RIYADH: As Riyadh prepares to host a conference on southern Yemen as part of its push for a comprehensive political solution, Yemen’s deputy foreign minister, Mustafa Noman, said he is confident the southern cause will be resolved justly. That confidence, he said, stems from Saudi Arabia’s efforts to steer the issue away from political tensions […]
Read MoreWASHINGTON: US officials’ discussions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the second phase of President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza were constructive, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday. “The United States and Israel maintain a strong and longstanding relationship built on close coordination and shared priorities. The discussion was constructive and […]
Read MoreBAGHDAD: Iraq’s parliament will meet on Tuesday to elect the country’s new president, who will then appoint a prime minister expected to be Nouri Al-Maliki after he was endorsed by the largest Shiite bloc. By convention, a Shiite Muslim holds the post of prime minister, the parliament speaker is Sunni and the largely ceremonial presidency […]
Read MoreRAMALLAH: Samuel Dalou, whose family has run a produce market in the West Bank city of Ramallah for decades, was astonished when local farmers suddenly began arriving in droves offering fresh produce at extremely competitive prices. When Ahmad Salim arrived from Jenin to offer his produce, Dalou half jokingly asked how he had managed to […]
Read MoreCAIRO: Qatari Ambassador to Egypt Sheikh Jassim Al-Thani visited the Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs pavilion at the 57th Cairo International Book Fair. During his visit, Al-Thani reviewed the pavilion’s diverse religious and educational content, the Saudi Press Agency reported. The fair runs until Feb. 3 at the Egypt International Exhibition Center, featuring 1,457 publishing […]
Read MoreCAIRO: The Syrian Petroleum Company has begun extracting oil from recently controlled fields and sending output to the Homs and Baniyas refineries, the state news agency SANA reported on Saturday. One of those fields, Al-Omar oilfield, which is the country’s largest, came under government control recently after a lightning offensive against Kurdish forces who had […]
Read MoreRIYADH: Saudi Arabia will host the World Economic Forum Global Collaboration and Growth Meeting in Jeddah between April 22-23, 2026. Minister of Economy and Planning Faisal Alibrahim on Friday confirmed the details of the high-level meeting which was announced at the annual WEF meeting in 2025, Saudi Press Agency reported. In his closing remarks at […]
Read MoreThe UN nuclear watchdog must clarify its stance on US and Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites last June before inspectors are allowed to visit those facilities, Iranian media on Friday quoted the country’s atomic chief as saying. Mohammad Eslami said the inspections so far had been limited to undamaged sites and he criticised the […]
Read MoreRAQQA, Syria: Poor security at a camp in Syria housing thousands of suspected relatives of Daesh group militants has prevented UN agency staff from entering, days after Kurdish forces withdrew and the army deployed at the site. Two former employees at the Al-Hol desert camp told AFP on Friday that some of its residents had […]
Read MoreBEIRUT: An Israeli tank opened fire near a joint Lebanese army and UNIFIL patrol on Friday afternoon, in the latest incident to heighten tensions along the Blue Line. The tank shell reportedly landed near Wadi Al-Asafir, south of the town of Khiam, where the Lebanese army and UNIFIL were conducting a field operation. The fire […]
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