Syria stands alone in healing its wounds from devastating earthquake
February 10th, 20230 The dawn of February 6, 2023 will be recorded as a typical tragedy that befell the peoples of the eastern Mediterranean, or to be precise, part of their peoples. The fear and panic, despite their magnitude, can’t be compared to the horror and devastation of being buried under the rubble of destroyed homes and buildings. It is an...
In Syria’s quake-hit Aleppo, survivors try to reach the missing
February 10th, 20230 ALEPPO, Syria – After Monday's earthquake brought down his family's building in Syria's battle-scarred second city of Aleppo, Youssef managed to reach one of his trapped relatives by phone, hearing voices despite a bad line. Since then the 25-year-old has been standing in near-freezing weather by the rubble, unable to get through...
China offers emergency aid of $4.4 mln to earthquake-hit Syria
February 8th, 20230 BEIJING - China will offer emergency humanitarian aid of 30 million yuan ($4.4 million) to earthquake-hit Syria, its foreign ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, told a regular news briefing on Wednesday. The death toll of the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria has jumped to more than 8,700. read more Mao said $2 million of the...
Israel, Sudan announce deal to normalize relations
February 6th, 20231 KHARTOUM – Israel and Sudan have finalized a deal to normalize relations, with a signing ceremony expected following a transfer of power from the military to a civilian government in Khartoum, the Israeli foreign ministry said on Thursday. Sudan's foreign ministry earlier said the deal was agreed during a visit by Israeli Foreign...
Israeli occupation forces invaded refugee camp, killed five Palestinians and held their bodies
February 6th, 20230 Israeli occupation forces invaded the Aqbat Jabr refugee camp near the West Bank city of Jericho early Monday morning, killing at least five Palestinians during the invasion. The bodies of the victims are being withheld by occupation forces. Malik Awni Lafi, 22, Thaer Owidat, 28, Rafaat Wael Owidat, 21, Adham Majdi Owidat, 22, and...
Analysis: Israel and Palestinians risk deeper conflict in a distracted world
February 4th, 20230 After bloodshed in Jerusalem and the West Bank and a month since Israel's most right-wing government took office, Israel and the Palestinians risk sliding into a cycle of wider confrontation with pressure on both sides for retaliation, analysts say. A Palestinian gunman shot dead seven people near a synagogue in Jerusalem's outskirts on...
New York woman charged with financing terrorist groups in Syria through cryptocurrency
February 4th, 20230 A New York City woman has been charged with using cryptocurrency to provide financial support to terrorist groups in Syria, a rare prosecution involving virtual currency to fund terrorism. The 11-count indictment charged Victoria Jacobs, 43, who was known as Bakhrom Talipov, with providing support for an act of terrorism, money...
Lebanese central bank devalues official exchange rate: 15,000 liras for one dollar
February 4th, 20230 BEIRUT – Lebanon devalued its official exchange rate for the first time in 25 years on Wednesday, weakening it by 90 percent, but still leaving the local currency well below its market value. The lira has crashed since a financial meltdown in 2019 after decades of corruption, profligate spending and mismanagement by the ruling elite...
Dearborn man convicted of aiding ISIS in Syria
February 3rd, 20230 DETROIT — A Dearborn man who was captured on a Syrian battlefield in 2018 has been convicted on charges of providing support to ISIS and attending one of the group's training camps, prosecutors said. A federal jury convicted Ibraheem Izzy Musaibli, 32, on Monday of charges of providing and attempting to provide material support to...
leaked British documents reveal former President George W. Bush ordered the CIA to find a replacement for Arafat
February 3rd, 20230 The BBC is reporting that British documents have been leaked confirming former U.S. President George W Bush ordered the CIA to find a replacement for former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Bush’s order followed the escalation of the Second Intifada in 2001. The CIA effort came after negotiations failed between then-Israeli Prime...
Iran blames Israel for Isfahan drone attack, vows revenge
February 3rd, 20230 Iran blamed Israel for a drone attack on a military factory near the central city of Isfahan, the semi-official ISNA news agency said on Thursday, vowing revenge for what appeared to be the latest episode in a long-running covert war. The attack came amid tension between Iran and the West over Tehran's nuclear activity and its supply of...
Palestine is my cause: Arabs reaffirm support for Palestinians, rejection of the occupation
February 2nd, 20230 By Ramzy Baroud The latest Arab Opinion Index 2022 is yet more proof that Arab societies are diverse in every possible way, from their assessment of their economic situation and living conditions to their take on immigration, state institutions and democracy. With one single exception: Palestine. Seventy-six percent of all...
Lebanese protest record low value of local currency
January 29th, 20230 BEIRUT – Lebanese protesters burned tires and held up handfuls of local currency bills on Wednesday at the entrance of the Lebanese central bank in Beirut, furious over the spiraling devaluation of the lira. Lebanon's economic meltdown, which began in 2019, has cost the lira around 97 percent of its value. The decline has been...
Lebanese protest as fate of port explosion probe hangs in balance
January 29th, 20230 BEIRUT – More than 200 people protested outside Lebanon's justice palace on Thursday over efforts to derail an investigation into the deadly 2020 Beirut port explosion, as top judges cancelled a meeting to discuss the fate of the inquiry. Judge Tarek Bitar announced on Monday he was resuming his investigation into the blast that...
U.S. concerned over Israeli raid against Palestinian camp ahead of Blinken visit
January 27th, 20230 WASHINGTON, D.C. – Washington is concerned the security situation between the Israelis and Palestinians could worsen ahead of a visit to the Middle East by Secretary of State Antony Blinken starting on Sunday, a U.S. official said, after a deadly raid by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank on Thursday. The top U.S. diplomat......
Jenin resists: Israeli raid at Palestinian refugee camp kills 10, injures dozens
January 26th, 20230 At least 10 Palestinians were killed Thursday during an Israeli raid at the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. According to the Palestinian health ministry, nine Palestinians were shot and killed by Israeli forces, including an elderly woman, and at least 20 others were seriously wounded. At least four people were in critical...
Saudi foreign minister sees progress to end Yemen conflict
January 22nd, 20230 On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said progress was being made towards ending the Yemen conflict, in which Riyadh leads a military coalition, but more work was needed, including reinstating a truce and transitioning to a permanent ceasefire. A U.N.-brokered truce deal first agreed to last April, and which expired in...
U.S. senators visit Israel, ask not to meet with far-right ministers
January 20th, 20230 According to an Israeli official, a delegation of U.S. senators arrived in Israel on Tuesday, asking not to meet with far-right ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, along with any other members of their hardline factions. Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen’s office made the request. Rosen co-leads the bipartisan delegation...
Netanyahu says he and White House’s Sullivan discussed prospect of relationship with Saudi Arabia
January 20th, 20230 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, hosting his first senior member of President Biden's administration on Thursday, said they had discussed prospects for a diplomatic breakthrough between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Visiting White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan also heard from the Palestinians that their hopes of......
Arab normalizers face dilemma as Israel goes to the far right
January 16th, 20230 Israel's sharp tilt to what is likely to be the most hard right government in its history puts its new Arab allies in the awkward position of having to deal with ultra-nationalists while trying to do more than just pay lip service to the Palestinian cause. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet, sworn in two weeks ago, includes...
Former Lebanese Parliament Speaker Hussein al-Husseini, architect of Tiaf Peace Accord, dies at 86
January 14th, 20230 Lebanese Shi'a politician Hussein al-Husseini, a former parliament speaker who was an architect of the peace agreement ending the 1975-90 civil war, died on Wednesday aged 86. Husseini, speaker from 1984 to 1992, was central in asserting a larger role for a Shi'a community that was largely downtrodden at the time, including by helping......
U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin discusses her trip to the Middle East, painful lessons from U.S. invasion of Iraq
January 7th, 20230 U.S. Rep. Elissa Blair Slotkin (D- Holly) recently returned from a nine-day trip to the Middle East over Thanksgiving. The Congressional Delegation of House Veterans Affairs Committee members visited Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq and Lebanon. Slotkin had to miss the Lebanon portion of the trip due to President Biden’s visit to Bay City,...Israel was never a democracy: So why is the West lamenting end of “liberal” Israel?
Even before the new Israeli government was officially sworn in on December 29, angry reactions began emerging, not only among Palestinians and other Middle Eastern governments, but also among Israel’s historic allies in the West. As early as November 2, top U.S, officials conveyed to Axios that the Biden administration is “unlikely......
