Archives for May, 2015

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, speaks to worshippers at
the Tehran Friday prayers April 5, 2002. Khamenei called on Arab states
to launch a "symbolic" one month oil embargo against Western countries
to pressure them to stop supporting Israel. REUTERS/Raheb

CJF/CRB - RTR3AAF

Khamenei draws line on military sites, nuclear scientists

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that Iran would not allow inspections into military sites nor allow nuclear scientists to be interrogated.

Ali Akbar Velayati, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's top adviser on international affairs, arrives to deliver a news conference after meeting with Lebanon's Prime Minister Tammam Salam at the government palace in Beirut May 18, 2015. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir - RTX1DGJ6

Khamenei adviser visits Beirut

During a visit to Beirut, Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, expressed his country’s appreciation to the achievements of Hezbollah in the Qalamoun area, while stressing that Iran will not interfere in internal Lebanese issues.

Kurdish demonstrators gesture as Selahattin Demirtas, co-chair of the HDP, Turkey's leading Kurdish party, addresses a crowd in Diyarbakir October 9, 2014. A three-week battle for the Syrian border town of Kobani has also led to the worst streets clashes in years between police and Kurdish protesters across the frontier in southeast Turkey. In Diyarbakir, Turkey's biggest Kurdish city, five people were killed in clashes on Monday and Tuesday between Islamist groups and PKK supporters, a senior police office

Kurds abandon AKP

Thousands of pious Kurds, including entire tribes, have parted ways with the AKP, convinced that it has no real intention of reconciling with the Kurds.

RAFAH, GAZA STRIP - AUGUST 16: Ahmed Youssef, an adviser to Ismail Haniya of Hamas, the dismissed Palestinian prime minister speaks as he sits at his home August 16, 2007 in Rafah, southern of the Gaza Strip. Today, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued an executive decree convicting any one who joins the administrative forces or militia of the rival Hamas movement. (Photo by Abid Katib/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Ahmed Youssef

Former Hamas official speaks out

In this interview with Al-Monitor, Ahmed Yousef, former political adviser to deputy chairman of Hamas’ political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, weighs in on the negotiations with Israel, the future of a potential reconciliation with Fatah and international relations.

A Syrian refugee family is seen in front of their house in Ankara November 21, 2014. Syrian refugees across the Middle East, some in exile for a fourth winter, face freezing temperatures, hunger and increasing hostility from locals as governments struggle to cope with the humanitarian crisis. Lebanon and Jordan are tightening their borders to stem the flow of those trying to escape whilst in Turkey, widely praised for hosting around half Syria's estimated 3.2 million refugees, the influx threatens to upset

Attacks on Syrians in Turkey increasing

Increasing numbers of Turks are angered over the social and economic consequence of Turkey hosting some 2 million Syrian refugees.

A member of the Iraq security forces looks at the site of a car bomb attack in Baghdad May 9, 2015. The attack killed seven civilians and wounded 14 others, police and medical sources said. REUTERS/Stringer - RTX1C8E9

Baghdadis live with constant threat of violence

Amid ravaging terror and repeated security breaches, civilians in Iraq do not feel safe as a customary trip to the coffee shop could cost their lives.

Part of a tunnel exposed by the Israeli military is seen on the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border August 14, 2014. A renewed truce between Israel and Hamas appeared to be holding on Thursday despite a shaky start, after both sides agreed to give Egyptian-brokered talks more time to try to end the Gaza war. REUTERS/Amir Cohen (ISRAEL - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT) - RTR42EPD

Israel silent while Hamas digs tunnels

Before getting into another round of fighting in Gaza, Israel must use its nonmilitary tools to stop the tunnel digging that Hamas has continued to pursue so vigorously.

The head of Lebanon's Hezbollah parliamentary bloc Mohamed Raad speaks during a news conference in Beirut March 4, 2011. Raad spoke out against the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), which was established in 2007 to prosecute, under Lebanese law, criminal acts relating to the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in Lebanon. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi (LEBANON) - RTR2JFBJ

Senior Hezbollah official speaks out

In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor, the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc in Lebanon discusses the war in Syria and the party’s role there, the Saudi war against Yemen and the presidential stalemate in Lebanon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) sits next to armed forces chief Major-General Benny Gantz (L) and Gilad Erdan, minister of communications and home front protection, during a drill simulating a chemical rocket attack in Jerusalem May 29, 2013. Israel continued on Wednesday with its annual home front defence exercise, launched on Monday, preparing soldiers and civilians for missile attacks. REUTERS/Abir Sultan/Pool (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY) - RTX104PX

Erdan challenges Netanyahu, refuses Cabinet position

In a surprising move, senior Likud member and former Interior Minister Gilad Erdan rejected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s offer of a Cabinet position and is staying out of the new government.

U.S. and Jordanian soldiers participate in Exercise Eager Lion at the Jordan-Saudi Arabia border, south of Amman May 18, 2015. Around 10,000 participants from 18 countries will take part in Eager Lion. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed - RTX1DI9O

Defense spending bill provides boost to Jordan

House Defense appropriators released a FY 2016 bill that seeks to help Jordan fight the Islamic State.

Afghan children wait to enter school for the second shift of classes at a small private school for Afghans south of Tehran. Afghan children wait to enter school for the second shift of classes at a small private school for Afghans south of Tehran January 17, 2004. Iran's Bureau for Immigrants on Monday denied U.N accusations of sending Afghan refugees home against their will. REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi - RTRKRI8

Khamenei orders schooling for all Afghan children in Iran

Iran's supreme leader has ordered that all Afghan children in Iran, regardless of their residency status, be schooled.

Supporters of pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) shout slogans during a protest against attacks on their party offices, in central Istanbul, Turkey, May 18, 2015. Simultaneous bomb blasts hit the offices of the pro-Kurdish party in two cities in southern Turkey on Monday, three weeks before a parliamentary election, attacks which a party leader blamed on President Tayyip Erdogan. HDP officials said the blasts were the latest in a string of some 60 assaults against the party in the run-up to polling

What do attacks on Turkey's pro-Kurdish party mean?

Simultaneous bombing attacks against the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party show that Turkey may be heading toward a wild finish in key June 7 parliamentary elections.

A vendor sells potatoes and other vegetables to a customer in an open market in central Ankara February 5, 2014. The humble potato has become a factor in Turkey's political and economic turmoil as prices of the staple soar, hurting the living standards of poorer Turks just before the ruling AK Party's toughest election test in a decade. At a market in the lower-income Istanbul suburb of Kucukcekmece, potatoes sell for between 3 and 4 lira ($1.33 and $1.77) a kilogramme, up from slightly more than 1 lira at

Is there a potato conspiracy in Turkey?

A fall in potato crops, increased exports to Syria and Iraq and hoarding have led to an unprecedented potato shortage in Turkey.

Iranians visit Tehran's annual book fair on May 5, 2004. Persian is famed as the melodic, courtly language of mediaeval poets such as Omar Khayyam and Hafez, but it is a dictionary of vulgar street slang that is taking Iranian literary circles by storm. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl CJO/CRB - RTRIUKD

Censorship issues raised at Tehran book fair

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has harshly criticized book censorship in Iran, but existing laws confine his administration.

The Russian ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin abstains from a vote in the United Nations Security Council attempting to halt the escalating conflict in Yemen in New York April 14, 2015. The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday imposed an arms embargo targeting the Iran-allied Houthi rebels who rule most of the country and blacklisted the son of Yemen's former president and a Houthi leader after veto-power Russia abstained. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTR4XBCA

Russia weighs in on Yemen

After Russia's shift to soft power in the Middle East, President Vladimir Putin discusses Russia's "need to abandon ‘the law of the strongest’ and ‘rule of the fist.’”

The Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, Yuli- Yoel Edelstein briefs journalist at the Crown Plaza hotel in Jerusalem.

שר ההסברה והתפוצות, יולי- יואל אדלשטיין מתדרך עיתונאים במלון קראון פלזה בירושלים.

Knesset speaker calls for unity government

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Knesset speaker Yuli (Yoel) Edelstein argues that the new coalition is too fragile to survive, and calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form a unity government with the Zionist Camp.