Calls for new and efficient government in Lebanon after Hariri’s resignation, as crisis deepens
October 29th, 20190 BEIRUT — Saad al-Hariri resigned as Lebanon’s prime minister on Tuesday, declaring he had hit a “dead end” in trying to resolve a crisis unleashed by huge protests against the ruling elite and plunging the country deeper into turmoil. His resignation points to rising political tensions that may complicate the formation of a...
Facebook sues Israeli surveillance group over alleged WhatsApp hack
October 29th, 20190 SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook Inc on Tuesday sued Israeli cyber surveillance firm NSO Group, alleging it hacked users of its messaging platform WhatsApp earlier this year, according to a report by Reuters. The hacking spree targeted journalists, diplomats, human rights activists, political dissidents, senior government officials and...
Iraqis defying bloody crackdown, continue protesting against government corruption and dire living conditions
October 27th, 20190 BAGHDAD - Thousands of Iraqi protesters stood fast in Baghdad’s central Tahrir Square on Sunday, defying a bloody crackdown that killed scores over the weekend and an overnight raid by security forces seeking to disperse them. Young men had erected barricades on a bridge leading to the capital’s fortified Green Zone against...
Pence: Turkey and Syria agree to five-day cease-fire in northeast Syria after hours of talks in Ankara
October 18th, 20190 ANKARA — A five-day cease-fire has been agreed upon in northeast Syria to allow for the withdrawal of Kurdish forces, Vice President Pence said on Thursday. “Today the United States and Turkey have agreed to a cease-fire in Syria,” Pence told a news conference after more than four hours of talks at the presidential palace in...
Facebook deletes oldest Palestinian news site’s page, which had more than 5 million fans
October 18th, 20192 The Palestinian Information Center's Facebook page was deleted on Wednesday in a move that is being called part of a war on Palestinian content on social media networks. No prior warning was provided by Facebook prior to the deletion, the site's management team said. The page, which had nearly five million followers, was deleted...
Thousands protest in Lebanon over proposed new taxes, dire economic conditions
October 18th, 20190 BEIRUT — Thousands of people demonstrated in Beirut on Thursday against the government's management of a dire economy in what was one of the country's biggest protests in years, leading the Cabinet to pull a proposed new levy on WhatsApp calls. Roads across Lebanon were blocked with burning tires, broadcasts showed. It was the...
As fires raged in Lebanon, one Beirut woman joined heroic rescue mission
October 17th, 20190 BEIRUT – Villages in the west of Lebanon, just south of Beirut, experienced intense wildfires on early Tuesday morning, forcing villagers to flee their homes, with the Lebanese government sending rescue missions to affected areas. Described by officials as the worst wild fires to have hit the country in decades, the fires were...
Tunisia elects conservative law professor as president
October 17th, 20190 TUNIS — Tunisia’s electoral commission officially announced on Thursday that Islamist-backed law professor Kais Saied has won the country’s presidential election. In a news conference, commission head Nabil Baffoun said the results were definitive since no appeal by opposition had been made to contest them. AP first reported on...
Number of executions in Saudi Arabia reaches 134 people, UN report reveals
October 15th, 20190 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND — A total of 134 people have been executed this year alone in Saudi Arabia, with six of those killed being children at the time of their arrest, figures revealed at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva showed. The figures emphasized the systematic torture of detainees and grossly unfair trials culminating...
More people in the Arab World are identifying as “not religious”, BBC poll reveals
October 15th, 20190 LONDON — More people in the Arab World are saying they are no longer religious, according to the largest and most in-depth survey undertaken of the Middle East and North Africa, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) revealed this summer. The survey also touched on a wide range of issues, including women's rights, migration and...
International calls for peace as Turkey begins assault on Kurdish-held northeast Syria
October 12th, 20190 NORTHEAST SYRIA - Turkey, under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, began its assault on Kurdish-held northeastern Syria on Wednesday after President Trump withdrew U.S. troops from the region, with bombs coming down on Turkish border towns on Thursday. News agencies report that Turkey's military is pushing deeper into Syrian territory...
Secret tapes of Khashoggi murder emerge as Erdogan pushes for justice against “Shadow State” in Saudi Arabia
October 6th, 20190 ISTANBUL — Several new developments emerged this week in the ongoing case of the murder of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan insisted on Monday that Turkey will continue pushing for the truth in the case. This past June, U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions Agnès...
CENTCOM relocates operations from Qatar, fearing an Iranian missile attack
October 3rd, 20190 Although Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar still is home to thousands of Americans, the ability to carry out command and control functions from South Carolina means that the chances of a “Pearl Harbor” type of strike by the Iranians on the base is limited but not completely avoidable. It also perceived that it won’t take the U.S. seven...
Iran’s president rejects nuclear talks before sanctions are lifted
September 29th, 20190 NEW YORK/U.N. — Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, has ruled out negotiations on its nuclear program with the United States so long as sanctions remained in place and said he was not interested in a “memento photo” with President Trump. “I would like to announce that our response to any negotiation under sanctions is...
Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) condemns Netanyahu’s annexation of Palestinian land, demands shift in purported peace plan
September 17th, 20190 WASHINGTON — On the heels of the Israeli prime minister election and with the U.S. administration preparing to release the political component of its purported peace plan for Israel and Palestine, 22 Christian leaders, including the Churches for Middle East Peace Executive Director Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon, wrote a letter to President......
President Trump says “it’s looking like” Iran was behind Saudi oil facility attack
September 16th, 20190 WASHINGTON — President Trump told reporters on Monday that it's looking like” Iran was behind this Saturday's attack on Saudi Arabia oil facilities, a CNN report said. Trump added that it's too early to say for sure. He also said that he was, “not looking to get into new conflict, but sometimes you have to.” “Well, it's...
Oil prices jump nearly 15% after attack on Saudi facilities
September 16th, 20190 NEW YORK — Oil prices ended up nearly 15% higher on Monday after an attack on Saudi Arabian crude oil facilities cut the kingdom's production in half, a report from Reuters said. Concerns of retaliation also affected the oil prices, of which Brent crude futures settled at $69.02 a barrel, rising $8.80, or 14.6%, its largest one-day......
Putin hopes talks with Turkey, Iran could create conditions for final Syria crisis resolution
September 16th, 20190 ANKARA — Russian president Vladimir Putin said he hopes that three-way talks held on Monday with Iranian and Turkish officials could help bring a “final” settlement to the Syrian crisis. “I would like to express a confidence that our talks will be productive and the agreements reached will form a ground for final resolution of...
Israeli parties vie for Arab vote in bid to oust Netanyahu
September 13th, 20190 TIRA - Challengers to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in next Tuesday’s election have courted Israel’s Arab voters, hoping that a strong turnout from this unlikely source could tip the scales in their favor. The centrist Blue and White party headed by former armed forces chief Benny Gantz has plastered Arab towns with...
Israeli TV host calls Arabs ‘savages’ on air, apologizes later
September 13th, 20190 TEL AVIV — A veteran Israeli television personality apologized on Tuesday for saying on the air that “Arabs are savages.” Yaron London, 79, had made the remarks a day earlier during his show “London and Geula” on Channel 11, the Kan public broadcaster. They came during a discussion of the HBO series “Our Boys”, centering...
Syrian bakery, restaurant opens its doors to refugees in search of a better life
September 8th, 20190 OTTAWA, CANADA — Nearly a decade of war, conflict and foreign intervention in Syria has led to a full blown crisis in the once-thriving Middle Eastern nation, as well as the creation of millions of refugees. According to a 2018 report from the Pew Research Center, Canada has become the most common landing place for Syrian......
U.N. report finds Saudi Arabia, UAE and Western allies complicit in war crimes in Yemen
September 8th, 20190 CAIRO — Saudi Arabia and its Western allies, including the United States, may be complicit in potential war crimes, the United Nations said in a report on Tuesday that called for more accountability from all sides in the war. The report came from a team of investigators commissioned by the U.N. Human Rights Council and found that...
Syrian army makes new gains as Russia brings reinforcements
August 31st, 20190 BEIRUT — Russia and its Syrian army ally stepped up aerial raids on northwest Syria as they sent reinforcements from elite army units and Iranian-backed militias to bolster a major offensive against the last big rebel stronghold, opposition sources and residents said on Friday. The Russian-led alliance took the town of Khwain,......
Netanyahu’s ban on Omar, Tlaib backfires, plays right into the hands of BDS movement
August 31st, 20191 A group of more than 70 Republican and Democratic members of Congress traveled to Israel on a delegation sponsored by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) earlier this month, but the annual trip was far more noteworthy for those who didn't make it; namely U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN). The...
UAE carries out air strikes against Yemen’s government forces to support separatists
August 31st, 20190 ADEN – The United Arab Emirates carried out air strikes against government forces in South Yemen on Thursday in support of southern separatists who have deployed reinforcements to take back control of the port of Aden from their supposed allies in the Saudi-led coalition. The UAE, the second foreign power in the coalition, said it......
