Author: Gulf News Week
Al-Maliki has been nominated by the largest Shia bloc in parliament as its candidate for PM.President Donald Trump has threatened that the United States will end support for Iraq if Nouri al-Maliki, a former prime minister with ties to the US’s longstanding foe Iran, is reinstated to the post.Trump, in his latest intervention in another country’s politics, said on Tuesday that Iraq would be making a “very bad choice” with al-Maliki, who just days previously was nominated by the Coordination Framework, the largest Shia bloc in parliament, as its candidate.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Iraq Shia alliance…
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian emphasised that regional instability ‘benefits no one’ during the call.Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has held a phone call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after a United States aircraft carrier arrived in the region amid growing fears of a new conflict with Israel or the US.The US has indicated in recent weeks that it is considering an attack against Iran in response to Tehran’s crackdown on protesters, which left thousands of people dead, and US President Donald Trump has sent the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier to the region.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1…
Rial hits record 1,500,000 rials to the US dollar, weeks after protests prompted by currency’s falling value spready across the country.Iran’s currency has dropped to a record 1,500,000 rials to the US dollar, according to several Iranian currency tracking websites, weeks after protests sparked by the rial’s dwindling value rocked the country.Exchange shops on Tuesday offered the record-low rial-to-dollar rate in Tehran, deepening the economic hardship for large swaths of the Iranian populace suffering from decades of extensive economic mismanagement and international sanctions.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Envoys from US meet Netanyahu as Israel continues to bomb…
Whoever is nominated from the two Kurdish parties still needs the approval from the Shia and Sunni blocs in the parliament.Iraq’s parliament has postponed the election for the country’s next president to allow for more consultations between the two Kurdish parties to agree on a candidate.The Iraqi News Agency (INA) said the parliamentary vote scheduled for Tuesday was delayed at the request of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Iraq Shia alliance nominates former PM Nouri al-Maliki as its candidatelist 2 of 4Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah warns of…
A huge military operation to recover a single Israeli body exposes a grim moral paradox: Precise forensics for the occupier, and mass graves and lost identity for the occupied and bombarded.To retrieve one body, the Israeli military mobilised a fleet of tanks, drones, and what locals described as “explosive robots”.They turned a neighbourhood into a “kill zone”, dug up approximately 200 Palestinian graves, and left four civilians dead in their wake.The focus of this overwhelming force was Ran Gvili, an Israeli policeman killed more than two years ago, the last Israeli captive in Gaza after more than two years of…
Dilling, a key route for supply lines, had under the paramilitary group’s control for nearly two years.Sudan’s military says it has broken a nearly two-year siege by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a key town in the Kordofan region, gaining control over major supply lines.In a statement late on Monday, the military said it had opened a road leading to South Kordofan province’s Dilling town.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Sudan’s army renewing military effort to retake Kordofan, Darfur from RSFlist 2 of 4Sudan’s people endure ‘horror and hell’ in war, says UN rights chieflist 3…
The plan treats Gaza as vacant beachfront property, proposing glass towers and industrial zones over historic sites.At the World Economic Forum last week in Davos, Switzerland, Jared Kushner, a real estate developer and son-in-law of United States President Donald Trump, unveiled a “master plan” for post-war Gaza during a presentation.The plan, which was contrived without any consultation with Palestinians in Gaza, promises to rebuild Gaza from scratch and includes residential towers, data centres, seaside resorts, parks, sports facilities and an airport.“There is no Plan B,” said Kushner, as he unveiled the plan, accompanied by AI-generated images and a colour-coded map.But…
At least three French tourists have drowned in Oman after the boat they were in capsized in waters off the sultanate’s capital city of Muscat, police said.The Royal Oman Police on Tuesday said the boat carried 25 French tourists, as well as a tour guide and a boat captain, when it capsized in the Gulf of Oman. It said three tourists died and two suffered minor injuries.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Rescuers search for survivors after landslide at New Zealand campsitelist 2 of 4Hundreds of tourists stuck on Yemeni island as tensions simmer on mainlandlist 3 of…
Social media influencer Sammy Yahood is known to spread Islamophobic content online.Australia has cancelled the visa of an Israeli social media influencer who has campaigned against Islam, saying it will not accept visitors to the country who come to spread hatred.Australian Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke said in a statement on Tuesday that “spreading hatred is not a good reason to come” to Australia, hours after influencer Sammy Yahood announced that his visa was cancelled three hours before his flight departed from Israel.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Australian writers’ festival apologises to Palestinian author after boycottlist…
Among those Palestinians seeking an exit from a Gaza destroyed by Israel: severely ill children, a mother trying to reunite family with her husband, and a student with overseas academic aspirations.Deir el-Balah and Khan Younis, Gaza – For the past two years, Khitam Hameed has clung to the hope of a single sliver of news that could fundamentally change the fate of her entire family.The reopening of the Rafah crossing, shut and controlled by Israel as part of its genocidal war on Gaza in spite of a ceasefire agreement, would allow her family to travel and reunite with her husband…