Category: 2. Middle East

President Donald Trump proclaimed a decisive break with decades of US interventionism during his Middle East tour, promising a new American foreign policy based instead on his beloved art of the deal.

Trump vowed during his swing through Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates that there would be no more “lectures on how to live”, saying the region had achieved a “modern miracle the Arabian way.”

In an extraordinary rupture with his predecessors, Trump then lambasted what he called…

President Donald Trump on Friday said Iran had a US proposal about its nuclear program and knows it needs to move quickly to resolve a decades-long dispute, but Tehran denied receiving one yet, Reuters reports.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in a post on X said Tehran had not received a US proposal. “There is no scenario in which Iran abandons its hard-earned right to (uranium) enrichment for peaceful purposes…”

Trump told reporters aboard Air…

A senior Arab League official confirmed on Friday that an international conference on a two-state solution for Palestine will be held in June under the joint chairmanship of Saudi Arabia and France, Anadolu reports.

“The conference on recognizing the State of Palestine will be held from June 17 to 20, co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France,” Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League Hossam Zaki said at a press conference in Baghdad, where the 34th Arab…

Israel threatened to target the leadership of Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels after the air force struck two rebel-held ports on Friday, following repeated Huthi missile attacks in recent days.

The Huthis agreed earlier this month to stop firing on international shipping in the Red Sea after the United States stepped up air strikes on rebel-held areas with British support.

But the rebels vowed to keep up their strikes on Israel despite the deal and fired three missiles in as many days this…

Iran met with European powers on Friday to discuss its nuclear negotiations with Washington, while US President Donald Trump issued a new threat unless the Iranians “move quickly” towards a deal.

The meeting in Istanbul followed remarks by Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warning of “irreversible” consequences if Britain, France and Germany move to reimpose United Nations sanctions that were lifted under a landmark 2015 agreement.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, who…

Flights resumed on Friday at Tripoli airport as businesses and markets reopened after days of deadly fighting between armed groups in the Libyan capital.

“Last night, for the first time since Monday, residents of the capital were able to sleep without hearing explosions or gunfire,” an interior ministry official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

After the bout of violence that pitted armed groups aligned with the Tripoli government and rival factions it seeks to dismantle, the…

The Yemeni Houthi group on Friday reported more Israeli air strikes on two of its seaports in western Yemen, Anadolu reports.

“An Israeli aerial aggression targets the ports of Al-Hudaydah and Salif,” Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV reported, without giving further details.

No casualties or material damage have been reported so far.

The Israeli army, for its part, confirmed that the attack destroyed infrastructure at the Houthi-controlled Al-Hudaydah and Salif…

The UN’s rights chief on Friday denounced Israel’s sharp escalation of attacks in Gaza — and an apparent push to permanently displace the population — as amounting to “ethnic cleansing”.

“This latest barrage of bombs… and the denial of humanitarian assistance underline that there appears to be a push for a permanent demographic shift in Gaza that is in defiance of international law and is tantamount to ethnic cleansing,” Volker Turk said in a statement.

A two-month ceasefire between Israel…