Iranian public television released images of a British-flagged oil tanker being seized by Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, Anadolu reports. The images show Steno Impero surrounded by speedboats and helicopters carrying masked Iranian soldiers. The tanker was later escorted into Iranian waters as seen from the...

Libya’s El-Sharara oilfield has been shut down, the country’s state oil firm confirmed on Saturday, Anadolu reports. In a statement, the National Oil Corporation (NOC) said it has launched an investigation into suspected valve closure in the Hamada area in western Libya. It, however, said production from the nearby...

Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Saturday claimed to have carried out drone attacks on military targets in the King Khalid airbase in southwestern Saudi Arabia, Anadolu reports. In a statement, Houthi spokesman Yahia Sarei said the drone attacks targeted radars and military positions at the airbase near the city of...

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his US counterpart Mike Pompeo had a phone conversation on Saturday, in which they discussed the F-35 fighter jet program and S-400 air defense systems issues and Syria, according to Turkish diplomatic sources, Anadolu reports. Cavusoglu and Pompeo discussed the F35, S-400 and Syria issues, particularly...

British Airways suspended flights to Cairo for seven days starting on Saturday to allow for an assessment of security there, the airline said in a statement, giving no details about what had prompted the move, Reuters reports. “We constantly review our security arrangements at all our airports around the...

Turkish army will never hesitate to take the same step as 45 years ago “if needed for the lives and security of Turkish Cypriots,” the Turkish President said on Saturday. “Turkey launched the peace operation in Cyprus to protect rights and interests of Turkish Cypriots who are one of...

British foreign minister Jeremy Hunt said on Saturday that he was worried that Iran had taken a “dangerous path” after it seized a British-flagged tanker on Friday in the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reports. Iran’s Fars news agency reported that the Stena Impero had been taken to the port...

“The people are now conscious” is the reoccurring reply from protesters, here in Sudan, when asked about their reasons for demonstrating. “We will not retire,” they stress. This statement rings true at the heart of the revolution, a sentiment shared by most taking part in the demonstrations. This revolution...

Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it had sent a crew member of an Iranian ship who was previously evacuated for medical reasons from a vessel off the Yemeni port of Hodeidah, to Oman, Reuters reports. Iran and Saudi Arabia are arch-adversaries in the Middle East, backing opposite sides in...

The man who served as Libya’s prime minister for the final five years of dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s rule will be released on Saturday to receive medical treatment abroad, Libya’s justice ministry said in a statement, Reuters reports. The authorities in Libya were no longer able to provide effective treatment...

Iraqi Kurdistan’s security services said on Saturday they had arrested a man for assassinating a Turkish diplomat in the regional capital Erbil, and believed the suspect was the brother of a lawmaker in the Turkish parliament, Reuters reports. “The Kurdistan Region announced on Saturday the arrest of the man...

The family of Khayrat Al-Shater, deputy to the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, has been subject to persecution since July 2013 when he refused to accept the military coup against late Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi, Arabi 21 reported yesterday. Last week, Al-Shater sent a message for the first...

Unemployment in the Gaza Strip now stands at more than 50 per cent. Enforced joblessness is “as high as 69 per cent in the under-26 age bracket,” according to Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. These shocking statistics tell you a lot about the truly desperate state of affairs in...

Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United Nations, Abdullah Al-Mouallimi, yesterday said that his country does not want war with Iran and that the time to end the war in Yemen has come. “We do not want war with Iran in Yemen or elsewhere,” Al-Mouallimi said, “it is high time...

Palestinian memory has become synonymous with the 1948 Nakba and Palestinian resistance. Yet there are other strands of memory which are overlooked. Farah Aboubakr’s treatise “The Folktales of Palestine” argues that Palestinian memory should not be framed solely through resistance and offers a detailed analysis of Palestinian folktales and...

Senior Hamas leader Sami Abu-Zuhri has described comments made by Jason Greenblatt, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, as “shameful” and “hostile.” Abu-Zuhri wrote on Twitter: “Greenblatt’s remarks that the West Bank is not occupied and the settlements are Israeli neighbourhoods are shameful and proves...

The High Council of State in Libya has revealed that Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and France are backing Libyan general Khalifa Haftar in carrying out a new attack on Libyan capital Tripoli. The High Council of State is an advisory body for Libya formed under the terms of the Libyan Political Agreement, which was signed on 17...

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Centre for Studies (PCHR) confirmed that there has been a remarkable increase in the number of arrests Israel has carried out against Palestinians in Jerusalem since the beginning of this year, monitoring more than 900 cases of arrests around the Holy City. Media spokesman for the...

Is South Africa among those countries which are standing aside as the world is confronted with illegal moves by the Trump administration to facilitate Israel’s complete annihilation of Palestine? Notwithstanding the fact that the ANC-led government of President Cyril Ramaphosa has stuck by its decision to downgrade the South...

Iraq’s intelligence services have killed the oil minister of Daesh in Syria, according to Iraqi security expert Fadel Abu-Ragheef. Abu-Ragheef wrote on Twitter: “The Iraqi National Intelligence Services penetrated in an exceptional mission the front lines of Daesh in the Syrian governorate of Deir Ezzor,” in the east of...

Israel committed 628 violations against Palestinians in the buffer zone east of the Gaza Strip during the first half of 2019, Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights announced on Thursday. In a report – a copy of which sent to MEMO – Al-Mezan said that these Israeli violations included 261...

Chief of the Council of Arab Tribes in Iraq, Sheikh Thaer Al-Bayyati, has revealed the deaths of a number of Hezbollah fighters and Iranian Revolutionary Guard troops in strikes by an unknown aircraft, Al-Arabiya reported yesterday. The air strike was carried out on a military base located in the...

For the fifth day in a row, a general strike has swept Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon in protest against the decision of the Lebanese Ministry of Labour to treat Palestinian workers as foreigners. On Friday, hundreds of young people blocked the entrances to Ain Al-Hilweh camp – east...

A power-sharing deal between the Sudanese military and protest leaders has been suspended and talks postponed over differences among the opposition parties, protest leaders said yesterday. Sudanese and Arab media reported protest leaders as saying that the talks aimed at signing the second part of the deal were put...

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Algeria won the Africa Cup of Nations for the second time on Friday when a freak second-minute goal by Baghdad Bounedjah gave them a 1-0 win over gallant Senegal in the final, Reuters reports. Bounedjah stunned the Lions of Teranga with a shot which took a wicked deflection off Salif...

The US on Friday designated a senior Hezbollah operative accused of masterminding the deadly 1994 attack on what was Latin America’s largest Jewish community centre, Anadolu Agency reports. The Treasury Department said Salman Raouf Salman is a senior member of Hezbollah’s External Security Organisation, and he coordinated the attack on...

Some 246 protesters have been killed in unrest hitting Sudan since April 2018, the country’s doctors’ body said in a press release on Friday, Anadolu Agency reports. The statement by the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors said more than 1,300 protesters were injured during the same period. It said: “246 people were killed since...

Sudanese women were a driving force during months of protests that ousted veteran autocrat Omar al-Bashir, but the sexual violence they endured risks being forgotten with the signing of a power-sharing deal, women’s rights activists said on Thursday, Reuters reports. Action must be taken to address scores of rapes committed during...

A British-flagged tanker has been seized by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Iranian media reported today. The captured boat Stena Impero was bound for Saudi Arabia, and the owners have confirmed they are unable to contact the vessel. The tanker was allegedly approached by a helicopter, and “unidentified small crafts”,...

Israeli army forces on Friday used rubber bullets and teargas shells to disperse Palestinian protesters in the occupied West Bank, injuring at least 40 protesters, a Palestinian official said, Anadolu Agency has reported. “The Israeli army attacked the weekly march , using rubber bullets and teargas shells,”...

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) has been in development for nearly 18 years and is now eight years behind schedule, said an American expert on Friday, calling it the “biggest acquisition disaster” in Pentagon’s history, Anadolu Agency reports. Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), the nation’s largest...

Last week, the United Arab Emirates confirmed its troop drawdown from Yemen, which has raised questions about what Abu Dhabi’s next target will be. “Many people asked if this is also linked to the current rise of tensions with Iran,” said a senior UAE official who declined to be...

Palestinians on Friday converged near the fence that separates Gaza Strip from Israel, to demonstrate against Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian territories, Anadolu Agency reports. Gaza’s National Authority for Return and Breaking the Siege (NARBS), which organises weekly rallies, called on Palestinians to attend demonstration and affirm on their right to...

Israeli occupation forces stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque on Wednesday and were stationed at the entrance to Bab Al-Rahma while settlers renewed their incursions into the Muslim holy site. Eyewitnesses told the Jordan-based newspaper Addustour that members of Israeli occupation’s intelligence were present at the stairs leading to Bab Al-Rahma. Seven Jewish students...

Arab League holds Israel responsible for death of Palestinian during interrogation in Israeli detention centre The Arab League of Nations has held Israeli authorities responsible for the death of Palestinian prisoner Nassar Majed Taqatqa in solitary confinement in an Israeli detention centre where he was undergoing interrogation. Saeed Abu...

Russia is ready to discuss supplying Su-35 fighter jets to Turkey, the head of the state-owned Rostec corporation said in a statement yesterday. “If our Turkish colleagues express a desire, we are ready to work out deliveries of Su-35 fighter jets,” Sergei Chemezov said, according to the statement. He...

Argentinian authorities designated Hezbollah, which it blames for two attacks on its soil, a terrorist organisation yesterday and ordered the freezing of the Lebanese Islamist group’s assets in the country, Reuters reported. The announcement coincided with a visit by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as Argentina marks the...

Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid Bin Ahmed Al Khalifah and his Israeli counterpart Israel Katz held their first open and public meeting in the US on the sidelines of the Advance Religious Freedom conference on Wednesday. In a tweet posted yesterday, Katz announced: “I met publicly with the foreign...

An armed group stormed the home of Libyan lawmaker Seham Sergewa in the city of Benghazi on Wednesday morning and kidnapped her, Libyan media reported. The Presidential Council of the Tripoli-seated Government of National Accord (GNA) accused militias loyal to retired General Khalifa Haftar of kidnapping Sergewa. In a...

UK Labour MP Fabian Hamilton has called for a public inquiry into why ministers have been allowed to disregard evidence that Saudi Arabia was violating international humanitarian law in order to continue lucrative arms deals with the kingdom. In a tweet that includes a link to a video of...

The Trump administration is increasing US military build-up in the Middle East as tensions with Iran continue to escalate with the alleged downing of an Iranian drone in the Straits of Hormuz.  According to Defence Department officials roughly 500 American troops are being deployed to Saudi Arabia, one of...

The Trump administration is considering a practical shutdown of refugee arrivals in the US next year, cutting the numbers to almost zero. The news has been reported by three sources close to the plan. The proposal was made during a major meeting between security officials last week, in which...

The Algerian Supreme Court yesterday ordered former minister of transport and public works in the government of ousted president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Ammar Gul, to be investigated for corruption, local media reported. “The Supreme Court’s advisor ordered that former minister of transport and public works, Ammar Gul, be placed in...

Egyptian authorities have decided to ban passengers who hold Saudi tourism visas to attend the “Sea and Culture” festival in Jeddah from travelling. This came after the Saudi authorities prevented the entry of about 30 Egyptians who hold the newly issued visas because of fears their real intention in...

A human rights lawyer who was detained in December for sharing a picture of himself wearing a yellow vest on Facebook in solidarity with protesters in France has had his appeal rejected by a court in Egypt. Mohamed Ramadan was arrested for allegedly joining and promoting a terror group...

A prominent opposition figure in Saudi Arabia has said that citizens across society in the Kingdom have been angry ever since Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman became the de facto ruler, Al-Khaleej Online has reported. “There is no segment in Saudi society today which is not angry because of...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have to decide whether Democratic US Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar can visit Israel and the West Bank next month, local media has reported. Israel has passed a law that bans the entry of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement supporters...

Newly-released data for June has provided a reality check to reported claims that Israeli authorities are easing restrictions on the occupied and blockaded Gaza Strip. According to Gisha, an Israeli NGO which monitors and campaigns on freedom of movement, there was a total of 15,471 exits of Palestinians via...