Latest Middle East News
RSS-
Israel worried that Russian weapons will reach Hezbollah
Israel has warned Russia about sending arms to Syria. Justice Minister Tzipi Livni has spoken on Channel Two television's Meet the Press to condemn shipments of arms from Russia that she said may be used against Israel. She said: "These are not just any weapons, they are tie-breakers, and that's why there is a responsibility with all world powers, certainly Russia, not to supply such ...
-
Syrians on alert as bombs explode in Damascus
At least eight people have been killed and ten others injured in a bomb attack in the Syrian capital, Damascus. The incident took place in the north of the city, where cars and buildings were set alight by a bomb. The bomb had been concealed in another car which was parked near a school in the Rukn Eddin neighbourhood. Another explosive device was defused by military experts who had ...
-
Internet in Iran goes into coma ahead of presidential elections
Iran has reportedly gone into 'internet coma' by tightening internet controls ahead of next month's presidential election, mindful of violent protests inspired last time around over claims of fraud. Authorities refuse to officially confirm the new restraints, but former officials and media reports have accused the Supreme Council of Cyberspace of ordering them, reports News.com.au. According ...
More Middle East News
RSS-
Saudi clerics blame Twitter for immoral souls
A leading senior religious clerics in Saudi Arabia has said that Saudi citizens using Twitter will risk damnation. Abdul Latif Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh's declaration comes as a move to attack the US-based microblogging service, the Huffington Post reports. According to the report, Saudi leaders fear that Twitter and other social media services are platforms for making the dissidents voice out ...
-
Iran executes two spies working for CIA Mossad
Two Iranian spies, allegedly working for America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Israel's Mossad were Sunday hanged in Iran, state-run IRIB TV reported. Mohammad Heidari, one of the executed men, had prepared information in a number of security issues and had given them to Mossad in several meetings outside the country, Xinhua cited the report as saying. Heidari received money in ...
-
Conference on Syria settlement very soon UN chief
After consultations with UN Security Council permanent members, a conference on the Syrian settlement will take place "very soon", possibly at the beginning of June, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said here Sunday. "As I have been asked by the parties to convene this conference on the auspices of the United Nations, I'm now actively engaging with all the parties I have spoken to: the US, ...
-
Assad blasts West claims of chemical weapons in Syria as pretext to wage war
Syrian president Bashar Assad has said that claims of the West that the Syrian government used weapons of mass destruction against its countrymen are nothing but a pretext for waging war against Syria. The statement comes after US, Britain and Israel strongly put forth their opinions that there is evidence of chemical weapons being used in Syria, News 24 reports. However, Assad said that the ...
-
Car bomb kills eight in Syria
At least eight people were killed and 10 others wounded when a car bomb ripped through a Damascus district Saturday night, local media and activists said. A huge explosive device was planted under a car in the northeastern district of Ruken Addien, the state media said, adding that bomb squads dismantled another explosive device in the same area, reports Xinhua. Meanwhile, the oppositional ...
-
Ozzy Osbourne moves back in with wife Sharon
Sharon Osbourne, who was snapped wearing a huge diamond on her wedding finger again, is apparently giving her marriage another chance by letting her wild-man husband, Ozzy Osbourne, move back in with her. The couple, who were reportedly living apart with their marriage in shambles, is spending nights under the same roof once again, the Sun reported. The star's assistants were spotted moving ...
-
Suspected U.S. drone attack in Yemen kills 4 Al Qaeda militants
A suspected American drone attack has reportedly killed four Al Qaeda militants in the southern province of Yemen according to security officials. A fight between Yemeni forces and Al Qaeda in Abyan province last year had drove away militants from several cities that the outfit had ruled over for a brief period in 2011, Fox News reports. According to some security officials, the attack took ...
-
Sectarian Violence Kills 11 in Iraq
It was a violent day in Iraq Saturday with at least 11 people killed and 10 policemen kidnapped as hatred simmers between the ruling Shi'ite majority and the Sunni minority. Gunmen broke into the home of an anti-terrorism policeman in the Baghdad suburb of Rasheed, killing him, his wife, and two children. Another security officer was killed elsewhere in Rasheed. Police say gunmen killed ...
-
Report Palestinian lost speech ability after PA torture
A Palestinian man who was detained by the Palestinian Authority security forces in Hebron has lost the ability to speak as a result of severe torture, according to a report released by the Independent Commission for Human Rights.Mohamed Abdel Karim Dar of Hebron was hospitalized after being tortured while in detention, the report, which documented 28 cases of torture in PA prisons in the ...
-
Egypts Morsi rules out talks as hostage video appears
CAIRO: Egypt's President MohamedMorsion Sunday ruled out negotiating with the kidnappers of three policemen and four soldiers who appeared to plead for their release in an online video.The abductions on Thursday in the Sinai Peninsula prompted angry police to shut down border crossings with Gaza and Israel, piling the pressure onMorsito secure the hostages' release."There are no ...
-
Russia to Sell Air-Defense System to Syria
JERUSALEM, Israel -- Two days after American and Russian leaders met in Moscow to talk about restoring peace in war-torn Syria, Russia announced plans to sell advanced anti-missile defense systems to the Syrian government, ...
-
Israel’s ‘illegal’ military entry permit bars selected tourists from West Bank - report
Tourism Many tourists hoping to visit the West Bank are finding it impossible to do so - because Israel requires certain visitors to have an entry permit. Obtaining permission is anything but easy, because Tel Aviv doesn't explain the process, Haaretz reported. The requirement for military entry permits reportedly began at the beginning of 2013. However, not everyone is required to ...
-
Key Israeli leader calls for interim peace deal with Palestinians
File - In this Jan.16, 2013 file photo, Yair Lapid, popular former TV anchorman and head of the new centrist party Yesh Atid, poses for a portrait at his house during an interview for the Associated Press, in Tel Aviv, Israel. Lapid, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s senior coalition partner, said in a published interview Sunday, May 19, 2013, that reaching a final peace agreement with ...
-
FM seeks enhanced bilateral cooperation with Qatar
Indian economy and its vast potential for the gulf country's firms. Chidambaram, who is on an official visit to Qatar, met with the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and the country's Minister of Economy and Finance Yousef Hussain Kamal in Doha, ...
-
In Israel a modern wall is halted by ancient terraces
Israel's high court has issued an injunction against extending the separation barrier through the Palestinian village of Batir, famed for its 2,500-year-old terraces and ...
-
Egypt hit with security abductions in Sinai
Security sources identified the abductors as members of the Al Qaida-aligned Tawhid W’al Jihad, which also maintains a presence in the neighboring Hamas-ruled Gaza ...
-
Netanyahu warns of more Israeli strikes on Syria
JERUSALEM // Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu held out the prospect yesterday of further Israeli strikes inside Syria, pledging to act to prevent advanced weapons from reaching Hizbollah and other militant groups. Although Israel has not publicly taken sides in the civil war between Syrian ...
-
Israel denies its forces killed Palestinian boy
JERUSALEM // Israel has completed an investigation into a decade-old French TV report that claimed Israeli forces killed a Palestinian boy in a gunbattle with Palestinian militants, saying the video was misleading and unfairly blamed Israel. France 2's images from September 2000, days after a Palestinian uprising erupted, allegedly showed the death of Mohammed Al Dura, cowering with his ...
-
Israel to return settlements land to Palestinian owners
Jerusalem, May 19 : The state of Israel has said it would return the lands of a settlement evacuated in 2005 back to its original Palestinian owners, an Israeli daily said ...
-
Hezbollah takes fight to rebels as Syria’s war spills into Lebanon
Hezbollah launched a major offensive in support of the Assad regime today, with fighters from the Lebanese militant group playing their most significant role yet in Syria's two-year-old civil ...
-
Analysis West learns to jaw not war on Syria as the countrys civil war destabilises the region
Sunday's reports that the Syrian conflict was spilling over into Lebanon can be taken as further evidence that the sectarian civil war is destabilising the region. There are also signs that the unending strife is pushing the two players who really matter, America and Russia, towards trying for negotiations and a ceasefire based on the Geneva Accord signed last ...
-
Syria army in centre of Qusair amid assault on rebel town
Syrian government forces have launched a major offensive to retake the strategically important rebel stronghold of Qusair, near Lebanon. Syrian officials say the army have taken control of key points in the the city centre. According to opposition activists, government troops are being supported by militants from the Lebanese Hezbollah movement. More than 30 people are reported killed, mostly ...
Middle East Focus
-
Israel and Palestine as one country?
Peace in the Middle East, it’s as illusive now as it was ten years ago and ten years before that. For many commentators, peace in the Middle East has become a myth, something local and international governments strive for or claim to support without any real hope of realization of the goal. With the current impasse between Israel and the Palestinian Authority ongoing, an old theme is being kicked around again, that of a single state that incorporates Israel and Palestine.
A single state solution is an idea that grew up in the 1920s and then died with the Six-Day War when divisions between the newly-founded Israeli state and the rest of the region were too entrenched for the idea to retain any traction. The political landscape after the war and even today is what many Jewish groups feared when Jewish Zionists were calling for a return to the biblical homeland to develop a Jewish state. Read more
News from around our Network
