Latest Middle East News
RSS-
Weak tendering slows Oman credit growth in Q1
Central Bank of Oman Total lending by Oman's commercial banks grew 8.7 per cent in the first quarter of this year to RO14.28bn as compared to RO13.14bn a year ago, statistics released by the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) showed.Year-on-year credit growth was nearly 20 per cent in the first quarter of 2012, which slowed to a single-digit gain in the first quarter of 2013. On a sequential basis, ...
-
Is Jordan turning to alternative energy to avoid crisis
Surrounded by regional crises, Jordan's greatest challenge remains its chronic energy woes, with officials racing to develop local alternative resources to reign in skyrocketing electricity subsidies.With few natural resources, Jordan has long been heavily reliant on external energy sources, importing some 98 per cent of the fuel needed to generate electricity, at a cost of nearly ...
-
Czech it out Cairo cracks up to Kafka through art on display at Anthropologie Gallery
Photo cred goes to Ahram Online's Facebook page Jiri Sliva, one of Czech Republic's most prominent illustrators, famed across Europe for his witty cartoons, exhibits a series of lithographs and etchings at the Arthropologie Gallery in Cairo's Zamalek district.The exhibition entitled Multiple Kafka, which runs until 6 June, gives a glimpse into the artist's diverse portfolio ...
More Middle East News
RSS-
Leave Assad out of the Syrian peace talks - Saudi Arabia
Peace talks in Syria would be better off Assad according to Saudi Foreign Minister Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said on Saturday that Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad should not take part in ...
-
Construction legal disputes most costly in Middle East
The global built asset consultancy said it has found that construction disputes in the Middle East are taking, on average, 14.6 months to be settled compared to just nine months in the previous year, an increase of 62 ...
-
Hezbollah throws its support to Syria
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, gives a televised speech from an unknown location on Saturday, May 25, 2013, to mark the anniversary of Israel's May 2000 withdrawal from southern Lebanon. The date is commemorated each year by Hezbollah as a major military victory, but this year's anniversary comes at a time when Hezbollah is facing growing criticism in Lebanon for its involvement in ...
-
Israel insists all Dead Sea Scrolls should stay put
This Friday, May 10, 2013 photo shows the ten commandments written on one of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Jerusalem. Nearly 70 years after the discovery of the world's oldest biblical manuscripts, the Palestinian family who originally sold them to scholars and institutions is now quietly marketing the leftovers - fragments the family says it has kept in a Swiss safe deposit box all these years. ...
-
Britain moves closer to arming Syrian opposition
Britain moves closer to arming Syrian opposition Britain pressures EU to amend Syria arms embargo and allow opposition to receive arms Asharq Al-Awsat 25 May 2013 London, Asharq ...
-
Russia and China Will Attend Syria Conclave in Tehran
Tehran, May 26 (PL) Russia and China will attend the international conference on the Syrian crisis on Wednesday here, meeting convened by the Persian authorities preceding the so called Geneva II, agreed by Russia and the United States, confirmed an official source here. Countries with different positions (on the conflict in Syria) have been invited to the meeting, including Turkey, Qatar and ...
-
Jordan to Host Worlds Largest Refugee Camp
-- Al-Zaatari refugee camp near Jordan's northern border with Syria is the second largest refugee camp in the world. On days when violence in Syria worsens, between 2,000-4,000 Syrians flood into Zaatari, and the stories they tell are horrific. "Things are happening in Syria that our minds couldn't even imagine," 65-year-old Nada Salim Abdullah, who has been in the camp four ...
-
Burma puts two-child limit on Muslims
Burma 's Rakhine state have imposed a two-child limit for Muslim Rohingya families, a policy that does not apply to Buddhists in the area and comes amid accusations of ethnic cleansing in the aftermath of sectarian ...
-
Jordanian camps offer little but its life of a sort
The Za'atari refugee camp on the Jordanian-Syrian border is home to more than 110,000 Syrian refugees, the majority of them children, who have fled the conflict that is now in its second ...
-
Tender for huge Cairo Metro depot due next month
A tender for a huge new depot for Cairo's Metro system is set to be issued by the end of June. The Kodssica Depot will be the biggest in the Middle East - covering an area of around ...
-
Tensions rise as Israeli jets bomb Syria again
ISRAELI jets bombed Syria yesterday, rocking Damascus for hours and sending pillars of flame into the night sky in what a Western source called a new strike on Iranian missiles bound for Lebanon's Hezbollah. Local people reported massive explosions and internet video showed the capital's skyline lit by flashes. Syrian opponents of President Bashar Assad rejoiced at Israel's third ...
-
Fitch expects Qatars 2013 GDP to reach 7
(MENAFN) Fitch Ratings stated that in 2013, Qatar's gross domestic product (GDP) is projected to stand at 7 percent, reported Arabian Business.The agency said that during the period, Qatari banks are expected to stay well capitalized, with most of them taking advantage of high Tier 1 ratios.Furthermore, the year is projected to witness healthy profitability and margins, nevertheless, low ...
-
Emirates NBDs new Bank on Wheels hits the road
(MENAFN - Khaleej Times) Emirates NBD added another innovative service to its list of achievements on Friday by operating its Bank on Wheels services, which will enable the lender to assess its growth strategy for physical branches.Driven by customer convenience, the initiative comprises a secure, fully-equipped Emirates NBD vehicle, which will be parked at various customer touch points in ...
-
Kerry urges Abbas to resume peace talks with Israel source
The United States Secretary of State John Kerry is urging Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to resume direct peace talks with Israel, a well-informed Palestinian source said Saturday.The source, which spoke on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that during their meeting held on Thursday in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Kerry presented to Abbas his plan on resuming direct talks with ...
-
5 soldiers killed in western Iraq
Five soldiers were killed in a bomb attack in the Iraqi volatile province of Anbar on Saturday, a provincial police source said.The attack occurred in the afternoon when a roadside bomb went off near an Iraqi army patrol near the town of Heet, some 160 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, killing five soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel, the source told Xinhua on condition of ...
-
Iran denies dispatch of military forces to Syria DM
Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi denied Saturday that Iran has dispatched any military forces to Syria, semi-official Fars news agency reported."The Islamic republic of Iran has not sent and will not dispatch any military forces to Syria," Vahidi said, adding that Tehran only supports consolidation of peace and tranquillity in Syria and in the region.The Iranian ...
-
Roadside bomb kills 2 policemen in southeast Yemen
A powerful roadside bomb killed two policemen in Yemen's southeastern province of Hadramout on Saturday, a provincial security official told Xinhua.The bomb was planted in the main road in the Shehar town in Hadramout province and blew up while a military truck carrying the policemen passed by, leaving two soldiers killed and three others injured, the local security official said on ...
-
6 Iranian pilgrims killed in car bombing in Iraq
Six Iranian pilgrims were killed and some 20 wounded in a car bomb explosion in Salahudin province north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Saturday, a provincial police source said.The attack occurred in the afternoon when a booby-trapped car struck a bus carrying Iranian Shiite pilgrims near the city of Samarra, some 110 km north of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.The ...
-
3 killed in clashes in north Lebanon
Three people were killed and another four injured in the clashes on Saturday morning between gunmen from rival neighborhoods in the northern city of Tripoli, local security told Xinhua.The source said that the fighting erupted again at dawn spiraled out of control in the morning with fighters from Sunni Bab al-Tabbaneh and Alawite Jabal Mohsen using rockets and other heavy weapons, bringing the ...
-
Pressure for talks on Syrias opposition
Syria's opposition National Coalition has for three days been trying to overcome divisions over Russian and US proposals to convene a peace ...
-
Abbas to form new Palestinian govt within weeks
/enpproperty--> RAMALLAH - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced Saturday that he intends to form a new government within two to three weeks, according to local media. The Bethlehem-based news agency Maan quoted Abbas as saying on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum held in Jordan that he will announce the new cabinet lineup within two or three weeks. Abbas didn't give ...
-
Senate panel oversteps on Syria
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has injected itself into U.S. foreign policymaking regarding Syria. And it's not the first time lawmakers have moved to pressure a president to take a momentous step that could involve U.S. lives and ...
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
