All Stories Archive

Israeli settlers have stormed repeatedly Al-Aqsa Mosque compound over the last two days, and on Thursday even climbed the Dome of the Rock Mosque. The settlers were led by the radical Rabbi Yehuda Glick, who is the former head of the Temple Institute. He was accompanied by a journalist...

On Friday the Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of conducting ethnic cleansing of Palestinians as it intensifies settlement building at the same time joint international efforts are being exerted to reach a peace deal. Abbas reiterated that Jerusalem is the key to peace and the capital...

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES The Republic of South Africa will support the Palestinians in their liberation struggle until the occupation of their land is ended and they have an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital. That was the clear message given by South Africa's Deputy Minister for International Relations at...

Tel Aviv officially announced the establishment of diplomatic ties with the State of South Sudan, according to a joint agreement between the two parties. The Hebrew radio said on Thursday 28 July that during the coming period, bilateral talks between Israel and the Sudan will take place to agree...

Joint statement by South African Palestine Solidarity Movement and COSATU on Gaza Freedom March 7th January 2010 We salute the gallant and heroic actions of over 1,400 people from around the world – especially the South African delegation – who went to Cairo to embark on the historic Gaza...

Mauritania's Secretary of Foreign Affairs has announced that the country has completely severed diplomatic relations with Israel in completion of a process that began last year. Late on Saturday from the capital of Nouakchott, Naha Bint Hamdi Wild Meknes confirmed that Mauritania had completely cut off all diplomatic relations...

Spokeswoman of the Iranian foreign ministry Marzieh Afkham said on Friday that the US statement about the conditions of the nuclear deal is based on "unilateral and biased reading." The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported Afkham saying: "This will never be the right criteria to evaluate how the...

Israeli President Shimon Peres has cancelled his planned visit to Rabat after the Moroccan monarch refused to schedule a meeting during the trip. King Mohammed VI declined to meet the Israeli head of state due to the current political circumstances related to the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. According to Radio...

A bold ruling by South Africa's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has dismissed all complaints relating to a radio advert which called for a boycott of Israel and compared the Zionist state to Apartheid South Africa. The ruling referred to a message broadcast on South African Broadcasting Company's station 5fm...

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine and its eminent panel of jurists has determined that Israel's practices against the Palestinian people are in breach of the prohibition of apartheid under international law. Following two intense days in Cape Town listening to testimony from expert witnesses, the Tribunal concluded unanimously that "Israel...

The Tunisian Ministry of Justice is hosting a conference about the International Criminal Court in cooperation with the Court and the International Organization of Francophone Countries. The event is being held in the capital Tunis. An official media source reported that this conference will be attended by universal human...

Reports on Hebrew radio claim that Kenya has requested military and security assistance from the Israeli government to deal with a "radical Islamic youth militia". Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga apparently made the request to Israel's President Shimon Peres during their meeting in Jerusalem on Wednesday. The request was...

The Minister of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Executive Training in Morocco, Lahcen Daoudi, stressed that the cooperation in the scientific field between Morocco and Turkey is vital and must be among the priorities of the two countries. He noted that the cooperation between Morocco and Turkey in the...

The South African government is looking at plans to step up its support for Palestine. The Minister of Arts and Culture, Paul Mashatile, made the announcement during a press conference in Pretoria last week to announce that a Palestinian delegation, including Mr. Mashatile's counterpart, Siham Barghouthi, had met with...

Negotiators for the Sudanese government have returned to Khartoum following discussions in Addis Ababa on the outstanding issues with the recently-created state of South Sudan. Two agreements have been signed, one which sets out the border between the two countries and another on regulating the status of citizens of...

A senior delegation from South Sudan, headed by Pagan Amum, is due to arrive in Khartoum to deliver an invitation to President Omar al-Bashir to attend a bilateral summit in Juba with South Sudan's president, General Salva Kiir, in the first week of April. The delegation includes Deng Alor, Minister...

A senior Sudanese politician, Dr. Al-Tayeb Mustafa, has claimed that the proposed summit between the presidents of Sudan and South Sudan is in fact a set-up to arrest Omar Al-Bashir, the leader of the government in Khartoum. Basing his claims on "reliable leaks", the head of Sudan's Menber El-Salam...

The President of the Chamber of Commerce in Jeddah, Saleh Kamel, has announced that the Sudanese government is going to establish a free zone in which Saudi Arabia will have access to 2 million acres of land for agricultural use. The land is in an area close to Port...

The President of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, Khadija Riadi, has stressed her belief that the struggle for human rights is a universal struggle, and that Palestinian prisoners are part of this struggle. As such, the issue should attract the necessary sense of importance and urgency from everyone....

The Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth claims that the Israeli government is looking at the possibility of sending military support to South Sudan. The unit would integrate with the activities of the United Nations in the country. The newspaper reported that the Israeli Foreign Ministry and police service are giving...

A senior Sudanese minister has said that Khartoum will not negotiate or enter into dialogue with South Sudan until the issue of Juba's aggression in Heglig is resolved. Dr. Amin Hassan Omar insisted that the territorial integrity of Sudan must be maintained by the withdrawal of the Sudan People's...

Mustafa Osman Ismail, an adviser to the Sudanese President, said on Wednesday that his government will not return to negotiations with South Sudan as long as the SPLM and its army are occupying parts of Southern Kordofan and the Blue Nile, as well as supporting and providing shelter to...

The Minister of Health for the Palestinian Authority in Gaza is visiting South Africa to give the government, trade unions and pro-Palestine activists details of the growing health crisis in the besieged territory. It is believed that this is the first ministerial level delegation from Gaza to visit the...

The First Vice-President of Sudan, Ali Osman Taha, has renewed his country's commitment to fully liberate every inch of the Sudanese borders, and to firmly defend it against aggression which he deemed a moral and constitutional obligation to preserve the country's sovereignty and dignity. In his address to the...

World-renowned author Alice Walker has refused to give permission to an Israeli company, Yediot Books, to publish her award-winning novel, The Color Purple. Citing Israel's "apartheid policies", Ms Walker wrote in a letter dated 9 June, "It isn't possible for me to permit this at this time for the...

The Israeli government has been plunged into unprecedented panic by claims that the number of African migrants entering the country via Egypt is increasingly out of control. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the migrants a "serious national threat to the character of the Zionist state". At the beginning of...

South Africa's University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) has pulled the plug on the Israeli deputy ambassador to South Africa, Yaakov Finkelstein. This is yet another blow to Israel-South Africa relations that have recently become tense. Finkelstein was due to speak at UKZN later on today, Monday (21 May 2012), but...

Students and representatives of Palestinian civil society youth organisations have appealed to the Student Council of Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand ("Wits") to adopt a resolution to boycott Israel during its annual meeting. Wits is one of the largest universities in South Africa. The global boycott, divestment and sanctions...

The King of Morocco has told US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that he condemns the "suspicious and unacceptable provocations which target the sacred values of Islam", a reference to the US-made film which denigrates Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. King Mohammed VI also passed on his condolences...

Sudan's Minister of Information has accused Israel of bombing an arms factory in Khartoum overnight on Tuesday, using four aircraft. Strong blasts rocked the military industrial facility in the suburbs of the capital. The government-affiliated Sudanese Media Centre reported that the Yarmouk ammunition factory was hit in the attack....

An Egyptian delegation of civil society activists is visiting Khartoum in solidarity with the people of Sudan against the recent bombing of a factory in the city. Israel is suspected of carrying out the attack. The delegation's coordinator, Dr. Jamal Abdul Salam, said that the visit has been arranged...

Algeria's Foreign Minister, Mourad Medelci, has revealed that his country and Tunisia have adopted a common position rejecting foreign military intervention in northern Mali. Following a meeting with his Tunisian counterpart, Rafik Abdul Salam, in the Tunisian capital, Medelci said, on Tuesday, that the two countries would seek to...

The King of Moroccan has instructed the Moroccan army to set up a field hospital in Gaza as soon as possible. King Mohammed VI gave the order following a serious escalation in Israeli aggression against the beleaguered Palestinian territory. A spokesman for the Royal Palace, Abdul Haq Almurini, told...

The Qatari newspaper Al-Arab used its editorial on Wednesday to highlight and denounce the double standards of the situations in Mali and Syria and the international response to each. It referred specifically to the French military intervention in Mali while the Paris government basically turns a blind eye to...

Tunisia's National Constituent Assembly approved on Wednesday the new government headed by a leader of the El-Nahda Movement, Ali Al-Areed, with 139 votes out of 217. The new government that Al-Areed announced he had formed last Saturday has preserved the tripartite alliance between the El-Nahda Islamic Movement, the Congress...

The Tunisian army and police force have clashed with Islamic militants near the border with Algeria, a security source has revealed. There are no reports of any casualties or injuries. According to Tunis Afrique Presse news agency, a security source said, "The clashes took place with a Salafi militant...

Algeria's Foreign Minister, Mourad Medelci, announced on Monday that his country is willing to act as a mediator between Iran and Bahrain in the best interest of the two states. Speaking at a joint press conference with Bahrain's Foreign Minister Khaled bin Ahmad Al-Khalifa, Mr Medelci said that he...

A Libyan military official announced on Saturday that his country had scuppered an attempted military revolt planned by affiliates of the deposed colonel, Muamar al-Gaddafi. Authorities arrested 17 culprits, the Lebanese daily, Al-Saffir, reported. The head of the Military Council for the city of Sabha, Ahmed al-Ataybi, said: "A...

The Tunisian public was surprised to hear the news that its national Taekwondo team would participate in a match against the Israeli national team, which is considered a form of normalisation with Israel. This participation has caused the issue of normalisation with Israel to resurface in Tunisia. Once the...

Libyan Prime Minister, Ali Zaidan, has dismissed rumours about NATO intervention in Libya. "This is biased and conspiratorial propaganda circulated to ruin the work of the government," he said. The Libyan news agency, WAL, reported that during a meeting with police and judicial officials, Zaidan said: "Libyans are watching...

Deputy chief of union for Egyptians living and working abroad Mohamed al-Rayyan has revealed that money transfers by Egyptians overseas has reached $19billion. At the meeting of the Human Resources Development Committee in Al-Shura Council, Al-Rayyan said that Egyptians started working in the trade of services, tourism and insurance...

The Egyptian government has signed four cooperation agreements with Chinese companies to develop and improve the economic area northwest of the Gulf of Suez. During a press conference, Minister of Investment, Osama Saleh, confirmed that the total amount of investments to be made by the companies amounts to $500...

The Egyptian president's office said on Sunday that Mohammed Morsi has reached an agreement with senior judges to freeze the proposed law that would have forced around a quarter of them to retire. In a statement, President Morsi's spokesman said that it was also agreed to host a conference...

On Monday, Egypt withdrew from Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) talks being held in Geneva asserting that a number of countries were not seriously acting to establish a Middle East free of nuclear weapons. In a statement issued on Monday, Egypt's foreign ministry said that it had ended its participation...

The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) has raised its tolls for shipping with immediate effect. The new tolls will reflect increases of between 2 and 5 per cent, depending on the size, type and load of the vessels using the link between the Mediterranean and Red Seas. Oil tankers and...

The political fallout from an attack by the Sudanese Revolutionary Forces 300 miles from the capital Khartoum is increasing. The attack on Umm Ruwaba took place last Saturday. Several political factions in Sudan have expressed their anger at the apparent inaction of the Sudanese army in the face of...

The Nigerian opposition and mass media have expressed their anger over a $40m contract between Nigerian President Jonathan Goodluk and an Israeli company to spy on citizens, especially journalists, through the Internet, Egyptian newspaper Al-Shorouk said on Friday. Several Nigerian newspapers, including the widespread daily Punch, reported "this unprecedented...

Algeria and Egypt have agreed to establish a bilateral contact group to strengthen their bilateral security cooperation. The agreement came at the conclusion of talks on Monday, which took place in the Algerian capital, under the chairmanship of Ambassador Hussein Abdul Karim, Egypt's assistant foreign minister for legal affairs...

Leader of the Tunisian Al-Nahda movement, Sheikh Rashid al-Ghannouchi, has congratulated the Tunisian army and police for thwarting "terrorist acts" in the country and denounced calls for jihad. Al-Ghannouchi said "The one who wants to do jihad has to go to Palestine." On the official Facebook page of his...

Egypt's Minister of Defence has ruled out a return of the army to the streets in a military coup against President Mohamed Morsi. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi dismissed the calls from some political groups for such a move. He called for "understanding" and warned that the alternative could be "extremely...