Tag Archives: US

The Taliban are more qualified to run a future political set-up in Afghanistan than the current Kabul government, a spokesman for the group told Arab News in an exclusive interview on Wednesday, amid a surge in violence and mounting doubts about the future of US-backed peace negotiations. Taliban officials said …

An Israeli private detective detained in New York since 2019 on charges of involvement in a hacker-for-hire scheme wants a plea deal, according to a letter filed in court by his lawyer. The unusual case has revealed the impacts of a secretive but thriving cyberespionage industry in India. Federal prosecutors …

America is back. That was the message Joe Biden wanted to drive home during his first foreign foray as US president — an eight-day Europe tour in June. The soft-power offensive has been welcomed by America’s European allies after four years of turbulence in transatlantic ties. But it has also brought …

NATO leaders on Monday agreed to step up their collective defence “against all threats, from all directions,” according to their final statement. NATO said it would adapt to climate-reated security challenges, called on Russia to drop its designation of two allies – the United States and the Czech Republic – …

British actor Riz Ahmed on Thursday launched an effort to improve the way Muslims are depicted in movies after a study showed that they are barely seen and shown in a negative light when they do appear. Ahmed, the “Sound of Metal” star and the first Muslim to get a …

When fighting erupted in Gaza last month and rockets rained on Israel, the men operating its navy submarine Leviathan knew next to nothing. Submerged for a drill, they were relayed only brief bulletins so as not to be distracted from their mission. “We are by definition clandestine and, to a …

The US and the European Union voiced concern over Nigeria’s decision to indefinitely ban Twitter after the US social media giant deleted a tweet from the president’s account for violating its rules. International human rights groups have also condemned the move, which followed previous attempts by the government of Africa’s …

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday that Tehran wanted action and not promises from six world powers for the revival of their 2015 nuclear deal. “I have told our negotiators that actions, not promises (by the six powers), are needed for the restoration of the nuclear deal,” …

The next phase of international diplomacy to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must focus on ending Israel’s occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state, according to Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN. He told Arab News said that efforts at the UN relating to Palestine this year have fallen …

Around 4.5% of all bitcoin mining takes place in Iran, allowing the country to earn hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies that can be used to buy imports and lessen the impact of sanctions, a new study has found. At its current level of mining, Iran’s bitcoin production would amount to …

Hundreds of Kuwaitis demonstrated on Wednesday in support of Palestinians and burned an Israeli flag to protest at the bombardment of Gaza after authorities allowed the rally to proceed despite coronavirus restrictions. Protesters, who were only granted access to a main square on foot to limit numbers, chanted “Death to …

Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on Tuesday there should be no preconditions for talks with Israel over their Mediterranean border dispute, key to Lebanon’s hopes to find gas reserves amid its worst economic crisis since its 1975-1990 civil war. Negotiations between the old foes were launched in October to try …

Saudi Cultural Minister Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan on Sunday held a virtual meeting with the chargé d’affairs of the US Embassy in the Kingdom, Martina Strong. During the meeting, they discussed aspects of cooperation in cultural fields between Saudi Arabia and the US, and the latest development in …

Negotiators trying to revive the collapsed nuclear deal with Iran are close to a draft agreement, leading envoys said on Monday. Talks are continuing in Vienna aimed at rescuing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the deal with world powers to curb Tehran’s nuclear program in return for the …

Iran named a suspect Saturday in the attack on its Natanz nuclear facility that damaged centrifuges there, saying he had fled the country before the sabotage happened. State television named the suspect as 43-year-old Reza Karimi. It showed a passport-style photograph of a man it identified as Karimi, saying he …

Turkey’s top court sent an indictment calling for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) to be banned back to the prosecutor on procedural grounds, state-owned Anadolu Agency said on Wednesday. The Constitutional Court ruled that the indictment had procedural omissions and returned it to the Court of Cassation, it said. …

Emad El-Din Aysha: Dear Dr. Csicsery-Ronay Istvan. First please let me apologise for saying doctor. In Arabic countries we take such honorifics very seriously, even when speaking English. Secondly, please tell us something about yourself. Where you teach, your background? What drew you to science fiction and specifically non-Anglophone SF? …

The United States, the European Union, Britain and Canada imposed sanctions on Chinese officials on Monday for human rights abuses in Xinjiang, the first such coordinated Western action against Beijing under new U.S. President Joe Biden. Chinese territory of Xinjiang, Beijing hit back immediately with punitive measures against the EU …

The UAE has called on the UN Security Council to condemn the obstruction of the delivery of humanitarian aid by armed groups and demand that they fully respect their obligations under international humanitarian law, state news agency WAM reported. The UAE submitted the written statement to the UN Security Council …

Libya’s long-divided parliament on Wednesday approved an interim government mandated to bring the fractured country together after a decade of chaos and violence, and to oversee elections in December as part of a U.N.-backed peace plan. The parliament’s approval of Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh’s cabinet by 132 votes to two …

Britain, France and Germany have scrapped a U.S.-backed plan for the U.N. nuclear watchdog to criticise Iran for reducing cooperation with its inspectors, in a bid to avoid escalation and make room for diplomacy, diplomats said on Thursday. Tehran and Washington have emerged from U.S. President Donald Trump’s attempts to …

Yemen’s Houthi forces fired a cross-border missile at a Saudi Aramco facility in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea city of Jeddah, a Houthi military spokesman said on Thursday, but there was no immediate confirmation from Saudi authorities. Saudi Aramco, whose oil production and export facilities are mostly in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern …

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a “disappointing” $1.7 billion had been pledged by countries on Monday for humanitarian aid in Yemen – less than half the $3.85 billion the world body was seeking for 2021 to avert a large-scale famine. “For most people, life in Yemen is now unbearable. Childhood …

The Iranian regime is using the Houthi militia as a pressure card against the international community and the US administration to extract concessions on the 2015 nuclear agreement, Yemeni Minister of Information Muammar Al-Eryani said on Thursday. Al-Eryani claimed that Iran is pressuring the Houthis for a military escalation in …

In the week since Washington offered to talk with Tehran about reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran has curbed U.N. monitoring, threatened to boost uranium enrichment and its suspected proxies have twice rocketed Iraqi bases with U.S. soldiers. In return, the United States and three allies, Britain, France and Germany, …

NATO defence ministers at a meeting on Thursday made no decision on whether or when to pull out of Afghanistan, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, adding that the allies faced a dilemma as violence increases again. After two decades of Western military intervention and hundreds of billions of dollars in investment, …

A fundraising event for Yemen’s humanitarian crisis is expected to take place in early March, hosted virtually by Sweden and Switzerland, four aid sources told Reuters on Sunday. A U.N.-backed push for international donors last June fell short of its $2.4 billion target, raising only $1.3 billion for what the …

Turkish soldiers conducting an operation against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in northern Iraq have found the bodies of 13 kidnapped Turks executed in a cave, the country’s defence minister said. The identity of the 13 Turkish citizens was unclear and the minister, Hulusi Akar, said their kidnapping had not …

Israel will keep the Golan Heights forever, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday, after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken voiced remarks that stopped short of recognizing the claim. In 2019, then-US President Donald Trump parted with other world powers by recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli. Israel occupied …

Saudi Arabia said on Monday that a fuel transport ship anchored at a Jeddah terminal was hit by an explosive-laden boat in what it called a terrorist attack, after shipping firm Hafnia said one of its tankers was struck by an “external source”. A Saudi energy ministry spokesman, in a …

The European Parliament urged the EU on Thursday to impose sanctions on Turkey after President Tayyip Erdogan this month paid a visit to the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north of Cyprus. With 631 votes in favour, three against and 59 abstentions, the parliament agreed a non-binding resolution in support of EU …

OPEC and its allies fear a prolonged second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and a jump in Libyan output could push the oil market into surplus next year, according to a confidential document seen by Reuters, a gloomier outlook than just a month ago. A panel of officials from OPEC+ …

Lebanon and Israel, formally still at war after decades of conflict, launch talks on Wednesday to address a long-running dispute over their maritime border running through potentially gas-rich Mediterranean waters. The U.S.-mediated talks follow three years of intense diplomacy by Washington and were announced less than a month after the …

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accused Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan of being the main instigator in the deadliest fighting between Armenian and Azeri forces for more than 25 years. In an interview published on Tuesday that is likely to exacerbate international frictions over the clashes in the South Caucasus region, Assad …

Attackers set off a truck bomb in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province on Saturday, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens, according to provincial officials, as violence continues in the war-torn nation despite peace talks taking place in Qatar. Attaullah Khugyani, a spokesman for the provincial government, said the number …

Russia has stepped up its logistic support for private military contractor Wagner Group in Libya with some 338 military cargo flights from Syria in the nine months to July 31 to aid Wagner fighters backing eastern-based Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar, according to a U.N. report seen by Reuters on Wednesday. …

The seizure of thousands of rounds of ammunition being smuggled across the Syrian border has exposed Lebanon’s soaring trade in personal weapons. A Lebanese border patrol intercepted two men on a known smuggling route on the outskirts of Yanta, about 80 km east of Beirut. One of the men hurled …

French President Emmanuel Macron has told President Donald Trump that U.S. sanctions that have targeted Iran-backed Shi’ite group Hezbollah are playing into the hands of those they are meant to weaken, an Elysee official said on Saturday. The official, speaking ahead of a donors conference on aid to Lebanon co-hosted …

An Iraqi delegation headed by the Iraqi oil minister met the Lebanese prime minister, Hassan Diab, on Wednesday and informed him that Baghdad will provide fuel aid to Beirut after the blast on Aug. 4, according to a statement by the Lebanese government. Lebanese local media also said that an …

After having concluded a $400 billion strategic deal with China Iran now aims to sign a long-term partnership agreement with Russia. From the Islamic Republic’s perspective, good relations with Moscow and Beijing, as well as possibility to expand economic cooperation with the two countries, will help Iran to easier cope …

A Russian bid to halve access for humanitarian aid deliveries to Syria from Turkey to just one border crossing failed at the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, garnering just four votes in favor from the 15-member body. Russia and China cast vetoes on Tuesday to block the council from …

The January U.S. drone strike in Iraq that killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and nine other people represented a violation of international law, a U.N. human rights investigator said on Monday. The United States has failed to provide sufficient evidence of an ongoing or imminent attack against its interests …

06 Jul 2020 This story first appeared as an MEI Insight A podcast version of this story is available on Soundcloud, Itunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spreaker, Pocket Casts, Tumblr, Podbean, Audecibel, Patreon and Castbox. Resolving the tug of war in the Middle East will require a backing away from approaches that treat conflicts as zero-sum games, and engagement by all regional and external players. …

The U.S. military said on Tuesday that Russia has deployed fighter aircraft to Libya to support Russian mercenaries fighting for eastern forces, adding to concerns of a new escalation in the conflict. “Russian military aircraft are likely to provide close air support and offensive fire,” the United States Africa command …