This week marks 65 years since the Western-orchestrated coup in Iran. August 19, 1953 is the day that Iranians were taught a hard lesson in the rules of the game when it comes to empire and hegemony. For on this day, the country’s democratically elected prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, was overthrown at the hands of Washington and London. [...]

Qatar and Turkey have inked a currency swap agreement to boost liquidity and provide financial stability, Qatar’s central bank said, days after Doha pledged $15 billion of direct investment into Turkish markets. The deal, which aims to boost cooperation between the countries, was clinched on Friday. The agreement will set up a two-way currency exchange line and facilitate exchange of trade betwe [...]

US President Donald Trump has praised Washington's cancellation of $230mn in funding for stabilization in war-torn Syria. Let "other rich countries" pay it, Trump says, while the US spends its money on its military and allies. The US officially ended support for stabilization projects in Syria on Friday. The $230mn worth of funding had been frozen for months before that however, after House forbid [...]

Lockheed Martin’s social media appeal to send them the best photos of its products went horribly awry, as unimpressed Twitterati responded with gruesome images of the horrors of war. The world’s largest defense contractor and one of the top defense manufacturers posted a tweet last week, asking Twitter users to send them an “amazing photo” of a Lockheed Martin item. [...]

Turkey is the latest target for US trade barriers, faces sanctions against top ministers and is even having its purchasing of advanced US weapons reconsidered. The Anatolian country’s leaders have indicated they are beginning to look elsewhere, feeling like the US is trying “to make Turkey surrender in all areas, from finance to politics.” On Friday, US President Donald Trump doubled tariffs [...]

The White Helmets, officially known as Syrian Civil Defense is a non-governmental organization, formed in 2014. Both Moscow and Damascus have accused the group of helping to stage a chemical attack in the Eastern Ghouta town of Douma on April 7. According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, participation of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the evacu [...]

Ankara has given a green light to Moscow’s proposal to switch to ruble-lira trade between the countries. Turkey also has similar plans for trade with China and other countries. “We are discussing the transition to national currencies not only with Russia and China, but also with other countries. It is not just Turkey's request. [...]

A Raytheon Mark 82 general-purpose free-fall bomb was likely used by the Saudi-led coalition to strike a bus full of children in Yemen on Thursday, a local journalist claims, after bomb fragments from the scene were recovered. A Raytheon Mark 82 general-purpose free-fall bomb was likely used by the Saudi-led coalition to strike a bus full of children in Yemen on Thursday, a local journalist claims [...]

American elites have long had it in for the Islamic Republic. They have many reasons, but high on the list is a point of honor: years after it happened, they still want payback for “the hostage crisis,” the government supported humiliation that revolutionary Iranian students inflicted upon the American Empire in the final 444 days of the Carter administration. Nearly everything disappears down [...]

Defending their illegal blockade of Gaza against what they see as infiltrators rather than activists bringing aid and making a point, Israeli soldiers physically assaulted a number of delegates and arrested them, including a USS Liberty survivor. U.S. Navy Signalman Joe Meadors was standing watch on deck of the USS Liberty off the coast of Gaza on June 8, 1967 when a 90-minute aerial and sea atta [...]

Chinese yuan-backed oil futures contracts hit their daily limit with a 5-percent spike on Tuesday as the US kicked off the first round of sanctions against Iran. Washington’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and target the country's oil sector with sanctions is expected to significantly boost China's leverage to demand crude imports be priced in yuan. [...]

RT’s special reports about the humanitarian crisis in the Iraqi city of Mosul has netted the network its sixth International Emmy Awards nomination, earning recognition for a story that went largely ignored in western media. The finalists for the Emmy in the News category, announced on Monday, included RT’s #MosulSOS, a series of reports and a social media campaign aimed at highlighting the pl [...]

Benjamin Netanyahu has lashed out at Israel's arch-foe Iran, vowing that any attempt by Tehran to block the key waterway off Yemen’s coast would be met by force from the “international coalition” and Israel in particular. The harsh statements by the Israeli PM, who was speaking at a graduation ceremony for naval officers on Wednesday, were referring to the recent Houthi attack on a Saudi oil [...]

A volunteer with the Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, was caught on video dumping the mutilated bodies of Syrian Army troops. The volunteer was summarily fired by the group after he was filmed participating in the dumping of dead pro-Syrian government fighters. [...]

The United States has been ramping up pressure on countries around the world in an effort to bring Iran’s oil revenue “down to zero.” Turkey will have no part in possible US sanctions on Iran, the newspaper Dunya reported, citing the country’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. “We had a US delegation here and we […] explained to them that we believe that [such moves] are a mistak [...]

The US has only one possibility to stay in Syria, to start interacting with Moscow and Damascus on the return of refugees, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement. The only opportunity for the US to retain its presence in Syria is to start cooperating with Moscow and Damascus in their efforts to assist the return of refugees and temporarily displaced people to their homes, the R [...]

The pullout of the White Helmets from Syria, carried out by Israel on the US' and Canada’s request, reveals “true colors and hypocrisy” of the controversial group, showing who actually controls it, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said. The rescue operation, which emerged Sunday, “speaks for itself” and clearly shows who exactly the group serves, the ministry said in a statement on Monday, ca [...]

The United States welcomes the recent evacuation from Syria of members of the White Helmets non-governmental organization (NGO) and their family members, the US State Department said in a press release. "The United States welcomes the safe evacuation of more than 400 members of the Syrian Civil Defense, otherwise known as the White Helmets, and their families from southwest Syria. [...]

US NATO ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchison has accused Moscow of trying to "flip Turkey" and other US allies and "destabilize" the alliance amid Ankara's plans to purchase the S-400 air defense system. Speaking to Sputnik, Turkish military and political observers said that although the US envoy's logic may be convoluted, it's not entirely incorrect. [...]

With the Syrian Army on the brink of defeating militants concentrated near the Golan Heights, Damascus is close to wrapping up its campaign to free southern Syria. Under a recently signed deal, rebels who refuse reintegration will be evacuated to areas in northern Syria, with the Syrian Army deploying units to pre-2011 positions along the Golan. [...]

US President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked Israel to evacuate the members of the controversial Western-backed White Helmets group from Syria, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has revealed. "President Trump and also Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau, as well as others, requested us to help take out from Syria hundreds of White Helmets members,” Netanyahu said in a video [...]

The bodies of more than 1,200 civilians, mostly women and children, were discovered in mass graves in Raqqa, Syria. The total number of corpses still rotting there is unknown, as relatives continue searching for their loved ones. The Raqqa Reconstruction Committee has been working for more than six months to deal with and dig up the human cost of the city’s ‘liberation.’ [...]