Middle East

Geneva, Jun 12: More than 920,000 people were displaced inside Syria during the first four months of 2018, the highest level in the seven-year conflict, the UN said Monday. “We are seeing a massive displacement inside Syria... From January to April, there were over 920,000 newly displaced people,” Panos Moumtzis, the UN regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria, told reporters in Geneva. “This

Jeddah, Jun 11: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates agreed on Monday to provide an economic aid package worth $2.5 billion for Jordan, which is facing an economic crisis following anti-austerity protests. The package, announced at a summit of the four nations in the holy city of Makkah, will include a deposit in the Jordanian central bank, World Bank guarantees, budgetary support

Beirut, Jun 8: Air strikes thought to have been carried out by Russian jets on a rebel-held residential area in northwestern Syrian have killed 38 civilians, a Britain-based monitor said Friday. Five children were among those killed when the strikes hit the area of Zardana in the northwestern Idlib province late Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said. Zardana is

Brussels, Jun 7: NATO on Wednesday declined an overture by Qatar to join the Western military defense alliance, saying membership was reserved to the United States and Europe. It was responding to a comment by Qatar’s defense minister on Tuesday that his country’s long-term strategic “ambition” was to join NATO. “According to Article 10 of the Washington Treaty, only European countries can become

Israel has proposed that “a military coalition” be formed against Iran in case Tehran pursues “military-grade” uranium enrichment, suggesting that the military force would comprise of the Israeli regime, the US, the Western states and their Arab allies. Speaking to media on Tuesday, Israeli Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz claimed that Iran had once been running an “unsupervised” enrichment

Doha, Jun 5: The Ministry of Haj and Umrah in Saudi Arabia said on Monday that Qataris are welcome to visit the Kingdom to perform Umrah rituals. The ministry disclosed that about seven million Muslims coming from all various countries in the world performed Umrah rituals "in ease, comfort, tranquility and security" last year. "Upon directives of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman

Tehran, Jun 4: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has condemned Israel's killing of a young Palestinian paramedic near the Gaza fence as another stain of shame for the regime. In a post on his official Twitter account on Sunday, Zarif also slammed the US's veto of a UN Security Council resolution that condemned Israel’s use of force against Palestinians. In a week when Israeli regime

Dubai, Jun 3: The Saudi-led Arab Coalition targeted Iran-backed Houthi militia positions along the western coast of Yemen, Saudi state-news agency SPA reported. Yemen’s official news agency reported that the coalition raids killed 70 Houthi militants as Yemeni resistance forces advanced toward Hodeidah airport and harbor. It was also reported that 21 militants were captured, while Houthi weapons

Riyadh, Jun 3: The Public Prosecutors’ Office in Riyadh issued a statement on Saturday about the recent arrest of Saudi citizens on allegations of conspiring to undermine the security of the Kingdom. Seventeen people were detained and questioned, prosecutors said. Of the 17, five women and three men have been provisionally released until investigations are complete. The remaining five men and four

Jeddah, Jun 2: The US vetoed on Friday an Arab-backed UN draft resolution calling for protection measures for the Palestinians that won backing from 10 countries at the Security Council. China, France and Russia were among the countries that voted in favor of the draft put forward by Kuwait on behalf of Arab countries. Four countries abstained. A draft resolution requires nine votes to be adopted