All Stories Archive

Iraq's Prime Minister is in Washington for meetings with the administration about the crisis in Syria and other issues. Having met Vice President Joe Biden and Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel on Wednesday, Nuri Al-Maliki is set to sit with senior US generals to discuss security and intelligence affairs. He...

The Obama administration has expressed regrets over Israel's decision to accelerate settlement construction in East Jerusalem, stating that it has never condoned Israeli settlement activity. According to spokesperson Jen Psaki, the US State Department does "not consider continued settlement activity or East Jerusalem construction to be steps that create...

American defence secretary Chuck Hagel said on Thursday that Israel would be the first US ally to receive the American V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor military aircraft. The deal was negotiated between Hagel and Israeli defence minister Moshe Ya'alon during the former's last visit to Israel. According to Israeli newspaper Yedioth...

A US Congressional delegation from the State Foreign Operations subcommittee, headed by the majority clerk, Anne Marie Chotvacs, arrived in Cairo on Tuesday morning to discuss American aid to Egypt. A senior, well-informed Egyptian source said that the delegation was to set to meet senior officials in Cairo to...

The White House's Official Press Secretary Jay Carney announced that the US administration is calling on Egypt to put an end to political detentions, Anadolu news agency reported. Carney pointed out that despite the support of millions of Egyptians, the current government has taken several measures that are in...

During his visit to Palestine on Wednesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that the Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 are "illegitimate" and he urged Israel to limit settlement building to help ensure the success of the negotiation process. "Let me emphasize at this...

US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday that he hopes to complete an accord to freeze Iran's nuclear program, but he affirmed that a "high-stakes diplomatic push" is still lying ahead of a quick resolution. After arriving in Geneva, Kerry told reporters: "I would like to confirm...

On Friday the United States and Israel lost their right to vote in UNESCO after failing to give clarification about suspending their contribution to the cultural international organisation, an informed source told AFP. Both the US and Israel suspended their contribution to the $653 million budget of the organisation...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has issued sharp criticism of the US deal being sought with Iran over Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Netanyahu appears more determined than ever to oppose it. According to newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the prime minister was scathing about the fact that Iran has merely agreed to...

US Secretary of State John Kerry has sought to reassure Israel and Washington's allies over the possibility of US-Iran rapprochement, saying that an agreement on Iran's nuclear issue will protect them better. Kerry also revealed that Tehran withdrew from the negotiations in Geneva, which is why an agreement with...

Aides in the US Senate say that US lawmakers will postpone debating tougher new sanctions on Iran because of its nuclear programme until after a briefing by US Secretary of State John Kerry this week. Kerry is leading the latest efforts by the Obama administration to prevent imposing further...

The World Bank representative in Cairo, Jean-Pierre Chauffour, has revealed that trade between Arab states has risen by just 1 per cent over the past 20 years. This is in stark contrast to trade among European nations, which has risen by 60 per cent over the same period. "The...

A number of senior members of the US Congress have expressed their anger at the Obama Administration's strong pleas to postpone imposing new sanctions on Iran, highlighting how tough the president's task of pursuing any rapprochement with Tehran will be. Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John...

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has declassified 1,400 pages of intelligence documents surrounding the Camp David Accords, which led to the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty. The declassified documents cover the period from January 1977 to March 1979. They were written by the CIA to support the diplomatic efforts exerted...

US Republican Senator John McCain has criticised US Secretary of State John Kerry's performance in the Middle East, arguing that US influence in the Arab world "has never been this weak". According to the Middle East News Agency, McCain told the US government sponsored Al-Hurra TV channel that: "The...

A United Nations source has said that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is not yet ready to announce a date for the Geneva II conference on Syria. Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky told Interfax agency that the Secretary-General will announce the date "when he is ready". Russia denied media claims that an...

US National Security Advisor Susan Rice said on Thursday that the expansion of Israeli settlements is responsible for creating some of the recent tensions between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and is stalling the peace talks mediated by the US. In a speech to a Washington think tank, she...

Washington's relationship with some of its main allies in the Middle East is going through a critical time; nearly all have enough motives to reassess the nature of their links. Judging by the confident behaviour in some Arab capitals it seems that many of them are looking to escape...

US lawmakers acknowledged on Tuesday that they were unlikely to impose new sanctions on Iran after yet another appeal by US President Barack Obama to postpone the vote on any new sanctions while sensitive nuclear talks are underway. In a two-hour meeting, Obama briefed Democrat and Republican senators from...

On Friday the US Administration expressed concern about the latest protest law that puts severe restrictions on demonstrations in Egypt. More than 200 Egyptians have been recently detained in accordance with this law, while thousands all over Egypt were crushed and violently dispersed. US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki...

A US newspaper has said that the American president Barack Obama has called for the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop candidly rebuking the temporary deal over Iran's nuclear programme. The Washington Post reported that Obama proposed that Netanyahu send an Israeli team to Washington in order to...

Haaretz has reported that the US administration has prepared a plan for the final security arrangements between Israel and the future Palestinian state. According to the newspaper, retired US General John Allen, "who developed the security concept", will present the plan to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary...

The White House said on Tuesday that it would agree to giving Iran the opportunity to enrich limited amounts of uranium in return for "rigorous" monitoring measures at all of its nuclear facilities. "We are prepared to negotiate a strictly limited enrichment programme in the end state," said US...

The National Council of the American Studies Association (ASA) has voted unanimously to endorse the academic boycott of Israel. ASA's members, which number around five thousand, will have ten days to vote on the resolution. ASA issued a statement on its website saying: "We believe that the ASA's endorsement...

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat revealed on Friday that the US president Barack Obama considers the Palestinian Authority's (PA) application to the UN for non-member state as crossing all American red lines. Speaking at a conference organised by the Arabic Centre for Research and Policy Studies at Doha, Erekat...

On Saturday US defence secretary Chuck Hagel told the Gulf states that the US is highly committed to the security of the Middle East and that the deal with Iran was to "buy time for meaningful negotiations, not for deception." Hagel said that the United States has a proven...

America has rejected an offer by the Syrian regime to fight Al-Qaeda and jihadists in the country in return for staying in power in Damascus, the prime minister of the Syrian National Coalition's opposition government has revealed. Speaking to Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Ahmed Touma said that the Americans told the...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has warned Israel of delaying a political settlement with the Palestinians saying, "Force cannot defeat or defuse the demographic time bomb. The only way to secure Israel's long term future is through negotiations." Kerry told the Brookings Institution's Saban Forum on Saturday that;...

Lawmakers in the US Congress reached an agreement on Monday in both the House and the Senate on the proposed federal budget for 2014, which would allocate $520.5 billion for defence spending and $491.8 billion for non-defence. The defence budget includes an increase in military aid to Israel that...

It has been bought to our attention that the quotes attributed to Dr Yezid Sayigh was inaccurate as it may have been taken from a fake Twitter account. We apologise to our readers, Dr Yezid Sayigh and the Carnegie Middle East Center. This item was translated from a piece...

The members of the American Studies Association have overwhelmingly voted to endorse the ASA's participation in a Palestinian call for an academic boycott of Israel. Following the recommendation of a pro-boycott resolution by the National Council, ASA members voted 66.05 per cent in favour, with 30.5 per cent voting...

The Israel lobby in the US suffered a great setback when Congress went on winter break without approving a new bill that would allow Israelis to enter the US without a visa. According to the existing Visa Waiver Programme, citizens from 37 countries around the world who meet certain...

The Israeli newspaper Maariv reported that Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been forced to halt the construction of a new IDF training academy on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem after American and German army officers warned that they would not cooperate with the IDF's military academy if Israel moved...

UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk has claimed that "Israel is slouching towards nothing less than a Palestinian holocaust" in his comments about the abuse of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories. Maariv newspaper reported that Professor Falk has accused Israel of "genocidal intentions" towards the Palestinians. The legal...

American President Barack Obama said on Friday there was no need for new sanctions on Iran, as that would spoil negotiations over a long-term nuclear deal with the world powers. Obama said: "We will not lose anything during the negotiations." He pointed out that during the six months, it...

The sale of Israeli military equipment to China has sparked outrage in the United States, leading to the resignation of an Israeli Defence Ministry official. The Israeli newspaper Maariv reported on Sunday that Meir Shalit, the department head for defence exports at the ministry, resigned last week in the...

The Washington Post newspaper published an editorial on Friday condemning Egypt's interim cabinet for designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group, arguing that this shows how "Egypt has abandoned the path to democracy" after the military coup that deposed Egypt's first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi. The newspaper...

On Friday Libyan authorities released four American military staff after two hours of detention, an official in the US administration said. The American official gave no more details about the detention, the release or their whereabouts. No information was given about why they were detained. The New York Times...

The US Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, denied on Sunday any connection between the fate of Jonathan Pollard, a convicted spy for Israel, and the ongoing negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, including the release of Palestinian prisoners. Last week, Israeli media reported that after the US surveillance of...

In a desperate effort to push forward the peace process, on Friday evening US Secretary of State John Kerry met the Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah. Hamas said, "through its efforts the US want to create Oslo 2." Earlier on...

The Christian Science Monitor (CSM) has commented on the oppression campaign against the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in Egypt. CSM, which is close to US decision makers, ruled out the return of the Egyptian street to stability because the MB have pledged to continue their protests, highlighting the killing of...

A spokesperson of the US State Department, Marie Harf, has described the humanitarian situation for Palestinian refugees in the Yarmouk camp south of Damascus, as well as for Syrians besieged in other areas, as "dreadful" and blamed the Syrian regime. For the past year, regime forces and supporting militias...

US newspaper the Washington Post published on Tuesday its most scathing editorial yet criticising the recent developments in Egypt. Under the headline "Egypt's bogus democracy doesn't deserve US aid," the editors argue that, "Egypt's military regime is taking a major step this week toward installing an autocracy more repressive...

US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday that he has discussed the possibility of enforcing local ceasefires in Syria with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. The question of whether or not Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad is willing to permit the flow of humanitarian aid was also on...

Iran will receive the first tranche of its funds which have been frozen due to US-led sanctions by the beginning of February. The State Department said that $550 million will be released as part of the deal over Iran's nuclear programme agreed with world powers last year. The financial...

A Palestinian football club in the Chilean capital Santiago has refused to give in to an intensive Jewish campaign demanding that the club apologise and remove a map depicting historic Palestine from the team's official jerseys. The manager of Deportivo Palestino, which was founded by Palestinian immigrants in 1920,...

During a discussion of the Syrian crisis, which started more than two and half years ago, US Republican and Democratic Senators demanded on Tuesday that the US allow more Syrian refugees into the country. Out of the approximately 2.3 million Syrian refugees, the US has only provided 31 with...

Israel's Maariv newspaper revealed on Monday new details of US Secretary of State John Kerry's framework proposal for pushing the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations forward. According to the newspaper, Kerry has been putting pressure on Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a number of concessions that include softening his stance...

PHOTOS Dozens of activists braved extremely cold weather in New York City on Saturday to stage a protest in front of the Egyptian Consulate demanding that Egypt open the Rafah Crossing to provide relief for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who are suffering under Israel's draconian siege. The...

American diplomats have ruled out reaching a prospective framework agreement between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Israeli occupation based on American proposals. The diplomats, who preferred to speak on the condition of anonymity, said that a framework agreement based on American proposals needs more time to be achieved....