Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused Saudi authorities of “bigoted extremism” late Tuesday in an increasingly bitter war of words over Iran’s exclusion from this year’s hajj pilgrimage.
Islamic authorities in Saudi Arabia have responded to an extensive missive by Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calling the Saudis “murderers” and “puny Satans” in response to a massacre that killed thousands at last year’s hajj. Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti dismissed Iran’s ire by arguing that Iranians are “not Muslims.”
Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, started a Latin American tour in Cuba, the latest effort by the Islamic Republic to maintain its growing relationship with nations in the region.
TEL AVIV – Israel orchestrated Muslim infighting between Sunnis and Shiites in order to blow up both groups, or so claims a new cartoon published by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party.
The U.S. government has added three senior al-Qaeda leaders based in Iran to the Treasury Department list of “Specially Designated Global Terrorists,” which means they will be subject to sanctions even as President Obama’s nuclear deal pours billions of dollars into Iran’s coffers.
TEL AVIV – “Leave ISIS Be” is the provocative title of an article published in the last week by the Kuwaiti daily, Al-Jarida, which claims that the best way to combat the terror group is to impose recognition of it as a sovereign state, thereby forcing it to accept accountability for its actions on the international stage.
The Iranian regime accused Saudi Arabia of backing terrorism on Sunday, mere hours after Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal expressed support for the anti-Iranian regime opposition movement, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), during a rally in Paris.
Appearing on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program Wednesday night, Breitbart News National Security Senior Editor Dr. Sebastian Gorka chided Hannity for applying “common sense” to Obama Administration spin in the war against ISIS – specifically, Secretary of State John Kerry’s claim that the escalating pace of jihad attacks around the world is a sign of the Islamic State’s “desperation.”
There are perhaps few better ways to gauge the probable socio-cultural attitudes of Syrian nationals currently between the ages of young adulthood and late middle-age regarding Jews and Judaism than by examining the content of the state-issued textbooks comprising the curriculum for state-mandated education in Syria.
A Saudi company came under fire for organizing a mixed-gender iftar dinner for its employees.
A government crackdown against Shiite dissenters accused of being affiliated with Iran has sparked more unrest in Sunni-led Bahrain.
Iran’s terrorist mastermind Qassem Soleimani, head of the Revolutionary Guard’s “Quds Force” dirty-tricks squad, vowed that Bahrain’s “bloodthirsty regime” would be “toppled” over its decision to strip the Sunni Muslim country’s top Shiite cleric of his citizenship.
London’s thesis is that President Obama is “unwilling to engage the world, in the way in which it really exists.”
Iraqis are once again paying for political ambitions and miscalculations made on their behalf by foreign and domestic governments. After the pullout of the U.S. that led to the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS), the Iraqi government hasn’t pulled it together to fight the enemy it was left with. The ongoing battle for Fallujah to rid it of ISIS underscores this need.
Sunni politicians in Iraq have accused pro-Government Shiite militias of torturing local Sunni men as they close in on Islamic State (IS) fighters in Fallujah.
Three suicide bombings claimed by Islamic State across Baghdad killed at least 80 people on Wednesday, Iraqi police and hospital sources said, in the deadliest attacks in the Iraqi capital this year. Security has gradually improved in Baghdad, which was
Speaking to a group of students in Tehran last week, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denounced a recent move by several Sunni Arab nations to label Iran-backed Hezbollah a terrorist organization and said the Shiite group is a source of honor and pride for the Islamic world.
Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, who has formed a Super PAC to support candidates committed to American economic and national security, joined SiriusXM host and Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon Breitbart News Daily.
The New York Times offered a new set of clues recently as to how Saudi Arabia is handling the ongoing collapse of global oil prices by looking at the Saudis’ effort to “reformat” their economy, becoming less dependent on oil.
CASABLANCA – Lebanese daily Al-Mustaqbal published an article claiming that Hezbollah has morphed from being a resistance organization to a “Frankenstein’s monster” controlled by Iran and an occupier of Arab lands.
On Thursday, ABC News reported a stunning State Department poll, taken in October and November 2015, that revealed 40 percent of Iraqis believe the United States is deliberately trying to “destabilize Iraq and control its natural resources” while up to one-third of the country believes the U.S. “supports terrorism in general, or ISIS specifically.”
Forces loyal to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad seized back the ancient city of Palmyra in northern Syria from Islamic State [ISIS/ISIL} jihadists who conquered the area last year.
Another piece slides across the board between Saudi Arabia and Iran in the Middle Eastern game of thrones, as Djibouti, recently estranged from Iran, prepares to sign a deal that will give Saudi Arabia a military base in the East African country.
Militant Islamists have reportedly shot two men in cold blood in front of a mosque in the Syrian city of Idlib, charged with having furnished “relief materials to the towns of Al-Fu’ah and Kafriya,” currently under siege by the Sunni
The Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet reported Monday that a prosecutor’s investigation had uncovered phone conversations between Turkish military officers and a senior Islamic State jihadist that indicate the military was aiding passage of ISIS jihadists into the Syrian war theater. The Cumhuriyet report,
Iranian Brigadier General Mohsen Ghajarian of the elite Revolutionary Guards force has reportedly been killed during an operation in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo, along with six members of Iran’s volunteer militia, the Basij.
Saudi media are reporting that nine Americans were among the 33 terror suspects arrested in the Kingdom over the past week, a week that ended with another suicide bomb attack on a Shiite mosque in the Sunni-ruled country.
The Iraqi foreign ministry summoned the new Saudi ambassador to Baghdad, Thamer al-Sabhan, after he suggested that a coalition of Iran-backed Shi’ite militias was exacerbating sectarian tensions and should leave the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) to the Iraqi security forces.
The grand mufti of Sunni Saudi Arabia has ruled that Islam prohibits chess because it leads to gambling in addition to a squandering of time and money.
If President Obama’s master plan is to develop Iran into a regional super-power, settling the Middle East’s sectarian problems through Shiite conquest, then his nuclear deal was a major step forward.
Protests by Sunni Muslim members of parliament (MPs) in Iraq reportedly prompted the country’s parliament to suspend its meeting Tuesday.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is expected to travel to Saudi Arabia and Iran Monday, in an effort to alleviate inflamed tensions between the two regional rivals after the Sunni kingdom’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric sparked a divide across the Muslim world, pitting Sunnis against Shiites.
The government of Saudi Arabia has reportedly released Samar Badawi, a prominent human rights activist who received the “International Woman of Courage Award” in 2012 from then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Saudi Arabia’s mass execution of 43 convicted members of al Qaeda has prompted Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of the jihadist group, to call for revenge attacks against the Gulf kingdom and its Western allies, according to a U.S.-based organization that monitors jihadi activity.
Al-Qaeda has threatened Saudi Arabia and the United States, pledging retribution in response to Riyadh’s mass execution of several militants earlier this month, including members of the terrorist group.
The Associated Press reports it has seen documents that show the State Department expects Syrian dictator Bashar Assad to remain in power until at least March 2017, which is “two months after President Barack Obama leaves office and more than five years after Obama first called for Assad to leave.”
Officials in the tiny Gulf nation of Bahrain said Wednesday they busted an Iran-backed “terror” cell that was planning imminent attacks inside of the country. Bahrain is ruled by a Sunni monarchy but is populated with a Shiite majority.
On Wednesday, the Sunni nations of Qatar and Djibouti announced they would be severing diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran, becoming the 9th and 10th nations to officially cut relations, roll back ties, or condemn the Shiite theocracy in the past week.
The Saudi execution of insurrectionist Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr threatens to touch off a conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims across the Middle East and beyond. Massive Shiite protests have occurred across the region over the past few days and have spread into Asia.
When Saudi Arabia executed a Saudi Shiite cleric on New Year’s Eve, the Shiite world ignited in protest. According to the Iranian regime, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr’s execution was not justified. The Saudi government, however, thinks otherwise.
