Category: 2. Middle East

The French Development Agency (AFD) said it would invest €150 million ($167 million) in Western Sahara in 2025-2026, following Paris’ recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over the disputed desert territory, Reuters reports.

The long-frozen conflict, dating back to 1975, pits Morocco, which considers the territory as its own, against the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, which seeks an independent state called the Sahrawi Republic in Western Sahara.

The…

Malnutrition rates are rising in Gaza, emergency treatments to counter it are running out and hunger could have a lasting impact on “an entire generation”, a World Health Organisation official said today according to Reuters.

Israel has blockaded supplies into the enclave since early March, when it resumed its devastating military campaign, and a global hunger monitor warned yesterday that half a million people there faced starvation.

WHO representative…

Egypt’s Suez Canal will offer a 15 per cent discount on transit fees for container ships with net tonnage of at least 130,000 metric tonnes, to encourage trade back now the security situation has eased and help ships offset rising insurance costs, its authorities said today according to Reuters.

The discounts will be applied for 90 days from Thursday on container ships that meet the standards, whether full or empty, Suez Canal Authority said in a statement.

Britain’s decision to allow the export of F-35 fighter jet components to Israel, despite accepting they could be used in breach of international humanitarian law in Gaza, was unlawful, a Palestinian rights group told London’s High Court today, Reuters reports.

Al-Haq, a group based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, is taking legal action against Britain’s Department for Business and Trade over its decision to exempt F-35 parts when it suspended some…

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — President Donald Trump will meet with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa during his trip to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, a White House official confirmed to Al-Monitor. 

The surprise meeting comes five months after a coalition of rebel groups led by Sharaa toppled Syria’s longtime dictator, Bashar al-Assad, and installed an interim government. 

The Trump administration has avoided official engagement with Sharaa, a former Islamist insurgent whose group, Hayat Tahrir…

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — President Donald Trump announced he will lift sanctions on Syria ahead of his expected meeting in Saudi Arabia with the country’s new leader. 

“I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness,” Trump said in remarks at a Saudi-hosted investment forum on Tuesday evening. 

Trump reflected on “the misery and death” experienced by Syria during its nearly 14-year civil war.

“There is a new government that…

Hundreds of international film stars have condemned what they described as “silence” surrounding the genocide in Gaza, in an open letter published in today’s edition of the French newspaper Libération, coinciding with the opening of the Cannes Film Festival.

The letter stated, “As artists and cultural players, we cannot remain silent while genocide is taking place in Gaza,” adding: “We are ashamed of such passivity.”

More than 380 international…

Israel received “American support to open the gates of hell on Gaza,” far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said yesterday.

Speaking to the press, Ben-Gvir said that defeating Hamas is “the main objective”, adding: “We must stop hesitating and launch a decisive attack to crush the movement and encourage migration from the Gaza Strip, rather than bringing aid into the territory.”

“We will free our hostages by force,” he claimed.

His…

Rights groups and NGOs took the UK government to court on Tuesday accusing it of breaching international law by supplying fighter jet parts to Israel amid the war in Gaza.

Supported by Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam and others, the Palestinian rights association Al-Haq is seeking to stop the government’s export of UK-made components for Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets.

Israel has used the US warplanes to devastating effect in Gaza and the West Bank — both Israeli-occupied Palestinian…