From PressTV
Trump says US will withdraw from Syria ‘very soon’
President Donald Trump has announced that the US will withdraw from Syria “very soon,” just hours after the Pentagon highlighted the need for American troops to remain in the war-torn country.
“We will be coming out of Syria, like, very soon. Let the other people take care of it now,” Trump said on Thursday during a speech on infrastructure spending in the state of Ohio.
The US has reportedly more than 2,000 troops stationed in eastern Syria, in addition to several thousand others in the Arab country’s north.
“But we’re going to be coming out of there real soon. Going to get back to our country, where we belong, where we want to be,” Trump said.
Trump also complained that the US has wasted trillions of dollars in Middle East wars, but gets “nothing” in return.
“We spent $7 trillion in the Middle East. And you know what we have for it? Nothing,” Trump declared, promising to focus future US spending on building jobs and infrastructure at home.
Click here for the full story
From PressTV
Saudi de facto leader meets leaders of pro-Israeli lobbies in US
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has met with the leaders of a number of pro-Israeli lobbying groups during his tour of the United States as the kingdom is moving towards normalization of diplomatic relations with the Tel Aviv regime at the expense of the Palestinian issue.
According to a leaked copy of his itinerary, the Israeli Haaretz daily reported that bin Salman had conferred with officials from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Stand Up for Israel (ADL), the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), Presidents’ Conference, B’nai B’rith and the American Jewish Committee (AJC).
The meeting comes as AIPAC, ADL and the JFNA have long fought against the pro-Palestine movement Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), and spared no efforts to confront the global campaign.
Additionally, the groups donated millions to the Israeli regime to advance its expansionist policies and construct more settler units on occupied Palestinian territories.
Speaking in an interview with France 24 television news network on December 13, 2017, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said the kingdom has a “roadmap” to establish full diplomatic ties with the Tel Aviv regime.
In mid-November last year, a Lebanese paper published a secret document showing that the Saudis were willing to normalize relations with Israel as part of a US-led Israeli-Palestinian peace effort and unite Saudi-allied countries against Iran.
Click here for the full story
From PressTV
US involved in ‘battlefield management’ of Saudi war against Yemen: Mattis
US Defense Secretary James Mattis has acknowledged that Washington has been involved in managing Saudi Arabia’s brutal airstrikes in Yemen.
Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon on Tuesday, Mattis said the US military is “doing the planning” of Saudi Arabia’s military campaign against Yemen.
“So this is a very dynamic sort of battlefield management,” he said.
Mattis also admitted that the US has been involved in mid-air refueling of Saudi warplanes, claiming that the operation could help minimize civilian casualties in the war-torn country.
The Pentagon chief’s comments contradict long-standing claims of a very limited, non-combat engagement in the Saudi war on Yemen. The US has previously said that it provides intelligence and logistical support.
The White House also claims that its involvement has nothing to do with the civilian death toll in the Arab country.
From PressTV
Syrian army finds Israeli-made munitions inside militant tunnel in Eastern Ghouta
Syrian government forces have discovered a considerable amount of Israeli-made landmines and grenades left behind by Takfiri terrorist groups inside a secret underground tunnel in Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascus.
Syria’s state-run television network reported on Wednesday that army troopers made the discovery in the town of Harasta, located 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the center of Damascus, as they were combing the areas of hidden ordnance and unexploded devices.
This is not the first time that Syrian government forces have made such findings from terrorists’ hideouts across the war-ravaged Arab country.
Syria’s official news agency SANA published video footage on February 27, showing a cache of Israeli-built rockets, mortars, tank shells and other ammunition that Daesh terrorists had left behind in the eastern border city of Abu Kamal as well as Mayadin town, situated about 44 kilometers southeast of Dayr al-Zawr.
From PressTV
Syrian army prepares to go for last militant-held Ghouta town: Report
Syrian government forces are reportedly preparing to stage a massive operation to liberate the last militant-held town in Eastern Ghouta if the terrorists holed up there refuse to surrender.
“The forces deployed in Ghouta are preparing a huge military operation in Douma if the Jaish al-Islam terrorists do not agree to hand over the city and depart,” pro-Syrian government newspaper al-Watan reported on Wednesday.
A Syrian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the situation with regard to Douma is in a critical phase.
“These two days will be decisive,” the official said.
Other militant groups are leaving different parts of Eastern Ghouta in convoys under deals with the government, which is now in control of some 90 percent of the suburban area near Damascus.
However, the Jaish al-Islam Takfiri group says it will stay in Douma, which is home to tens of thousands of civilians.
Click here for the full story
From PressTV
Bolton updated Israel ahead of UN moves as US envy to UN: Ex-Israeli envoy
The former Israeli envoy to the United States says John Bolton, who once served as the US ambassador to the UN, updated the regime about possible United Nations measures against Tel Aviv.
Danny Gillerman made the comments in an interview with the regime’s army radio aired Sunday.
He made the remarks not long after Bolton was brought back to the US administration, this time as an advisor to US President Donald Trump.
Bolton is Trump’s third national security adviser since he came to office.
As the US envoy to the UN he had once said that “you could remove ten stories” from the UN building, “and nothing bad would happen.”
“Yes,” Gillerman reportedly agreed, “That’s what he said even before he arrived at the building. I think after he got there he was willing to get rid of twenty floors, out of the 38. I remember in one of the first meetings he had with all the sitting ambassadors on the Security Council, he said a sentence that at first I thought I didn’t understand, but in time, I understood it in depth. We were debating some resolution – again some motion against Israel – and they tried to improve it and add a sentence here and take out a word there… And he looked at them and said ‘Gentlemen, I want to impart to you one thing: The United States won’t agree to a single thing that the United States doesn’t agree to.’”
Click here for the full story
From PressTV
Israeli tanks shell two Hamas positions in besieged Gaza Strip
Israeli battle tanks targeted the southern part of the Gaza Strip as the Tel Aviv regime goes ahead with its acts of aggression against the besieged Palestinian coastal sliver.
Arabic-language Palestine al-Yawm news agency reported that four rounds of shell struck two observation posts belonging to the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement in the eastern Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City on Wednesday.
There were no immediate reports of casualties and the extent of damage caused.
The Israeli military said in a statement that the shelling came after two young Palestinian men approached the border fence between the Gaza Strip and the occupied Palestinian territories near the Karni Crossing, and set fire to a tunnel detection device.
The statement added that the two Palestinians did not manage to cross the fence.
The development came only three days after Israeli forces pounded the Palestinian town of Beit Lahia after dozens of rocket sirens sounded in southern Israel.
Click here for the full story
