The US is considering cutting off military aid to Iraq if the government of Baghdad decides to expel US troops from the country, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Wednesday. The WSJ revealed that it had reviewed emails between the State Department and the Department of Defence, in...

Away from the “clanking of weapons” and the noise of threats and intimidation, the time has come for the Iranian leadership to reconsider its regional policies, and as a consequence and a priority, it must conduct a broader and deeper review of its internal policies as well. This is...

Tens of private and public schools have shut down on Wednesday following clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces in the capital of Beirut. In Beirut all public middle schools were closed on Wednesday, while only three out of the 18 high schools were open to students. Meanwhile, schools...

Israeli Military Intelligence, known as Aman, has announced it is concerned about the possible imminent death of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and the subsequent victory of Hamas, Shehab News Agency reported on Wednesday. These concerns were highlighted in the annual report of Aman for 2020, the release of...

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has appealed for $477 million to help more than 900,000 refugees in Sudan, in addition to nearly a quarter of a million of their Sudanese hosts this year. “Sudan has a long history of hosting refugees and asylum seekers but also struggles...

Confirmed calls for a ceasefire in Libya made by the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin led the two sides of the conflict in the war-torn country to announce reaching a ceasefire agreement on 12 January. After discussions, the two sides agreed to sign the...

After the dams which were built in areas controlled by Israel to block rainwater streaming through valleys crossing the Gaza Strip had been opened twice, Gazan farmers claim that all of their crops were completely destroyed. Speaking to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, Palestinian farmer, Mahmoud Shamali, explained: “The opening of the...

READ: Russia and Syrian independence ...

The Israeli defence minister, Naftali Bennett, on Wednesday approved the creation of seven nature reserves and the expansion of 12 others in Area C of the occupied West Bank, a statement confirmed. In his statement, Bennett ordered the Israeli Civil Administration – the Israeli governing body that operates in...

Chairman of the Libyan High Council of State, Khaled Al-Mishri, announced on Wednesday that the United Arab Emirates (UAE)’s embassy in Moscow has obstructed the reaching of a ceasefire agreement in Libya. Al-Mishri informed reporters in the Libyan capital of Tripoli that: “A Gulf country was present in the...

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced on Wednesday that they have arrested the person who filmed the downing of a Ukrainian plane, Flight PS752, with an Iranian missile last week, killing all 176 passengers on board. The IRGC have disclosed that investigations into the identification of the person...

More and more civilians are losing their lives or getting displaced in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib as the regime, Iran-backed groups and Russia intensify airstrikes, Anadolu reports. A total of 313 civilians, including 100 children, were killed, 1,843 others injured and 382,466 Syrians were forced to flee their...

Iranians buried their dead from an airliner shot down by the military as authorities on Wednesday identified more of the 176 victims of last week’s crash, which led to days of rage against Iran’s rulers followed by a police crackdown, Reuters reports. Emotions have been running high as the...

Algerian lawyers held on Wednesday a one-day strike across the country’s courts in opposition to new taxes approved by the General Budget Law of 2020. This comes in response to the call of Algeria’s National Bar Association, which includes more than 50 thousand lawyers, to boycott the administrative work...

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi yesterday inaugurated Bernice military base, the largest in the region of the red sea, official media has reported. The inauguration ceremony was attended by several Arab and foreign officials and ministers, including the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the...

An Iraqi military base hosting American troops in the north of the country’s capital city of Baghdad was attacked by a missile. According to a statement by the Iraqi army, the Al-Taji base was targeted by eight Russian-manufactured Katyusha missiles, but it was said to have only hit its...

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and US President Donald Trump discussed developments in Libya in a phone call on Wednesday, the White House and Turkey’s presidency said, days ahead of a summit in Berlin that will address the Libyan conflict, Reuters reports. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will host leaders of...

Israeli forces yesterday issued orders to seize hundreds of dunums of agricultural land in Bethlahm’s southern occupied towns of Al-Khader and Irtas. The head of the Commission for the Resistance of the Wall and Settlements, Hasan Breijieh, told local media that the orders were issued to seize 350 dunums of...

Head of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, announced that the Sudanese army had contained what he described as “a rebellion” inside the Intelligence’s Operation Authority, after seizing the institution’s headquarters and re-opening the country’s airspace. This came in a press statement held by Al-Burhan, today, Wednesday, who...

Israel carried out airstrikes on the Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire on Wednesday, according to the Israeli military, Reuters reports. No casualties were reported on either side of the Israel-Gaza border. Two of the projectiles launched from Gaza were shot down by Israel’s Iron Dome air defence...

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday he had previously spoken to Japan’s prime minister about the conditions former Nissan-Renault boss Carlos Ghosn was being held under, Reuters reports. After fleeing Japan in late December, Ghosn said he had been treated “brutally” by Tokyo prosecutors and that he was...

Renegade Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar is seeking a military solution to the lingering conflict in the country, Turkey’s foreign minister said Wednesday, Anadolu reports. “This is true that Haftar does not want peace. He seeks a military solution, not a political process,” Mevlut Cavusoglu said at a panel in the...

Lebanese politicians are to blame for the country’s economic collapse, a senior UN official said on Wednesday, rebuking a ruling elite that has failed to draw up a rescue plan for a country hit by more violent protests, Reuters reports. With banks tightly limiting access to cash, lenders were...

EU will be prepared in case of any migration wave from Libya amid crisis in the region, an EU official said on Wednesday, Anadolu reports. “Being prepared, not acting ad hoc is a very important strands in our thinking for the migration policy,” said Dana Spinant, spokeswoman for the...

Exploitative employers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are increasingly using tourist visas to hire Indians in a scam that leaves migrants open to labour abuse, police and activists said, Thomson Reuters Foundation reports. Indian migrants on visit visas – quicker and cheaper to obtain than work permits –...

Egypt formed a new team to investigate the death of an Italian student who was tortured and murdered in Cairo in 2016, Egypt’s public prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday, Reuters reports. Giulio Regeni, a 28-year-old postgraduate student at Cambridge University, vanished in Cairo in January 2016. His body was...

The turn of the year triggers a strong feeling that for change to begin the new decade and year must begin with positive work on the provision of elections in Palestine. Long overdue following a protracted electoral hiatus, Palestinian legislative and presidential elections are a vital component of bridging...

Turkey’s state-run news agency, Anadolu, said that Egyptian police raided its office in Cairo today and detained four of its staff members. It said it had no information on where its employees were taken to following the raid. One of those arrested is a Turkish national, it added. The...

The Pakistan Army extended the deadline for Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) to deliver the T129 attack helicopter, Anadolu Agency reported. Since Turkey agreed to purchase the Russian S-400 air defence system leading to heightened tensions with the US which called on Ankara to walk away from the arms deal....

Increasing tensions between Iran and the US have led to fears of a widening conflict in the Middle East, with energy market participants increasingly concerned that the fallout could soon disrupt regional crude supplies. Some analysts have been warning that as Iran controls the vital trade route, the Strait...

The British government has offered the return of four children belonging to a couple who joined Daesh in Syria, on the condition that the mother stay behind. Mehak Aslam, along with her husband Shahan Choudhury, travelled to Syria in 2014 to join Daesh at the height of their so-called...

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad yesterday slammed the US assassination of Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani and drew parallels with the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Both killings took place “across boundaries” and were in breach of laws and constituted immoral...

American singer Lionel Richie announced in a video message released last week that he is excited for his first performance in Israel on March 2 as part of his “Hello” world tour. Despite pressure from the women’s grassroots social justice movement Code Pink to cancel his concert due to...

READ: Israel opens rainwater stores, floods Gaza farmland...

Journalist Ahmed Abdel Samad and his colleague, photographer Ghali Al-Tamimi, were added to the list of Iraqi women and men martyrs after being assassinated three days ago by what has become officially known in Iraq as “gunfire of unknown gunmen” who fled to “unknown destinations.” This cliché, ready-made term...

READ: Israel, Greece, Cyprus to sign gas pipeline deal...

READ: UN strips Lebanon, Yemen of voting privileges...

The volume of global debt reached its highest level last September, hitting $253 trillion, the Institute of International Finance (IIF) announced yesterday, adding that it was set to grow in 2020. The IIF report said the debt increase was mainly driven by large borrowing by governments and non-financial corporations, marking...

According to the Syrian Ministry of Defence, the Israeli Air Force attacked the T-4 military airport near the city of Homs in western Syria, SANA reported yesterday. “ 22.10 pm on Tuesday January 14, 2020, the Israeli warplanes perpetrated a new aggression on T4 airport from the direction...

Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq has renewed its call for the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to publish its database of businesses complicity in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). Al-Haq issued its “call for action” ahead of what will be the three-year anniversary in March...

Amnesty International has urged Israeli authorities to prevent notorious tech company NSO Group from exporting spyware products to human rights abusers, ahead of a court case starting tomorrow. A judge at Tel Aviv District Court will tomorrow begin hearing arguments as to why the Israeli government should restrict the...

Israel began pumping natural gas to Egypt for the first time today under a $15 billion, 15-year deal to liquefy and re-export the gas to Europe, Reuters reported. Tel Aviv and Cairo’s energy ministries issued a rare joint statement announcing the implementation of the estimated $19.5 billion deal to...

Two thousand Syrian opposition fighters have travelled through Turkey to Libya to fight alongside the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) against the advancing forces of warlord Khalifa Haftar, as reported by the UK-based newspaper the Guardian revealed today. The deployment of the fighters comes amid speculation and uncertainty...

Palestinian prisoner Ahmad Zahran has been released after spending 113 days on hunger strike in Israeli detention, the head of the  Palestinian Commission of Prisoners and ex-Prisoners’ Affairs, Qadri Abu Bakr, announced yesterday. “Following a 113-day hunger strike Zaher was able to reach an agreement with the Israeli prison administration...

Israeli occupation authorities rearrested Palestinian Ismail Afanan as he was being released, Al-Quds newspaper reported yesterday. The prisoner was taken out of Al Naqab Prison after completing an 18-year term but was rearrested and sent to Al Maskopia Detention Centre in Jerusalem. Occupation authorities also issued summons to his...

The Qatari National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) and Ministry of Education and Higher Education yesterday launched the guide on human rights on the sidelines of the Doha International Book Fair. The guide, which will be incorporated into the educational curricula from primary school during the next academic year, covers...

Israeli occupation authorities are expected to issue work permits for Palestinian labourers from the occupied Gaza Strip, Ma’an news agency reported yesterday. According to Israeli media, the Israeli government is expected to take a series of measures towards easing the 13-year-old Israeli siege on Gaza. One of these measures,...

The President of the Yemeni Southern Transitional Council (STC), Aidarus Al-Zoubaidi, yesterday received a number of STC prisoners who had been released under the peace deal signed in Saudi Arabia, the Anadolu Agency reported. Earlier on Saturday, the Yemeni government handed over 29 prisoners affiliated with the opposition STC...

A Palestinian security guard was brutally assaulted by Israeli occupation forces after he failed to show them identification documents, video footage has shown. Omar Hendi, who lives in the Shuafat refugee camp in occupied East Jerusalem and works as an Israeli-licensed security guard on the Jerusalem light rail, was...

Social media activists on Monday launched a campaign calling for Saudi Arabia to release Palestinian and Jordanian prisoners from its jails, Safa news agency reported. The Twitter account Prisoners of Conscience, which highlights the plight of prisoners in  Saudi Arabia, initiated the campaign under the Arabic hashtags “Palestinian and...