The US State Department requested clarification from the Iraqi government over media reports claiming that Iraq has signed an arms deal to purchase weapons and ammunition from Iran worth millions of dollars. State Department spokesperson Jane Psaki commented that if the media reports are true, then this would raise...

Palestinian MP Dr Salem Salama, a member of the economic committee of the Palestinian Legislative Council, announced that the Palestinian government in the Gaza Strip has discovered a natural gas field off the coast of the central province. In remarks to Sout Al-Aqsa on Monday morning, he noted that...

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad has suggested that it is the “persistence” of Damascus in the current crisis that is leading the country to avoid any potential collapse, adding that: “the capital is different than other capitals around the world.” Al-Assad, who is the regional chief of the Arab...

Some 115 corpses and 610 wounded civilians have been sent to Fallujah General Hospital since the clashes between the army and tribal rebels started two months ago, Anadolu news agency reported on Tuesday. The hospital’s Chief Doctor Ahmed Al-Shami said most of the corpses belonged to women and children....

The Leader of the Democratic Movement for Construction and Reform (MDER) in Tunisia, Amna Mansour, announced her candidacy for the next presidential elections, making her the first woman in the history of the country to run for presidency. Mansour told Tunisian radio station Mosaic on Monday that she is...

The Israeli Knesset passed a new bill into law granting Christian Arabs separate representation from other Arabs on the Advisory Committee for Equal Opportunity. The bill, which was proposed by Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman MK Yariv Levin, was approved by a 30-5 margin in its second reading and a 31-6...

Retired general in the Israeli army Ravin Pirkko slammed the West for criticizing the Egyptian army after the July 3 military coup led by Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi who gave green light for the mass killing of protesters.   In his latest article in Israel Today newspaper, Pirkko said that...

Audio recordings of an alleged phone conversation between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his son Bilal are “fabricated” and “unethically montaged”, a press release from Erdogan’s office said on Monday. “Those responsible for this filthy conspiracy targeting the Prime Minister of Turkey will pay the price and will...

A number of Egyptian pro-coup politicians considered the resignation of the interim government as a reaction to pressures from the Minister of Defence Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi to pave the way for his presidency bid.   Founding member of the Al-Dustour Party Ahmad Saeed said that the resignation is “a normal...

At least 2,072 Palestinians have died since the outbreak of the Syrian revolution to February 22, the Working Group for the Palestinians in Syria said. The Safa news agency reported a statement released by the group on Sunday as saying that the majority of the victims fell in the...

An Egyptian doctor has been sentenced to two years in prison on charges of “inciting riots in hospital, belonging to a banned group and incitement hatred against the army” after she was found wearing a pin with the logo of the Rabaa Al-Adawiya, an Egyptian court ruled on Sunday....

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel has cancelled her scheduled visit to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah which came as part of her visit to the region; Palestinian Al Quds newspaper claimed. Merkel and her cabinet are scheduled to meet with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman...

Members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) started on Sunday a protest in front of the Rafah Crossing, calling upon the world to lift the eight-year long siege of the Gaza Strip. Deputy Speaker of the PLC Ahmed Bahr said: “We are calling upon our brothers and sisters in...

Israeli occupation authorities distributed on Sunday evacuation orders to the Palestinian residents of Al-Baba Mountain neighbourhood near village to the east of occupied Jerusalem. A spokesperson of the Popular Resistance Committees, Hani Halabiya, said that the occupation authorities distributed the evacuation orders ahead of demolishing all the houses owned...

The U.S. Department of State renewed its Egypt travel alert “due to continuing political and social unrest”. The alert stated that political unrest that followed the July 3 military coup is expected to continue in the near future. It added that protests often turn violent, with both police and...

The Arab Organisation for Human Rights (AOHR) said in a press release Monday that it documented the death of 48 prisoners out of torture in Egyptian prisons since the July 3 military coup. The AOHR called on the UN Secretary General and world leaders to “take a decisive stance”...

Israel’s Economic Minister Naftali Bennett said on Sunday that Judaising the Galilee and Negev does not contradict Israel’s values. He also called for showing “zero tolerance” for the national aspirations of Israeli Arabs. Speaking at a conference in Jerusalem, Bennett said: “The identity of the State of Israel as...

The Turkish Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) led by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen will host senior Israeli politicians today as part of its Dialogue of Civilisations Forum in the Turkish capital Istanbul. The Forum has invited the advisor to the Chief Rabbinate of Turkish Jews Isaac Coleman and the...

The headquarters of the Libyan National Congress has been evacuated Sunday evening after being hit by a shell during one of its sessions, Anadolu news agency reported. No one has been hurt in the accident. The chairman of the National Security Committee MP Abdelrahman Al-Suwehli told Anadolu that the...

Germany and Israel are today due to sign an agreement allowing Germany to represent Israel’s diplomatic and consular relations in countries where Israel has no embassy especially in Muslim countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia; German Der Spiegel newspaper reported. The newspaper quoted a statement by the Israeli Embassy...

Prime Minister of the military-backed government of Egypt, Hazem Al Beblawy, said Monday his cabinet is resigning, without giving a clear reason. In a press conference, Beblawy said his cabinet “should not be judged by the results of its work, but rather by the decisions it took at a...

Jordan’s King Abdullah II has described the idea of there being an alternative homeland for the Palestinians in Jordan as an “illusion”, according to the official Jordanian news agency Petra. During a meeting with a host of Jordanian officials, the King asked: “When we will stop hearing this discourse?”...

US diplomacy has failed “until this moment” to complete drafting the framework agreement that is intended to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday. Abbas told reporters following his meeting with French President Francois Hollande in Paris that “the Americans have been unable, until this...

Israeli Economics Minister Naftali Bennett has restated his opposition to Palestinian statehood in an interview with the BBC. Speaking to Stephen Sackur on ‘Hardtalk‘, Bennett affirmed his belief that all of the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River belongs to Israel irrevocably. Bennett also suggested that...

Israel’s prime minister has expressed his concerns over the course of nuclear negotiations between Iran and the major countries which agreed the initial deal with Tehran late last year. Benjamin Netanyahu made his comments at his weekly cabinet meeting on the eve of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to...

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) has kicked off in more than 200 cities around the world. Organised by university students, events will be held in academic institutions with the aim of raising awareness about state discrimination against Palestinians by the Israeli authorities. While the organisers of IAW have been issuing...

Two Egyptian journalists will stand trial before a military court Monday on charges of leaking an audio recording of an interview with Defense Minister Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi. Monday’s trial is the first trial for civilians before military courts since the ratification of the new constitution in January 2014. Article 204...

Tunisia’s interim President Moncef Marzouki rejected calls demanding he resign his post if he plans to run in elections saying he believes it’s premature to discuss his future plans; state television reported on Sunday. Marzouki said he will wait until Tunisia’s amended electoral law is issued then conduct the...

Rival Palestinian movements Fatah and Hamas have agreed to stop the misinformation war between them and to resume implementing the terms of national reconciliation soon. According to a statement issued after a recent national gathering by independent Palestinian figures, the leaders of both movements have agreed to stop spreading...

Dozens of extremist Israeli settlers attacked on Saturday evening houses of residents of the village of Jit east of Qalqilya in the North of occupied West Bank. According to human rights activist Zakariah al-Saddah, more than 30 settlers from “Havat Gelad” settlement, including gunmen, attacked houses in the village,...

French diplomats are puzzled by Moroccan fierce reaction to French judiciary’s decision to investigate the Moroccan Intelligence Chief Abdellatif Hammouchi on charges of torturing French citizens from Moroccan and Saharan origins. French and Moroccan media published a statement issued by the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) wherein it...

Israel’s Intelligence Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz said in statements to Israeli Channel 2 Saturday that the US Congress will soon approve a bill conditioning US aid to the Palestinian Authority on curbing anti-Israel incitement. Steinitz highlighted his role in convincing the House Appropriations Committee to adopt the draft legislation,...

Informed Yemeni sources have confirmed that the Saudi leadership turned down a request from Al Al-Ahmar for support and intervention in order to stop the offensive against their tribal areas by the Huthies in the beginning of the month. This was the offensive that enabled the Huthies to seize...

On February 25th 1994, an Israeli settler named Baruch Goldstein walked into Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron and opened fire on worshippers as they prayed during Ramadan. Goldstein murdered 29 Palestinians and injured more than 120 inside the mosque. He was eventually overpowered and beaten to death. Following the massacre,...

President Mohammed Morsi was today permitted to make a statement from within the detention cage inside the court, which is presided over by Judge Sha’ban Al-Shami, the head of Cairo criminal court – which is looking into the case of the storming of Wadi Al-Natroon Prison. He said: “Abdel...

At least four people have been killed and 13 wounded in three explosions in Tikrit, north of the Iraqi capital on Saturday morning, security sources told UPI news agency. Three car bombs simultaneously detonated today morning in Tikrit, the first in Al-Qadeseya neighborhood, and the two others in Al-Basha...

The ruling Hamas government in Gaza announced on Saturday the arrest of one of its former leaders on charges of corruption. A Hamas official said in a press release that the former spokesman of the group, Ayman Taha, is currently undergoing investigations regarding misconduct, illegal profiteering, and betrayal of...

Egypt’s ousted president Mohammed Morsi arrived at the Police Academy Saturday morning to attend the second session of the Wadi Al-Natroun jailbreak trial. Morsi along with 130 other co-defendants are facing myriad charges, including “collaboration with Hamas and Hezbollah to spread chaos in the country” on the early days...

The pro-coup Al-Azhar Sheikh Mazhar Shaheen demanded the application of Sharia against the Muslim Brotherhood by “cutting off their hands, crucifying them, and sending them to exile.” In an interview with the military-controlled Tahrir channel, Shaheen called for including the punishments of “crucifying and cutting off hands and legs”...

Unemployment figures in the Arab world rose 16 per cent last year reaching 20 million, the Director-General of the Arab Labour Organisation Ahmed Luqman said. “The number of unemployed individuals in the Arab world is currently 20 million, 16 per cent more than last year, which represents a risk...

An Alexandria court sentenced on Thursday Jamal Madi, a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood movement in Alexandria, to three years in prison and ordered him to pay a fine of 50,000 Egyptian pounds ($7,143), even though Madi died in October 2013. Madi’s lawyer Mohammed Ramadan said that Madi...

A US diplomat demanded on Thursday for Egypt to respect freedoms and basic human rights as an Egyptian court started hearing a trial against 20 Al-Jazeera journalists.   US relations with Egypt have cooled over the past several months, following the military coup that ousted elected President Mohammed Morsi...

Western countries are adopting double standards when dealing with the political crisis that has erupted in the Ukraine and the Egyptian crisis although both situations are similar in many ways, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood movement said. According to the movement, the West has quickly intervened to contain the Ukrainian political...

Israel’s Ministry of Defence confirmed on Thursday reports claiming two Israeli arms dealers sold US made F-4 Phantom II spare parts to Iran via Greece. The Israeli media said the arms dealers; Avihai Weinstein and Eli Cohen had been arrested and were under investigation by Israeli authorities. The ministry...

For the first time in the Gaza Strip, the ruling Hamas government has authorised a bodyguard company similar to the private security companies in other Arab countries and in the West Bank. It is permitting the young team working with the police to carry light arms. Muscular young men...

UNHCR today called upon countries to make multi-annual commitments towards a goal of providing resettlement and other forms of admission for an additional 100,000 Syrian refugees in 2015 and 2016. The The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had earlier called upon nations to provide solutions for 30,000 of...

Turkey will not give in to future coup attempts or pressure, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday. “We will face any future coup attempts just as we have faced them over the past 12 years and as we faced the recent coup attempt. We will not give...

Diplomatic sources told AFP on Thursday that Saudi Arabia has sidelined its intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, by transferring key aspects of the Syrian dossier, which he had previously been overseeing, to Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef. A Western diplomat in the Gulf region told the news...

The Israeli electricity company threatened on Thursday to cut off electricity to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank starting from Sunday, 23 February over unpaid debt which amounts to 1.3 billion shekels, Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported. The company’s chairperson, Yiftach Ron-Tal, sent a letter to Israel’s Prime...

Presidential spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh stated on Thursday that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told US Secretary of State John Kerry, during a meeting held in Paris on Wednesday, that the Palestinian side disapproves of any final agreement unless it includes the firm Palestinian and Arab positions that are based...