Days after President Trump declared the Islamic State’s caliphate had been eliminated in Syria, the prime minister of one of West Africa’s most turbulent nations urged the United States to shift attention to a rising extremist threat in the Sahel. Malian Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubèye Maïga visited Washington this week to ask U.S. officials to bolster support for his country’s fight against… Read more »
BEIRUT — Efforts by Arab states to reengage with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, now that he has prevailed in the war, have been put on hold after a push by the United States to deter its allies from renewing ties with his government. A decision late last year by the United Arab Emirates to reopen its embassy in Damascus and overtures… Read more »
DEIR DIBWAN, West Bank — Palestinians in this town woke one morning last month to find their mosque vandalized, with a Star of David painted on the exterior alongside Hebrew graffiti accusing it of preaching “incitement.” “We are at an alarming point,” said Barakat Mahmoud, the mosque’s imam. “We’ve never had direct confrontation with the settlers in this town.” The incident… Read more »
BEIRUT — Syrians who remained loyal to President Bashar al-Assad throughout the past eight years of war are increasingly expressing discontent with his government as living standards in the country continue to deteriorate even as the conflict winds down. Conditions are dire for most of the 19 million Syrians living across the ravaged country, including in the roughly one-third that remains outside government control…. Read more »
CAIRO — An airstrike, most likely by the Saudi-led coalition, hit near a rural hospital in northern Yemen, killing eight people including five children, according to the charity Save the Children, which supports the facility. Tuesday’s attack was the latest of many on nonmilitary targets that have killed thousands of civilians in the Middle East’s poorest nation. It came on the… Read more »
BEIRUT — President Trump’s call to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights fired up Middle East tensions on Friday and complicated a U.S. push to roll back the growing regional influence of Iran and its allies, which say their military expansion is necessary to counter Israeli threats to Arab lands. Syria, which lost control of a third of the strategic… Read more »
ISTANBUL — A group of Saudi Arabia’s most prominent women’s rights advocates appeared in court in the Saudi capital Wednesday at the start of a trial that could signal whether the government intends to roll back an aggressive, years-long crackdown on political activists. Ibrahim al-Sayari, the president of the Criminal Court, told reporters that 10 women are facing trial in Riyadh, including figures… Read more »
CAIRO — American- and British-made bombs may have killed or injured nearly 1,000 civilians, including women and children, in Yemen’s four-year conflict, according to a report released Wednesday by human rights groups. The airstrikes killed 203 people and injured at least 749, the report found. At least 122 children and 56 women were among the dead and wounded. U.S. and British lawmakers have… Read more »