أرشيف الوسم : russia

By Ramzy Baroud To suggest that the United States policies in Yemen was a ‘failure’ is an understatement. It implies that the US had at least attempted to succeed. But ‘succeed’ at what? The US drone war had no other objective aside from celebrating the elimination of whomever the US hit list designates as terrorist. But now that a civil …

By David Hearst – The Middle East Monitor Nothing illustrates the free-wheeling chaos of the Middle East better than what is going on in Yemen. A small Iranian-backed North Yemeni militia, modeled on Hezbollah and from an offshoot of Shia Islam, has walked into the capital Sanaa, taken over Hodeida, Yemen’s main port on the Red Sea, and is now …

India on Friday test-fired a cruise missile capable of carrying nuclear weapons from the town of Balasore in the southern state of Orissa, Indian daily the Times of India reported. The missile, named Nirbhay, can reach a target over 700 kilometers away. According to the Times of India, the test-fire on Friday was the second developmental trial of the cruise …

On Monday, top diplomats from 30 countries, including China, Russia and the United States, gathered in Paris to pledge support to Iraq in its fight against the Islamic State (IS) by “any means necessary”, including “appropriate military assistance”. The meeting comes on the heels of the beheading of a third western hostage by IS over the weekend. The diplomats issued …

On Tuesday, British charity Oxfam called in rich countries to let in at least 5% of Syria’s 3 million refugees, and urged them to improve their aid contributions. It also called on them to stop providing weapons to all parties involved in the Syrian conflict which are committing human rights violations. The charity group slammed most of the international community …

On Tuesday, Russia declared NATO to be a “threat” to its security after the Western military alliance earlier announced plans to reinforce defenses in Eastern Europe due to Russia’s alleged involvement in Ukraine. Russia’s surprise declaration came just ahead of a NATO summit to be held on Thursday in Wales, where Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is expected to lobby US …

On Thursday, a Malaysian passenger aircraft carrying 295 people reportedly shot down over an eastern Ukrainian town, Anton Gerashenko, adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Minister, said. Gerashenko said that the plane was at an altitude of 10,000 meters when it was struck by a missile that had been launched from a Buk launcher; Buk launchers can fire missiles to an …

How can a man bearing the title ‘Middle East Peace Envoy’ agree to advise the blood-drenched Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi, who seized power in a military coup last year after presiding over the slaughter of 2,500 protesters and the incarceration of more than 20,000 others? The shocking announcement comes only days after Tony Blair attempted in vain to promote …

Fracking presents a new challenge for OPEC, as well as opportunities. The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that, over the next five years, one-third of the new oil production of the world will be developed in the USA. By 2020, the US will be a net exporter of gas. By 2035. It will be energy self-sufficient, they say. The IEA …

On Thursday, UN Under-secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos accused Syria of putting more effort into obstructing the UN than providing aid to millions of needy people. Amos, presenting the fourth UN report on humanitarian access in Syria, stressed that around 10.8 million are in critical need of humanitarian aid, and that workers could not reach …