Author: Ad Dahiyyan

One of the most advanced nuclear-powered submarines in the United States Navy arrived in Japan on Friday, as China continues the rapid expansion of its fleet of warships in a bid to challenge American naval dominance. USS Seawolf, an attack submarine and the lead ship of its class, arrived at Yokosuka, a city in Japan’s Kanagawa Prefecture, according to a ship spotter who posted photos of the vessel on X, formerly Twitter. The prefectural government has confirmed the visit by the American submarine. The U.S. Navy describes the Seawolf and its two sister ships as “exceptionally quiet, fast, well-armed, and equipped with advanced sensors.” Each is equipped with eight torpedo tubes…

The Tajikistani authorities are perpetuating systemic discrimination and severe human rights violations against the Pamiri minority, according to new research by Amnesty International. The Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) in East Tajikistan is home to several ethnic groups forming the Pamiri minority, mostly practicing the Shia Ismaili branch of Islam. Denied official recognition as a minority and regarded as ethnic Tajiks by the central authorities, Pamiris face systemic discrimination, suppression of cultural and religious institutions, political oppression, and brutal reprisals for defending their rights.   “The ongoing persecution and human rights violations against the Pamiri minority in Tajikistan reached an alarming scale…

Iraq has postponed censuses several times in almost three decades because of the security situation in the country. Iraq will impose a two-day curfew in November for the country’s first census in 27 years, officials said. “[The] curfew will be imposed in all provinces of Iraq on November 20 and 21 to conduct a population census,” Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said in a statement on Sunday. Local media reports said various measures have been approved for the process, including finalising coordination with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) for the training of statistical staff. Also, the process will receive support…

PA President’s son Tareq Abbas also holds positions in other ventures incorporated by offshore company. Leaked documents from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca reveal Tareq Abbas, son of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, holds shares worth nearly $1 million in an offshore company with ties to the Palestinian Authority. The documents, leaked as part of the massive ‘Panama Papers’ scandal, show that a company called the Arab Palestinian Investment Company (APIC) was registered in September 1994 in the British Virgin Islands. Since then, the company’s economic portfolio has grown substantially, and is active in virtually every Palestinian economic sphere, including…

Jordan announced Monday that several of its soldiers were injured in clashes with drug and arms smugglers trying to cross the border with Syria. “Since the early hours of Monday morning, there have been armed clashes between the Jordanian Border Guard forces and armed groups on the northern border of the Hashemite Kingdom, within the responsibility area of the Eastern Military Region,” the country’s army said in an online statement, noting that the smugglers’ cargo included illicit drugs, rocket weapons, and automatic firearms. This operation marks the fifth announced by the Jordanian army in less than a week, with previous…

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets Saturday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul, during Blinken’s latest trip to the Middle East and Europe aimed at ramping up diplomatic efforts over the Israel-Hamas war and preventing an expansion of the conflict. His weeklong visit, which will also take him to Israel, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Greece, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, is his fourth trip to the Middle East since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7. The tour will largely focus on preventing an expansion of the…

Iraqis are headed to the polls to elect provincial councils for the first time in 10 years, with thousands vying for seats in the powerful assemblies. Ballots will be cast in 15 of Iraq’s 18 provinces on Monday. The elections are a prelude to a parliamentary vote in 2025, which will test the strength of pro-Iran groups that have been raising their profile in recent years. Overall, 285 candidates will be elected to the councils, whose duties include appointing regional governors and allocating health, transport and education budgets. Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, which includes three provinces, will decide their provincial…

Iraqi leaders are displaying strong rhetoric of solidarity with Palestinians enduring a relentless bombing campaign by Israel. As Hamas’s “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood”  against the Israeli occupation entered its third day, senior Iraqi officials reiterated the country’s support of Palestine.  Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, on Sunday, 8 October, conducted two separate phone calls with Jordan’s King Abdullah and the President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. “The leaders emphasised the need to intensify diplomatic efforts to prevent escalating Israel-Palestinian violence and its ‘dangerous repercussions’ for the region’s security,” according to the Iraqi PM media office. For his part, prominent Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called…

A lawyer for more than two dozen victims of a Dutch air strike in northern Iraq in 2015 which supposedly targeted an IS bomb factory has said that the bombing was unlawful. A lawyer for 25 victims of a Dutch air strike against an alleged Islamic State (IS) group bomb factory in northern Iraq in 2015, which killed about 70 people, told a court in the Netherlands on Tuesday that the bombing was unlawful. The victims, a handful of whom had traveled to the district court in The Hague from Iraq, launched the civil case in the Netherlands in the hope of being awarded…

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A Kurdish official said on Thursday that the territories disputed between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Iraqi federal government are at risk of losing their Kurdish identity. Fahmi Burhan, the head of the Kurdistan Region’s board for disputed territories, told Rudaw’s Nwenar Fatih that the conditions of the Kurdish population of the towns of Khanaqin, Mandali, and Saadiya are deteriorating due to negligence by the Iraqi government and its failure to ensure security in the areas. “In Khanaqin, we have land and orchard issues. The orchards are being burned and issues related to them…