March 9th, 20200Here’s what you need to know about the coronavirus:
The spread in figures
The number of people infected with the coronavirus topped 107,000 globally, according to a Reuters tally of government announcements. Mainland China, outside the epicenter of Hubei province, reported no new locally transmitted cases for the second straight...
March 4th, 20200RIYADH - Saudi Arabia has extended its suspension of travel to the holy sites of Mecca and Medina from foreigners to Saudi citizens and residents, after it reported its first case of the novel coronavirus in an individual who failed to disclose he had travelled to Iran before entering the country.
“Based on the recommendations of...
February 28th, 20200DUBAI - Coronavirus cases have now been confirmed in at least nine countries in the Middle East, with the largest number of deaths in Iran, and six countries reporting first infections this past week.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) was the first country in the Middle East to report a confirmed case of the virus, officially known as...
February 21st, 20200BAGHDAD — Iraq’s newly appointed Prime Minister Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi said on Wednesday that he has picked a cabinet of political independents and has called on the country’s parliament to hold an extraordinary session next week to give it its vote of confidence.
Speaking to the nation in a televised speech, Allawi said that...
February 21st, 20200ALEPPO — The Syrian army said on Monday it had taken full control of dozens of towns in Aleppo’s northwestern countryside and it would press on with its campaign to wipe out militant groups “wherever they are found."
The advances were made after President Bashar al-Assad’s forces drove insurgents from the M5 highway linking...
January 30th, 20200SEATTLE — A report by a community newspaper in Washington unveiled a directive issued by U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Seattle Field Office that instructs officers to perform vetting on individuals from or who have connections to Palestine, Lebanon or Iran, as well as those belonging to other nationalities that have traveled...
January 14th, 20200WASHINGTON, D.C — A new report by NBC News claims President Trump authorized the killing of Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani seven months ago with the condition that Trump would have final signoff on any specific plans to kill the general. The information was provided by five current and former senior...
January 12th, 20200WASHINGTON, D.C. — Defense Secretary Mark Esper contradicted President Trump on Sunday, saying he did not see any specific evidence from intelligence officials that Iran had plans to attack four U.S. embassies. Trump has used these purported plans to justify the Jan. 2 killing of Iran Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani in...
January 10th, 20200WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Thursday to stop President Trump from further military action against Iran as the Middle East remained tense after the U.S. killing of a top Iranian commander and Iran’s retaliatory missile strikes.
The resolution passed 224-194 along party lines in the...
January 10th, 20200KIEV — Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said on Friday that Iran was cooperating with an investigation into the crash of a Ukrainian passenger plane, and that Kiev was not ruling out any version yet of what might have happened.
Canada and others have said the plane was brought down by an Iranian missile, probably by...
January 10th, 20200The world has been in the grips of an uncertain fear since it woke up to news of the Jan. 2 assassination of a top Iranian general at the hands of the U.S.. Images from recent memory of endless, expensive and insane military ventures in the Middle East became vivid once more as Tehran promised revenge and President Trump goaded the...
January 10th, 20200DEARBORN HEIGHTS — Faith leaders from across Metro Detroit gathered Thursday in the Islamic House of Wisdom to call for calm in the face of escalating tensions between Iran and the United States following a drone attack that killed an Iranian general and a missile attack on an Iraqi air base housing American troops. The Christian and...
January 8th, 20200WASHINGTON, D.C. - At the White House on Wednesday, President Trump seemed to simmer down days of heated rhetoric and said the U.S. would not respond to early morning missile attacks on Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops with military force.
Early Wednesday, both Iranian authorities and U.S officials confirmed Tehran launched a series of...
January 7th, 20200TEHRAN - Tensions came to a head on early Wednesday as Iran retaliated against the U.S. killing of Iran Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani by launching a series of surface-to-surface missiles at two Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops.
Reuters reports the firing of more than a dozen ballistic missiles from Iranian...
January 6th, 20200TEHRAN — On Monday, in the wake of the January 2 targeted killing through a missile strike of Iran Revolutionary Guard General and important political figure Qassem Soleimani, throngs of Iranians mourned the death of a beloved leader.
Aerial views and independent reports on the ground told of a vast procession of mourners, a mass...
December 8th, 20190BAGHDAD —Fears of infiltration by unknown groups grew in Iraq on Thursday after 13 people were stabbed in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square. The stabbings caused no fatalities in the area of Iraq’s capital that has been the home of recent protests against the country’s government.
Protesters gathered in Tahrir shouting slogans in...
September 29th, 20190NEW YORK/U.N. — Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, has ruled out negotiations on its nuclear program with the United States so long as sanctions remained in place and said he was not interested in a “memento photo” with President Trump.
“I would like to announce that our response to any negotiation under sanctions is...
September 20th, 20190TEHRAN/RIYADH — Any U.S. or Saudi military strike against Iran would bring “all-out war”, Tehran said on Thursday, keeping up a drumbeat of warnings to its adversaries after they accused the Islamic Republic of a strike on Saudi oil facilities.
The United States has been discussing with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies’...
August 26th, 20190TEHRAN — If Iran’s oil exports are cut to zero, international waterways will not have the same security as before, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday at a meeting with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to Khamenei’s official website.
“World powers know that in the case that oil is completely...
August 9th, 20190TEHRAN — Iranian president Hassan Rouhani denounced "economic terrorism" and stated that the U.S. "maximum pressure" campaign through sanctions will not change anything in the Iranian regime.
Rouhani reiterated that if President Trump wants to start negotiations with Tehran, he must lift all sanctions against his country "before...
July 20th, 20190TEHRAN - After a pressure campaign from the U.S. and its allies on the Iranian economy, followed by a few threat exchanges, Iran has seized an oil tanker it claimed was carrying 1 million liters of "smuggled fuel," state news agency Press TV said on Thursday.
The IRGC said it had initially responded to distress calls from a ship on...
July 5th, 20190DETROIT - Christian and Muslim clerics will stand with U.S. Rep. Andy Levin (D-Warren) on Monday to call for peace and reason after the nation was brought to the brink of war with Iran last month.
The demonstration will be held at Central United Methodist Church, located at 23 E Adams Ave in Detroit, at 12:30 p.m.
Iranian born Imam...
June 24th, 20190WASHINGTON — President Trump announced on Monday that he was imposing new sanctions on Iran, further squeezing the Iranian economy in retaliation for what the United States says are recent "aggressive" acts by Tehran, but the response to the penalties targeting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were "is that all you got?"
This...
June 20th, 20190DUBAI - Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have shot down a U.S. “spy” drone in the southern province of Hormozgan, the Guards’ news website Sepah News said on Thursday.
State news agency IRNA carried the same report, identifying the drone as an “RQ-4 Global Hawk."
“It was shot down when it entered Iran’s airspace near...
June 7th, 20190Tehran — Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday that Tehran has no plans to give up its missile program and be deceived by President Trump's offer of negotiations.
Trump has condemned the nuclear deal between Iran and global powers signed by his predecessor, Barack Obama. Washington pulled out of this deal...
May 31st, 20190MECCA — Saudi Arabia’s king told an emergency Arab summit on Thursday that decisive action was needed to stop Iranian “escalations” in the region following attacks on Gulf oil assets, as American officials said a U.S. military deployment had deterred Tehran.
King Salman had opened an earlier meeting of Arab Gulf leaders with a...
May 24th, 20190LONDON — Iran will not surrender to U.S. pressure and will not abandon its goals even if it is bombed, President Hassan Rouhani said on Thursday, stepping up the war of words between the Islamic Republic and the United States.
Earlier in the day, Iran’s top military chief said the standoff between Tehran and Washington was a...
May 24th, 20190NEW YORK — Half of all Americans believe that the United States will go to war with Iran “within the next few years”, according to a Reuters/Ipsos public opinion poll released on Tuesday amid increased tensions between the two countries.
While Americans are more concerned about Iran as a security threat to the United States now...