Yemen’s Houthi-aligned government yesterday accused the Saudi-led coalition of denying the country access to vital medicine. According to Dr Taha Al-Mutawakil, the Minister of Health in the National Salvation Government (NSG), one of the first things the Arab coalition did was to target the health and medical infrastructure by...

Iraq’s Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi has ordered the formation of a committee tasked to build a nuclear reactor for research purposes, the Iraqi Radioactive Sources Regulatory Authority (IRSRA) revealed yesterday. Speaking to the Iraqi News Agency, the head of the IRSRA, Hussein Latif, said that Al-Kadhimi is “aware of the...

Turkish authorities today issued arrest warrants for 82 people, including an opposition party mayor, following protests in the town of Kobani six years ago, CNN Turk reported. The warrants date back to the October 2014 protests in Turkey sparked by the seizure of the mainly Kurdish Syrian town of Kobani by Daesh armed...

Hamas and Fatah have agreed to hold the first elections in Palestine in nearly 15 years, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported. Following a meeting at the Palestinian Embassy in Istanbul, a press release was issued that confirmed the two biggest Palestinian factions had reached “a unified vision”. “We agree that the vision has matured...

Moody’s Investors Service on Tuesday downgraded Kuwait by two levels to A1 citing the increase in the government’s “liquidity risks”. The credit rating company said it expects the Kuwaiti government to need to borrow 27.6 billion dinars ($90 billion) to meet its funding requirements between the current fiscal year...

Egyptian security forces have called on the heads of political parties and MPs to gather supporters for a demonstration today. Sources have told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that General turned President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s supporters will be brought to the capital to gather in support of the president, who is facing increasing calls...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the chief of Sudan’s Sovereignty Council, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, are scheduled to meet in Uganda in the near future to discuss bilateral relations, Israeli media outlets reported. Israel’s i24 News quoted sources close to the Sudanese Sovereignty Council as saying that a press conference will...

Saudi’s envoy to Yemen appoints ministers in the war-torn country and “treats Yemenis as subordinates”, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament Abdul Aziz Jabbari has said. “The Saudi ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed Bin Saeed Al-Jaber, is the one who appoints ministers and officials in the country and treats Yemenis as...

Senior officials from Fatah and Hamas have been meeting in Istanbul for the past few days, and have reportedly reached a deal for elections within the next six months. The last Palestinian parliamentary elections were held in 2006 when Hamas won with an unexpected landslide. Since then, the differences...

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said on Wednesday the Syrian issue requires an exceptional strategy, adding that Tehran coordinates its steps in the war-torn country with Turkey and Russia. “We have serious problems in our region. The Syrian issue requires special coordination. We coordinate our steps with Russia and...

Lebanon’s security forces have started carrying out DNA tests on bodies that washed up on the country’s coast to determine whether they are victims of the 4 August Beirut blast or of a recent migrant boat tragedy, Arab News reported. At least five bodies that were discovered washed up on Lebanon’s...

Employees of Lebanon’s central bank are set to receive four-month bonuses, despite the crisis-ridden country’s economic collapse, local daily Al-Joumhouria reported. Recipients of the intended bonus include the bank’s Governor Riad Salameh, the newly appointed vice-governors and four members of the Banking Control Commission as well as the rest of the institution’s...

Sudan is “likely” to be the next Arab country to normalise relations with Israel, Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper quoted a Sudanese official as saying. According to the source, the recent high-level talks between the US and the Sudanese government held in Abu Dhabi discussed Khartoum’s agreeing to normalise relations with Tel Aviv in return...

“Just like the seasons of the Earth, there is a time and place for everything,” says Lebanese artist Zena El-Khalil. “Winter has the tendency to create the most amount of discomfort for us. The trepidation of the unknown can bring about anxiety and frustration. However, this phase is absolutely...

A video is circulating online of Egyptian security forces shooting at demonstrators in Kafr Qandil village. The video has been dated 23 September and shows several men throwing rocks into an alleyway and running back when they hear the sound of gunshots. Armed security forces then emerge from the...

Lebanese lawmaker, Mario Aoun of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), said his movement has clear differences with Shia factions over the formation of the next government, in reference to Hezbollah and the Amal Movement led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. However, Aoun said in a statement that despite the...

What: On 25 September, 1997, Israelis from the Mossad spy agency attempted to assassinate Palestinian political leader Khaled Meshaal in Amman, the capital of Jordan. The brazen attempt on the life of the then 41-year-old head of the Hamas Political Bureau sparked a diplomatic row which threatened to wreck...

The Syrian Civil Defence teams known as the White Helmets have launched a campaign to clear residential areas in Idlib governorate of rubble left by regime attacks, Anadolu news agency has reported. In May 2017, Turkey, Russia and Iran reached an agreement to establish “de-escalation zones” in Idlib governorate...

France yesterday backed a proposal by former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri that could help with the formation of Lebanon’s new cabinet amid the country’s worst crisis since the 1975-90 civil war. “This declaration represents an opening and all parties should understand its importance so that a government of...

The right of the Palestinian people to have a state with Jerusalem as its capital cannot be traded away, the Algerian President, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, announced yesterday. His remarks came during the United Nations 75th virtual General Assembly, which was held online. “Once again, we express our firm support for...

Geneva-based Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has launched an emergency appeal to help people affected by the floods in Sudan, Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reported yesterday. “MSF is launching an emergency appeal to fund nutrition and health programmes in Bahr El Ghazal, southern Sudan,” the organisation said in a statement, adding that...

The Egyptian people have been taking to the streets, and although small and sporadic initially, the protests have been accelerating day by day. People started demonstrating after actor and contractor Mohamed Ali called on them to protest on 20 September, perhaps thinking that there would be no response to...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Greece, including an increasingly-watched naval base, to kick off a four-nation tour of Europe, the State Department announced Thursday, Anadolu reports. Pompeo will depart the US on Sept. 27 and return over a week later on Oct. 5. In Greece, Pompeo...

It is clear that the election of Joe Biden, the Democratic Party candidate for president of the US, would bring changes to the US domestic scene, but not necessarily to US policies toward the Palestinians. It is easy to notice the differences between the Democratic and Republican parties’ domestic...

Lebanese President Michel Aoun called on Thursday for addressing the illegal immigration file, and to combat the smuggling networks that organise deathly trips from the country’s coasts towards the island of Cyprus. This came in a statement issued by the Lebanese presidency, following a security meeting in the capital...

The Iraqi Fatah Alliance condemned on Thursday the missile attacks launched by unknown parties on the headquarters of “diplomatic missions and official institutions”, expressing that these attacks weaken the state and will lead to “dangerous results”. The Fatah Alliance led by Hadi Al-Amiri includes the political branches of the...

The foreign ministers of Jordan, Egypt, France and Germany called on Thursday for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and restarting peace negotiations. This came at a press conference following a meeting held by the foreign ministers and the European Union (EU)’s representative to discuss the Middle East peace process, aired...

According to a report by Amnesty International, the militia of General Khalifa Haftar has forcibly expelled more than 5,000 refugees in 2020. This was detailed in a lengthy report supported by testimonies of Libyan migrants and refugees, one day after the European Commission (EC) announced a new pact to...

Yemen’s ousted President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi asked for urgent international economic support Thursday to help the government face economic challenges, Anadolu Agency reports. “The imposed war on our people caused a humanitarian catastrophe and blighted the Yemeni society,” he said in a letter to the annual UN General Assembly meetings. “We extended...

The Delta Hellas oil tanker is currently loading its crude cargo from storage tanks at Libya’s Hariga oil terminal, according to a shipping source and an engineer at the port, Reuters reports. The tanker, chartered by the trading arm of China’s Sinopec , Unipec, has the capacity to load 1 million...

The United Arab Emirates and Israel share threats to their national online networks, the Israeli cyber-security chief said on Thursday in a rare public discussion of potential cooperation with his counterpart following the normalisation of relations, Reuters reports. The establishment of formal Israel-UAE ties over the last month – spurred in...

Ongoing anti-regime demonstrations across Egypt continued to rage through Wednesday night, local news reports said, Anadolu Agency reports. Called by self-exiled Egyptian businessman Mohamed Ali, hundreds took to the streets as part of demonstrations that started Sunday against President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and his government in the northeastern Giza governorate, according to social media...

Russia will build its relations with Iran without taking into account the US threat to put sanctions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday, Anadolu Agency reports. Speaking at a news conference in Moscow following the meeting with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif, Lavrov said the US demands to wrap...

The NATO secretary-general and Greek prime minister on Thursday discussed the recent developments in the Eastern Mediterranean, Anadolu Agency reports. “As part of his regular consultations with Greek and Turkish leaders, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke by telephone with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Thursday (24 September 2020) about...

“I was sexually harassed…I was sexually harassed…I was sexually harassed,” a powerful video featuring a cross section of actresses, activists, business women and influencers repeating the same sentence over and over again, an echo of what has shaken the Egyptian elite over the summer of 2020. The problem of...

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said in an interview that he believes countries in the Arab region formally establishing diplomatic ties with Israel will likely lead to a settlement with the Palestinians. Speaking at the Jerusalem Post conference, Blair criticised the decades-long attempts at first bringing peace between Israel and...

Four members of the same family have died in Egypt’s Damietta Governorate due to coronavirus, days after they attended the wedding of one of their relatives. On 26 August, pharmacist Mohamad El-Fangary announced the death of his mother after she was infected with the coronavirus, indicating that she had...

Bilateral trade between Qatar and Turkey is set for further expansion despite COVID-19, an official has said at a webinar organised by the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) yesterday. As part of the QFC’s flagship “#AccessQatar” series, the webinar titled ‘Emerging Opportunities: Qatar & Turkey’ was organised in collaboration with...

The statements made by Palestinian Authority officials are laughable rather than provocative. They are immoral and fraudulent, and falsify the facts. Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki, for example, has announced that the state of Palestine has quit its revolving chairmanship of the Arab League in protest at its position on...

Israeli bulldozers razed Palestinian land near the village of Jalud, south of occupied Nablus, this morning as part of efforts to expand an illegal Israeli settlement. Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official in charge of the settlements file in the northern West Bank, told Wafa news agency that settler bulldozers were seen leveling...

Web-based video-conferencing platform Zoom has cancelled a webinar hosted by San Francisco State University in which Palestinian resistance icon Leila Khaled was to be one of the guest speakers. Facebook and YouTube have also chosen to censor the event, both of whom – according to Electronic Intifada – have a long...

The Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Minister, Riyad Al-Maliki, has said that it will forego its six-month presidency of the Arab League due to the organisation’s attitude towards the normalisation of relations with Israel at the expense of the Palestinian cause. “The State of Palestine has decided to relinquish and forsake...

US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, said that the United Arab Emirates, which has recently signed a historic US-sponsored peace deal with Israel, would not receive American F-35 stealth fighter jets for six or seven years. “The Emiratis have been trying to get the F-35 for six or seven...

Turkish authorities are investigating the death of an American author and journalist who died while traveling overnight from the Turkish Black Sea coastal city of Samsun to Istanbul, Anadolu Agency reported on Tuesday. According to the report, the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office launched an investigation into the death of Andre Vltcheck...

The long-term strategic relationship between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are facing enormous challenges, the Non-Resident Fellow at the Centre for Global Policy, Imtiaz Ali, has warned. In an article published on the centre’s website, Ali ruled out that bilateral relations between Riyadh and Islamabad could witness a serious breakdown, however, he...

Hamas and Fatah agreed on Thursday to implement practical measures for national dialogue to begin before 1 October, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement has announced. The two main Palestinian factions agreed to lay down the guidelines for a national agreement based on the outcomes of a very senior level...

The US Ambassador to the UN claimed yesterday that another Arab state will recognise Israel within the next couple of days, following the recent normalisation agreements made by the UAE and Bahrain. “Well, it could be today,” Kelly Craft told Al-Arabiya. “There will be one in the next day...

More than 20 boats arrived on the eastern coast of Spain from western Algeria carrying illegal migrants and refugees since the start of the week. Over the past few months, Algeria has become a main point of departure for migrants towards Europe. The Spanish press reported that more than...

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and foreign ministers representing the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed the “Abraham Accords Peace Agreement” in Washington DC which normalises their relations at the expense of Palestinian national and human rights. US President Donald Trump hosted the ceremony and has claimed...

The Libyan army announced yesterday that four mercenaries affiliated with the Russian Wagner Group were killed when a helicopter carrying ammunition crashed in the centre of the country. This came in a statement issued by spokesman for the Sirte/Jafra Operations Room, Abdulhadi Darah. Darah stated that “a helicopter carrying Russian mercenaries and...