Middle East

Egypt has seen the second night of clashes and dozens of arrests in rare demonstrations against President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi. Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in the port city of Suez demanding his resignation. Dozens were reportedly arrested and police responded with tear gas. The protests – which …

Two flights were diverted from Dubai International Airport on Sunday due to suspected drone activity, the hub’s operator said, at least the second disruption of its kind there this year. Arrivals were disrupted for about 15 minutes after midday (0800 GMT), said a spokesman for Dubai Airports, which owns and …

The chief of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has vowed to shoot down all drones violating the nation’s airspace and repel any aggressor. The warning came after the US accused Iran of hitting Saudi oil sites. Tehran is ready for “any scenario,” and remains determined to fight back …

Hundreds protested in central Cairo and several other Egyptian cities late on Friday against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, responding to an online call for a demonstration against government corruption, witnesses said.  

Tensions in the Middle East escalated after a recent attack on Saudi refineries that crippled the country’s crude output. The US has accused Iran of the act, despite Yemen’s Houthis claiming responsibility, and is reportedly mulling a military response to the attack on its ally. Tehran has warned that such …

US President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday that he has ordered sanctions on Iran’s national bank following the attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities. The announcement was made in the Oval Office, where he and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison were scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting. Trump did …

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says that US-allied Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates apparently want to “fight Iran to the last American.” In a post on his Twitter account on Friday, Zarif responded to earlier remarks by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a visit to …

Twitter suspended the account of former Saudi royal court adviser Saud al-Qahtani on Friday, nearly a year after he was sacked over his suspected role in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The social network also separately removed accounts linked to Saudi Arabia’s “state-run media apparatus” and others …

Syrian state media reported that a drone was destroyed on Thursday over a village in the Damascus countryside.

Representative of the Organization for Defending Victims of Violence (ODVV) at the Human Rights Council described the situation in Yemen as the most catastrophic man-made crisis of all times and stressed that all armed countries including US, UK, and France, should stop military support of the coalition. “According to the …

“I am making a very serious statement that we don’t want war; we don’t want to engage in a military confrontation … But we won’t blink to defend our territory,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif told CNN in an interview. Asked what the consequence of an American or a …

Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh stressed the non-political nature of oil, saying the US was using oil as a weapon which was not the right approach. Responding to a question on Thursday about the current state of the oil market in light of recent problems at Saudi Aramco oil …

Vladimir Lenin is said to have opined that the only thing certain about British elections is who is going to lose. He meant the British working class, at a time when they were effectively unrepresented in the political system. Equally, whatever the outcome of the Israeli elections, the Palestinians will …

Ayatollah Khamenei on Tuesday ruled out talks with Washington after Donald Trump blamed Tehran for a crippling attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities. “Iranian officials, at any level, will never talk to American officials … this is part of their policy to put pressure on Iran,” Iranian state TV quoted …

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani he hoped that their three-way talks on Monday would help to bring ‘final’ settlement in the Syrian crisis. “I would like to express a confidence that our talks will be productive and the agreements reached will …

Algeria’s interim leader has announced December 12 as the date for the presidential election. The move is in line with the army chief’s demand to fill the vacancy left when longtime leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika was pushed from the office more than five months ago. During an address to the North …

Iran has seized a vessel traveling through the Persian Gulf for allegedly smuggling diesel fuel, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency. The move comes amid a series of high-profile tanker detentions. The unidentified vessel was illegally transporting 250,000 liters of fuel to the United Arab Emirates when it was …

For more than four years, Yemen’s army and allied popular forces — led by the Houthi Ansarullah movement — have been defending the country against a devastating Saudi-led military campaign meant to reinstate a former Riyadh-friendly government. The war has so far claimed over 91,000 lives and taken a heavy …

Iran said on Monday President Hassan Rouhani will not meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at the United Nations, a day after the White House left open the possibility of talks between them. “Neither is such an event on our agenda, nor will it happen. Such a meeting will not …

The delivery of the second battery of Russian S-400 missiles to Turkey was completed on Sunday with the controversial defense system expected to become fully active in April 2020. Efforts to mount the missile system and train military personnel to use it were continuing, a Turkish defense ministry statement said. …