Middle East

Principlist presidential candidate Sa’eed Jalili has dropped out of the June 18 presidential election, urging his supporters and those who have faith in the ideals of the 1979 Islamic Revolution to vote for fellow contender Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi. In a statement released on Wednesday evening, hours before the end of …

Principlist candidate Alireza Zakani has resigned from the 2021 presidential election in support of fellow contender Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi, who enjoys the highest support among voters, according to opinion polls. Zakani, a veteran lawmaker, became the second presidential candidate to drop out of the race on Wednesday, hours after Reformist …

Israeli airstrikes are the first on Gaza since a shaky ceasefire with Hamas ended 11-days of fighting last month. Israel launched air raids on the Gaza Strip after Palestinian groups in the besieged enclave sent incendiary balloons into southern Israel. The overnight airstrikes gave way to calm by morning, and …

The Russian Center for Reconciliation of Warring Parties in Syria says the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorist group plans a chemical attack in collaboration with the “pseudo-humanitarian” White Helmets organization in the militant-held Idlib Province. Rear Admiral Vadim Kulit, deputy chief of the Russian center, told reporters on Tuesday that …

Saudi Arabia has executed a man for offences rights groups say he allegedly committed while under the age of 18, despite the kingdom’s insistence that it has abolished death sentences for many childhood crimes. Mustafa Hashem al-Darwish was arrested in May 2015 and charged with protest-related offences, many of which …

The media bureau of Yemen’s Operations Command Center has published the pictures and interviews of a number of Saudi troops and Sudanese mercenaries captured during a recent operation in Saudi Arabia’s Jizan region. In their confessions broadcast on Yemen’s al-Masirah television, the captives identified themselves and talked about military units …

After meeting US president, the Turkish leader says no Turkey-US issue cannot be resolved, despite months of animosity. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday he held a “fruitful and sincere” meeting with his US counterpart Joe Biden on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Brussels. “We believe …

An American father and son pleaded guilty in Tokyo on Monday to charges that they illegally helped former Nissan Motor Co Ltd Chairman Carlos Ghosn flee Japan hidden in a box aboard a private jet in December 2019. US Army Special Forces veteran Michael Taylor and his son Peter replied …

Various areas across the northern Iraqi Kurdistan region have witnessed an escalation in Turkey’s ongoing strikes against alleged targets belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) group. On Sunday, four people were killed in “a Turkish airstrike on a vehicle” in the Sulaymaniyah’s Province’s Halsho area in Kurdistan, Kurdish-language television …

Benjamin Netanyahu’s record 12-year tenure as prime minister comes to an end as 60 MKs vote for the new government. Israel’s parliament has voted to end Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year-long tenure as prime minister, approving in his stead an administration that has pledged to heal a nation bitterly divided over the …

At least seven people were killed and several wounded in two separate artillery attacks on the northern Syrian town of Afrin on Saturday, civil defense sources said. The first attack targeted a residential area, while the second targeted a hospital shortly after, killing at least six. Video footage on social …

Israeli forces have shot dead a Palestinian woman north of Jerusalem al-Quds over an alleged stabbing attempt, amid heightening tensions in the occupied territories. The deadly incident occurred on Saturday afternoon, when Israeli soldiers shot and wounded a 27-year-old Palestinian woman, identified as Ebtesam Khaled Kaabneh, at Qalandia checkpoint, to …

Saudi Arabia will limit this year’s Hajj pilgrimage to 60,000 residents and nationals living in the Kingdom due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah announced in a statement Saturday. “In light of what the whole world is witnessing from the continuing developments of the coronavirus …

Israeli forces have brutally suppressed anti-settlement protests in the occupied West Bank, leaving a Palestinian teenager killed. The Palestinian Red Crescent said Mohammad Said Hamayel, 15, succumbed to wounds he sustained when Israeli troops shot him on Sobeih Mountain in Beita town, south of the occupied West Bank city of …

A United Nations special rapporteur has called on the United Arab Emirates to immediately free five human rights defenders who have been held in harsh conditions in the country’s prisons for eight years. Mohamed al-Mansoori, Hassan Mohammed al-Hammad, Hadif Rashed Abdullah al-Owais, Ali Saeed al-Kindi, and Salim Hamdoon al-Shahhi are …

More than 100 buildings housing about 1,500 people in the al-Bustan area of Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem faces demolition. Nearly 120 Palestinian families face the destruction of their homes to make way for an Israeli religious theme park where the Israelis believe King David had a garden in biblical …

Israeli army forces have raided the northern West Bank city of Jenin, fatally shooting three Palestinian security personnel. The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that Adham Yasser Eleiwi, 23, and Tayseer Ayasa, 32, both members of the Palestinian Military Intelligence Service, were killed by Israeli army gunfire in Jenin early …

Scores of Israeli firefighters have been deployed to tackle two major forest fires that broke out in the hills near Alquds (Jerusalem) on Wednesday. Hundreds of people were evacuated. Almost 800 people, were ordered to leave their homes as the flames approached. The fires also prompted the closure of some …

Syria has categorically rejected remarks by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, reiterating that the land was and will remain a “Syrian Arab” territory. “The Syrian Arab Republic absolutely rejects the statements of the US Secretary of State regarding the occupied Syrian Golan which come …

An Israeli company has sold cyber-espionage tech to Saudi Arabia in order to hack smartphones of dissidents and opponents of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) and spy on their communications, Haaretz reports. The Israeli newspaper, citing sources and documents, reported on Tuesday that Quadream, led by a former Israeli …