Middle East
The US imposed sanctions on Thursday against a network that smuggles Iranian oil disguised as Iraqi oil, and on a Hezbollah-controlled financial institution, the Treasury Department said. A network of companies run by Iraqi-British national Salim Ahmed Said has been buying and shipping billions of dollars worth of Iranian oil
Middle East
Syrian authorities on Tuesday arrested a former high-ranking official who helped run the notorious Saydnaya Prison. Thaer Hussein, described as an assistant to the director of the prison, had been on the run since the collapse of President Bashar Assad’s regime in December. Syria’s Internal Security Command in
Middle East
The sleeper cell behind a deadly church bombing near Damascus belonged to the Daesh group, which had plans to target a Shiite shrine in a similar attack, Syria’s Interior Ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday. Sunday’s attack on the Mar Elias Church killed at least 25 people. The attack
Middle East
Iran could shut the Strait of Hormuz as a way of hitting back against its enemies, a senior lawmaker said on Thursday, though a second member of parliament said this would only happen if Tehran’s vital interests were endangered. Iran has in the past threatened to close the Strait
Middle East
Former Iranian Economy Minister Ehsan Khandouzi has said that tankers and LNG cargoes should only transit the Strait of Hormuz with Iranian permission and this policy should be carried out “tomorrow for a hundred days.” It was not immediately clear whether Khandouzi was echoing the establishment’s decision or sharing
Middle East
A new report by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has exposed a covert Iranian nuclear weapons program known as the “Kavir Plan,” which allegedly began in 2009 under the direct orders of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. This secret program reportedly replaced the earlier “Amad Plan,” which was
Middle East
After his home in the Somali capital was battered by torrential rains, Mohamed Abdukadir Teesto worries about his future at a time when local and foreign aid is vanishing. The Horn of Africa nation is among the most vulnerable to climate change, according to the United Nations, and in the
Middle East
A “major” shift is needed to repair broken ties between the Turkish state and the country’s Kurdish minority following the historic decision of the Kurdistan Workers Party to disarm, its jailed founder said Sunday. The message from Abdullah Ocalan was transmitted through a delegation of the pro-Kurdish DEM party
Middle East
US President Donald Trump said Monday he was considering offering sanctions relief to Syria as it seeks to rebuild after a grinding decade-plus civil war. “We are going to have to make a decision on the sanctions, which we may very well relieve. We may take them off of Syria
Middle East
Israel’s air force struck near Syria’s presidential palace early Friday hours after warning Syrian authorities not to march toward villages inhabited by members of a minority sect in southern Syria. The strike came after days of clashes between pro-Syrian government gunmen and fighters who belong to the Druze
Middle East
Syrian estate agent Fahd Haidar shuttered his business and got out his rifle to defend his hometown of Jaramana when it came under attack this week by Islamists loyal to the new government. Seven Druze fighters were among the 17 people killed in the Damascus suburb as clashes raged from
Middle East
Lebanese official media said eight people were wounded by in a drone attack in a border village, as Syrian Arab Republic said it responded to artillery fire from Lebanon. Eight Syrian refugees were wounded and taken to hospital in the northeast area of Hermel after an “explosives-laden drone blew up”
Middle East
As calls for Lebanon’s Hezbollah to disarm gain momentum, a senior Hezbollah official told Reuters the group is ready to hold talks with the Lebanese president about its weapons if Israel withdraws from south Lebanon and stops its strikes. US-backed President Joseph Aoun, who vowed when he took office
Middle East
Hezbollah and all militias in Lebanon must be disarmed “as soon as possible,” US Deputy Special Envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus has told the Lebanese broadcaster LBCI. Ortagus, who was speaking to LBCI’s Toni Mrad in an interview aired on Sunday, emphasized President Donald Trump’s firm
Middle East
Gulf Cooperation Council nations will face a 10 percent US tariff under Donald Trump’s new trade policy, aimed at addressing what he called long-standing unfair practices. While the GCC was spared the steepest penalties, other Arab nations were hit harder — with Syria and Iraq facing tariffs of 41 percent
Middle East
Eid Al-Fitr in Syria was charged with newfound joy this year, as thousands freely celebrated the holiday for the first time after the fall of Bashar Assad. From the early morning hours, crowds of men, women and children flocked to pray at Damascus’s historic Umayyad Mosque in the Old