All Stories Archive

Turkish President, Tayyip Erdogan welcomed statements on Monday by several Western embassies, including the United States, that they abide by a diplomatic convention not to interfere in a host country's internal affairs, state-run media said. The statements were made almost simultaneously on Twitter, as Erdogan entered a Cabinet meeting...

Iran has warned Israel that it will pay a huge price if it dares to attack the country, as tensions increase over Tehran's alleged development of nuclear weapons and the breakdown of talks. The Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, yesterday warned in a tweet that...

As the pandemic starts to wane down in some parts of the world, art audiences are getting ready to pack their bags and get ready for the new seasons of art events, involving art fairs, biennales, exhibitions, auctions, hopping on planes. In the art world, there has been a...

Millions of Afghans, including children, could die of starvation unless urgent action is taken to pull Afghanistan back from the brink of collapse, a senior United Nations official warned, calling for frozen funds to be freed for humanitarian efforts, Reuters reports. World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director, David Beasley,...

China's State Councilor Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, will meet a delegation of Afghanistan interim government during his visit to Qatar on 25-26 October, Beijing said Monday, Anadolu News Agency reports. The two sides will exchange views on the situation in Afghanistan and other topics of concern for both sides,...

The Israeli occupation authority today resumed the destruction of the historic Muslim cemetery of Al-Yusufiya near the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, the Palestinian Inforamtion Centre reported. Head of the Islamic cemeteries committee Mustafa Abu Zahra said that an Israeli municipal crew escorted by police forces stormed the cemetery...

Iran has formed a new military brigade in Syria comprised of local Shia converts, according to a report earlier this month by Orient News, a UAE-based Syrian opposition news outlet. The report states that the Hashemiyoon Brigade has been operating since mid-August and has been engaged in military activity...

Israeli occupation forces arrested thirteen Palestinians in raids across the occupied West Bank last night, including a cancer patient and two children, reported Wafa news agency. Abdul Basset Maatan, a teacher suffering from cancer, was detained after Israeli forces stormed into his home based in Al-Bireh, east of Ramallah....

The Palestinian Commission of detainees and detainees' affairs yesterday reported severe tension in the Israeli Ofer prison, after the so-called section 21 storm and prisoners' abuse. The commission said in a statement Israeli repression units were "present in the vicinity of the section", adding that they were threatening to...

On Monday, the European Union called on Israel to halt settlement construction and not to go ahead with tenders for about 1,300 new settlement homes in the occupied West Bank that were announced over the weekend, Reuters reports. "Settlements are illegal under international law and constitute a major obstacle...

The Islamic Jihad movement yesterday called on Palestinians to "clash with the Israeli occupation" in support of the six hunger striking prisoners in Israeli detention. The Palestinian Prisoners' Club yesterday warned that six hunger-striking prisoners are now in "extreme danger" and could die in prison. They named them: Kayed Al-Fasous,Miqdad Qawasmeh,...

I have become very cautious when writing or reading an article using the phrase "unprecedented" or "not the same as before" when referring to an important event as we, writers, become excited in the heat of the moment and raise our hopes, imagining an earthquake would hit and change...

The head of Hamas' political wing, Ismail Haniyeh, announced yesterday that several Arab countries had pledged to help release the group's detainees in Saudi Arabia. Haniyeh told Rai Alyoum that the pledges had come during recent talks that included "Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, the United Nations, and the United Arab Emirates."...

Even though the Portuguese language is full of Arabic words, language is a challenge to the Arab community in Brazil. Having learnt Portuguese, many lose their ability to use their mother tongue. Safa Jubran is distinguished because she not only preserved her Arabic language and heritage, but she also...

READ: Confrontation with Iran is 'a matter of time', Israel's Lieberman says...

Lebanon's Foreign Minister has expressed Beirut's desire to improve relations with Saudi Arabia, but said that Riyadh does not reciprocate this desire, as relations between the two continue to sour. Speaking in an interview with the Al-Jadeed news channel yesterday, Foreign Minister, Abdullah Bou Habib, stated that "We want...

The European Parliament's vote in favour of a recommendation to raise the annual support provided to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) will positively reflect on the outcomes of the international donors' conference for UNRWA resource mobilisation. This will be...

Representatives from the Shin Bet security service and the Israeli Foreign Ministry will be sent to the United States to present evidence, including footage and receipts, that prove six Palestinian human rights organisations which Israel has banned have links to terror groups. According to a senior Israeli defence official, the...

Israelis commemorate the 26th anniversary of the assassination of former Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin. This commemoration comes amidst an unprecedented state of sharp polarization, exchanging accusations and recent voices expressing their fear of a return to the same inciting atmosphere that preceded the assassination, which was the first of its...

Newcastle United has reversed a decision requesting that fans refrain from wearing traditional Arab attire at games over concerns that it could be seen as "culturally inappropriate". A statement issued on Saturday by the football club, recently taken over by a Saudi-led consortium, said supporters who wished to wear "appropriate culturally-inspired...

Gaza's landfill site is expanding to accommodate two million cubic metres of waste per day in an effort to meet the enclave's needs for the next nine years. The project budget is estimated at $40 million, funded by the World Bank and the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and...

Peace Now, an Israeli human rights group, has denounced the ongoing construction of 31 settlement units for Jewish settlers in the heart of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, Wafa news agency reported yesterday. "The government is acting like an annexation government, not as a change government," the group said in a statement. Peace...

Egypt suffers from a water deficit of 90 per cent of its renewable resources, the Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohamed Abdel Aty said yesterday. Speaking at the fourth edition of the Cairo Water Week, which began in Cairo yesterday, Abdel Aty said Egypt reuses 35 per cent of those resources to bridge the gap...

On 31 August, the United Stated evacuated the last American soldier from Afghanistan and pulled the curtail on a two-decade war that was started under the claim of fighting terror, ending Al-Qaeda and Taliban and establishing a democratic civil society in the country. "The United States ended 20 years...

Israeli media reported on yesterday that Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz surprised the Americans, UN and Europeans by declaring six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist groups, local papers reported. According to the Jerusalem Post, Gantz's declaration has two faults: the NGOs were banned without evidence being provided for the claims against...

If you poke a stick in a hornets' nest then the results will become painfully obvious very quickly, which is why I am surprised at the headlines expressing shock at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's decision to expel ten ambassadors from his country. His declaration that the ambassadors from...

Former Israeli Army General, Nitzan Alon, yesterday described the occupation's bombing of Al Jalaa Tower, which hosted international media offices in the besieged Gaza Strip, as an "own-goal" for Israel, local media reported. During its major offensive on Gaza in May, Israel bombed several high rises in Gaza, including the 12-story Al...

Soldiers arrested most of the members of Sudan's cabinet today and a military officer dissolved the transitional government, while opponents of the takeover took to the streets where gunfire and injuries were reported, Reuters said. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, a military officer who headed the Sovereign Council, a power-sharing ruling body, announced...

UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, yesterday denounced Israel for opening tenders for new settlement units in the occupied West Bank. "Today, the Israeli authorities announced tenders for the construction of more than 1,300 housing units in the occupied West Bank," Wennesland said in a statement. "I am deeply concerned...

The Israeli occupation government invited bids for the construction of 1,355 new settlement units in the illegal Jewish-only settlements in the occupied West Bank, local media reported yesterday. This comes after 1,300 settlement units were approved for construction by the different government bodies in the occupation state, the first such announcement since US President Joe Biden took office. "Just as...

If Palestine is treated as an exception, the settler-colonial narrative is legitimised. Mark Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick's book, Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics is an accessible, in-depth analysis that takes US politics to task for normalising both Israel's colonial violence and, as a result, the...

Israeli occupation forces detained more than 1,282 Palestinians over the past three months, a joint report issued by a number of Palestinian rights groups said yesterday. The report was issued by Addameer for Human Rights, the PLO's Commission for Prisoners and Freed Prisoners, the Palestinian Prisoners' Club and Wadi...

Reports that Holland's ambassador to Turkey has been deported from the country are allegedly false, amid Ankara's diplomatic fallout with Western states. On Monday, ten Western ambassadors issued a joint statement calling for the release of Osman Kavala, the detained Turkish businessman and activist. Urging a "just and speedy...

Palestinians in the UK renewed their dedication to the right of return, support for the Palestinian people and the preservation of national identity in an event in London yesterday. Hundreds of people came together to take part in the first event organised by the Palestinian Forum in Britain (PFM)...

Stolen artefacts from the Syrian Roman ruins of Palmyra have reportedly been spotted in the office of a Lebanese member of parliament during a televised interview, further revealing the extent of antiquities smuggling in the region. The artefacts, which were seen in the background of Al-Jadeed TV's interview of MP Nohad...

Pope Francis on Sunday urged countries not to send migrants back to insecure countries such as Libya, where he said many suffer violent and inhumane conditions similar to those in concentration camps. The pope's appeal at his Sunday blessing came as European Union leaders are struggling to overcome their...

Tunisia is imposing COVID-19 vaccine passes on Tunisians and all foreign visitors, Reuters reported on a presidential decree on Friday. Officials, employees and users are required to show a card proving inoculation against the coronavirus to access public and private administrations, according to the decree. The pass will also...

NATO-member Turkey's defence minister said the forming of alliances outside of NATO would harm the organisation, according to comments released on Saturday, after Greece and France agreed a defence pact last month, reported Reuters. NATO allies Greece and France clinched a strategic military and defence cooperation pact in September,...

Israel's deputy foreign minister said on Sunday that the Biden administration may shelve its plan to reopen a US diplomatic mission for Palestinians in Jerusalem after Israel voiced opposition to such a move, according to a report by Reuters. The Jerusalem consulate was subsumed into the US Embassy that...

Registration for candidates in Libya's presidential and parliamentary elections should open in November, the head of the High National Elections Commission, said on Sunday reported Reuters. Emad al-Sayah said the registration process should open by mid-November after technical and logistical preparations are completed. Elections have been viewed as a...

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that he had told his foreign ministry to expel the ambassadors of the United States and nine other Western countries for demanding the release of philanthropist Osman Kavala, reports Reuters. Seven of the ambassadors represent Turkey's NATO allies and the expulsions, if...

The United States is making early moves toward rejoining the UN cultural agency UNESCO four years after former President Donald Trump withdrew the country over accusations of anti-Israel bias, congressional and diplomatic sources said to Reuters. The United States provided one-fifth of the Paris-based agency's funding, but Trump's predecessor...

A US envoy underlined Washington's support for a democratic transition to civilian rule in Sudan on Saturday during talks with the head of its ruling council and the prime minister, the US embassy in Khartoum said, according to a report by Reuters. It tweeted that Jeffrey Feltman, special envoy...

A US appeals court ruled on Friday that state-owned Turkish lender Halkbank can be prosecuted over accusations it helped Iran evade American sanctions, reported Reuters. The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals said even if the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act shielded the bank, the charge against Halkbank falls under...

The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah on Friday warned Israel against drilling for oil and gas in the disputed maritime border area between the two countries until the issue is resolved, and said the Iran-backed group would take action if it did so, reported Reuters. "If the enemy thinks they...

Saudi Aramco aims to achieve net zero emissions from its operations by 2050 while also expanding its maximum sustained production capacity to 13 million barrels per day, Chief Executive Amin Nasser said on Saturday, reported Reuters. Nasser also warned that global spare capacity of crude was declining fast and...

  The Syrian regime fired a rocket into a market in Idlib this morning killing 11 including children. According to the civil defence group the White Helmets, 11 civilians were killed, including four children and a woman, when "regime forces and Russia" attacked a public market in the centre...

Iran, known historically as Persia, is home to one of the world's oldest civilisations, stretching as far back as the fourth millennium BC when the ancient Elamite Kingdom was formed. The Middle Eastern country was also the seat of the Persian Empire, the world's first superpower founded around 550...

The latest UN Security Council's (UNSC) statement on the situation in Yemen was released on Wednesday amid continued fighting between the Houthi-allied army and the Saudi-backed militia fighting on behalf of the Riyadh-based Yemeni government over the strategic city of Marib – the only pro-government stronghold in the densely-populous...

The United Nations (UN) Special Envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen announced on Friday that the sixth round of meetings of the Syrian Constitutional Committee in Geneva ended "without making any progress." "The round concluded with great disappointment, as it did not reach any understanding or common ground between the...