Lebanese president won’t accept or reject Hariri’s resignation until he returns home
November 6th, 20170 BEIRUT - Lebanon’s president appealed for national unity on Monday after Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri quit in a broadcast from Saudi Arabia, plunging the coalition government and country into political crisis. After Hariri’s shock announcement, political uncertainty deepened further when Lebanon’s parliamentary speaker said it...
Saudi prince killed in helicopter crash near Yemen
November 5th, 20170 Prince Mansour bin Moqren, the deputy governor of Saudi Arabia's southern Asir province, and several colleagues were killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday, Saudi state TV Ekhbariya reported. Local newspaper Okaz reported the helicopter went down while the officials were taking a tour of an area near the coast in Asir, which borders...
Hezbollah says Saudi Arabia forced Lebanon PM to resign
November 5th, 20170 The leader of Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said on Sunday that Saudi Arabia had forced Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri to resign, and called for calm and patience in Lebanon. Hariri, a political ally of Saudi Arabia resigned on Saturday in an unexpected declaration from the kingdom, citing a plot...
Donald Trump-Benjamin Netanyahu kiss mural unveiled on West Bank wall
November 4th, 20170 WEST BANK - Another Donald Trump mural believed to be the work of Australian graffiti artist Lushsux has popped up on Israel’s barrier in the occupied West Bank, this time depicting the US President sharing a kiss with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His face hidden by a headdress, a man who identified himself as...
Lebanon Prime Minister Hariri resigns over assassination fears
November 4th, 20170 BEIRUT ― Lebanon’s prime minister Saad al-Hariri resigned on Saturday, saying he believed there was an assassination plot against him and accusing Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of sowing strife in the Arab world. His resignation thrusts Lebanon back into the frontline of Saudi-Iranian regional rivalry and seems likely to...
Lebanese PM resigns, saying his life in danger
November 4th, 20170 RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Lebanon's prime minister Saad al-Hariri resigned on Saturday, citing an assassination plot against him and accusing Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of sowing strife in the Arab world. His resignation thrusts Lebanon back into the frontline of Saudi-Iranian regional rivalry and seems likely to exacerbate...
A century on, UK’s Jewish homeland declaration stirs mourning in Middle East
November 3rd, 20170 LONDON/WEST BANK ― In a 67-word statement composed 100 years ago, Britain endorsed the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the Middle East, triggering a process that would culminate in the creation of Israel - and with it one of the world’s most intractable conflicts. On Thursday British and Israeli leaders commemorated the...
Israeli airstrike hits near Syria’s Homs
November 1st, 20170 BEIRUT - An Israeli airstrike targeted a factory south of the Syrian city of Homs on Wednesday and the Syrian army responded by firing a surface-to-air missile at the aircraft, a commander in a military alliance fighting in support of Damascus said. The commander told Reuters the airstrike had hit a copper factory in the industrial...
Catalan parliament declares independence from Spain
October 27th, 20170 BARCELONA/MADRID - Catalonia’s regional parliament declared independence from Spain on Friday in a disputed vote that is now likely to be declared illegal by Spain’s constitutional court. However, the Spanish government moved to impose direct rule over Catalonia the same day, stripping the region of its autonomy less than an...
Airlines implement tougher U.S. security rules on incoming passengers
October 25th, 20170 New rules will affect 325,000 passengers on about 2,000 commercial flights arriving daily in the United States, on 180 airlines from 280 airports in 105 countries WASHINGTON - New security measures including stricter passenger screening take effect this Thursday on all U.S.-bound flights to comply with government requirements designed...
Iran sentences Israeli spy to death over scientist killings
October 25th, 20170 Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian doctor, had several meetings with Mossad agents and provided them with sensitive information about Iran’s military and nuclear sites in return for money and residency in Sweden. BEIRUT - Iran has sentenced to death a person found guilty of providing information to Israeli intelligence to help them...
Iraq’s Kurdistan region in turmoil, delays elections
October 25th, 20170 BAGHDAD - Elections for Iraq’s Kurdistan region’s presidency and parliament set for Nov. 1 will be delayed because political parties failed to present candidates. Iraqi forces captured the oil city of Kirkuk and other territory claimed by the Kurds in retaliation for the referendum, dealing a severe blow to Kurdistan Regional...
Russia vetoes UN resolution to renew Syria chemical attacks investigation
October 24th, 20170 NEW YORK - Russia cast a veto at the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday preventing the renewal of the mandate for a mission that investigates the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Russia wanted to discuss the report by the Joint Investigative Mechanism before voting on the extension of the mandate The investigation by the...
Suicide bombers attack two Afghan mosques, at least 72 dead
October 20th, 20170 KABUL- Suicide bombers attacked two mosques in Afghanistan on Friday, killing at least 72 people including children, officials and witnesses said. One bomber walked into a Shi‘ite Muslim mosque in the capital Kabul as people were praying on Friday night and detonated an explosive, one of the worshippers...
VIDEO: Kuwaiti delegation kicks Israeli delegation from the International Parliament Summit
October 18th, 20170 SAINT PETERSBURG, Russia – Kuwaiti delegation kicked the Israeli delegation out of the International Parliament Summit held this Wednesday in St. Petersburg, Russia. With crowds cheering for Marzouq Al-Ghanim, the Speaker of the Kuwaiti Parliament, who called them “oppressors” and “children killers.” The Israeli delegation......
Federal Judge blocks Trump’s third iteration of travel ban
October 17th, 20170 SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON—A U.S. judge on Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump’s latest bid to impose restrictions on citizens from several countries entering the United States, which would have taken effect this week. The open-ended ban, announced last month, targeted people from Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and...
Trump hostility set to deepen Iran power struggles
October 15th, 20170 ANKARA - Iranians quickly closed ranks against a hawkish new U.S. approach to Tehran, but Iran’s powerful hardliners are set to exploit the latest dispute with Washington to weaken domestic rivals who are open to the West, analysts and insiders say. President Donald Trump’s warning on Friday that he might ultimately......
Russia protests to U.S. over ‘shameful’ theft of consulate flags
October 11th, 20170 MOSCOW - Russia protested to the United States on Wednesday after it said Russian flags were stolen from its consulate in San Francisco. Russian staff left the consulate last month after Washington ordered Moscow to vacate some of its diplomatic properties, part of a series of tit-for-tat actions as relations sour between the two...
U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis recommends sticking with Iran nuclear deal
October 3rd, 20170 WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis said on Tuesday the United States should consider staying in the Iran nuclear deal unless it were proven Tehran that was not abiding by the agreement or that it was not in the U.S. national interest to do so. Though Mattis deferred to President Donald Trump’s review of the...
Saudi Arabia makes driving legal for women
September 26th, 20170 RIYADH ― Saudi King Salman on Tuesday ordered that women be allowed to drive cars, state media said, ending the conservative Islamic kingdom’s status as the only country where that is forbidden. The royal decree ordered the formation of a ministerial body to give advice within 30 days and then implement the order by June 2018,...
Home-made bomb injures 22 on packed London commuter train
September 15th, 20171 A home-made bomb on a packed rush-hour commuter train in London engulfed a carriage in flames and injured 22 people on Friday in Britain's fifth major terrorism incident this year, but apparently failed to fully explode. Passengers heading into the British capital fled in panic after the blast as the train was about to depart Parsons......
Lebanon to complain to U.N. over Israel violating airspace
September 14th, 20170 BEIRUT ― Lebanon will file a complaint to the United Nations against Israel for violating the country’s airspace and causing damage by breaking the sound barrier in the south of the country, its foreign minister said on Monday. Israeli jets flew low over the southern city of Saida on Sunday, causing sonic booms that broke windows...
Qatar, neighbors trade insults at Arab League over boycott
September 14th, 20170 CAIRO ― Diplomats from Qatar and the four states boycotting it exchanged heated words at an Arab League meeting on Tuesday. Tensions flared after Qatar’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sultan bin Saad al-Muraikhi discussed the boycott in his opening speech despite the Gulf dispute not being on the agenda. He called the......
ISIS suicide attackers kill 60 in southern Iraq restaurants, checkpoint
September 14th, 20170 BAGHDAD ― Three suicide attacks claimed by ISIS killed at least 60 people in southern Iraq on Thursday, a health official and police sources said, suggesting a shift in the ultra-hardline group’s tactics since it lost control of its stronghold in Mosul. Iraqi and Kurdish security officials say the militants are likely to wage a...
China backs U.N. call for justice in Yemen, while U.S. and Saudis don’t
September 14th, 20170 GENEVA ― China signaled on Wednesday it was willing to back an international inquiry into atrocities in Yemen, as demanded by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, but Saudi Arabia and the United States said they did not support the idea. For three years running U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra‘ad al-Hussein has asked the 47......
