Middle East

Coastguards of southern Hormuzgan province have seized four trawlers and arrested eight foreign nationals on board at Bandar Abbas territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, provincial Judiciary official Ali Salehi said on Thursday. Ali Salehi said that the vessels were involved in illegal fishing. Salehi said the arrested people have …

Iran will give a harsh response to any military escapade the US president may resort to, the Iranian envoy to Russia says after Donald Trump vetoed a congressional resolution that was seeking to limit his power to launch military operations against Tehran without congressional approval. Kazem Jalali said in an …

Turkey accused the United Arab Emirates of bringing chaos to the Middle East through its interventions in Libya and Yemen, allegations that are likely to inflame tensions between the regional rivals, Reuters reported. Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu was responding to criticism of Turkey’s role in the Libyan conflict, where it …

The US secretary of state is in the Israeli-occupied territories to discuss Tel Aviv’s plan to annex Palestinian land under a controversial plan by US President Donald Trump, among other topics. Mike Pompeo arrived in Israel on Wednesday on his first foreign trip since Washington began enforcing a lockdown against …

Israeli forces used live bullets against protesters, shooting a 15-year-old in the head and wounding four others Israeli forces shot dead a 15-year-old Palestinian teenager, using a live bullet during protests in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, the Palestinian health ministry said, as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo …

Saudi Arabia is tripling its value added tax (VAT) as part of austerity measures to support its coronavirus-hit economy. The government in Riyadh also said it will suspend its cost of living allowance to shore up state finances. The oil-rich nation has seen its income plummet as the impact of …

Qatar Airways has warned its employees of “substantial” redundancies as it struggles with a collapse in demand. Its chief executive Akbar Al Baker wrote to staff warning of the job losses, although he did not say how many were under threat. Qatar Airways said it needed to “act decisively to …

Lebanon’s government has ordered a full shutdown of the country for four days amid an increase in new cases of infection with the new coronavirus. “The lockdown is set to begin at 7 p.m. local time (1600 GMT) on Wednesday and will end at 5 a.m. on Monday, with the …

The Israeli military says one of its soldiers has been killed by a stone dropped on his head during an arrest campaign near the northern West Bank city of Jenin. It said staff sergeant Amit Ben Ygal, 21, was struck in the head by a rock thrown from a rooftop …

The government of former Saudi-backed Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi has threatened to “confront every armed rebellion” by once-allied UAE-aligned separatists, urging them to abandon a recent “self-rule” declaration in the war-torn country’s southern regions. In a series of Tweets on Tuesday, the Hadi regime’s embassy in the US …

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says there are no talks underway between Iran and the United States, reminding how Washington has proven to be an untrustworthy negotiation partner. “The Americans proved that one cannot rely on the results of talks with them,” Zarif told the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting’s …

All mosques in Iran will reopen on Tuesday, a further step in the government’s plans to ease restrictions that aimed to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, the official IRIB news agency reported. The decision to reopen the mosques was made in consultation with the ministry of health, IRIB …

France is urging its European Union partners to consider threatening Israel with a tough response if it goes ahead with a de facto annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank, three EU diplomats said. Belgium, Ireland, and Luxembourg also want to discuss the possibility of punitive economic measures during …

Washington has yet to respond to Iran about a prisoner swap, Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei was quoted as saying by the government’s website on Sunday, reiterating that Tehran was ready for a full prisoner exchange with the United States without preconditions. If a swap goes ahead, it would be …

Shelling of Tripoli’s Mitiga airport early on Saturday, part of an intensified barrage of artillery fire on the capital in recent days, hit fuel tanks and damaged passenger planes, the Transport Ministry said in a statement. Mitiga is the last functioning airport in the Libyan capital, though civilian flights stopped …

State television described the missile strike as an accident during a training exercise, saying the Konarak had remained too close to the target. The Konarak had been putting targets out in the water for other ships to fire upon, it said. An Iranian missile that struck a support ship in …

Syria’s Ambassador to the United Nations Bashar al-Jaafari says unilateral sanctions imposed by the Western countries are hampering the Damascus government’s efforts to import medicine and other medical supplies to fight the deadly novel coronavirus outbreak in the country. “Unilateral coercive economic measures hinder Syria’s ability to meet the basic …

“We are ready to exchange Iranian and American prisoners and we are prepared to discuss this issue but Americans have not responded yet,” Rabiei said, according to Khabaronline. Iran is ready for a full prisoner exchange with the United States, Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei was quoted as saying by …

Egypt’s emergency law, which has been in place since April 2017, will have new amendments, reportedly giving Sisi and security agencies “additional sweeping powers”. Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el Sisi has ratified a host of amendments to Egypt’s emergency law, which an international rights groups says expands “repressive powers” as …

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force has apparently armed its Sukhoi Su-22 fighter-bombers with a new air-to-surface missile. The newly released footage from a visit that Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei had paid to an exhibition of the IRGC Aerospace Force achievements back in …