Middle East

The holy month of Ramadan began on Friday with Islam’s holiest sites in Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem largely empty of worshippers as the coronavirus crisis forced authorities to impose unprecedented restrictions. During Ramadan, Muslims the world over join their families to break the fast at sunset and go to mosques …

Saudi Arabia has abolished flogging as a punishment, the state human rights commission said Saturday, hailing a “step forward” in the reform programme launched by the king and his powerful son. Court-ordered floggings in Saudi Arabia — sometimes extending to hundreds of lashes — have long drawn condemnation from human …

Nine people were wounded in a shooting in the Arab village of Yafia, outside Nazareth, in Israel on Saturday, police told local media. Two of the victims are in critical condition. No arrests have been made at this point, and it is yet unclear how many people were involved in …

Iran President Hassan Rouhani says a recent successful launch for a home-made satellite was proof that Iran has pursued a sound policy to develop its space sector. In comments published on Friday, the Iranian president hailed the launch of Noor military satellite earlier this week by the Islamic Revolution Guards …

A prominent Saudi rights activist, Abdallah al-Hamed, has died in detention in Saudi Arabia as a result of “deliberate medical negligence” days after suffering a stroke, a report says. Citing Saudi sources, the Arabic-language Arabi21 online newspaper reported that Hamed died on Friday morning a few days after his health …

A group of researchers in Turkey is claiming to have come across the first credible records yet discovered of ‘death by a meteorite,’ dating from August 22, 1888. They cite multiple official documents recovered from the General Directorate of State Archives of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey, which …

A major human rights group has urged authorities in the English Premier League to dismiss a bid by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and allies to take over the ownership of a club, saying the controversial figure fails the very basic tests of ownership rules in the competition. The …

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says neither the United States nor its European allies, with their ‘flimsy’ misreading of the landmark nuclear deal of 2015, is allowed to ‘lecture’ the Islamic Republic on its missile program. “US has been bullying all against UNSC Resolution 2231 since 2017. Europe obeyed …

Children have been among those killed by landmines and other “explosive remnants of war (ERW)” that litter the Palestinian territories, the United Nations reported today. As many as 1.9 million people are at risk of exposure to ERW in the Gaza Strip, the whole of which is a danger zone, …

Wafiq al-Samarrai, former chief of Iraqi general military intelligence, in a Facebook post seriously criticized US’ cruel sanctions against Iran, saying despite unilateral sanctions, Iran in its new progress could launch its military satellite into the earth’s orbit. He added that the US should change the game rules in the …

The chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has downplayed a recent US anti-Iran rhetoric, warning that the Islamic Republic will target American vessels if they were to threaten the safety of the country’s vessels or warships. #Iran #IRGC commander Gen. Salami says Iranian naval forces have been …

Saudi Arabia is reportedly withholding the bodies of at least 90 activists, among them critics of the construction of a controversial megacity project on the kingdom’s Red Sea coast. The Arabic-language Mirat al-Jazeera news website reported on Tuesday that the Riyadh regime refuses to hand over the bodies of the …

Lebanon has become the first Arab country to legalize cannabis farming for medical and industrial purposes – a move that could generate lucrative exports and foreign currency as the country struggles to cope with a financial crisis. Although growing the plant was previously illegal, cannabis has long been farmed openly …

Observing social distancing guidelines amid a virus outbreak, dozens of Lebanese people have taken to the streets across Beirut and other cities in their cars to protest rising poverty and economic woes. The car convoys formed across the capital, the northwestern city of Tripoli, and the southwestern city of Sidon …

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has successfully launched and placed the country’s first military satellite into the orbit. The elite force fired the satellite — dubbed Nour (Light)-1 — aboard Qased (Carrier) satellite carrier during an operation that was staged in Dasht-e Kavir, Iran’s sprawling central desert, on Wednesday, …

Israeli demonstrators turned out in droves to protest the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. Mindful of the need for social distancing, they stood two meters apart from each other in a visually spectacular gathering. Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square is often a staging ground for rallies. Tens of thousands flocked to the …

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says the ongoing global crisis caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic has exposed Western countries’ failure and immorality. “The coronavirus crisis has exposed the failure of the Western regimes as well as their immorality, because the pandemic showed that these regimes only serve a select few …

On Monday, Hebrew media sources revealed the contents of a new law recently signed by the military commander of the occupied West Bank, which stipulates that prisoners ’salaries are prohibited money. The Hebrew channel “Seven” stated that the law will start in effect from the ninth with next May, which …

At least three civilians have been killed and another sustained injuries when militiamen loyal to the country’s former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, shelled a residential neighborhood in Yemen’s southern province of Ta’izz despite a two-week ceasefire declared by the Saudi-led coalition. Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told …

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has once again warned US President Donald Trump against interfering in the internal affairs of other countries in the age of the new coronavirus. Zarif made the remarks in a Sunday posting on Twitter in an apparent reference to Trump’s Saturday allegation that the …