Middle East
Pope Francis on Monday slammed the “shameful inability” of world powers to end the conflict in the Middle East, on the first anniversary of Hamas’s deadly October 7 attack on Israel. “A year ago, the fuse of hatred was lit; it did not sputter, but exploded in a spiral
Middle East
Israel said Tuesday that halting Hezbollah’s attacks in the country’s north to allow residents to return to their homes is now an official war goal, as it considers a wider military operation in Lebanon that could ignite an all-out conflict. Israeli officials have repeatedly threatened to take heavier
Middle East
Shopkeeper Alaa Fakih lies awake at night scared that another catastrophe could strike Lebanon. Like many she is traumatized by the past — from the 1975-1990 civil war to a devastating Beirut port blast in 2020 and an enduring economic collapse — and fearful of the future. “I shouldn’t be thinking
Middle East
At least 16 people have been killed in flash floods in a rebel-held district of Yemen, rebel media reported Thursday, as search efforts continued for others still missing. Civil defense teams recovered the bodies of 16 of the 38 people posted as missing in Al-Mahwit province west of the capital
Middle East
Tunisian authorities have arrested an Italian man suspected of building a boat for irregular migrants trying to reach to Europe, a judicial source told AFP on Wednesday. The 45-year-old who was not named “works in a boat building factory,” Farid Jha, spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office in Monastir,
Middle East
The United Nations Libya mission said late on Thursday it was concerned about reports of forces mobilizing in Tripoli and threats of force to resolve a crisis over control of the central bank. The mission’s deputy head, Stephanie Koury, told the UN Security Council on Monday that the political
Middle East
There could be a long wait for Iranian retaliation against Israel, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards spokesperson Alimohammad Naini said on Tuesday. The Middle East has been bracing for Iran’s avowed retaliation over the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31. Israel has neither confirmed nor
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Lebanon marked four years since a horrific explosion at the capital’s port shook the country killing more than 230 people, causing 7,000 injuries and destroying swathes of Beirut. Not a single person has been held to account for the fourth largest non-nuclear explosion in the world, and details
Middle East
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday he did not think a wider war in the Middle East was inevitable and the United States was seeking to cool rising tensions in the region. “I don’t think war is inevitable. I maintain that. I think there’s always room
Middle East
A team of UN investigators said Tuesday they had met in Chad with victims of violence in Sudan’s brutal civil war and had documented “disturbing patterns” of grave abuses. The recently established UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the situation in Sudan said it had spent three weeks in
Middle East
At least 85 people have died in a single hospital in the Darfur city of El-Fasher since fighting reignited between Sudan’s warring parties on May 10, medical charity Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday. On Monday alone, nine of 60 casualties received at Southern Hospital — El-Fasher’s only remaining medical
Middle East
The United Nations warned on Friday that it had only received 12 percent of the $2.7 billion being sought for war-wracked Sudan, adding that “famine is closing in.” Tens of thousands of people have died and millions have been displaced in Sudan since war broke out in April 2023
Middle East
A major city in Sudan’s western region of Darfur has been rocked by fighting involving “heavy weaponry,” a senior UN official said Saturday. Violence erupted in populated areas of El-Fasher, putting about 800,000 people at risk, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, said in a
Middle East
mong the bustling workshops of central Cairo’s Al-Sabtiyah district, Om Ghada’s blacksmith business has seen profits dip as two-hour power cuts each day returned after a brief suspension during the holy month of Ramadan. When scheduled outages began last summer it came as a shock to Egyptians accustomed
Middle East
Lebanese authorities arrested on Wednesday six people for their alleged involvement in sexual assaults on children, sometimes using the video-sharing platform TikTok to lure minors. The Internal Security Forces said in a statement that among those arrested was a “TikTok influencer,” who is also a hairdresser, according to local media.
Middle East
France President Emmanuel Macron will meet Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati and army chief Joseph Aoun on Friday in Paris, the French presidency said. Lebanon is grappling with a deep economic and political crisis. Lebanon has been without a president for more than a year after ex-head of state