أرشيف الوسم : government

Several Israeli ministers lashed out at the US government on Tuesday for its decision to work with the newly formed Palestinian Unity government backed by Hamas. Gilad Erdan, the Israeli Communications Minister and a security cabinet member, said, “Unfortunately, American naiveté has broken all records. Any collaboration with Hamas which kills women and children is unacceptable”. He added that Israel …

Rocket fire from Syria and Gaza early on Monday struck Israel in separate incidents, and has prompted the Israeli military to strike back. The events occurred just hours before the new Palestinian unity government took office in Ramallah. A few hours earlier, tensions spiked as the newly Palestinian government was formally unveiled at a ceremony at the Muqataa headquarters in …

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas swore in the Palestinian unity government on Monday in the Muqataa presidential compound in Ramallah, after last week’s landmark reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah which has left Israel infuriated. After the swearing-in ceremony, Abbas hailed “the end” of the bitter, and sometimes violent, divided between Hamas and Fatah. Hamas also lauded the new government, saying …

In 2009, Nigerian police forces fighting Boko Haram in the northern city of Maiduguri lost about 30 officers in a violent firefight. The next day, they executed many of the men they had rounded up and detained as suspected Boko Haram fighters. The retaliatory killings often happened right outside police headquarters in full view of the public. Bodies piled up …

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday named Rami Hamdallah as Prime Minister, as the two Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah appear to be on the verge of a historic unity government after seven bitter years as rivals. The official announcement brings the two parties substantially closer to a final reconciliation, after they established separate governments in 2007. Hamas took control …

Attacks in different parts of Iraq on Wednesday led to the deaths of 14 people. The strikes are the latest in a long wave of violence that has caused more than 4,000 deaths this year already. The bombings and shootings struck in Baghdad and parts of the West and the North, leaving dozens wounded, medical and security officials said. The …

UK based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday that 850 people have been killed in Syrian security forces facilities and prisons this year. The monitoring group said that the victims lost by executions, torture, due to poor conditions or maltreatment. Six women and 15 children were among the victims, the group added. The monitoring group, …

Ukrainian leaders on Wednesday launched round-table “Unity” talks as a part of a Western push to prevent the country from falling apart. They vowed that they wouldn’t bow to “blackmail” by pro-Russian forces waging an insurgency in Eastern Ukraine. The “Unity” talks do not involve the pro-Russian forces battling in Eastern Ukraine, and are being held two weeks before Ukraine …

Lakhdar Brahimi, in a joint press conference with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday, announced that he would resign from his position as UN-Arab League envoy for Syria, and said that he was mostly frustrated by plans of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to hold elections in June. In the press conference in New York, Brahimi said he would step down …

One wonders how much further the United States will allow itself to be dragged down into the deepening abyss that is today’s Egypt. Those in the Obama administration and Congress who favor continued U.S. military aid to the dictatorship in Cairo insist that although such aid may run counter to American ideals, it does serve American interests. I would argue …