Libyan conflict has cost $580bn; EU plans military mission
The EU is firming up plans for a military mission to Libya in order to compete for influence with foreign powers there, the EUobserver reported on Monday.
This is in ...
Ben & Jerry’s to end ice-cream sales in occupied Palestinian territories
American ice-cream brand Ben & Jerry’s on Monday said it will stop marketing its products in the occupied Palestinian territories, saying that selling there was “inconsistent” with company values. ...
Syria’s Assad says $60bn frozen in Lebanon’s banks; 80% of Syrians below poverty line
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Saturday the main impediment to investment in the country was money stuck in ailing Lebanese banks.
In a speech after being sworn in as ...
UAE’s Abu Dhabi announces partial lockdown effective July 19
The United Arab Emirate’s Abu Dhabi Emergency, Crisis and Disasters Committee announced on Thursday a partial lockdown and new entry requirements in the emirate starting July 19, from midnight until 5 ...
Hariri abandons cabinet formation, plunging Lebanon deeper into crisis
Lebanese politician Saad al-Hariri abandoned his effort to form a new government on Thursday, saying it was clear he would not be able to reach an agreement with President Michel ...
Anger mounts after 92 die in fire on Iraq COVID ward
The death toll from a fire that tore through a coronavirus hospital in southern Iraq rose to 92, health officials said on Tuesday, as authorities faced accusations of negligence from grieving ...
Living with COVID-19: Israel changes strategy as Delta variant hits
Four weeks ago, Israel was celebrating a return to normal life in its battle with COVID-19.
After a rapid vaccination drive that had driven down coronavirus infections and deaths, Israelis ...
At least 44 killed in hospital fire in Iraq, China hotel collapse kills eight
At least 44 people were killed and over 67 injured in a fire likely caused by an oxygen tank explosion at a coronavirus hospital in Iraq‘s southern city of Nassiriya, health ...
Israel offers third shot of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to adults at risk
By Maayan Lubell
Israel said on Sunday it will begin offering a third dose of Pfizer Inc’s vaccine to adults with weak immune systems but it was still weighing ...
Lebanon interior minister rejects request to question security chief over Beirut blast
Lebanon’s caretaker interior minister has rejected a request by the lead investigator into the Beirut port explosion to question one of its top security chiefs, according a document seen ...
Israel’s new government dealt blow in controversial citizenship vote (Update)
Israel‘s parliament failed on Tuesday to renew a disputed law that bars granting citizenship or residency to Palestinians from the occupied West Bank or Gaza who are married to ...
Lebanon is ‘days away’ from social explosion, PM Diab warns
Lebanon is a few days away from a social explosion, caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab warned on Tuesday, calling on the international community to save a country in deep economic ...
How Hezbollah controls the economy in Lebanon
The Iran-backed militia group Hezbollah has done everything it can do to create a parallel state in Lebanon. A ‘state within a state,’ many call it.
The Lebanese political class ...
Turkish inflation hits 2-yr high with surprise jump to 17.5 per cent
Turkish annual inflation jumped to a two-year high of 17.53 per cent in June, exceeding a forecast of 17 per cent and continuing an extended rise after a brief dip, potentially delaying ...
Era ends, war looms as US forces quit main base in Afghanistan
American troops pulled out of their main military base in Afghanistan on Friday, leaving behind a piece of the World Trade Center they buried 20 years ago in a country that ...
Israel strikes Hamas site in Gaza over fire balloons
Israeli aircraft bombed a Hamas site in the Gaza Strip overnight in response to incendiary balloons launched from the Palestinian enclave, Israel’s military said on Friday.
Gaza’s Islamist ...
Israel seeks to extend new Gulf ties to all Middle East, says Lapid
Israel’s new foreign minister said on Wednesday his landmark visit to the United Arab Emirates was just the start of a road to wider peace in the Middle East, ...
U.N. chief urges U.S. to remove Iran sanctions as agreed in 2015
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appealed to U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration to lift or waive all sanctions on Iran as agreed under a 2015 deal aimed at ...
Egyptian billionaire Onsi Sawiris dies
Onsi Sawiris, the patriarch of a family of billionaire businessmen who launched a group of multinational companies under the Orascom umbrella, died on Tuesday at the age of 90, chairman of ...
Animals starve in Lebanon’s zoos as economy crumbles
Thin and frail, the two big cats scarcely moved as they lay on the concrete floor of their cage while, nearby, an emaciated Syrian brown bear anxiously paced his enclosure.
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Inaugurating embassy in UAE, Israel tells region: “We’re here to stay”
Israel’s new foreign minister inaugurated its embassy in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday and offered an olive branch to other former adversaries, saying: “We’re here to stay.”
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Abu Dhabi will only allow vaccinated people in many public spaces
Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates will only allow vaccinated people in some public spaces, including schools, universities and nurseries, from August 20, the emirate’s media office said in ...
Lebanon’s economic collapse bites hard in neglected north
Taha Riz has worked just three days in more than a month at his Tripoli bakery, in Lebanon’s neglected north where economic meltdown has hit hardest and plunged thousands ...
Lebanon approves financing fuel imports at weaker exchange rate
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister on Friday approved a proposal to finance fuel imports at the rate of 3,900 Lebanese pounds to the dollar, instead of the previous 1,500 pound rate, amidst ...