Author: Steven Sahiounie

BY JAMES O’NEILL Iran is a modern society with an ancient history. Together with China it is one of the world’s oldest continuous civilizations. For centuries it was the center of an ancient and vibrant culture, that can trace its origins back at least 7000 years before the Christian era. Its more modern origins as a unified state go back at least to the seventh century BC. Over the centuries it has suffered the invasions from groups as diverse as the Mongolians and the Greeks. Yet it has always managed to survive those invasions and retain its own unique and distinctive…

BY ABDEL BARI ATWAN The interview with Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin-Salman aired by the American CBS channel on Sunday was noteworthy in three respects. First, he spoke and behaved like Saudi Arabia’s absolute ruler. He barely mentioned his father King Salman and accepted responsibility for the murder of Jamal Kashoggi in his capacity as the country’s chief executive in charge of its three million state employees. Second, he was unusually conciliatory towards Iran and its allies, completely abandoning the hawkish escalatory tone that has characterized most if not all his previous interviews. Third, the man who launched the Yemen war…

By Stephen Lendman Trump is no peacenik, far from it. He’s the latest in a long line of US warrior presidents — waging endless wars of aggression, and by other means, against nonbelligerent states threatening no one. He’s the US liar-in chief, time and again saying one thing, then going another way, long ago proving he can never be believed or trusted. Candidate Trump falsely said “I was against (Middle East wars). And I was against (them) very early. And we shouldn’t have been in there. And I think it is probably perhaps the worst mistake we have ever made.” He…

Russia has called for dialogue between the Syrian government and Kurdish forces controlling northern Syria amid Washington’s green light for Ankara’s upcoming military operation against the Kurdish forces. Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, urged for “dialogue between the central government in Damascus and representatives of the Kurdish communities that traditionally reside” in the country. Lavrov said that Russia had contacted representatives of both Kurdish militants and the Syrian government in a bid to encourage talks between the two. The Russian foreign minister added that talks were “the only way toward stability”. Lavrov’s remarks come after Washington announced…

The Saudi Securities Depository Centre Company has already signed two contracts with the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and Bahrain Clear to allow foreign companies to make listings on Tadawul. The Saudi Capital Market Authority (CMA) has introduced measures to allow foreign companies to carry out listings on the country’s main stock exchange, Tadawul, Al-Arabiya broadcaster reported on Monday, citing Tadawul’s head, Khalid Al Hussan. Listing in corporate finance is a set of procedures referring to a company’s shares being on a list of stocks that are officially traded on a stock exchange. These changes are related to the importance of greater…

In October 2018, Qatar Petroleum announced that it would manage and operate the ISND oil field once the development and production sharing agreement signed with Occidental Petroleum of Qatar Ltd. expires in October 2019. Qatar Petroleum will manage and operate Idd El-Shargi North Dome (ISND) and Idd El-Shargi South Dome (ISSD) offshore oil fields, the company said on Monday. “Qatar Petroleum today assumed the management and operatorship of the Idd El-Shargi North Dome (ISND) and Idd El-Shargi South Dome (ISSD) offshore oil fields, following the expiry of the development and production sharing agreements with Occidental Petroleum of Qatar Ltd. (OXY)…

The spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces says Yemeni Army troops and allied fighters from Popular Committees are fully prepared to counter any threat posed by the Saudi-led coalition of aggression and retaliate against any act of animosity. Speaking at a press conference in the capital Sana’a on Tuesday afternoon, Brigadier General Yahya Saree said Yemeni forces are fiercely committed to deal with any act of aggression, irrespective of its intensity and extent, the media bureau of the Houthi Ansarullah movement reported. Saree added that Yemeni Armed Forces would respond appropriately to any act of hostility, and that air defense units will confront any sorties of the enemy,…

BY JEREMY SALT Abandoning its Syrian Kurdish allies, the US is pulling its troops back from the Turkish border to allow the Turkish military to begin a campaign east of the Euphrates. Within hours of the announcement coming from the White House on October 6, the troops were being withdrawn and Turkey was shelling Kurdish YPG (People’s Protection Units) positions across the border, with a land operation regarded as imminent. The decision took the Washington political and media establishment by surprise. According to Trump, “it’s time to get out of ridiculous endless wars …. the United States was supposed to be…

By Stephen Lendman International law is clear and unequivocal. No nation may interfere in the internal affairs of others. No foreign military of proxy force may occupy another country’s territory. No nation may attack another state without Security Council authorization — permitted only in self-defense, never preemptively for any reasons. As a signatory to the UN Charter, international laws of war and related ones are automatically US constitutional law under its Supremacy Clause (Article VI, Paragraph 2). Both right wings of the US one-party state repeatedly and egregiously flaunt international, constitutional, and US statute laws, pertaining to war and related geopolitical…

By Elijah J. Magnier Over the years, researchers have copied and parroted inaccurate declassified US intelligence reports on Hezbollah’s sources of income around the world. These documents claim Hezbollah lives off selling smuggled cigarettes and illegally copied CDs or on income generated by selling drugs in Latin America and around the world. The US also accuses Hezbollah of profiting from commercial or business projects abroad and of having bank accounts worldwide. These claims were pretexts for the US to impose sanctions on the group and confiscate foreign accounts that, in reality, did not belong to Hezbollah. When all attempts to curb…