Middle Orient

The head of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah Tuesday rejected a US request to empower a UN peacekeeping force patrolling the border with Israel.

Amid the global health crisis resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, there are disturbing signs that Daesh is re-emerging, especially in the open deserts of Syria and Iraq. Last week, newly appointed Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi announced that Iraqi forces had foiled a major operation by Daesh, while his intelligence …

A senior ISIS leader in Iraq was killed in an American-led coalition raid on the militant group in eastern Syria, Iraq’s intelligence agency has said.

The first of five Iranian oil tankers has entered the Venezuelan territorial waters to show Iran’s determination to carry out exports of goods and oil to everywhere in the world regardless of US threats.

Syrian refugees residing in Turkey have been discovered to be so desperate for money that they are selling their organs on the black market in order to pay for necessities such as rent, the US-based media channel CBS has revealed.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) yesterday warned that Saudi Arabian Airlines would lose billions of dollars as a result of the slump in air travel, Arabi21 reported.

To help prevent a U.S.-Iran war in their neighborhood, the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council have called for diplomacy. They have reached out to Iranian officials to de-escalate. And they have provided Tehran with humanitarian assistance to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

The recent deployment of Syrian army Fourth Division troops to Daraa is yet another reminder of the deadly unrest ongoing in southwestern Syria. Sent to pacify Mazayreeb following an unprecedented armed attack after which several soldiers were publicly executed, Daraa’s western countryside still regularly witnesses violent unrest including assassinations, hit-and-run …

In a dramatic statement delivered yesterday in Ramallah and broadcast on Palestine TV, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared an end to all agreements signed between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and both Israel and the United States.

By halting the security crackdown on Hamas, Abbas would be paving the way for terrorists to kill him and his associates in the West Bank, as they had already begun to do in 2007 in the Gaza Strip, and possibly again in a coup in 2014.