Following the inauguration of Donald Trump, the Israeli government has increased talks of building more homes in the predominantly Palestinian West Bank as well as moving the American Embassy from its current location in Tel Aviv to the Israeli capital of Jerusalem. Israeli settlement building in land considered by many to be Palestinian has been a point of contention in… Read more »
Reuters: The armed Houthi movement attacked a Saudi warship off the western coast of Yemen on Monday, causing an explosion that killed two crew members and injured three others, Saudi state news agency SPA reported. Separately, the Houthis said they launched a ballistic missile at a Saudi-led coalition military base on the Red Sea island of Zuqar between Yemen and… Read more »
Reuters: Israel announced plans on Tuesday for 3,000 more settlement homes in the occupied West Bank, the third such declaration in eleven days since U.S. President Donald Trump took office. Trump has signaled he could be more accommodating toward such projects than his predecessor Barack Obama. A statement from the Israeli Defence Ministry, which administers lands Israel captured in a… Read more »
Reuters: Rightist protesters scuffled with Israeli police carrying out a court order to evict settlers from an illegal outpost in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, hours after the government announced more construction in larger settlements. Around 330 Israeli settlers live in Amona, the largest of scores of outposts built in the West Bank without official authorization. The Supreme Court… Read more »
Reuters: The United Arab Emirates’ foreign minister said on Wednesday President Donald Trump’s travel ban on citizens of seven mainly Muslim countries was an internal affair not directed at any faith, a more measure reaction than others from the region. Trump’s order affecting Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen has triggered protests across the United States and beyond…. Read more »
(FORBES): Saudi Arabia has kept its promise. It has cut oil output by 486,000 barrels a day, in line with the OPEC agreement the Kingdom pulled together last October, helping oil stabilize above $50 per barrel. That’s music in the ears of American frackers, who have been bringing oil rigs back to life at a feverish rate—111 in the last… Read more »
(REUTERS): Iran’s defense minister said on Wednesday it had tested a new missile but this did not breach the Islamic Republic’s nuclear accord with world powers or a U.N. Security Council resolution endorsing the pact. Iran has test-fired several ballistic missiles since the nuclear deal in 2015, but the latest test was the first during U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration. Trump… Read more »
(BBC News): The Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen’s Houthi rebels says two crew members have been killed in an attack on one of its warships in the Red Sea. A coalition statement said three Houthi “suicide boats” had approached a Saudi frigate west of Hudaydah on Monday. One of the boats collided with the rear of the frigate and exploded, causing… Read more »
(BBC): US special forces operatives carried out a raid in central Yemen on Sunday, targeting the house of a suspected leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). US officials have confirmed that one Navy commando died and three more service members were wounded, and say 14 al-Qaeda fighters were killed. The US operatives targeted the house of a suspected senior… Read more »