BEIRUT (AFP) – Two civilians were among four people killed by Israeli strikes on Wednesday (Nov 24) that targeted a part of Syria where fighters loyal to Lebanon’s Hizbollah are based, a monitor said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group that relies on sources on the ground, said the Israeli missiles struck […]

MANAMA (REUTERS) – Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin sought on Saturday (Nov 20) to reassure allies in the Middle East that President Joe Biden’s administration was committed to the region despite Washington increasingly turning its attention towards countering China. It was unclear how much impact Austin’s speech would have with allies in the Middle East, since […]

TEL AVIV (REUTERS) – Turkey on Thursday freed an Israeli couple who had been arrested for photographing President Tayyip Erdogan’s residence in Istanbul and accused of spying, an allegation denied by Israel. The couple’s release spurred the first conversation between the countries’ leaders in years. Mordi and Natali Oknin were detained on Nov 9. A […]

ARBIL, IRAQ (AFP) – Hundreds of Iraqis returned home on Thursday (Nov 18) on an Iraqi Airways flight from Belarus, where thousands of migrants have camped on the Polish border for weeks hoping to enter the EU. It was the first repatriation flight of migrants – many of them fleeing war and poverty-wracked Middle Eastern […]

LONDON – Britain has joined other major Western countries in warning its citizens not to travel to Lebanon. The move amounts to a further economic blow to a Middle Eastern country that used to be a magnet for tourists, but is now facing political meltdown on top of a catastrophic economic decline. Please subscribe or log […]

DUBAI (REUTERS) – Forces from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Israel and the United States Naval Forces Central Command (Navcent) began a multilateral maritime security operations exercise in the Red Sea on Wednesday, Navcent said on Thursday (Nov 11). This is the first publicly acknowledged naval exercise between the US, Israel and the two Gulf […]

JERUSALEM (XINHUA) – Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Saturday (Nov 6) that he was against the possible reopening of a United States consulate for Palestinians in Jerusalem. Mr Bennett spoke at a press conference in Jerusalem a day after the Israeli Parliament passed the annual budget for 2022. “There is no room for another […]

DUBAI (REUTERS) – Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday (Nov 3) they thwarted an attempt by the US to detain a tanker carrying the Islamic Republic’s oil in the Sea of Oman. US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the Iranian report was not true and there had been no American attempt to […]

SHARM EL SHEIKH, EGYPT (AFP) – Business owner Mussa al-Nahas sat outside his fragrance and spice shop overlooking the Red Sea beaming at the sight of Russian tourists, who are beginning to flood back to Sharm el-Sheikh six years after a terror attack. “Today is much, much better than three or four months ago because […]

DUBAI (REUTERS) – A cyber attack disrupted the sale of heavily subsidised petrol in Iran on Tuesday (Oct 26), state media reported, causing long queues at petrol stations across the country weeks before the anniversary of 2019 street protests that followed fuel price hikes. Iran says it is on high alert for online assaults, which […]