After a week of insisting it merely assisted a vessel in distress by bringing it to a safe harbor, Iran on Thursday admitted its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States – seized a foreign oil tanker and took its crew prisoner.
Iran’s state TV claims marine elements of the Revolutionary Guard Corps seized a “foreign vessel” with 12 crew Thursday morning on accusations of smuggling oil.
A report by the Iranian government Wednesday said Britain violated international law this month when it captured the Grace 1 oil tanker, which was taken in international waters off the coast of Gibraltar.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s foreign minister has suggested for the first time that the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile program could be up for negotiations with the U.S., a possible opening for talks as tensions remain high between Tehran and Washington over the collapsing nuclear deal.
Three conservative leaders sent Trump a letter asking him to stand up to the Emir of Qatar on the issues of support of terrorism and trade.
Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen have blocked an estimated 8,000-ton food shipment slated to feed about 100,000 families in the war-torn nation where millions are teetering on the brink of starvation, the World Food Program (WFP) revealed this week.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the Middle East this week to build a “global coalition” against Iran amid intensified tensions between Washington and Tehran.
Iranian-backed Houthis in hunger-stricken Yemen recruited an estimated 50,000 children in the past three months, including orphans and girls, to fight in the country’s bloody conflict, the information minister for the country’s internationally-recognized government reportedly declared this week.
The Republican-led Senate voted Thursday to block the Trump administration’s proposed $8.1 billion arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other allied countries.
A senior adviser to the Iranian government said on Friday that war is “inevitable” if the United States does not lift sanctions against Iran.
The internationally recognized Yemeni military reportedly revealed America’s most advanced defense system in the hands of Saudi Arabia failed to intercept a cruise missile fired by Iran-aligned Shiite Houthi rebels at a civilian airport in the Sunni kingdom this week.
Iranian-backed Shiite Houthis in Yemen recently launched a fundraising campaign for Hezbollah after an unprecedented wave of U.S. sanctions reportedly limited Tehran’s ability to continue funding it, the Long War Journal (LWJ) reported this week.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Bahrain over the weekend chastised their fellow Sunni Arab Gulf country Qatar for dismissing two summits in the holy city of Mecca focused on admonishing Iran over its alleged aggressions and criminal acts in the Middle East and beyond.
Film industry giants Disney and Netflix are threatening to boycott the state of Georgia over its new “heartbeat” abortion law, but have continued and even stepped up filming in countries in which abortion is entirely illegal or highly restricted.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner is in the Middle East to drum up support for his as-yet unveiled Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.
Pompeo said a newly-announced $8 billion in arms sales to Middle East allies would help protect their and America’s interests against Iran.
TEL AVIV – The UAE and Saudi Arabia on Tuesday announced that they will attend the U.S.-led economic workshop in Bahrain next month in what is being billed as a precursor to President Donald Trump’s so-called “deal of the century” for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Pundit Ibrahim Karagul of Turkey’s Yeni Safak, whose column titles are often longer than entire editorials penned by more sedate writers, delivered a lively presentation of the Turkish ruling party’s view of the Iran crisis with his Friday broadside: “U.S. Won’t Attack Iran, It Will Start a New Arab-Persian War. Two Crown Princes, Two Countries: They Became Hitmen of the Crusaders. But the Big Trap Is Set Against Saudi Arabia.”
Saudi Arabia announced on Monday that two of its oil tankers suffered “significant damage” from sabotage attacks off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) near the Strait of Hormuz. The attacks reportedly also damaged two ships from other nations, one of them registered to Norway.
Mike Cernovich noted Qatar’s funding of Never Trump pundits as part of a broader propaganda war against America led by Al-Jazeera.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration would be “siding with autocrats and roiling [the] Middle East” if it joins several Islamic countries in designating the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) a terrorist organization, the New York Times (NYT) argued this week.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) reportedly used Chinese-made drones to launch deadly airstrikes on Tripoli on behalf of Libyan renegade Gen. Khalifa Haftar, military analysts alleged Thursday.
Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen will not hesitate to fire missiles that can reach Riyadh, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi if the fragile ceasefire now in place in the country’s main port city of Hodeidah fails to prevent violence from escalating further, the leader of the Shiite rebels warned on Monday.
Damascus — Syria’s government has agreed to allow planes from regional aviation giant Qatar Airways to fly over the country after eight years of conflict kept its planes at bay.
The thousands of Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) jihadis in Libya have reportedly expanded their resurgence in the region in recent months amid the fall of the group’s so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria.
Democrat presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) hit the leftist Center for American Progress for taking money from big corporations.
French weapons are being used by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in Yemen, according to a classified note revealed by French media on Monday which contradicts the claims of France’s government.
France, which owns oil assets in Libya, reportedly sidelined a European Union statement this week calling on the Paris and Moscow-backed Libyan strongman Gen. Khalifa Haftar to halt his eastern army’s offensive against forces loyal to the North African country’s internationally recognized government in Tripoli.
Two years in a Dubai jail and a £50,000 fine are getting closer for a British woman who called her former husband’s new wife a “horse” on Facebook.
The U.S. military over the weekend announced that it had “temporarily” withdrawn a small contingent of American troops from Libya “due to increased unrest” in Tripoli fueled by ongoing battles between pro-internationally recognized government forces and an army loyal to a renegade warlord backed by Russia, France, and neighboring Egypt, among other countries.
A truce deal between the Saudi Arabia-led Sunni coalition and the Iran-allied Shiite Houthi rebels in the Yemeni port city of Hodeida – considered a lifeline for millions of people at risk of starvation in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis – remains elusive as the war reaches its fourth anniversary on Tuesday.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Dubai’s government on Sunday forcefully denied a claim by R&B singer R. Kelly that the artist had planned concerts in the sheikhdom after he had sought permission from an Illinois judge to travel here despite facing sexual-abuse charges.
Gen. Khalifa Haftar, the head of the breakaway government’s Libyan National Army (LNA), gained control of two-thirds of Libya – including most border crossings and the majority of onshore oil fields – after sweeping through the North African country’s southern region in recent weeks, the Guardian reported on Monday.
President Donald Trump on Monday announced the release of Danny Burch, an American citizen who has been held hostage in Yemen since 2017. Trump thanked the United Arab Emirates for assisting with Burch’s liberation and said his administration has now secured the freedom of 20 Americans held captive in various countries.
TEL AVIV – Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned the Arab world not to play into Israel’s hands and become its “tool,” amid news of warming ties between Israel and Gulf states following the U.S.-led Mideast conference in Warsaw.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry has made a surprise visit to the World Government Summit in Dubai.
Christianity and Islam have more in common than people think, Pope Francis said Wednesday, and the two religions defend common values that are necessary for the future of civilization.
Pope Francis celebrated an outdoor Mass in Abu Dhabi Tuesday with the attendance of an estimated 170,000 faithful, by far the largest Christian worship service ever held on the Arabian Peninsula.
Pope Francis expressed his grief over Yemen’s “humanitarian crisis” Sunday, calling on nations to come to the assistance of the afflicted population.
Former U.S. government intelligence operatives reportedly helped the United Arab Emirates hack into the iPhones of “rival foreign leaders,” diplomats, and others — even gaining access to “compromising” sexual photos of targets according to a report by Reuters.
