Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Yemen: ceasefire broken as fresh fighting breaks out in Hodeidah

Posted on by

UN envoy issues warning as renewed clashes reported following Houthis’ withdrawal

Renewed clashes broke out between Houthi rebel fighters and Saudi-backed pro-government forces in the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah on Wednesday, breaching a ceasefire and potentially threatening a withdrawal agreement intended to pave the way for wider peace talks.

The fighting prompted the UN’s special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, to warn that peace could yet be a way off, despite earlier signs the pullout by Houthi forces was going to plan. Their withdrawal from Hodeidah and two other Red Sea ports, which began on Saturday, was the most significant advance yet in efforts to end the four-year-old war.

Continue reading...

Israeli forces shoot 16 Palestinian protesters at Gaza frontier

Posted on by

Thousands turn out to commemorate mass displacement of people in 1948

Israeli soldiers have shot 16 people at the Gaza frontier on a day of rallies commemorating the mass displacement of Palestinians during the war that led to Israel’s creation in 1948.

Each year, typically on 15 May, Palestinians mark the nakba, or catastrophe, when more than 700,000 people fled or were expelled from towns and villages seven decades ago.

Continue reading...

No increased Iran threat in Syria or Iraq, top British officer says, contradicting US

Posted on by

Deputy commander of anti-Isis coalition rebuts White House justification for sending troops

The top British general in the US-led coalition against Isis has said there is no increased threat from Iranian-backed forces in Iraq or Syria, directly contradicting US assertions used to justify a military buildup in the region.

Hours later however, his assessment was disowned by US Central Command in an extraordinary rebuke of an allied senior officer. A spokesman insisted that the troops in Iraq and Syria were on a high level of alert due to the alleged Iranian threat. The conflicting versions of the reality on the ground added to the confusion and mixed signals in a tense part of the Middle East.

Continue reading...

Pompeo to meet Putin in Russia amid fears over US-Iran clash

Posted on by

Secretary of state’s visit will be first high-level meeting since redacted Mueller report release

Mike Pompeo is to meet Vladimir Putin in Russia at a time of heightened fears of a clash between the US and Iran, a Moscow ally.

A Kremlin spokesman, before the meeting on Tuesday, accused the US of applying a “maximum pressure policy” against Iran, a reference to a harsh US sanctions regime and military deployments to the Middle East.

Continue reading...

Sudan protests turn violent as Omar al-Bashir is charged

Posted on by

At least four dead in protests in Khartoum after ousted president charged and transition deal moves closer

Violence has flared in Sudan’s capital Khartoum after the military council and opposition groups said they had agreed to a power structure for the country’s transition following the removal of President Omar al-Bashir last month.

Heavy gunfire was heard late into the evening, and the council said a military police officer and a protester had been killed and many protesters wounded. A doctors’ committee linked to protest movement later said three more protesters had been shot dead. State TV put the death toll at one police officer and three protesters.

Continue reading...

Europe urges Mike Pompeo and US to show restraint towards Iran

Posted on by

Jeremy Hunt warns of conflict erupting in the Gulf by accident after Saudi ships sabotaged

The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has been urged by European leaders to show maximum restraint towards Iran after Saudi Arabia confirmed that two of its vessels had been mysteriously sabotaged on Sunday in the waters off Oman by an unidentified assailant.

Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, warned Pompeo in a hastily arranged meeting in Brussels: “We are living in crucial delicate moments where the most responsible attitude to take and should be is maximum restraint and avoiding any escalation on the military side.”

Continue reading...

Iran-US tensions are reaching new heights – and neither is likely to blink

Posted on by

Long-term standoff threatens to turn into crisis after alleged sabotage of two Saudi tankers

A festering four-year war, crippling sanctions, threats to maritime oil trade and a US naval battlegroup steaming for the Persian Gulf. Such developments were troubling enough, before two Saudi tankers were reportedly sabotaged off the UAE coast on Sunday – a development set to ratchet tensions between Tehran and Washington to new and combustible highs.

With Riyadh claiming significant hull damage to its ships and the UAE claiming the damage was done inside its territorial waters, what last week was a looming standoff is now a real-time crisis with potent implications for both global energy security and regional stability.

Continue reading...

Saudi oil tankers show ‘significant damage’ after sabotage attack, says Riyadh

Posted on by

One vessel was bound for the US and comes after warnings that Iran or its proxies could target shipping in region

Two Saudi oil tankers have suffered “significant damage” in an apparent sabotage attack off the coast of Fujairah, part of the United Arab Emirates, the Saudi energy minister has said.

The reported incident – which could threaten the security of global oil supplies – comes after the US warned ships that “Iran or its proxies” could be targeting maritime traffic in the region, prompting the US to send an aircraft carrier strike group and B-52 bombers to the Persian Gulf.

Continue reading...

Iran’s Rouhani warns of greater hardship than war years of 1980s

Posted on by

President calls for united front in face of ‘unprecedented’ US pressure

Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, has called for unity among political factions to overcome conditions that he said may be harder than those during the 1980s war with Iraq, state media reported, as the country faces tightening US sanctions.

Donald Trump on Thursday urged Iran’s leaders to talk with him about giving up their nuclear programme and said he could not rule out a military confrontation.

Continue reading...

We lost faith in joint efforts to halt wars. Result? Ask Syria…

Posted on by
Once the great powers worked together. Now nationalist strongmen dominate the agenda

Suggestions that the war in Syria is winding down must sound like a sick joke to the people of Ras al-Ain. Their village, in north-western Idlib province, was targeted in an air raid last week. Five residents were killed, including three children, and at least 20 others were injured.

A local man, Hussein al-Sheikh, described to Al Jazeera reporter Farah Najjar how a building collapsed as the children ran for cover: “I was standing near the front door watching the kids play. Suddenly we heard another explosion... It was a difficult scene to watch. I can’t express what I saw.”

Continue reading...

Yemen: Houthis begin Hodeidah port pullout

Posted on by

UN supervisor welcomes long-delayed implementation of Stockholm ceasefire deal

Yemen’s Houthi movement has begun unilaterally moving its forces out of key ports, the first practical progress under a ceasefire deal agreed last year.

The retreat from areas in and around western Hodeidah was agreed at talks in Sweden in December but stalled over a lack of trust between two sides in the war.

Continue reading...

Up to 70 dead after boat capsizes trying to reach Europe from Libya

Posted on by

Survivors report fishing vessel coming to their rescue 40 miles of coast of Tunisia

As many as 70 people trying to reach Europe from Libya have drowned after their vessel capsized in the deadliest such incident in the Mediterranean since January.

According to survivors, at least 16 of whom were rescued, the boat left Zuwara in Libya, where renewed warfare between rival factions has gripped the capital, Tripoli, in the past five weeks. The vessel capsized 40 miles off the coast of Sfax, south of Tunis, as it headed towards Italy.

Continue reading...

Donald Trump tells Iran ‘call me’ over lifting sanctions

Posted on by

President suggests US could help revive Iran’s economy in return for no-nuclear weapons pledge

Donald Trump has offered Iran direct talks, saying its leaders should “call me” and suggested the US would help revive the country’s economy as long as Iran did not acquire nuclear weapons.

The impromptu offer by the US president, if serious, represents a dramatic lowering of the bar set by his administration for lifting extensive sanctions, including an oil embargo. Iran is already party to a 2015 agreement that strictly limits its nuclear programme and places it under close scrutiny. Trump withdrew the US from the Obama-era treaty a year ago.

Continue reading...

Civilians fear ‘mass extermination’ as bloody assault on Idlib intensifies

Posted on by

Rescuers and medics in rebel-held Syrian province fear increased airstrikes will curtail their work

The familiar sound of warplanes was heard across towns and villages in north-west Syria this week as forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad intensified their bloody assault on the country’s last major rebel stronghold.

Asem al-Yahiya, a volunteer with the White Helmets rescue organisation, was on call when the bombardment of Muhanbel, his hometown, started on Sunday.

Continue reading...

Mike Pompeo urges UK to help rein in ‘lawless’ Iran over nuclear deal

Posted on by

UK told ‘not to soothe the ayatollahs angry’ at US decision to abandon nuclear deal

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has urged the UK to stand with Washington in reining in Iran’s “bloodletting and lawlessness”, as Tehran took the first conditional steps to extricate itself from the landmark nuclear deal it had signed with the west, Russia and China in 2015.

Iran said it was acting in response to Donald Trump’s decision a year ago to withdraw the US from the deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA, imposing a wave of sanctions not just on Iran but on any company that seeks to trade with it.

Continue reading...

Iran challenges Europe and China to stand up to US over nuclear deal

Posted on by

Iran is now giving them 60 days to take significant strides or face a potentially severe new crisis in the Middle East

By taking a couple of small, carefully calibrated steps towards the exit from the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran has given Europe and China a two-month ultimatum to stand up to the US on the world stage, or risk a slide towards a new Middle East conflict.

The erosion of that multilateral agreement and the return to military posturing in the Persian Gulf, has been driven by a small number of radical players in the Trump administration, the Israeli government, and the Saudi and Emirati monarchies. In the US and Israel, this has happened in the face of resistance from the defence establishment.

Continue reading...

Iran nuclear deal: what has Tehran said and what happens next?

Posted on by

Hassan Rouhani’s move to alter commitments amid crippling US sanctions outlined

Iran has suspended commitments it made under the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal, which lifted sanctions on the country in exchange for limits on Tehran’s nuclear programme. The deal was reached after years of negotiations.

Continue reading...

Iran announces partial withdrawal from nuclear deal

Posted on by

A year after Trump pulled the US out of the 2015 agreement, Iran takes ‘reciprocal measures’

Iran has announced its partial withdrawal from the nuclear deal signed with world powers in 2015, a year after Donald Trump pulled out of the agreement.

President Hassan Rouhani said Tehran will stop exporting enriched uranium stocks as stipulated by the 2015 agreement and warned it would resume higher uranium enrichment in 60 days if the remaining signatories did not make good on promises to shield its oil and banking sectors from sanctions.

Continue reading...

Russia and Turkey landgrab ‘behind fresh Syria bombardment’

Posted on by

Twelve healthcare centres destroyed in bombardment of Idlib province

Renewed bombardment in north-west Syria that has displaced 200,000 people and destroyed 12 healthcare centres could have been sparked by Russia and Turkish moves to entrench their zones of influence as the seven-year conflict winds down, according to regional diplomats.

The bombardment in Idlib province began two weeks ago and has intensified in recent days, prompting rescue workers to describe an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe”.

Continue reading...