Archives for September, 2024

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli air strike that targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs on September 26, 2024

Israel strike kills head of Hezbollah drone unit

Agence France-Presse

Washington believes Moscow is 'cutting its own deals' with the Huthis to allow their ships to sail through the Red Sea unharmed

Russia in weapon transfer talks with Yemen's Huthis: US envoy to AFP

Agence France-Presse

US President Joe Biden greets Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates at the White House, on Monday, September 23, 2024 in Washington, District of Columbia. World leaders including President Biden and President Nahyan will travel to New York for the United Nations General Assembly. (Photo by Aaron Schwartz / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP) (Photo by AARON SCHWARTZ/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

Why UAE's upgrade to US 'major defense partner' will not deter China

While the designation comes with many benefits for the UAE, placing it on par with India, it lacks the formal security guarantees provided to other nations, including South Korea and Japan.

Joyce Karam

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional geopolitics, China in the Middle East

Veteran Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, pictured at his Cairo home in 2019, is serving a five-year prison sentence

Family urges UK govt to secure release of Egyptian dissident

Agence France-Presse

Lebanese inspect the damage to a building struck in Beirut's southern suburbs

Tired, traumatised Lebanese fear new Israel-Hezbollah war

Agence France-Presse

Turkish-backed Syrian fighters from the Turkish-backed 1st Corps of the Samarkand Brigade take part in a military parade in the opposition-held Afrin region of northern Syria, on Nov. 23, 2022.

Interview

Syrian-Kurdish KNC leader decries abuse by Turkey-backed Sunni factions in Afrin

Kurdish National Council President Sleiman Oso told Al-Monitor that dialogue with his group's rivals, the PYD, is still possible.

Sleiman Oso

Sleiman Oso

Kurdish National Council President

Russian S-400 missile air defense systems parade through Red Square during the rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade, central Moscow, May 7, 2022.

No shift in US position on Turkey's acquisition of Russian S-400s: Official

A Turkish Defense Ministry official rebuffed claims that Turkey and the United States were close to a compromise on the impasse over Turkey having the Russian air defense systems.

A man walks past destruction caused by Israeli air strikes on the outskirts of the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon

Israel defies ceasefire calls and vows to keep battling Hezbollah

Agence France-Presse

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot addresses the UN Security Council

Biden, Macron press immediate 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon

Agence France-Presse

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Adshit, near the Lebanon-Israel border, on September 23, 2024. The Israeli military on September 23 told people in Lebanon to move away from Hezbollah targets and vowed to carry out more "extensive and precise" strikes against the Iran-backed group. (Photo by Ammar Ammar / AFP) (Photo by AMMAR AMMAR/AFP via Getty Images)

US, France call for 21-day cease-fire on Israel-Lebanon border

US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron said it was time to “give diplomacy a chance to succeed.”

President Erdogan, who is in New York for the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, met with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of Greece at the United Nations Headquarters.

Analysis

Turkey, Greece inch closer to Aegean talks, but may disagree on starting point

An increasingly unstable eastern Mediterranean forces Turkey and Greece to start negotiations to solve their disagreements over sovereignty rights in the Aegean Sea, though not without compromise.

Ezgi Akin

In Ankara, reporting on diplomacy, EU-Turkey ties, NATO

Biden was interviewed in New York by "The View"'s all-women panel, which features comedians Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar

Biden warns 'all-out war' possible in Middle East

Agence France-Presse

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli strike that targeted the Jabal Al-Rehan area in the southern Lebanese Jezzine district on September 21, 2024.

US, UK militaries deploy troops to Cyprus in case of Lebanon evacuation

Washington has not yet authorized an evacuation, but President Joe Biden acknowledged "all-out war is possible" as Israel mobilizes two reserve brigades amid threats of a potential ground incursion to root out Hezbollah.

ETIENNE TORBEY/AFP via Getty Images

US, UK send troops to Cyprus in response to Lebanon crisis: What we know

Western countries have been calling on citizens to depart Lebanon while some Lebanese residents are fleeing to Syria.

Israel's UN ambassador Daniel Meron accused the body of betraying his nation

'The UN has betrayed us': Israeli ambassador

Agence France-Presse

IBRAHIM AMRO/AFP via Getty Images

More than 40,000 shelter in Lebanon schools as Israel expands airstrikes

Israeli airstrikes continued in Lebanon for the third day in a row, causing the worst wave of displacement in nearly two decades.