الشرق الأوسط

US Secretary of State John Kerry is all set to travel to Rome this Sunday to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “They will discuss a number of issues, including recent developments in Israel, the West Bank, and Jerusalem and the region”, US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. Kerry had been dogged in his nine-month pursuit for peace …

Senior Palestinian official Ziad Abu Ein died on Wednesday after he was beaten up by Israeli security forces during a demonstration in West Bank; Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has condemned the “barbaric act”. Abu Ein, who was in charge of Israeli settlements for the Palestinian Authority (PA), “was martyred after being beaten in the chest”, Ahmed Bitawi, the director of …

International rights group Amnesty International on Tuesday accused the Israeli military of committing war crimes during the Gaza offensive this past summer, and urged an investigation into the issue. The destruction of multi-story building during the final four days of the offensive violated international humanitarian law, Amnesty International said in a report. “All the evidence we have shows this large-scale …

UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura met with Syrian opposition members on Monday to discuss his plan on locally “freezing” fighting in second city Aleppo. “The talks started today with representatives of armed and non-armed groups in Gaziantep” in southern Turkey, Juliette Touma, de Mistura’s spokeswoman, said. “The U.N. delegation is made up of four people, including De Mistura”, …

Iranian and Syrian Foreign Ministers on Monday condemned Israeli airstrikes near Damascus, labeling them as acts of aggression which proves that Israel is allied with extremist groups battling the Syrian regime. On Sunday, Israeli warplanes had bombed two areas, launching strikes near Damascus international airport and a town near the Syrian-Lebanese border. The Syrian government has said that the strikes …

Jordanian King Abdullah II on Friday warned that the fight against militants from Islamic State (IS) is a “third world war”, as US President Barack Obama promised a sizable aid increase to Jordan. Obama and the Jordanian King met at the White House on Friday, with Obama set to increase aid from $660 million to over $1 billion per year. …

Al-Azhar University, the most prestigious center of learning for Sunni Islam, urged Christians living in the Arab world on Thursday to stand firm in resistance and not flee in the face of extremist violence. The call comes days after Pope Francis urged Muslim leaders to criticize extremists using Islam as a crutch, especially groups like al-Qaeda and Islamic State, and …

A Bahraini court sentenced opposition figure Zainab al-Khawaja, daughter of eminent rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, to three years in jail for insulting King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa by tearing up his photograph. According to rights group Amnesty International, Zainab al-Khawaja, who is already serving a life term, was also fined around $8,000 (3,000 dinars) in addition to the sentence. …

A car bomb on Wednesday targeting the Yemen residence of Iranian ambassador Hassan Sayed Nam in capital city Sanaa killed at least one person and wounded 17 people; Sayed Nam was not at the residence at the time of the attack, a security official said. The son of one the guards at the residence was killed in the blast, the …

Airstrikes launched on extremist group Islamic State (IS) by the global coalition led by the US have had no impact, Syrian President Bashar Assad said, despite members of the offensive making claims of winning the fight. “You can’t end terrorism with aerial strikes. Troops on the ground that know the land and can react are essential. That is why there …