Jérusalem (AFP) — Just over half of Israel’s population has had at least a first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, the health ministry said Friday in its latest update. It said that 4.65 million of the country’s 9.29 million
Two U.S. Navy ships in the Middle East have been ordered into port as they combat outbreaks of COVID-19, the U.S. Navy said early Friday.
The Afghanistan Ministry of Defense (MoD) announced the U.S. Army presented it with “combat equipment,” including 640 military vehicles, in a Wednesday ceremony.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has slammed Israel for sending COVID-19 vaccines to overseas allies before sending them to the Palestinians, even though Jerusalem has sent Ramallah far more vaccines than any other foreign nation.
DUBAI — Chinese telecoms giant Huawei is enjoying an extended honeymoon with oil-rich Gulf nations, despite being criticised in the United States and Europe as a potential security threat.
The Biden administration’s plans to reopen the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem have been shelved until after Israel’s upcoming elections, Axios reported Wednesday.
The U.S. and Israel will launch a strategic working group on Iran in the coming days, which will focus on intelligence assessments about its nuclear program, Axios reported on Wednesday.
At least 6,500 South Asian migrant workers died in Qatar from 2011-2020, the Guardian reported Tuesday, citing government data from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Qatar.
President Biden’s Central Intelligence Agency nominee, William Burns, was gifted a Super Bowl group trip by Saudi Arabia’s ambassador when he served as president of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, according to responses he provided to the Senate Intelligence Committee ahead of his confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran reportedly opened fire on protesters in the city of Saravan on Monday, killing and injuring an unconfirmed number of people.
Social media platform Twitter announced on Tuesday it has banned 373 accounts linked to the governments of Russia, Iran, and Armenia for violating various policies and “undermining faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.”
A pair of German volleyball stars who threatened to boycott an upcoming tournament in Qatar have won their case.
Saudi women will be allowed to apply for positions in various branches of the Kingdom’s military for the first time, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defense announced over the weekend.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday that $7 billion in Iranian assets, frozen in two South Korean banks due to U.S. sanctions since September 2019, would be released to Iran following “consultations” with the Biden administration.
A group of ISIS-affiliated women have gone on a hunger strike in Syria after demanding the French government let them back into France.
Who tries to have a beach volleyball tournament without bikinis? Qatar does, and two German volleyball stars are having none of it.
Pope Francis will travel next month to Iraq, a land devastated by ongoing conflicts that have uprooted more than a million Christians in just two decades, France 24 reports.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has reportedly issued a decree that female characters in cartoons must wear a hijab, the Islamic head covering that Iranian women are persecuted for refusing to wear.
Members of Iraq’s persecuted Christian community attempting to return home over three years after the Islamic State’s “caliphate” fell are struggling to resettle, multiple reports highlighted Sunday, as Muslim militias and fraudsters have stolen many of their homes, while others lie in ruin.
Israeli officials have demanded an apology from the NBC television network after a Saturday Night Live comedian joked Israel has only been vaccinating half its population, the Jewish half — a lie made all the more absurd in light of Israel’s heavy — and successful — campaign to persuade its Arab population to get the vaccine.
Following a two month nationwide lockdown, hotels, gyms and swimming pools in Israel reopened Sunday for vaccinated and recovered coronavirus patients, while other venues including museums and shopping malls reopened to all public.
MUSCAT — Iran must refrain from any provocation as Washington steps up efforts to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran, the head of US forces in the Middle East told AFP.
Saturday Night Live is being criticized for a joke by Michael Che during the show’s most recent broadcast that suggested the State of Israel is only offering the coronavirus vaccine to Jews.
White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said Israel’s coronavirus vaccine rollout is a “model for the rest of the world.”
ROME — The World Jewish Congress (WJC) on Sunday hailed Pope Francis’ “tremendous compassion” after he visited a Holocaust survivor in Rome, praising his “moral integrity and sense of history”.
The Pfizer coronavirus vaccine is 85 percent effective in reducing transmission after a single dose, a “groundbreaking” new Israeli study showed, lending credence to the notion the second shot can be delayed.
TEHRAN — The head of the UN nuclear watchdog met Iran’s atomic energy chief in Tehran Sunday, hours before a deadline set by the Islamic republic to limit inspections by the agency if US sanctions are not lifted.
President Joe Biden on Friday rejected the “America First” policies that started no wars and brought about Middle East peace agreements, objectives that had not been achieved for decades under either political party.
Congressional Republicans are troubled by President Joe Biden’s offers to restart nuclear talks with Iran. The concern comes after Secretary of State Antony Blinken relayed Thursday that the Administration is ready to begin negotiating.
The United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHCR) said on Friday it has asked the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to furnish proof that Princess Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum, the 35-year-old daughter of Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, is alive and well.
Pope Francis’ plans to travel to Iraq on March 5 are “unaffected” by recent violence in Baghdad and Erbil, the Vatican and Iraq’s Foreign Ministry concur.
“Israel believes that going back to the old agreement will pave Iran’s path to a nuclear arsenal,” the statement from Netanyahu’s office read.
The United States is ready to begin negotiating with Iran in an attempt to reestablish the 2015 nuclear deal or something like it, Secretary of State Antony Blinken relayed to counterparts Thursday in a video conference call with France, Germany, and the U.K.
Jens Stoltenberg, secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), announced on Thursday that another 3,500 troops will be sent to Iraq, joining 500 NATO forces already in the country. The United States currently has about 2,500 troops in Iraq.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extended his condolences over the death of conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh in a tweet on Thursday, calling him “a great friend of Israel.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally spoke on the phone with President Joe Biden on Tuesday, after nearly a month since the American president took office.
Jerusalem and other areas of Israel were transformed into winter wonderlands Thursday, with six inches of snow settling in the capital city in a cold bout that came after months of unseasonably warm weather.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Emirati police have arrested a man for allegedly stealing a highly valuable newborn camel to give to his girlfriend for her birthday, the United Arab Emirates’ state-linked newspaper reported Wednesday.
President Joe Biden finally called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, 28 days after his inauguration.
Netanyahu’s office broke the news of the call on Twitter, posting a photo of the prime minister smiling on the phone.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Tuesday that the last of her country’s military forces will leave Afghanistan in May, concluding a deployment that began 20 years ago.
