This year, families celebrate being alive and healthy as poverty, unemployment dampen spirits in war-torn Yemen. Sanaa, Yemen – Fawaz Fara rummaged through piles of clothes at a market in Sanaa as his wife Asma’a and six children watched. He stopped and told the vendor he could not afford anything, then led his family away. […]

At 00:30 on 7 December, Abu Khalil and his family were sound asleep at their home in the north-eastern Syrian village of al-Khan. They were woken by the sound of a huge explosion. The house shook. The windows shattered. There was shrapnel in the walls. Abu Khalil ran out and saw that his neighbour’s house […]

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson denounces Saudi King Salman’s accusations of Tehran meddling in the region. Iran has rejected what it calls “baseless” accusations made at an Arab summit, saying Saudi Arabia had joined the United States and Israel in a “hopeless” effort to mobilise regional opinion against Tehran, state media reported. Saudi Arabia’s king told an […]

Can the US achieve its strategic goals with its campaign of ‘maximum pressure’ on Tehran? After 17 days of continuous negotiations, marked by sleepless nights, standoffs and shouts, the world “breathed a sigh of relief” on July 14, 2015, when Iran, the United States and five other powers announced a pact to curb Tehran’s nuclear […]

ANKARA, Turkey — Syrian doctors and humanitarian workers voiced growing alarm at the plight of civilians in northwestern Syria this week, as fighting intensified in the nation’s last rebel-held province and hundreds of thousands of people fled north toward the Turkish border. Turkey has closed that border, after eight years of civil war in Syria […]

More than 250 Syrians have been killed in Russian and Syrian air and ground attacks in recent weeks. The Syrian government’s aerial assault on rebel-held areas in the northwest is ongoing. Three children were among those killed on Thursday when air raids struck cities in Idlib province. But despite the bombardment, rebel fighters are holding […]

Former Maronite patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir was a respected power broker during 1975-1990 civil war in Lebanon. Lebanon’s former Maronite patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir, who wielded considerable political influence during the country’s civil war and was an ardent advocate of a Syrian troop withdrawal, died on Sunday, the Maronite church said. Sfeir, who was about […]

The USS Arlington and Patriot missiles join USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group and an air force bomber task force. The US government has approved the deployment of a Patriot missile defence battery and another warship to the Middle East amid increasing tensions between the US and Iran. The USS Arlington, which transports marines, amphibious […]

With tightening US sanctions, Rouhani says Iran can overcome unprecedented pressure by its enemies if it stays united. President Hassan Rouhani has called for unity among Iran’s political factions to overcome conditions which he said may be harder than those during the 1980s war with Iraq. As Iran faces tightening US sanctions, Rouhani said on […]

A photo of 80 birds of prey on board an airliner in the Middle East has gone viral after being posted on Reddit. Ahmet Yasar, the businessman who posted the image, told the BBC it was taken within the last four weeks by a friend who works as an airline captain. Mr Yasar said the […]