JERUSALEM – Israel has charged five Palestinians who it says were being recruited and funded by powerful Lebanese faction Hezbollah to monitor Israel’s military activity and carry out a suicide attack, police said on Wednesday. Suicide bombings were frequently mounted by Palestinian mili
ZURICH – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met on Wednesday to discuss Syria’s civil war amid questions as to whether peace talks between the government and the opposition can go ahead on Jan. 25. “We will see, we will see,” Lavrov
The Saudi Foreign Ministry yesterday presented a document that it says includes Iranian violations of international laws and a record of acts committed by Tehran such as spreading sedition, unrest and turmoil in the region in order to undermine its security and stability since the beginning of the r
Political reactions ran nonstop in Tehran after the Guardian Council has stunned both of the reform parties and the moderation party camps by refusing over 65 candidates revoking their eligibility for parliament elections; 99 % of those refused belong to the reformist party. Each of Hassan Rouhani I
World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2016 has launched its activities in Davos Swiss located resort, with over 40 participating Presidents and Prime Ministers from across the globe, alongside hundreds of international prominent figures. The forum headlined its activities as the “Fourth Industrial Rev
The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz held official talks in Riyadh yesterday with the Chinese President Xi Jinping who visited Saudi Arabia as part of his tour of the region. The discussions touched upon bilateral relations between the two countries and the latest regional
Political sources in Sana’a stated that former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and Houthi militants have begun to crowd up members of clans located near the Capital, in the aim of recruiting them; in preparation for the anticipated battle to free Sana’a. Saleh and the Houthis have resorted to religious
UN diplomats and Syrian Opposition leaderships have considered the probability of the first round of negotiations that was set on Jan. 25, being delayed. Moreover, official sources in France have told Asharq Al-Awsat that Paris today remains “preserved” towards launching the “Geneva 3.0” Syrian peac
What is President Barack Obama leaving behind to his successor in the White House? Well, the situation in the Middle East looks a bit worrying after the lifting of international sanctions on Iran. Practically, the international community has rehabilitated Iran, shown trust in its leadership and poli
The British Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday emphasised the need to rescue Muslim women from social isolation, teach them English and address discrimination against them. He also linked the isolation of mothers from society and its liberal values to the slide of young people towards radicalisa
ISTANBUL – A Turkish security force campaign against Kurdish militants in the southeast has been largely completed, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was reported as saying on Tuesday, as he outlined plans to maintain tighter control in parts of the region. Turkish police and military launched ma
After more than a decade of rapid growth; China’s economy has been experiencing a painful slowdown for the last two years. Matching by the time the central government seeks to move towards an economy led by consumption and services, rather than one driven by exports and investment; however, ma
BERLIN – A group of conservative lawmakers urged Angela Merkel to reverse her open-door refugee policy as a poll showed a slide in support for her bloc on Tuesday, raising the stakes for a German chancellor exposed by deep rifts in her right-left coalition. With three closely watched regional
BEIRUT – The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights group said scores of Syrian government forces have been killed in three days of fighting with ISIS in the east of the country, where the jihadist group has attacked government-held areas. ISIS advanced against government forces on Monday near th
BAGHDAD – Iraq’s parliament suspended its meeting on Tuesday amid protests by Sunni Muslim MPs over violence that targeted their community in eastern Iraq and left dozens killed in apparent retaliation for anti-Shi’ite bombings claimed by ISIS. Sunni lawmakers urged Prime Minister
GENEVA – Thousands of refugee children travelling along the migration route through Turkey and southeastern Europe are at risk from a sustained spell of freezing weather in the next two weeks, the United Nations and aid agencies said on Tuesday. The U.N. weather agency said it forecast below-n
RIYADH – Saudi Arabia, a foe of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said on Tuesday no one should dictate to the Syrian opposition who represents them at peace talks, as a proposed Jan. 25 meeting looked set to be delayed by differences over who will attend. The planned Geneva talks are part of
The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz held official talks with the Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif yesterday at the Al-Yamamah Palace in Riyadh where they addressed bilateral relations between the two countries and regional and international developments. The meeting
On Monday, January 19, the Lebanese Christian politician and the leader of the “Lebanese Forces”, Samir Geagea, backed his rival Michel Aoun, who is supported by Hezbollah, for presidency, which has been vacant for 20 months now, thus reshaping the Lebanese politics. On Monday, January 18, the Leban
On Monday, Minister of Local Administration, Abdul Raqeeb Fateh, confirmed the failure of all UN relief-support-organizations’ attempts in entering Taiz. Nothing had reached Taiz except for aid that was delivered by the Air Drop Box Relief Aid Delivery System carried out by the Arabian coalition for
