Middle East
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Russian Troops to Fill Void Left by US in Syria
2019-10-23 00:55:16 UTC
SOCHI, Russia/ANKARA (Reuters) - Syrian and Russian forces will deploy in northeast Syria to remove Kurdish YPG fighters and their weapons from the border with Turkey under a deal agreed on Tuesday which both Moscow and Ankara hailed as a triumph.
Hours after the deal was announced, the Turkis...
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Iran's Intelligence Agents Captured Exiled Journalist
2019-10-14 20:04:20 UTC
DUBAI (Reuters) - Agents of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have captured and returned to Iran an exiled journalist who allegedly fueled anti-government street unrest across the country early last year using social media, Iranian state television reported on Monday.
Ruhollah Zam, a journalist-turn...
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Invasion Into Kurdish-Syrian Territory: Germany Bans Arms Exports to Turkey
2019-10-12 19:55:28 UTC
ANKARA/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Germany has banned arms exports to Turkey over its assault against Kurdish YPG militia in Syria, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said on Saturday.
Turkish-backed Syrian rebels advanced into Ras al Ain in northeast Syria on Saturday but it was unclear how far, with Turk...
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US Will Betray Kurds Again
2019-10-07 23:06:05 UTC
For decades, the United States has maintained a curious relationship with the Kurds. Americans have historically enlisted them to help fight in the Middle East, only to turn on them in the end. Despite a history of betrayal, the Kurds have yet again become an important long ally in the fight agai...
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Afghanistan: US Strike Kills at Least 30 civilians
2019-09-20 01:35:45 UTC
JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A U.S. drone strike intended to hit an Islamic State (IS) hideout in Afghanistan killed at least 30 civilians resting after a day’s labor in the fields, officials said on Thursday.
The attack on Wednesday night also injured 40 people after accidentally target...
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Attacks on Saudi Oil Field Knock Out Half of Its Output
2019-09-15 07:21:05 UTC
RIYADH/DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) - Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group said it attacked two plants at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry on Saturday, knocking out more than half the Kingdom’s output, in a move expected to send oil prices soaring and increase tensions in the Middle East.
The a...
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Never-Ending War
2019-07-05 03:58:47 UTC
Jalalabad, Afghanistan (AFP) -- Of all the sad, wrenching things I have seen as a journalist in Afghanistan, Niaz Bibi's house was probably one of the saddest.
At the age of 70, Bibi has found herself as the main parent of some 40 kids -- the children of her three sons and three grandsons who ...
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Angela Merkel: There Has to Be a Political Solution on Iran
2019-06-22 21:23:07 UTC
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The international community must seek a political solution on Iran, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had aborted a military strike to retaliate against Tehran’s downing of a U.S. drone.
Speaking at an annual gathe...
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US Abruptly Calls Off Retaliation Strike Against Iran
2019-06-21 05:39:58 UTC
WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. official said the military made preparations Thursday night for limited strikes on Iran in retaliation for the downing of a U.S. surveillance drone, but approval was abruptly withdrawn before the attacks were launched.
The official, who was not authorized to discuss th...
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US Drone Shot Down After Entering Iran’s Airspace
2019-06-20 05:51:04 UTC
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have shot down a U.S. “spy” drone in the southern province of Hormozgan, the Guards’ news website Sepah News said on Thursday.
State news agency IRNA carried the same report, identifying the drone as an “RQ-4 Global Hawk’.
“It was shot dow...
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US Blames Iran for Tanker Attacks in See of Oman
2019-06-13 21:55:27 UTC
DUBAI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two oil tankers were attacked on Thursday and left adrift in the Gulf of Oman, driving up oil prices and stoking fears of a new confrontation between Iran and the United States, which blamed Tehran for the incident.
“It is the assessment of the United States govern...
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US Senators Seek to Block Trump Saudi Arms Sales
2019-06-05 21:52:21 UTC
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican and Democratic U.S. senators said on Wednesday they would introduce legislation to block President Donald Trump’s plan for $8 billion in military sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates without congressional review.
Backers said the introduction of ...
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US shared sensitive nuclear power information with Saudi Arabia
2019-06-05 06:08:32 UTC
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration granted two authorizations to U.S. companies to share sensitive nuclear power information with Saudi Arabia shortly after the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October, a U.S. senator who saw the approvals said on Tuesday.
The timing of th...
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US Deploys 1,500 Troops to Middle East
2019-05-24 19:49:36 UTC
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States announced on Friday the deployment of 1,500 troops to the Middle East, describing it as an effort to bolster defenses against Iran as it accused the country’s Revolutionary Guards of direct responsibility for this month’s tanker attacks.
U.S. President ...
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Iraq Could Become An Arena For US-Iran Armed Conflict
2019-05-17 22:02:57 UTC
BAGHDAD (AP) — When U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sat down with Iraqi officials in Baghdad last week as tensions mounted between America and Iran, he delivered a nuanced message: If you’re not going to stand with us, stand aside.
The message, relayed to The Associated Press by two Iraqi ...
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Oil Prices Continue to Rise Amid OPEC-Led Supply Cuts
2019-04-02 21:38:57 UTC
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices on Tuesday hit their highest level so far in 2019, with Brent crude approaching $70 a barrel, on the prospect that more sanctions against Iran and further Venezuelan disruptions could deepen an OPEC-led supply cut.
Brent futures reached a session peak at $69.52 ...
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Netanyahu faces backlash for far-right alliance
2019-02-24 17:22:42 UTC
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has touched off rare criticism from AIPAC, the largest U.S. pro-Israel lobby, over an election alliance with a far-right party loyal to the policies of the late anti-Arab rabbi, Meir Kahane.
Faced with a new merger of centrist parties tha...
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Catastrophic Effects of Climate Change
2018-11-25 02:46:14 UTC
(Reuters) - Climate change will cost the U.S. economy hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century, hitting everything from health to infrastructure, according to a government report issued on Friday that the White House called inaccurate.
The congressionally mandated report, writ...
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Germany Halts Arms Sales, Bans 18 Saudis
2018-11-19 23:31:54 UTC
BERLIN — Germany is halting previously approved arms exports to Saudi Arabia. The government says it is also banning 18 Saudi citizens suspected of being involved in Jamal Khashoggi's death from entering Europe's Schengen zone.
Germany has triggered proceedings to ban 18 Saudi citizens allege...
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Son of murdered Saudi journalist has flown out of Saudi Arabia
2018-10-25 19:11:25 UTC
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The eldest son of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has flown out of Saudi Arabia, two sources close to the family said on Thursday.
Salah Khashoggi, who one source said holds dual U.S.-Saudi citizenship and had thus far been under a travel ban, departed Saudi Ar...
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Germany to halt all arms exports to Saudi
2018-10-22 21:35:32 UTC
ORTENBERG, Germany (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday called the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul a “monstrosity” and vowed to halt all German arms exports to Riyadh until the case is cleared up.
Merkel, in her harshest comments to dat...
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Analysis: With ‘America First,’ where do human rights rank?
2018-10-18 23:04:28 UTC
WASHINGTON (AP) — If it’s an “America First” presidency, where does that rank human rights?
President Donald Trump’s refusal to put public pressure on Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is raising a question that has dogged his foreign policy. In dealing with Rus...
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Critical Journalist 'killed inside Saudi consulate': Proof
2018-10-12 17:29:39 UTC
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s government has told U.S. officials it has audio and video proof that missing Saudi Arabian writer Jamal Khashoggi was killed and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, the Washington Post reported Friday.
The newspaper, for which Khashoggi is a columnist...
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UNHCR: 4 million refugee children can't go to school
2018-09-23 22:16:47 UTC
Four million refugee children around the world are excluded from education, according to a United Nations report. A solution should be to allow refugees to attend regular schools, the UNHCR has demanded.
With more and more children forced to leave their homes, the number of refugees out of edu...
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Trump’s Paul Manafort will cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller
2018-09-14 20:47:49 UTC
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort will cooperate with the federal investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, prosecutors said on Friday, a dramatic turnaround that deals the U.S. president a political setback.
After months of refusing t...