Photo The American Freestyle Wrestling team on Saturday in Tehran before returning to the United States. Credit Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times IMAM KHOMEINI AIRPORT, Iran — When the United States wrestling team arrived at 3 a.m. on Saturday at an airport hotel outside Iran’s capital, Tehran, staff members ordered out for pizza. “We were all over the lobby, eating out of the boxes,” said […]
MUNICH A new version of a Trump administration travel ban will not stop green card residency holders or travellers already on planes from entering the United States, U.S. Secretary for Homeland Security John Kelly said on Saturday. U.S. President Donald Trump’s initial attempt to clamp down for security reasons on immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries and on refugees snarled to a halt amid a judicial backlash and […]
ABU DHABI – U.S. President Donald Trump’s defense secretary arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Saturday for talks with one of Washington’s closest allies in the Middle East. Jim Mattis, on his debut trip to the region as Pentagon chief, was expected to meet Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahayan and U.S. embassy representatives. U.S. officials have not disclosed details about his agenda. […]
The shortlist for this year’s International Prize for Arabic Fiction has been announced with novels representing the best in contemporary Arabic literature. The finalists for this year’s prize are A Small Death from Saudi Arabian author Mohammed Hasan Alwan; The Slaves’ Pens from Libya’s Najwa Binshatwan; Al-Sabiliat from Kuwaiti author Ismail Fahd Ismail; Children of the Ghetto — My Name is Adam from Lebanon’s Elias Khoury; In […]
ABU DHABI // The bodies of Emirati servicemen Lance Corporal Soliman Mohammed Soliman Al Dhohouri and Sergeant Nader Mubarak Eisa Soliman, who were martyred in Yemen, have been buried by their families. The General Command of the Armed Forces announced that the two died while performing their duty as part of Operation Restoring Hope, being conducted by the Saudi-led Arab Coalition to support and restore the legitimate […]
By Laila Bassam and Angus McDowall | BEIRUT BEIRUT (Story corrects headline and paragraph 1 to show source said Hezbollah speeches aimed to draw “red lines” to prevent action against Lebanon, removes reference to hitting U.S. interests by targeting Israel which the source did not say.) The Hezbollah leader’s harsh words for Israel and U.S. President Donald Trump this week were aimed at drawing “red lines” to […]
DIYARBAKIR (Story corrects paragraph 5 to show conflict flared up again in 2015 not last year.) A car bomb exploded in the garden of a housing complex in Turkey’s southeastern town of Viransehir on Friday, killing a child and wounding 17 other people, the provincial governor’s office told Reuters. Initial findings showed that an unidentified individual thought to be between 18 to 20 had parked the car […]
By Syed Raza Hassan | SEHWAN SHARIF, Pakistan SEHWAN SHARIF, Pakistan Wailing Sufi devotees thronged a blood-stained shrine in southern Pakistan on Friday, shouting at police a day after a suicide bomber killed at least 77 people in an attack claimed by a regional branch of Islamic State. The bombing of the famed Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine in Sindh province was Pakistan’s deadliest attack in two years […]
Video Haley Says U.S. Backs Two-State Solution Nikki R. Haley, United States ambassador to the United Nations, said on Thursday that the administration supports a two-state solution in the Middle East. By UNTV. Photo by Mary Altaffer/Associated Press. Watch in Times Video » UNITED NATIONS — Twenty-four hours after President Trump swatted away at a broad international consensus on how to achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians, […]
By Dan Levine | SAN FRANCISCO SAN FRANCISCO U.S. President Donald Trump will replace his executive order suspending travel from seven Muslim-majority countries “in the near future,” according to a Justice Department court filing on Thursday. Given the upcoming executive order, the Justice Department said a federal appeals court should not reconsider a ruling that suspended Trump’s Jan. 27 order. “In so doing, the President will clear […]
By John Irish | BONN, Germany BONN, Germany France considers the U.S. position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “confused and worrying”, its foreign minister said on Thursday, reacting to U.S. President Trump’s dropping of the America’s commitment to a two-state solution. Jean-Marc Ayrault met Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at a G20 meeting of foreign ministers in Bonn where, he said, he got some reassurance about Washington’s stance […]
Ten years ago Vladimir Putin angrily declared that the post-cold war order was a sham. Standing before the western military and diplomatic establishment at the Munich Security Conference, the Russian president accused the US of plunging the world into chaos by warmongering, meddling in other countries’ affairs and disregarding international law. For many, it marked the moment that Mr Putin became an adversary. Now, as foreign policy […]
JEDDAH: The Arab coalition supporting the legitimate government in Yemen has said it’s looking into an alleged incident which took place in Sanaa on Thursday.Brig. Gen. Ahmad Al-Assiri, spokesman for the coalition, told Arab News that a statement has been issued by the coalition announcing the launch of an investigation into the incident in the Yemeni capital today. “We have been made aware of news reports by […]
Mr. Trump’s position on a two-state solution discarded a policy that has underpinned America’s role in Middle East peacemaking since the Clinton administration and raised a host of thorny questions. Continue reading the main story The Palestinians are highly unlikely to accept anything short of a sovereign state, and a single Israeli state encompassing the Palestinians would either leave them as second-class citizens or would no longer […]
Photo President Trump and Prim Minister Netanyahu entering the White House on Wednesday. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times President Trump came forward with a nonsensical statement on Wednesday as he dangerously backed away from the two-state solution, which has been central to America’s Mideast policy for more than 20 years and remains the only just answer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “So, I’m looking at two-state and […]
By Roberta Rampton and Noah Barkin | WASHINGTON/BERLIN WASHINGTON/BERLIN U.S. Vice President Mike Pence heads to Europe this week to meet with allies seeking clarity on the Trump administration’s foreign policy strategy and its stance towards Russia after the resignation of the top White House national security aide. Pence, who has hewn more closely to Republican orthodoxy than his boss President Donald Trump, will attend the Munich […]
By Babak Dehghanpisheh | BEIRUT BEIRUT Iran’s president must do more to improve the economy, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday in a rare public criticism from the supreme leader three months before Hassan Rouhani runs for re-election. Unemployment, recession and inflation – issues that could win or lose an election – all remain major problems in the final month’s of Rouhani’s first four-year term, Khamenei said […]
BEIRUT Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said his country sought good relations with its Gulf Arab neighbours as he began a one-day trip to Oman and Kuwait on Wednesday, his first since taking power in 2013. Relations between predominantly Shi’ite Iran and the mainly Sunni Arab countries of the Gulf, particularly Saudi Arabia, remain strained over their support for opposing sides in the conflicts in Syria and Yemen. […]
By Luke Baker | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump will host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Wednesday, their first meeting since the inauguration and one that promises to shape the contours of Middle East policy for the years ahead. On the agenda are some of the region’s most volatile issues: the war in Syria, the Iran nuclear file and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, […]
After a day of chaotic communication, a stock sell-off and a $6.3bn writedown that may destroy one of Japan’s greatest industrial names, the Toshiba president’s bow of apology finally came. Satoshi Tsunakawa’s head nodded for just one perfunctory second on Tuesday. Most assume there will be much deeper, longer bows to come as Toshiba leads investors, customers, employees and Japan as a whole through the country’s first […]
By Colin Packham and Aaron Bunch | SYDNEY SYDNEY Officials at an Australian immigration centre in Papua New Guinea are increasing pressure on asylum seekers to return to their home countries voluntarily, including offering large sums of money, amid fears a deal for the United States to take refugees has fallen through. About a dozen Bangladeshi and Nepalese asylum seekers on Manus Island told Reuters they are […]
Since then the barriers to peace have grown even more formidable, and attitudes like Mr. Gatshan’s more entrenched. Continue reading the main story When President Trump and Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, meet in Washington on Wednesday they are likely to discuss a change of tactics, relying on Arab states like Qatar to help secure a two-state solution, under which Israel and an independent Palestinian state would […]
By Patricia Zengerle | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Benjamin Netanyahu’s first Trump-era Washington visit offers a chance to repair ties to Democrats that frayed during years of chilly relations under the Obama administration, but many party members said they do not expect much improvement given the Israeli prime minister’s close alignment with Republicans. “There’s a lot of mending of fences that has to happen between the Netanyahu government and […]
Photo Credit Justin Renteria It’s a fair bet that the first meeting on Wednesday between President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel will feature big smiles and reassuring words. Both men are eager to demonstrate that the hostility that poisoned Mr. Netanyahu’s relations with President Barack Obama is a thing of the past. But personal chemistry can go only so far. The issues facing the […]
