Category: 2. Middle East

The UN on Tuesday warned that children in the Gaza Strip could begin dying of thirst if Israel’s more than 100-day fuel blockade is not lifted, Anadolu reports.

“Fuel, to state the obvious, is essential to produce and to treat and to distribute water to more than 2 million people living inside Gaza,” spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said at a news conference, adding that “UNICEF warns that if the current more than 100-day blockade on fuel coming into Gaza does not end, children may…

At his grocery store in an Iranian neighborhood of Los Angeles, Mohammad Ghafari is worried sick about his brothers and sisters since the United States bombed the Islamic republic’s nuclear sites.

But as he stands among his dates, dried plums and pistachios, he also cherishes the hope of change in his native country.

Iran “is not capable of providing food to the Persian people,” said Ghafari, who left to study abroad before the 1979 revolution and never returned.

“If the people (there) were…

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed another 46 people waiting for aid in the Palestinian territory on Tuesday as rights groups and UN agencies slammed the US-backed food distribution system.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 21 people were killed and around 150 wounded by Israeli fire near an aid point in central Gaza early Tuesday, and that another 25 were killed in a separate incident in south Gaza.

“Every day we face this scenario: martyrs, injuries, in…

Iran’s unprecedented strikes on a US base in Qatar were carefully calculated to provide an exit from hostilities with Washington and set up a truce with Israel, according to analysts and an official.

Monday’s missile launches were signalled well in advance, minimising the risk of injury and giving every opportunity to shoot down the projectiles — resulting in a fireworks display of booms and flashes above Doha.

They followed heavy US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities at the weekend, a…

The UN’s senior official for Libya announced Tuesday that she will present a political roadmap in August to help end the country’s “transitional processes,” Anadolu reports.

“UNSMIL (UN Support Mission in Libya) intends to present a time-bound and politically pragmatic roadmap that reflects the Libyan people’s demand for tangible change, with the goal of ending the transitional processes,” Hanna Tetteh told the Security Council.

“I urge all…

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi Tuesday reiterated Beijing’s support for Iran’s efforts to safeguard its national sovereignty and security, state-backed Xinhua News reported, Anadolu reports.

China “supports Iran’s efforts to safeguard national sovereignty and security, and on that basis, achieve a genuine ceasefire and restore normal life for the people,” Wang Yi said.

The comments by China’s top diplomat came after US President Donald Trump…

Tehran was far from its usual hustle and bustle on Tuesday, but life was regaining some colour despite concerns from residents that a tentative ceasefire between Iran and Israel may not hold, after nearly two weeks of war.

In Tajrish bazaar in north Tehran, everyone had their own opinion on whether the end to the fighting announced by US President Donald Trump would last.

“I don’t think it is sustainable,” said Ahmad Barqi, a 75-year-old vendor of electronics. “We would like a ceasefire… but…

Alarm has intensified over the welfare of inmates after an Israeli strike on Evin prison in Tehran, one of Iran’s most notorious penal complexes which haunts prisoners long after they are released.

Rights groups say that Evin, which is believed to have the capacity for hundreds of inmates, is home to dozens of “political prisoners” innocent of any crime, including foreigners, and women who are kept in a separate wing.

Israel targeted the prison in an air strike on Monday, before an American…