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BETHLEHEM, Palestinian Territories (AFP) — President Donald Trump arrived for talks with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday as they seek ways to renew Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. Trump arrived at the presidential palace in the West Bank city, located only about a 20-minute drive from Jerusalem but across Israel’s controversial separation wall. On Monday, Trump held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.
by Sarah Benhaida Agence France-Presse RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories – Palestinians in the occupied West Bank voted Saturday in municipal elections that underscored deep rifts between president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party and Islamist rival Hamas which runs the Gaza Strip. Their failure to reconcile is seen as a major obstacle to any settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The West Bank and Gaza have not participated in an election together since 2006, when Hamas swept Palestinian parliamentary […]
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) — Hamas’s former chief in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, has been elected overall head of the Palestinian Islamist group, succeeding Khaled Meshaal, its official media announced Saturday. Haniya, seen as a pragmatist within the movement, is expected to remain in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian enclave run by Hamas since 2007, unlike Meshaal who lives in exile in Doha and has completed the maximum two terms in office. “The Hamas Shura Council […]
by Maya Gebeily Agence France-Presse BEIRUT, Lebanon -A jihadist assault led by suicide bombers killed dozens Tuesday at a camp for the displaced near Syria’s border with Iraq, as pressure grows on the Islamic State group in both countries. The violence left at least 38 people dead and came as another surprise IS attack on Tuesday killed 10 soldiers in Iraq, to the south along the border. The jihadist group appears to be lashing out […]
by Cécile FEUILLATRE Agence France-Presse PARIS, France – French intelligence services have scientific proof that the Syrian regime was responsible for a suspected chemical attack that killed 88 people, France’s foreign minister said Wednesday. Jean-Marc Ayrault said analysis of samples taken at the scene of the April 4 attack in rebel-held Khan Sheikhun, in which 31 children were among the dead, showed “there is no doubt that sarin gas was used” and that it was […]
by Fulya OZERKAN Agence France-Presse ISTANBUL, Turkey – Turkey on Wednesday detained more than 1,000 people in a huge new crackdown against alleged supporters of a cleric accused of orchestrating the coup bid against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The dawn raids across the country — seeking more than 3,000 suspects — come just over a week after Erdogan narrowly won a controversial referendum on ramping up his powers. They are the latest indication Turkey intends […]
by Delil Souleiman with Rouba El Husseini in Beirut Agence France-Presse AL-MALIKIYAH, Syria – Turkish warplanes killed more than two dozen Kurdish fighters Tuesday in strikes in Syria and Iraq, where the Kurds are key players in the battle against the Islamic State group. Turkey said it had carried out the strikes against “terrorist havens,” vowing to continue acting against groups it links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). In northeast Syria, strikes targeting […]
by Omar Haj Kadour Agence France-Presse RACHIDINE, Syria – Hundreds of frightened Syrians being evacuated from besieged towns were stuck Thursday at a rebel-held transit point where dozens of their fellow townspeople were killed in a weekend bombing. The 3,000 evacuees left their homes in the government-controlled towns of Fuaa and Kafraya at dawn on Wednesday as part of a deal under which residents and fighters are also to be evacuated from several rebel areas surrounded […]
by Fulya Ozerkan and Stuart Williams Agence France-Presse ISTANBUL, Turkey – Turkey’s election authority on Wednesday rejected opposition requests to cancel a referendum that boosted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s authority as police detained activists over street protests following the contested poll. The narrow victory of the ‘Yes’ campaign in Sunday’s referendum handed Erdogan sweeping new powers — most of which will come into force after 2019 — but was bitterly disputed by his rivals. The […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — At least 68 children were among those killed in the car bomb attack on a convoy carrying evacuees from besieged government-held towns in Syria, a monitor said on Sunday. Saturday’s attack in Rashidin west of Aleppo killed at least 126 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, updating a previous toll of 112 dead. At least 109 of those killed were evacuees from the towns of Fuaa and Kafraya, it […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Files released by the mysterious hacker Shadow Brokers suggested Friday the United States National Security Agency had penetrated the SWIFT banking network and monitored a number of Middle East banks. The files, according to computer security analysts, also showed the NSA had found and exploited numerous vulnerabilities in a range of Microsoft Windows products widely used on computers around the world. Analysts generally accepted the files, which show someone exploiting so-called […]
DAMASCUS, Syria (AFP) — In the following AFP interview with Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, the questions were asked in English and he replied in English. Question 1: Did you give an order to strike Khan Sheikhun with chemical weapons last Tuesday? President Assad: Actually, no one has investigated what happened that day in Khan Sheikhun till the moment. As you know, Khan Sheikhun is under the control of Al-Nusra Front, which is a branch of […]
