Category: 2. Middle East

Hamas is ready to release all Israeli detainees in exchange for a “serious prisoner swap” and guarantees that Israel will end the war in Gaza including withdrawing its troops from the Strip, Taher Al-Nunu said yesterday.

The Hamas negotiating delegation, led by Khalil Al-Hayya, held several meetings with officials from Egypt and Qatar, the two mediating states in the truce negotiations.

“We are ready to release all Israeli captives in exchange for a serious…

The head of Israel’s spy agency Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, intends to resign in the coming weeks despite a Supreme Court ruling requiring him to remain in his position, Israeli media reported yesterday.

A report broadcast by Israel’s Channel 12 said Bar has informed several people close to him in recent days of his intention to resign, believing the ongoing crisis surrounding his position is causing significant harm to the sensitive security agency’s work.

Last…

The once unthinkable disarmament of Hezbollah could finally be within reach, as the United States pushes Lebanon to act and applies pressure to the group’s backer Iran over its nuclear programme, analysts said.

Hezbollah was left badly weakened by more than a year of hostilities with Israel, beginning with the group’s campaign of rocket fire at its arch-foe in support of ally Hamas, and culminating in a major Israeli bombing campaign and ground incursion into Lebanon.

In the months after the…

US immigration authorities on Monday arrested another Columbia University student who participated in pro-Palestinian campus protests, detaining him as he attended an interview to become an American citizen.

Mohsen Mahdawi’s lawyers, in a court filing seeking his release and halt to any imminent deportation, also claimed President Donald Trump’s mounting crackdown on immigrant student protesters violates the US Constitution — the latest judicial challenge to the Republican adminstration.

A…

Sudan’s civil war has displaced 13 million people, the United Nations reported Monday, as the conflict between the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces enters a third year.

“The conflict has provoked the displacement of 13 million people, including 8.6 internally displaced people and 3.8 million refugees,” said Abdourahouf Gnon-Konde of the UN refugee agency in an interview with AFP.

The war, which erupted on April 15, 2023, has left tens of thousands dead, pushed parts of Sudan into…

The British government, on Monday, imposed sanctions on an organisation and an individual under its Iran sanctions regime, citing involvement in hostile activity backed by the Iranian government, Reuters reports.

An update to the government website showed new sanctions, including asset freezes and director disqualifications, against the Foxtrot Network and Rawa Majid over “activity which aids or facilitates serious organised crime in the United Kingdom or…

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam met with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Monday, inviting him to visit Beirut during a trip aimed at rebooting ties between the two neighbours.

Salam and his foreign, defence and interior ministers made the first trip to Damascus by senior Lebanese officials since a new government was formed in Beirut in February, two months after an Islamist-led alliance ousted longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad.

Salam met with interim President Sharaa and…

Turkish Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, spoke with his US counterpart, Marco Rubio, by phone on Monday and discussed the latest developments in Syria and the humanitarian situation in Gaza, diplomatic sources said.

Fidan and Rubio discussed efforts to establish a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, the sources added, Anadolu Agency reports.

Fidan and Rubio met on 3 April in the Belgian capital of Brussels as part of a NATO foreign ministers meeting.

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