DUBAI Iran has requested a meeting of a commission overseeing the implementation of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Iranian state media reported on Saturday, in response to what Tehran calls a U.S. violation of the agreement. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif asked for the meeting in a letter to European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, Iran’s official news agency IRNA said. The White […]
AMMAN Syrian rebels accused Iran and its Shi’ite-backed militias on Saturday of holding up a deal to evacuate civilians trapped in the remaining rebel bastion in Aleppo. Munir al Sayal, the head of the political wing of the Ahrar al Sham rebel group involved in negotiations over the deal, said Iran was insisting people be allowed to leave two besieged Shi’ite villages before letting the Aleppo evacuation […]
MOSCOW Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held phone calls with the foreign ministers of Turkey and Iran on Saturday to discuss the Syria crisis, the Russian foreign ministry said. The ministers stressed the importance of joint efforts by the international community to provide humanitarian aid in Syria and facilitate a political resolution of the conflict, the ministry said in a statement, adding that the calls were made […]
To do otherwise, he said, would have required the United States to be “all in and willing to take over Syria.” Continue reading the main story The recent developments in the Syrian conflict send a message to autocratic leaders in the region and elsewhere that force works — and brings few consequences, said Maha Yahya, the director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. The lesson […]
CAIRO Osama bin Laden’s son Omar was refused entry to Egypt on Saturday, airport sources said, giving no reason why his name was on a list of people banned from the country. Omar, 34, Osama bin Laden’s fourth-eldest son, was travelling with his British wife Zaina al Sabah from Doha, and they asked to be sent to Turkey, the sources said. The couple, who lived in Egypt […]
By Laila Bassam and Lisa Barrington | ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT A new deal has been reached to complete the evacuation of rebel-held areas of Syria’s east Aleppo which ground to a halt on Friday over demands from pro-government forces that people also be moved out of two villages besieged by rebels. Syrian rebel official al-Farouk Abu Bakr, speaking from Aleppo to news channel al-Arabiya al-Hadath on […]
Toronto worker Kristy Milland looks for data jobs that she can pick up to make ends meet. Image: Sam Santos/George Pimentel Photography This article originally appeared on TechRepublic. Each morning when she wakes up, Kristy Milland powers up her home computer in Toronto, logs into Amazon Mechanical Turk, and waits for her computer to ding. Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT), which has been around for over a decade, […]
Kuwait’s foreign ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador to demand the release of four Kuwaiti nationals detained in the western Ahvaz region of Iran, it said in a statement published by state news agency KUNA on Friday. The ministry was coordinating with Iranian security authorities to press for visits to the men and to facilitate their release, the statement said. It did not elaborate on who the men […]
By Roberta Rampton and Julia Harte | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Barack Obama on Friday defended the U.S. approach toward the civil war in Syria, saying he understood the desire for action to end the conflict but it would have been impossible to do “on the cheap” without a full U.S. military intervention. “Unless we were all in and willing to take over Syria, we were going to […]
DUBAI // A group of adventurers travelling the world by car, motorcycle and bicycle have said the UAE’s peace and security made it a popular destination for tourists. During a stop in Dubai, four travellers made camp in Mushrif park for the 5th Dubai Traveller’s Festival. Leonhard Salwey, who left his home in Germany seven months ago to explore the world on his bicycle, thought the event […]
If there was a way to end the year on a bright note for as many businesses as possible, a deal to cut oil production was probably the most likely news to hit the spot. Of course, there will be some sectors not sharing in the joy – those that rely heavily on oil to fuel, such as aviation, manufacturing and agriculture, may be dreading increased costs. […]
By Laila Bassam, Lisa Barrington and John Davison | ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT The evacuation of the last opposition-held areas of the Syrian city of Aleppo was suspended on Friday after pro-government militias demanded that wounded people should also be brought out of two Shi’ite villages being besieged by rebel fighters. The second day of the operation to take fighters and civilians out of Aleppo’s rebel enclave […]
Russia said the evacuation of thousands of people trapped for months in the last rebel foothold of Aleppo was finished on Friday, hours after a series of blasts halted the operation. “The Syrian army operation to liberate the militant-controlled eastern districts of Aleppo is complete,” the Russian defence ministry said. “Syrian government forces are liquidating isolated pockets of resistance by radicals.” An agreement for rebels to withdraw […]
Authored by Carl Bildt, originally posted at Project Syndicate, In August 2015, I tweeted that if Donald Trump were to be elected President of the United States, we would have to “head for the bunkers.” A Trump presidency was considered highly unlikely back then; but here we are. And while heading for the bunkers might not be the most appropriate response (yet), where we are is undoubtedly […]
Photo A member of the Syrian government forces watched the evacuation operation of rebel fighters and civilians from Aleppo on Friday. Credit George Ourfalian/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images BEIRUT, Lebanon — The process of evacuating residents from the last rebel-held section of Aleppo broke down on Friday, a day after Syrian government buses and ambulances began taking residents out of the besieged area. The reason for halting […]
Submitted by Finian Cunningham via Strategic-Culture.org, The US and its terrorist-sponsoring partners are seeing their criminal regime-change project in ruins, as the Syrian army and its allies win a spectacular victory to retake the strategically important city of Aleppo. Western governments and their flunkies at the UN are cynically, perversely decrying a «meltdown of humanity». Closer to the truth is their own «meltdown of sanity». This is […]
WASHINGTON A Singapore citizen pleaded guilty on Thursday to a federal charge stemming from his role in illegally exporting, through Iran, parts found in improvised explosive devices in Iraq, the U.S. Justice Department said. Lim Yong Nam, also known as Steven Lim, 42, was extradited from Indonesia earlier this year. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 9 in Washington, and the parties have agreed that […]
Convoys of green buses and ambulances ferried several thousand rebels and wounded civilians through the rubble-strewn streets of Aleppo on Thursday as the highly anticipated evacuation of the last opposition enclave of the northern Syrian city finally began. The operation got off to a shaky start after the first ambulances were shot at in the morning, wounding three people and underlining the fragility of a deal brokered […]
US intelligence officials have acknowledged that Russia worked to influence the outcome of the US election, and the New York Times has an excellent rundown of what occurred. It’s a fascinating look at what might be a blueprint for future electoral meddling. But perhaps the most startling fact is that something as large, complex, and arcane as an American election was attacked without touching a single voting […]
WASHINGTON/BEIJING China’s plan to punish a U.S. automaker accused of price-fixing is a sign of how Beijing could retaliate if President-elect Donald Trump upends decades of relations between the two nations. Trump’s assertion that the United States need not be bound by the policy that Taiwan is part of “one China” would erode a bedrock of U.S.-China ties that has underpinned the vast increase in trade and […]
Thousands of people had gathered outside a hospital in the Mashhad neighborhood, which is still controlled by rebels, hoping that an evacuation deal announced on Tuesday by Turkey, Russia and Syrian rebels would hold. But the constant threat from snipers, bombs and shelling was unsettling. Video Aleppo Activists Say Final Goodbyes as Assad Closes In Syrian government forces had reclaimed most of rebel-held eastern Aleppo by Tuesday, […]
By Laila Bassam, Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Tom Perry | ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT An attempt to evacuate people in need of medical attention from rebel-held eastern Aleppo stalled on Thursday when fighters loyal to the Syrian government fired on the convoy, wounding three, the head of the ambulance service said. The vehicles had intended to leave under a deal to evacuate people from rebel areas following rapid […]
Syrians were still trapped inside the last rebel foothold in eastern Aleppo on Wednesday, hours after an evacuation was set to begin. The reason for the delay was unclear but residents inside the besieged city said they heard several explosions and gunfire, indicating that the shaky deal between the Syrian opposition and Russia is already strained. After weeks of fierce fighting, President Bashar al-Assad looks set to […]
The head of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund has told US officials it will invest $10 billion in infrastructure projects inside the United States, sources said, in an apparent boost to the economic plans of president-elect Donald Trump. Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohamed bin Saud al-Thani, chief executive of the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), delivered the message to officials including Charles Rivkin, US assistant secretary of state for economic […]
