RAMALLAH – A Palestinian investigator said on Tuesday he would soon name the people he believed were responsible for the death of former leader Yasser Arafat, almost a decade after he started searching for suspects.
Yasser Arafat, not yet dead
Arafat, a guerrilla leader who became the first Palestinian Authority president, died in 2004 from a sudden illness contracted while under an Israeli siege at his Ramallah headquarters in the occupied West Bank. Continue Reading »
BERLIN – Patrick Paoli, France’s Ambassador to Lebanon, hosted a dinner reception in early November for Hezbollah MPs and the political militia’s international affairs representative in which he honored the three Hezbollah members.
Hezbollah members rally in Beirut in Nazi salute – Photo: Reuters
The Lebanese Daily Star reported the dinner gathering on Thursday. Hezbollah MPs Ali Fayyad and Nawwar Saheli along with international affairs member Ammar Moussawi were honored by Paoli.
It is unclear if the ambassador violated EU sanctions outlawing contact with the military wing of Hezbollah.
By News agencies
Hundreds of Palestinian youth activists sailed from the shores of the Gaza Strip on Monday to protest at Israel’s restrictions on fishing in the seas off the Islamist-ruled enclave.
En route to Israel – Photo: EPA
Around 20 Gaza fishing boats carrying several dozen activists claimed to have broken the naval blockade on the territory in a move denied by the Israeli military. The “resistance flotilla” was at sea for several hours before returning with the claim it had “broken” the blockade which bars fishing vessels from sailing six nautical miles from the shoreline. Continue Reading »
Syrian rebel forces claim that they have succeeded in injuring Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, a Lebanese website reported this morning, citing a Facebook message. No other source has confirmed the report.
The Lebanese report was cited by JerusalemOnLine, which did not name the website that carried the news.
According to the report, a commander of the Free Syrian Army announced that members of Jabhat Al-Nusra, an Islamist Sunni rebel group linked to Al Qaeda, succeeded in the early morning hours in blowing up the headquarters where Nasrallah lives in Bint Jbeil, Lebanon. Continue Reading »
The Israeli army fired into Syria on Monday after its troops were shot at on the Golan Heights, the military said.
Israeli soldiers sit atop a tank as they watch the border with Syria near the Quneitra border crossing between Israel and Syria, on the Golan Heights July 3, 2013.- Photo: Reuters
“Gunfire was opened from Syria toward IDF soldiers in the central Golan Heights. Continue Reading »
The IDF and Israel Navy are prepared to encounter what has been dubbed a “reverse flotilla” from Gaza, reports Israel Hayom Monday. The political flotilla will be coming at the Israeli ships from Gaza and going westward, as opposed to previous political flotillas that came from the west toward Gaza, hence the name “reverse flotilla”.
Israeli navy ship – Israel news photo: IDF spokesman
The IDF estimates that dozens of Arab and European activists will be on the flotilla, and that it will include several boats. Continue Reading »
Israel and Saudi Arabia are reportedly collaborating to create a new destructive computer worm to “spy on and destroy the software structure” of Iran‘s nuclear program, the semi-official Iranian news agency Fars said over the weekend.
A technician checks valves at the uranium conversion facility in Isfahan, Iran, February 3, 2007.- Photo: Reuters
Fars, the outlet of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, quoted “an informed source” close to the Saudi secret service as saying that Saudi spy chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan and Mossad head Tamir Pardo each sent a representative to Vienna on November 24 with the purpose of increasing the “‘two sides’ cooperation in intelligence and sabotage operations against Iran’s nuclear program.” Continue Reading »
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has ordered both the Mossad and Military Intelligence to search for evidence that Iran is continuing nuclear activities forbidden under the Geneva accord signed with world powers last week, The Sunday Times quoted Israeli defense sources as saying.
Satellite photos show Iran ‘sanitizing’ Parchin – Photo: REUTERS
Proof that Iran was violating the terms of the six-month interim deal would complicate US President Barack Obama’s push to delay the passage of new congressional sanctions against Iran while a long-term deal with Iran is being negotiated. Continue Reading »
An Al-Qaida-linked group has confirmed that the three militants killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces last week were its members, and said that their presence there proved that the Islamist network has taken root in the Palestinian territory.
The funeral of three Al-Qaida linked Palestinians killed by Israeli forces near Hebron, November 27, 2013 – Photo: Reuters
Al-Qaida has struggled to build up significant support in the West Bank, analysts say, and the Palestinian Authority that administers the area last week denied an Israeli report that the men were linked to the organization. Continue Reading »
By AFP
A year after the Palestinians were granted non-member observer status by the United Nations, pressure is mounting on their leaders to exploit that rather than pursue peace talks few see bearing fruit.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas – Photo: AP
No official ceremony was scheduled Friday in the Palestinian territories to mark the historic November 29, 2012 vote of the UN General Assembly.
But in comments published Thursday by official news agency Wafa, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pledged to do everything possible to establish a Palestinian state with its capital in Israeli-annexed Arab east Jerusalem. Continue Reading »
The nuclear agreement signed between Iran and world powers may result in improved economic ties between the Islamic Republic and Turkey.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (L) shakes hands with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu after a news conference in Ankara, November 1, 2013.- Photo: Reuters
According to a report Saturday in Hurriyet Daily News, an Iranian delegation will visit Turkey “in the near future” to discuss the two countries’ trade relations, while Turkish Trade Minister Zafer Caglayan is set to travel to Tehran in mid-January. Continue Reading »
A Nigerian court handed a life sentence for illegal arms trafficking and possession on Friday to a Lebanese man suspected of having links with Hezbollah, but freed another two Lebanese suspects in the case.
Ammunition, weapons & explosives seized from suspected members of Hezbollah in Kona, Nigeria. – Photo: Reuters
Secret service agents arrested Mustapha Fawaz, Abdullah Tahini, Talal Ahmad Roda and Hussain Nurudeen Kossdi between May 16 and May 28.
They suspected them of being members of the Lebanon-based Shi’ite Muslim organization, after a raid on a residence linked to Roda in the main northern city of Kano uncovered anti-tank weapons, landmines, heavy artillery, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles. Continue Reading »
Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) slammed Israel on Friday, accusing the Jewish state of attacking its neighbors and committing atrocities.
IAEA officials – AFP/File Photo
“Israel, sitting on 200 nuclear warheads all of them targeted at Muslim cities … is crying wolf about nuclear proliferation,” the envoy, Reza Najafi, told the UN nuclear agency.
“This regime (has) a long history of aggression against neighbors, atrocity against peoples under occupation and clandestine development of all kinds of” weapons of mass destruction, he declared in the comments quoted by The Associated Press (AP). Continue Reading »
The White House is omitting key facts about the nuclear deal signed with Iran, which makes a number of important concessions to the Islamic Republic, The Washington Post argued in its editorial Friday.
US President Barack Obama – Photo: REUTERS/Pete Souza/The White House/Handout via Reu
Sunday’s accord is a six-month agreement with an option to extend, meant to limit the Iranian nuclear program as the P5+1 – the US, UK, Russia, China, France and Germany – try to hammer out a comprehensive accord with Iran. Continue Reading »
Turkey will fund a purchase of fuel to provide power for emergency services in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, including hospitals and idle sewage treatment plants, a United Nations official said on Thursday.
Palestinian youths carry empty containers standing in front of a mock petrol pump during a protest in Gaza City. — Photo: AP
Robert Turner, of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency that provides assistance to Palestinian refugees, said Turkey had pledged $850,000 that should allow emergency services to operate over the coming four months. Continue Reading »
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