Russia warns U.S. against ‘reckless steps’ in Syria
August 26th, 20180 MOSCOW - A senior Russian official warned the U.S. on Saturday against making any “reckless” moves in Syria, the RIA news agency reported. Reacting to comments by National Security Adviser John Bolton about Washington’s possible strong reaction in the event of a chemical or biological attack in the Syrian region of Idlib, Deputy...
Yemen: Houthis fire two missiles at Saudi Arabia
August 26th, 20180 Yemen’s Houthi group fired two Zelzal-1 missiles in the direction of Saudi Arabian provinces alongside the joint border, the Houthis’ Masirah TV said in a tweet on Sunday. The two missiles targeted “gatherings of Saudi soldiers,” one in Jizan and the other in Najran, it said. The Saudi armed forces did not confirm the...
British and French airlines halting flights to Iran next month
August 26th, 20180 British Airways and Air France said on Thursday they would halt flights to Iran from September for business reasons, months after President Trump announced he would re-impose sanctions on Tehran. British Airways said it was suspending its London to Tehran service “as the operation is currently not commercially viable.” BA,...
Pilgrims pray and give praise as haj winds down in Mecca
August 25th, 20180 MINA, Saudi Arabia — More than two million haj pilgrims headed back to Mecca for final prayers on Thursday as organizers said the world’s largest annual gathering of Muslims had gone smoothly in the face of political tensions and huge logistical challenges. Senior Saudi officials said the rituals - which have been marred in the...
Muslims at haj converge on Jamarat for ritual stoning of the devil
August 22nd, 20180 JAMARAT, Saudi Arabia - More than 2 million Muslim pilgrims hurled pebbles at a giant wall in a symbolic stoning of the devil on Tuesday, the riskiest stage of the annual haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia where hundreds died in a crush three years ago. Clad in white robes signifying a state of purity, men and women from 165 countries...
Iran threatens to hit U.S., Israeli targets if attacked
August 22nd, 20180 Iran warned on Wednesday that it would hit U.S. and Israeli targets if it were attacked by the United States after President Trump’s security adviser said Washington would exert maximum pressure on Tehran going beyond economic sanctions. A U.S.-Iranian war of words has escalated since Trump withdrew Washington from the world...After ISIS killed her sons, Iraqi grandmother fends for 22 children
MOSUL, Iraq — Iraqi grandmother Sana Ibrahim al-Taee has a full-time job feeding and clothing her 22 grandchildren after ISIS killed their fathers - her sons - a struggle in a cramped flat with little help from the state. Al-Taee and her husband, who has Alzheimer’s, share their four-room apartment in eastern Mosul with the...
Yemen’s ancient architecture threatened by war
August 18th, 20180 SANAA — Yemen’s three-year war has taken a heavy toll on Sanaa’s historic Old City, a dense warren of mosques, bath houses and 6,000 mud brick houses, which date from before the 11th century. Part of the Old City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has been razed by bombing. Now only rubble and straggly palm trees remain, where...
Sayyed Nasrallah says Hezbollah stronger than ever
August 17th, 20180 BEIRUT — The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah Party, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said on Tuesday his group was stronger than ever and would “very soon” celebrate victory in Syria, where it has been fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad government. Nasrallah was speaking on live television to mark the anniversary of a 2006 war...
Khamenei bans talks with U.S., chides Rouhani’s government over economy
August 13th, 20180 Iran’s Supreme Leader Sayyed Khamenei on Monday rejected President Trump’s offer of unconditional talks to improve bilateral ties and he also accused the Iranian government of economic mismanagement in the face of reimposed U.S. sanctions. The Trump administration reimposed the sanctions last week after pulling out of a 2015...
Indonesian Island struck by three earthquakes in little over a week
August 12th, 20180 TANJUNG, Indonesia— An Indonesian Island in Lombok was hit with its third significant earthquake in just over a week on Thursday. The official death toll from one of the earlier quakes was 300. The latest quake, a strong aftershock that measured a magnitude 5.9 by the U.S. Geological Survey, damaged many buildings and caused...
Yemen: Saudi-led coalition air strikes kill dozens of civilians, mainly children
August 11th, 20180 ADEN — Saudi-led coalition air strikes on Thursday killed dozens of people, including children traveling on a bus through a market, in Yemen’s Saada province, a Yemeni health official and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said. The Western-backed alliance fighting the Houthi Yemeni group said in a statement that...
Rouhani dismisses Trump call for talks on eve of new sanctions
August 6th, 20180 Iranian President Hassan Rouhani dismissed a U.S. call for talks on Tuesday, the eve of the imposition of new sanctions that follows Washington’s decision to pull out of an agreement over Iran’s nuclear program. The United States is due to impose new sanctions against Iran on Tuesday intended to cripple its economy, implementing...
Seventy U.S. lawmakers urge for immediate humanitarian aid for Gaza
August 4th, 20180 GAZA — Seventy members of the U.S. Congress are urging the Trump administration to immediately reinstate U.S. aid in order to alleviate the growing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Israel has seized a boat and detained almost two dozen people as they were trying to reach Gaza by sea with a cargo of medical...
Russia to deploy military police on Golan Heights frontier
August 4th, 20180 MOSCOW — Russia will deploy its military police on the Golan Heights frontier between Syria and Israel, its defense ministry said on Thursday, after weeks of mounting volatility in the area. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s sweeping away of rebels in southwestern Syria has worried Israel, which believes it could allow his......
SANA: Syrian air defenses destroy hostile target near Damascus
August 2nd, 20180 BEIRUT - Syrian state media said late on Thursday that air defenses had destroyed a “hostile target” west of the capital Damascus. “Our air defenses confronted a hostile target and destroyed it west of Damascus,” the state news agency SANA said, quoting a military source. Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have...
Saudi Arabia arrests two women’s rights activists
August 1st, 20180 Saudi Arabia has arrested two more women’s rights activists, the latest to be swept up in a government crackdown on activists, clerics and journalists, an international rights group said on Wednesday. Human Rights Watch (HRW) said authorities arrested Samar Badawi and Nassima al-Sadah in the past two days. More than a dozen......
Head of Revolutionary Guards says Iranian president will never meet Trump
July 31st, 20180 TEHRAN - The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Tuesday dismissed President Trump’s tentative offer of talks with Tehran, saying the Islamic Republic was not North Korea. Trump said on Monday he would be willing to meet Iran’s leader without preconditions to discuss how to improve ties after he pulled the United States out...
Trump says he is willing to talk to Iran’s leader without preconditions
July 30th, 20181 WASHINGTON - President Trump said on Monday he would be willing to meet Iran’s leader without preconditions to discuss how to improve ties after he pulled the United States out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, saying, “If they want to meet, we’ll meet. “I’d meet with anybody. I believe in meetings,” especially in cases...
Ahed Tamimi freed from Israeli prison pledge to continue resistance
July 30th, 20180 WEST BANK - Ahed Tamimi, a Palestinian teenager released by Israel on Sunday after completing a prison term for kicking and slapping an Israeli soldier said she wanted to become a lawyer so she could continue her struggle against the occupation of her country. Tamimi, 17, became a hero to Palestinians after the incident last December...
Syrian Druze bury dead as anger over ISIS attacks grows
July 29th, 20180 On Thursday, the Syrian city of Sweida buried dozens of its Druze inhabitants who were killed the day before in coordinated massacres carried out by ISIS terrorists. Residents and witnesses said they overran villages and staged multiple suicide attacks inside the city. They said the attacks that killed more than 200 people— the......
Soleimani warns Trump: ‘If you begin the war, we will end it’
July 29th, 20181 Major-General Qassem Soleimani, a powerful commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, said on Thursday, July 26, that Donald Trump should address any threats against Tehran directly to him, and mocked the U.S. president as using the language of “night clubs and gambling halls.” The comments by Soleimani, who heads the Quds...
World class medical facility to open in south Lebanon
July 28th, 20180 DEARBORN – One of the most prestigious and one-of-a-kind healthcare institutions in the Middle East is in the process of being built in the south of Lebanon. The nearly 19,400 square foot “mega project,” located in Choukine, a town located about 37 miles from Beirut and just two miles from Nabatieye, is being erected by The......
Syria set to recover Golan frontier as surrender deal with rebels reached
July 22nd, 20180 BEIRUT/AMMAN — President Bashar al-Assad is set to recover control of the Syrian frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in a major victory over rebels who have agreed to surrender terms, sources on both sides said on Thursday. Backed by Russian air power and unopposed by Assad’s foreign adversaries, government forces...
The Trump-Putin summit uncovers the depth of divisions in America
July 22nd, 20180 For nearly 80 years the U.S. and Russia (or the former Soviet Union) have held summits. In each case, it has been a forum for domestic political debate. The president’s supporters always say the summit took solid steps towards peace and understanding, even while the president remained forceful and unyielding. Meanwhile, the......
