Video | Bahrain: Our Oath Dr. Nada Dhaif helped create a medical tent to treat injured protesters in Bahrain’s Pearl Roundabout — and was sentenced to 15 years in jail. By KAREEM FAHIM June 7, 2015 The roundup of health workers who treated injured protesters set the tone for the furious and uncompromising reaction by Bahrain’s government to a popular uprising in 2011. The authorities arrested doctors, nurses and […]
Tariq Aziz, left, in 1992 at the United Nations as deputy prime minister of Iraq, talking with Chinmaya Rajaninath Gharekhan, the Indian delegate, at a meeting of the Security Council. By ALISSA J. RUBIN June 5, 2015 Tariq Aziz, the Iraqi foreign minister and deputy prime minister who for decades was the most public face of Saddam Hussein’s government on the world stage, died on Friday in Nasiriya, Iraq, where […]
By ALISSA J. RUBIN June 5, 2015 Tariq Aziz, the Iraqi foreign minister and deputy prime minister who for decades was the most public face of Saddam Hussein’s government on the world stage, died on Friday in Nasiriya, Iraq, where he had been imprisoned. He was 79. Adel Aldikhaly, the deputy governor of Nasiriya, said Mr. Aziz had had a heart attack after “a long-term incurable disease” and was transferred […]
U.S. Government Suffers Massive Cyberattack The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is reporting a cybersecurity incident that affects its systems and data. The breach may have compromised the personal information of 4 million current and former federal workers. “Within the last year, OPM has undertaken an aggressive effort to update its cybersecurity posture, adding numerous tools and capabilities to its networks,” according to a statement on […]
By RICK GLADSTONE June 3, 2015 The adjourned espionage trial of Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post correspondent incarcerated in Tehran since last July, will resume on Monday, Mr. Rezaian’s brother said Wednesday. The brother, Ali Rezaian, confirmed via email a report by the Iranian Students’ News Agency quoting the defense lawyer, Leila Ahsan, as saying that said she had been informed of the date for the next hearing in […]
By RICK GLADSTONE May 27, 2015 France challenged Iran’s supreme leader on Wednesday over a disputed element of the Iranian nuclear talks, asserting that it would not sign any pact unless Iran allowed all its nuclear installations, including military sites, to be inspected. The French position was stated by the foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, just as negotiations reconvened in Vienna with the aim of reaching a final agreement by […]
From left: Maziar Bahari, Reza Taghavi and Amir Hekmati. By THE NEW YORK TIMES May 27, 2015 In the past seven years, other journalists and American travelers have been arrested in Iran for spying. All have denied the accusations. ▪ Roxana Saberi: An Iranian-American journalist arrested in January 2009 on accusations of spying, and sentenced to eight years. She was released after 100 days and wrote a book about her experience. […]
Video | Reporter’s Brother on Iran Spying Trial Ali Rezaian — the brother of Jason Rezaian, a reporter for The Washington Post — spoke on Tuesday as his brother’s trial on espionage charges began in Iran. By THOMAS ERDBRINK May 26, 2015 Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post correspondent accused by Iran of espionage who has been imprisoned for more than 10 months, went on trial in a Tehran courtroom […]
By RICK GLADSTONE May 25, 2015 Ignoring foreign requests for court access, the Iranian judge presiding over the espionage case against Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post reporter imprisoned for 10 months, has barred everyone except the defendant and his lawyer, Mr. Rezaian’s brother said Monday on the eve of the trial. Not even Mr. Rezaian’s mother and wife, who as of last week had been led to believe they […]
By JODI RUDOREN May 25, 2015 JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Monday named a longtime confidant who is hawkish on Iran and the Palestinian issue to run the foreign ministry, the latest in a series of moves that consolidate Mr. Netanyahu’s conservative grip on his new government. The new ministry director, Dore Gold, is a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations and a prolific […]
SYRIA. Islamic State fighters tightened their grip on the historic Syrian city of Palmyra on Thursday and overran Iraqi government defenses east of Ramadi, the provincial capital that they seized five days earlier. The twin successes not only pile pressure on Damascus and Baghdad but throw doubt on a U.S. strategy of relying almost exclusively on air strikes to support the fight against Islamic State. U.S. and […]
An anonymous painting of Turkish Emperor Mahmud II leading his troops. By DAVID MOTADEL May 23, 2015 CAMBRIDGE, England — THE last several months have brought a dramatic escalation in conflict across the Middle East, almost all of it involving tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims — which are in turn fueled by a power struggle between Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia for regional supremacy. Tehran runs a […]
By PETER BAKER May 21, 2015 WASHINGTON — President Obama denied that the United States and its allies were losing the fight against Islamic State forces in the Middle East, but he acknowledged in an interview posted online on Thursday that more should be done to help Iraqis recapture lost territory. While repeating his refusal to commit large-scale American forces to the region, the president said Sunni fighters in […]
Sepp Blatter, the FIFA president, center, with Ofer Eini, head of the Israeli soccer association, left, in Jerusalem on Tuesday. By JODI RUDOREN May 19, 2015 RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian grievances against Israel are familiar ones: hampering travel, blocking import of equipment, rampant racism and the treatment of settlements in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli response is also a repeat: security concerns, mostly. But this round […]
Slide Show | The Ancient Syrian City of Palmyra Islamic State militants have destroyed historical sites and sold off artifacts in other cities, and some fear they may do the same in Palmyra. By ANNE BARNARD and HWAIDA SAAD May 20, 2015 BEIRUT, Lebanon — Islamic State militants swept into the historic desert city of Palmyra in central Syria on Wednesday, and by evening were in control of it, residents and […]
Letter From the Mideast By JODI RUDOREN May 13, 2015 JERUSALEM — The most recognizable Israeli artwork depicting the Iranian nuclear threat was the cartoon bomb that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew a red line through at the United Nations in 2012. Now comes Andi Arnovitz, an Orthodox Jewish-feminist painter and printmaker, with a series of collages that are a bit more sophisticated and just as unsettling. There is […]
|By TAP Staff| Oil production from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) totaled 30.72 million barrels per day (b/d) in March, up 800,000 b/d from February, and the highest monthly volume since November 2012, according to the latest Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials and analysts. In November 2012, OPEC output was estimated at 31.08 million b/d. Saudi Arabia boosted production by 280,000 […]
Iraqi security forces in Tikrit, Iraq, on Monday. By ROD NORDLAND March 30, 2015 TIKRIT, Iraq — Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations used a visit to Baghdad on Monday to warn the Iraqi government to treat civilians decently after it liberates territories like Tikrit, where a government offensive has been supported by heavy American-led airstrikes for the past five days. “Civilians freed from the brutality of […]
Salim Al Aufi, Oman’s undersecretary for oil and gas, likens attempts to cut the reliance on oil during a price slump to acting “with a gun pointed at your head.” If you have to make decisions under pressure, “you will probably make the wrong ones,” he said March 3 in Muscat during a panel discussion on the impact of the oil shock. Oman relied too much on […]
Falling world oil prices will hurt countries across the Middle East unless Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude exporter, takes action to reverse the slump, Iran’s deputy foreign minister told Reuters. Hossein Amir Abdollahian described Saudi Arabia’s inaction in the face of a six-month slide in oil prices as a strategic mistake and said he still hoped the kingdom, Tehran’s main rival in the Gulf, would respond. […]
FBI Probes Revenge Hacks by U.S. Banks U.S. banks that were attacked by Iran-based hackers in late 2012 reportedly considered hacking the Iranians in response, according to Bloomberg News. That would-be retaliation has apparently gotten the attention of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), which is now looking into the banks’ actions, Bloomberg reported. The FBI is “looking into whether hackers working on behalf of any […]
Saudi Arabia will probably deepen discounts for crude supplies to Asia after leading OPEC to maintain the group’s output target amid a global battle for market share, according to a Bloomberg survey of traders. The world’s biggest oil exporter will announce January official selling prices to buyers in Asia this week, after lifting its Arab Light grade from the lowest level in almost six years a month […]
OPEC’s decision to cede no ground to rival producers underscored the price war in the crude market and the challenge to U.S. shale drillers. The 12-nation Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries kept its output target unchanged even after the steepest slump in oil prices since the global recession, prompting speculation it has abandoned its role as a swing producer. Yesterday’s decision in Vienna propelled futures to the […]
I recently reached out to my Twitter followers, asking “What can I, as a VOA reporter in Washington, write about that you need/want to know?” The responses were varied and interesting, but one topic dominated: U.S. policy in Syria. Why hasn’t the U.S. done more to help the Syrian people? “There is lot of frustration with the Obama’s administration’s ambiguous, vague and often incoherent strategy regarding dealing […]
