil and gas sector would continue to have an impact on the country’s economy in 2019/20, saying it would shrink by 8.7 percent in the period. The report said, however, that the Iranian economy would bounce back in the next two financial years, adding that the GDP would grow at 0.5 percent annually. It said inflation would remain controlled, above 20 percent,…

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) denied that Ankara-backed militants had taken control of the center of the strategic city of Ras al-Ain in northern Syria on Saturday. Ankara-backed militants claimed to have seized control of Ras al Ain’s city center in northeast Syria on Saturday, as Turkey’s offensive on Kurdish militia positions entered its fourth day. The Turkish Defense Ministry also confirmed militants’ claim that “Ras al-Ain’s residential center has been brought under control through the successful operation in the east of the Euphrates”. But, the SDF denied the reports, stating that Turkish-backed fighters had entered one neighborhood of Ras…

BY ABDEL BARI ATWAN US President Donald Trump is often derided as a fool and his foreign policy as a failure, especially in the Middle East. This description is unquestionably apt. But his surprise decision to pull the US’ 2,000-strong military force out of northern Syria, after deeming its mission ‘futile’, and to abandon his Kurdish allies there, is a smart act of strategic reappraisal. It is an admission of defeat and an attempt to cut Washington’s losses after it spent tens of billions of dollars engaging in the war in Syria. Turkey has now begun a military invasion of the…