Israel / Middle East - Page 318

Iran’s Supreme Leader encouraged Iranians to pray at home during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan as the country continues to battle one of the worst Wuhan coronavirus outbreaks in the world.

Just before noon on Friday four friars processed down Jerusalem’s Via Dolorosa to commemorate the “Way of the Cross” walked by Jesus before being crucified on Good Friday.

Beirut — Lebanon’s security forces said Friday they had made their largest cannabis seizure in history last month, unearthing 25 tonnes of the drug intended for Africa.

Eggs on the table and a toy rabbit on the dresser — with a few decorations, Palestinian Christian Sawsan Bitar attempts to salvage some normality from an Easter overshadowed by coronavirus.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin telephoned Pope Francis on Wednesday to wish him a happy Easter, Vatican News reported.

Western civilization is facing decline and fall as it struggles to deal with the global coronavirus pandemic, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Thursday.

Syria’s Assad regime used sarin and chlorine gas in three attacks on opposition forces in March 2017, a chemical weapons oversight group said in a report released Wednesday.

The UK’s two leading Jewish newspapers will cease publishing, casualties of a reduced advertising and readership market sparked by the Chinese coronavirus epidemic.

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s supreme leader suggested Thursday that mass gatherings in the Islamic Republic may be barred through the holy Muslim fasting month Ramadan amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet has used cellphone location data to identify 1,500 new Chinese virus patients, according to reports in Israeli media.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is under increasing pressure to impose a full lockdown as coronavirus cases mount in his country.

TEL AVIV – If Israel develops a vaccine against coronavirus, anti-Israel boycotters are still permitted to use it, Omar Barghouti, founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the Jewish state said.

TEL AVIV – Inmates in Israeli prisons are manufacturing protective masks in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, Israeli news site CTech reported citing the Israel Prison Service (IPS).

TEL AVIV – Israeli scientists said they are “days away” from obtaining the active component of a coronavirus vaccine that could lead to human testing as early as June 1. “We are in the final stages and within a few

Jordanian Islamic scholar Ahmad al-Shahrouri has scolded people living in the West for their “lack of purity and cleanliness” in the age of coronavirus.

Kuwait City — The meat is too fatty and the staff are slow to clean up coffee stains — some Kuwaitis quarantined in five-star hotels due to the coronavirus outbreak have a litany of complaints.

Multiple health officials in Iran followed Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur’s lead in questioning the legitimacy of Chinese Communist Party coronavirus figures on Monday, signaling that Iran’s failure to predict how many cases it would document was partially a result of China providing faulty information.

Hollywood director and radical left-wing activist Oliver Stone is pushing for the United States to ease sanctions against Iran and Venezuela during the coronavirus pandemic, arguing that the U.S. is “weaponizing the virus” against its adversaries.

It is particularly sad that in a time when we need to pull together and support and protect humanity from a deadly virus sweeping the world, the Guardian and Bramesco trade in such extreme hate.

The Communications and Media Commission in Baghdad reportedly suspended Reuters’ license and fined it roughly $21,000 in U.S. currency for a report on Thursday that accused the government of dramatically understating coronavirus cases in Iraq.

Iranian lawmaker and cleric Hassan Rorouzi applauded his nation’s military on Sunday for shooting down a Ukrainian commercial flight in January, killing 176 civilians. Iran had initially claimed it was “obvious” that its military had not shot down the plane.

A senior Iranian on Sunday called U.S. President Donald Trump “more dangerous than coronavirus,” saying moves to block an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan reaching Iran was tantamount to crimes against humanity.

JERUSALEM — A small group of Franciscan monks and Roman Catholic faithful took to the streets of Jerusalem’s Christian Quarter in the Old City Sunday to distribute olive branches after the traditional Palm Sunday procession was cancelled due to restrictions imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Istanbul — Turkey stepped up controls Saturday on crowded public spaces including markets and ferries in Istanbul, a day after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan imposed the use of face masks to curb the coronavirus outbreak.

Cairo — Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox church has decided to suspend prayers preceding Easter celebrations later this month as part of efforts to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Three doctors “closely involved in the testing process” told Reuters on Thursday that Iraq has “thousands” of confirmed coronavirus cases, far more than the 772 infections reported by the government.

JERUSALEM — Israel is working with foreign governments and Orthodox Christian leaders in the Holy Land to make sure that one of their most ancient and mysterious rituals — the Holy Fire ceremony — is not extinguished by the coronavirus outbreak, officials said Friday.

Saudia Arabia urged over one million Muslims to halt preparations for the mandatory pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) on Tuesday. The request has caused some to speculate that the pilgrimage may be canceled this year.

JAFFA – Dystopian scenes unfolded in the central Israeli city of Jaffa Wednesday, with residents burning tires and throwing rocks at police after an alleged quarantine violator refused to identify himself.

The New York Times described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an “authoritarian” leader this week, due to his early and aggressive response to the coronavirus, which is now considered among the best in the world.

TEL AVIV – Israel was ranked the safest country to be in during the pandemic, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement citing statistics from the Deep Knowledge Group (DKG).

TEL AVIV – The response in Israel to curbing the coronavirus pandemic has been “right on target,” a U.S. data and medical expert told the Times of Israel in an interview.

Israeli Health Minister Yaakov Litzman and his wife Chava have tested positive for the coronavirus, his office announced after midnight Wednesday, saying they were both in a good condition.

Islamic State militants on Monday night staged their second prison riot in 24 hours at the holding facility in Hasakah, a city in northeastern Syria controlled by Kurdish forces. Kurdish officials said they narrowly avoided a “catastrophe” and warned they are having increasing difficulty controlling the ISIS prison population. 

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday that “all provinces of Iran, without exception, have witnessed a downward trend in the coronavirus infection cases,” as reported by Iran’s state-run Tasnim news agency.

Tehran — Iran’s death toll from the coronavirus has passed 3,000, the health ministry said on Wednesday, as President Hassan Rouhani accused Washington of missing a “historic opportunity” to lift sanctions.