ABU DHABI (REUTERS) – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Saturday (Jan 12) he was optimistic that a “good outcome”could be reached between Turkey and Syrian Kurdish groups, after speaking to the Turkish foreign minister. “We recognise the Turkish people’s right to defend their country from terrorists, but we also know that those… […]

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Whenever her father beat her, or bound her wrists and ankles to punish her for perceived disobedience, the Saudi teenager dreamed of escape, she said. As desperate as she was to leave, however, the same question always stopped her short: How would she get out? If she ran away anywhere within the […]

HASAKEH, Syria (AFP, REUTERS) – The US-led coalition in Syria has begun withdrawing its troops, a spokesman said on Friday (Jan 11), less than a month after US President Donald Trump made his shock announcement. The force which has battled the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant group since 2014 started scaling down […]

CAIRO — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo scathingly repudiated President Barack Obama’s approach to the Middle East on Thursday, using a speech in Cairo to reject what he called the previous administration’s timidity toward Islamic extremism and misguided outreach to Iran. A decade after Mr. Obama delivered a landmark speech, also in Cairo, that offered […]

DUBAI (REUTERS) – The guns have mostly fallen silent around the Yemeni port of Hodeidah and the skies are clear of warplanes, but a UN-sponsored deal for the warring armies to quit the city has stalled, risking efforts to end a conflict that has pushed the country to the brink of famine. The Iranian-aligned Houthis […]

Turkey’s president has strongly rejected US calls for his country to protect Kurdish fighters in Syria. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said such statements made by US National Security Adviser John Bolton at the weekend were “unacceptable”. Mr Bolton is in Turkey to seek guarantees that Kurds fighting Islamic State (IS) in northern Syria will be […]

AMMAN (AFP) – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived on Tuesday (Jan 8) in Jordan on a Middle East tour to show commitment to the region after President Donald Trump’s surprise decision to withdraw troops from war-torn Syria. The top US diplomat, on his longest trip since taking up the post last year, pledged […]

JERUSALEM — The announcement set Israel abuzz with suspense late Monday afternoon: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a “dramatic statement” to deliver at 8 p.m., at the start of the most heavily watched news hour. Would it be about Iran? Hezbollah? Hamas? The Trump peace plan? The subject, it turned out, was an existential threat […]

WASHINGTON — Two Marines and a Navy corpsman stationed in northern Iraq are being investigated in the death of an American civilian contractor last week, two Defense Department officials said on Monday. The contractor was severely wounded in what officials described as a physical altercation on New Year’s Eve in Erbil, the capital of the […]

ISTANBUL (REUTERS) – Two people died and another four were missing on Monday (Jan 7) after a ship carrying coal sent a distress signal off the northern coast of Turkey, the coast guard and the local governor’s office said. The Panama-flagged vessel, which departed from Russia’s Azov port, sent out a distress signal around 148km […]