Israel / Middle East - Page 2

President Biden believes feds alone can effectively vet U.S. visa applicants from terrorist-linked countries covered by Trump’s travel ban.

BERLIN — Austria’s leader says his country and Denmark intend to stop relying solely on the European Union for coronavirus vaccines and will work with Israel to produce second-generation vaccines.

Veteran radio host and political commentator Steve Malzberg ripped into Saturday Night Live’s Michael Che and CNN’s Jake Tapper on his weekly Sunday commentary show “Eat the Press,” accusing both of reprehensible rhetoric — Che for taking “gratuitous, bigoted shots at Jews and Israel” and Tapper for “obsessive hatred” and “attempting to use the cancel culture to cancel [former President Donald Trump’s attorney] as a Jew.”

Turkey summoned Iranian Ambassador Mohammed Farazmand in Ankara on Sunday to complain about Iran’s criticism of Turkish military operations in Iraq. The complaint concerned demands by another Iranian ambassador, Iraj Masjedi in Baghdad, for Turkey to suspend operations and remove all of its forces from Iraqi territory.

President Reuven Rivlin on Monday received the credentials of the first-ever ambassador to Israel from the United Arab Emirates, following the Trump-brokered Abraham Accords normalizing ties between the two countries. UAE Ambassador Muhammad Mahmoud Al Khajah was welcomed with a

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said “many” people in Saudi Arabia want to normalize relations with Israel, and expressed his hope the Gulf kingdom will join the Trump-brokered Abraham Accords between Israel and Arab nations.

Israel celebrated the Jewish holiday of Purim over the weekend amid merriment, illegal costume parties and soaring infections. Undeterred by the public transport ban, thousands of revelers descended on Jerusalem by foot on Sunday.

Iran is behind a mysterious explosion on an Israeli cargo vessel in the Persian Gulf and a response will be forthcoming, Israeli defense officials said over the weekend.

Chants of “Shame on NBC” and “Antisemitism isn’t funny” rang out in front of NBC Studios in Manhattan on Saturday night, as protesters gathered in response to what organizers called an anti-Semitic joke made by Saturday Night Live cast member Michael Che

The U.S. Coast Guard conducted Arabian Gulf exercises this week with a Greek navy guided-missile frigate, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said on Friday.

The U.S. military used two F-15E Strike Eagles in its airstrikes on Iranian-backed militias in eastern Syria, the Pentagon said in a briefing detailing the firepower the attack.

The Biden Administration said it had legal authority to conduct lethal airstrikes in Syria under Article II and United Nations Charter 51.

On Friday’s broadcast of Fox News Radio’s “Brian Kilmeade Show,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) expressed support for the recent airstrikes in Syria. Graham said, “I talked to Secretary of State Blinken this morning about that and other things. And I

Former Saudi Oil Minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani, who died Tuesday, was an architect of the 1973 oil embargo and widely misreported by Arab-language media, including CNN’s Arab edition, to have been the first Secretary-General of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Arab News reported Wednesday that the claim of him serving as Secretary-General was false and attributed it to Yamani’s page on the Arabic Wikipedia, which has included the false claim since the page’s creation in 2005.

After the Biden administration approved an airstrike targeting Iranian-backed militias in Syria on Thursday, both President Joe Biden and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki began taking heat for having condemned the Trump administration for similar strikes in the past.

Joe Biden’s Syria airstrikes mark a 180-degree turn for him and for members of his administration.

PressTV, an Iranian government propaganda outlet, suggested President Joe Biden’s decision to bomb targets tied to Iran-backed militias in Syria on Thursday may be linked to “numerous reports” of American support for the Islamic State.

China’s state-run Global Times newspaper mocked President Joe Biden on Friday, quoting his declaration, “America is back,” in a headline about his decision to bomb Syria on Thursday evening.

Former President Donald Trump’s goal of ending endless wars may have left the White House with him, as President Joe Biden appears to be keeping American soldiers in Afghanistan past the May 1, 2021 deadline.

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.”