It is ten years since the people of Tunisia took to the streets and started what became known as the Jasmine Revolution which led to the ouster of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011. The revolution triggered a range of similar uprisings across the Arab world,...

The Chief of Staff of the Israel Defence Forces has asked officers to draw up a new plan to attack Iran's nuclear programme, Israel Hayom reported on Thursday. General Aviv Kochavi has apparently asked the Strategy and Third Circle Directorate, also known as the Iran Directorate, to develop three...

The Egyptian Interior Ministry transferred one of the four main suspects in the murder of Italian graduate student Giulio Regeni to a new position on Tuesday, Anadolu has reported. Interior Minister Mahmoud Tawfiq approved the reshuffle of security officers' which included the transfer of the head of the National...

Arab normalisation with Israel is expected to have serious consequences that go well beyond the limited and self-serving agendas of a few regional countries. Thanks to the Arab normalisers, the doors are now flung wide open for new political actors to extend or cement ties with Israel at the...

Syria has called on the UN Security Council to assume its responsibilities and take "strict and immediate" action against Israel's repeated air strikes on its neighbour. "The Israeli aggression on Syria coincided with the terrorist acts committed by Al-Qasd militia fighters against the Syrian people in...

Israel is to urge the incoming Biden administration not to exert pressure on Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE over their serious record of human rights violations as well as regional issues such as the war in Yemen, Axios has reported. The site quoted senior Israeli security officials as...

Mexican Cinépolis is planning to open 200 cinemas in Saudi Arabia within two years, local media reported on Wednesday. Cinépolis recently opened two new cinemas in Saudi Arabia's cities of Jeddah and Dammam as part of the kingdom's "Saudi Vision 2030", which is reported by the government to be...

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has signed an order to pay the full salaries to more than 900 prisoners and former prisoners, Head of the Prisoners and Ex-prisoners Affairs Authority Qadri Abu Bakr announced yesterday. On the PA's recent proposal to establish a private bank for the families...

Russian oil giant Gazprom has resumed talks with the Saudi Arabian chemical manufacturer SABIC over the latter's co-investment in building a gas chemical complex in Serbia's northwestern peninsula of Yamal. A well-informed source told Russian newspaper Vedomosti that Gazprom had held talks with a number of representatives from SABIC...

When supporters of the soon-to-be ex-President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol Building in Washington DC last week, many things were revealed that day. We saw the lengths that Trump supporters would go to keep him in office, the fragility of American democracy, the shockingly limited security employed by the...

The Houthi rebel group was behind last month's deadly attack on Aden airport, Yemen's government announced on Thursday, Anadolu Agency reports. At least 28 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded as explosions rocked the airport on Dec. 30 just as Yemen's newly formed government arrived from neighboring Saudi...

Yemen's Houthi movement will not walk away from peace talks with the United Nations and Saudi Arabia despite the US decision to designate the Iran-aligned group as a foreign terrorist organisation, the Houthi chief negotiator told Reuters. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the designation, which will...

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan on Thursday denounced Iran's "interventions" in the Middle East region, after a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, Reuters reports. Speaking at a joint news conference in Moscow with Lavrov, broadcast on Saudi TV, the Saudi minister said Tehran's proxy militias were obstructing...

The US decision to declare Houthis rebels, who fought the central government in Yemen's civil, a "terrorist organisation" could negatively affect the political process, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday, Anadolu Agency reported. Lavrov said he hopes the move does not affect the political settlement in Yemen and he...

The Israeli District Planning and Building Committee in Jerusalem has announced its approval for the construction of a new US Embassy building in the city, AP has reported. The location of the new building will be on Hebron Road, a central thoroughfare, and not far from the current temporary...

US State Secretary Mike Pompeo has suggested that outgoing President Donald Trump should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for promoting harmony between Arab countries and Israel. This comes despite Trump facing trial in the Senate after becoming the first US president to be charged with misconduct in office...

Turkey will send 20,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), the country's top health official said yesterday. According to Anadolu's Northern Cyprus office, TRNC's Health Minister Ali Pilli said that the vaccines will be provided both by the European Union and Turkey. "Vaccines...

The first office tower in Egypt's New Administrative Capital (NAC) has been completed, according to China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC). The C08 building, which is one of two twin towers (alongside the C07), had the final piece of its curtain wall installed earlier this month, making it "the...

The UN has mastered the art of dissociating itself from colonisation, especially that which it has supported through international consensus. Former UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov, who in 2019 blamed Palestinians for Israel's aggression against Gaza, has left his post with a parting...

A refugee who arrived in the UK after fleeing Iraq has said that "life in Hull is the same as in Iraq." The United Nations moved Intesar Hassan, 55, and her four children to the northern city of Hull in 2012 from Syria, where she initially moved to escape...

A major union is taking steps against the liquidation of Egyptian Iron and Steel Company, one of the companies linked to the Ministry of the Public Business Sector, RT reported on Wednesday. The company was established by the then President of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, in 1954. The head...

The Sudanese Foreign Ministry said an Ethiopian military aircraft entered its airspace during a border dispute that has seen deadly clashes in recent weeks, Reuters reports. "In a dangerous and unjustified escalation, an Ethiopian military aircraft penetrated the Sudanese-Ethiopian borders," Sudan's foreign ministry said in a statement yesterday. "The move could...

The Sultan of Oman, Haitham Bin Tariq, has appointed his oldest son, Dhi Yazan Bin Haitham, as crown prince, the country's first following a constitutional shakeup on Monday. Prior to becoming first in line to succession of the sultanate, the Oxford-educated 30-year-old was Oman's minister for culture, sports and the youth...

Four Algerians were sentenced to six months in prison yesterday for insulting the president and spreading false news, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported. Yasser Kadiri, Said Zegar, and Khelil Kheyi, were sentenced by a court in the central Algerian town of Timimoun. The trio, who have been in custody since September,...

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced today that it hopes the US will end its boycott of the international aid group when the administration of President-elect Joe Biden comes into power. During a press conference by UNRWA Commissioner-General, Philippe Lazzarini, at the agency's...

There is an unprecedented increase in the number of political parties in Israel in the run up to the next General Election in March. This will be the fourth election in less than two years. Perhaps the most prominent of these parties is Kahol Laffan founded by the Mayor...

On 14 January 2011, Tunisia's long-time President of 23 years Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was forced to step down after mass protests broke out in the country in the aftermath of Mohammed Bouazizi's self-immolation. The young fruit seller's act of despair after being insulted by a local policewoman...

Today marks one year since Egyptian-American citizen Moustafa Kassem died in an Egyptian prison after embarking on a hunger strike over his unjust detention. Kassem was 54 and working as a taxi driver in New York and was in Egypt visiting family. He was arrested around the time of...

Ever since the launch of the Tunisian revolution ten years ago, some have accused the Arab popular revolutions of being an "Israeli or American conspiracy". The intention has been to condemn the uprisings and accuse those who took part and paid a high price for doing so of working...

Human rights in Lebanon have seen the most drastic deterioration in decades, according to the Human Rights Watch's (HRW) World Report 2021. The country's poverty rate doubled in 2020 as a result of an unprecedented economic crisis, the coronavirus pandemic, and the 4 August Beirut port explosion. "With each passing day,...

The Egyptian Minister of Finance, Dr Mohamed Maait, has confirmed that the country is set to witness a greater role for the private sector in economic development, as it is the engine of growth. The government has an increasing interest in opening new development opportunities that will enhance private...

An Israeli minister in the ruling Likud party has warned that if the United States is to return to the Iran nuclear deal under the new administration of President-elect Joe Biden, then Israel will be forced to take action itself against Iran's nuclear programme. Community Affairs Minister Tzachi Hanegbi,...

Influential Shia Cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr has called for Iraq to find an alternative to Iranian gas used to operate electricity plants after imports were halted due to the debt crisis, Anadolu reported yesterday. On 27 December, Iran reduced gas exports to Iraq by 40 per cent due to the...

Executive Director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), Sarah Leah Whitson, yesterday called on Egyptian authorities to release elderly prisoners. In a video posted on Twitter by Batel Campaign, Whitson said: "I am speaking today to make an urgent appeal to Egyptian authorities and those who have influence with the Egyptian authorities to move to...

The fourth meeting of the "Munich Quartet" — Germany, Jordan, Egypt and France — ended in Cairo this week. It was mainly concerned with the Palestinian issue. The fifth meeting is expected to take place in Paris, after the bitter transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden...

Former Gaza aid worker, Mohammad El-Halabi, is attending his 154th court hearing in Israel, the Palestinian Prisoners' Club (PPC) said yesterday. The 42-year-old, who was the director of World Vision in Gaza until he was detained in 2016, has attended all the previous court hearings behind closed doors. His...

Hundreds rallied in front of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's house yesterday, protesting against the adjournment of his trial, Anadolu reported. According to the Israeli Public Broadcaster Kan, the protesters held posters which read: "Go to the court, coward." Netanyahu was due to appear in court yesterday on corruption charges but the...

The Ethiopian Ambassador to Sudan Yibtalal Amero yesterday accused the Sudanese army of seizing nine camps inside Ethiopian territory, Anadolu Agency reported. "We were surprised by the Sudanese army's attacks on Ethiopian territory, and the seizure of nine camps since November," Amero told representatives of international organisations and ambassadors of foreign...

Boris Prokoshev, the captain of the ship that carried the ammonium nitrate that led to an explosion at Beirut port in August, said he was "shocked" to learn that Interpol had issued a red notice against him in connection with the blast. "I am shocked and I do not...

On 20 January, Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States. This will end four years of Donald Trump's foreign policy that has upset allies, angered friends and, sometimes, benefitted foes. However, amending foreign policy in the bitterly divided US will neither be...

Prominent Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr has warned of postponing early elections scheduled for 6 June and called on the Iraqi people to update their electoral records. Head of Al-Sadr's media office Haider Al-Jaber told reporters that "instigators of sedition" have called to cancel or postpone the early elections,...

Egyptian Minister of Petroleum Tarek El-Molla announced on Tuesday a reduction in aviation fuel prices, as part of a government initiative to support the country's tourism sector. In an official statement, El-Molla conveyed that the programme would cut aviation fuel prices to 15 cents per gallon, adding that it...

The US' recent claims about Iran becoming a "safe haven" for Al-Qaeda are "baseless", Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zamir Kabulov asserted on Tuesday. On Tuesday, US State Secretary Mike Pompeo accused Iran of "actively supporting Al-Qaeda" and that Tehran was providing Al-Qaeda operatives with "travel documents and logistical support". "It...

Egypt has signed an agreement with the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) to finance the country's petroleum imports, the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum announced on Tuesday. "The loan agreement is valued at $1.1 billion," the ministry confirmed in an official statement, adding that the fund was allocated: "To...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani fiercely attacked outgoing US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, declaring that the end of Trump's term marks the end of his political approach. The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted Rouhani stating: "For the past three years, this terrorist wanted to overthrow the Islamic regime, but...

Lebanon has submitted an official complaint with the United Nations (UN) against Israel's continued violations of the country's sovereignty, the Lebanese National News Agency reported. On Tuesday, the agency disclosed that the Lebanese Foreign Ministry submitted an official complaint to UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the UN Security Council,...

The United Nations (UN) is "extremely concerned" about the potential impact of the US plan to designate the Yemeni Houthi group as a foreign terrorist group, according to a UN official. Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General Stéphane Dujarric told reporters on Tuesday that the organisation is particularly concerned about...

US ex-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton praised the documentary The Dissident, which narrates the life of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi until the moments of his assassination, accusing the Saudi regime of being responsible for his murder. Clinton tweeted: "The Saudi government is responsible for the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi."...

A Sudanese military helicopter crashed on Wednesday, shortly after taking off from Wad Zayed Airport in the province of El-Gedaref, which borders Ethiopia, local media reported. According to Sudanese media reports, the Apache attack helicopter was loaded with weapons and ammunition when it crashed shortly after taking off, and...

A report published by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) on Wednesday confirmed that the death toll from the Israeli raids in Syria last night "rose to at least 40 with 37 injuries." Nine Syrian regime soldiers and 31 non-Syrian militiamen affiliated with Iran were killed in Israeli...