Author: Steven Sahiounie

BY TIM ANDERSON Despite Washington’s best efforts to isolate and destroy Syria, trade unionists have led a breakthrough in international solidarity with the independent nation. A two-day trade union conference in Damascus (8-9 September 2019) focussed on building international solidarity to resist foreign aggression, including economic war. More than 200 delegates from more than 40 countries, and from about 90 organizations, participated. Most were from the Arab and African regions, but notable was the presence of dozens of unionists and labor organizers from Europe and North America. The Third International Trade Union Forum conference was organized by Syria’s General Federation of…

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India has bought military hardware worth $14.5 billion from Russia including Air Defense System Igla-S. India has released $14.5 billion payment to Russia for buying weapons and other military equipment. Major buying of India from Russia now includes state of the art S-400 systems and portable Air Defense System Igla-S. First S-400 Air Defence Unit will reach India by year 2020. The Igla-S man-portable air defence missile system (MANPADS) is designed to engage all types of visually observable aircraft and helicopters as well as pinpoint air targets like cruise missiles and unmanned air vehicles, both head-on and receding, at any…

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Russia has called on all countries of the Persian Gulf region to sit down for talks to ease tensions triggered by recent attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities, calling accusations that Iran was behind the raids “unsubstantiated.” “All the [Persian] Gulf countries and their partners both in region and outside must sit down for talks and start to defuse the tensions,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the capital, Moscow, on Thursday. Those states, he said, must “take easy steps through trust, transparency, mutual invitations to military events and other [events], which can help understand that it is necessary…

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A report in the American newspaper the Wall Street Journal shows that Saudi Arabia has moved to import oil from neighboring Iraq to cover for lost production that came following attacks on crude processing installations east of the country. The WSJ said on Thursday that Saudis had demanded for as much as 20 million barrels of Iraq’s crude mainly for oil supplies for the kingdom’s domestic refineries. Sources within the global oil trade told the newspaper that it was absolutely critical for Riyadh to keep its position as the number one exporter of oil in the world despite Saturday attacks…

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By Pepe Escobar We are the Houthis and we’re coming to town. With the spectacular attack on Abqaiq, Yemen’s Houthis have overturned the geopolitical chessboard in Southwest Asia – going as far as introducing a whole new dimension: the distinct possibility of investing in a push to drive the House of Saud out of power. Blowback is a bitch. Houthis – Zaidi Shiites from northern Yemen – and Wahhabis have been at each other’s throats for ages. This book is absolutely essential to understand the mind-boggling complexity of Houthi tribes; as a bonus, it places the turmoil in southern Arabian lands way beyond a…

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Iran’s retaliation to any military attack will not be “limited to its source,” Tehran said in an official note to Washington, semi-official ISNA news agency reported on Wednesday. The note was sent to the United States via the Swiss embassy. Iran has reiterated that it was not behind recent attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities. Tehran has also warned that any move by the US against Iran “will get immediate reaction,” the report said. Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami said Tehran had no involvement in the attacks on Saudi Arabia’s Aramco oil installations, the Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.

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The Chinese tech company Huawei said on Wednesday that it will offer more than $1 billion in investment over the next five years to attract global developers. The offer is part of the company’s broader computing strategy, which includes investing in basic research around its products to support new technology such as artificial intelligence. The firm also said it will make its hardware and software more readily available to its customers and partners. Huawei announced its developer program four years ago. The company says it has supported more than 1.3 million developers since then, as well as 14,000 independent software…

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Earlier in the day, Saudi ambassador to London Prince Khalid bin Bander bin Sultan Al Saud said that the recent attack on the kingdom’s oil facilities was “almost certainly” backed by Iran. On Wednesday, the Saudi Defence Ministry organised a news conference to show journalists what it describes as an Iranian cruise missile and Delta Wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). “The investigation has shown that the drone’s type is Delta Wing, and the information obtained by the ministry indicates the drone’s technology is Iranian,” the department’s spokesman Col. Turki al-Maliki said. Speaking at the conference, the official said that the attack…

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US President Donald Trump has picked hostage negotiator Robert O’Brien as his new national security adviser. Trump on Wednesday announced he intends to name O’Brien as his next national security adviser. “I have worked long & hard with Robert. He will do a great job!” Trump tweeted. O’Brien who is replacing sacked John Bolton. O’Brien has served as Trump’s special envoy for hostage affairs at the State Department since May 2018. He has also served as foreign policy adviser to several Republican presidential campaigns. He once served as foreign affairs adviser to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. O’Brien is the…

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Yemeni army forces, supported by allied fighters from Popular Committees, have intercepted and targeted an unmanned aerial vehicle belonging to the Saudi-led military coalition in the skies over the country’s southwestern province of Ta’izz, in retaliation for the alliance’s military aggression against their conflict-stricken country. The media bureau of the Houthi Ansarullah movement announced in a statement that Yemeni forces and their allies shot down the drone as it was on a reconnaissance mission over al-Wazi’iyah district on Wednesday afternoon. Separately, dozens of Saudi-sponsored militiamen loyal to Yemen’s former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi were killed and injured when Yemeni army soldiers and their allies launched an…

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