Tag Archives: The Levant News

by Graham E. Fuller* — The very words hit the ear as a shock; the mind is not ready for it. And that is exactly the problem. We could not see it coming. Among other things this tawdry and interminable election represents a massive American intelligence failure. Not failure of …

The Levant News — Suicide bombers hit targets in three Saudi cities on Monday, killing four security guards and wounding five other people. The apparently coordinated attacks come amid the Islamic State’s worldwide bombing campaign to coincide with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The four security officers died as …

The Levant News — Iranian Foreign Mohammad Javad Zarif reiterated his country’s plan for a national unity government in Syria during the Oslo Forum in Norway. Zarif said, “The solution [in Syria] is political and cannot be achieved through military means.” In addition to the unity government that could allow …

The Levant News — New Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman has reportedly promised not to object publicly to a reconciliation agreement between Israel and Turkey, despite having harshly disapproved of such a move in the past. Liberman had warned among other things that an Israeli-Turkish rapprochement would harm ties with Greece …

The Levant News — The emergence of an online video of two US soldiers joking near a Qatari flag is causing tensions between Qatar and the United States. US Ambassador Dana Shell Smith, summoned over the incident, apologized to the Qatari Foreign Ministry and on Twitter to the people of …

The Levant News — by Graham E. Fuller — Pope Francis is on a roll. He has already roiled the waters of western thinking on economics and society by touching on the dangers of western capitalism drifting into socially destructive greed. He has now turned his focus to an even …

THE LEVANT NEWS — Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday he would meet President Barack Obama at a nuclear summit in Washington this week, amid differences over Syria and Turkey’s domestic policy direction. Erdogan will be among more than 50 world leaders at the Nuclear Security Summit on Thursday …

THE LEVANT NEWS — Saudi Arabia said on Sunday it would punish anyone who belongs to Lebanon’s Iran-backed Shi’ite Islamist group Hezbollah, sympathises with it, supports it financially or harbours any of its members. An Interior Ministry statement carried by the state news agency SPA said that Saudis and expatriates …

THE LEVANT NEWS — Syria peace talks due to begin in Geneva this week look set to struggle, with the sides showing no sign of compromise over the issue at the heart of the five-year-long conflict: the future of President Bashar al-Assad. The U.N.-led talks getting under way on Monday …

THE LEVANT NEWS — What’s your first and last name? Your education and work experience? Do you have recommendations? And are you willing to be a suicide attacker, or would you prefer to be a fighter for ISIS? Those were among the questions allegedly posed to would-be jihadis on what …

THE LEVANT NEWS — Li Shaoxian, vice-president of a think tank with ties to the Chinese Ministry of State Security, said “many hundreds or thousands” of Uighurs from the country’s western Xinjiang province were involved with ISIS – also known as Daesh – in Syria. He said: “Whether there are …

THE LEVANT NEWS — The Saudi-led bloc of Gulf monarchies has officially labelled Hezbollah a ‘terrorist’ group for the first time. The move comes amid heightened tensions between those countries and Lebanon. Hezbollah flags Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Lebanon over an ongoing dispute involving Iran escalated on Wednesday when …

THE LEVANT NEWS — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday he hopes to curb a wave of Palestinian assaults by expelling to Gaza families of assailants found to have encouraged them to attack Israelis. Netanyahu, in a letter to Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit released to the media, asked for a …

The Levant News — It’s Oscars night. Leonardo DiCaprio has finally won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a historic moment for his career. You’re in the press room backstage, and you get to ask him the one final question before the press conference interview is wrapped up. There …

The Levant News — By Graham E. Fuller — It does not take much imagination to see where refugees are taking the world over the longer run. This issue currently lies at the heart of some very ugly American politics. It is also tearing apart one of the noblest political …

THE LEVANT NEWS — Seemingly not leaving the cheerfulness and bliss of its nation to chance, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has sworn in its first minister of happiness. Ohood al-Roumi was officially sworn in along with the rest of the Persian Gulf country’s 29-member cabinet before Sheikh Mohammed bin …

THE LEVANT NEWS — The Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday that Moscow has deployed several fighter jets and a transport helicopter to Russia’s airbase in Armenia near the border with Turkey. Four fourth-generation Mikoyan MiG-29 aircraft and a number of modernized MiG-29S bombers and a Mil Mi-8MT helicopter have been …

THE LEVANT NEWS: Russia said U.N.-led talks planned for Saturday between major international players on establishing a ceasefire in Syria had been postponed, as wrangling dragged on between the various sides. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Russian news agencies that the meeting in Geneva had been put back to …

THE LEVANT NEWS — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Saturday and the two “recommitted” themselves to continued deliveries of aid to those affected by the war in Syria, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said. They also discussed the progress negotiators …

THE LEVANT NEWS — BEIRUT: Syria’s army and allies, backed by Russian airstrikes, recaptured 18 villages from ISIS fighters in eastern Aleppo province on Saturday, activists said. The advance extended their control of parts of a road running toward the group’s stronghold of Raqqa, and built on gains made in …

THE LEVANT NEWS — BEIRUT: The Lebanese Army Saturday raided the whereabouts of suspects involved in an armed clash in a town south of Beirut, detaining 13 suspects. “Ten Lebanese, two Syrians and a Palestinian were arrested [during the raids] and a rifle, two guns, a quantity of light ammunition, …

The Levant News — BEIRUT: The Gulf Cooperation Council Saturday backed a Saudi decision to reexamine its relationship with Lebanon and halt $4 billion in security grants offered to equip the country’s army and police. “GCC countries stand by Saudi Arabia’s decision that came in response to Lebanon’s official stances,” …

THE LEVANT NEWS — Iran gained access to about $100 billion in frozen assets when an international nuclear agreement was implemented last month, but $50 billion of it already was tied up because of debts and other commitments, a U.S. official said on Thursday. Stephen Mull, the State Department’s lead …

THE LEVANT NEWS — DAMASCUS: Russian cargo planes have delivered humanitarian aid to government-held neighborhoods in Syria’s eastern Deir al-Zor city, activists said Thursday. They carried out the air drops on areas besieged by ISIS on Wednesday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. State news agency SANA quoted a …

attacked a gathering of Nusra Front militants on Lebanon’s northeastern border Thursday, the party’s Al-Manar television and other media said, killing one and wounding three others. The attack occured in the area of Wadi al-Kheil on the outskirts of Arsal, Al-Manar said in a newsflash. No other details of the …

THE LEVANT NEWS — Qatar may set up special courts for the 2022 football World Cup to deal with drunk and disorderly fans “very gently”, the head of the tournament’s organising committee has revealed. Hassan al-Thawadi, secretary-general of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, spoke of how the country …

The Levant News — Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, a senior political member in the Palestinian Resistance Movement “Hamas”, had pounced on Iran regarding their proclamations of supporting Hamas, after cashing them in all as lies, especially those declarations on support being presented post 2009. Abu Marzook’s aversion was recorded over …

THE LEVANT NEWS – By MIKAYLA BOUCHARD — The New York Times published this background information on the most powerful figures in the Saudi kingdom of Arabia, and where they stand in the sometimes complicated order of royal succession: King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud Son of Saudi Arabia’s founder, …

THE LEVANT NEWS — By Ghassan Michel Rubeiz — US policy on Iran should be integrated with policies on other vital issues. Considering the growing threat of ISIS, the worsening tragedies in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Libya, the ignored Arab Israeli conflict, the fragmentation of an entire region, considering all …

The Levant News — By Graham E. Fuller — A renowned Arab religious scholar in the 14th century, ibn Taymiyya, is sometimes quoted as saying, Al-zulm afdal min al-fawda— “oppression is to be favored over anarchy.” Although ibn Taiymiyya was no establishment figure in his time, this perspective was welcomed …

THE LEVANT NEWS — by Graham E. Fuller –Prediction on Turkey: (I was considerably off base on this one): 2015 Prediction: President Erdoğan in Turkey will find his influence beginning to crumble in 2015. After a brilliant prime-ministership for the first decade of AKP power, he has become mired in …

By The Editorial Board of The New York Times — The execution of the popular Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and 46 other prisoners on Saturday was about the worst way Saudi Arabia could have started what promises to be a grim and tumultuous year in the kingdom and across …

The Levant News — The Syrian presidency said on Tuesday political initiatives could not work in Syria before terrorism had been wiped out, sticking by its long-held position on how to end its war with insurgents after its Russian allies called for new elections. In a statement, the presidency said …

THE LEVANT NEWS– A Yemeni hospital run by medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) was bombed in a Saudi-led airstrike, wrecking the facility and wounding several people, the hospital director said Tuesday. A Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in Yemen’s civil war in March to try to restore its government after …

by Ali Hashem for Al-Monitor — THE LEVANT NEWS — VIENNA: On the famous balcony in Palais Coburg, Al-Monitor spoke with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif a few hours after he, along with EU special representative Federica Mogherini, had announced the historic deal concluding a 13-year standoff over Iran’s …

THE LEVANT NEWS — BEIRUT: Praising the Greek people’s Sunday rejection of European creditors’ demands for more austerity in return for a loan, Lebanon’s Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt said his country could use someone like Greece’s premier to tackle its own economic problems. “Greece’s step is huge and …

THE LEVANT NEWS — BEIRUT: ISIS fighters stormed a Syrian town held by Kurdish-led forces near Raqqa city Monday, part of a wider offensive by the militants two days after their de facto capital was hit by some of the heaviest U.S.-led airstrikes in the conflict. The Kurdish YPG militia …

THE LEVANT – By Geoffrey Cook – This Op-Ed is an extension of a long article that was published a few weeks ago on these pages.  It was an analysis of the recent the criminal incident against Gaza.  I rewrote the article considerably for a publication in the Middle East.  The …

THE LEVANT -By Geoffrey Cook – Your reviewer is to continue his coverage of the Panel on violently the heretical radicalization (or Takfrization) of political Islam put together by the think tank, Islam and Democracy in this city (and Tunis). (The preferred acronym for the United States for the self-denominate “Caliphate,” …

THE LEVANT – US-led aircraft hammered Islamic State jihadists with 21 bombing raids near Kobane on Monday and Tuesday amid signs the strikes had “slowed” the group’s advance on the Syrian border town, the American military said. In one of the heaviest bombardments so far against the Sunni jihadists encircling …

THE LEVANT – Saudi cleric and TV presenter Khalid Al Gamdi has incurred Yemenis’ wrath after expressing joy with graphic photos of dead Al Houthi protesters and praising the suicide bomber who killed them. Posting on his Twitter account on October 9, the controversial cleric, who anchors a programme on …