Latest Middle East News
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U.S. tries to save peace talks after Karzai objects to Taliban’s Qatar ‘embassy’
Hopes dimmed for talks aimed at ending the Afghan war when an angry President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday suspended security negotiations with the U.S. and scuttled a peace delegation to the Taliban, sending American officials scrambling to preserve the possibility of dialogue with the militants. What provoked Afghanistan’s mercurial president and infuriated many of his compatriots was a ...
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Damning Suicide Note to Iran’s New Prez
Benny Avni Did the eldest son of Iran’s President-elect Hassan Rouhani kill himself to protest the "hypocrisy" of his father and the regime he serves? Iranian news reports at the time said the son shot himself with his father’s pistol in 1992. But now Iranian dissident Ali Reza Nuri reports that the son wrote a suicide note. Writing in the London-based, Saudi-owned pan-Arab ...
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Analysis US arming Assads foes forces Iran to bleed resources in Syria
WASHINGTON - In a darkening Syria, airstrips serve as the veins of the Assad government. Flying over quiet, unsupervised Iraqi airspace, Iranian craft transport undocumented weapons to their chief ally in the region on a routine basis.To the frustration of military experts and Western officials, the Iranians release no defense budget, and certainly no inventory for covert ...
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Bahrain - Bahraini rights defender faces reprisals for collaborating with UN
The Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR) and Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) express their serious concern over the ongoing campaign of judicial harassment against human rights defenders in Bahrain, that includes the very recent trial of defender Mohamed Al-Maskati on freedom of assembly related charges.On 19 June 2013, human rights defender and president of the Bahrain Youth Society for ...
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HARPER Media overlook key player in Middle East crisis
As the U.S. media have focused on the Syrian civil war and Iran’s elections, news organizations have failed to concentrate on what I consider a key player in the equation: Hezbollah, the Shiite militia.Having covered both al Qaeda and Hezbollah, I think the U.S. news outlets have placed too much emphasis in recent months on the Sunni group, al Qaeda, helping the Syrian rebels rather than ...
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Kerry calls Karzai twice to smooth waters over Taliban talks
Hamid Karzai twice to try to mend fences over the U.S. outreach to the Taliban. The phone diplomacy occurred after Karzai said the Afghan government had suspended security talks with the United States in Kabul "in view of the contradiction between acts and the statements made by the United States of America in regard to the peace process." "The secretary spoke with President ...
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Syria opposition vows to fight on to topple president Bashar al-Assad
United Nations to investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons by Assad's forces in rebel-held areas, and said it "reserves the right to use all means at its disposal" to topple Assad. "The Assad regime has continuously killed civilians using ballistic missiles, chemical weapons and warplanes. It is the only source of terrorism ...
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New York KKK member designs death ray against enemies of Israel
A KKK member from upstate New York was arrested on Tuesday after he allegedly designed a "death ray" that is meant to kill Muslims and other "enemies of ...
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Egypts BOP deficit narrowed by 81.2 pct in 9 months
The deficit in Egypt's balance of payment (BOP) narrowed by 81.2 percent to $2.1 billion in the period between July 2012 and March 2013, Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said Wednesday.In a statement, the CBE said the BOP deficit in the first nine months of the fiscal year 2012-2013 (which starts on July 1, 2012 and ends on June 30, 2013) declined thanks to the 0.7 billion dollar drop in the ...
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Obama United States not ready to go to war
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The assault appears aimed at decisively pushing rebels back and securing the suburb of the shrine, Abdel-Rahman said. Hezbollah fighters as well as Iraqi Shiite militiamen have been reported fighting in the area in the past weeks. The international community has been largely unable to end the Syrian civil war, now in its third year, which has killed nearly ...
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While Claiming Battle Gains Against Rebels Syria’s Assad Is Facing Currency Crisis
Even as President Bashar al-Assad of Syria is proclaiming battlefield momentum against the insurgency with the help of his Hezbollah ally, he appears to be facing a new threat: a rapidly weakening currency that has unnerved many ...
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Op-Ed Contributor Lebanon Overrun by Syrian Refugees
ZAHL, Lebanon -- MY eyes kept being drawn to the shoes. The tiny pink running shoes with Velcro straps, on the feet of the 2-year-old girl sitting quietly on her mother's lap. She fidgeted only a bit -- jostling occasionally with her 7-year-old twin sisters while her father told ...
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Morsy’s appointees spark clashes across Egypt
Egyptians chant slogans during clashes between supporters and opponents of Egypt's president and his Muslim Brotherhood in Luxor, Egypt, Wednesday, June 19, 2013. On Sunday, Morsi appointed 17 new governors, including seven members of the Brotherhood and one from an ex-militant group to rule the ancient city of Luxor. That appointment outraged Luxor residents, as the governor's group ...
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Israel and Palestine Consequences of Deterrence
"Deterrence has to be maintained," said Gabi Siboni, a colonel for strategic affairs at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. "It was only a question of time until this moment arrived." It seems the Palestinians are of like mind. As things stand, this latest round of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians was probably inevitable. Escalation and ...
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China Russia and Uzbekistan drop on U.S. human trafficking list
The U.S. State Department Wednesday downgraded China, Russia and Uzbekistan on its human trafficking list, meaning they could face sanctions. The department promoted Azerbaijan, Congo-Brazzaville and Iraq from its Tier 2 Watch List to Tier 2. China, Russia and Uzbekistan were moved from the watch list to Tier 3 on the four-tier system. The shifts came as, for the first time, the department was ...
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Iran to load heavy water reactor with virtual fuel nuclear chief
Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Fereidoon Abbasi, said Sunday that his country will load Arak heavy water reactor with "virtual fuel" by the end of current Iranian calendar year, March 20, 2014, local media reported. Abbasi made the remarks in a ceremony, attended by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in the site to install the "main upper ...
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Tests confirm sarin used in Syria French FM
France has "no doubt" that the Syrian regime had used the deadly nerve agent sarin in conflicts with rebels and "all options are on the table" to end the conflicts in the violence-torn country including military actions, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Tuesday. "There is no doubt that it was the regime and its accomplices because we are aware of the entire chain ...
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John Kerry to discuss Syria Mideast peace in foreign trip
US Secretary of State John Kerry will kick off a 12-day foreign trip on Friday with the Syrian conflict and the Mideast peace process atop his agenda, the State Department said on Wednesday.Kerry will first head to Doha, capital of Qatar, to discuss the Syria situation with foreign ministers from the "Friends of Syria" group, "including support to the Syrian opposition and efforts ...
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Jordan army kills 1 militant injures 2 coming from Syria
The Jordanian army killed one militant and injured two others after clashes at the borders with Syria, the state-run Petra news agency reported.A group of militants tried to infiltrate into Jordan from Syria and attacked one of the Jordanian army's military points at the borders with Syria, the report said, citing a source at the army.The Jordanian army clashed with the armed group, killing ...
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Egypt allocates over $628m for Sinai development
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi approved Wednesday the allocation of 4.4 billion Egyptian pounds (about $628.9 million) for the development of Sinai Peninsula, said presidential spokesman Ehab Fahmi."President Morsi asked the cabinet to take necessary measures to implement development plans in Sinai and meet needs and demands of Sinai people," Fahmi said during a joint press ...
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Israel urges parents to vaccinate children after polio traces found
Parents in southern parts of Israel, whose children are not vaccinated against the polio virus, rushed Wednesday to local health centers after traces of the virus were found last week in sewage waters near their communities.Last week an inspection into the sewage system in Israel's southern communities led to the discovery of the polio virus, a deadly virus that is almost eradicated ...
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Emirates Qantas named top world airlines
While Emirates was honoured as the world’s best airline, new alliance partner Qantas has made a return to the top ten in the annual World Airline Awards 2013. Qantas jumped five spots from ...
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Syria’s internally displaced – ‘The world has forgotten us’
When we got here we found that it was impossible to cross into Turkey because the border is closed. So we've been stuck here all winter with nothing. There is little food, we don't even have clothes and blankets to keep warm, we can't keep the rain out, and everything is wet. The children get sick all the time. The world has forgotten us. What will become of ...
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The Peak Oil Crisis Middle Eastern Turmoil
Tom Whipple Some 24 million barrels of oil per day or 27 percent of the world's daily production comes from countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Until recently the oil markets have paid remarkably little attention to the deteriorating political and security situation in the region. With the intervention of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia on the side of the Assad government and the ...
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Syria needs more help governor-general
SYRIA is on the brink of catastrophe unless the international community steps up its aid to refugees from the conflict, says Australia's ...
Israel Focus
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Biggest construction project in Israeli history
The Port of Ashdod is the gateway to the economy of Israel, it has played a central role in the development of the state and will play a central role in future development, hence the reason for an ambitious $500 million expansion project currently underway in two stages (in the picture, green represents stage 1 and brown stage 2).
The Port of Ashdod is currently undergoing the largest construction project ever undertaken in the history of Israel. In 1999, Israel news media reported that the government wanted to double the cargo capacity of Ashdod, an ambitious construction project was therefore envisioned, involving the building of new piers, new docks, warehouses and cargo handling equipment. It was to take place in two stages, with the total project costing around $500 million. Read more
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