Tag Archives: Middle East

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca confirmed on Wednesday that the first case of coronavirus was detected in Turkey. “A male citizen tested positive for the coronavirus in the evening,” Health Minister Koca said at a press conference in Ankara. “The infected individual – he added – contracted the virus after …

Syria’s war-torn northwestern Idlib province has reportedly witnessed “rare calm” following the implementation of a ceasefire agreement allowing the government to secure two strategic routes running through the province. A military source speaking to Russia’s RIA news agency on Friday said the truce, which was implemented at 00:01 am, is …

Greece will transfer migrants who arrived on its territory illegally after March 1 to the northern city of Serres and plans to deport back to their own countries, Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi said late on Wednesday. Thousands of migrants have made for Greece since Ankara said on Feb. 28 …

Moscow says Ankara has failed to live up to its commitments under a deal to enforce a demilitarized zone in Idlib, complaining that the Turkish military has allowed its observation posts to merge with terrorist fortifications in the northwestern Syrian province. In a statement released on Wednesday, Russian Defense Ministry …

Syria President Bashar al-Assad says Syrians are determined to liberate the whole country from the clutches of foreign-sponsored terrorists, amid a full-scale offensive by the army in the northwestern province of Idlib, the last militant bastion in a nine-year war. Assad made the comment during a meeting with Iran’s Parliament …

At least 30 civilians have been killed and many others injured in fresh air raids conducted by Saudi warplanes on Yemen’s northern Jawf Province, Yemeni media report. The al-Masirah TV channel reported Saturday that the Riyadh regime carried out eight aerial assaults on Jawf’s al-Maslub district. The strikes, it added, …

Thousands of people have staged nationwide demonstrations across Bahrain on the eve of the ninth anniversary of the popular uprising against the ruling Al Khalifah dynasty. Demonstrators took to the streets in the capital Manama as well as the village of Sanabis, which lies in the suburbs of Manama, the …

Two members of Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces (ISF) have died after sustaining injuries during a shooting at the Ouzai police station in Beirut yesterday. Major Jalal Shreif, the head of the police station, died in hospital, while first adjutant Ziad Al-Attar succumbed to his injuries this morning after the pair …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to target Syrian forces “everywhere” and “by any means” if Turkish troops in Syria are harmed. Erdogan issued the threat during a meeting of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party at the parliament in Ankara on Wednesday. The Syrian army and allied …

Scores of people were injured in Beirut on Tuesday in clashes between security forces and protesters rejecting the new government as it sought to win a parliamentary vote of confidence. Smoke wafted through Beirut where riot police fired tear gas at hundreds of protesters seeking to block MPs from reaching …

An election app in use by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political party potentially exposed sensitive personal information for the country’s entire national voting registration of about 6.5 million citizens, according to Israeli media reports. The cellphone-based program, identified as the Elector app, is meant to manage the Likud party’s …

At least eight people were killed and dozens of others were wounded in a car bomb explosion in Afrin in Aleppo Governorate, in northwestern Syria. A source in the local administration of the city told “Sputnik” News Agency that, “6 people were killed and 11 others wounded, one of them …

Qatar is reportedly expected to acquire submarines from Italy and turn into the first Gulf Arab country to operate those watercraft. The American business magazine Forbes reported that a new memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Italian company Fincantieri, Europe’s largest shipbuilder, covers the “supply of cutting-edge naval vessels and submarines” …

A reservoir containing an estimated 80 trillion cubic feet of shallow gas, and spanning around 5,000 square kilometers, was discovered on Monday, UAE authorities reported. The reserve, located between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, is the fourth largest in the world, and the first major natural gas discovery in 15 years, …

Israel says it has reached an agreement with Sudan to jointly work towards normalization of ties, after leaders of the two sides held a secret meeting in Uganda, drawing angry reactions from all Palestinian factions. The meeting took place between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the …

The Islamic State terrorist group said on Monday it blew up a gas pipeline in Egypt’s restive Sinai Peninsula, claiming it was connected to Israel. Security sources earlier said the pipeline hit was a domestic one that connects to a power station in El-Arish, powering homes and factories in central …

US arrogance towards the Palestinians will backfire, big. The Trump administration has finally lifted the curtains on the final act of its Middle East diplomacy by revealing the long-awaited, ahem, “peace plan” in a surrealistic White House celebration. I will admit from the outset that I cannot write about it …

Iraq’s leading cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, on Friday renewed his support to the protest camps across the country, as security forces stepped up a crackdown against demonstrators. Protesters across Iraq are seeking the removal of what they see as a corrupt ruling elite and an end to foreign interference …

Syrian army forces are in full control of a strategic town in the country’s northwestern province of Aleppo following an intense military operation against foreign-sponsored terrorist militants. Syria’s Arabic-language al-Masdar news agency, citing an unnamed military official from Division 30 of the Republican Guard, reported that government troops liberated Khan …

A Lebanese military sentenced has sentenced a Syrian refugee to three years of hard labor on charges of belonging to the Islamic State (ISIS) and planning to commit crimes against the Lebanese people and undermining the authority of the state, activists said Saturday. The court also sentenced, in absentia, four …