Two Daesh militants from Belgium have escaped custody in northern Syria in the course of Turkey’s offensive against Kurdish forces there, the head of Belgium’s security assessment agency said on Wednesday, Reuters reports. Paul Van Tigchelt, head of OCAD, told a parliamentary committee that two men and three women,...

The Iraqi cabinet has sacked 61 officials over recent protests that killed more than 100 people and injured thousands earlier this month, Anadolu reports. Leaked documents obtained by Anadolu Agency showed that the decision was taken during a cabinet meeting on Oct. 14. Protests rocked the capital Baghdad and...

Israeli settlers on Wednesday attacked Palestinian villagers harvesting olives in the northern occupied West Bank, Anadolu reports. The attack took place in Burin village, near Nablus city, where settlers beat Palestinian villagers, according to Ghasan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official who monitors settlement activities in the northern West Bank....

The US House of Representatives voted Wednesday on a bipartisan resolution opposing President Donald Trump’s decision to pull back troops in northern Syria, Anadolu reports. The measure passed 354-60 with every Democrats and more than two-thirds of Republicans in favor. Sponsored by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel and Republican Michael...

Peace talks between key rebel groups and the Sudanese government hit an obstacle on Wednesday when one major group said it will not sit down for direct talks with Khartoum until its demands are met. The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, a rebel group in the states of Blue Nile...

It was only a matter of time before the Palestinian Authority would renege on its word and accept the deducted tax revenues from the Israeli government. After all, the PA is primarily concerned with prolonging its existence, even as it keeps losing any semblance of political influence. Financial constraints...

Morocco’s king has pardoned Hajar Raissouni, a journalist sentenced to a year in prison last month for extramarital sex and an abortion, along with her fiance, a doctor and two of his colleagues, the justice ministry said on Wednesday, Reuters reports. The case of Raissouni, who had denied the...

The reaction of Western countries to Turkey’s fight against terrorists groups in north-eastern Syria requires the international community to have a serious rethink about Article 5 of the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty which founded NATO and set out its responsibilities. Turkey’s NATO journey started 67 years ago when it...

The Libyan Navy said on Wednesday it had rescued 90 irregular migrants including seven women off the Khoms town, some 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of the capital Tripoli, Anadolu reports. “Following an extensive search operation in the sea, the navy boats managed to trace the location of the...

Israel yesterday released the governor of Jerusalem Adnan Ghaith and the Fatah part’s Secretary-General Shadi Mutwar after arresting and detaining them for several hours. Mohammed Mahmud, the lawyer for the senior Palestinian figures, stated that they were arrested during dawn raids in their homes in occupied East Jerusalem for...

It’s becoming a scene all too familiar, the public anger at the ruling elites, the repeated calls for mass protests, the flashpoints of demonstrations erupting in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, almost as if the 2013 revolution is incomplete. At present, Cairo is under a heavy lockdown with authorities and plainclothes...

The Italian journalist who was detained and deported from Cairo airport last Thursday has told Hiwar TV channel that the Egyptian regime should be concerned because two officers apologised to her and told her this is not the true face of Egypt. Her comments come amid reports that the...

A high-profile US delegation is expected to arrive in Turkey tomorrow in an attempt to persuade Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to end his military incursion in north-east Syria. The Turkish President has so far remained defiant in his attempt to clear out Kurdish fighters from north-eastern Syria and create a...

Canada has joined fellow NATO members in pausing arms sale to Ankara, as the Turkish government comes under pressure to halt its military operation into north-eastern Syria. Global Affairs Canada, the country’s foreign ministry, announced the decision yesterday saying that Ottawa has “temporarily suspended new export permits to Turkey.”...

When the Arab youth revolted in 2011 to demand freedom and democracy in their countries, Facebook was the social media platform of choice for crowd mobilisation, a proven experience in other contexts around the world. When Palestinian youth tried to take a chance and speak out against the Israeli...

A group of former high-ranking national security officials who served in the Obama administration are calling on Congress to defund the war effort in Yemen. It was the same administration that pushed policies that led to the US supporting the Saudi-led coalition that began in March 2015. In an...

Saudi Arabia and Palestine’s national football teams faced each other yesterday in a much-anticipated game in the occupied West Bank, which saw Riyadh criticised for allowing its nationals to travel across Israel’s borders. The move to play and hold the match in the occupied West Bank is a break...

Egyptian lawyer Amr Iman has been arrested from his house shortly after declaring he would start a hunger strike in solidarity with detained Egyptian activists. Amr had announced that he would strike in protest against the treatment of activists Israa Abdel Fattah and Alaa Abdel Fattah and his lawyer...

The Palestinian Authority (PA) announced yesterday that it has formed a committee to investigate the impact of Israeli mobile phone towers built in the occupied West Bank, reported Xinhua. A PA statement said the committee will work on “documenting the violations” of the towers in the West Bank, and...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to negotiate with any potential coalition partners for the 12th consecutive day yesterday, reported the Jerusalem Post, ahead of the 24 October deadline to either form a government or return the mandate to President Reuven Rivlin. According to the paper, Netanyahu’s last negotiating...

The way that history has a tendency to repeat itself is intriguing. In Alfred Lilienthal’s The Other Side of the Coin, published in 1965, he said that the “Soviet Union has taken advantage of the resultant decline in American prestige in a suspicious Arab world to establish itself on...

Israeli authorities have opened a natural spring in southern Jerusalem to visitors, “but on the explicit condition that Palestinians not be allowed to enter the site”, reported Haaretz. The decision by police yesterday meant that the Ein Hanya spring “was kept under heavy guard by the police and Border...

Palestinian-American supermodel Bella Hadid has been named as the most beautiful woman in the world, according to a mathematical equation formulated by the ancient Greeks. The 23-year-old’s face shape, including the size and position of her lips, nose, chin and jawline were calculated by a sequence of measurements, which...

Egyptian journalist Jamal Sultan revealed yesterday that the UAE had arrested an opposition Iranian journalist in Dubai and deported him to Tehran. On Twitter, Sultan, the chief editor of Al-Mesryoon newspaper, wrote: “The UAE arrested an opposition Iranian journalist during a transit flight from France to Australia through Dubai....

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry yesterday announced that it had deported 64 children of Uzbek nationality, whose families belong to Daesh. In a statement, the ministry said that the deportation of the children has been concluded with the participation of the Supreme Judicial Council, the Ministry of Justice and Security...

Saudi Arabia has arrested young activist Abdel-Aziz Al-Ouda over a tweet in support of Palestine, Abdullah Al-Ouda, son of detained prominent preacher Salman Al-Ouda, revealed on Monday. “The family was shocked by the detention of Abdel-Aziz Al-Odah over a tweet in support of the Palestinian cause,” Abdullah tweeted. “This...

First Deputy Speaker of the Palestinian Parliament Ahmad Bahar yesterday called on Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz to release Palestinian prisoners held in the kingdom, Felesteen reported. During a meeting with the families of the prisoners, Bahar said that the Palestinian prisoners in Saudi jails have not violated the...

South Africa’s foreign policy and diplomatic positions towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have been remarkably steady since the end of the apartheid regime and the election of Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) as President in 1994. Not only have Pretoria’s positions not been altered by the various changes of administrations and South...

Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau yesterday called for Israel to prevent a potential genocide against Kurds in north Syria, Israeli TV Channel 7 reported. According to Safa news agency, the report added Lau told President Reuven Rivlin during a meeting that it is a “duty” to help the Kurds as...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has described US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan the “deal of the century” as “pretty vague”, news agencies reported. Before leaving to the Saudi capital Riyadh, Putin said Russia “will support any deal that will bring peace,” stressing that any deal must first...

Moroccan anti-normalisation activists have expressed their anger as a former Israeli interior minister attended an international symposium in Marrakech and gave a presentation, a move the activists described as a “crime of penetration”. Former Knesset member Meir Sheetrit attended the World Policy Conference, which was held last weekend in Marrakech. The...

Tunisia announced yesterday its accession to the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, to become the 45th country to sign the Convention and the first from outside the Council of Europe. According to a statement issued by the Tunisian Ministry of...

The Algerian cabinet has approved a bill banning retired military personnel from running for office or conducting political activities for five years after retirement while preserving their right to vote in elections. Algerian Deputy Minister of Defence, Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaid Salah, presented the bill, which had been initially...

ABC News has apologised in an official statement for broadcasting a fabricated video of Turkish troops shooting at civilian sites in Syria. The footage had actually been filmed in Kentucky CORRECTION: We’ve taken down video that aired on “World News Tonight" Sunday and “Good Morning America” this morning that...

Hamas expressed its appreciation of the Turkish stances on the Palestinian issue and support for the rights of the Palestinian people. In a statement on the situation in north-eastern Syria, Hamas said: “The movement understands Turkey’s right to protect its borders, defend itself and remove threats to its national...

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said yesterday it would sign ten investment deals worth more than $1.3 billion with partners from the UAE. The agreements to be signed during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit will include high tech, health care, mineral resources extraction, logistics, and industrial production, the Russian sovereign...

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman has sent a congratulatory message to new Tunisian President Kais Saied on his victory in the presidential elections, reported the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA). SPA said that the crown prince congratulated the new president and wished the brotherly people of the Republic of...

Human Rights Watch (HRW) yesterday warned European countries against transferring hundreds of Daesh members from the prisons of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to Iraq. HRW expressed concerns that some European countries are seeking to transfer their nationals, who joined Daesh, to Iraq because they are unwilling to repatriate...

Considerable attention is paid by Western media to the governments of official enemies, when they lack democracy. The Western media’s long attention span for Syria’s democratic deficiencies, as one example, is all too often not motivated by genuine concern for the peoples of the region, but by subservience to...

A second French national is being detained in Iran and has been imprisoned since the summer, Le Figaro newspaper reported on Wednesday, which is likely to complicate France’s efforts to defuse tensions between the United States and Tehran. Two sources aware of the matter confirmed to Reuters that Roland...

President Tayyip Erdogan told US President Donald Trump that Turkey will never declare a ceasefire in northeastern Syria and that it will not negotiate with Kurdish forces it is fighting in its offensive into the region, reports Reuters. Turkey pressed ahead with its offensive against the Syrian Kurdish YPG...

US Democratic lawmakers, joined by some of President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans, introduced a resolution on Tuesday opposing Trump’s decision to withdraw US forces from Syria, the latest sign of deep disapproval in Congress of his action, reports Reuters. “We have always maintained that, while certainly needed, a sanctions...

The United States carried out a secret cyber operation against Iran in the wake of the September 14 attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities, which Washington and Riyadh blame on Tehran, two US officials have told Reuters. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the operation took...

Turkish police arrested 10 foreign nationals in country’s capital Ankara for their suspected links to the Daesh terror group, as reported by Anadolu Agency. The suspects, who entered into Turkey illegally, were accused of being members of Daesh terror group. Being classified as foreign terrorist fighters, suspects were referred...

A civil training aircraft crashed yesterday in Turkey’s Mediterranean resort city of Antalya, as reported by Anadolu Agency.  The aircraft crashed shortly after it took off in the Ulualan region of the Antalya’s Manavgat district. Firefighters and ambulances arrived at the scene following the incident. “The plane crashed just after...

An Iraqi court has issued arrest warrants for two police officers in connection with the death of protesters during anti-government demonstrations earlier this month, as reported by Anadolu Agency.  In a statement today, Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council said the warrants were issued after witnesses testified against the two officers...

Turkey’s national defense minister held a phone call with his Iraqi counterpart on Tuesday, discussing current developments in Syria, according to the Turkish National Defense Ministry, reports Anadolu Agency. Hulusi Akar and Najah Hassan Ali Al-Shammari discussed defense and security matters during the call, the ministry added. Turkey on October...

UEFA, European football’s governing body, launched an investigation on Tuesday against Turkey for a military salute performed by players of its national team, reports Anadolu Agency. Turkish National Football Team players did military salutes while celebrating a goal they scored during the UEFA EURO 2020 Qualifiers against Albania in...

Iran’s economy is expected to shrink by 9.5 per cent this year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said, as the country feels the impact of tighter US sanctions, Reuters reported. The IMF forecasts, published today in the fund’s World Economic Outlook report, are not far from estimates given last week by...

France and Britain on Tuesday accused Turkey and the United States of undoing five years’ worth of work in fighting Daesh and scrambled to define how to react should militants escape prisons and camps in Syria, reports Reuters. Turkey has pressed on with its assault against Kurdish militias in...