Photo One of Bahman Jalali’s photographs, part of “Iran-Iraq War” (1980-1988), which is among those that won’t be displayed at the Aipad Photography show. Credit Bahman Jalali, courtesy Ag Galerie Tehran When this year’s edition of the Aipad Photography Show opens on Thursday, one of its booths will be empty — a casualty of President Trump’s travel ban. Ag Galerie, which was to have its debut at […]
The Gulf emirate of Qatar is tiny, but it’s made a name for itself by placing big bets. Thanks to vast reserves of natural gas, its 2.6 million residents enjoy the world’s highest per-capita income: $129,700 a year. Qatar has acquired more than $335 billion worth of assets around the globe, buying up trophies such as London’s Shard, the tallest building in Europe. The emirate has also […]
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told Reuters on Tuesday that Russia could use Iranian military bases to launch air strikes against militants in Syria on a “case by case basis.” Russia and Iran are both key allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and have played decisive roles in the past 18 months to turn the tide of the Syrian conflict in his favour. Russian jets used […]
Mr. Netanyahu, several experts said, wants to talk to Mr. Trump about how best to confront Iran. But the administration’s policy toward Iran is still taking shape, making it less fruitful for the Israeli leader to come to Washington for a face-to-face meeting with the president. Continue reading the main story In his video appearance — after joking that he skipped the conference to avoid standing in […]
New York // The Pentagon is considering throwing its weight behind an Arab military plan to capture a Red Sea port in Yemen as part of a move to step up its support for the Saudi-led coalition that has fought a two-year war against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. Senior officials said it was part of a new stance adopted by US president Donald Trump’s administration to deepen ties […]
By Matt Spetalnick | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he was committed to working with U.S. President Donald Trump to advance peace efforts with the Palestinians and with the broader Arab world. Netanyahu made the pledge in a speech to the largest U.S. pro-Israel lobbying group at a time when the Trump administration is seeking agreement with his right-wing government on limiting […]
BEIRUT: US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance on Sunday entered a military airport held by Daesh in northern Syria while the militant group warned the Tabqa dam is at imminent risk of collapse because of airstrikes and increased water levels.The advance by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Tabqa airbase comes as the alliance prepares an attack on Daesh’s de facto Syrian capital Raqqa, seeking to effectively surround the city before […]
Samsung will seek this week to draw a line under the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone safety scandal with the launch of the South Korean technology company’s latest handset, the Galaxy S8. Released last August, the Note 7 was hastily withdrawn after a series of incidents in which the phones caught fire. Samsung expects the debacle, which dealt a severe blow to its reputation, to have cost the […]
BEIRUT: At least 16 civilians were killed and dozens wounded on Saturday in an airstrike on an opposition-held area outside Syria’s capital Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said. It said it was not immediately clear who was responsible for the strike on the town Hammuriyeh in the opposition bastion of Eastern Ghouta.“Sixteen civilians, including a child, were killed and around 50 others wounded in […]
A Saudi soldier was killed by a missile fired by rebels in Yemen that struck a military base near the border, the interior ministry said on Friday. The missile was launched late Thursday from a rebel-controlled area in Yemen and hit a base in Dhahran South, killing border guard Atallah Yassine Al-Anzi, according to a statement carried by Saudi Arabia’s official news agency. Saudi Arabia intercepted a […]
ZTE Corporation has released its financial results for 2016, reporting full-revenue of 101.2 billion yuan, an increase of 1.04 percent to the 100.18 billion yuan reported in the previous corresponding period. The Chinese telecommunications hardware vendor, which had delayed the release of its 2016 annual report to assess the impact of the Iran sanctions case, admitted it slipped to a net loss of 2.36 billion yuan in […]
“Nowruz means ‘new day’ in Persian,” the president said in the statement. “It is an occasion to celebrate new beginnings, a sentiment that is particularly meaningful for so many Iranians who have come to our country in recent decades to make a new start in a free land.” Continue reading the main story Among the sections deleted were one that said America looked forward to engaging someday […]
BEIRUT The Syrian army and rebels, including jihadist groups, fought in the capital Damascus and north of Hama on Thursday after the insurgents’ biggest offensive for months, underscoring the bleak prospects for peace talks which resume later in the day. The offensive seems unlikely to reverse 18 months of steady military gains by the government, culminating in December’s capture of the rebel enclave in Aleppo, but it […]
“Reflecting on the past year or so, we should be encouraged by the significant progress we as a coalition are making,” Mr. Tillerson said. Continue reading the main story Mr. Trump has long insisted that citing “radical Islamic terrorism” is key to defeating the Islamic State. “You can’t solve a problem if you refuse to talk about what the problem is,” he said in November 2015. Yet […]
In the wake of the terror attacks in England, France, Germany and elsewhere, can we finally admit that the war on terror is an utter and complete failure? 10 Ways to Reduce Terrorism So if the war on terror has failed, what should we do to stop terrorists? I. Stop Overthrowing the Moderates and Arming Crazies We know it’s a difficult concept to grasp, but if we […]
Brent crude oil fell below $50 a barrel for the first time this year after US crude inventories climbed to a fresh record, raising fears that Opec’s attempts to tighten the market are falling short. US crude inventories rose by 5m barrels in the week ended March 17, the US Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday, triggering an immediate bout of selling that pushed Brent below $50 […]
While the government still seems to be consolidating control over major population centers along Syria’s western spine, it appears at a minimum likely to face a lingering rural insurgency and bombing campaigns in the cities by hard-line jihadist groups. Continue reading the main story At the least, the rebel assaults carried a political message: that the insurgents could still disrupt life in the capital and challenge the […]
Authored by Robert Parry via The Strategic Culture Foundation, The Kagan family, America’s neoconservative aristocracy, has reemerged having recovered from the letdown over not gaining its expected influence from the election of Hillary Clinton and from its loss of official power at the start of the Trump presidency. Former Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland, who pushed for the Ukraine coup and helped pick […]
BEIRUT Tahrir al-Sham, an alliance of Syrian jihadist rebel groups, said on Tuesday it was launching a new offensive near the city of Hama in the central part of western Syria. The group said on a social media feed that it had carried out two suicide car bomb attacks close to the town of Soran in the countryside north of Hama. “The battle of Hama has begun, […]
By David Shepardson and Kylie MacLellan | WASHINGTON/LONDON WASHINGTON/LONDON The United States and Britain on Tuesday imposed restrictions on carry-on electronic devices on planes coming from certain airports in Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East and North Africa in response to unspecified security threats. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said passengers traveling from those airports could not bring devices such as tablets, portable DVD players, laptops […]
By Robin Emmott | BRUSSELS BRUSSELS U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s decision to miss his first meeting with NATO foreign ministers has unsettled European allies who fear the no-show reopens questions about President Donald Trump’s commitment to the alliance. Reuters exclusively reported on Monday that Tillerson would stay at home to attend Trump’s expected April 6-7 talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Florida, skipping the […]
By Luke Baker | JERUSALEM JERUSALEM Russia and other world powers must move to limit Iran’s growing military strength in Syria because it poses a regional threat, the director-general of Israel’s Intelligence Ministry told Reuters in an interview. Israeli officials estimate Iran commands at least 25,000 fighters in Syria, including members of its own Revolutionary Guard, Shi’ite militants from Iraq and recruits from Afghanistan and Pakistan. It […]
Authored by Melkulangara Bhadrakumar via The Strategic Culture Foundation, The common thread running through the two major ‘hot spots’ in the Middle East today – the conflicts in Syria and Libya – is undoubtedly the threat to international security from the extremist groups operating in these theatres. Therefore, Syria and Libya become test cases of the efficacy of the international community – Russia and the United States […]
By Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The Trump administration is considering sweeping sanctions aimed at cutting North Korea off from the global financial system as part of a broad review of measures to counter Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile threat, a senior U.S. official said on Monday. The sanctions would be part of a multi-pronged approach of increased economic and diplomatic pressure – especially on […]
