Latest Middle East News
RSS-
Iran poll shows people want change, says Obama
WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama has urged Iran's newly elected president to prove to the world that the Islamic republic was not pursuing a nuclear weapon programme as the White House welcomed election of a moderate leader as a hopeful sign. "I think it says that the Iranian people want to move in a different direction," Obama said of the election results in Iran that saw a surprising ...
-
Libya to hold trial of Gaddafi's son in August
LONDON - Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of deceased Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, will stand trial in August along with Gaddafi's last prime minister and a former intelligence director, the prosecutor's office has announced. The men will be tried for crimes against the Libyan people during the 2011 uprising that toppled the former regime. Notorious former spy chief Abdullah ...
-
Group of Eight leaders stop short of calling for Assad ouster
ENNISKILLEN - The Group of Eight industrialised nations called for a swift end to the bloody civil war in Syria and urgent peace talks but stopped short of calling for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in its joint statement at the end of talks Tuesday. Despite the lack of consensus among the G8 on the fate of Assad, as well as the use of chemical weapons by his regime, Canadian ...
More Middle East News
RSS-
G8 leaders back calls for Syria peace talks in Geneva
Leaders at the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland have backed calls for Syrian peace talks to be held in Geneva as soon as possible. After adopting the statement, UK Prime Minister David Cameron said the leaders had managed to overcome fundamental differences. The statement, however, does not mention what role Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could play in the future. According to the BBC, the G8 ...
-
US to join direct peace talks with Taliban over Afghanistans future in Qatar
The United States is to open direct talks with Taliban leaders within days. The development comes after Washington agreed to drop a series of preconditions that have previously held back negotiations over the future of Afghanistan. According to the Guardian, political representatives of the Taliban will meet Afghan and US officials in Doha, the capital of Qatar. They will have discussions on ...
-
Emirates voted worlds best airline
UAE based Emirates airline, has been voted as the 'world's best airline' pushing last year's winner Qatar to the second position and also winning the 'best in-flight entertainment' category. According to Skytrax World airline awards, which is the world's largest survey of air passengers, Qantas' partner airline 'Emirates' has been declared as the world's best. Skytrax has booted Qantas, which ...
-
Egypt says it values its relations UAE
Egypt is proud of its deep-rooted fraternal ties with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and its people, an Egyptian foreign ministry spokesperson has said. The relations with the UAE were based on mutual respect and joint interests, and would not be affected by any statements here or there, said spokesperson Badr Abdel Aaty in an official statement. The Egyptian foreign ministry was closely ...
-
Israel wants Iran to halt uranium enrichment
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that his country would not accept anything less than the total halt of Iranian uranium enrichment. "We cannot accept anything less than a total cessation of all enrichment of nuclear materials at all levels, removal of all enriched nuclear material and a closure of Iran's illicit nuclear facilities," reported Xinhua citing Netanyahu during ...
-
G8 condemns use of chemical weapons in Syria
G8 leaders Tuesday condemned any use of chemical weapons in Syria, and that they were deeply concerned by the growing threat from terrorism and extremism in the Middle East country. In a final communique issued after the annual G8 summit in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, the leaders called on all parties in the conflict to allow access to the UN investigating team, Xinhua reported. It said the ...
-
Khurshid welcomes three months respite given to Indian expats in Saudi Arabia
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Tuesday lauded the gesture of Saudi Arabian Government to grant three months respite to Indian immigrant workers overstaying or illegally residing in that country. "All those people who were there and did not have their complete paperwork or passports or those whose work visa had expired or those people who had received the visa for some work and ...
-
More flights for repatriation of Indians from Saudi Arabia
Additional flights will operate between Saudi Arabia and India to help in the repatriation of illegal Indian expatriates who want to return to India from the Gulf nation, a top Indian diplomat has said. "The embassy has taken up the issue with the Indian authorities, and accordingly Air India, the national flag carrier, has expressed its readiness to operate flights," the Saudi Gazette Tuesday ...
-
Saudi Arabia e-security centre to prevent hacking
Saudi Arabia has set up a national e-security centre to protect the country's e-system from hackers, a media report said Tuesday. Several hackers have been attacking government websites to steal data by planting undetected viruses for months, the centre's director, Abdulrahman Al Mueeqal, was quoted as saying by the Al Sharq Al Awsat newspaper. The centre will review the e-security system and ...
-
Putin Obama agree to push for Syria talks in Geneva
Beijing, June 18 (Xinhua-ANI): Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday held here face-to-face talks on Syria on the sidelines of the G8 summit in Lough Erne, Britain. At a press conference after their two-hour talks, the two leaders admitted they had big differences on Syria, but they agreed to push for a summit in Geneva, Switzerland. "Our positions do not ...
-
Afghan peace council members to talk with Taliban in Qatar Karzai
Kabul, June 18 (Xinhua-ANI): Some members of Afghan High Peace Council will travel to the Gulf state of Qatar to hold formal peace talks with the Taliban, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday. "Members of peace council will go to Qatar to initiate peace talks with the Taliban," Karzai told a joint press conference with the visiting NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Earlier ...
-
Barbra Streisand criticizes womens discriminatory treatment in Israel
Barbra Streisand has spoken about the Jewish religious practices that separate men and women. The 71-year-old actress took aim at cases of ultra-Orthodox Jews targeting women while speaking at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on Monday. The star, who herself was born in a Jewish family, said that it was distressing that women in Israel were forced to sit at the back of the bus, CBS News ...
-
Syria splits G8 into “seven plus one”
As it was expected Syria became the main cause of differences between Russia and the other participants in the G8 summit that ended on Tuesday in Lough Erne. The West was unwilling to give up unilateral support for the Syrian opposition, as Moscow calls ...
-
Israel hit by Grad rocket today
Occupied Jerusalem: June 19 -- (BNA)-- "Radio Israel" reported that one (Grad) rocket hit this morning near Ashkelon city. The Israeli radio station said that the source of the rocket was from Gaza Strip and that no human causalities or property damage were reported so far. The Hebrew Radio pointed out that two rockets were launched however both rockets landed inside Palestinian ...
-
Israeli authorities arrest 3 Palestinian youngsters and dismantle the doors of 10 shops in Jenin today
Ramallah: June 19 -- (BNA)-- Israeli occupation forces arrested three Palestinian youngsters from Jenin province at dawn today (Wednesday: 19 June 2013) and dismantled the doors of ten commercial shops in the industrial area. Local security sources quoted by the Palestinian News Agency (WAFA) reportedly said that a large number of Israeli occupation forces stormed into Jenin City, abducting ...
-
Qatar Signs Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products
New York, June 19 (BNA) - Qatar signed last night the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products. The signing ceremony took place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, where the Permanent Representative of Qatar to the UN Shaikh Mishaal bin Hamad Al Thani signed the Protocol. The signing ceremony was attended by Representative of UN Secretary General and Head of the ...
-
Kuwait telco Viva signs $270m financing deal
Kuwaiti telecoms operator Viva, part-owned by Saudi Telecom Co (STC) and the Kuwaiti government, has secured $270m to help fund plans to upgrade its network and expand in ...
-
Three people killed in northern Yemen bombing - official
SANAA (Reuters) - Three people were killed and eight wounded in a town in northern Yemen on Wednesday when a suicide bomber riding a motorbike blew himself up in a busy market, a security official said. The attack occurred in Saada, a town near the border with Saudi Arabia and about 130 km (80 mile) north of the capital, Sanaa. Saada has been under the control of Shi'ite Houthi rebels for ...
-
China Envoy Says Middle East Conflict Too Complex for U.S. Alone
Middle East 's challenges are too complicated for the U.S. to address alone, a top Chinese envoy said today, as the government seeks greater influence in a region that's the source of 50 percent of its oil ...
-
Desert Regions on the Horizon REC Enters the Middle East
MUNICH, June 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- REC, the largest European supplier of solar panels globally, plans to make an impact at this year's Intersolar in Munich in hall A1, booth 380, by displaying for the very first time a bi-facial solar panel concept well suited for desert conditions, and announcing the opening of a new office in Dubai, UAE. ...
-
Afghanistan suspends security pact talks with U.S. amid Taliban peace process
Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks during a joint news conference with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen following a security handover ceremony at a military academy outside Kabul June 18, ...
-
On Syria Obama no fool on question of intervention
Last week, Bill Clinton warned that President Barack Obama risked looking like a "wuss" and "a total fool" for not acting sooner on Syria. Shortly thereafter - but two months after Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel charged that strongman Bashar Assad had crossed a "red line" in using chemical weapons against his own people - the White House announced that in response ...
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
