An upcoming conference in Paris aiming to explore ways to restart long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts has placed leaders from the two sides at odds. At least 72 countries are due to attend the conference on Sunday in the French capital, in a bid to lay an international framework for a two-state solution between the Palestinians and Israel. But while the Palestinian side… Read more »
Oman is negotiating with wealthy Gulf Arab states to secure a multi-billion dollar deposit in its central bank, two sources have told the Reuters news agency, although the Sultanate denied the report. The sources, declining to be named because the matter is not public, said Omani officials had met in recent weeks with officials of the finance ministries of Kuwait, Qatar and… Read more »
About 10 Syrian rebel groups announced Monday they were suspending talks about planned peace negotiations this month in the Kazakh capital Astana, due to “violations” by Damascus of a four-day old truce. “As these violations are continuing, the rebel factions announce… the freezing of all discussion linked to the Astana negotiations,” they said in a joint statement, referring to talks… Read more »
Two years after the jihadists seized the city of 1.5 million people and declared a caliphate from there encompassing tracts of Iraq and Syria, a force of some 30,000 Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Sunni tribal fighters began to advance. Helicopters released flares and explosions could be heard on the city’s eastern front, where Reuters watched Kurdish fighters move… Read more »
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has backtracked on his earlier statements that his country’s military forces launched operations in neighboring Syria to end the rule of the incumbent Damascus government, asserting that the offensives there are aimed only at terrorists.
More than 50,000 Syrians have joined a growing exodus of terrified civilians from east Aleppo, a monitor said Wednesday, as the UN Security Council was set for emergency talks on fighting in the city. As government forces pressed an assault in the divided city, regime artillery fire killed at least 21 civilians in east Aleppo on Wednesday morning, the Syrian… Read more »
Iran and China have signed a defence and joint military cooperation agreement. Iranian Defence Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan signed the agreement along with his Chinese counterpart, General Chang Wanquan in Tehran yesterday at the end of an earlier meeting between the two sides.
“We have received confirmation that the expulsion of our journalist is under way,” Les Jours said on Twitter.
Nearly a dozen Arab nations accused Iran on Monday of sponsoring “terrorism” throughout the Middle East while increasing support for jihadist groups since signing the international nuclear deal last summer. In a letter to the U.N. General Assembly, 11 Middle East and North African countries condemned Iran for continuing “to play a negative role in causing tension and instability in… Read more »