South Asia Media Research Institute (SAMRI). All the News That's Unfit to Print, mainly from South Asia. Backup of @SAMRIReports, along with @SReports2
Joined July 2021
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SAMRIBackup retweeted
The neonatal unit at Taiz's Yemeni-Swedish Motherhood and Childhood Hospital is facing an escalating crisis which is threatening the lives of premature babies, while families struggle to even reach the hospital due to the Houthi blockade👇
newarab.com/news/houthi-bloc…
SAMRIBackup retweeted
The glass was blown out on several floors in the middle section of the Aramco Tower at Riyadh's financial district, according to a Reuters witness
The Saudi energy ministry said there was an attempt to attack the building and debris fell on it causing limited material damage and no casualties.
Nov 8 (Reuters) - A tower in the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) in the Saudi capital Riyadh was damaged by a projectile on Sunday, said one witness and three people briefed on the matter.
Saudi authorities did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen earlier said that it had intercepted two missiles over Riyadh that were launched by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis.
SAMRIBackup retweeted
The sources cited to AFP have exaggerated the numbers. The first team deployed, between October 20 and 25, consisted of approximately 1000 personnel, including drone operators and logistics personnel. Sending thousands of soldiers would pose a serious problem for Syria.
BIG — Thousands of Syrian
troops are set to deploy to Saudi Arabia and Yemen, with some already on the
ground, multiple Yemeni officials told AFP
• Hundreds have already been deployed to both sides of the border, according to
three separate Yemeni military sources and a defence official.
• Syria will send around 3,000 troops to join the Saudi-led coalition's fight,
a source from the Presidential Leadership Council, Yemen's top governing body, told AFP.
• The arrangement was greenlit during Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa's visit
to Riyadh this week, where the two countries signed cooperation agreements, including a defence deal.
• Those already stationed on the Yemeni side of the border at the moment are
leading drone operations against the Houthis in the area, one of the military
officials told AFP.
SAMRIBackup retweeted
Iran executes Baluch militant over armed attack on police station reut.rs/4iqgIam
SAMRIBackup retweeted
Syria aids Saudi Arabia with military advice and training amid Houthi attacks, sources say reut.rs/4iBbVSe
SAMRIBackup retweeted
1. The story about AES starting a new party is false. Why don't people oppose him based on facts instead of lies?
2. Winning one seat in the bicameral legislative branch is actually NOT how the Ayatollah took power in Iran.
3. Iranian MAGA is the worst. They're beyond parody.
SAMRIBackup retweeted
Saudi Arabia’s problem in Yemen isn’t manpower, and it doesn’t need thousands of Syrian fighters. The main problem for the Saudis and the Yemeni govt is organizational. Yemeni forces look a lot like the SNA: fragmented local commands with no cohesion. Syrians can’t fix that.
SAMRIBackup retweeted
(10/10) Put it all together.
Before April 2026: ~80% of Iran’s trade through two southern ports. After: a naval blockade at sea — and seven land and Caspian corridors carrying ~$22B, every one of them growing. Caspian cargo +50%. Bazargan trucks +60%. Razi rail +300%. Astara +33%. A China–Iran block train running. Iran’s own port operator buying a Caspian port.
The documents I reviewed clearly showed that Tehran planned this pivot and is funding it. Closing the gaps means pressure on Baghdad and Ankara, sanctions on the corridor operators, and watching the Caspian — where no warship can go.
SAMRIBackup retweeted
(9/10) Pakistan: the smallest corridor — $0.3 billion in 2024–25 ($0.1B out, $0.2B in), through Mirjaveh, Pishin, and Rimdan.
Why include it? Because small, remote crossings are where illicit trade lives. Baluchistan’s border economy has always mixed legal trucking with fuel smuggling and informal transfers, and a blockade raises the premium on every unofficial channel.
@CENTCOM’s announcement explicitly targets “illegal revenue streams” across Iran’s land borders. The formal numbers here are tiny; the informal ones, by definition, aren’t in the customs data. This is the corridor where the gap between what’s recorded and what moves is likely the widest.
SAMRIBackup retweeted
(8/10) Afghanistan: $0.6 billion in 2024–25 — almost all one-way. $0.5B of Iranian exports against $0.03B of imports.
Iran is Afghanistan’s top trading partner. Fuel, cement, food, construction materials roll east through Dogharoun, Mahirud, and Milak. IRGC has a history of opium smuggling through this border too.
The post-blockade number: Dogharoun is now handling roughly 1,700 trucks per day.
While this corridor doen't move the needle on Iran’s trade balance, but it does two things: it keeps hard currency flowing in from a cash economy, and it gives Tehran leverage over a neighbor entirely dependent on Iranian supply. Low value but high utility.
SAMRIBackup retweeted
I reviewed 110 financial documents and reports of main Iranian land and sea transportation companies along with regional custom data. Here is what @CENTCOM new Task Force Iron Gate — announced today to squeeze Iran’s land borders and the Caspian — is actually up against.
Since April 2026, a U.S. naval blockade has shut Bandar Abbas and Chabahar, ports that handled roughly 163 million tons of cargo and about 80% of Iran’s trade.
But Iran has seven back doors: Iraq, Turkey, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Together they carried about $22 billion in trade in 2024–25 — $15.3B out, $6.8B in. Since the blockade, every one of these corridors shows traffic surging.
That is the gap Iron Gate has to close. A thread with the numbers, corridor by corridor. (1/10)
SAMRIBackup retweeted
Alert: Several militants affiliated with TTP have been killed during a three-day security forces operation in Panjpai, Quetta. Among those killed were Umar Shahab, alias Haibati Baloch, identified as the TTP’s intelligence chief for Quetta, as well as Afghan militants.
Mahaz has also obtained details of the Afghan militants killed during the operation.
SAMRIBackup retweeted
After Yogesh finished high school, his parents insisted that he get a factory job in UEA to pay for his sister's dowry.
He shared a one bedroom apartment with 8 men. On his annual trips to India, he spent over 75% of his salary buying gold for her.
He said he felt "phans gaya" (trapped).
This sense of personal sacrifice and family duty is almost unheard of in Europe and North America.
SAMRIBackup retweeted
When falling on the Misery Index is a good sign.
One year after Assad's fall, #Syria is doing better than most of its neighbors - and better than Brazil, Egypt & Tunisia.
It jumped from 3rd most "miserable" (2024) to 33rd (2025) on Hanke's index.
Biggest reason: inflation dropped hard.
The world's most miserable countries (Hanke's Misery Index)
1. 🇻🇪 Venezuela: 556.5
2. 🇸🇩 Sudan: 225.4
3. 🇹🇷 Türkiye: 101.0
4. 🇮🇷 Iran: 95.9
5. 🇦🇷 Argentina: 88.4
6. 🇸🇿 Eswatini: 80.0
7. 🇿🇦 South Africa: 79.0
8. 🇲🇼 Malawi: 75.2
9. 🇲🇬 Madagascar: 74.0
10. 🇱🇧 Lebanon: 72.4
11. 🇭🇹 Haiti: 72.4
12. 🇦🇴 Angola: 72.3
13. 🇾🇪 Yemen: 71.0
14. 🇲🇲 Myanmar: 65.9
15. 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe: 64.7
16. 🇩🇯 Djibouti: 60.6
17. 🇧🇼 Botswana: 60.1
18. 🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina: 59.7
19. 🇧🇷 Brazil: 59.6
20. 🇬🇦 Gabon: 58.6
21. 🇺🇦 Ukraine: 55.6
22. 🇵🇸 Palestinian Territories: 52.5
23. 🇳🇦 Namibia: 50.8
24. 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo: 49.8
25. 🇱🇸 Lesotho: 48.5
26. 🇪🇬 Egypt: 46.5
27. 🇸🇹 São Tomé and Príncipe: 45.8
28. 🇧🇴 Bolivia: 44.0
29. 🇹🇳 Tunisia: 43.9
30. 🇸🇷 Suriname: 43.6
31. 🇮🇶 Iraq: 42.0
32. 🇯🇴 Jordan: 41.3
33. 🇸🇾 Syria: 41.2
34. 🇬🇪 Georgia: 40.0
35. 🇻🇨 St. Vincent and the Grenadines: 39.1
The index measures economic conditions, not how happy people are. It adds inflation, lending rates and twice the unemployment rate, then subtracts real GDP growth per person. The higher the score, the worse the economy is for ordinary people.
Source: Steve Hanke, Annual Misery Index 2025
SAMRIBackup retweeted
Originels ?
Hein ?
Les alaouites apparaissent au IXème siècle.
Les kurdes sont sur le territoire syriens dès le Xème siècle.
Les druzes s'installent au XVIIIème siècle.
Seuls plusieurs communautés chrétiennes sont plus anciennes que les sunnites en Syrie...
SAMRIBackup retweeted
The situation in neighboring Pakistan is even worse.
Non-Muslims comprise ~4% of Pakistan's population. Yet only 1 of its 266 directly elected National Assembly members is non-Muslim - a Hindu elected from a constituency with a dominant Hindu population.
Pakistan also has laws barring non-Muslims from some of the highest offices in the country, , and continues to exclude Ahmadis from the joint electoral rolls.
5/6
SAMRIBackup retweeted
For comparison, take India, another large democracy.
Muslims comprise 14% of India's population, but only 4.4% of its directly elected Parliament is Muslim.
Of the 24 Muslim MPs elected in 2024, 22 came from constituencies where Muslims make up at least 25% of the population - none came from districts with less than 10% Muslim population.
4/6