The Arab League announced on Monday that they have not yet reached a consensus on reinstating membership for Syria, which they froze out of the League in 2011 at the dawn of its brutal civil war. Discussions about reinstating Syria will evidently continue.
DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria and Iran signed 11 agreements and memoranda of understanding late Monday, including a “long-term strategic economic cooperation” deal aimed at strengthening cooperation between Damascus and one of its key allies in the civil war that has torn the country apart.
Israel is moving full steam ahead with its efforts toward foreign recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s official capital.
A Palestinian-American man who last month was sentenced to life in prison by a Palestinian Authority court for attempting to sell land to Jews has been released and handed over to the Americans, the Kan broadcaster reported Thursday.
TEHRAN, Iran — The shah of Iran’s last refuge before fleeing his country in 1979 was a palatial estate nestled against the Alborz Mountains — a place no Iranian ever dreamed of visiting.
TEL AVIV – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday warned Iran to “get out of Syria” unless it wanted to continue being attacked by Israel.
TEL AVIV – President Donald Trump threatened Turkey Sunday that he would “devastate it economically” if it attacks Kurdish troops following the US’ withdrawal from Syria.
Jordanian King Abdullah II met Iraqi President Barham Saleh in Baghdad on Monday, according to state television, in the monarch’s first trip to Iraq in more than a decade.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday that a rift between Qatar and its Gulf Arab neighbors had gone on for too long and was threatening regional unity needed to counter Iran.
BEIRUT — He has survived eight years of war and billions of dollars in money and weapons aimed at toppling him. Now Syrian President Bashar Assad is poised to be readmitted to the fold of Arab nations, a feat once deemed unthinkable as he forcefully crushed the uprising against his family’s rule.
Doha — US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Qatar on Sunday pushing for an end to a diplomatic rift between Washington’s Gulf allies on the latest leg of his Middle East tour.
This time six years ago, Israel completed its high-tech border fence with Egypt, marking the start of a transformation in the situation along this restive frontier.
CAIRO — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Cairo for talks with Egyptian leaders as he continues a nine-nation Middle East tour aimed at reassuring America’s Arab partners that the Trump administration is not walking away from the region.
TEL AVIV – Three delegations from Iraq have reportedly made trips to Israel in recent months, holding meetings with Israeli officials and academics, visiting the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and meeting with experts in the field of Iraqi Jewish heritage.
TEL AVIV – Israel is expected to demand $250 billion in compensation from eight Arab countries as well as Iran for assets left by Jews who fled or were expelled from those countries after the State of Israel was founded.
Israel’s Military Intelligence chief warned Monday that Tehran’s increasing presence in Iraq means the country could be used as a base from which Iran could launch attacks on Israel.
Brazil’s incoming president Jair Bolsonaro pushed back against critics and feted burgeoning ties with Israel Thursday, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made his way to Brasilia for the new leader’s swearing in.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought Sunday to calm jangled domestic nerves over U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from Syria, reaffirming the ongoing cooperation between the two countries across a range of anti-Iran activities.
A Tehran regime intelligence official on Thursday dismissed as “delusional” a statement made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week that Mossad agents “periodically” visit Iran to “catch up” on its illicit nuclear activities.
WASHINGTON — The United States said Monday it was no longer seeking to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad but renewed warnings it would not fund reconstruction unless the regime is “fundamentally different.”
Saudi Arabia’s Muhammad bin Salman is considering a Camp David-style meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump, a London-based website claimed, in what it said would be a grand diplomatic gesture intended to help rehabilitate the crown prince’s image in the wake of the brutal murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khasoggi.
ISTANBUL — Turkey’s foreign minister is expressing impatience with the United States for not extraditing a cleric whom the Turkish government alleges masterminded a failed 2016 coup.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia issued an unusually strong rebuke of the U.S. Senate on Monday, rejecting a bipartisan resolution that put the blame for the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi squarely on the Saudi crown prince and describing it as interference in the kingdom’s affairs.
Israel stands a better chance to normalize ties with the Arab world without the Palestinians, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israeli diplomats on Sunday night.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Saturday said US sanctions will have no impact on the policies of the Islamic republic at home or abroad.
Australia’s conservative prime minister on Sunday stood by his decision to recognise west Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, despite criticism from neighbouring Muslim countries.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lashed out at Israel and compared it to Nazi Germany, accusing the Jewish state of “trying to erase the traces of the Islamic heritage in Jerusalem for the last 50 years.”
Australia is ready to follow U.S. President Donald Trump and recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s official capital, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison expected to announce the historic move Saturday.
JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel would be prepared to strike within Iran’s borders if it meant ensuring the Jewish state’s survival.
BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Tuesday Iraq should partner with American companies to become energy independent, as Baghdad’s waiver from US sanctions on Iran nears its expiry.
TEL AVIV – Australia is reportedly set to formally recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on Wednesday, but is likely to postpone moving its embassy there from Tel Aviv due to the high cost of doing so.
Iran confirmed on Tuesday that it had carried out a recent test of a medium-range ballistic missile after Western powers sharply criticised a December 1 launch.
TEL AVIV – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the international community to impose sanctions on Iran after its president Hassan Rouhani called Israel a “cancerous tumor” established by Western countries to advance their own interests in the region.
Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding (FFEU), who maintains extensive ties with countries in the Persian Gulf, said he has recently seen a vast improvement in relations between Israel and the Gulf states.
Russian President Vladimir Putin offered a deal to Israel and the US that would see Iran remove its forces from Syria in exchange for an easing of Washington’s sanctions against Tehran, according to an Israeli report Tuesday.
Hamas’s leader in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar on Friday warned Israel “not to test us again,” saying the next rocket barrage from the territory would target Tel Aviv and other central cities with a potency that would “surprise” Israel.
The official overseeing the European Union’s future enlargement says that, in the long term, it would be “more honest” for the bloc to give up talks on membership for Turkey.
TEL AVIV – Russia on Monday accused Israel of putting its military in danger by violating a tacit agreement to give advanced warning before conducting airstrikes in Syria, prompting Moscow to respond in a “firm but contained manner.”
Iran’s top leader said on Saturday that US President Donald Trump’s policies face opposition across the world as Washington prepared to reimpose sanctions on Iran’s vital oil-exporting and financial sectors, state television reported.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has reportedly urged Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to accept a “graded reconciliation” with Hamas as part of a deal that would see the 82-year old take control of the Gaza Strip.
