JERUSALEM — President Trump’s defeat has left Israel and its longtime prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on the receiving end of an abrupt demotion. Overnight, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory effectively downgraded Israel’s ranking on the list of United States foreign-policy priorities, diminished Mr. Netanyahu’s stature on the global stage and undercut his argument to […]

NAIROBI, Kenya — Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, ordered military action against a regional government in the country’s north early Wednesday, in a major escalation of a simmering conflict that now threatens to plunge the country into a new phase of turmoil. In a statement, Mr. Abiy accused the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the governing […]

Robert Fisk, a dauntless journalist who was widely praised by colleagues and competitors alike for relentlessly chronicling the Middle East’s many agonies, but who was also faulted by some critics as insufficiently tough at times on despots, died on Friday in a hospital in Dublin. He was 74. He had what appeared to be a […]

RIYADH (AFP) – A Saudi man rammed a car at high speed into the outer walls of Mecca’s Grand Mosque, Islam’s holiest site, authorities said on Saturday (Oct 31). Guards chased the driver as he crashed through two barriers before hitting one of the southern entrances of the mosque late on Friday, according to officials […]

JERUSALEM (REUTERS) – Israel said on Tuesday (Oct 27) the United States is effectively lifting a ban on US funding of Israeli scientific research projects conducted in the West Bank and Golan Heights, areas Israel occupied in a 1967 war. There was no immediate Palestinian comment on the move, announced a week before a US […]

DUBAI (REUTERS) – Iran’s Foreign Ministry has summoned the French charge d’affaires over alleged insults against Islam’s Prophet Mohammad, Iranian state broadcaster IRIB reported on Tuesday (Oct 27). A ministry official told the diplomat during their meeting on Monday that Iran strongly rejected “any insult and disrespect to the Prophet of Islam…, and Islam’s pure […]

DUBAI (REUTERS) – Iran extended Covid-19 curbs in Teheran and across the country on Monday (Oct 26) as health authorities said they were recording a death from the virus every four minutes. Some hospitals had run out of beds to treat new patients, the head of the national coronavirus task-force told state TV. “Our doctors […]

BAGHDAD (REUTERS) – Iraqi security forces fired water cannon and tear gas at anti-government protesters on Sunday (Oct 25) to prevent them crossing barricades on a bridge leading towards government buildings. The skirmishes came as hundreds of Iraqis took to the streets of Baghdad and some southern cities to hold anti-government protests, marking a year […]

BAGHDAD (AFP) – Thousands of Iraqis headed Sunday (Oct 25) to Baghdad’s iconic Tahrir Square and its high-security Green Zone to mark the first anniversary of a protest movement against the country’s stagnant political class. “This is an important day, we are here to keep the movement going,” student Mohamed Ali said in the square, […]

BEIRUT (AFP) – The US army said on Thursday (Oct 22) it carried out a drone strike against Al-Qaeda leaders in north-western Syria near the Turkish border, killing 17 Islamists, according to a war monitor. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said five civilians were also among those killed. “US Forces conducted a strike against […]