Middle East

Aden standoff delays Saudi summit intended to forge new Yemen government – sources

Editorial Bureau August 19, 2019

DUBAI – The refusal of Yemeni southern separatists to hand back control of Aden port has delayed a summit in Saudi Arabia that is due to discuss reshuffling Yemen’s ousted government to include the separatists and end the stand-off, three Yemeni sources said. Saudi Arabia called for

Middle East

Iranian tanker at centre of standoff with West leaves Gibraltar, shipping data shows

Editorial Bureau August 19, 2019

GIBRALTAR – The Iranian tanker caught in a standoff between Tehran and the West left Gibraltar on Sunday night, shipping data showed, hours after the British territory rejected a U.S. request to detain the vessel further. British Royal Marines seized the tanker in Gibraltar in July on suspicion it was carrying oil to Syria, a […]

Middle East

Israel fires on militants at Gaza border, Palestinians say three killed

Editorial Bureau August 19, 2019

JERUSALEM/GAZA – Israeli forces opened fire at a group of Palestinian gunmen as they tried to cross the Gaza border, the military said on Sunday and Palestinian health officials said three of the men were killed. “A short while ago, IDF (Israel Defence Forces) troops spotted a number of armed suspects adjacent to the security […]

Middle East

Kuwait’s Emir has recovered after health setback – state news agency

Editorial Bureau August 19, 2019

DUBAI – Kuwait’s elderly ruler, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber al-Sabah has recovered from a health setback and is “in a good condition now”, the state news agency KUNA reported on Sunday. It cited the Acting Emiri Diwan Minister Mohammad Dhaifallah Sharar as saying that the 90-year-old Sheikh Sabah had gone through a medical checkup and […]

Middle East

Yemen’s war cut a father’s route to work, now his toddler starves

Editorial Bureau August 18, 2019

HAJJAH PROVINCE, Yemen – Before Yemen’s war broke out four years ago Ali Muhammad used to cross the border into Saudi Arabia to work, joining thousands of other Yemenis from his poor, mountainous region. But fighting in the border areas left him unemployed in his remote village, watching acute malnutrition turn his two-year-old son Muath […]

Middle East

Israeli military fires on militants at Gaza border, Palestinians say three killed

Editorial Bureau August 18, 2019

JERUSALEM/GAZA – Israeli forces opened fire at a group of Palestinian gunmen as they tried to cross the Gaza border, the military said on Sunday and Palestinian health officials said three of the men were killed. “A short while ago, IDF (Israel Defence Forces) troops spotted a number of armed suspects adjacent to the security […]

Middle East

Civilian death toll mounts as Syrian offensive widens

Editorial Bureau August 17, 2019

BEIRUT – Air strikes have killed more than two dozen civilians including 11 children in rebel-held northwestern Syria in the last two days in an escalation of a Russian-backed offensive, a war monitor and local activists said on Saturday. An air strike in the village of Deir killed seven people, mostly children, on Saturday morning, […]

Middle East

Iran tanker shifts position but still at anchor off Gibraltar

Editorial Bureau August 17, 2019

GIBRALTAR (Reuters) – An Iranian tanker caught in the standoff between Tehran and the West shifted position on Friday, but its anchor was still down off Gibraltar and it was unclear if it was ready to set sail soon. Gibraltar authorities could not be reached for comment. The Grace 1 was seized by British Royal […]

Middle East

Israel to allow U.S. Rep Tlaib to visit family in West Bank

Editorial Bureau August 16, 2019

JERUSALEM – Israel will allow U.S. lawmaker Rashida Tlaib to visit her family in the occupied West Bank on humanitarian grounds, the interior ministry said on Friday, after barring an official visit under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he would not allow Tlaib and congresswoman Ilhan […]

Middle East

Thousands cheer separatists in Yemen’s Aden, UAE says it is in step with Riyadh

Editorial Bureau August 15, 2019

ADEN, Yemen – Tens of thousands of Yemenis rallied in Aden on Thursday in support of separatist forces who took over the southern port, the temporary seat of Yemen’s Saudi-backed government, in a move that exposed rifts in a Sunni Muslim military coalition. The United Arab Emirates-backed southern separatists seized control of government military bases […]