Category: 2. Middle East

A Russian rocket put an Iranian communications satellite into space on Friday, Iranian state media reported, the latest achievement for an aerospace programme that has long concerned Western governments.

“The Nahid-2 communications satellite was launched from Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome using a Soyuz rocket,” state television said.

Weighing 110 kilograms (over 240 pounds), the satellite was designed and manufactured by Iranian engineers, the broadcaster added.

Western governments have long…

The number of journalists killed in Gaza has risen to 232 since Israel launched its military campaign on Oct. 7, 2023, the Government Media Office in the blockaded enclave said Thursday, Anadolu reports.

“The number of journalists killed has now reached 232 since the beginning of the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, following the killing of journalist Adam Abu Harbid,” it said.

Abu Harbid worked with multiple media outlets as a photojournalist, it added.

The…

The US hit back at French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that France will formally recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly this September, Anadolu reports.

The United States strongly rejects @EmmanuelMacron’s plan to recognize a Palestinian state at the @UN general assembly,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X late Friday. “This reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace. It is a slap in the face…

An Israeli source told CNN that Hamas had given a positive response, and there is “growing optimism that the gaps are narrowing and a deal can be reached.”

The source explained that the negotiating team was recalled to make decisions regarding the talks, which could not be made remotely.

He added that the decision to recall the negotiating team from Qatar “was not an indication of a crisis in the talks.”

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin…

(Refiles with adjusted media identifier IRAN-NUCLEAR/E3, no change to text)

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Delegations have arrived at Iran’s Istanbul consulate on Friday morning for face-to-face talks between Iran and the so-called E3 group of France, Britain and Germany, Reuters witness said.

Senior diplomats from the E3 group are set to hold talks with Iran’s negotiating team for the first time since U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in June, aiming to gauge Tehran’s appetite for…

KHARTOUM/PORT SUDAN (Reuters) -The Islamist movement toppled in Sudan’s uprising in 2019 could support an extended period of army rule as it eyes a political comeback after deploying fighters in the country’s war, according to some of its leading members.

In his first media interview in years, Ahmed Haroun, chairman of the former ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and one of four Sudanese wanted by the International Criminal Court, told Reuters that he foresaw the army staying in politics…

By Jonathan Landay

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -An internal U.S. government analysis found no evidence of systematic theft by the Palestinian militant group Hamas of U.S.-funded humanitarian supplies, challenging the main rationale that Israel and the U.S. give for backing a new armed private aid operation.

The analysis, which has not been previously reported, was conducted by a bureau withinthe U.S. Agency for International Development andcompleted in late June. Itexamined 156 incidents of theft or…

One of France’s longest-held inmates, the pro-Palestinian Lebanese militant Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, was released from prison and is due to be deported on Friday, after more than 40 years behind bars for the killings of two diplomats.

At around 3:40 am (01:30 GMT), a convoy of six vehicles left the Lannemezan penitentiary with lights flashing, AFP journalists saw.

A source close to the case confirmed to AFP that 74-year-old Abdallah had left the prison.

Abdallah was detained in 1984 and…

France’s highest court is to decide Friday whether to uphold an arrest warrant against Syria’s ex-president Bashar al-Assad as part of a probe into deadly 2013 chemical attacks during the country’s civil war.

Rights activists say that if the Court of Cassation confirms Assad does not enjoy immunity due to the severity of the accusations, it could set a major precedent in international law towards holding war criminals to account.

But if the reasoning is that the warrant is valid because France…

The party that once dominated Tunisian politics has faded away since President Kais Saied staged a dramatic power grab, with its offices shuttered and leaders behind bars or in exile.

But observers say that Ennahdha, the Islamist-inspired movement still considered by some Tunisians as the country’s main opposition party, could still bounce back after a devastating government crackdown.

On July 25, 2021, Saied stunned the country when he suspended parliament and dissolved the government, a move…