The US political establishment has suddenly rediscovered an interest in terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS-K, either as a cudgel to beat the White House with over the escape from Kabul, or an excuse to stay in Afghanistan. The Biden administration can’t seem to decide whether Al-Qaeda has been effectively eliminated – as President Joe Biden himself argued – or may still be in Af [...]

The abrupt US withdrawal from Afghanistan should not surprise anyone, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson told RT, saying the fact that Washington was able to deceive the world for two decades is more shocking. Washington’s 19-year-long war campaign in Afghanistan was one “big lie” that only benefited America’s military industrial complex and private contractors, Hrafnsson [...]

Washington's disorganised and haphazard pull-out from Kabul comes in sharp contrast to how the USSR left the country in February 1989, says American independent journalist Max Parry, recalling how the US political establishment tried to create a Vietnam-style Afghan quagmire for the Soviets, but eventually fell into its own trap. On 15 August, the US hastily evacuated its embassy staff fr [...]

The hasty troop pullout from Afghanistan is now being widely criticized both by Democrats and Republicans, with some believing it would have been more reasonable (and safe) if the administration had transferred the remaining US citizens and weapons out of the country first before withdrawing the troops. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has apparently agreed with the "reality" that the [...]

Human rights group Amnesty International has condemned Lebanese officials ahead of the first anniversary of the deadly Beirut port blast, accusing authorities of “shamelessly obstructing victims’ quest for truth and justice.” The August 4, 2020 explosion destroyed swathes of the port city, causing billions of dollars in damage, killing more than 200 and injuring over 7,500. It was one o [...]

As the US approaches the completion of its withdrawal from Afghanistan, which should be over by September 11, as well as in light of more and more audible demands from Iraq to withdraw troops from its soil, questions are increasingly emerging about the assessment of the almost 20-year military presence and the success of these operations. The US has squandered trillions of dollars on the [...]

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reportedly told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during a meeting on Saturday that he would not be silent about “Israel’s atrocities” in Palestine. According to the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency, Erdogan stressed to Abbas during the meeting that Turkey “did not” and “will not remain silent about Israel's atrocities in Palestine.”  [...]

The country’s economy is cratering, there are shortages of fuel and medicines, and people are going hungry on the streets. Yet what does the West worry most about? Hezbollah helping the starving get food. Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab has warned the international community that the country could collapse in days, as even Israel offers aid fearing the expansion of Lebanese H [...]

Twenty years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, US and allied troops are finally leaving Afghanistan as the Taliban seem set to return to power. This failure has created a generation of conservatives opposed to US interventionism. This week, when asked whether the US mission in Afghanistan was a failure as American and NATO troops handed over Bagram airfield to the Afghan army, President Joe B [...]

A coalition of Israel’s opposition parties have announced they have reached an unlikely agreement and now have the votes to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s longest-serving leader. Naftali Bennett, former defense minister for Netanyahu, and opposition leader Yair Lapid will lead the opposition parties under this new agreement that would split power in a “unity gover [...]

Damascus and its allies have repeatedly blasted the US over their illegal occupation of Syrian territory in the country’s south and northeast, and have demanded that all foreign military forces not explicitly invited into the country by the Syrian government vacate the Middle Eastern nation immediately, in accordance with international law. The Russian Embassy in Washington has reminded [...]

Turks have taken to the streets in Istanbul, Ankara, Adana, and other cities to protest against Joe Biden recognising the events of 1915 as an Armenian genocide. The demonstrators called upon the Turkish authorities to end the US military's use of the Incirlik Air Base and Kurecik Radar Station in southern Turkey. "I believe that the time has come to return the bases provided by Turkey t [...]

Already shaky relations between the US and its Turkish ally took another turn for the worse last week after Joe Biden formally recognised the actions of the Ottoman Empire against Armenians in the early part of the 20th century as genocide. The move sparked outrage throughout Turkey and demands to leave NATO or kick US troops out of the country. Clash Report, a Twitter and Telegram securi [...]

The scandal surrounding alleged manipulation of scientific data in the chemical weapons watchdog the OPCW, ignored by both the organization and the mainstream media, is only getting worse with time, a pro-whistleblower group said. A new statement from whistleblower-supporting organization the Courage Foundation complains that the leadership of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemica [...]

The United States has sold more than a million barrels of Iranian fuel seized under its sanctions program last year, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing the US Department of Justice. The seizures were part of Washington’s economic sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program, and the US’ designation of a number of Iranian groups as terrorists. The US government under President Donald Tru [...]

In 2019, the US redeployed troops from the Syrian-Turkish border into the war-torn country’s interior, with President Donald Trump admitting freely that the forces were assigned to “take the oil.” Russia estimates that the Pentagon, the CIA, contractors and Kurdish militias make over $30 million a month smuggling the stolen oil out of the country. The US military presence in northea [...]

With the vaccine not providing immediate immunity to the coronavirus, over two hundred Israeli citizens have been diagnosed with the disease days after getting the Pfizer/BioNTech jabs, local media reported. The number of those who got Covid-19 despite being vaccinated was at around 240 people, according to data from Channel 13 News. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which the Israeli health au [...]

The Pentagon has released “the most comprehensive” data on civilian casualties of the US-led coalition operations against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, Airwars has said. Only officially conceded deaths are in it, though. The UK-based conflict monitoring group Airwars said “more than three years of extensive engagement” with the US military allowed it to obtain the “most accurate [...]

Turkey is facing mounting pressure from its NATO allies in the Eastern Mediterranean region which makes its decision to deploy and operate the Russian-made S-400 Triumf anti-aircraft weapon system fully justified, says Ret. Major General Nejat Eslen commenting on Athens' alleged plan to acquire fifth-generation F-35 stealth jets in 2021. On 16 November, Greek weekly newspaper Proto Thema [...]

Israel occupied and annexed about 1,200 square km of Syria’s strategic Golan Heights in the aftermath of the Six Day War of June 1967. The United Nations condemned the move as “null and void and without international legal effect”. Damascus has vowed to get its territory back one day "by any means necessary". China and the Group of 77 bloc of developing nations has called on Israel [...]

The boss of one of Israel’s largest hospitals has placed a huge order for Russia’s Sputnik-V coronavirus vaccine, arguing that concerns over the formula are due to tensions between Moscow and Washington, rather than safety issues. Zeev Rotstein, director of Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Centre believes Western objections are more political than scientific, telling Israeli newspaper Haare [...]

Turkey is not a “tribal state” that can be pushed around, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said, dismissing the American warnings over its procurement of Russian-made S-400 anti-aircraft systems. Ankara will see through the deployment of its S-400 systems, which will not be disrupted by any threats or sanctions, Erdogan made clear, speaking in the eastern Turkish city of Malatya on Sunday. T [...]