ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

FILE IMAGE: Sputnik/ Valeriy Melnikov Russia’s state atomic energy corporation Rosatom announced on October 31 that construction of the Bushehr 2 nuclear power plant in Iran has started,  RIA  reported. “I am sure this major Russian-Iranian investment project will strengthen the cooperation and ties between our countries,”  said  Rosatom’s General Director Alexey Likhachev at the ground breaking ceremony. Before this, Likhachev and the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi also visited the site of the Russian-built Bushehr 1 NPP which was connected to the national grid in 2011. The project’s cost is estimated at $10 billion and will take up to ten years to complete. The deal, which was signed by Russia and Iran in November 2014, also included the option of building six more reactors in the future. Russia has been a long-time proponent of helping Iran develop means of producing its own nuclear energy, as it previously  helped ...

FILE IMAGE: Sputnik/ Valeriy Melnikov Russia’s state atomic energy corporation Rosatom announced on October 31 that construction of the Bushehr 2 nuclear power plant in Iran has started,  RIA  reported. “I am sure this major Russian-Iranian investment project will strengthen the cooperation and ties between our countries,”  said  Rosatom’s General Director Alexey Likhachev at the ground breaking ceremony. Before this, Likhachev and the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi also visited the site of the Russian-built Bushehr 1 NPP which was connected to the national grid in 2011. The project’s cost is estimated at $10 billion and will take up to ten years to complete. The deal, which was signed by Russia and Iran in November 2014, also included the option of building six more reactors in the future. Russia has been a long-time proponent of helping Iran develop means of producing its own nuclear energy, as it previously  helped ...

F-35C Lightning II carrier variant joint strike fighter. Source: U.S. Navy The Pentagon halted shipments of Lockheed Martin Corp’s F-35 fighter jets for 30 days this fall after it discovered corrosion around fasteners and a fix was devised, the Pentagon and Lockheed said on November 1, according to  Reuters . The Air Force detected “corrosion exceeding technical limits” where the carbon fiber exterior panel is fastened to the aluminum airframe during routine maintenance at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. The Pentagon said in a statement that although the the fastener issue on the current F-35 fleet is not affecting flights, nor is it a safety concern, this issue “needs be corrected to prevent potential future corrosion, it does not pose a safety of flight risk to the F-35 fleet or affect current operations.” According to the Pentagon, a lack of protective coating at the fastening point that would have prevented corrosion was identified as the primary problem. Lockheed is i...

Russian media outlet Russkaya Vesna posted a Youtube  video  showing an ISIS fighter, Hamed Al Hasep telling about his time in ISIS. According to Russkaya Vesna  website , Hamed al-Hasep was captured by the Syrian Arab Army’s Tiger Forces near Deir ez-Zor a few weeks earlier. The story below is based on the article provided by Russkaya Vesna: 46-year-old al-Hasep initially joined the al-Nusra Front in 2013, because of poor financial state of his family, as farming didn’t get them enough money. His hopes did not come to fruition though, and al-Nusra commanders, as he said, used the militants only as cannon fodder. In 2015, when ISIS came to his village on the south-east of Deir ez-Zor province, al-Hasep, and the majority of people from the battalion he was in, did not resist, and switched sides to ISIS instead. The men, who decided to stay loyal to the al-Nusra Front, were executed. Hamed said that he hadn’t been sent to the front immediately. His main res...

On November 1, Saudi warplanes bombed the Alaf market in Sahar district of Sa’dah governorate in northwestern Yemen, according to local sources. Reports say that 29 civilians were killed and 28 others were injured in the airstrike. Women and children were among the victims. The Houthis, and their ally, former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, condemned the massacre. The two parties also accused the Saudi-led coalition of committing war crimes in Yemen. From its side, Saudi Army Colonel Turki al-Maliki spokesperson of the Saudi-led coalition announced that the collation is closely following the reports about the Alaf massacre. Colonel Turki added that the coalition is reviewing all the data and procedures that’s linked to the accident area. Back on August 23,  46 civilians including women and children were killed in a Saudi airstrike on a hotel in Bit al-Izri village  north of the Arhab area in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a. The Yemeni al-Masirah news TV channel cl...