BEIRUT: A Syrian truce brokered by Russia and Turkey was under growing strain on Monday as opposition fighters vowed to respond to regime’s violations and President Bashar Assad said the army would retake an important opposition-held area near Damascus. Assad, in comments to French media, also said his regime was ready to negotiate on “everything” at peace talks his Russian allies hope to convene in Kazakhstan, including […]
Abu Dhabi // Rulers and officials of the GCC on Monday sent messages of condolence to the Iranian president and the family of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the senior revolutionary figure and pragmatist who had developed good relations with member states and presided over a thaw in Tehran’s relations with Riyadh during his tenure as president. Rafsanjani died on Sunday at the age of 82 after suffering a […]
DUBAI An Iranian official confirmed on Monday that Saudi Arabia had invited Tehran to discuss arrangements for the annual Muslim haj, which Iran boycotted last year after hundreds died in a crush at the 2015 pilgrimage. Most were Iranians, and the incident infuriated Tehran. Soon after, ties between the two regional rivals worsened further when Saudi Arabia executed a Shi’ite cleric, angry Iranians stormed the Saudi embassy […]
“We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow.” So Henry Temple, the third Viscount Palmerston, described British foreign policy in 1848, at the height of its imperial pomp. “England is a power sufficiently strong, sufficiently powerful to steer her own course.” It is more than fanciful to imagine US […]
Submitted by Peter Korzun via Strategic-Culture.org, It should be noted that quite often the most interesting arms contracts escape media attention. That’s how it was in 2016. Signing a multi-billion-dollar military aid package between the United States and Israel and the subsequent White House approval for long-awaited fighter sales to the Middle East hit the radar screen. In late September, the US approved the sales of Boeing fighters worth […]
Who would now warn publicly against “Islamic fascism,” when the hard-liners sought to influence elections? Who would state openly that there should be a nuclear compromise? Continue reading the main story Mr. Rafsanjani said things others would not dare to say, all agreed, and his voice had at least created some tolerance for debates. “Hard-liners will be happy, but this is the start of a period of […]
Some analysts say Russia appears to have arrived at an accommodation in which the Turks are moving to establish a security zone in northern Syria to preclude Syrian Kurds from setting up an autonomous region. In return, the Turks appear to be backing off their efforts to unseat President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, who, with Russian help, is strengthening his hold on the country’s major cities to […]
By Mehreen Zahra-Malik | ISLAMABAD ISLAMABAD Pakistan’s recently retired army chief Raheel Sharif has been appointed to lead a new Saudi-military alliance to fight terrorism, Pakistani media have reported. Government officials in Saudi Arabia could not be reached on Sunday to confirm the appointment to head the coalition, the founding of which Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced at a sudden midnight press conference […]
By Henning Gloystein | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Oil prices fell early on Monday as Iran increased exports undermining efforts by other oil producers to curb a global fuel supply overhang and as U.S. drillers increased activity for a 10th week. Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, were trading at $56.97 per barrel at 0019 GMT, down 13 cents from their last close. U.S. West […]
By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin | DUBAI DUBAI Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani died on Sunday at the age of 82, state media reported, a big blow to moderates and reformists deprived now of their most influential supporter in the Islamic establishment. “Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani was taken to hospital after heart attack and more than an hour long efforts by doctors to revive him were not successful,” the […]
Yet many Western analysts believed that he sought a less confrontational relationship with the United States than other powerful figures in the Iranian hierarchy, for whom hostility toward Washington was a touchstone of ideological purity. Continue reading the main story Mr. Rafsanjani, for instance, was credited with suggesting that “Death to America” be dropped from the litany of slogans at Tehran’s Friday prayers, a weekly moment of […]
ABU DHABI // The Gulf has been left without the protection of a naval strike force after the United States Navy withdrew out its sole aircraft carrier last month. With the Dwight D Eisenhower returning to Norfolk, Virginia, at the end of December and its relief, the George H W Bush yet to leave port in the US, the gap of potentially two months is seen as […]
BERLIN A people smuggler left 19 migrants, including five children, at a motorway parking area in freezing temperatures in southern Germany and fled the scene, police said on Sunday. Police said the temperature was -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday when they found the migrants, one of whom had approached two other people at the parking area to raise the alarm after their driver left […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Japanese Olympus Corporation, the world leader in the manufacture of high-end optics and precision electronics used by the aviation industry, is establishing its Middle East and Africa (MEA) headquarters in Dubai. The facility will incorporate a state of the art service and training centre for both support and knowledge transfer. From Dubai, the headquarters will cover 72 countries from across the South Africa […]
AMMAN/BEIRUT A senior Syrian rebel official denied a report on Friday that a ceasefire had been reached between rebels and government forces in the Wadi Barada area near Damascus, where bombardments have knocked out the capital’s main water source. The government and allied fighters from the Lebanese group Hezbollah launched an attack two weeks ago to take back Wadi Barada where a spring provides supplies to four […]
ANKARA An earthquake shook Iran’s southern Fars province on Friday, killing four Afghan laborers and prompting a search operation for other casualties in the thinly-populated mountainous area, Iranian state TV said. The shallow magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck at dawn, with its epicenter 53 km southwest (33 miles) of the city of Jahrom, the USGS said. Iranian media said the quake measured 5.1. “Four Afghans living and working […]
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi | AMMAN AMMAN The Syrian army and its allies pressed ahead on Friday with a two-week-long offensive to seize a strategic valley where a key spring provides supplies to four million people in the capital, Damascus, residents and rebels said. Aerial bombing and shelling from the army as well as Hezbollah fighters stationed in the mountains that overlook the valley on the northwestern edge […]
January 5, 2017 by: David J Lynch in Washington and Jessica Dye in New York Senator John McCain joined three top US intelligence officials on Thursday in blaming Russia for election-related cyber attacks which the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee called an “unprecedented attack on our democracy”. At an extraordinary Senate hearing called to hear the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered in November’s presidential […]
LONDON: Pro-government Iraqi paramilitaries accused of war crimes are using arms from at least 16 countries, including the US and Iran, according to an Amnesty International report released on Thursday.The predominantly Shia militias were formed in 2014 to support the Iraqi government in its fight against the Daesh group and have since committed war crimes, Amnesty said.The Sunni Arab community has been targeted by paramilitaries, which have […]
OPEC’s oil output in December fell from a record high ahead of a deal to cut production, a Reuters survey found on Thursday, helped by attacks on Nigeria’s oil industry and top exporter Saudi Arabia trimming exports. The decline, the first since May according to Reuters surveys, occurred despite higher exports from second-largest OPEC producer Iraq and a further upward trend in Libyan output. Supply from OPEC […]
ADEN At least three soldiers were killed in clashes with al Qaeda militants in southern Yemen in an operation launched by the internationally recognised government of President Abd-Rabu Mansour Hadi, security sources said. They said at least 10 other soldiers were wounded when troops were ambushed east of the coastal city of Shuqra on Tuesday. Intense clashes were continuing on Wednesday. The sources said that Hadi forces, […]
CAIRO: A report alleging human rights violations in Yemen by Houthi rebels has recorded 949 cases of damaged public property and 2,673 instances of private property damage, the Saudi Embassy here reported on Tuesday.The damage varied between complete and partial by bombardment from Houthi militants and loyalists of deposed President Abdullah Saleh against civilian homes and government and private facilities, according to a statement released on Tuesday […]
An imprisoned political activist in Iran who began a hunger strike more than two months ago to protest the incarceration of his wife halted the fast on Tuesday when the judicial authorities released her at least temporarily, rights groups and Iranian news media reported. The showdown between the authorities and the activist, Arash Sadeghi, who was sentenced in 2015 to at least 15 years for acts deemed […]
Saudi Arabia stressed on Monday the importance of co-operation among oil producers to abide by a decision in November to cut production. OPEC agreed in November its first oil output cuts since 2008 after Saudi Arabia accepted “a big hit” on its production and dropped its demand that arch-rival Iran slash output. “The council (of ministers)…asserted the importance of stability and coordination and increased cooperation between member […]
