Middle Orient

He praised the residents of east Jerusalem for their “steadfastness in the face of Israeli schemes aiming to control the holy city.” The Palestinian Authority will not hold general elections without the participation of Jerusalem residents, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday night. He made his remarks during a meeting …

It is possible there were multiple interceptions by the Iron Dome defense system. Rocket sirens went off in Sderot and in the Gaza border area in the early hours of Monday morning as three rockets were launched into Israel from the Gaza Strip.The IDF confirmed that two of the rockets …

Iranian leaders have repeatedly declared that Israel should be destroyed. Therefore Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasizes that Israel will not let Iran have nuclear weapons. The Biden administration wishes to prevent Iran from producing nuclear weapons. Israel is of the same mindset, and believes the United States should impose tough, …

The Iranian foreign minister complained about how he was forced to act for military interests instead of diplomatic ones. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif expressed discontent with the influence the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps has over diplomatic affairs, expressing rare criticism of former IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, …

Leaked tapes appear to show Zarif claiming that Russia wanted to sabotage the Iran nuclear deal signed in 2015. Leaked recordings are the latest twist in a strange saga that appears to pit Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem …

Israel is seething with conflict between Jews and Arabs with increasing tension in the West Bank, rocket fire from Gaza and with fear of escalation on the northern border. Israel completely closed off Gaza’s fishing zone this morning. The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) Rassan Alian had …

The Afrin Liberation Forces, which has escalated attacks against the Turkish-backed opposition in the Aleppo countryside, is being secretive about the sources of its support, weapons and training. The Afrin Liberation Forces, a group of Kurdish fighters from Afrin also known as Hezen Rizgariya Efrine (HRE), recently stepped up their …

RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS: Have Israel’s diplomatic, military and economic concerns trumped its moral imperative? The mass murder of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians from 1915 to 1917 by the regime of the Young Turks in Turkey is widely seen as the first genocide of the 20th century. It is also an …

Previous US presidents have avoided using the term ‘genocide’ out of fear of angering key NATO ally US President Joe Biden’s expected recognition of the Ottoman Empire’s mass killings of Armenians as genocide is a sign of Turkey’s waning influence over Washington, analysts told The Media Line. Biden is expected …

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps’ (IRGC) forces “smashed a team of terrorists” in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan, killing three. Iran’s Tasnim news reported the IRGC Ground Force’s Quds Base said in a statement that the team had plans to carry out further anti-terrorist operations in the region. …