Steven Sahiounie

Steven Sahouni is an independent Syrian political analyst and writer based in Lebanon; he has been covering the Syrian crisis since it's onset in 2011 and has published several articles in numerous media outlets - He is regularly interviewed by US, Canadian and German media.

US Accused of Using Food Aid to Smuggle Weapons to Militants in Syria’s Rukban Refugee Camp

UN aid trucks, according to Russian military sources, are being used to deliver not only food and supplies to the suffering civilians but also arms and ammunition to Maghawir Al-Thawra.

Steven Sahiounie
By Steven Sahiounie
A U.S.-backed anti-government fighter mans a heavy automatic machine gun, left, next to an American soldier as they take their positions at Tanf, a border crossing between Syria and Iraq (Hammurabi’s Justice News/AP)

DAMASCUS (Mideast Discourse) -- While the COVID-19 pandemic has taken center stage in the media, little attention is being paid to a tragedy playing out in southeastern Syria. Far away from the western media coverage of the “Islamic State of Idlib”, the scene is set in a desolate area on the border between Syria and Iraq, adjacent to the illegal

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Coronavirus: After the EU Failed to Deliver, Italy Looks to Russia for Help

The current global political scene is changing rapidly as a result of the coronavirus.  New super-powers are emerging and former power-houses are weakening in the face of the crisis.

Steven Sahiounie
By Steven Sahiounie
Coronavirus Russia Italy

ROME (Mideast Discourse) -- More than 15 military transport planes flew from Russia to Italy delivering disinfection units, 180 doctors, 100 personnel which include specialists in biological protection, nurses, ventilators, and masks. The experts sent to Italy have worked on international epidemics including African Swine Fever and in developing an

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The Butcher of Khiam: How Trump Brought Home Notorious War Criminal Amer Fakhoury

Amer Fakhoury was remembered in Lebanon as “The Butcher of Khiam,” and though he is back in the US now, his name and crimes will never be forgotten in the land of his birth.

Steven Sahiounie
By Steven Sahiounie
Amer Fakhoury Feature photo

Beirut, Lebanon (Mideast Discourse) -- Amer Fakhoury escaped from Beirut, Lebanon on a US military helicopter on March 19. He had been arrested in September, betting his American passport would save him from justice, and it did.  He had been charged and convicted of torture, kidnapping, and collaborating with the enemy in Lebanon, and had received

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The New Idlib Ceasefire Forces Turkey-Backed Extremists to Fall Back

Putin and Erdoğan met in Moscow in a last-ditch effort to strike a deal over the escalating violence in Idlib, Syria. Steven Sahiounie weighs in on who prevailed and what likely comes next.

Steven Sahiounie
By Steven Sahiounie
Idlib Syria Feature photo

Mideast Discourse — Turkey increased its military invasion of Syria last month to prevent the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) from liberating Idlib province from the occupation of terrorists, who are supported by Turkey and had been supported by the US before 2017 when President Trump cut off their funding through the CIA. The invasion of thousands of

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France’s Fingerprints Are All Over Terrorist Groups in Idlib Syria

France’s support for extremist groups in Syria, particularly near Idlib, dates back to the earliest days of the 2011 CIA-backed anti-government rebellion.

Steven Sahiounie
By Steven Sahiounie
Syria Idlib Feature photo

Mideast Discourse -- FRANCE 24’s Wassim Nasr, a specialist in jihadist networks, recently spoke via Skype with French recruiter Omar Omsen, the head of the jihadist group Furkat-al-Ghuraba, an Al Qaeda affiliate in Idlib. There are numerous French terrorists in Idlib today, fighting to establish an Islamic state out of a small piece of secular

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Iraqis to the United States: What Part of “Go Home” Don’t You Understand?

Even amongst Iraq’s more pro-US factions, the calls for “Yankee go home” have grown increasingly louder.

Steven Sahiounie
By Steven Sahiounie
Iraq US Feature photo

Iranian forces launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles against two military bases housing US troops in Iraq early hours of Wednesday morning. The al-Assad airbase in western Iraq was hit by 17 missiles, and 5 targeted at a base in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil.  No US casualties were immediately reported. Iran’s supreme leader,

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The Last Bus to Idlib: Terrorist Safe-Haven in Syria About to Face a Cleaning Out

One by one, all other areas in Syria under terrorist control have fallen, and now the final battle for Idlib looms large on the horizon.

Steven Sahiounie
By Steven Sahiounie
An al-Qaeda-linked militant standing in a bus, after being evacuated from the town of Arsal, near the Syrian border, in northeast Lebanon route to the rebel-held Idlib province in northwest Syria. Syrian Central Military Media via AP

IDLIB, SYRIA (Analysis) -- Green city buses have delivered their last passengers to Idlib. In a recurring pattern across Syria, at the end of every battle in which Syrian government forces won back their territory, the Russian Center for Reconciliation has made deals with armed fighters: surrender and return to civilian life, or take the free bus

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