Category: Middle East

By Raphael Ahren The writer is the diplomatic correspondent at The Times of Israel, which published it on November 7, 2020. JERUSALEM (IDN) – Joe Biden, the newly elected 46th president of the United States, is a true friend of the Jewish state, friends and even political adversaries of the emerging president-elect agree. “He has […]

Recollections by a Nigerian journalist who toured Lebanon two years ago By Louis Odion *The writer, Fellow of Nigerian Guild of Editors, is the Senior Technical Assistant on Media to President Muhammadu Buhari. ABUJA (IDN) – Many wished they were allowed to capture the moment with the camera, but the literary amazon from Borno beheld […]

By Bernhard Schell AMMAN (IDN) – Highlighting the increasingly dire situation in countries across the Middle East, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned that “deep humanitarian needs will worsen and new ones will emerge if the international community doesn’t factor socio-economic aftershocks into our response and protect livelihoods and food security”.

By Ramzy Baroud * This article was first published on the author’s website www.ramzybaroud.net on 22 April 2020. MOUNTLAKE TERRACE, Washington (IDN) -– It was intended to be a Machiavellian move, but the decision by Benny Gantz, leader of Israel’s Kahol Lavan (Blue and White) coalition, to join a Benjamin Netanyahu-led government is likely to […]

By Jessica Corbett * WASHINGTON, DC (IDN) – Joining global critics of a plan that President Donald Trump unveiled on January 28 to address the decades-long Israel-Palestine conflict, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation on February 3 rejected the “biased” proposal and urged members states not to cooperate with U.S. efforts to enforce it. At a […]

By Jamshed Baruah GENEVA (IDN) – A United Nations report has condemned a missile attack against Mitiga Airport, near Tripoli’s centre. At least two civilians were injured, while the tarmac and several buildings were damaged. The joint report of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and the UN human rights office in Geneva, published […]

By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN (IDN) – A tiny glimmer of hope has emerged for Libya which has been torn by fighting between rival armed factions since the ouster of late ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Participants in a high-level ‘Berlin Conference on Libya’, hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel on January 19, gave the go-ahead […]

By Manish Rai MUSCAT, Oman (IDN) – It’s widely believed that there are two main branches of Islam i.e. Sunni and Shia, which differ in their understanding of early Islamic history and hence they have different ideas about how Islam’s leadership should have been organised in subsequent eras. But there is a third, lesser-known body […]

By J C Suresh WASHINGTON, DC (IDN) – U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo has expressed opposition to International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s announcement that she “has concluded her preliminary examination into the so-called ‘situation in Palestine’ and asked the ICC judges” to confirm that the Court may exercise jurisdiction over the […]

By Reinhard Jacobsen BRUSSELS (IDN) – A panel of experts has bashed the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for “unacceptable practices” in the investigation of the alleged chemical attack in Douma in Syrian civil war on April 7, 2018. The panel was convened on October 15, 2019 in Brussels by the Courage […]