Saudi-led coalition strikes Sanaa’s densely-populated district, civilian casualties reported
May 17th, 20190 SANAA – The Saudi-led military coalition carried out several air strikes on the Yemeni capital of Sanaa on Thursday after the Houthi movement claimed responsibility for drone attacks on Saudi oil installations. The Sanaa strikes targeted nine military sites in and around the city, residents said, with humanitarian agencies...
Trump hopes not to go to war with Iran, Pelosi welcomes lack of appetite
May 17th, 20190 WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Trump said on Thursday he hoped the United States was not heading to war with Iran as he met with Swiss President Ueli Maurer, whose nation has served as a diplomatic conduit between the two countries. Asked by reporters if Washington was going to war with Tehran, Trump responded, “Hope not” as he...
Is America ready for John Bolton’s war with Iran?
May 17th, 20190 National Security Advisor John Bolton’s announcement this week that the U.S. is deploying a carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the U.S. Central Command region seemed perfectly framed to put America on a war footing with Iran. And it is. Claiming that the decision was made in response to “a number of troubling and...
Lebanon mourns former Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir
May 17th, 20190 BEIRUT — Political leaders and thousands of Lebanese gathered on Thursday for the funeral of the former Maronite patriarch, Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir. Ten black-clad priests with purple scarves bore his wooden coffin, marked with a cross, out of a chapel and along a purple carpet through crowds of mourners as incense wafted...
Palestinian foreign minister: U.S. crafting surrender plan, not peace deal
May 10th, 20190 UNITED NATIONS — The United States seems to be crafting a plan for a Palestinian surrender to Israel instead of a peace deal, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told a meeting at the United Nations attended by U.S. Middle East peace negotiator Jason Greenblatt. Greenblatt and senior White House adviser Jared Kushner have...
Trump urges Iran to talk over nuclear program, cannot rule out military action
May 10th, 20190 WASHINGTON, DC — On Thursday, President Trump urged Iran’s leadership to sit down and talk with him about giving up Tehran’s nuclear program and said he could not rule out a military confrontation given the heightened tensions between the two countries. At an impromptu news conference at the White House, Trump declined to say...
Russia, Syrian army step up attacks on rebel-held northwestern Syria
May 10th, 20190 AMMAN - Russian and Syrian forces intensified air strikes and shelling in rebel-held northwestern Syria overnight, the heaviest assault since the area was declared a demilitarized zone under a Russian-Turkish deal, residents and medics said on Thursday. The targeted villages and towns in northern Hama and southern Idlib fall within a...
Gaza laments deadly start to Ramadan, amid funerals and destruction
May 6th, 20190 GAZA - After two sleepless days and nights of Israeli shelling and Palestinian rocket fire, Gazans on Monday faced a first day of Ramadan overshadowed by funerals and the grim task of pulling bodies from collapsed buildings. As dawn brought a ceasefire of uncertain duration, few Palestinians in the impoverished coastal enclave were...
Trump administration deploying carrier and bombers to Middle East, escalating tension with Iran
May 6th, 20190 WASHINGTON, DC - The Trump administration is deploying a carrier strike group and bombers to the Middle East in response to troubling “indications and warnings” from Iran and to show the United States will retaliate with “unrelenting force” to any attack, national security adviser John Bolton said on Sunday. Though Bolton cited...
France and the EU, recognizing yet supporting apartheid reality in Palestine
May 3rd, 20190 A recent statement made by the outgoing French ambassador to the U.S. regarding the nature of Israeli apartheid accentuates a larger ailment that has afflicted the European Union foreign policy. The EU is simply gutless when it comes to confronting Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. Ambassador Gerard Araud was, of course,...
Iran designates all U.S. forces in Middle East as terrorists
May 3rd, 20190 LONDON — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani signed a bill into law on Tuesday declaring all U.S. forces in the Middle East terrorists and calling the U.S. government a sponsor of terrorism. The bill was passed by parliament last week in retaliation against President Trump’s decision this month to designate Iran’s elite...
Peters fires back at Trump as veto on Saudi-led war on Yemen upheld
May 3rd, 20190 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States Senate failed to override President Trump's veto of a resolution that had demanded an end to military support for the Saudi Arabia-led coalition conducting war operations in Yemen, a report from Reuters said. The Thursday vote, considered a victory for the White House's policy of supporting the...
White House: U.S. working to designate Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group
April 30th, 20190 WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Trump is working to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a foreign terrorist organization, the White House said on Tuesday, which would bring sanctions against Egypt’s oldest Islamist movement. “The president has consulted with his national security team and leaders in the region who share his concern...
Reuters: Iran’s Zarif believes Trump does not want war, but could be lured into conflict
April 29th, 20190 NEW YORK — Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif does not believe President Trump wants war with Iran, but he told Reuters on Wednesday that Trump could be lured into a conflict. “I don’t think he wants war,” Zarif said in an interview at the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York. “But that doesn’t...
Sanctions on Iranian oil bring U.S. drivers pain at the pump
April 26th, 20190 American middle class consumers are enjoying the strongest wage growth in a decade, but higher gasoline prices are eating a good chunk of that increase for many, and it looks like pump prices are headed higher. Gasoline pump prices have already jumped about 25 percent this year, the fastest rate in three years. Trump administration......
Notre Dame of Gaza: Our mosques and churches are also burning
April 26th, 20191 As the 300-foot spire of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris tragically came tumbling down on live television, my thoughts ventured to Nuseirat Refugee Camp, my childhood home in the Gaza Strip. Then, also on television, I watched as a small bulldozer hopelessly clawed through the rubble of my neighborhood mosque. I grew up around that...
Egyptian voters approve extension of Sisi’s presidency until 2030
April 25th, 20190 CAIRO — Nearly 90 percent of referendum voters approved constitutional amendments that could keep the president in power until 2030. Egyptian voters have overwhelmingly backed constitutional changes allowing President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to remain in power until 2030, the election commission has said. "These are effective from......
Saudi Arabia beheads 37 mostly Shia’, including aspiring Michigan college student
April 24th, 20194 Saudi Arabia beheaded 37 of its citizens on Tuesday, in the largest mass execution the country has carried out since 2016. One man was pinned to a pole in public after being beheaded, his body shown as a warning to others. The country said that Shi'a religious leader Shiekh Mohammed al-Attiyah was among those executed on...
Netanyahu: Israel to name new town on Golan after Trump
April 23rd, 20190 OCCUPIED GOLAN HEIGHTS - Israel said on Tuesday it would name a new community on the occupied Golan Heights after President Trump as an expression of gratitude for his recognition of its claim of sovereignty over the strategic plateau. Israel captured the Golan from Syria in a 1967 war and annexed it, against international law. The...
War versus peace: Israel has decided and so should we
April 19th, 20190 So, what have we learned from the Israeli legislative elections on April 9? A whole lot. To start with, don’t let such references as the “tight race” between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and his main rival, Benny Gantz, fool you. Yes, Israelis are divided on some issues that are particular to...
Explaining the Israeli election: Who won, who lost?
April 19th, 20190 TEL AVIV — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won the backing of a majority of parliament members on Tuesday to form a new government, following the April 9 election. Netanyahu is heading towards a record fifth term in office confident of being able to put together a bloc of religious-rightist parties. It would be a slim......
U.S. official: Washington will not remove Sudan from terror list while military rules
April 18th, 20190 WASHINGTON - The United States will not remove Sudan from the state sponsor of terrorism list until the country’s leadership and policies change and the military no longer holds power, a U.S. official said on Tuesday. “We will be willing to look at removing Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism if there is...Egypt to hold referendum on extending Sisi’s rule on April 20-22
April 18th, 20190 CAIRO - Egypt’s election commission said on Wednesday that a referendum potentially allowing President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to stay in office until 2030 will take place on April 20-22. The ballot, featuring several constitutional amendments, was given final approval in parliament on Tuesday. The changes, if approved, would extend......
Runaway Saudi sisters fear death, plead for world’s help
April 18th, 20190 TBILISI - Two Saudi sisters took to Twitter on Wednesday to plead for international protection and a safe haven, saying their lives would be at risk if they went back to Saudi Arabia. The women, in their 20s, said they had arrived in the former Soviet republic of Georgia and needed help from the international community to find a new...
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement co-founder denied entry by U.S. government
April 12th, 20190 Palestinian activist Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israeli financial interests, has been denied entry to the United States after airline staff informed him he wouldn't be flying. Barghouti was at Ben Gurion International Airport on Wednesday when he was told by U.S.......
