BAGHDAD (AP) – For months, the United States has restricted Iraq’s access to its own dollars, trying to stamp out what Iraqi officials describe as rampant money laundering that benefits Iran and Syria. Iraq is now feeling the crunch, with a drop in the value of its currency and public anger blowing back against the … Read more
Islamabad/London CNN – Muhammad Radaqat, a 27-year-old greengrocer, is worried. He doesn’t know how much an onion will cost next week, let alone how he’ll be able to afford the fuel he needs to heat his home and keep his family warm. “All we’re being told by the government is that things are going to … Read more
Secretary of State Tony Blinken meets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. Photo: Majdi Mohammed/AFP via Getty Images Secretary of State Tony Blinken pressed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to accept and implement a US security plan aimed at reestablishing Palestinian Authority control over the cities of Jenin and Nablus, which have become centers of unrest … Read more
KHAN AL-AHMAR, West Bank (AP) — Protesters streaming up the windswept hills east of Jerusalem interrupted Maha Ali’s breakfast. Palestinian chants of support for her West Bank Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar, at risk of demolition by the Israeli army since it lost its legal protection over four years ago, drowned out the singing birds … Read more
Ramallah, West Bank CNN – Abu A’asem brews pot after pot of his specialty Arabic coffee, despite the pouring rain. His corner stand at the heart of Ramallah is always busy, no matter the weather, but his future as a Palestinian is very much as gloomy as the skies above. “I am 40 years old … Read more
On In rare — albeit implicit — criticism of Israel, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called out Israeli policies, including settlement expansion and home demolitions, as detrimental to the two-state solution. Still, at a news conference at the end of his trip to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories on Tuesday, Blinken … Read more
Islamabad, Pakistan CNN – The death toll from a suicide bomb that ripped through a mosque in Peshawar, northwestern Pakistan, rose to at least 100 on Tuesday, marking one of the deadliest attacks in the country in years as it faces what one analyst described as “a national security crisis .” Muhammad Asim Khan, spokesperson … Read more
Jenin refugee camp, occupied West Bank – In Umm Yousif’s neighborhood, almost every house and car is riddled with bullet holes and broken windows after what residents describe as a “massacre”. The children here are not playing with marbles, but with the bullet casings strewn across the tight alleyways and adjacent rooftops following a deadly … Read more
A rise in violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem is feared following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to make it easier for Israelis to acquire firearms. On Saturday, Netanyahu said he would expedite gun permits for Israeli citizens and step up efforts to collect “illegal weapons”. His office also … Read more
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Bomb-carrying drones targeted an Iranian defense factory in the central city of Isfahan overnight, authorities said early Sunday, causing some damage at the plant amid heightened regional and international tensions engulfing the Islamic Republic. The Iranian Defense Ministry offered no information on who it suspected carried out the attack, … Read more