President Donald Trump on Monday announced the release of Danny Burch, an American citizen who has been held hostage in Yemen since 2017. Trump thanked the United Arab Emirates for assisting with Burch’s liberation and said his administration has now secured the freedom of 20 Americans held captive in various countries.
WARSAW, Poland — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Omani Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah Wednesday on the sidelines of Warsaw’s Middle East conference, telling him that the recent rapprochement between the two countries was “changing the world.”
Airbnb’s partial boycott of Israel last week came just as the Arab world, Africa, and Eastern Europe moved closer to the Jewish state.
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.
TEL AVIV – Transportation and Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz traveled to Oman overnight Sunday to present a plan to his Omani counterpart that includes a rail link between Israel and the Gulf.
A shocking video shows the moment drivers plowed through a flooded desert highway in Oman hit by a massive cyclone this week.
SALALAH, Oman — A cyclone more powerful than any previously recorded in southern Oman slammed into the Gulf country and neighboring Yemen on Saturday, deluging a major city with nearly three years’ worth of rainfall in single day. The storm killed at least six people while more than 30 remain missing, officials said.
Contents: Yemen’s former president Ali Abdullah Saleh killed in Houthi ambush; US officials plan for military strike on North Korea and war; Brexit negotiations collapse over Ireland border issue
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The United Arab Emirates has begun collecting new “sin” taxes on tobacco products, energy drinks and soft drinks.
The Iranian navy claimed Sunday that it warned an American warship that approached a damaged Iranian fishing vessel in the Sea of Oman last week to stay away from the area. U.S. officials denied the encounter.
Contents: Saudi Arabia extends sanctions deadline for two days; Saudi Arabia and UAE threaten Qatar with additional sanctions; North Korea launches another ballistic missile
Contents: Saudi Arabia, UAE leak 13 demands to end Qatar crisis; UAE threatens ‘parting of the ways’ unless Qatar meets 13 demands; Al-Jazeera takes center stage in the Gulf crisis
Contents: Qatar-Arab crisis is unlikely to be resolved soon; Differences between Qatar and Saudi Arabia run deep and will worsen
Contents: Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations cut ties with Qatar in new Mideast crisis; Arab nations’ split caused by Qatar’s relations with Muslim Brotherhood and Iran
Contents: Trump’s Mideast visit triggers renewal of sharp split between Saudi Arabia and Qatar; Qatar claims that it was cyber-attacked after media reports supporting Iran; Vitriolic Saudi-Qatari fault line reopened this week by Trump’s visit; Some useful information that’s good to know
TEL AVIV – In an unprecedented move, an Israeli Knesset minister met in public with officials from Gulf states and a Palestinian diplomat in Ecuador, and credited President Donald Trump’s efforts in the Middle East for bringing it about.
While Israelis here are celebrating the country’s Independence Day today, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) passed a resolution disavowing Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem and ignoring Jewish ties to the religion’s holiest sites.
Contents: With Arab world in chaos, Arab League summit displays lack of leadership and influence; Arab League plays it safe by only condemning Israel and terrorism
Fox News delivers an astonishing report about the extent of Iran’s smuggling network.
Iran’s foreign minister on Sunday stepped up efforts to improve ties with Gulf Arab Sunni states urging them to work with their Shi’ite rival to address “anxieties” and violence across the region.
It remains uncertain where the 10 unidentified prisoners, who have been allegedly pardoned and “temporarily” transferred to Oman from the U.S. military prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, will go afterwards.
Outgoing President Barack Obama has transferred 10 prisoners from the U.S. military detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba to Oman on his way out of the White House.
On Thursday, Reuters tapped U.S., European, and even Iranian sources to report that Iran “has stepped up weapons transfers to the Houthis, the militia fighting the Saudi-backed government in Yemen.”
Iran, considered the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, has increased its shipments of military supplies to Shiite Houthi rebels fighting a Saudi-led and U.S.-assisted coalition in Yemen, Reuters has learned from Western and Iranian officials on condition of anonymity.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen launched an airstrike against an aid ship owned by a company from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a member of the largely Sunni Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and part of the Saudi-led Arab alliance fighting the Shiite rebels, according to the state-controlled Emirates News Agency (WAM).
The Houthi rebels in Yemen receive Iranian arms shipments via a “sister state” as well as two African countries, the Saudi Alwatan newspaper reported.
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members and the United States have reached an agreement to prevent the shipment of Iranian weapons to Yemen, according to Abdullatif al-Zayani, the alliance’s secretary general.
Contents: Italy debates military intervention in Libya after ISIS kills Italian hostages; Looking back at the 2011 ‘Arab Spring’ Libya military intervention; Russian media calls Gaddafi’s Libya an ‘oasis of stability’; Police in Turkey use force to shut down opposition newspaper
Contents: India about to deploy its first nuclear-armed submarine, in challenge to China; China’s military takes control of another Philippines fishing ground; Mideast Sunni-Shia split grows as GCC says Hezbollah is terrorist organization
TEL AVIV – Oman announced that it will not host the 2016 Youth Sailing World Championships because of Israeli participation. World Sailing updated its regulations following Malaysia’s refusal to allow reigning Israeli champions to play their national anthem and display the Israeli
