Middle East Experience

Bloomberg reported on Thursday that the United States is considering sanctions on Lebanon’s central bank chief, Riad Salameh.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Lebanon's Salameh threatens to sue Bloomberg over sanctions report

The perpetrator attempted to land the plane in a Gulf country, Iranian media reported the corps as saying. Many details surrounding the incident are unknown.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it thwarted plane hijacking

Israel's defense minster joins other officials in subtle warning to Washington over Iran nuclear talks.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Gantz informs Biden administration of updated Israeli plans to strike Iran

The United Arab Emirates reported on Saturday 2,959 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, after conducting 242,159 coronavirus tests, according to the NCEMA.An additional 1,901 recoveries were also reported, in addition to 14 COVID-19-related deaths.Read the latest updates in our dedicated coronavirus section.The Ministry of Health has confirmed a total of 408,236 since the start of the pandemic. A total of 391,205 have recovered while the death toll reached 1,310 as of March 6.Read more:UAE prioritized early availability, local production in picking Sinopharm vaccineUAE may ‘soon’ be first country to vaccinate all population, reach herd immunity: DocAlmost 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine distributed in the Middle East
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: UAE reports nearly 3,000 new COVID-19 cases in 24 hours, close to 250,000 tests

The Syrian armed opposition factions are accusing the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces of planting explosive devices in fuel-laden trucks along the border with the opposition areas to prevent smuggling of fuel.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Syrian opposition accuses Kurdish forces of booby-trapping fuel trucks

Saudi Arabia has recorded 382 new cases of COVID-19 and five related deaths in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health announced on Saturday.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.A total of 378,708 cases of the virus have been detected as of March 6 in Saudi Arabia, and the Kingdom’s death toll stands at 6,524.The majority of new cases were recorded in the city of Riyadh with 183 infections detected, while the next-highest, 89, were detected in the Eastern Province, and 43 in Meccah.The Kingdom will ease some restrictions on public activities including indoor dining and gyms from March 7, state news agency SPA reported on Friday.Large social gatherings such as weddings are still banned until further notice. No more than 20 people are allowed to gather at once.The Kingdom’s daily reported coronavirus cases have been on a downward trajectory since a peak of 5,000 in in mid-June. Since the beginning of this year, the daily cases have not broken the 400 threshold.Read more: Saudi Arabia resumes some activities from Mar. 7, keeps social gathering restrictionsSaudi Arabia to provide free COVID-19 vaccines in pharmacies: Health ministerSaudi Arabia administers more than 1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses so far
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Saudi Arabia records 382 new COVID-19 cases, five deaths in 24 hours

Pope Francis entered a narrow alleyway in Iraq’s holy city of Najaf to hold a historic meeting with the county’s top Shiite cleric and visited the birthplace of the Prophet Abraham on Saturday to condemn violence in the name of God as “the greatest blasphemy”.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.The back-to-back inter-religious events some 200 kilometer (125 miles) apart, one in a dusty, built-up city and the other in a desert plain, reinforced the main theme of his risky trip to Iraq - that the country has suffered far too much.“From this place, where faith was born, from the land of our father Abraham, let us affirm that God is merciful and that the greatest blasphemy is to profane his name by hating our brothers and sisters,” Francis said in Ur, where Abraham was born.With the desert wind blowing his white cassock, Francis, sitting with Muslim, Christian and Yazidi leaders, spoke within sight of the archaeological dig of the 4,000 year-old city that comprises a pyramid-style Ziggurat, a residential complex, temples and palaces.Hours earlier in Najaf, Francis met Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a visit that was a powerful signal for coexistence in a country torn by violence.The US invasion of 2003 plunged Iraq into years of sectarian conflict. Security has improved since the defeat of ISIS in 2017, but Iraq continues to be a theater for global and regional score-settling, especially a bitter US-Iran rivalry that has played out on Iraqi soil.Sistani, 90, is one of the most influential figures in Shiite Islam, both within Iraq and beyond, and their meeting was the first between a pope and such a senior Shiite cleric.After the meeting, Sistani called on world religious leaders to hold great powers to account and for wisdom and sense to prevail over war. He added Christians should live like all Iraqis in peace and coexistence.In a statement, Sistani said, “Religious and spiritual leadership must play a big role to put a stop to tragedy ... and urge sides, especially great powers, to make wisdom and sense prevail and erase the language of war”.Their meeting took place at the humble home Sistani has rented for decades, located near the golden-domed Imam Ali shrine in Najaf. An official Vatican photo showed Sistani in his traditional black Shiite robe and turban sitting across from Francis.A meeting of faithsAlthough Abraham is considered the father of Christians, Muslims and Jews, no Jewish representative was present at the inter-religious event in Ur.In 1947, a year before Israel’s birth, Iraq’s Jewish community numbered around 150,000. Now their numbers are in single figures.A local Church official said Jews were contacted and invited but the situation for them was “complicated” particularly as they have no structured community. However, in similar past events in predominantly Muslim countries, a senior foreign Jewish figure has attended.“Hostility, extremism and violence are not born of a religious heart: they are betrayals of religion,” the pope said at Ur. “We believers cannot be silent when terrorism abuses religion; indeed, we are called unambiguously to dispel all misunderstandings,” he said.ISIS militants, who tried to establish a caliphate covering several countries, ravaged northern Iraq from 2014-2017, killing Christians as well as Muslims who opposed the insurgents.Iraq’s Christian community, one of the oldest in the world, has been particularly devastated, falling to about 300,000 from about 1.5 million before the US invasion and the brutal extremist militant violence that followed.‘A triumph of virtue’At Ur, Francis praised young Muslims for helping Christians repair their churches “when terrorism invaded the north of this beloved country”.Rafah Husein Baher, a member of the small, ancient Sabean Mandaean religion, thanked Francis for making the trip despite the many problems in the country, which include a surge in COVID-19 cases and a recent spate of rocket and suicide bomb attacks.“Your visit means a triumph of virtue, it is a symbol of appreciation to Iraqis, Blessed is he who uproots fear from souls.”The pope, who began his four-day visit to Iraq in Baghdad on Friday, was expected to say Mass later on Saturday at the capital’s Chaldean Cathedral of Saint Joseph.On Sunday he travels north to Mosul, a former ISIS stronghold, where churches and other buildings there still bear the scars of conflict.Read more: Watch: Pope Francis arrives in Baghdad on first papal visit to IraqPope Francis leaves Rome for four-day Iraq visitPope Francis holds historic meeting with top Shia cleric Sistani in Iraq's Najaf
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Pope Francis visits birthplace of the Prophet Abraham during historic Iraq trip

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab threatened on Saturday to stop performing his duties to pressure politicians to form a new government.“The equation is clear: there is no solution to the social crisis without solving the financial crisis, no solution to the financial crisis without the resumption of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), no negotiations with the IMF without reforms, no reforms without a new government,” Diab added.For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Diab’s cabinet resigned on the back of the August 4 Beirut port explosion that devastated swathes of the capital. Prime minister-designate Saad al-Hariri was nominated in October but has failed to form a new cabinet so far due to political deadlock between him and President Michel Aoun.Lebanon has been witnessing a devastating political and socio-economic crisis since October 2019 when nationwide protests demanding pollical and economic reforms pressured for the resignation of al-Hariri’s government.Diab added that Lebanon has reached the brink of explosion after the collapse and that there is fear that “the dangers will no longer be contained”.“As if it is our destiny in this country to remain tormented. As if the Lebanese’s dreams of a stable homeland are imprisoned. As if their aspirations for a just state is forbidden. As if their wishes for reassurance to tomorrow were confiscated,” Diab added.“If seclusion helps with cabinet formation then I am ready to resort to it, although it goes against my convictions for it disrupts the entire state and is detrimental to the Lebanese,” Diab said in a speech.“What is the responsibility of the Lebanese in the world’s conflicts? Why does Lebanon remain at the center of conflict in the region? Who is using our country as an arena to settle foreign agendas,” Diab added.Diab added that the Lebanese are suffering a serious social crisis, and it is likely to worsen if a new government with powers is not formed.“Is not the scene of the race for milk a sufficient incentive to transcend the formalities and round the corners in order to form a government,” Diab said.Diab added that the politicians cannot blame the people for their cry, while the formation of the government is in a vicious circle, and thus the suffering of the Lebanese is deepening, and social problems are accumulating.Diab added that Lebanon is in grave danger, and that the Lebanese are paying the heavy price of waiting.“Let us leave the illusions and ambitions of the authority aside, because the days to come do not bode well if stubbornness, defiance and arrogance remain barriers to forming the future government. May God protect Lebanon; May God protect the Lebanese,” Diab added.- with ReutersRead more:Reports of sanctions on Lebanon central bank chief are ‘untrue’: State DepartmentThousands rally to support Lebanon’s Patriarch call for an international conferenceGrocery shoppers fight over basic commodities as Lebanon stares into the abyss
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Lebanon’s caretaker PM Diab threatens to stop running government

Lebanon registered 52 more coronavirus-related deaths and 3,202 new cases Friday as the country awaited more vaccine shipments..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Lebanon registers 52 COVID-19 deaths, 3,202 cases

Sisi's first visit to Sudan since the 2019 revolution aims to revive the two countries' relations, and address tensions with Ethiopia over its Nile dam..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Sisi visits Sudan amid simmering dispute with Ethiopia over Nile dam