Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published a plan for establishing a national unity government yesterday, which was quickly rejected by Blue and White chair Benny Gantz. According to Haaretz, the outline is “based on the guidelines set forward by President Reuven Rivlin for establishing a unity government” but it...

Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Ali Alhakim said yesterday that his country is ready to receive members of Daesh and their families to be prosecuted in Iraq. Alhakim indicated during a joint press conference with his French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian, in Baghdad: “We discussed with the French side the...

This week, the West Bank witnessed a wave of settler attacks and agricultural terrorism as Palestinian farmers began the year’s olive harvest. Attacks were mainly in northern villages near Nablus and Salfit, governorates with the largest concentration of illegal Israeli settlements. Wafa news reported a settler attack on olive...

So, another one bites the dust. Louise Ellman MP quit the Labour Party this week. The chairperson of Labour Friends of Israel is the latest in a line of right-wing Labour MPs to quit the party in protest against its left-wing leader Jeremy Corbyn. Ellman is the second LFI...

The overwhelming election victory of Tunisia’s new President, Kais Saied, and the statements he made in its aftermath send a very clear message: the counter-revolution in Tunisia has failed; it has been defeated; it has ended. Tunisians have always embraced the saying, “If people fight for life, destiny will...

The commander of Kurdish forces in Syria has declared that US President Donald Trump has not opposed an agreement reached by the Kurds, Russia and the Syrian regime to counter the Turkish attack in north-eastern Syria. Mazloum Abdi told Kurdish Ronahi TV on Wednesday evening that Trump gave the...

The Ministry of Social Development in the Gaza Strip said yesterday that the rates of poverty and unemployment in the Gaza Strip reached nearly 75 per cent in 2019. In a press release it added that 70 per cent of the population of the Gaza Strip is food insecure. This, it continued, was a result of “the aggressive...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Friday, hours after Turkey agreed with the United States to pause its offensive on Kurdish forces in Syria, Reuters reports. Turkey launched its assault against the Kurdish YPG militia in Syria...

UNESCO’s Executive Board approved at its 207th session a resolution calling on Israel to stop its violations and unilateral actions against historic sites in Jerusalem. The decision was made by the international organisation during its meeting in Paris. The resolution called on Israel to stop its unilateral and illegal violations against...

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the pause in Turkey’s Operation Peace Spring, the international body said hours after the announcement Thursday, Anadolu reports. “The Secretary-General welcomes any effort to de-escalate the situation and protect civilians, in line with the UN Charter and international humanitarian law,” the UN said in...

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner will lead a US delegation to Israel at the end of the month to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Benny Gantz, a senior administration official said on Thursday, Reuters reports. Kushner has been leading President Donald Trump’s effort to...

US President Donald Trump defended his Syria pullout at a campaign rally on Thursday and lashed out at “crazy Nancy” Pelosi and other Democrats who are trying to remove him from office through impeachment, Reuters reports. “The more America achieves, the more hateful and enraged these crazy Democrats become....

African refugees in Libya are so desperate that some are bribing their way into detention centres in the hope of eventually being resettled out of the war-torn, lawless country, the United Nations said on Thursday, Reuters reports. Forces loyal to eastern-based commander Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive in April to try...

Turkey has agreed to a five-day ceasefire in northeast Syria to allow for withdrawal of Kurdish forces, US Vice President Mike Pence said on Thursday after talks with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Reuters reports. “Today the United States and Turkey have agreed to a ceasefire in Syria,” Pence told a news...

A Turkish offensive into northeast Syria has led to the death of 224 from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and 183 Turkish-backed rebels after the first eight days of fighting, the Syrian Observatory reported on Thursday, Reuters reports. The fighting has also led to 72 civilian deaths, the Observatory...

Hungary would have to “use force” at its southern border with Serbia to protect the European Union’s frontier if Turkey delivers on a threat to open the gates for refugees through the Balkans towards Europe, Hungary’s prime minister said, Reuters reports. Prime Minister Viktor Orban built a steel fence on Hungary’s...

Germany’s chancellor on Thursday voiced concern over the US decision to withdraw troops from Syria, arguing that it would further increase the influence of Russia and Iran in the region, reported by Anadolu Agency.  Addressing lawmakers at the Bundestag before heading to Brussels for a summit of EU leaders,...

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar denied on Thursday the allegations of social media accounts about Turkey’s ongoing anti-terror operation in northern Syria, Anadolu Agency reports. Photos appeared on social media about Turkey’s ongoing military operation in northern Syria by posting photographs, videos and information to blame Turkey for using chemical...

Children are more than twice as likely to live in extreme poverty than adults, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said today, reported by Anadolu Agency. “On this International #EndPoverty Day, let us recommit to a fair globalization that Works for all children, their families and communities,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres...

An almost three-hour meeting between Turkish and US delegations on Thursday, co-chaired by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US Vice President Mike Pence, in the Turkish capital Ankara has ended, Anadolu Agency reports. The delegations met at the presidential complex and the meeting lasted for two hours and 40 minutes....

Italy has recovered the bodies of a child and six other people from the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, more than a week after a crowded migrant boat capsized off the coast of the island of Lampedusa, Reuters reports. Men from the Italian coastguard, dressed in white suits and wearing masks...

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A former top Barclays executive, on trial in London on fraud charges, would have risked a 50 million pound ($64 million) “good leaver” package if he had sought a criminal deal with Qatar during the credit crisis, a court heard on Thursday, Reuters reports. It would have been “lunacy” for Roger...

Syrian Kurds’ aspirations for a semi-autonomous region has suffered a blow with Russian insistence that a solution to the conflict must involve the transfer of control over the Turkish-Syrian border to Damascus. “We are convinced that achieving sustainable long-term stabilisation and security in this region of Syria, in the...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said yesterday his country had received support from neighbouring countries – without naming them – in the fight against US sanctions. This came in a speech at a ceremony organised to mark the start of the new academic year at the University of Tehran. As...

Donald Trump confirmed yesterday that some of America’s nuclear weapons from the Cold War era are currently being stored at Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base. The US President is the first to acknowledge publicly what many have regarded as an open secret for decades. It is believed widely that the...

Local sources have said Saudi and Sudanese troops have arrived in Yemen’s southern province of Aden in spite of a Reuters report indicating that an agreement between Yemen’s Saudi-backed government and southern separatists was due to be signed today. The Yemeni government hopes to retake the city as its...

A Palestinian fan was detained for raising the Yemeni flag during Tuesday’s dual World Cup-Asian Cup qualifier between Saudi Arabia and Palestine. Ahmad Al-Yumni, a 24-year-old construction worker from Hebron, was arrested by the Palestinian Authority (PA) for protesting against the war in Yemen. The UN says at least...

Iraqi President Barham Saleh has denied that his country has agreed to accept the transfer of Daesh fighters who are being held in Syria. Iraq, he added, will not be used as a “dumping ground” for the remaining members of  the terrorist organisation. “Barham received a phone call from...

Would-be Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard has stated publicly that the US government has supported Al-Qaeda terrorists, not least in their bid to overthrow the Syrian government. Gabbard is the most high-profile US politician to confirm what has been speculated about widely over the years and has vowed to...

Israeli occupation forces yesterday arrested Sheikh Ismail Nawahda, a preacher at Al-Aqsa Mosque, at the Qalandia checkpoint in the occupied West Bank, Wafa news agency reported. Another 22 Palestinians were also detained yesterday from across the occupied West Bank, the news agency added. Sheikh Nawahda was taken in for...

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel announced she would half channel crossings made by refugees by the end of October and virtually eliminate them by next spring, hours after the bodies of two Iraqis washed up on a beach in Le Touquet in northern France. The Channel, which connects France...

At least 60 Israelis have been arrested in Europe on charges of smuggling large amounts of khat, local media revealed yesterday. The Jerusalem Post reported that seven Israelis were arrested in France, three in Sweden, two in Spain and two in Ireland. They were caught with tens of kilograms...

Israel has called on the United States to maintain a military base in south-eastern Syria for strategic and geopolitical reasons, Israeli TV channel Kan reported yesterday. Al-Tanf base, set up and controlled by the US military in 2016 during the ongoing Syrian conflict, lies in a strategically important area...

After a lawyer, his wife and his brother were arrested from a café in Damanhour, a city in Lower Egypt, his mother and two sisters were also arrested after enquiring about his whereabouts. According to a Facebook post written by Major General Helmi Hamdoun, which has now been removed,...

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Bin Abdulaziz renewed on Wednesday his country’s support for the Palestinian people, Al-Watan Voice has reported. The Saudi monarch affirmed the Kingdom’s backing for the people of Palestine to establish a state on the 1967 borders during a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas....

Yemen’s Nobel Peace Laureate activist Tawakkol Karman has said her country has almost succeeded in forcing out what she called the “Emirati occupation”, and it remains determined to do the same with Saudi Arabia. The solution to the country’s crisis, she explained, lies in “getting rid of the Saudi tutelage” and...

Member of Iranian Parliament’s National Security Commission Abolfazl Hassan Beigi accused the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia of targeting his country’s oil tanker in the Red Sea, local news agencies reported. Hassan Beigi was quoted by the Iranian news agency Mehr saying that the footage from the cameras placed...

Mohammed Dahlan insisted on Wednesday that age and ill health must necessarily prevent Mahmoud Abbas from continuing as the President of the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian MP, who lives in Dubai, made his comments in the context of a discussion about the importance of holding elections for all Palestinian...

Kais Saied is the new President of Tunisia after a landslide election victory with 72.71 per cent of the votes cast. Saied received 2.7 million votes while his rival, businessman and media mogul Nabil Karoui, polled just over a million. The Election Commission confirmed the results on 14 October,...

Jerusalem District Electricity Company (JDECO) has received the first warning ahead of the second phase of electricity cuts to Palestinians in the West Bank, Chairman Hisham Omari said yesterday. As reported by Wafa news agency, Al-Omari warned that the cuts will adversely affect institutions, hospitals, education, water, telecommunications, drug stores and...

Jordan yesterday denied what Israeli media reported about the Jordanian kingdom’s approval to renew or extend Israel’s lease of Baqoura and Al-Ghamr in the Araba border area. Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants Affairs, Sufyan Qudah, said that the kingdom’s decision, taken in October 2018, to terminate the...

A number of Hamas cadres in the West Bank have been arrested by the Israeli army in recent weeks. This has raised questions about security coordination with the occupation authorities, as it has become common for Israel to arrest prisoners a day after they are released by the Palestinian...

Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian estimates suggest that Hamas will win legislative elections if they are held, a report by the Hebrew newspaper Israel Hayom stated yesterday. An Israeli security official, as well as other Palestinian and Jordanian officials, told the paper that despite the lack of political cooperation and...

A survey by Morocco’s High Commission for Planning (HCP) revealed that 43.9 per cent of households say they have been suffering from deteriorating living conditions in the past 12 months, while 32.5 per cent indicated that the situation is stable and 23.6 per cent see an “improvement”. The HCP...

US President Donald Trump warned Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in a letter about Turkey’s incursion into Syria, “Don’t be a tough guy” and “Don’t be a fool!”, Reuters reports. The October 9 letter was released by the White House on Wednesday as Trump battled to control the political damage...

Libya’s internationally recognised government said on Wednesday it was sharply increasing the price of kerosene for industrial and commercial use as a first step to reform costly fuel subsidies and tackle smuggling, Reuters reports. The price will rise to 0.85 Libyan dinars ($0.6) per litre, which is also the...

Iran-backed militias deployed snipers on Baghdad rooftops during Iraq’s deadliest anti-government protests in years, two Iraqi security officials told Reuters. The deployment of militia fighters, which has not been previously reported, underscores the chaotic nature of Iraqi politics amid mass protests that led to more than 100 deaths and...

Israeli forces have detained ten Palestinians in overnight raids carried out across the occupied West Bank, according to the Israeli army, Anadolu reports. The Israeli military said in a Thursday statement that the individuals had been arrested for “suspected involvement in popular violent activities”, without elaborating about the nature...

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democratic leaders’ White House meeting was cut short after Republican President Donald Trump had a “meltdown” over a House of Representatives vote condemning his Syria withdrawal, Reuters reports. Trump was insulting to Pelosi and the meeting deteriorated into a diatribe by Trump, Senate...