October 4th, 20240
Last week was not an ordinary one in the history of the Middle East. Major events unfolded, starting with the assassination of Hezbollah’s Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah by 85 tons of explosives in an Israeli airstrike. The strike targeted Hezbollah’s stronghold in Haret Hreik, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, on...
August 23rd, 20240The helicopter crash in which Iran's late President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in May was caused by weather conditions and the aircraft's inability to handle the weight it was carrying, Iran's semi-official news agency reported on Wednesday, citing a security source informed of the final investigation results.
The communications center...
August 2nd, 20241On Thursday, Hezbollah’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned that the conflict with Israel has entered a “new phase,” as he addressed mourners at the funeral of a commander from the group who was killed by an Israeli airstrike this week in Beirut.
Meanwhile in Tehran, Iran’s supreme leader Sayyed Ali Khamenei prayed over the...
May 24th, 20241President Ebrahim Raisi was buried in the Iranian holy city of Mashhad on Thursday as many thousands of mourners packed its streets for his funeral, four days after he died in a helicopter crash, footage broadcast by Iranian media showed.
Raisi, 63, was widely seen as a candidate to succeed 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who...
May 8th, 20240By Jamal I. Bittar
Last Friday, Israel launched an assault on Iran in response to an Iranian incursion onto Israeli soil the weekend prior, involving over 300 missiles and drones. Among the various options available to the Israeli government – ranging from assaults on numerous nuclear facilities, military bases and key national...
April 7th, 20241On Wednesday, the United States, Britain and France opposed a Russian-drafted U.N. Security Council statement that would have condemned an attack on Iran's embassy compound in Syria, which Tehran has blamed on Washington's ally Israel.
Press statements by the 15-member council have to be agreed to by consensus. Diplomats said the U.S.,...
February 23rd, 20240On Thursday, the Biden administration warned Iran of a "swift and severe" response from the international community if Tehran provided ballistic missiles to Russia, after reports surfaced earlier this week that the Islamic Republic shipped the powerful weapons to Moscow.
Speaking at a virtual briefing with reporters, White House...
November 10th, 20230WASHINGTON, D.C./BAGHDAD – On Thursday, U.S. forces were targeted in three attacks in Iraq but suffered no casualties, security sources have said, in the most geographically widespread series of strikes on U.S. assets in a single day since the Israel-Hamas conflict started.
A defective drone in Iraq may have helped keep America from...
October 13th, 20230
Under a barrage of more than 3,000 rockets, hundreds of Hamas gunmen stormed into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Oct. 7, on motorbikes, paragliders and four-wheel drives, unleashing unprecedented attacks on nearby towns and villages of Jewish settlers.
Hundreds of trained Palestinian militants appeared...
September 7th, 20230Israeli Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel met with Iranian diaspora anti-government “activists and journalists” in London on Wednesday as part of an ongoing Israeli campaign to reignite protests and civil unrest throughout the Islamic Republic before the first anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death. Amini died after being detained by...
August 25th, 20230Amir Saeid Iravani, the Iranian permanent representative to the United Nations, says Iran supports the demands of the Syrian government for a complete withdrawal of “all illegal foreign military forces from Syria.”
During a U.N. Security Council meeting on Wednesday addressing the situation in the war-torn country, Iravani argued...
August 18th, 20230Saudi Arabia and Iran are making progress on mending ties, Iran's foreign minister said after meeting with his counterpart in Riyadh on Thursday, as two regional heavyweights seek to overcome past hostility and boost cooperation.
"Relations between Tehran and Saudi are on the right track and we are witnessing progress," Hossein...
August 7th, 20230Iran's Revolutionary Guards' navy has unveiled new vessels equipped with 600-km (375 miles) range missiles at a time of rising tensions with the U.S. in the Gulf, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.
The announcement was made during a military exercise off the coast of Abu Musa island, one of three Gulf islands...
July 6th, 20230According to Iran’s maritime authority, it confiscated a tanker owned by the U.S. energy company Chevron because the tanker caused damage to an Iranian vessel on Wednesday, July 5, in the Persian Gulf and then illegally rerouted to the territorial waters of Oman.
On Thursday, Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization, PMO, released a...
March 31st, 20230BEIJING - China's President Xi Jinping spoke by phone with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, discussing a wide range of subjects, including supporting follow-up talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran, state media CCTV reported on Tuesday.
Xi recently helped broker a surprise deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Middle East...
March 10th, 20230Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed on Friday to resume ties after years of hostility which had threatened stability and security in the Gulf and helped fuel conflicts in the Middle East from Yemen to Syria.
The deal was announced after four days of previously undisclosed talks in Beijing between top security officials from the two rival...
December 10th, 20220— This article was contributed by Sarah Moosazadeh, special to The Arab American News
A pair of reading glasses, headscarf and a dose of Middle Eastern humor are all traits Assyrian American comedian and influencer Ramina Odicho uses to post comedic TikTok clips that depict her Assyrian roots and build ties with other...
October 27th, 20220Salman Rushdie’s agent says the author has lost sight in one eye and the use of a hand as he recovers from an attack from a man who rushed the stage at an August literary event in western New York, according to a published report.
Literary agent Andrew Wylie told the Spanish language newspaper El Pais in an article published...
September 29th, 20220TEHRAN — Protests continued in several cities across Iran on Thursday against the death of a young woman in police custody, state and social media reported, as a human rights group said at least 83 people had been killed in nearly two weeks of demonstrations.
Mahsa Amini, 22, from the Iranian Kurdish town of Saqez, was arrested...
September 16th, 20220Syria's simmering 11-year war is at risk of boiling up once again with a return to large-scale combat after several frontlines across the country flared up in recent months, the United Nations warned on Wednesday in a new report.
"Syria cannot afford a return to larger-scale fighting, but that is where it may be heading," said Paulo...
September 3rd, 20220WASHINGTON, D.C. - President Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Wednesday the U.S. will never allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, the White House said, as Tehran seeks stronger guarantees from Washington for the revival of a nuclear deal with world powers.
Israel opposes a return to the 2015 deal, which imposed curbs on...
August 13th, 20220NEW YORK — The man accused in the stabbing attack on Salman Rushdie pleaded not guilty Saturday to attempted murder and assault charges in what a prosecutor called a "preplanned" crime, as the renowned author of The Satanic Verses remained hospitalized with serious injuries.
A judge refused to grant bail Thursday to Hadi Matar, 24...
July 22nd, 20220Russian President Vladimir Putin ended his first major summit outside Russia since the invasion of Ukraine with an endorsement from Iran for its response to NATO, a clash with Turkey over Syria and signs of progress over the lifting of the Russian blockade of Ukrainian grain.
The White House said the Tehran summit held between Putin,...
July 12th, 20220WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. President Biden will make the case for greater oil production from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) nations to bring down gasoline prices when he meets Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia this week, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday.
Biden leaves Tuesday...
May 28th, 20220BAGHDAD – Iraq's parliament approved a law on Thursday that will ban normalizing relations with Israel, at a time when several Arab countries have established formal ties.
The Iraqi parliament has been unable to convene on any other issue, including electing a new president and forming its own government, prolonging a political...
March 24th, 20220BEIRUT — A Lebanese military court has charged Christian politician Samir Geagea over deadly clashes in Beirut last October, a judicial source and broadcaster Al Jadeed said on Thursday, a move that could stoke political tension two months before an election.
An official in Geagea's Lebanese Forces (LF) party said the charge...
March 18th, 20220By Andrea Germanos
Multiple United Nations agencies on Monday sounded heightened alarm over the food crisis in Yemen, warning of a projected fivefold increase in famine conditions.
Warnings from the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Program (WFP) and UNICEF came in response to the just-released Integrated Phase...
February 25th, 20220News of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Thursday shored up global anxieties over a conflict that has the potential to drag in regional powers and the U.S., marking the biggest attack by one state against another in Europe since World War Two.
The invasion began Thursday morning with attacks by land, sea and air, with missiles...
