It has been argued that the Zaydi sect of Shia Islam is closer to mainstream Sunni Islam than it is to the Twelver Shias who form the majority in Iran. This is particularly so in regards to jurisprudence and general practises. However some socio religious developments among Yemen’s Zaydi...

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has the capacity to increase oil production should there be a disruption in global supplies, UAE Energy Minister Suhail Al-Mazrouei has said. In a press statement yesterday, Al-Mazrouei said there are quantities of oil that can be exploited, adding that it is too early to call for...

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government will extend a controversial ban on arms exports to Saudi Arabia until the end of the month, a government source said yesterday. The ban was implemented following the murder of prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year and applies to all countries involved in...

The long-awaited Israeli elections, which began today, has got off to a rough start when police closed a voting station in the Arab town of Umm Al-Fahm this morning. The town, the hometown of outspoken Palestinian political activist Sheikh Raed Salah, had its voting station shut down at 11:30...

The UK government has apologised for breaking its own pledge not to licence export of arms to Saudi Arabia that could be used in the conflict in Yemen. The breach, which the UK’s International Trade Secretary, Liz Truss, described as “inadvertent”, has raised wider concerns over negligence within Number...

Iraq’s Joint Operations Command announced yesterday that it has launched a military operation along the Saudi border to overcome sources of terrorism. The campaign, in cooperation with international coalition forces, is the fifth phase of military campaign the “Will of Victory” which Iraq launched on 7 July in an effort to secure...

Saudi Arabia will be sending $500 million in aid next week to the UN to help fund its response to the on-going humanitarian crisis in Yemen. UN aid chief Mark Lowcock confirmed in a briefing yesterday to the UN Security Council Saudi’s intention to transfer the funds to his...

An air strike near the border between Iraq and Syria last night apparently targeting Iranian-backed Shia militias was reportedly perpetrated by Israel. The strike in the eastern Syrian city of Al-Bukamal is among a myriad of Israeli strikes over the past few months which have targeted Iranian militias and...

Israeli settlers yesterday attacked a number of Palestinian homes in Einabous village, south of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, Wafa news agency reported. According to Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement construction in the northern West Bank, scores of settlers from the illegal Yitzhar settlement were provided heavy...

The head of the UN-African Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) said on Monday that it is ready to play a role in achieving peace in Sudan, QNA has reported. “If the mission had freedom of movement,” Jeremiah Kingsley Mamabolo told General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo of Sudan’s Transitional Council,...

Saudi Arabia has another senior Hamas official in detention, political and family sources told Al-Resalah on Monday. Businessman Abu Obaida Al-Agha is apparently being held in Dahban Prison in Jeddah, where the Saudi government keeps its political prisoners. Sources revealed that Al-Agha has been in prison for more than...

Ahmed Tibi, Arab member of the Knesset, said yesterday that Arab voters have the power to oust incumbent Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Anadolu Agency reported. Speaking to the new site, Tibi said: “The biggest upcoming challenge is to raise the rate of voting and participation in the...

US President Donald Trump said yesterday that America has become such a big oil producer that it no longer needs petrol from the Middle East. Writing on Twitter, Trump said: “Because we have done so well with Energy over the last few years (thank you, Mr. President!), we are...

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said on Monday that the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea are “indivisible parts” of Palestinian lands, Arab48.com has reported. Shtayyeh made his comments during a PA meeting in the village of Fasayel and pointed out that the 1,622km2 of the Jordan Valley...

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) seized on Monday an oil tanker with 11 people on board flying the UAE flag. Fars News Agency reported that the ship, which was carrying 250.000 litters of “smuggled diesel”, was detained alongside its crew who were handed over to the authorities in Hormozgan...

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree has warned foreigners not enter Saudi Aramco facilities that were attacked by Houthi group on Saturday, saying that they may target them again. Saree said, Monday, that the attacks on Aramco were carried out by aircraft operating with different engines. He called on Saudi...

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Right Monitor and the IRDG expressed in their speech before the Human Rights Council during the 42nd Ordinary Session their deep concern over the Saudi authorities’ detention of dozens of Palestinians and cases of forced disappearance with no legal support. “Dozens of Palestinians have been victims...

US President Donald Trump said on Monday said it looked like Iran was behind attacks on oil plants in Saudi Arabia but stressed he did not want to go to war, as the attacks sent oil prices soaring and raised fears of a new Middle East conflict. Iran has...

Monday, vote counting continues in Tunisia’s early presidential election. According to opinion polls, independent candidate and constitutional law Professor Kais Saied is leading the results and will be in the second round, followed by the head of the “Heart of Tunisia” party Nabil Karoui, while Ennahdha announced its adherence...

United Nations Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths told the UN Security Council on Monday that it was “not entirely clear” who was behind Saturday’s attack on Saudi oil facilities but he said it had increased the chances of a regional conflict, Reuters reports. “It’s not entirely clear who was behind the...

US officials say intelligence data shows Iran is behind weekend attacks on key Saudi Arabian oil facilities, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, Anadolu Agency reported. Citing anonymous officials familiar with the matter, the Journal said the Islamic Republic was “the staging ground” for Saturday’s attacks and the US officials...

Oil prices soared on Monday after attacks on crude facilities in Saudi Arabia sparked worries over the impact of an oil shock on economic growth, halting a positive run in world stocks as investors reached for less risky assets, Reuters reports. Increased demand for safe-haven US debt pushed Treasury yields lower,...

Qatari foreign minister on Monday condemned the Saturday’s drone attacks on two facilities of Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Aramco, Anadolu Agency reports. “We condemn the attacks on vital and civilian facilities in Buqayq,” Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said in a Twitter post. Earlier in the day, the...

The Saudi-led military coalition battling Yemen’s Houthi movement said on Monday that the attack on Saudi Arabian oil plants was carried out with Iranian weapons and was not launched from Yemen according to preliminary findings, Reuters reports. Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki said that an investigation into Saturday’s strikes, which had...

The Israeli military will impose a total closure on the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip during Tuesday’s parliamentary election, Anadolu Agency reports. “According to the security situation evaluation and directives of the political level, total closure will be imposed in the areas of the West Bank and the terminals...

  Remembering the Sabra and Shatila massacre...

Sheffield United’s Kevin McCabe has been ordered by a High Court to sell his 50 per cent share in the English football team to co-owner Prince Abdullah Bin Mosaad Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Reuters reported the Premier League club announcing today. The pair had fallen out in 2017 after...

Efforts to revoke the residency of Omar Barghouti, the co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS), have been escalated to Israel’s deputy Attorney General for a decision over his status in the country. Barghouti, considered “major threat to the citizens of Israel” by the country’s ultra-right politicians,...

Families of victims who lost their lives during a Saudi air strike at a funeral in Yemen have today filed a complaint with the Metropolitan Police and the US Department of Justice to investigate the bombings under the doctrine of Universal Jurisdiction. Under the principle anyone accused of committing...

The Jerusalem District Electricity Company (JEDCO) has confirmed today that it has received its third warning from the Israeli Electric Corporation that it will begin cutting electricity to the Palestinian West Bank cities of Ramallah, Bethlehem and Jericho within the coming week. The Chairman and CEO of the JEDCO,...

The Egyptians were in a deep sleep for the past seven years, but have woken up to the tremors caused by videos posted on social media by a contractor and actor called Mohamed Ali. In them, he talks about the corruption of Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and some army leaders;...

Jordan’s teachers’ strike yesterday entered its second week amid anticipation of a meeting with Prime Minister Omar Razzaz to discuss the repercussions of the crisis. Deputy Head of the Jordanian Teachers’ Syndicate (JTA) Nasser Nawasra yesterday invited Razzaz to meet with representatives of the striking workers either in the...

Some 113 British members of parliament have warned that Israel is in danger of becoming an apartheid state. The bleak assessment was made in a letter sent by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Britain and Palestine to Prime Minister Boris Johnson in which they expressed their “outrage” over...

Israelis head to the polls tomorrow for the second time in less than six months in an election that could see Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu win a record fifth term – or end his decade-long dominance of Israeli politics. He faces formidable challengers to his reign and, after the...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will not be meeting US President Donald Trump, state media said today. Trump had hinted he would meet Iranian officials on the sidelines of the United Nations summit, but backtracked on the comments, claiming the reports were “fake news”. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi...

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that blaming Iran for the recent attacks on Saudi oil plants “won’t end disaster” but accepting the 2015 nuclear deal and beginning talks may do. Writing on Twitter, Zarif accused US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of “turning to ‘max deceit’” after...

Iranian militias in eastern Syria have taken control of the water crossings in the governorate and city of Deir Ez-Zor, expelling fighters belonging to one of President Bashar Al-Assad’s closest businessmen, Hussam Qaterji. According to sources close to the local news site DeirEzzor24, the Qaterji group has controlled all...

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad yesterday issued an amnesty that reduces sentences and pardons draft dodgers if they report for duty within three to six months, Reuters reported. The pardon, which was published by the official Syrian news agency, is related to all crimes committed before 14 September 2019. According...

An Israeli court yesterday sentenced a Jewish man to 18 months in prison for incitement to kill Arabs, reported Haaretz. Shlomi Avraham, 42, from Arad, was convicted “for publishing inflammatory content against Arabs” in the summer of 2014, in the context of the killings of three settler students in...

The Gaza Strip is a part of Palestine with more than two million Palestinians living in around 365 square kilometres. It has been occupied by Israel since 1967, which has imposed a near-total 13-year land, air and sea blockade. It is regarded as one of the most densely populated...

Knesset Speaker and senior Likud politician Yuli Edelstein has told CNN that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to annex the Jordan Valley would be good for peace. Asked to justify the plan – described by the presenter as “a wanton transgression of international law”, Edelstein claimed Netanyahu’s remarks were...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared this morning “for the first time” that if re-elected, he will annex Kiryat Arba and other settlements in Hebron, reported the Jerusalem Post. Netanyahu made the remarks speaking to Efi Triger on Army Radio‘s Good Morning Israel show, just one day before Israelis...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed yesterday that he did not practice incitement against Arabs in Israel, Arab48 reported. During an interview published by the Israeli news website Walla, Netanyahu denied any wrongdoing, claiming he had no need to apologise. “Am I inciting?” he asked. “Against Ayman Odeh?”...

The unemployment rate in Turkey stood at 13 per cent in June, the country’s statistical authority announced today. This was a rise of 2.8 per cent from the same time last year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said in a statement. The number of people who were unemployed and aged...

Lebanese security agencies have revealed that more than 230 agents working for Israel moved to Lebanon over the past four months, Lebanese newspaper Al-Diyar reported yesterday. The agents, according to the newspaper, held American passports and are in contact with the American embassy. One of the most prominent agents...

Iraq has signed a landmark deal with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for a power line to import 500 megawatts of electricity by 2020, local reports said on Sunday. According to the Iraqi Electricity Ministry, the 300-kilometre line will run from Kuwait to Iraq’s southern port of Faw and...

The Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) affirmed yesterday the position of its President Mahmoud Abbas that it would end all agreements signed with Israel, the Wafa news agency reported. “We will not remain the only party committed to these agreements,” the Executive Committee said. Israeli Prime...

Four of Birzeit University’s student leaders in the occupied West Bank have disappeared after being chased and shot at by Palestinian Authority security officers. The incident happened in Ramallah. The Hamas student wing, known as the Islamic Bloc, wrote on Facebook that the four students confirmed in their last...

Thirty-seven years ago this week, one of the bloodiest chapters in Palestinian history unfolded in a refugee camp in Lebanon. Surrounded by Israeli forces from all sides, thousands of refugees, bereft of leadership and protection from the international community, were slaughtered during a two day killing spree in the...

Supporters of the independent presidential candidate, Kais Saied in Tunisia began celebrations after a polling firm projected him as the winner, Anadolu reports. About 45% out of seven million eligible voters, turned out to vote in Tunisia on Sunday to choose among 24 candidates. According to projections by the...