Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has accused Hamas of trying “to destroy” efforts to mediate national unity, alleging that the Palestinian movement was responsible for the bomb blasts in Gaza this past week. Speaking at the 10th death anniversary of veteran Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Tuesday, Abbas said that Hamas was responsible for the Gaza attacks which targeted leaders of …

Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian on Tuesday during clashes in the West Bank as a wave of unrest is gripped the country, prompting thoughts of a fresh Palestinian uprising. A 22-year-old Palestinian was killed near Hebron as soldiers and around 150 Palestinians clashed near the Kiryat Arba. Since the new round of violence began five months ago, at …

The Iranian judiciary on Tuesday said that Iranian-British woman Ghoncheh Ghavami, who was arrested in June after trying to see a men’s volleyball game, is currently being held for security reasons and over “links with foreigners”. The 25-year-old law graduate’s lawyer had earlier in the month said she was given a one-year-jail sentence at the start of November, but the …

United Nations refugee agency UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Tuesday said that it has been forced to reduce the number of people in Iraq and Syria it provides aid to in Syria during the winter due to a lack of funds. “The whole humanitarian community is facing shortfalls. People are becoming numb”, Amin Awad, the head of the …

Syria has released around 11,000 detainees since the declaration of a general amnesty in June, Syria’s National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar said. However, several rights groups claim that over 200,000 people are still withering away in government jails. Haider on Monday told AFP that “11,000 people have benefited from the amnesty and been released from prison”, referring to the “general …

Iranian Deputy Judiciary Head Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejeie on Monday denied that British-Iranian Ghoncheh Ghavami was sentenced to prison after attempting to attend a men’s volleyball game. Earlier in the month, 25-year-old law graduate Ghavami’s lawyer had said that she was sentenced to one year in prison. “According to the verdict she was sentenced to one year in jail”, Iranian media quoted …

On Monday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed a five-member panel to look into Israeli attacks on UN building in the Gaza Strip and discovery of Hamas weapons in UN sites during the Israeli aggression in the Palestinian enclave earlier this year. Ban had announced plans to investigate the war during last month’s trip to Gaza, after describing the Israeli …

The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on former Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh and two Huthi commanders, only two days after Saleh walked out on the new government. The sanctions follow Saturday’s UN sanctions on the three, imposed for threatening peace in Yemen. The US Treasury said that it was blacklisting Saleh, Abd al-Khaliq al-Huthi and Abdullah Yahya al-Hakim …

Iran on Monday said that it is at neighbor Iraq’s disposal if it needs help in battling extremist group Islamic State. Iranian Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri expressed his show of support after meeting with Iraqi counterpart and former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Tehran. “In the face of terrorism, we must use all means… Iran is ready to place all …

Syrian President Bashar Assad on Monday said that he was willing to consider a UN plan to “freeze” fighting in the city of Aleppo. “President Assad has been informed by (U.N. envoy Staffan) de Mistura of the main points of his initiative. (Assad) said it was worthy of study and that work on it is needed… in order to re-establish …