Author: Steven Sahiounie

US and British military strikes will not contain attacks by Yemen’s Houthis on commercial shipping lanes in the Red Sea but will risk further regional escalation, said Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdelrahman Al-Thani. Speaking during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Al-Thani urged diplomatic efforts over military resolutions when solving the expanding regional conflicts, noting that the escalation in the Red Sea was the “most dangerous” because it was affecting international trade. Last week on Thursday, the US and UK launched strikes against the Iran-backed militia in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen in retaliation to the recent attacks on…

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on Tuesday Israel was placing many obstacles to the entry of aid into Gaza, worsening the plight of Palestinians there.Safadi, speaking at a press conference with his Australian counterpart Penny Wong, said the hurdles meant only 10 percent of the total needs of more than two million Gazans under siege were being covered.“The reality now is that Israeli measures are preventing sufficient aid from arriving and only a fraction is being delivered,” he said.Israel, which screens goods going into Gaza and holds back aid it deems to be used for military purposes by its…

The General Assembly of the Arab States Broadcasting Union elected the State of Palestine as Vice-President of the Union, represented by Minister Ahmed Assaf, General Supervisor of Official Palestinian Media. This came during the Arab States Union’s General Assembly at its forty-third session in Tunisia. Minister Assaf thanked the Arab countries for electing the State of Palestine to be part of the presidency of the Union, considering this a tribute to Palestine, its people, and the martyrs of the Palestinian media, who numbered 113 since the start of the recent Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in all the Palestinian…

Gideon Sa’ar, a former justice minister and current member of Israel’s war cabinet, delivered the statement in an interview with Israel’s Army Radio. Nevertheless, Sa’ar said Israel must remain “committed to its goal” of ousting the Palestinian group. After more than 100 days of devastating war in Gaza, Israel is under intense pressure, including from its backer the US, to scale down military operations. Yesterday, Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the army would soon wind down its intense operations and move to “the next phase” of the war. Source: ALJazeera

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has called for Israeli settler organisations to be placed on “international terror lists” to prevent them from expanding the occupation of Palestinian lands. “The aim is to link the international and American stance rejecting the terror of settler militias with sanctions to compel Israel to dismantle and disarm them,” it said in a statement. Settler violence against Palestinians was intensifying even before the war, but has significantly expanded since October 7. The ministry previously blamed ultranationalist Israeli National Security Minister Itamar “Ben-Gvir’s terrorist elements” as the main reason behind this.

Scores of armed Israeli colonists attacked after midnight on Monday the vehicle of Palestinian civilians in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, according to local sources. A group of armed colonists attacked Palestinian vehicles in the town of Sinjil and smashed the windows of several vehicle . Earlier on Monday evening, colonists attacked Palestinian vehicles at the Oyoun al-Haramiyeh crossroad, north of Ramallah. Although common, colonists’ attacks and violence against Palestinians have significantly escalated since the start of the Israeli aggression on October 7, driven by many Israeli officials’ statements inciting violence and hatred. Source: WAFA

The US imported more than $1 billion worth of Russian uranium from January through November 2023, RIA Novosti reported on Monday, citing data from the US statistics service.

In revenge, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps IRGC says it targeted Israel’s “spy headquarters” in Iraq’s Kurdistan region and also struck in Syria against the armed group ISIL (ISIS). Iran promised payback for the killing of three IRGC members in Syria last month, including a senior general, who served as military advisers there. “In response to the recent atrocities of the Zionist regime, causing the killing of commanders of the Guards and the Axis of Resistance … one of the main Mossad espionage headquarters in Iraq’s Kurdistan region was destroyed with ballistic missiles,” the IRGC said in a statement. “We assure our…

A leading global exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), QatarEnergy, has stopped sending tankers via the Red Sea amid growing uncertainty about the safety of passage on the vital shipping route, Reuters reported on Monday.

Speaking after his win at the Iowa caucuses, in which the former US president cemented his Republican frontrunner status as he bids to retake the White House in 2024, Donald Trump said the “Israeli situation” is “so horrible”. He continued that “Israel would never have been attacked” if he were in the White House and called Joe Biden the “worst president” in US history. Trump said he would “get them solved very fast”, referring to the situation in both Ukraine and Israel, without providing further details. source: AlJazeera