Middle Orient

Top Hamas officials are claiming to have thousands of missiles pointed at Israel and miles of underground tunnels running into the Jewish state, offering these new disclosures amid a wave of renewed violence by the Palestinian terror group.

Iran accused European nations trying to salvage the moribund 2015 nuclear deal of hypocrisy for criticising and threatening to reimpose sanctions after Tehran took a major step away from the historic agreement.

Israel on Tuesday targeted two senior commanders from the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, killing one in the Gaza Strip and missing the second in Syria as it stepped up its battle against Iran and its proxies across the region.

With Israel exchanging blows with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas faced a stark choice: Join the fight or redouble efforts to keep the Gaza border quiet.

A new wave of protests paralyzed Lebanon on Wednesday after President Michel Aoun enraged demonstrators by urging them to end their revolt against corruption and cronyism in the political establishment.

The nationwide protests taking place in both Arab states [Lebanon and Iraq] are also driven by a burning desire to end Iran’s blatant attempts to turn them into de facto fiefdoms of Tehran.

Spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Behrouz Kamalvandi, said Wednesday that preparations for the fourth stage of a reduction in Iran’s commitments to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as Iran nuclear deal, have begun.

U.S. troops tasked with protecting oil fields in northeastern Syria are helping ensure any profits flow to the mainly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, a key partner in the fight against the Islamic State terror group.

The United States and six Gulf allies announced sanctions Wednesday on 25 entities associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, in a move to tighten controls on both group’s finances.

Qatar’s PR campaign has done little to fundamentally alter the state’s image problems. More than two years after Qatar was boycotted by its Arab neighbours for its alleged support for extremism, the tiny Gulf state is spending millions to repair its image in Washington, only to see new perception issues …