Middle East

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday said Turkey was in talks with the United States to buy F-16 fighters after it was kicked off the F-35 program for purchasing a Russian missile defense system. Washington excluded Ankara from NATO’s F-35 stealth fighter jet program in 2019 after Turkey purchased Russian …

Iran has vehemently rejected as “surprising” and “fake” accusations by Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev that Tehran cooperated with Armenia on organized drug trafficking, saying such claims only serve the Israeli regime’s interests and harm the fraternal relations between Tehran and Baku. “Unfortunately, it seems that despite the positive and private …

Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement says it will not be dragged into a civil war, despite martyring of seven Shia Muslims during recent violence, which is blamed on the Christian Lebanese Forces (LF) Party. At least seven people were martyred and 60 others injured in an attack on Thursday, during which …

The proposed $550 million deal between the University of Cambridge and the United Arab Emirates is on hold due to the Persian Gulf state’s use of Pegasus spying software, the university’s vice-chancellor has said. Cambridge’s outgoing vice-chancellor, Stephen Toope, said in an interview that “the revelations about Pegasus caused us to …

A group of Palestinian farmers harvesting their olive trees in the occupied West Bank have been attacked by around 30 Israeli settlers, according to Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency. The Friday attack, which left four people injured, began when Israeli settlers descended from a nearby settlement, hurling stones and spraying …

A top-level meeting at Lebanon’s Interior Ministry has concluded that the extremist Lebanese Forces (LF) political party, led by Samir Geagea, had started the Thursday shooting in Beirut that killed six people on Thursday. According to reports, all details of the bloody event were discussed in a meeting of the …

The illegal Zionist entity has one again used civilian aircraft as a shield against Syrian air defense systems during its attacks on the West Asian country, says a Russian general. “On October 13, from 23:35 to 23:39, four F-16 tactical fighters of the Israeli Air Force entered Syrian airspace in …

The UK government has approved tear gas exports to numerous authoritarian West Asian regimes, including in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan and Oman, over the past decade, new research finds. According to survey results released by British NGO Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), since 2008, the British …

Dozens of people in Bahrain have taken to the streets to protest normalization of ties with the Tel Aviv regime and inauguration of the Israeli embassy in the capital Manama. Locals staged a rally late on Wednesday in the village of Sanabis, where they voiced their indignation about the establishment of …

Resistance groups in Syria have vowed a “very harsh” response to an overnight aerial act of aggression by the Israeli regime against the central Syrian province of Homs that left a number of casualties, the second such strike in a week. The Israeli airstrike targeted the Palmyra area in the eastern …

Saudi-funded hospitals in Yemen have been involved in “unnecessary amputations” of young children and others injured during the Saudi-led war against the impoverished country, according to an investigation. Carried out by the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), the investigation found that proper procedures were not followed by medical staff …

The vicinity of the Palace of Justice in Beirut, specifically the Tayouneh area, where protesters gather to head towards the sit-in against Judge Tariq Al-Bitar, witnessed heavy shooting. The protesters had called to carry out a sit-in against the investigating judge in the Beirut port explosion, Judge Tariq Al-Bitar, and …

Heavy gunfire was heard in Beirut on Thursday near an area where the Lebanese were gathering to protest against the judge investigating last year’s catastrophic port explosion. People ran for cover as shots and ambulance sirens could be heard in a live broadcast by Lebanon’s al-Jadeed TV. Its reporter at …

Hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons have launched a hunger strike in protest against the regime’s intensified crackdown on detainees. The Palestinian Prisoners Club said in a statement on Wednesday that some of the Islamic Jihad captives were on a hunger strike, demanding an end to repressive measures imposed …

A massive fire broke out in the main hall of the El Gouna Film Festival site in Egypt on Wednesday, one day ahead of the opening ceremony of the fifth edition, according to social media videos and local media reports. The festival will go on as scheduled on Thursday, organizers …

Qatar’s diplomatic point man on Afghanistan said Tuesday countries should engage the country’s new Taliban rulers, warning that isolation could lead to a wide-reaching security threat, as happened when al-Qaeda used the country as a base to plot the 9/11 attacks. Mutlaq bin Majed al-Qahtani, Qatar’s special envoy for counterterrorism …

A probe into the catastrophic Beirut port explosion was frozen on Tuesday for the second time in less than three weeks after two politicians wanted for questioning filed a new complaint against the lead investigator, Judge Tarek Bitar. The investigation has been facing obstacles since Bitar sought to question some …

A senior Iranian military commander says the country’s Army and the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) are set to stage massive aerial exercises aimed at bolstering preparedness for defending the country’s skies against enemy threats. Brigadier General Qader Rahimzadeh, commander of the country’s Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base, said on …

Ukraine on Thursday said it will build a factory to produce Turkish armed drones that Kiev previously bought to use against pro-Russian separatists in the east, a deal that risks irritating Moscow. “A land plot on which the factory will be built has already been chosen,” Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro …

Israeli settlers, under the protection of the regime’s forces, have once again broken into the al-Aqsa mosque compound in the occupied al-Quds to “perform silent prayers,” after an Israeli judge facilitated such moves. Over 60 settlers stormed the site on Thursday morning when they engaged in measures against Palestinians and …