In his article that documented his interviews with US President Barack Obama, Jeffrey Goldberg mentions testimonies from Obama’s aides that state he likened ISIS to the Joker in the film Batman. There is a scene in the film where a gang of men are angry at the evil joker who threatens to burn the ci
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif arrived to Turkey’s Istanbul on Saturday to hold talks with the country’s senior officials on bolstering bilateral trade and conferring political differences over issues in the Middle East, especially the war in Syria. Speaking to reporters upon his
Aleppo: The Rise and Fall of Syria’s Great Merchant City, Philip Mansel, 238 pages, I.B. Tauris, London, 2016 In a bizarre coincidence, this fascinating portrayal of Aleppo, one of the Middle East’s most fascinating cities, came out exactly on the day that Russian President Vladimir Putin announced
Israeli police reported on Saturday a Palestinian teenager was shot dead after stabbing an Israeli paramilitary police officer near a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank. “A terrorist armed with a knife stabbed a border policeman in the head after being asked for identification. Troops
Russian or Syrian warplanes Saturday carried out a series of air strikes on the city of Raqqa in northern Syria on areas controlled by ISIS killing dozens of people, a monitoring group and activists said. A US-Russian engineered ‘cessation of hostilities’ agreement in Syria took effect three weeks a
Aden- A Yemeni military commander said that operations executed by the National Army of Yemen, which is supported by the Popular Resistance and the Saudi-led Arabian coalition, are ongoing. Operations will not seize until all Yemeni governorates under militia dominance are freed, the commander state
After months of pursuit, Belgian police yesterday arrested Salah Abdeslam, a prime suspect in the Paris attacks which killed 130 people in November last year. Abdeslam was arrested during a raid in the Brussels neighbourhood of Molenbeek. Security sources confirmed that Abdeslam was wounded in the l
Jeddah- The Yemeni government ruled out any compromises being made at the anticipated Geneva Yemeni peace talks with the Houthi militia delegation. Even though several countries in the West are throwing in their weight over certain topics, Yemen’s legitimate government confirmed that no new items wi
A Dubai airliner with 62 people on board flying from Dubai to southern Russia were killed when their plane exploded in a huge fireball on its second attempt to land at Rostov-on-Don airport on Saturday, Russian officials said. Russia’s emergencies ministry said the aircraft, a Boeing 737-800 o
A suicide attacker detonated a bomb on a major shopping and tourist district in central Istanbul on Saturday killing five people and wounding 36 others, the city’s governor said. The assailant died in the attack, which is the fourth apparent suicide bombing to hit Turkey this year. The explosi
Tripoli- Security sources in Tripoli reported 20 militia leaders owning up to 50 spy set-ups. Sources state that brokers, affiliated with international intelligence and currently present in Libya, are promoting spy equipment. Large numbers of the endorsed gear, which are mostly European, are ending
LONDON – Zika virus, which is being witnessed for its widespread throughout the Americas, transmitted primarily by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which the U.N. health body has called as an “opportunistic and tenacious menace”. Finding the most operative ways to have control over thes
The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre distributed 20,000 food baskets on Wednesday to towns in Taiz after the siege on the city was broken. The project to distribute 20,000 food baskets completes the project to distribute 100,000 food baskets to the towns in Taiz and is the second convo
As hundreds of migrants tried to reach the Greek island of Lesbos on Friday, Turkish authorities intercepted hundreds them in a major operation involving coastguard ships and helicopters, as European leaders settled an agreement with Ankara to halt illegal migration. Around 1,200 migrants, many deta
Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc are competing to bring every media medium under their umbrella. The two digital rivals are competing to acquire rights to stream conventional TV programming, the New York Post reported on Thursday. Both social media giants have approached programmers about a deal for the
Tunisia-Tunisia announced on Thursday that it is launching a campaign to counter religious extremism among its youth after a string of deadly jihadist attacks in the North African country. The one-year campaign to start on Sunday, March 20 aims at promoting “Islam’s real, moderate values
Anyone focusing on the political scene in the Islamic Republic of Iran would have noticed a mood of barely subdued embarrassment the other day as Russian President Vladimir Putin pulled his “withdrawal from Syria” rabbit out of his bag of tricks. Neither Tehran nor Damascus knew how to cope with the
London-At the time when conflicts aggravated between Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the country’s Revolutionary Guard regarding changes in the foreign political stances in the Arab region, especially those related to the latter’s activities in Syria and Iraq, Iranian sources close to the ma
Barack Obama got more confused with his interview with “The Atlantic” magazine. How and why did his doctrine change in seven years? The truth is that Barack Obama is the only US President who has gained the love of Arabs and Muslims in their most difficult times. His term started with friendly relat
Asharq Al-Awsat has learned from informed sources that the two universal oil giants Saudi Aramco and Royal Dutch Shell have reached a tentative agreement to divide their assets in the US company Motiva Enterprise which owns and manages the largest refinery in the United States- the Port Arthur refin
