Over the past decade, Turkey has found itself at the fore in some major conflicts in the Middle East, causing it to bear the brunt of an international refugee crisis and a hostile EU foreign policy. The plans of its neighbours have also forced it to adapt in order...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has urged Egypt to stop harassing US citizens. The warning comes shortly after the release of dual US-Egypt citizen Mohamed Amashah, 24, who spent almost 500 days in an Egyptian prison. Amashah had been held in pretrial detention for allegedly misusing social media and...

An Egyptian man who locked his sister in a house for 22 years in Upper Egypt was detained pending investigation following the discovery, reports Egypt Independent. Fadia Ismail’s imprisonment was discovered after neighbours reported her brother to the public prosecution. After she was rescued, 56-year-old Fadia was examined by a...

On 6 July, in a statement to the House of Commons, the Conservative Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab unveiled an important plank in Britain’s post-Brexit foreign policy. For the first time in decades the country would unilaterally invoke sanctions against individuals and organisations deemed to have grossly violated human rights...

Algerian officials are working on an economic recovery plan which will help the country tackle the crisis it is facing as a result of the drop in global oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic. On Tuesday, President Abdelmajid Tebboune held a working session with Prime Minister Abdel Abdelaziz Djerad, the ministers...

The Houthi movement revealed the discovery of arm shipments sent by a US charitable organisation to those engaged in fighting in Yemen. The movement confirmed targeting military sites in Saudi Arabia and called on citizens and residents to stay away from those locations. According to Al Jazeera Net, Houthis’ military spokesman, Brigadier Yahya Al-Saree,...

Libya Febrayer TV yesterday aired a video showing detention facilities, which it described as “human ovens”, where oppositionists were tortured by renegade General Khalifa Haftar’s forces. The video showed very narrow cells located in the city of Tarhuna, south-east of the capital, Tripoli, with steel doors. The channel commented on the footage,...

Syria President Bashar Al-Assad is been shaken by meetings held by Russia with members of his Alawite community, NEWSru has revealed. The Russian site reported the meetings were held at the headquarters of the Russian diplomatic mission to the United Nations in Geneva, with participants saying they had received death threats as...

Today marks 15 years since the official foundation of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in Palestine. The movement against Israeli apartheid has a long history and deep roots, but it was on 9 July 2005 that it was established formally with the publication of the “Palestinian Civil...

The Turkish Ministry of National Defence has announced that large-scale naval exercises off the Libyan coast will take place soon. According to the official statement, the expected manoeuvres will be called “Naftex”, adding that the maritime exercises will take place off the Libyan coast in three different regions: Barbaros,...

Iranian Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri urged on Tuesday that Turkey must realise that the solution to its security issues is through “negotiation and understanding with Syria,” and not by being present in a Syrian territory. “Iran will strengthen Syrian air defence systems and enhance joint military cooperation between...

International opposition to Israel’s annexation plans in the occupied West Bank and the Jordan Valley “should not be underestimated,” Israeli Ambassador to both the US and the United Nations Gilad Erdan warned on Tuesday. “Israel will soon clarify to the international community the importance of defining its borders, as...

Qatari investments in Germany were estimated at around €25 billion with more than 300 German companies operating in the Qatari market in various sectors, Qatari Ambassador to Germany Mohammed Jaham Al-Kuwari disclosed. In an interview with the German Near and Middle East Association, Al-Kuwari notes that the Qatari economy...

There is a window of opportunity for Israel to implement its annexation plan this month, an unnamed US source reported by Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post disclosed on Wednesday. According to Safa news agency, the Israeli newspaper reported the source stating that the US deal of the century team...

Israeli occupation forces attempted on Wednesday night to raid the home of a representative of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in East Jerusalem, Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported. OIC’s Representative in Palestine Ahmed Al-Ruwaidi lives in Jerusalem’s neighbourhood of Silwan, but the OIC’s office is located in the West Bank...

The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas hailed on Tuesday the unanimous decisions taken by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) on 1 July, as the organisation restated several Palestinian rights. In a statement, a copy of which was sent to MEMO, Hamas’ Director of International Relations Dr...

Palestinian doctors in Gaza have carried out 40,000 surgeries in the hospitals of the besieged coastal enclave during the first half of 2020, Safa news agency reported on Wednesday. Director of the Administration of Public Hospitals and External Clinics in Gaza Hani Hamada indicated that: “Surgeries that needed highly-skilled...

After a four-month interruption, Iran’s football league resumed to be hit by the coronavirus pandemic, with around 22 players from two top clubs testing positive for the virus, Anadolu reports. Eleven players and a staff member of Esteghlal, one of the oldest and biggest football clubs in Iran, have...

Iran has threatened to retaliate against the latest attacks on its nuclear facilities in Natanz, Israeli media reported on Wednesday. According to Israeli TV Channel 13, Iran threatened to take revenge for the attacks, pointing out that the Israeli army raised the state of alarm. “The Israeli army is...

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Gulf state of Oman exceeded 50,000 on Wednesday, the health ministry said, Reuters reports. The country reported 1,210 new cases of the novel coronavirus and nine deaths in the last 24 hours, taking its total count to 50,207 cases with 233...

Carlos Ghosn, the former Nissan Motor Co-chairman, wired $862,500 last year to a company managed by one of the two men who later helped him escape from Japan, U.S. prosecutors said in a Tuesday court filing, Reuters reports. The disclosure came less than a day after the men, Michael...

A leading parliamentarian of Germany’s ruling party on Wednesday lambasted China and Russia for blocking a UN Security Council resolution extending cross-border aid to Syria, Anadolu reports. The Russian and Chinese action was “cynical and a crime against humanity,” said Jurgen Hardt, foreign policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary...

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the Security Council on Wednesday that the conflict in Libya has entered a new phase “with foreign interference reaching unprecedented levels,” Reuters reports. The oil-producing country descended into chaos after the NATO-backed overthrow of leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Since 2014, Libya has...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Wednesday that US and partner forces seized a boat in June carrying Iranian weapons to Houthi rebels in Yemen as he renewed his call for the UN Security Council to extend an arms embargo on Iran, Reuters reports. “The Security Council...

Last week, the skulls of 24 freedom fighters were returned to Algeria by the French government. The 24 men were killed in 1849 during the French colonial occupation of Algeria (1830-1962) and their heads were taken to Paris as trophies. They were found in a museum in the French...

Russia’s foreign minister on Wednesday slammed the UN report accusing Moscow and Damascus of war crimes in Syria, Anadolu reports. Speaking at a news conference in Moscow, Sergey Lavrov said the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria based its report on data from social networks and anonymous sources, “which...

A Palestinian child was injured on Tuesday afternoon after she was run over by an Israeli army jeep in Hebron, according to the Pal Info Centre. Local sources said that a Palestinian girl aged five suffered injuries after she was hit by an Israeli army jeep in Hebron and...

The skulls of 24 Algerian freedom fighters, who resisted French colonialism in the middle of the 19th century, arrived in Algiers on Sunday. An emotional official and popular reception was organised for their arrival, which coincided with the 58th anniversary of Algeria’s independence. They were laid to rest at...

Canadian parliament member seeking to become the country’s next prime minister has promised to move his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem if elected. Erin O’Toole, a member of Canada’s Conservative Party, claims Canada has “weakened and wavered” its support for Israel under the current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and...

Following yesterday’s announcement that the UK will resume its controversial arms sales to Saudi Arabia, Britain’s Defence Minister Ben Wallace has said that the UK is keen to boost defence relations with the kingdom. Wallace made the remarks in a phone call with Riyadh’s vice defence minister Prince Khalid...

British author and journalist Yvonne Ridley is offering to go to war-torn Syria in an effort to secure the release of Londoner Tauqir Sharif. The aid worker was kidnapped by the rebel group controlling Idlib, Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS). Ridley, who lives in Scotland, is understood to be in...

Online fashion retailer Shein has issued an apology after coming under fire for selling Muslim prayer mats and passing them off as “frilled Greek carpets” despite having imagery of the Kabaa on them, which is the ancient, sacred structure at the heart of Islam’s holiest city, Makkah, and the...

Political and media circles in Iraq and beyond have been disturbed by the vile attack that claimed the life of Hisham Al-Hashimi, a researcher into terrorist groups and armed “Islamic” movements. The concern arises not only because it was an attack on a fellow citizen and the assassination of...

A Lebanese court sentenced a Sunni scholar to life and hard labour after finding him guilty of being affiliated with Daesh, local media outlets reported. Bassam Al-Tarras, the former mufti of the Rashya neighbourhood in Al-Beqaa District, was sentenced in absentia over his alleged ties to Daesh, involvement in...

Corrupt and criminal actors from around the world, including Afghan warlords, Russian mobsters, Nigerian kleptocrats, European money launderers, Iranian sanctions-busters, and East African gold smugglers, operate through or from Dubai, says a new damning report by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The 130-page report into “Dubai’s role in facilitating...

Egypt’s Court of Cassation yesterday ordered Mubarak-era minister of Information, Safwat El-Sherif, to be held in custody pending the hearing of an appeal he filed against a three-year prison sentence, local media reported. In September 2018, a retrial held in the Cairo Criminal Court sentenced El-Sherif to three years in...

Egypt: Century old restored Cairo palace opens to the public...

The King Abdul Aziz Public Library (KAPL) in Riyadh has compiled and digitised 820 records of the Jerusalem Shariah Court, to conserve endangered collections relating to Palestinian history and cultural heritage. The archive, assembled in collaboration with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the...

It does not look as if Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi wants a direct confrontation with the factions which make up the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) and are loyal to Iran. He is well aware that he cannot bear losing such a confrontation. That perhaps explains why just a...

Russia is seeking to use its right to veto at the United Nations Security Council to close the Bab Al-Salam border crossing; one of two crossings used to bring in aid to displaced Syrians via Turkey, Anadolu reported. The Security Council allows humanitarian organisations to deliver aid to nearly three million...

Men make up 76 per cent of all cases of the coronavirus in Yemen, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) revealed yesterday The UN agency said in a report that as of 4 July, the number of confirmed COVID- 19 cases in Yemen reached...

Many Lebanese are seeking to leave the country for good in search of a better quality of life as the economic crisis continues to bite, Al Jazeera and the National reported. Barely a week after Beirut’s International Airport re-opened in the wake of a three and a half month-long coronavirus closure, scores of...

Campaigners have warned about the increasing numbers of Syrian families marrying off their underage daughters to Turkish men for money amid the coronavirus pandemic. According to a report in the Independent, ECPAT, a network of organisations working to end sexual exploitation of children, described it as an “economic coping mechanism”...

The United Kingdom has agreed to support the UN-backed Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA)’s decentralisation process and strengthen sub-national governance, the UK Embassy in Tripoli announced on Twitter. According to the tweet, the UK Embassy in Tripoli signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Libya’s government which is...

Violent clashes broke out between Syrian regime intelligence forces and local militias affiliated with the army’s 4th Division and national defence in Damascus’ countryside, local media sources reported. Syria’s Voice of the Capital network reported yesterday that sporadic fighting broke out for the third consecutive day in the Daf Al-Shouk region...

An Egyptian Islamic preacher has been suspended pending investigation after he said that one of the main causes for sexual harassment is that women wear short and tight clothing. Preacher Abdallah Roshdy previously said that a child can be married at the age of nine if she can physically...

Egypt’s tourist hot spots along the Red Sea have reported receiving over 4,000 tourists in the first week of July. The government restarted international flights on 1 July after halting air traffic for three months as part of measures to help stem the spread of coronavirus. Domestic flights have continued throughout...

Bella Hadid has hit out at Instagram after the site deleted a Story post of her father’s expired passport, which listed his place of birth as Palestine, saying she’s “proud to be Palestinian”. Hadid, 23, shared the picture last week, writing, “My baba and his birthplace of Palestine”, but...

A prominent Algerian dissident called on Monday for the government in Algiers to engage in a “real political process”, local media have reported. Karim Tabou also called for the release of his fellow protesters still detained by the authorities. “The best way to enjoy the spring is to set...

As many as 13 church leaders in the occupied city of Jerusalem yesterday warned that the Israeli court’s decision concerning the Greek Orthodox Church’s property at Jaffa Gate threatens the Christian presence in the holy city, Anadolu reported. In a joint statement, they said: “We, the Heads of the Churches and...