Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Egypt says climate finance must be top of agenda at Cop27 talks

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Host of November’s summit wants focus to be on ‘moving from pledges to implementation’

Financial assistance for developing countries must be at the top of the agenda for UN climate talks this year, the host country, Egypt, has made clear, as governments will be required to follow through on promises made at the Cop26 summit last year.

Egypt will host Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh in November. The talks will take place in the shadow of the war in Ukraine, as well as rising energy and food prices around the world, leaving rich countries grappling with a cost-of-living crisis and poor countries struggling with debt mountains.

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FBI says it foiled Islamic State sympathizer’s plot to kill George W Bush

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Bureau says in warrant that Ohio man Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab planned assassination out of revenge for Iraq war

The FBI claims an Islamic State sympathizer living in Ohio plotted to assassinate George W Bush, but confidential informants helped federal agents foil the plan, according to court records.

Details of the alleged scheme to kill the former president are laid out in a warrant that the FBI obtained in March to search the accused operative’s cellphone records, a 43-page document that was only unsealed in recent days.

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Sudan security forces clash with protesters against military coup

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Police open fire on demonstrators as protest organisers detained in fierce crackdown by regime

Security forces in Sudan have mounted a fierce crackdown in recent days to crush remaining unrest, six months after a coup that brought a military regime to power in the unstable strategic country.

Police fired teargas and shotguns at protesters as thousands took to the streets in the capital, Khartoum, and twin city of Omdurman on Monday. The violence followed a similarly harsh response to demonstrations over the weekend. In all, 113 people have been injured and one killed in recent days, according to doctors.

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Iran vows to avenge killing as it buries Revolutionary Guard colonel

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Finger of blame pointed at Israel after Hassan Sayad Khodayari shot dead in Tehran

An Iranian colonel shot dead in Tehran by assailants on motorcycles has been buried as officials vowed to avenge an assassination that they continue to lay at the feet of Israel.

The murder of Col Hassan Sayad Khodayari is the highest-profile killing of an Iranian official since the violent death of top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in November 2020 and appears to fit a pattern of assassinations that began more than a decade ago.

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Sole survivor of 2009 Comoros plane crash recalls terrifying ordeal

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Bahia Bakari, who was 12 at the time, tells French court of the moments leading up to crash in which 152 died

A woman who was 12 when she became the sole survivor of the 2009 Yemenia Airways crash in the Comoros islands that killed all 152 others on board has described the terrifying moments leading up to her plunge into the ocean and subsequent rescue as part of the French trial against the airline.

Bahia Bakari, 25, has sat through several hearings with her father but had not testified or spoken to journalists attending the trial, which opened this month.

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Iran will ‘avenge’ killing of Revolutionary Guards colonel, says president

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Guards say arrests linked to Israel made after shooting of Hassan Sayad Khodayari outside his home

Iran will avenge the killing of a Revolutionary Guards colonel who was shot dead in Tehran, President Ebrahim Raisi has said.

Col Hassan Sayad Khodayari was killed on Sunday outside his home by assailants on motorcycles. Iran blamed “elements linked to the global arrogance”, its term for the US and its allies including Israel.

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Iran: Revolutionary Guard colonel killed by motorbike gunmen in Tehran

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Hassan Sayad Khodayari was shot five times in his unarmoured vehicle outside his home

Unidentified gunmen on a motorbike have killed a senior member of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard outside his home in Tehran.

The corps gave only scant detail about the killing, which occurred in broad daylight in the heart of the Iranian capital, but blamed it on “global arrogance” – typically code for the US and Israel.

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In the firing zone: evictions begin in West Bank villages after court ruling

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Palestinians in Masafer Yatta – or Firing Zone 918 to the Israelis – vow to rebuild as homes are bulldozed

Below the dusty plateau, home to Khribet al-Fakhiet village, on the southern edge of the occupied West Bank, sheep, goats and camels belonging to Palestinian Bedouin roam the hills. The Israeli town of Arad glitters in the distance and, across the valley to the east, the mountains of neighbouring Jordan rise up to meet the sky. Much closer to home, the illegal Israeli settlement of Mitzpe Yair looms from the next ridge.

Bone-shattering unpaved roads crisscross this poverty-stricken, hilly semi-desert, part of the 60% of the West Bank that is under full Israeli control. Palestinians call it Masafer Yatta, a collection of villages with a population of about 1,000. To the Israeli state, however, this is Firing Zone 918, a military training area in which civilians are prohibited. The fight for control of this 3,000 hectares (7,410 acres) is one of the fiercest battles of the Israeli occupation.

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Syria’s barrel bomb experts in Russia to help with potential Ukraine campaign

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Over 50 specialists skilled in delivering crude explosive working with Putin’s forces

Technicians linked to the Syrian military’s infamous barrel bombs that have wreaked devastation across much of the country have been deployed to Russia to help potentially prepare for a similar campaign in the Ukraine war, European officials believe.

Intelligence officers say more than 50 specialists, all with vast experience in making and delivering the crude explosive, have been in Russia for several weeks working alongside officials from Vladimir Putin’s military.

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Britain slashes humanitarian aid by 51% despite global food crisis

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Campaigners say ministers must change course as millions face famine in Africa and the Ukraine war threatens to disrupt global food supplies

Ministers have been accused of choosing the “worst moment in history” to slash the foreign aid budget, as provisional figures showed that UK overseas humanitarian funding was cut by more than half last year.

MPs and charity campaigners say the aid budget urgently needs to be increased to cope with the Ukraine conflict and the risk of famine in Africa. Up to 23 million people face acute hunger in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia due to drought.

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Israel will not hold criminal inquiry into killing of journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh

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Military police say they are satisfied with assurances of Israeli troops over death of US-Palestinian despite international demands

Israel will not launch a criminal investigation into the killing of the US-Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh, which Palestinian officials and witnesses have blamed on Israeli soldiers.

In a statement released on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces claimed that because Abu Aqleh was killed in an “active combat situation”, an immediate criminal investigation would not be launched, although an “operational inquiry” would continue.

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Widow of man killed in Libya accuses South Africa of ‘silence’ in hunt for his body

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The South African government sent Anton Hammerl’s passport to his widow in 2016 but has refused to say how it came to have it

The widow of a British-based photographer who was murdered by Col Gaddafi’s forces in Libya in 2011 has accused South Africa of withholding crucial information about her husband’s death that could help in efforts to locate his body.

Anton Hammerl was killed in an incident in May 2011 that saw other journalists, including James Foley – who was later kidnapped and beheaded by Islamic State in Syria – taken prisoner.

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Why has Erdoğan doubled down on threat to veto Nordic Nato bids?

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Analysis: By demanding extradition of alleged PKK members, Turkish president could have one eye on elections

After initial hesitation about the seriousness of Turkey’s objections, its president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has doubled down on his threat to veto Finland’s and Sweden’s applications for membership of Nato, saying there is no point in either country sending delegations to Ankara to persuade him otherwise.

On Wednesday, he also extended his demands from the two he outlined on Monday to 10, leading to claims that he is using blackmail.

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Clashes in Tripoli as would-be prime minister attempts to claim power

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Fathi Bashagha forced to withdraw in the face of opposition from Libya’s military

Fighting broke out in Tripoli after one of the two rival Libyan prime ministers entered the capital to claim the role only to flee hours later when he realised he had misjudged the scale of military opposition.

Fathi Bashagha said he had retreated to prevent further bloodshed. It was clear he found that the levels of militia support he had been promised were not forthcoming. He had entered the city in secret overnight with the support of one powerful armed group, the eighth brigade, but it found itself isolated and no other support arrived from outside the city.

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The ‘Spider-Man’ of Sudan: masked activist becomes symbol of resistance

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Dressed in red and blue, ‘Spidey’ is a fixture at protests against the military regime – and the subject of a new Guardian documentary

Violence and arrests will not deter Sudan’s young activists from resisting the military who “stole our revolution”, says one man who faces down the teargas and bullets in a blue and red superhero costume.

Featured in a new Guardian documentary, “the ‘Spider-Man’ of Sudan”, who cannot be named for his safety, has become a symbol of protests that began in October. Dressed in his increasingly frayed suit and mask he and other demonstrators confront teargas canisters, water cannon and often live bullets.

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Senior Catholic in Israel condemns police actions at Shireen Abu Aqleh funeral

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Latin patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa described the intervention as a ‘disproportionate use of force’ against mourners

The top Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land has condemned the Israeli police beating of mourners carrying the casket of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh, accusing the authorities of violating human rights and disrespecting the Catholic church.

Latin patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa told reporters that Friday’s incident, broadcast around the world, was a “disproportionate use of force” against a large crowd of people waving Palestinian flags as they proceeded from the hospital to a nearby Catholic church in Jerusalem’s Old City. The attack drew worldwide condemnation and added to the shock and outrage over the death of Abu Akleh, who was killed during an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) operation in the occupied West Bank.

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Jack Nicklaus says he turned down $100m to be face of Saudi-backed golf tour

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  • American remains loyal to PGA Tour, which he helped found
  • Nicklaus offers advice to under-fire Phil Mickelson

Greg Norman was not the first choice to be the face of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series, whose Saudi Arabian organizers pursued and preferred Jack Nicklaus, according to the 73-time PGA Tour winner.

“I was offered something in excess of $100m by the Saudis, to do the job probably similar to the one that Greg is doing,” Nicklaus said in a story with Fire Pit Collective. “I turned it down. Once verbally, once in writing. I said, ‘Guys, I have to stay with the PGA Tour. I helped start the PGA Tour.’”

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‘My only hobby is crying’: the boy who lost his family to an Israeli airstrike

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Omar Abu al-Ouf’s father, mother, brother and sister were all killed in the attack on their apartment building last May

Omar Abu al-Ouf is revising for his final school exams, hoping to do well enough to pursue his dream of becoming an engineer, but it’s difficult for the 17-year-old to focus. His mind constantly drifts to his family, all of whom died last year when an Israeli airstrike destroyed their apartment building in a middle-class neighbourhood of Gaza city.

“It’s like he goes somewhere else,” said his grandmother, Manar, in the living room of the boy’s uncle’s house, where he now lives. “His whole family is gone, for nothing.”

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Lebanon votes in first national election since onset of economic crisis

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Low expectations that ballot for parliamentary seats will see breakthrough in dislodging entrenched ruling elite

Voters in Lebanon have gone to the polls in the first national election since a disastrous economic collapse and an explosion that wrecked the Beirut waterfront in 2020, amid low expectations that the leaders they hold responsible will face a serious challenge to their stranglehold on the country.

A number of civil society candidates lined up against an entrenched ruling elite with pledges to change a political landscape in which feudal lords and their networks have enriched themselves since the end of the civil war.

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Saudi oil giant Aramco reports 82% rise in quarterly profits

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Investors to get $4bn in bonus shares after record earnings of $39.5bn on higher demand and crude prices

Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil company, has disclosed an 82% rise in quarterly profits to a new record of $39.5bn (£32.2bn), boosted by an increase in demand and higher crude prices.

The company, which last week overtook technology group Apple to become the world’s most valuable company, said it would pay an $18.8bn (£15.3bn) dividend and hand $4bn (£3.2bn) in bonus shares to its investors after the better-than-expected performance.

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