News Archive

Israel is keeping up its war in Gaza but is also preparing for scenarios in other areas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday, amid concern that Iran was preparing to strike Israel in response for the killing of senior Iranian commanders.

The geopolitical landscape is on edge as the United States and Israel prepare for what is believed to be an imminent threat from Iran.

Russia urged countries in the Middle East to show restraint and warned against travelling to a region on edge over an Iranian threat to strike Israel, while Germany's Lufthansa extended a suspension of flights to Tehran.

The kidnapping crime and killing of a political official from the Lebanese Forces party in the Jbeil area earlier this week brought back to the forefront the crisis of Syrian refugees and their expanding presence in Lebanon.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a stark warning to the Irish Prime Minister, Simon Harris, on Thursday, cautioning him about the risk of being "on the wrong side of history."

Israeli forces killed three sons of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in an air strike in Gaza without consulting senior commanders or political leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli media reported on Thursday.

The U.S. will make a push of more than a hundred million in additional funding to respond to the conflict in Sudan as Washington seeks to spur international response at a donor conference on the humanitarian crisis this month.

The U.S. Middle East envoy called the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and Iraq to ask them to deliver a message to Iran urging it to lower tensions with Israel following a suspected Israeli air strike on Iran's embassy in Syria, a source with knowledge of the situation said.

Yemen's Houthis said on Wednesday they targeted four vessels, including what they described as a U.S. warship, with drones and naval missiles in the Gulf of Aden, part of their stated campaign of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Germany's Lufthansa on Wednesday said after careful evaluation it decided to suspend flights to and from Tehran "due to the current situation in the Middle East". 

Mali's junta has issued a decree halting political party activities, government spokesperson Abdoulaye Maiga announced in a statement read on state television on Wednesday evening.