Author: Khorrahan

London (06/11 – 58) France and the United Kingdom (UK) have jointly made a request in favour of Sri Lanka to the court of the Southern District of New York, for a six-month freeze on any litigation in the Hamilton Reserve Bank case until Sri Lanka’s external debt restructuring is completed, the Financial Times reported. Accordingly, last week the two countries filed a joint “amicus curiae” to the New York judge hearing the case, arguing in favour of Sri Lanka’s request for a six-month freeze on any litigation. The co-signatories in their “amicus curiae” want the judge to grant Sri…

Despite support by the US and Germany for Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, the global opposition to the Israeli massacre in the blockaded enclave is getting harsher. Israel has, so far, killed more than 13,300 Palestinians, mostly children and women, as it continues its relentless attacks on the Gaza Strip. Around 6,000 people are unaccounted for, with more than 4,000 of them women and children. They are either buried under the rubble of demolished buildings or their bodies are lying on the streets without being identified. Israel has forced around 400,000 civilians to migrate from northern Gaza to…

‘Seven decades since his coup, and more than half a century since his death, the Arab peoples have scarcely begun to shake off the legacy of “Father” Gamal Abdel Nasser,’ as the sweeping regional history of Egypt’s former president concludes. Nasser was certainly an iconic figure whose persona shaped modern Egypt, but his influence went well beyond his country and extended across the Arab world, as well as across Africa. The history of Nasserism as non-Egyptians experienced it, is not fully appreciated enough and Alex Rowell’s new book We Are Your Soldiers: How Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser Remade the Arab World ambitiously aims…

Iraq said it is donating ten million litres of fuel to operate generators and keep hospitals in the besieged Gaza Strip operational. During its regular session yesterday, the Iraqi Cabinet agreed to donate fuel to Gaza’s hospitals to “alleviate the suffering of our brothers from the Palestinian people and to show solidarity with the people of the Gaza Strip,” a statement said. The statement, however, did not specify a date for the fuel shipments or how they would be allowed into the blockaded territory. On 4 November, Iraq announced that it was sending a third batch of humanitarian and relief aid…

Powerful Russian anti-ship missiles acquired by Hezbollah give it the means to deliver on its leader’s veiled threat against US warships and underline the grave risks of any regional war, sources familiar with the group’s arsenal say. Hezbollah leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, warned Washington last week his group had something in store for the US vessels deployed to the region since war erupted last month between the Palestinian group, Hamas, and Israel, shaking the wider Middle East. Two sources in Lebanon familiar with the group’s arsenal say he was referring to Hezbollah’s greatly enhanced anti-ship missile capabilities, including the Russian-made Yakhont missile with a range of 300 km (186 miles). Reports…

A faster resolution to the fighting in Gaza could help limit civilian strife that might spur people to join the ranks of militant groups, US President Joe Biden’s top military adviser said, Reuters reports. General Charles Q. Brown, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Israel’s stated aim for its military campaign in Gaza — the complete destruction of the Hamas group that runs the Territory – was “a pretty large order”. But he also said Israel was focused on targeting the senior leadership of Hamas, which might be achieved more quickly. “I think the longer this goes, the harder it can become,”…

Palestinian prisoners in the notorious Israeli Megiddo Prison have been subjected to servere physical and verbal torture and deprivation of the necessities of life, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club has said. A prisoner who has recently been released from Megiddo Prison gave a heart wrenching testimony to the rights group which was reported yesterday and said he was arbitrarily arrested from Qabatiya village in the northern occupied West Bank to force his nephew to surrender to Israeli occupation forces. In his testimony, the man said the Israeli soldiers drag detainees often after beating them and ask them to kiss the Israeli…

We must refer to Israel’s illegal existence and its actions against the Palestinians with the correct terminology to decolonise imperial frameworks and to avoid imperial dominant constructions and powers of language and culture because the decolonisation of the mind comes first. The predictable death of the so-called “peace process” and the inevitable end of the “two-state solution” has shifted focus from ending the so-called “occupation” to the larger and more profound problem of Israel’s colonial oppression throughout Palestine. Dispersed patches of Palestinian communities in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, inside Israel, in exile and the Naqab Desert have made it even harder to…

China’s state-owned oil and gas company, PetroChina is to replace US energy giant Exxon Mobil Corp as the lead contractor for Iraq’s West Qurna 1 oilfield, following a settlement agreement, whereby the latter will finalise its exit from the oilfield, according to a senior Iraqi oil executive. Yesterday Reuters quoted the deputy manager of Basra Oil Co., Hassan Mohammed as saying: “We studied the settlement agreement and the oil ministry with the Basra Oil Company believe that the best option is for Petrochina to become the lead contractor of West Qurna 1.” The Iraqi government has also signed a “sale agreement” arranging the…

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin left open the possibility on Monday of more strikes against Iran-linked groups if attacks against American forces in Iraq and Syria don’t stop, hours after overnight US air strikes in Syria, Reuters has reported. The US military carried out its third air strike in as many weeks in Syria late on Sunday, targeting a training facility near the city of Albu Kamal and a safe house near the city of Mayadeen. The strikes came after at least 40 attacks against US and coalition troops in Iraq and Syria by Iran-backed forces in recent weeks, as regional tensions…