February 23rd, 20220BEIRUT — Lebanese security forces have foiled plans by militants linked to ISIS to carry out three suicide attacks in Beirut's southern suburbs, the interior minister said on Wednesday.
The plans for the attacks involved rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire as well as suicide vests rigged with explosives that would have killed...
February 8th, 20220ADEN — The Saudi-led coalition deployed newly formed units near Yemen's Marib, where battles abated over the last week, according to military and government sources, as the warring sides hold their positions in the fight for energy-rich areas that has led to the war's biggest escalation in years.
Last month the Houthi movement...
January 24th, 20220BEIRUT - In a bombshell announcement, Lebanon's leading Sunni Muslim politician Saad al-Hariri said on Monday he was suspending his role in political life and would not run in a forthcoming parliamentary election.
The news comes as the country is tackling a dire financial crisis that has seen the country depend into social and...
January 11th, 20220WASHINGTON, D.C. — The White House and Tehran have exchanged harsh words this month, as Iran symbolically sanctioned a list of Americans in connection with the 2020 killing of General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike.
"We will work with our allies and partners to deter and respond to any attacks carried out by Iran," said White...
October 14th, 20210BEIRUT — At least six Shi'as were shot dead in Beirut on Thursday, in an attack on protesters who were heading for a demonstration called by Hezbollah to demand the removal of the judge investigating the explosion that ripped through the city's port last year.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah and its ally, the Shi'a Amal Movement, accused...
October 11th, 20210Shi'a Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's party was the biggest winner in an Iraqi election on Monday, increasing the number of seats he holds in parliament, according to initial results, officials and a spokesperson for the Sadrist Movement.
Former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki looked set to have the next largest win among Shi'a...
October 8th, 20210GENEVA — Bahrain, Russia and other members of the U.N. Human Rights Council pushed through a vote on Thursday to shut down the body's war crimes investigations in Yemen, in a stinging defeat for Western states that sought to keep the mission going.
Members narrowly voted to reject a resolution led by the Netherlands to give the...
September 13th, 20210CAIRO — Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Monday for talks on Israeli-Palestinian relations and bilateral issues, Egypt's presidency said, in the first official trip by an Israeli head of government to Egypt in a decade.
Bennett, the head of a far-right party who took office...
September 10th, 20210BEIRUT - Lebanese leaders agreed a new government led by Sunni Muslim tycoon Najib Mikati on Friday after a year of feuding over cabinet seats that has exacerbated a devastating economic collapse, opening the way to a resumption of talks with the IMF.
The breakthrough followed a flurry of contacts with France, which has led efforts to...
August 25th, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. — Overshadowed by events in Afghanistan, the first White House meeting between President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was postponed until Friday. The Israeli leader is expected to push Biden to harden his approach to Iran, with few prospects their talks will lead to renewed movement on peace talks...
August 12th, 20210JERUSALEM — U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns held talks in Israel on Wednesday with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, with Iran high on their agenda, an Israeli statement said.
Regional tensions have risen over an attack on July 29 on an Israeli-managed tanker off the coast of Oman that Israel, the U.S. and...
August 6th, 20210The Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah fired barrages of rockets towards Israeli forces on Friday, drawing fire from Israel into south Lebanon, in a third day of cross-border salvoes amid wider regional tensions with Iran.
Suggesting its attack was calibrated to avoid further escalation, Hezbollah said it had targeted open ground...
August 5th, 20210Israel’s defense minister warned Thursday that his country is prepared to strike Iran, issuing the threat against the Islamic Republic after a fatal drone strike on a oil tanker at sea that his nation blamed on Tehran.
The comments by Benny Gantz come as Israel lobbies countries for action at the U.N. over last week’s attack on...
June 24th, 20210YEMEN — On Thursday, the U.S. called on the international community, especially regional countries, to fulfill their pledges to increase funding for humanitarian assistance to Yemen and warned that aid programs could otherwise be forced to close.
U.S. Special Envoy to Yemen Timothy Lenderking told a webinar sponsored by the...
June 22nd, 20210TEHRAN — Iran accused the U.S. on Tuesday of interference for saying its election was neither free nor fair as political factions traded blame for the record low turnout and high number of invalid ballots.
Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline judge who is under U.S. sanctions, secured victory as expected on Saturday in an election marked by...
May 1st, 20210U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met the head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency and its ambassador to Washington on Thursday, and the Israeli officials expressed “deep concern” about Iran’s nuclear activities, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The meeting in Washington followed talks this week between U.S....
April 18th, 20210DAMASCUS — Syria will hold a presidential election on May 26 that is virtually certain to return President Bashar al-Assad for a third term — an event that Washington and the opposition say is a farce designed to cement his autocratic rule.
Assad's family and his Baath party have ruled Syria for five decades with the help of the...
April 13th, 20210DUBAI — A commercial vessel owned by an Israeli firm was attacked off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in Gulf waters, pro-Iran media and an Israeli television channel said on Tuesday.
Israel’s top-rated Channel 12 quoted unnamed Israeli officials as blaming arch-foe Iran for the assault, which it described as a missile...
April 11th, 20210JERUSALEM — Israel’s defense minister pledged on Sunday to cooperate with the U.S. on Iran, voicing hope that Israeli security would be safeguarded under any renewed Iranian nuclear deal that Washington reaches.
“Israel views the United States as a full partner across all operational theatres, not the least Iran,” Benny Gantz...
April 6th, 20210- From contributor Laura Albast
Activists from the Yemeni Liberation Movement (YLM) and other organizations held a rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on Saturday. They carried banners calling for an end to the U.S.-backed Saudi blockade on the embattled country.
The five Michigan natives leading the action staged a...
April 3rd, 20210PARIS – Officials from Iran, China, Russia, France, Germany and Britain met virtually on Friday to discuss a possible return of the United States to the 2015 nuclear deal, the European Union said in a statement on Thursday.
The Biden administration has been seeking to engage Iran in talks about both sides resuming compliance with the...
April 2nd, 20210Yemen received a shipment of COVID-19 vaccines this week, after the country’s internationally recognized government declared a national health emergency.
Though the actual figures are believed to be much higher, Yemen’s emergency coronavirus committee has recorded more than 4,100 coronavirus infections and 864 deaths so far. The...
March 21st, 20210TEHRAN — Iran does not trust U.S. promises on lifting sanctions and will only return to its commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal once Washington fully removes the measures, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday.
The administration of President Biden is exploring ways to restore the 2015 nuclear deal that...
March 15th, 20210ALEPPO — Mohammed Abu Rdan has known nothing but conflict throughout his short life.
Born in rural Aleppo in 2011 when peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s government began, his childhood is anything but typical.
The protests quickly turned into a multi-sided conflict that has sucked in world powers,...
March 7th, 20210By Frank Giustra and Andrew Bacevich
If the escalating tensions between the United States and China aren't causing you concern yet, you've not been paying attention.
Any conflict between the two superpowers would result in unimaginable devastation — if not physical, at least economic. And don't forget: Both China and the United...
March 1st, 20210SANAA — Unable to find work, Ahmed Farea has sold everything, including his wife’s gold, to feed and house two young daughters in one small room.
Elsewhere in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, widow Mona Muhammad has work, but struggles to buy anything more nutritious than rice for her four children amid high prices.
And in a nearby...
February 19th, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Biden administration, through Secretary of State Antony Blinken, affirmed on Thursday it is willing to come to the negotiation table with Iran over a return to a nuclear accord, if Tehran came into full compliance with the deal.
The Iran Nuclear Deal, first struck in 2015, is aimed at preventing the country...
February 16th, 20210TEL AVIV — The Biden administration and Israel seem to have embarked on an uncertain and rocky relationship, in contrast to what the country's right-wing government enjoyed with former President Trump.
More friction arose this week, with Israel throwing cold water on U.S. hopes to engage with the country on the topic of Iran and its...
