Category: 2. Middle East

Ireland’s long-standing representative on a leading European body told a legal publication Wednesday that he resigned in protest because the group failed to demand a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, Anadolu reports.

Michael Farrell, a prominent human rights lawyer, stepped down from the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) after 14 years over the weekend.

He cited the organization’s refusal to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and to…

ANKARA/WASHINGTON — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed on Wednesday in the first such since July 2023, during which they signed agreements to expand their once-fraught bilateral ties and amid shifting regional dynamics that present new opportunities for both countries.

Sheikh Mohammed arrived in Ankara around 3 p.m. local time (8 a.m. ET), leading a high-level delegation. The Emirati delegation included Interior Minister Sheikh Hamdan…

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday rejected Israel’s request to cancel arrest warrants issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and to suspend the ongoing investigation into crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories, Anadolu reports.

In its ruling, Pre-Trial Chamber I of the ICC said it had dismissed Israel’s dual request made on May 9, 2025: One seeking the withdrawal, cancellation,…

The UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory on Wednesday accused the EU of “consciously supporting” what she described as “Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians,” after the bloc refused to suspend its Association Agreement with Israel, Anadolu reports.

“The EU, which had already disgraced itself by entering the Association agreement with Apartheid Israel years ago, is now refusing to suspend it,” Francesca Albanese wrote on X….

Israeli troops on Wednesday sought to control crowds and prevent Druze from crossing into Syrian territory, after deadly sectarian violence prompted Damascus to send government forces to Syria’s south.

Israeli soldiers in the occupied Golan Heights fired teargas to keep order along the heavily fortified frontier as dozens of people tried to cross over, said an AFP reporter in Majdal Shams, a mainly Druze town in the Israeli-annexed area.

Large crowds of men, many of them in the traditional…

In Syria’s Druze-majority city of Sweida, residents said they have been living in terror since the arrival of government forces who have been carrying out what witnesses and a war monitor have called summary executions.

“A lot of my friends were killed, including a doctor who was going to hospital,” said Osama, 32, by telephone on Wednesday, adding he was in the centre of the southern city.

“There were summary executions in the streets,” he told AFP crying, declining to provide his surname.

“If…

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday said he is “appalled” by reports of more civilians being killed in Gaza while trying to access aid, calling for full and transparent investigations into each incident, and for accountability where there has been failure, Anadolu reports.

Speaking during Prime Minister’s Questions, the prime minister said: “I’m appalled by reports of more civilians being killed in Gaza, particularly when they are trying to…

The European Council missed its chance this week to do something to stop Israel’s “war crimes” and genocide in Gaza, according to a former EU foreign policy chief.

“@EUCouncil failed yesterday to take a decision on Israel’s violation of the Association Agreement’s Human Rights clause. But this is in itself a decision: not to punish Israel’s continued war crimes and allow the genocide in Gaza to continue unabated,” Borrell wrote on X Wednesday.

The…

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday that his country is capable of delivering “even stronger blows” to the US and Israel in response to any renewed military attacks, Anadolu reports.

Speaking during a meeting with judicial officials from across Iran, Khamenei said Washington and Tel Aviv aim to weaken Iran’s leadership by assassinating key figures and destabilize the country through opposition groups and sleeper cells.

“But the…

At least 20 people were killed in a chaotic crush at an aid centre in southern Gaza on Wednesday, with the site’s operator blaming “agitators” within the crowd and the territory’s civil defence agency attributing the panic to Israeli gunfire.

It was the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s (GHF) first acknowledgement of deaths at one of its aid centres after weeks of chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Palestinians being killed nearby while waiting to collect rations….