A UN report stated that 45,000 displaced children in Iraq lack personal identification documents and that many of them do not receive education two years after the defeat of Daesh. The report issued by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the Office of the High Commissioner...

Arab countries’ normalisation with Israel has paved the way to the United States (US) to take unilateral decisions against the Palestinians and announcing its peace plane, Iranian foreign minister announced yesterday. “In recent years, some Arab countries supported American projects against the Palestinians and the so-called Deal of the Century,”...

Tunisian President Kais Saied announced yesterday, Monday, that he would call for early elections and dissolve parliament if the deputies rejected the government of Prime Minister-designate Elyes Fakhfakh after Ennahdha party refused to recognise it. Fakhfakh revealed on Saturday his government’s components, which quickly collided with the obstacle of Ennahdha’s...

Libya’s internationally recognised government on Tuesday suspended talks hosted by the United Nations to halt warfare over the capital after eastern forces shelled Tripoli’s port, killing three people and almost hitting a highly explosive gas tanker, Reuters reports. The UN has been hosting in Geneva ceasefire talks between officers from...

The European Union (EU) has decided, on Monday 17 February, to add eight prominent Syrian businessmen and two entities linked to them to the list of European sanctions imposed on the Syrian regime and its supporters. The Council of the European Union revealed in a statement that eight prominent...

Ahmad Tibi, deputy in the Israeli Knesset on the joint Arab list, tore down a draft of US “Deal of the Century” and stepped on it. He said that this deal will end up “under people’s feet” referring to the incitement campaign led by the head of the Occupation...

Bulgaria has asked the United Arab Emirates to extradite gambling tycoon Vasil Bozhkov, charged in absentia with extortion, influence peddling and money laundering among other offences, the justice ministry said on Monday, according to a Reuters report. Bozhkov, one of Bulgaria’s richest men, has denied wrongdoing. He has refused to...

Reuters reports that Turkey’s lira weakened against the dollar on Tuesday to its lowest point in regular trading since last May, as a central bank policy decision loomed and investors fretted over tensions in Syria’s Idlib, where Ankara is bulking up its military. Turkey’s central bank, which has slashed its...

Iran has had to reduce oil production projects because of a lack of funds and a drop in income from oil exports, Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said on Tuesday, according to the official IRNA news agency. “All attacks are against us and the income from oil exports has been reduced. We have reduced many production projects because we don’t have money at all and...

A shadowy campaign group with a hidden agenda appears to be exploiting Palestinian children from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip. Just when we thought that elements of the pro-Israel lobby surely couldn’t sink any lower, they are now scraping the bottom of the barrel at the expense...

Eastern Libyan forces attacked the sea port of Libya’s capital on Tuesday as they targeted a Turkish vessel bringing in arms, an eastern official said according to a report by Reuters. Eastern officials did not provide details about the alleged arms shipment at the port, which has remained open for food...

Voting in a parliamentary election this week is “a religious duty” for Iranians, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday, days before the vote seen as a referendum on the clerical establishment’s popularity, reports Reuters. Iran’s hardline Guardian Council vetting body has rejected some 6,850 moderate or conservative hopefuls...

Before sunrise, thousands of Palestinians streamed towards the mosque in Nablus’s Victory Square, swelling the usual crowds of morning worshippers to launch a new front in their protests against Israel and the United States. The scene has been repeated elsewhere in the West Bank, where people have begun turning out for early prayers in unprecedented...

A Tel Aviv court ordered Facebook Inc to unblock the private account of a worker at Israeli surveillance company NSO Group, and similar rulings are expected for other employees in the coming days, an NSO spokeswoman said on Tuesday. A group of NSO employees filed suit against Facebook in November, saying the social media giant had unfairly blocked their private accounts when it sued NSO in October. Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp accused the Israeli firm...

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial will start on March 17, two weeks after Israel holds its third national election in less than a year, the Justice Ministry said on Tuesday. Netanyahu, the first sitting Israeli prime minister to be charged with a crime, has denied any wrongdoing in the three corruption cases against him....

The UN has urged all players in Syria to end hostilities in the northwest province of Idlib and the country as a whole immediately. Speaking to the Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah today, the UN regional spokesperson for the Syrian crisis David Swanson stressed that “The world needs to wake...

For nearly two years, Idlib province in Syria has been subjected to fierce attacks by the forces of the butcher Bashar Al-Assad and the criminal Vladimir Putin. The Syrian regime and its Russian allies are like a pack of hyenas, resulting in tens of thousands of Idlib’s residents being...

It cannot be denied that Palestine is going through one of its biggest crises since its occupation in terms of official Arab support. Normalisation with Israel, whether open or secret, is increasing. Meetings are held between Arab officials and politicians from Tel Aviv. Economic and commercial relations between Arab...

The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med) has condemned an air raid by the Saudi-led Coalition in Yemen on Saturday which killed 31 civilians. The organisation has described the attack as a violation of international humanitarian law and has called for an immediate investigation. According to the UN Office...

The Egyptian Music Syndicate has banned musicians performing the popular music genre Mahraganat, Arabic for festival. Born out of Egypt’s slums, it was the first genre of music to deal with issues affecting poor Egyptians with tracks like “the people want five pounds of phone credit” going viral. Mahraganat,...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is confident he can block the International Criminal Court (ICC) from launching an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by his country against the Palestinians in the occupied territories. While Israel is not a signatory to the ICC, it has sought to undermine the...

Saudi Arabia has raised fuel prices, the official Saudi news agency said on Sunday, pointing out that Aramco would update oil prices on a monthly basis. According to the Saudi Gazette, the price of petrol 91 octanes is SAR 1.55 ($0.41) per litre up from SAR 1.50 ($0.4) per...

A spokesman for Hamas has criticised the ongoing meetings between the Palestinian Authority intelligence service and its US counterparts. Fawzi Barhoum said that the meetings reflect the fact that PA President Mahmoud Abbas is simply not serious about ending communication and meetings with the Trump administration. “The meetings are...

Italian dock workers have refused to load electricity generators onto a notorious Saudi cargo ship suspected of carrying arms to be used in the war in Yemen. This is the latest in a string of protests by anti-war activists against the ship as it has made its way to...

Turkey’s foreign minister on Sunday said China should not label all Muslim ethnic Uyghurs as terrorists, following talks with his Chinese counterpart in Germany, AFP reported. “Whether Turk, Uyghur Turk, Han Chinese, Buddhist or Christian … it is not right to call all Uyghur Turks terrorists just because one...

Since the outset of the Syrian revolution in 2011, Russia has been the staunchest backer of the Assad regime in Damascus. Turkey, meanwhile, has maintained its position as the closest friend and supporter of the rebel groups in Syria. Ironically, both countries have succeeded in maintaining their friendship, regardless...

Recently released Medina Ali, who was detained in March 2017 for taking part in peaceful protests during the Arab Spring, has spoken out about the inhumane and degrading treatment of inmates in the all-female Isa Town Prison in Bahrain. Ali said she experienced “extremely harsh treatment,” including physical assault...

Labour leadership candidate Lisa Nandy has endorsed a series of pledges in support of the Palestinian cause amid growing concerns that the party has been making too many concessions to British pro-Israeli groups in a bid to mend ties with sections of the Jewish community critical of Jeremy Corbyn....

For all its purported peace-building efforts and support for Palestinian rights, the EU is committed to supporting Israel’s colonial-settler expansionism. Its feeble response to US President Donald Trump’s so-called “deal of the century” was accentuated in the recent decision to refuse to pass any official resolutions until after next...

A family in Saudi Arabia has been reunited with the son who was kidnapped from hospital soon after his birth 20 years ago, after DNA tests enabled Moussa Al-Khanizi to find his biological parents. His father Ali Al-Khanizi told Saudi news outlet Al-Ekhbariya that he never once gave up...

The Head of the Popular Committee against the Siege in the Gaza Strip said on Monday that the Israeli siege of the Palestinian territory has pushed the youth unemployment rate up to 70 per cent. Jamal Al-Khudari, MP, pointed out in a media statement that the ongoing Israeli siege...

Two Egyptian paramedics were sentenced to 20 years in prison each, after writing a false medical report for a cancer patient to be used to issue a false death certificate, RT reported. According to Al-Sharq newspaper, RT reported that the death certificate for the woman, who is still alive,...

Last month the Egyptian army began construction of a new separation wall on the border shared with the besieged Gaza Strip, allegedly to reinforce security in the Sinai Peninsula, Israeli media revealed earlier this week. According to the Israeli news Channel TV7, the first phase of the wall, which...

The Israeli Prison Services (IPS) has decided to reduce food amounts and many other services offered to Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails, Palestinian Prisoner Club (PPC) revealed on Monday. In a statement, the PPC announced that this step is part of Gilad Erdan’s Committee, which decided in 2018 to...

A repatriation clause requested by Lebanese President Michel Aoun in the new government’s policy statement is very clear: “They must return.” Aoun is using economic and political crises as a convenient justification to ex post facto legitimise actions taken by successive governments to remove refugees from Lebanon and validate...

Ahmed Aboul Gheit, secretary general of the Arab League, warned on Monday that Israel may end the life of Palestinian Authority (PA) president, Mahmoud Abbas, the same way it did with the late president, Yasser Arafat, Al Watan Voice reported. His remarks came in the wake of several Israeli...

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The Israeli police officer who shot a Palestinian child in the face over the weekend has told investigators that he only fired at a wall, reported Haaretz. 8-year-old Malek Issa was walking home from school in Issawiya, occupied East Jerusalem, when he was hit with a sponge-tipped bullet. Issa...

New polls published Monday ahead of Israel’s third election in a year on 2 March suggest continued political deadlock, reported The Times of Israel, One poll conducted on behalf of Channel 13 shows opposition list Blue and White winning 36 seats, three more than Likud’s 33. The Joint List...

Luxembourg has “stepped up efforts to coordinate an EU reaction to the risk Israel will annex Palestinian territories in the West Bank”, reported EUobserver.  According to EUobserver, Luxembourg foreign minister Jean Asselborn “hosted a dinner with eight other EU foreign ministers from Belgium, Finland, France, Ireland, Malta, Spain, Slovenia,...

Two hospitals went out of service in the countryside of Aleppo in Syria on Monday, due to a Russian airstrike. The Syrian opposition aircraft observatory reported that Russian planes launched raids on the cities of Kafr Nabl in the Idlib Governorate and Darat Izza, the villages of Bsanqul, Mseibin,...

Head of the Sudanese Nation Umma Party, Sadiq Al-Mahdi, announced on Sunday that normalisation with the Israeli occupation will not serve Sudan’s interests. Al-Mahdi’s statement comes in light of the escalating controversy in the country after a recently held meeting between the president of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council, Abdel...

The UAE’s Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) has issued an operating licence for the first section of the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant. The permanent representative of the UAE to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Hamad Al-Kaabi, said that the Board of Directors of FANR granted the licence...

Saudi foreign minister, Faisal Bin Farhan Al Saud, has called on the German government to end a ban on exporting German weapons to the kingdom, claiming that his country requires the means to defend itself. In an interview with German DPA International news agency on Monday, the Saudi minister...

Danish minister of defence, Trine Bramsen, announced on Monday that Danish troops will return to Iraq’s Ain Al-Assad Airbase to train Iraqi security forces on 1 March. “In the fight against terror, it is important that Iraq does not again become a hotbed of terrorists’ recruitment and training,” the...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that the Middle East “peace plan” known as the “deal of the century” drafted by the United States violates international law by giving concessions in favour of Israel at the expense of the Palestinians. “The US, in its usual style, suggested solving...

Italy’s Foreign Minister said on Monday that he and his counterparts across the European Union have agreed to form a special mission to enforce the UN arms embargo on Libya. Luigi di Maio explained that the mission would include a naval ship to ensure that the embargo is effective....

I receive emails from Khaled. I have never met him. He tells me that he lives in southern Gaza; that many years ago he read one of my articles on counterpunch.org. His emails often look the same. A short text and the same short ending. My responses have also...

Libya’s combatants are readying for a long conflict, as foreign weapons flood in, eastern factions close oil ports and rival alliances wrangle over revenues from Africa’s largest petroleum reserves, Reuters reports. The moves signal deepening animosity in a war that could worsen regional instability and swell the flow of migrants...