Middle East

A huge rally of support for Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun swarmed the country’s presidential palace on Sunday, a rebuke to broader protests that have demanded the wholesale ouster of the country’s elite and which have toppled the government. Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri resigned on Tuesday following unprecedented nationwide protests, deepening …

Lebanese banks on Friday reopened their doors to customers for the first time in two weeks as the people’s lives start to get back to normal after an unprecedented wave of protests that made Prime Minister Saad Hariri resign. Despite the two-week hiatus, the number of customers entering major banks …

Syrian government troops have engaged in fierce clashes with Turkish military forces near Syria’s key border town of Ra’s al-Ayn in the northeastern province of Hasakah – a day after a similar incident claimed the lives of seven Syrian soldiers and left several others injured. Syria’s official news agency SANA …

Saad al-Hariri is ready to return as prime minister of a new government, a senior official familiar with his thinking said, on condition it includes technocrats and be capable of quickly implementing reforms needed to stave off economic collapse. Hariri’s resignation on Tuesday has left Lebanon with a political vacuum …

Lebanese Prime Minister, Saad al-Hariri, and his government have resigned after over a week of protests, which paralyzed the country as the people accused the authorities of being corruption and causing an economic collapse. Hariri, who was in the office since December 2016, announced quits during a televised address to …

The US got rid of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s body mere hours after a swift DNA test confirmed the terrorist’s identity, Pentagon officials said, adding that all evidence of the raid and his burial at sea remains classified. Following the US special forces operation in northwestern Syria, in which Washington claims …

Protesters trickled back on to the streets across Lebanon on Saturday, despite army efforts to unblock roads, with no end in sight to a crisis that has crippled the country for 10 days. A military statement said army and security commanders met to plan ways to re-open main arteries to …

Demonstrators continue to block the streets in downtown Beirut as unprecedented nationwide protests in Lebanon enter their second week.

Tunisia has a new president. Kais Saied has been sworn in after winning a landslide victory in this month’s election. The low-profile law professor took the presidential oath of office before the parliament on Wednesday. Saied’s victory delivered a heavy blow to the established political elite, who have failed to …

Russian forces have begun to deploy towards the Turkey-Syria border, as part of a deal to remove Kurdish troops. Units have already entered the two key border towns of Kobane and Manbij. Under the deal agreed by Russia and Turkey, Kurdish fighters were given 150 hours from noon on Wednesday …

The coalition  and its mercenaries continued their crimes and violations against citizens in Sa’ada governorate and violated the ceasefire agreement in Hodeidah, which led to the fall of martyrs and wounded during the past 24 hours. A security source pointed out that the brutal aggression planes targeted an air strike …

US military forces have reportedly transferred more than 1,500 female members of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group from Syria to neighboring Iraq in the wake of a ground offensive by Turkish troops and their allied Takfiri militants against Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria. Syria’s official news agency SANA reported that …

Lebanon’s cabinet is expected to halve ministers’ wages on Monday among other reforms in a bid to ease an economic crisis and defuse the biggest protests against the ruling elite in decades. Across the country, people blocked roads for a fifth day. Schools, banks and businesses closed. Hundreds of thousands …

A senior Israeli official attended a maritime security conference in Bahrain on Monday in another sign of Gulf Arab nations and Israel transcending longtime enmities to focus on a perceived common threat from Iran. Israel, which regards Gulf states as natural allies against Iran, has formal diplomatic relations with only …

Egypt will push Ethiopia this week to agree to an external mediator to help resolve a deepening dispute over a giant hydropower dam being built on Ethiopia’s Blue Nile, officials said on Sunday. Egypt sees the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) as an existential risk, fearing it will threaten scarce …

US forces leaving northern Syria have reportedly crossed into Iraq, where they will continue their seemingly endless military presence in the region. Donald Trump had insinuated that the soldiers would be returning home. More than 100 armored vehicles were spotted entering Iraq from the Sahela border crossing in Dohuk province, …

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other senior members of Congress held talks in Jordan on Saturday with King Abdullah II and other top Jordanian officials. Pelosi said in a statement the visit was at “a critical time for the security and stability of the region… With the deepening crisis …

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lokoc accused the coalition countries of obstructing humanitarian access to civilians in Yemen. Lokok called on donor countries to provide regular injections of foreign currency in Yemen, which would keep the exchange rate stable, and help to bring the prices of food and other …

Turkey has accused Kurdish militants of violating a temporary truce in northern Syria even as a fragile ceasefire was reported to b holding. Ankara on Thursday agreed to pause its incursion into Syria for 120 hours while the US facilitates the withdrawal of Kurdish SDF militants from a 20-mile safe …

Tens of thousands of angry protesters blocked roads and burned tires across Lebanon for a second day on Friday, demanding the demise of a political elite they say looted the economy to the point of breakdown. The nationwide protests, Lebanon’s biggest in years, brought ordinary people from all sects and …