The United States was among the first to cut ties with Assad over the repression of anti-government protests that sparked war in 2011, and many Western and Arab states also severed relations.

Hours after the strike on Arab al-Aramshe, an Arab-majority village in northern Israel near the border, Israeli forces hit targets in eastern Lebanon, a Hizbollah source told AFP. According to the source, the strikes targeted a warehouse in Iaat, a residential area near Baalbek, and "lightly" wounded one man.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - The prestigious Red Sea Fund has thrown open its doors to filmmakers across Arab and African origins, inviting submissions for its Production Cycle. With the launch of Cycle 2 for the year 2024, the Fund is geared up to support feature-length narrative, documentary, and animation projects....

"We have to think seriously about doing it this semester," Sanchez told a group of Spanish journalists accompanying him on a tour of three Middle East countries Sanchez had said on March 9 he would propose that parliament vote in favor of this recognition by the end of the current...

In power for the past decade, Sisi is set to remain president until 2030, after winning a December election with 89.6 percent of the vote against three relative unknowns. The six-year term is set to be the 69-year-old's last, unless he again ushers through a constitutional amendment prolonging his tenure.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories, said this week there were reasonable grounds to believe Israel was "committing the crime of genocide against the Palestinians as a group in Gaza". She said she had received "nothing that so far I have considered...

Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared as "state lands" the area in the northern Jordan Valley. Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said the size of the seized area is the largest since 1993's Oslo Accords, and that "2024 marks a peak in the extent of declarations of state land".

CAIRO, EGYPT – A major fire here destroyed one of the Arab world's most prestigious and oldest film production houses, founded 80 years ago, an AFP journalist said. Flames overtook the Al-Ahram Studio in Cairo's Giza district, burning everything inside and spreading to three surrounding buildings which were evacuated before the...

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA – The General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) said in a press release it issued on Sunday that it has adopted the chain-linking methodology to calculate the real GDP in the country. The Q4 2023 results and the annual results for the same year have been reached at...

AMMAN, JORDAN – Data released by the Amman Stock Exchange reveals that non-Jordanian investors bought shares worth US$12.5 million (JD8.9 million) in February 2024, accounting for 8.7 percent of the month's total trading volume. Conversely, these investors offloaded shares valued at US$44.7 million (31.7 million dinars) during the same timeframe....

The administrative step forward comes after Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich last month vowed to expand settlements, in response to Palestinian gunmen killing an Israeli civilian and wounding several others in the West Bank.

Israel routinely demolishes the homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out attacks, arguing that such measures act as a deterrent, while critics say it amounts to collective punishment.

Global condemnation flowed after Israeli forces in war-ravaged Gaza opened fire as Palestinian civilians scrambled for food aid during a chaotic incident which the Hamas-run territory's health ministry said killed over 100 people. The Israeli military said a "stampede" occurred when thousands of desperate Gazans surrounded a convoy of 38...

Though Biden handily won the vote, the uncommitted ballots, representing 13 percent of votes cast Tuesday, sent a "clear and resounding message that we demand a permanent ceasefire now," Layla Elabed, an organizer of the Listen to Michigan campaign, told a press conference.

Tunis, Tunisia--Tunisian President Kais Saied on Monday stressed the need to reach an approach that contributes to enhancing the security of Arab societies, according to a statement released by the Tunisian presidency. While hosting participants of the 41st session of the Arab Interior Ministers Council launched in Tunis on Monday,...

The International Court of Justice entered its last day of week-long hearings after a request from the UN, with an unprecedented 52 countries giving their views on Israel's occupation. The 22 Arab-country bloc's representative, Abdel Hakim El-Rifai, told judges in The Hague that "the failure to bring it to an...

Manama, Bahrain--Bahrain will support Arab tourism in order to enhance social, cultural and historical integration among Arab people, according to Fatima bin Jaafar Al Sairafi, Bahrain's Minister of Tourism. According to the minister, this would raise the contribution of the tourism sector to Arab countries’ national development. In a statement...

The shooters were "neutralized", police said, and an AFP photographer later saw two bodies at the scene of the attack on a highway east of Jerusalem, where five cars were riddled with bullets. "The three terrorists... got out of their vehicle and started shooting automatic weapons at vehicles that were...

The International Court of Justice is holding a week of hearings after a request from the UN, with an unprecedented 52 countries giving their views on Israel's occupation. Most speakers have demanded that Israel end its occupation, which came after a six-day Arab-Israeli war in 1967, but Washington came to...

"The recognition of a Palestinian state is not a taboo for France," he said at a joint press conference in Paris with Jordan's King Abdullah II. Macron also repeated a warning against Israel attacking the city of Rafah, the southernmost point in the besieged and bombarded Palestinian territory of Gaza.

In a post in Hebrew on social media platform X, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the Jewish country will continue to oppose unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. Such recognition, in his opinion, would offer an "enormous reward to unprecedented terrorism.

Jeddah, UAE--The Arab Tourism Organization (ATO) has signed a partnership agreement with the International Strategic Management (ISM) company to achieve growth and innovation within the tourism sector in Arab countries. The agreement comes as an extension of the ATO’s efforts to develop and enhance the tourism industry in the Arab...

Despite maintaining its ties with Israel since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, the UAE has been at pains to express solidarity with Palestinians as anger mounted in the Arab world over the conflict.

Dubai, UAE -- International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Kristalina Georgieva has forecasted that the total GDP growth for the Middle East region would reach 2.9 percent this year, surpassing the figures from 2023. Speaking on the sidelines of the pre-summit day of WGS 2024's Eighth Arab Fiscal Forum, Georgieva emphasized...

The value of certificates of origin issued stood at US$65m.

Cairo, Egypt - Nestled in the heart of the historic capital here, a cultural center synonymous with the city's art scene has been razed, the latest heritage site torn down for contentious development projects. Authorities have been aggressively remaking parts of Cairo, a longtime cultural beacon of the Arab world, to...

"First of all, they are not proportional. All of these constitute disproportionate use of force," Erdogan told journalists after Friday prayers in Istanbul. Oman, a mediator in attempts to end Yemen's long-running civil war, expressed its "worry" at the strikes on Houthi rebel military targets that, according to the Houthis,...

Among the Arab countries, Egypt recorded the highest debt-to-GDP ratio of 92.7 percent while US and China are on an unsustainable fiscal path.

Antony Blinken will leave Washington on Thursday evening on a trip that will include Israel, marking his fourth trip to the region and fifth to Israel since Hamas fighters carried out the deadliest-ever attack inside Israel on October 7. No details have been offered about which Arab country he will...

According to United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, it had received reports of up to three explosions 1-5 nautical miles from the merchant vessel, which was travelling between the coasts of Eritrea and Yemen. The US Central Command later said Houthi rebels had fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles into the southern...

London, UK - Britain's former prime minister Tony Blair has strongly denied an Israeli media report linking him to talks last week about the resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza in other countries. Channel 12 claimed on Sunday that Blair, who left office in 2007 and served as a Middle East envoy...

DUBAI, UAE – Egypt stands as the most populous Arab country with 113 million people, marking it the 14th largest population worldwide, according to a recent overview by the World Population Review and Worldometer. The data, highlighting population sizes of various countries worldwide, pointed out that the global population has...

Abu Dhabi, UAE - The United Arab Emirates was named the most economically competitive nation in the Arab world, a report on Arab Economic Competitiveness Index released by the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF). UAE's sustained progress across crucial sectors, including its economy and investment environment are said to be the...

New York, USA - The UN General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution by 185 votes on 'The UN Human Rights Training and Documentation Center for South-West Asia and the Arab Region'. Qatar sponsored and facilitated negotiations every two years since its establishment in 2008, with its headquarters in Doha. Sheikha...

The outcome of the December 10-12 poll was widely expected after the former army chief with a fondness for infrastructure mega-projects campaigned against a small field of relative unknowns. It secures 69-year-old Sisi his third and, according to the Egyptian constitution, final term in office, starting in April and set...

The vote is expected to consolidate the position of the ruling Coordination Framework coalition, an Iran-aligned bloc that brings together Shiite Islamist parties with factions of Hashed al-Shaabi, a network of former paramilitary units integrated into the regular army.

Filippo Grandi, head of the UN refugee agency, warned Wednesday that pushing Gazans across the frontier would be "extremely destabilizing for Egypt". "It's very important to insist that this evacuation of people beyond (the border) must not be promoted, must not be advanced, forced," the UNHCR chief told journalists in...

At the annual Doha Forum that ended Monday, Qatar reiterated that no Arab country would send in forces to stabilize the situation after the guns of Israel and Hamas fall silent.

Speaking at the 12th Arab Energy Conference organized by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), Qatar's Energy Minister Saad bin Sherida Al Kaabi stressed the importance of addressing energy security challenges and called for increased investments in energy efficiency, low-carbon technologies, and renewable energy sources.

Istanbul, Turkey - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday denounced the UN Security Council after the United States vetoed a ceasefire resolution for Gaza, describing the international body as the 'Israel protection council'. "Since October 7, the security council has become an Israel protection and defense council," Erdogan said. The United...

MOSCOW, RUSSIA - The chief of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, or SVR, believes the Arab world will take center stage in the struggle for a new world order next year. Sergey Naryshkin believes that in the Arab countries "the globalist elites’ ambitions to play the role of an international hegemon,...

Santiago, Chile - Thousands of miles from the Middle East, in a stadium in Santiago, Chile, the nation of Palestine exists, if only for the 90 minutes of a soccer match. Chileans and Palestinians created that alternate reality again on Thursday when Club Deportivo Palestino, which traces its origins to Palestinian...

Cairo, Egypt - Tunisian film star Hend Sabri has resigned as World Food Program goodwill ambassador in protest at what she called the use of starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza. Sabri, a leading figure in Arab cinema, said that she had decided with "a heavy heart and deep...

Dubai, UAE -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) holds nearly 40 percent of the aircraft fleet in the Arab region, Director-General of the Arab Civil Aviation Organisation (ACAO) Abdennabi Manar said. Speaking to the Emirates News Agency (WAM) on the sidelines of the ongoing third International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)...

The Israeli army said its forces conducted "counterterrorism activities" in the city, during which "engineering vehicles uncovered explosive devices planted on routes to attack the forces". "In addition, soldiers questioned and apprehended wanted suspects, and during exchanges of fire with armed assailants, a number of the assailants were killed," the...

Erdogan returned from a summit on Saturday of Arab and Muslim leaders in the Saudi capital Riyadh, which condemned Israeli forces' "barbaric actions" in Gaza without approving concrete punitive measures. He is due to visit Germany on Friday and plans to travel to Egypt and host Iran's president in the...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that the Kingdom will hold a joint Arab Islamic extraordinary summit here instead of two summits. “In response to the unprecedented circumstances in Gaza, and after consultation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the League of the Arab States...

The suffering and death in Gaza has prompted growing calls for a halt in five weeks of fighting in order to protect civilian lives in the densely populated territory. French President Emmanuel Macron called on Israel to stop bombing civilians in Gaza, saying there was "no justification" and the deaths...

The high-level meeting in Cairo comes ahead of Saturday's summits in Saudi Arabia, where Arab and Muslim leaders are expected to press for an end to more than a month of fighting.

The emergency meetings of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation come after over one month of Israeli bombardment has killed more than 10,000 people in Gaza, many of them children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. With Israel's leaders rebuffing talk of a ceasefire until the captives...