NICOSIA (AFP) – The strategic Golan Heights, long disputed by Syria and Israel, was largely occupied by Israel in 1967, which later annexed the section it controlled in a move never recognised internationally. US President Donald Trump tweeted Thursday (March 21) that “after 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognise […]

The Golan Heights, a rocky plateau in south-western Syria, has a political and strategic significance which belies its size. Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in the closing stages of the 1967 Six-Day War. Most of the Syrian Arab inhabitants fled the area during the conflict. An armistice line was established and the region […]

Egypt’s parliament has overwhelmingly voted to approve draft constitutional changes that could extend President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi’s time in office by another 12 years. Mr Sisi is due to stand down in 2022 when his second four-year term ends. But 485 of the country’s 596 lawmakers voted on Thursday to lengthen presidential terms to six […]

The bestselling author Alaa Al Aswany has said he is being sued by military prosecutors in Egypt for insulting the president, armed forces and judiciary. Aswany, who lives in the US, said the lawsuit was connected to his last novel – The Republic, As If – and columns he had written for Deutsche Welle Arabic. […]

UMM AL-FAHM, Israel — With three weeks to go, the Israeli election is so close that Arab voters, who make up only a fifth of the population, could help bring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long career to an abrupt end. Mr. Netanyahu has been fanning the flames of anti-Arab sentiment almost daily. He has warned […]

ERBIL, Iraq — American-backed forces in northern Syria have captured a group suspected of organizing a bomb attack that killed four Americans and a number of allied Syrian militia fighters in January, a spokesman for the local forces said on Tuesday. The spokesman, Mustafa Bali, wrote on Twitter that his group, the Syrian Democratic Forces, […]

DEIR EZZOR PROVINCE, SYRIA (REUTERS) – US-backed fighters besieging the last shred of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) territory in eastern Syria said on Tuesday (March 19) they had captured 157 mostly foreign fighters as they tracked efforts by Islamists to escape the enclave. “Our units monitored a group of terrorists, trailed them […]

The spokesman of the Islamic State emerged from nearly six months of silence on Monday to mock America’s assertion of having defeated the group and to call for retaliation over last week’s mosque attacks in New Zealand. “The scenes of the massacres in the two mosques should wake up those who were fooled, and should […]

Two of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s strongest challengers in April elections have announced a centrist alliance in a bid to defeat him. Ex-army chief Benny Gantz and centrist politician Yair Lapid agreed to rotate as prime minister if they win. Separately, Mr Netanyahu forged an alliance with several far-right parties to try to shore up […]

JERUSALEM — An assailant believed to be Palestinian carried out a stabbing and shooting attack in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, killing an Israeli soldier and ratcheting up tensions ahead of Israeli elections. The attack came amid a heated campaign for the April 9 ballot in which a former general leading a new, centrist […]