WASHINGTON (AA) – US Senator Chris Van Hollen on Wednesday criticized an Israeli bill that would allow Israelis back into four West Bank settlements evacuated in 2005. The senator said the action, which rolled back an agreement reached more than 20 years ago to evacuate the settlements, was inconsistent with the obligations Israel had taken [&...
ISTANBUL (AA) – The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Iran have agreed to meet soon in preparation to reopen embassies and consulates of the two countries. Saudi top diplomat Faisal bin Farhan and his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir Abdollahian talked by phone late Tuesday, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said. “At the beginning of...
WASHINGTON (AA) – The Biden administration will release a review of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan next month and will make it available to Congress, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday. “I am committed and determined to make that information available to Congress, and we will do that by mid-April,” Blinke...
AMMAN, Jordan (AA) – The Jordanian parliament has approved a proposal to expel the Israeli ambassador as a mark of protest over offensive statements by the Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. The Zionist minister had made derogatory statements denying the very existence of the Palestinian nation. In a speech in Paris, Smotrich denied th...
Washington, United States (AFP): The United States on Tuesday joined denunciations of Israel’s far-right finance minister for denying the existence of Palestinians, calling his remarks “dangerous.” “We found those comments to not only be inaccurate but also deeply concerning and dangerous,” State Department spokes...
Kabul, Afghanistan (AFP): At least 12 people were killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan by a strong earthquake felt across thousands of kilometres, but the region appeared Wednesday to have dodged the mass casualties usually associated with a tremor of such scale. The United States Geological Survey said the magnitude 6.5 quake was centred near J...
TEHRAN, Iran (AA) – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tuesday that attempts by Western countries to isolate Iran have backfired. Iran marked the beginning of the New Year on Tuesday with nationwide events. Khamenei’s speech at Imam Reza shrine in the northeastern city of Mashhad came after three years of the pandemic. In [&hell...
SRINAGAR, Jammu & Kashmir (AA) – A freelance journalist, Irfan Mehraj, in Indian-occupied Kashmir has been arrested by the Indian National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with an ongoing probe into alleged “NGO terror funding case,” said an official statement released on Tuesday. “Following comprehensive investig...
ANKARA (AA) — Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan conveyed his “deep concern” over increasing attacks and acts of violence in the occupied West Bank in a phone conversation with Israel’s President Isaac Herzog. According to a statement by the Turkish Communication’s Directorate on Tuesday, he underlined the i...
ISTANBUL (AA) – China’s President Xi Jinping on Monday said that Beijing will work with Russia to “promote a multi-polar world.” On his ninth trip to Russia since being first elected as president in 2013, Xi said: “China will work with Russia to uphold true multilateralism, promote a multi-polar world and greater democracy in international [&h...
