DUBAI/JEDDAH (REUTERS) – Iran warned US President Donald Trump on Thursday (Sept 19) against being dragged into all-out war in the Middle East following an attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities which Washington and Riyadh blame on Teheran. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has described the weekend strike that initially halved Saudi oil output […]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on his centrist rival Benny Gantz to form a unity government, after the country’s second election in a year ended in deadlock. Local media say both men’s parties failed to win enough votes on Tuesday to build a coalition with a majority. There was no immediate response to […]

PARIS (AFP) – French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Thursday (Sept 19) that a claim by Yemeni rebels that they carried out attacks on two Saudi oil facilities “lacks credibility”. “The Houthis, who are Yemeni rebels, announced that it was they who provoked this attack, which lacks credibility,” Le Drian told France’s CNews channel. […]

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – A cruise missile and drone fragments that Saudi Arabia says it recovered from an attack on its oil industry bear similarities to Iranian-manufactured weapons, though more information is needed to make a definitive link, analysts told The Associated Press on Wednesday (Sept 18). Particularly striking was the cruise missile, […]

RIYADH/DUBAI (REUTERS) – Billions of dollars spent by Saudi Arabia on cutting edge Western military hardware mainly designed to deter high-altitude attacks has proved no match for low-cost drones and cruise missiles used in a strike that crippled its giant oil industry. Last Saturday’s (Sept 14) assault on Saudi oil facilities that halved production has […]

WEST BANK (REUTERS) – Israeli security personnel shot a Palestinian woman who tried to stab them at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, Israeli police said, and Palestinian officials said she died of her injury. The West Bank, among territories where Palestinians seek statehood, has seen simmering street violence since US-sponsored peace […]

DUBAI (REUTERS) – The United States believes the attacks that crippled Saudi Arabian oil facilities last weekend originated in southwestern Iran, a US official told Reuters, an assessment that further increases tension in the Middle East. Three officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the attacks involved cruise missiles and drones, indicating that […]

Iran has acknowledged for the first time that it is holding three Australian nationals, including two with joint British nationality, on suspicion of spying. The semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili as saying the three had been charged in two separate cases. He said two people, thought to be British-Australian blogger Jolie […]

The attacks on Saudi oil installations have led to speculation that armed drones were involved. Both the United States and the Saudi authorities say this may well have been the case. The offensive use of drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has grown significantly in recent years, and nowhere more so than in the Middle […]

Israelis are voting in their country’s second general election in five months. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the snap election after failing to form a governing coalition with a viable majority after April’s vote. The final opinion polls put his right-wing Likud party neck and neck with its main challenger, the centrist Blue and White […]