Saudi Arabia rejected a US appeal for the OPEC+ cartel to delay its recent oil production cut, according to a Wall Street Journal report published on Tuesday. Sources who spoke to the news outlet said US officials warned their Saudi counterparts that t…
Saudi FM says efforts to extend Yemen truce still stand
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said that the efforts to extend the truce in Yemen still stand, Al Arabiya TV reported on Wednesday, after an initial UN-brokered pact between a Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi rebels expired early this month. The kin…
Germany: Russia could deliver gas via Nord Stream 1, not 2
Germany will not take Russian gas via the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a government spokesperson said on Wednesday after Moscow’s President Vladimir Putin offered to resume supplies. The spokesperson added, however, that if Russia wanted to resume gas deliv…
How Adnan Syed’s case exposed a flawed justice system
With the murder charges dropped Tuesday against Adnan Syed, who has been imprisoned since 1999 the age of 17, when he was convicted for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee using what was later considered questionable evidence, criminal justice …
The decline of Yemen’s Islamist al-Islah party
The conflict in Yemen is about to claim yet another casualty. The Muslim Brotherhood affiliate al-Islah party is in retreat across the south, and pressure mounts in both Mareb and Taiz. The near monopoly held by Islah within the legitimate government o…
Iran: Khamenei says ‘enemies’ involved in protests
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday said “enemies” were involved in what he called “street riots”, after protests erupted last month over the death of Mahsa Amini. Khamenei has already accused the United States, Israel and their “…
Cholera outbreak: War and the weaponisation of water
New cases of cholera, an acute diarrhoeal illness caused by toxigenic strains of Vibrio cholerae, disproportionately occur in resource-limited settings with poor water and sanitation hygiene (WASH) infrastructure. In some countries like Bangladesh, the…
Turkey’s spy agency nabs ‘former PKK member’ in N. Iraq
The Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) arrested a senior official of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the Sinjar area of northern Iraq, Turkish state-run TRT broadcaster reported. For their part, the PKK said that the individual had p…
How water drives British foreign policy in the Middle East
Many of us were taught during our history lectures at university that it was the trade of spices, tea leaves, tobacco, silk and cotton that lured the British into colonising our nations in South West Asia and North Africa, and the discovery of oil in t…
Turkey’s Erdogan invites Morocco’s King to Ankara
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has invited Morocco’s King Mohammed VI to visit Ankara to strengthen ties between the two states,reported Anadolu agency. On Monday, Fuat Oktay, Turkey’s Vice President, extended the invitation in a phone call wi…