President Bashar al-Assad has praised the Syrian people and army, saying their will has defeated terrorism in the country. “The will of the Syrian people and their determination as well as the heroism of the Syrian Arab Army” are the most important reasons that have helped the country defeat foreign-backed militants, Assad said on Monday.

Assad also appreciated the Syrian people, saying they did not allow terrorist groups and their backers to halt their daily activities. He made the remarks in a meeting with a delegation from Tunisia’s General Labor Union (UGTT), headed by its Assistant Secretary General Bu Ali Mubaraki, in the capital Damascus, Syria’s official news agency, SANA, reported.

During the meeting, Assad stressed that the delegation’s visit carried many messages to the world as it “reflects the pulse of the Arab public opinion and its orientations.” In turn, members of the Tunisian delegation confirmed that they came to Damascus to convey a message of support for the Syrian people.

The Syrian people have showed matchless support for their leadership and army, which are defending the dignity of the Arab nation, the delegation said. The Tunisian delegation stressed that the West does not want Syria to play any role except according to what they dictate.

The delegation said the West has targeted Syria because of its fair stance towards regional developments. The delegation also described Syria as a state which remains at the forefront of the campaign against terrorism. “If what is planned against Syria succeeded, the chaos would have prevailed throughout the Arab region. Therefore, defending it is defending all the Arabs.”

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning UGTT is known to many Tunisians for the role it played in the North African country’s historic revolution of 2011. Syria has been gripped by a deadly conflict since March 2011. The government has repeatedly blamed certain foreign countries for the spread of the devastating militancy in the country.

Over the past few months, Syrian forces have made sweeping gains against Takfiri elements, which have in turn increased their acts of violence across the country. Tunisia, too, has experienced violence since the 2011 uprising that ousted the country’s dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who was in power for over two decades. The country has also been affected by the growing instability in neighboring Libya, which has been in chaos since former dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled and later killed in 2011.

During the past six years, Tunisia has witnessed multiple terrorist attacks. Tunisia is among the countries with the highest per capita number of extremist militants operating in other countries. Thousands of Tunisians have reportedly left their country since 2011 to fight alongside extremist groups in Iraq and Syria.

The gloomy status quo of Daesh has growingly worried Tunisians who fear that many militants would return to the North African country. Late last year, Tunisian authorities warned about the return of thousands of Takfiri militants, calling for “exceptional measures” to combat the phenomenon.

Source: Presstv

US President Donald Trump has just had one of the worst weeks of his presidency, highlighted by humiliating attacks against his attorney general, infighting among White House advisers, a major change of staff, and the failure to overhaul the healthcare system.

The backlash started last week when Trump publicly humiliated Attorney General Jeff Sessions as “very weak,” hoping the top lawyer would buckle under pressure and resign. Senate Republicans were quick to come to their former colleague’s defense, urging Sessions to stand his ground. They forced Trump to back off by threatening to block any effort to replace Sessions.

The president is furious that Sessions recused himself from the ongoing investigation into the alleged collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.  However, experts say going to these lengths to verbally abuse the attorney general betrays Trump’s sense of frustration with his inability to shut down a probe that has bedeviled his presidency.

Then came the bizarre series of tweets declaring that the US military would no longer accept transgender personnel, practically attempting to change military policy on Twitter without notifying his military generals. Trump’s surprise declaration, which appeared to pre-empt an ongoing Pentagon review into the issue, drew sharp rebuke from the nation’s senior officers.

“I hope our commander in chief understands that we don’t transmit orders via Twitter, and that he can’t, either,” a senior officer told Reuters on the condition of anonymity. “Even if this were an order, implementing it legally would take considerable time, if it’s even possible.”

America’s top military officer, Marine General Joseph Dunford, told the armed forces on Thursday there had been no change to the current policy.

Congressional Republicans also backed the president into a corner by their veto-proof passage of legislation to impose new sanctions on Russia, undercutting Trump’s efforts to improve relations with the Cold War adversary. Knowing that a Trump veto would be easily overridden, the White House announced that the president intended to sign the bill, which also includes sanctions on Iran and North Korea.

The turmoil spilled into public when Trump’s new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, launched an obscenity-laced rant against then chief of staff Reince Priebus. In a sign that major change was needed, Trump then terminated Priebus and installed Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to take command.

Above all, Trump suffered his biggest legislative setback to date, when three Senate Republicans joined their Democratic colleagues in rejecting a measure to replace and repeal Obamacare. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, whose recent medical procedure had delayed a vote on health care, sided with Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and effectively killed the so-called “skinny repeal” package.

Hill staffers braced themselves for Trump to take out his anger on McCain, a former Trump antagonist, but the president surprisingly kept his cool on that front. Instead, he warned the entire Congress that healthcare “bailouts” for insurers and lawmakers would soon end unless they pass legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

“If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!” Trump tweeted Saturday afternoon.

Strategists are wondering whether this past week would mark the beginning of Republicans standing up to a president, whose run for the White House they so reluctantly backed in the first place.

“Anyone in a position of responsibility in GOP politics is quickly losing patience with President Trump,” Alex Conant, a Republican strategist and former adviser to Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, told The New York Times. “The dysfunction is beyond strange; it’s dangerous.”

“If Trump’s poll numbers were above 50 percent,” Conant continued, “healthcare reform would have passed. Instead, he’s spent more time responding to cable-TV chatter than rallying support for his agenda.”

Source: Presstv

Three European allies of the US have engaged in rhetoric against Iran after the country successfully tested a satellite-launch rocket, urging Tehran to halt all its missile activities. “We condemn this action,” read a joint statement by Britain, France, Germany and the US on Friday, claiming the test is in breach of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which was adopted in July 2015 to endorse Iran’s nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Actions (JCPOA), with six world powers.

“Iran’s program to develop ballistic missiles continues to be inconsistent with UNSCR 2231 and has a destabilizing impact in the region. We call on Iran not to conduct any further ballistic missile launches and related activities,” the statement added. Resolution 2231 calls on Iran “not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.”

Tehran insists its missile tests and rocket launches do not breach any UN resolution, because they are solely for defense purposes and not designed to carry nuclear warheads. Earlier on Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said “every word” of the nuclear deal has been carefully negotiated, adding, “Iran does not develop missiles that are designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons.”

The statement by the US and its European allies came a day after Washington described the successful satellite-carrying rocket launch as “a provocative action,” accusing Iran of violating UN Security Council resolutions.
Since his inauguration on January 20, US President Donald Trump has adopted a hostile policy towards Iran. He has repeatedly vowed to cancel the nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, including the US. Trump’s administration has also imposed new sanctions on multiple Iranian individuals and entities.

On Thursday, Iran launched its domestically-manufactured Simorgh carrier, whose mission is to put Iranian satellites into orbit. The launch was carried out from the Imam Khomeini Space Center in the central Iranian province of Semnan. Simorgh, named after a bird in Persian mythology, is capable of placing a satellite weighing up to 250 kilograms in an orbit of 500 kilometers.

Designed and developed with the latest standards in mind, Iran’s new space rocket can carry satellites weighing up to 250 kilograms (550 pounds) about 500 kilometers (310 miles) away, well within the Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
The rocket, Iran’s largest to date, will be used to launch the domestically-built Earth observation satellite Tolou (Sunrise) in the near future. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani hailed the successful test-launch, saying such scientific achievements boost the Islamic Republic’s power and grandeur.

Iran’s Defense Minister ‎Hossein Dehqan, who accompanied Rouhani at the space center on Thursday, told reporters that the spaceport acted as a “command and control site” that could track and control satellites at all times.
He noted that the center was already capable of launching satellites to higher orbits of up to 1,000 kilometers. Iran launched its first locally-built satellite, Omid (Hope), in 2009. The country also sent its first bio-capsule containing living creatures into space in February 2010, using Kavoshgar (Explorer)-3 carrier.

In February 2015, Iran placed the domestically-made Fajr (Dawn) satellite into orbit. The satellite is capable of taking and transmitting high-quality and accurate pictures to stations on Earth. Simorgh’s launch came as the US Congress passed new sanctions against Iran over its development of missiles for defensive purposes. The bill, which also includes sanctions against Russia and North Korea, awaits US President Donald Trump’s approval.

Source: Presstv

US Senator Jack Reed was accidentally recorded telling Senator Susan Collins that President Donald Trump “is crazy” while the two lawmakers discussed the federal budget and Trump’s lack of familiarity with the details of governing.

Someone sitting near Collins, a Republican from Maine, didn’t switch off a microphone near her at the end of a Senate subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, according to The Washington Post. After Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island, praises Collins’ handling of the hearing, she laments the Trump administration’s handling of spending.

“I swear, [the Office of Management and Budget] just went through and whenever there was ‘grant,’ they just X it out,” Collins says. “With no measurement, no thinking about it, no metrics, no nothing. It’s just incredibly irresponsible.”

“Yes,” Reed replies. “I think – I think he’s crazy,” apparently referring to the president. “I mean, I don’t say that lightly and as a kind of a goofy guy.”
“I’m worried,” Collins replies.

“You know, this thing — if we don’t get a budget deal, we’re going to be paralyzed,” Reed says. “The DoD (Department) of Defense) is going to be paralyzed, everybody is going to be paralyzed.”

“I don’t think he [Trump] knows there is a BCA (Budget Control Act) or anything,” Collins says, referring to a 2011 law that defines the budget process.

Ousted FBI Director James Comey reportedly told associates in March that Trump was “outside the realm of normal,” even “crazy.”

Comey made the remarks after Trump suggested former President Barack Obama had spied on him. Trump was furious when Comey publicly dismissed his spying claims. Comey told the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee in March that his agency had “no information” to back Trump’s allegations.

In May, Trump fired Comey, who had been leading a politically-charged investigation into alleged ties between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia, telling him it was time for a “new beginning” at America’s “crown jewel of law enforcement.”

Source: Presstv

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has wrapped up a tour of Arab countries involved in a dispute but has failed to help bring the feuding sides closer to one another. Erdogan arrived in Qatar on Monday on the last leg of a tour that had also taken him to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

In Qatar, he met with Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Doha. Qatari state news agency QNA said the two sides discussed joint efforts to combat terrorism and extremism, reviewed defense and economic cooperation, and praised Kuwait’s mediation role in the crisis. During the talks, Sheikh Tamim “reviewed regional developments, specifically the [Persian] Gulf crisis and efforts to contain it and to resolve it through diplomatic means,” according to the QNA.

But it was unclear how Erdogan had sought to contribute to a resolution of the dispute beyond calling on the leaders he met to try and ease the tensions. It was also improbable that he conveyed any messages from Saudi Arabia — the country leading a diplomatic and economic war on Qatar — to the leadership in Doha. Turkey has firmly taken Qatar’s side, to the displeasure of Doha’s adversaries, and is thus not looked upon as a trusted go-between.

The dispute has seen Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt cutting diplomatic ties with Qatar and blocking their transit routes to the country. They have accused Doha of “supporting terrorism” — a charge that the blockading countries face themselves. Qatar has denied the accusation and has said it is being targeted because of its independent foreign policies.

The UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash seemed to display the Saudi-led side’s unhappiness with Ankara on Monday when he said in effect that Erdogan’s regional tour had been useless. “The Turkish president’s visit did not carry anything new, and the hasty stand his country had taken made neutrality as the best option for Ankara. A Qatari review will achieve more than repeated visits,” Gargash wrote on his Twitter account on Tuesday.

When Erdogan left Saudi Arabia, where he had met with King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed, it was unclear what, if anything, he had achieved diplomatically. The official Saudi news agency did not report much about the meetings except that they had taken place. In addition to Erdogan, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and representatives from Europe have toured the region in recent weeks in a bid to soothe the tensions between the Arab states in the Persian Gulf, all to no avail.

Qatar has said the dispute is likely to linger. More recently, the Qatari emir said that the blockade by the Saudi-led bloc had been “a pre-planned smearing campaign.” While in Qatar, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who was accompanying Erdogan in the regional tour, said that Ankara was trying to organize direct talks between Qatar and the Saudi-led bloc.

“The most appropriate way is to sit together around the table and [have] direct talks. This is the main obstacle in front of us and I hope there will be an opportunity for such format soon,” he said. Also on Monday, Russia expressed its own readiness to help mediate in the dispute if requested to do so.

“We are interested in this crisis being overcome, taking into account mutual concerns and finding solutions which will be acceptable for all participants of this process,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the Kurdish television channel Rudaw.

Source: Presstv

Just a quarter of the US population is sure President Donald Trump will manage to stay in the White House by the end of his term, a new poll shows. Conducted by USA Today and iMediaEthics, the poll found that 27 percent of the people believe he “definitely will complete” the four-year term as the president of the United State.

The percentage includes 1 in 10 Republicans, among those who took part in the online poll. Another 30 percent also think that he “probably will,” while 23 percent of the adults maintain that he“probably won’t” finish his term. Thirteen percent believe that he “definitely won’t” manage.

The majority of those polled, 51 percent, said they were dissatisfied with the president while 44 percent approved of his performance. The poll showed that the nation is equally divided on whether Trump should be impeached with 42 percent on each side of the dispute. An investigation has been launched to find out whether the Russian government coordinated with Trump’s associates during the 2016 campaign and transition.

Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman has formally introduced an article of impeachment against Trump, accusing him of obstructing justice during the federal investigation of Russia’s role in 2016 election. A majority vote in the US House of Representatives, currently controlled by Republicans, is required to impeach a president, which means the measure is unlikely for now.

Source: Presstv

US President Donald Trump’s historically low approval ratings is leading to a growing movement against his administration and the ruling class in America, says Daniel Shaw, an analyst in New York. Trump has set a new record low for second quarter job approval rating, becoming the least popular president early in a White House term since World War ll, according to a Gallup poll.

He averaged 38.8 percent job approval during his second quarter in office, which spanned from April 20 through July 19, Gallup’s daily tracking average shows. “You can really feel these low approval ratings playing out across the United States as the American people are extremely displeased with his attacks on healthcare,” Shaw, a university lecturer, told Press TV on Sunday. “He is trying to gut every social program that exists.”

That is why, the analyst argued, a “movement” is taking shape against Trump and the way the country is being run. “Trump is an individual who personally is worth $4 billion, so he is not representative in any way of the electorate who voted for him,” Shaw added.

No other president has had a worse second-quarter average approval since Gallup began assessing approval ratings in 1945. Former US President Bill Clinton’s second quarter approval rating was 44 percent, the only other president aside from Trump whose approval fell below 50 percent early in his administration.

The average approval rating for US presidents in their second quarter is 62 percent, meaning Trump’s support is 23 percentage points below the historical norm, Gallup said. Shaw said the low 55 percent voter turnout — the lowest in the past two decades– played a key role in Trump’s rise to the presidency.

Trump was able to defeat his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton through Electoral College votes, despite losing the popular vote to Clinton. However, the analyst said the mainstream media should also take some of the credit.

“The media that represents the most powerful sections of this country and this ruling class comes out against the president,” he noted, pointing to examples of anti-Trump media headlines that revolve around his unpopular policies as well as his alleged “collusion” with Russia. Shaw said the “resistant movement” against Trump was separate from the “fake” one led by Clinton and aimed at fighting racist, Islamophobic and other divisive policies.

Source: Presstv

Russian President Vladimir Putin says he has not yet decided whether to stand for re-election in 2018, promising not to change the constitution so as to allow him to keep on running for Russia’s political leadership indefinitely.

“I have not decided yet if I should continue my work in this capacity. I will see. The election will take place in 2018. There is still time ahead of the election race. We will see,” Putin said during a Q&A session with school children at a school in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Friday.

The 64-year-old Russian leader first became president in 2000, before most of the audience in the Friday program was even born. In 2008, he concluded his second term in office after winning another term in the 2004 election, and became Russia’s prime minister for a second time under President Dmitry Medvedev from 2008 to 2012.

Presidential terms were extended from four to six years in 2011, only a year before Putin emerged victorious in the presidential race. The next election is scheduled to be held in March 2018, and the Russian leader, who has dominated Russia’s political landscape for the past 17 years and boasts massive popularity ratings, is widely expected to seek to secure another six-year term in office.

Putin stepped down in 2008 as the president of the Russian Federation in order to avoid a constitutional ban on running for a third consecutive term. Some political commentators at the time suggested that he could change the constitution so as to allow himself to stay on as president for a third consecutive term. Some still say he might pursue changing the constitution to run for another term after 2024. The Russian leader, however, has ruled out the possibility.

“I had an opportunity, I was even asked to change the constitution at some time. I did not do it, and I don’t intend to do it in the future. Everything is written in the constitution,” Putin said.Back in December last year, Forbes named Putin the most powerful man on the planet for the fourth consecutive year.

Source: Presstv

White House spokesman Sean Spicer has resigned, barely six months after US President Trump gave him the post. It is now evident that America needs credible liars and that Spicer was not fit for the job.

According to The New York Times, Spicer stepped down on Friday after Trump appointed Anthony Scaramucci his new communications director.

Trump requested that Spicer stay on, but he declined to do so and told the president that hiring Scaramucci was a big mistake, the Times reported. Spicer is a former spokesman and strategist from the Republican National Committee.

Camcordnews Desk with files from Presstv

US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had a second and previously undisclosed meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Germany earlier this month, US officials say. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer confirmed on Tuesday that the two held an informal talk during the dinner at the summit in the German city of Hamburg on July 7, hours after their first formal bilateral sit-down.

US National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton also acknowledged that a second meeting had taken place at the world leaders’ dinner, with Trump leaving his seat to occupy an empty chair next to Putin.

“There was a couples-only social dinner at the G20. Toward the end, the President spoke to Putin at the dinner,” Anton said in an interview with CNN. “No staff or Cabinet were at the dinner at all, for any of the countries,” with the exception of translators. The two leaders did not go to a separate room for their conversation, but remained in the main room where the dinner was being hosted, according to Anton. The official declined to provide further details on the Trump-Putin conversation, citing the fact that no staff were present at the time.

During their first formal and face-to-face meeting on that day, the two presidents exchanged viewpoints on a host of international problems and bilateral issues such as the ongoing crises in Syria and Ukraine, anti-terrorism campaign and cyber security. News of the second encounter came as Trump was struggling at home with a deepening scandal over alleged Russian efforts to help him defeat his rival Hillary Clinton in the last year’s White House race.

The scandal has now entangled his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, who last week released emails purportedly showing he embraced Russia’s efforts to support his father’s presidential campaign, and admitting he would “love” to get dirt from Moscow on Clinton. Trump later defended his son, praising his “transparency” for releasing the email chain and again condemning the investigation about whether Moscow helped him win the White House last November.

Source: Presstv