Author: Steven Sahiounie

At least two people have been killed and 200 others sustained wounds in a protest rally against alleged corruption in Iraq’s capital city of Baghdad. More than 3,000 people took to the streets in central Baghdad on Tuesday to protest alleged corruption, unemployment, poor public services, and other grievances. Security forces resorted to tear gas, water cannon, and live fire to disperse the crowds. Iraq’s Ministry of Health said in a statement that 160 civilians and 40 security forces were injured in the clashes. The Iraqi government in a statement blamed “groups of riot inciters” for the violence and said…

The spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces says three Saudi military bases and more than 150 square kilometers of land have been taken during the second phase of a recent large-scale military offensive carried out by Yemeni Army troops and allied fighters from Popular Committees in the kingdom’s southern border region of Najran. Speaking at a press conference in the capital Sana’a on Tuesday evening, Brigadier General Yahya Saree said video footage recorded by Yemeni forces on the second phase of Victory from God Almighty Operation attests to their full control over the Saudi military sites and seizure of considerable amounts of…

BY DAVID MACILWAIN As a continuing series of dramas and crises distract our attention from the unresolved questions around the Yemeni attacks on Saudi Aramco, it’s vital to state certain points that are beyond contention. Already there are new developments in Yemen and Iran which cannot be properly assessed against a background of false information. The first and obvious point about the drone/missile attacks on the Saudi refinery and oilfield is that they were indisputably the work of Yemen’s Houthi militia, as stated clearly by their spokesman Yahia Sarie, albeit apparently involving some local assistance. This has been well argued elsewhere, both in principle and…

An investigation indicates Israel’s involvement in attacks on the military sites of the Iraq-based Shia militia of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), known as Hashd Shaabi, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said on Monday. “Investigations reveal that Israel has carried out attacks on the Iraqi PMF’s depots,” the official was quoted as saying by the Al Jazeera news channel. Over the past two months, at least eight facilities of the PMF, which Israel accuses of having links to Iran, has been targeted in attacks, with over a dozen fighters killed. The PMF has repeatedly said that Israeli drones conduct raids…

Syria and Iraq on Monday held the ceremony to reopen the border checkpoint between the towns of Al Bukamal and Qaim, a major crossing point that has been closed for years following the defeat of Daesh*. The opening of the border crossing took place at noon local time (09:00 GMT) and was attended by a number of officials from both countries. This checkpoint and two others — between Iraq’s Al Walid and Syria’s At Tanf, and Iraq’s Rabia and Syria’s Al-Yarubiyah — were closed between 2013 and 2014 after Daesh terrorists gained control over them. Daesh is a terrorist organisation…

US President Donald Trump is warning that the Democrat-driven impeachment proceedings and any move to oust him from office amount to “treason” and would spark a civil war, prompting outrage from a Republican congressman. Trump tweeted a conservative pastor’s comment that removing him would provoke a “civil war-like fracture” in America. US Representative Adam Kinzinger, a former Air Force pilot who represents an Illinois district Trump won in 2016, tweeted on Sunday, “I have visited nations ravaged by civil war. … I have never imagined such a quote to be repeated by a President. This is beyond repugnant.” Trump on…

The spokesman for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s administration has confirmed that Saudi leaders have been sending messages to Iran’s president through a head of state, though refraining to give any details on the nature of those messages. Ali Rabiei made the remarks during his weekly press briefing in Tehran on Monday, when he was asked about reports denoting that the Saudi leadership has been sending messages to Iran’s chief executive. “Yes, this is true that they have sent messages to Mr. Rouhani through a head of state,” Rabiei noted, adding, “We must see signs of it [Saudi’s goodwill] without any ambiguity, and…

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem says the Damascus government does not accept any foreign interference in the work of a constitutional committee on Syria, which will include members of President Bashar al-Assad’s government and foreign-sponsored opposition representatives. “When an article or two of any standing constitution are amended, it becomes a new constitution. It will be subjected to a referendum. We didn’t only speak about discussing the current constitution, and we don’t exclude discussing a new constitution as these are the rules of procedures … We are committed to them, thereby, before going to a new constitution, we should discuss the current…

BY ABDEL BARI ATWAN Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman’s partial admission of responsibility for the murder last year of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul seems at first to be big news and a bold step. But a closer reading of the text of his remarks, made in an interview with the American PBS channel for a documentary to be aired next week, reveals it to be no such thing. It is merely his latest attempt to clear himself of the charge that he personally ordered the killing, as indicated by US intelligence reports based on taped…

By Miri Wood Syrians under the occupation of US illegals and their terrorist SDF are continuing public protests against the illicit militia that burns agricultural fields, appropriates or bombs homes, kidnaps Syrian children for criminal training in military camps. In a recent chaotic situation, four SDF terrorists were killed in a possible grenade bombing of a ‘militia center.’ The SDF terrorists, acting under the protection of its US creators have previously torched wheat fields when Syrian farmers refused to capitulate to their mafiosi – type tax demands. More recently, this gang has begun destroying agricultural lands to dig trenches near to the border with terrorist Erdogan’s Turkey (reminder that most of the 350k foreign human detritus…