Russia vetoes U.N. resolution on Syria alleged “chemical attack”
April 12th, 20170 NEW YORK - Russia blocked a Western effort at the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday to condemn last week's deadly gas attack in Syria and push Moscow's ally President Bashar al-Assad to cooperate with international inquiries into the incident. It was the eighth time during Syria's six-year-old civil war that Moscow has used its veto...
ISIS claims responsibilty for the two attacks on Coptic churches in Egypt
April 9th, 20170 CAIRO, Egypt - ISIS has claimed responsibility for two bomb attacks on Coptic Christian churches in Egypt which have killed at least 36 people. “A group that belongs to Islamic State carried out the two attacks on the churches in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria,” the group’s news agency Amaq said. In the first, a bomb exploded...
Bombing at Egyptian churches kill and injure dozens on Palm Sunday
April 9th, 20170 CAIRO, Egypt - At least 36 people were killed and more than 100 injured in bomb attacks on two Coptic churches on Palm Sunday, in the latest assault on a religious minority increasingly targeted by Islamic extremists. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, which come a week before Coptic Easter and in the same...
Russia and Iran draw a red line in Syria, warn U.S. of retaliation
April 9th, 20170 DAMASCUS, Syria - A joint command center made up of the forces of Russian, Iran and allied militia alliance supporting Syrian President Bashar al Assad said the U.S. strike on a Syrian air base crossed "red lines" and it would now respond to any new aggression and increase their level of support to their ally. "What America waged in...
British PM to raise ‘hard issues’ with Saudi Arabia
April 8th, 20170 RIYADH —British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday she would raise "hard issues" with Saudi Arabia's leaders on a visit to the country, as critics urged her to pressure Riyadh over its air war in Yemen and human rights record. May also said she was appalled by reports of a chemical weapons attack in northern Syria that...
Trump’s son-in-law visits Iraq with top U.S. general
April 8th, 20170 BAGHDAD — President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, flew into Iraq last week with the top U.S. general to get a first-hand assessment of the battle against ISIS from U.S. commanders on the ground and Iraqi leaders. For Kushner, who has not been to Iraq before, the trip comes at a critical time as Trump examines ways to accelerate...
Israel Aerospace Industries signs near $2 billion missile deal with India
April 8th, 20170 JERUSALEM — State-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has struck a deal worth almost $2 billion to supply India's army and navy with missile defense systems, the company said on Thursday, describing it as Israel's largest ever defense deal. IAI said in a statement it would supply an advanced air defense system, including...
With healthcare faltering in Gaza, care in Israel is sought after
April 8th, 20171 GAZA — For many patients suffering from life-threatening diseases in the Gaza Strip, treatment in neighboring Israel or the occupied West Bank is a much sought-after option. But Israel tightly restricts Palestinian passage from the Gaza Strip, one of its bitterest enemies. Although it exempts from the ban Gazans seeking "life-saving...
U.S. warships strike Syrian airfield in response to Idlib ‘chemical attack’
April 7th, 20170 President Trump ordered missile strikes against a Syrian airfield from which a deadly chemical weapons attack was allegedly launched, declaring he acted in America's "vital national security interest." The deadliest chemical weapons attack in years in Syria killed dozens of people in the rebel-held northern Idlib province on Tuesday...
Russia denies Assad to blame for chemical attack, on course for collision with Trump
April 5th, 20170 MOSCOW- Russia denied on Wednesday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was to blame for a poison gas attack and said it would continue to back him, setting the Kremlin on course for its biggest diplomatic collision yet with Donald Trump's White House. Western countries, including the United States, blamed Assad's armed forces for a...
Syrian government denies responsibility in Idlib’s chemical attack, blames rebels
April 4th, 20170 BEIRUT, Lebanon - The deadliest chemical weapons attack in years in Syria killed dozens of people in northern Idlib province on Tuesday morning, including children, and sickened scores more, according to medics, rescuers and witnesses in the rebel-held province. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack...
Trump welcomes Egyptian President Sisi to the White House: “He has done a fantastic job”
April 3rd, 20170 WASHINGTON, DC - President Donald Trump met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at the White House. Trump said the Egyptian President had done a "fantastic job" and declared his support for Egypt and the Egyptian people. He also said he was “very much behind” Sisi and been very close to him since the first time they...
Arab leaders on display: Division and declining influence
April 3rd, 20170 AMMAN — For years, the stage was almost as big as the larger-than-life strongmen that made it their own. Muammar Qaddafi. Saddam Hussein. Yasser Arafat. At times both politics and pageantry, the annual gathering of leaders at the Arab Summit has been a guiding force in Arab politics and a source of drama for Arab citizens, who have...
Yemeni Americans stage New York protest, urge U.S. to rethink Saudi alliance
April 2nd, 20170 NEW YORK CITY — On a cold, snowy Sunday morning, more than 100 Arab Americans gathered outside the United Nations headquarters to protest the United States' support for Saudi Arabia, which they say is the culprit responsible for extreme devastation and famine in Yemen. Dozens of Yemeni, Lebanese and Iraqi American demonstrators met...
Iraq: ISIS second-in-command killed in airstrike
April 1st, 20170 BAGHDAD - Ayad al-Jumaili, believed to be a deputy of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in an air strike on Friday, an Iraqi intelligence spokesman said on Saturday. The U.S.-led anti-Islamic State coalition said it was unable at the moment to confirm the information that was reported earlier in the day by Iraqi......
CAIR-OK releases report showing dramatic increase in Anti-Muslim hate incidents
March 30th, 20170 OKLAHOMA CITY-The Council for American Islamic Relations in Oklahoma released its 2016 Civil Rights report Thursday showing a dramatic increase in complaints regarding vandalism and property damage to Islamic centers. A similar report showed an increase in hate crime-related incidents that involved violence. A few key findings of...
Israel approves new settlement for first time in decades
March 30th, 20170 JERUSALEM-On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the establishment of Israel's first new settlement in the West Bank in over twenty years. President Donald Trump's recommendations to Netanyahu to hold off on settlement building contrasted with Netanyahu's pushes to approve settlement building in the West......
U.S. ambassador to U.N.: Washington no longer focusing on removing Assad
March 30th, 20171 NEW YORK - The United States is no longer making removing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a focus of its policy in the war-torn country, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said on Thursday. "Our priority is no longer to sit there and focus on getting Assad out," Ambassador Nikki Haley told a small group of reporters. "Our...
Lebanon’s Aoun takes tumble as Arab summit starts
March 29th, 20170 AMMAN ― Lebanese President Michel Aoun tripped and fell face down as Arab heads of state gathered at the start of their summit at the Dead Sea in Jordan on Wednesday, television footage showed. Aoun, 82, appeared to trip on a low, red-carpeted podium where flags of Arab states had been arranged. Two men in suits rushed to help him...Arab leaders reaffirm support for two-state solution
March 29th, 20170 AMMAN, Jordan - Arab leaders reaffirmed on Wednesday their commitment to a two-state solution to the decades-long Arab-Israeli conflict amid increased unease over the stance of the United States under the new administration of President Trump. Trump rattled Arab and European leaders in February by indicating he was open to a one-state...
Iran steps up support for Houthis in Yemen’s war
March 24th, 20170 ANKARA — Iran is sending advanced weapons and military advisers to Yemen's rebel Houthi movement, stepping up support for its ally in a civil war whose outcome could sway the balance of power in the Middle East, regional and Western sources say. Iran's enemy Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition fighting the Houthis in the......
UN: ‘Worst is yet to come’ with 400,000 trapped in west Mosul
March 24th, 20170 MOSUL — About 400,000 Iraqi civilians are trapped in the ISIS-held Old City of western Mosul, short of food and basic needs, as the battle between the militants and government forces rages around them, the United Nations refugee agency said on Thursday. Many fear fleeing because of ISIS snipers and landmines. But 157,000 have...
Israeli ban targeting boycott supporters raises alarm abroad
March 24th, 20170 JERUSALEM — A law barring foreigners from entering Israel if they back boycotts against the country is causing alarm among liberal American Jews and others who perceive an attempt to suppress critical political opinion. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government has long campaigned against the Palestinian-led Boycott,......
Lebanon’s proposed tax hikes, stagnant wages estrange expatriates
March 24th, 20170 DEARBORN — Amid proposed tax hikes in Lebanon that have citizens in a fury and the parliament paralyzed over clashes about finding an antidote to commonplace inadequate public services, local Lebanese Americans are increasingly becoming disenchanted with reconnecting to their homeland. This reluctance prevails despite an ongoing...
U.S.-Israeli teen arrested in Israel over bomb threats to Jewish centers
March 23rd, 20170 JERUSALEM -- An Israeli teen who also holds U.S. citizenship was arrested in Israel on Thursday on suspicion of making dozens of hoax bomb threats against Jewish community centers in the United States and several other countries. At a court hearing near Tel Aviv, the suspect's defense attorney said the young man has a growth in his......
