MOSCOW Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani agreed in a telephone conversation on Saturday to continue their close coordination in trying to end the Syria crisis, the Kremlin said in a statement. The two men agreed on the importance of a new ceasefire agreement in Syria brokered by Russia and Turkey and plans for peace talks in the Kazakh capital Astana, the Kremlin said. […]
BEIRUT An Iranian passenger plane was forced to return to Tehran’s Mehrabad airport on Saturday after one of its two engines failed, Tasnim news agency reported on Saturday, adding that all passengers were safe. Taban Airlines’ public relations manager was quoted by ISNA news agency as saying that its McDonnell Douglas MD-80 had turned back “due to technical failure”. Iran’s airlines have been plagued by accidents, which […]
By Mohamed Abdellah | CAIRO CAIRO An Egyptian appeals court on Saturday upheld an agreement to give control of two islands in the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia, providing a boost for the government in a case that has prompted rare street protests. The territorial deal, announced in April, caused public uproar among many Egyptians who said the uninhabited islands of Tiran and Sanafir belonged to their […]
A bipartisan chorus of lawmakers, upset with President Obama’s decision last week to allow the passage of a United Nations resolution condemning Israel’s construction of settlements in disputed territory, made clear that they were looking past the departing administration. Continue reading the main story Senator Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said he shared Mr. Kerry’s concerns “with the lack […]
Oman, traditionally on friendly terms with Iran, confirmed on Thursday that it had joined a Saudi-led coalition of Muslim countries fighting terrorism, a move praised by other Gulf Arab states as closing ranks with them against Iran. Saudi and Gulf sources reported the development on Wednesday, saying Omani Minister for Defence Affairs Badr bin Saud al-Busaidi had informed Saudi Arabia in a letter that it would join […]
The announcement of new US sanctions against Russia paves the way for a potential showdown between Congress and Donald Trump’s incoming administration over what kind of stance Washington should take against the country in the future. Mr Trump has called for closer ties with Moscow and played down its role in the Ukrainian conflict. But he is likely to face fierce resistance from a bipartisan coalition in […]
BEIRUT A spokesman for the Syrian Islamist militia Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly called the Nusra Front, criticised a nationwide Turkish- and Russian-backed ceasefire in Syria on Friday, saying the political solution under this agreement would “reproduce the criminal regime”. The group, which changed its name and announced in July that it was severing ties with al Qaeda, condemned the deal for not mentioning President Bashar al-Assad’s fate. […]
This has already changed the course of the Syrian war. Turkey grudgingly accepted the fall of Aleppo in return for a de facto recognition of its zone of influence along the Syrian-Turkish border. Instead of supporting rebel groups fighting in Aleppo or pressuring the Assad forces besieging the city, Turkey raced to capture territory from the Islamic State before the Kurds did. The Kremlin is now not […]
WASHINGTON: Almost six months since their summer meeting to achieve closer ties, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan took another step toward that goal by brokering a new cease-fire deal in Syria, to be followed by political talks to try to resolve the six-year-long conflict.The deal — announced simultaneously by the governments of Turkey, Syria and Russia — is a seven-point package […]
Authored by Oliver Stone (via Facebook), THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING As 2016 draws to a close, we find ourselves a deeply unsettled nation. We’re unable to draw the lines of our national interest. Is it jobs and economy, is it national security, or is it now in our interest to ensure global security — in other words, act as the world’s policemen? As the “failing” (to quote […]
Oman has joined a Saudi-led coalition of Muslim countries to fight terrorism, Saudi Arabian and Gulf sources said on Wednesday. The sultanate indicated its willingness to take part in the 40-country alliance in a letter to Saudi Deputy Crown Prince and Defence Minister Mohammed bin Salman, the sources said. Although differences are rarely aired in public, Oman has long stood out among its Gulf allies, remaining close […]
By John Davison | BEIRUT BEIRUT A nationwide ceasefire in Syria, brokered by Russia and Turkey which back opposing sides in the conflict, got off to a shaky start after midnight on Friday (2200 GMT on Thursday) in the latest attempt to end nearly six years of bloodshed. Russian President Vladimir Putin, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, announced the ceasefire on Thursday after forging […]
The Syrian government and rebels have agreed a ceasefire brokered and guaranteed by Russia and Turkey, marking a potential breakthrough in efforts to end a near six-year conflict that has claimed more than 400,000 lives. Russian President Vladimir Putin said a truce would come into effect at midnight on Thursday, adding that Syria’s warring parties had signed documents detailing how it would be monitored and declaring their […]
“We have seen pro-Israeli presidents all along, and Israel First was the standard policy of the United States of America over the last 50-plus years,” Mr. Abdulla said. “But Trump is going much further than that. It seems he is even more Zionist than the Zionists.” Continue reading the main story Sympathy for the Palestinians has historically been among the few issues that united Arabs across political […]
Photo The body of a 15-year-old girl at a makeshift morgue on Thursday in the rebel-held town of Douma, Syria, on the outskirts of Damascus, after reports of airstrikes. Credit Abd Doumany/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images MOSCOW — The Syrian government and its most important ally, Russia, announced on Thursday that they had reached a cease-fire agreement with Syrian rebels and with Turkey — a potential turning […]
Israel is clearly now on a path toward absorbing the West Bank’s 2.8 million Palestinians. There are already 1.7 million Arabs living in Israel, so putting these two Arab populations together would constitute a significant minority with a higher birthrate than that of Israeli Jews — who number 6.3 million — posing a demographic and democratic challenge. Continue reading the main story I greatly sympathize with Israel’s […]
Planemaker Airbus said on Tuesday it was postponing the delivery of 12 A380 planes to Emirates Airline over the next two years, and added it would step up cost cuts to minimise the impact of these delays. Airbus, whose main rival is US group Boeing, said six deliveries of the A380 would be postponed from 2017 to 2018, with another six postponed from 2018 to 2019, following an agreement […]
If there is one thing that unites Middle Eastern leaders these days, it is concern over what Donald Trump might do in 2017. A true political outsider, Trump will arrive in the White House next month with no track record and no political markers that might give an indication. The list of policy problems is certainly long, yet his list of policy ideas, as mooted during his […]
By Andreina Aponte | CARACAS CARACAS Roughly one person is being lynched in crisis-ridden Venezuela every three days as frustrated residents take revenge on suspected criminals, a monitoring group said on Wednesday. The Venezuelan Observatory of Violence (OVV), which monitors crime, said mob killings have become a generalized phenomenon across the country, with 126 deaths reported in 2016 versus 20 last year. “Due to being repeated victims […]
US secretary of state John Kerry delivered a stinging rebuke of the Israeli government on Wednesday, accusing it of making the establishment of a viable Palestinian state nearly impossible through the expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. With Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu joining forces with president-elect Donald Trump to attack the Obama administration, Mr Kerry said that the US allowed a […]
While the opening of the archives was not expected to provide a conclusive end to the chapter for many of the families, given the partial and sometimes contradictory information in the files, the government hoped to at least dispel the notion that it was hiding information, and to perhaps bring some relief. Continue reading the main story “Today we are correcting an historic injustice of disregard or […]
By Lesley Wroughton and Yeganeh Torbati | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned on Wednesday that Israel’s building of settlements in occupied territory was endangering Middle East peace, expressing unusually frank frustration with the longtime American ally. In a swiftly issued statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Kerry of showing bias. He said Israel did not need to be lectured to by foreign […]
By Orhan Coskun and Ellen Francis | ANKARA/BEIRUT ANKARA/BEIRUT Turkey and Russia have prepared an agreement for a ceasefire in Syria, Turkey’s foreign minister said on Wednesday, adding that Ankara would not give up its opposition to President Bashar al-Assad staying on as leader. The five-year-old Syrian civil war raged on, with heavy casualties reported in the siege of a town held by Islamic State, and the […]
WASHINGTON U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday chided the Obama administration for its stance toward Israel, shortly before the U.S. secretary of state was set to deliver a speech regarding international opposition to Israeli settlement building. “We cannot continue to let Israel be treated with such total disdain and disrespect. They used to have a great friend in the U.S., but…….,” Trump, a Republican, wrote on Twitter. […]
