Category: 2. Middle East

US President Donald Trump said today that the United States was getting very close to securing a nuclear deal with Iran, and Tehran had “sort of” agreed to the terms, Reuters reports.

“We’re in very serious negotiations with Iran for long-term peace,” Trump said on a tour of the Gulf, according to a shared pool report by AFP.

“We’re getting close to maybe doing a deal without having to do this… there [are] two steps to doing this, there is a…

Saudi Aramco said yesterday that it had signed 34 preliminary deals with major US companies, potentially worth up to $90 billion in a push to deepen commercial ties with the United States on the back of President Donald Trump’s visit to the kingdom, Reuters reported.

The announcement was made a day after Riyadh pledged $600 billion in US investments.

Still, most tie-ups listed by the state oil giant were memorandums of understanding without a value attached….

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has warned that life-saving humanitarian aid, blocked from entering Gaza since 2 March due to Israel’s closure of border crossings, is at risk of perishing in warehouses outside the besieged enclave.

“Humanitarian supplies — food, hygiene kits, medicine, shelter items — are sitting in warehouses outside #Gaza due to the blockade,” UNRWA said in a statement posted on its official Facebook page yesterday.

A drone attack launched by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) targeted two power stations in Omdurman, western Khartoum, yesterday evening, causing fires and a power outage across the Sudanese capital, according to Sudan’s national electricity company.

In a statement, the company said RSF drones targeted the Markhiyat Transformer Station and a distribution station in Omdurman, causing fires and a widespread power outage across Khartoum State.

Civil defence teams…

Israeli occupation authorities are reportedly holding two Palestinian women, both five months pregnant, under harsh conditions at Damon Prison, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club reported.

In a statement issued yesterday, the organisation named the two women as Rima Balawi from Tulkarm and Zahraa Al-Kawazba from Bethlehem. It said both are being held in poor conditions similar to those faced by other male and female prisoners in the facility.

The club said the…

Some 1,291 cases have been referred to the Kuwaiti Cabinet to have their citizenship revoked, according to reports.

In a statement, the Ministry of Interior announced that the Nationality Committee decided to revoke the citizenship of nine individuals due to dual citizenship. It also withdrew citizenship from 113 individuals on the grounds of fraud, false statements, forgery, and those who had acquired nationality through them by dependency.

The statement added…

US President Donald Trump said Thursday a deal was close on Iran’s nuclear programme that would avert military action, sending oil prices tumbling as he boasted of raising “trillions of dollars” on a Gulf tour.

“We’re not going to be making any nuclear dust in Iran,” Trump said in Qatar, the second stop of his multi-day Gulf tour.

“I think we’re getting close to maybe doing a deal without having to do this,” he said, referring to military action.

Oil prices plunged more than three percent on…

US President Donald Trump on Thursday closes a Middle East tour in the United Arab Emirates as he focuses squarely on seeking deals after billions of dollars of pledges from Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The first major trip of his second term had been scheduled to end Thursday but Trump, always ready with surprises, did not rule out continuing on to Turkey if Russian President Vladimir Putin shows up for talks with Ukraine.

Trump will fly to the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi after a stop in Qatar,…

Filmmaker Sepideh Farsi is still in shock after an Israeli air strike killed her documentary’s main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, in Gaza last month.

“Why would you kill someone and decimate an entire family just because she was taking photos?” she told AFP ahead of her film’s premiere at the Cannes Festival Thursday.

With Israel banning foreign media from entering the besieged Palestinian territory, Farsi reached out to Hassouna through video calls, turning their…