UNITED NATIONS, UNITED STATES (AFP) – The United Nations Security Council called on Houthi rebels to allow inspectors to visit a long-abandoned fuel tanker off Yemen “without further delay” Thursday (June 3). The 15-member council held a special meeting on FSO Safer at the request of Britain after the rebels said an agreement to allow […]

DUBAI (AFP) – Greenpeace warned on Thursday (June 3) that a long-abandoned fuel tanker off war-torn Yemen’s coast could “explode at any moment”, urging UN action to prevent a catastrophic Red Sea oil spill. The 45-year-old fuel vessel FSO Safer has 1.1 million barrels of crude on board, and has been abandoned near Yemen’s western […]

Sitting in her office in Parliament on Wednesday afternoon, Idit Silman, a hard-right lawmaker, flicked through hundreds of recent text messages from unknown numbers. Some were laced with abusive language. Some warned she was going to hell. All of them demanded that her party abandon coalition negotiations with an alliance of centrist, leftist and right-wing […]

Naftali Bennett, who leads a small right-wing party, and Yair Lapid, the centrist leader of the Israeli opposition, have joined forces to try to form a diverse coalition to unseat Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. Spanning Israel’s fractious political spectrum from left to right, and relying on the support of a small Arab, Islamist […]

JERUSALEM — Israel’s political class was locked in frenzied horse trading on Monday, as opposition politicians struggled to strike a coalition deal to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who in turn was waging a last-ditch effort to cling to power. The bartering put a spotlight on the fragmentation of the Israeli political system, in which […]

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Yair Lapid, who edged closer on Sunday (May 30) to forming a coalition cabinet to oust long-term premier Benjamin Netanyahu, is Israel’s centrist opposition leader and a former television anchor. When Lapid founded his Yesh Atid (There is a Future) party in 2012, some dismissed him as the latest in a series […]

RAMALLAH (BLOOMBERG) – The cease-fire in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip may be holding but the standoff between Israel and the Palestinians in the contested city of Jerusalem remains tense, the Palestinian Prime Minister said, urging the international community to help end a vacuum in peacemaking. “The problem is that while we do have a cease-fire […]

DAMASCUS (REUTERS) – Polling stations opened on Wednesday (May 26) across Syria in a presidential election that is set to usher Bashar al-Assad into a fourth term in office. The government says the election shows Syria is functioning normally despite a decade-old war, but the opposition and Western nations view it as merely rubber-stamping Mr […]

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s leader has been under intense pressure to rein in the dozens of paramilitary groups that are nominally under the command of the Iraqi government but have proved seemingly impossible for him to control. That was made abundantly clear this week, when Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi ordered a move against one militia leader […]

AMMAN, Jordan — A fragile cease-fire remains intact, but the work to rebuild after the short but deadly war between Israel and Hamas has just begun, the top American diplomat said Wednesday at the close of a Middle East trip intended to keep simmering tensions from erupting anew. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said […]