Tag Archives: Iran

Despite the threat of possible US sanctions, Hezbollah has arranged up to 80 oil tankers carrying Iranian diesel fuel to arrive in Lebanon via Syria on Thursday. The tankers are destined for Baalbek, about 67 kilometers northeast of Beirut, where the fuel will be discharged into tankers owned by the …

The Lebanese flag was set at half-mast on Tuesday to mourn the death of Sheikh Abdul Amir Qabalan, the head of the Supreme Islamic Shiite Council, at the age of 85. The council is the official reference of the Shiite sect in Lebanon as Qabalan had been at the helm …

The US led on Sunday the global condemnation of a recent escalation in Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia. The Houthi militia launched three ballistic missiles toward the Kingdom on Saturday, two targeting the southwestern cities of Najran and Jazan. A third missile was launched at Dammam in the Eastern Province. …

Israel carried out air strikes on targets near Damascus early on Friday, triggering Syrian air defences but causing no casualties, Syrian state media reported, the second such attack in just over two weeks. The Israeli military declined to comment on the report. A Syrian military source quoted by state media …

The Lebanese government has received no request for fuel to be imported from Iran, the caretaker energy minister said on Wednesday, appearing to confirm that the Shi’ite group Hezbollah has bypassed the state with a move to import Iranian fuel. Hezbollah, a heavily armed group founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards …

The second unit of United Arab Emirates’ only nuclear power plant has started operations, UAE leaders announced on Twitter on Friday. “Operations started at Unit 2 at the Barakah nuclear energy plant,” said Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed, the Ruler’s representative in the western region of Abu Dhabi. “This is a …

The first White House meeting between President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was postponed until Friday, overshadowed by suicide bombings near Kabul airport during a chaotic U.S. evacuation mission from Afghanistan. Two deadly explosions https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/western-nations-race-complete-afghan-evacuation-deadline-looms-2021-08-25 occurred on Thursday just hours before Biden and Bennett were due to …

Iraq has invited Iran and Tehran’s Gulf Arab foes to a summit in Baghdad with the aim of calming tensions which have brought them close to open conflict in recent years. Officials say the meeting, which will also discuss the war in Yemen, Lebanon’s collapse and a regional water crisis, …

Syrian army units aided by pro-Iranian militias have staged a major assault on an opposition enclave in the southern border city of Deraa in a bid to retake the last opposition stronghold in southern Syria, residents, army and opposition sources said. Troops amassed around the sprawling government-held city sought to …

A fighter jet with the U.S.-led coalition shot down a drone in eastern Syria on Saturday after the unmanned aircraft was deemed a threat, the U.S. military said. “Coalition aircraft successfully engaged and defeated a UAS through air to air engagement in the vicinity of Mission Support Site Green Village,” …

Oman posted a year-to-date budget deficit of 1.1 billion rials ($2.86 billion) in June, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday. Oman is among the weakest countries financially in the oil-rich region and more vulnerable to swings in the price of hydrocarbons, a sector that accounted for about a third …

New President Ebrahim Raisi named an anti-Western diplomat as foreign minister on Wednesday as Iran and six world powers seek to restore their 2015 nuclear deal. Raisi, a hardliner under Western sanctions over allegations of human rights abuses when he was a judge, was sworn into office on Aug. 5 …

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud on Monday and repeated a call for progress on human rights. A State Department statement said Blinken and the Saudi minister discussed regional security and the attack last month on the tanker Mercer Street …

The Iran-backed Houthi militia on Sunday snubbed the new UN special envoy for Yemen only two days after he began work. The appointment of veteran Swedish diplomat Hans Grundberg on Friday had been widely welcomed by the international community, including Saudi Arabia, amid renewed hopes of an end to the …

Israeli aircraft bombed Hamas sites in the Gaza Strip on Saturday in response to incendiary balloons launched from the Palestinian enclave, Israel’s military said. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the strike that targeted what the military said was a rocket launching site and a compound …

Lebanon’s Hezbollah fired a volley of rockets into Israel on Friday, prompting retaliatory shelling, in a major escalation between the Iran-backed Shiite movement and the Jewish state. A flare-up along the border this week has seen Israel carry out its first air strikes on Lebanese territory in seven years and …

Hezbollah’s insistence on imposing its hegemony on the Lebanese state is the main cause of Lebanon’s problems, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said on Wednesday. Speaking at an international conference on Lebanon marking the first anniversary of the Beirut Port explosion, Prince Faisal bin Farhan urged Lebanese politicians to confront the …

Israeli jets struck what its military said were rocket launch sites in Lebanon early on Thursday in response to two rockets fired towards Israel from Lebanese territory, in an escalation of cross-border hostilities amid heightened tensions with Iran. The rockets launched from Lebanon on Wednesday struck open areas in northern …

The U.S. Navy is assisting an Israeli-managed petroleum products tanker attacked off Oman with two crew members killed, the U.S. military said on Saturday, adding the ship was most likely hit by a drone strike. Mercer Street, a Liberian-flagged, Japanese-owned vessel that was attacked on Thursday, is being escorted by …

Twenty-one members of a Yemen-based team of Saudi and foreign mine clearance experts have lost their lives over three years operating in what has become known as the world’s largest minefield. The tragic death toll was revealed in figures showing the scale of the project being carried out in the …

The US and other Western coalition members should increase their ground forces in Iraqi Kurdistan in order to head off the threat of a resurgent terror campaign in the region, one of the main fighters against Daesh and Iran-backed militias told Arab News. General Sirwan Barzani, who commands a key …

The supply of weapons from Iran to Hezbollah undermines Lebanon’s national security and poses a threat to the security of the US, President Joe Biden said Tuesday. The president served notice to Congress to extend the national emergency with respect to Lebanon, in place since 2007, beyond its termination date of Aug. …

Pro-government commentators in Saudi Arabia are publicly criticising the United Arab Emirates’ role in Yemen, a rare move that reflects political and economic tensions between the two Gulf allies that also led to an open standoff over oil policy.FILE PHOTO: General view in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, June 21 2020. REUTERS/Ahmed …

U.S. President Joe Biden will host Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi at the White House on July 26, the White House said on Friday. The visit will highlight the strategic partnership between the two countries and advance bilateral cooperation under a 2008 agreement that governed the withdrawal of U.S. troops …

An Israeli group sold a tool for hacking Microsoft Windows, Microsoft and technology human rights group Citizen Lab announced Thursday, highlighting the growing business of finding and selling tools for hacking widely used software. Hacking tool vendor Candiru developed and sold a software exploit that can break into Windows, one …

Lebanese politician Saad al-Hariri abandoned his months-long effort to form a new government on Thursday, dimming the chances of a cabinet being agreed any time soon that could start rescuing the country from financial meltdown. Hariri announced his decision after meeting President Michel Aoun, saying it was clear they could not agree, …

Three rockets were fired at the US embassy in Iraq early Thursday, the Iraqi army said, at the end of a day marked by rocket and drone attacks on bases hosting American forces in Iraq and Syria. The embassy itself was not hit, the army said, but three nearby places …

Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman held talks with senior US military officials in Washington on Tuesday. Prince Khalid met with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who confirmed Washington’s commitment to its defense relations with the Kingdom. Prince Khalid said he discussed “longstanding and historic partnership between …

The leader of an Iran-backed Iraqi militia has vowed to retaliate against America for the deaths of four of his men in a US airstrike along the Iraq-Syria border last month, saying it will be a military operation everyone will talk about. Abu Alaa Al-Walae, commander of Kataib Sayyid Al-Shuhada, …

A spokesman for the Egyptian Armed Forces has said that they are aware of the challenges facing the region and are prepared to deal with them. “It is not wise, in light of our capabilities and high deterrence power, to test the reaction of the Egyptian Armed Forces,” added Gharib …

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appealed to US President Joe Biden’s administration to lift or waive all sanctions on Iran as agreed under a 2015 deal aimed at stopping Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon. In a report to the UN Security Council, Guterres also urged the United States to …

The US has carried out air strikes against Iran-backed militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region. Sunday’s strikes hit “operational and weapons storage facilities”, in response to drone attacks on US forces, the Pentagon said in a statement. President Joe Biden would “act to protect US personnel”, it added. The Pentagon …

Yemenis from all walks of life have hailed the UN blacklisting of Iran-backed Houthis for killing children in the war-torn country and renewed calls for tougher measures against the rebels, including designation as a terrorist organization. Yemeni politicians, human rights activists and journalists who have long advocated shaming and naming …

Arab countries and organizations have denounced the Houthi attacks targeting Saudi Arabia’s Khamis Mushait and Najran using explosive-laden drones. Saudi Arabia’s air defenses destroyed 17 drones launched toward the Kingdom’s southern region on Saturday.A booby-trapped drone targeted Khamis Mushait early in the morning before seven more targeting the southern region …

The United States on Monday said it “strongly condemned” a Houthi drone attack that damaged a school in Saudi Arabia. The explosives-laden drone was launched across the border from Yemen and crashed into a school in Asir region, Saudi Civil Defense said on Sunday. “Such attacks threaten civilians, including school children,” the …

Five rockets Wednesday evening targeted Iraq’s Balad air base, with two of the projectiles falling near an area used by US contractors without causing casualties, a security official told AFP. “There were no victims or damage,” the official said. Balad air base, north of Baghdad, is used by US company …

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, resigned to the revival of a nuclear pact with Iran they always opposed, are engaging with Tehran to contain tensions while lobbying for future talks to take their security concerns into account. World powers have been negotiating in Vienna with Iran and the …

The refugee team for the Tokyo Olympics has 29 athletes competing in 12 sports. The team selected by the International Olympic Committee on Tuesday was drawn from 55 athletes who fled their home countries and got scholarships to train for the games in a new home country. The 29 — …

U.S. President Joe Biden and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will meet to discuss Syria, Afghanistan and other regional issues next week and will also look at the “significant differences” between Washington and Ankara, the U.S. national security advisor said on Monday. Speaking at a White House briefing, Jake Sullivan said …

Iraqi military said on Sunday that air defenses at Iraq’s Ain al-Asad air base that hosts u.s. Forces, intercept and shot down two drones. The military said in a statement the drones were intercepted and shot down at a round 12:30 a.m. local time. On May 8, an attack by …

The UN Security Council will meet this week to discuss a long-abandoned fuel tanker off Yemen amid growing fears of a catastrophic oil spill, diplomats said Wednesday. Thursday’s meeting, requested by Britain, comes after the Houthi militia said an agreement to allow a UN mission to inspect the tanker had …

A Yemeni model who was abducted and imprisoned by the Houthis said the militia sought to recruit her as a spy in exchange for her freedom, according to people who visited her in jail on Monday. Entesar Al-Hammadi and two colleagues were abducted by Houthis in Sanaa on Feb. 20. …

Polling stations opened on Wednesday across Syria in a presidential election that is set to usher Bashar al-Assad into a fourth term in office. The government says the election shows Syria is functioning normally despite a decade-old war, but the opposition and Western nations view it as merely rubber-stamping Assad’s …

The Houthis on Sunday threatened to mount more drone and missile strikes on “unexpected” locations in the Arab coalition countries in response to the latest US sanctions on the militia’s leaders. Mohammed Ali Al-Houthis, the president of the Houthi supreme revolutionary committee, said his movement would escalate attacks on “aggressor …