Tag: Middle East

In this photo released on Sunday, April 13, 2014 by the Syrian official news agency SANA, a Syrian forces tank arrives to take position during clashes with Syrian rebels, near the town of Rankous, Syria. The seizure of the villages comes a day after Syrian troops backed by fighters from Lebanon's Shiite militant Hezbollah group captured the nearby town of Rankous. (AP Photo/SANA)

Syrian troops choke off rebels north of Damascus

Albert Aji · April 14, 2014 6:37 pm

Israeli man killed, 2 hurt in West Bank shooting

Washington Examiner · April 14, 2014 5:23 pm

In this picture released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, speaks to a group of officials and scientists of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 9, 2014. Iran's Supreme Leader urged Iran's negotiators Wednesday not to give in to "coercive words" from world powers at talks over Tehran's nuclear program. Iran is celebrating its National Nuclear Technology Day as talks with world powers over its contested program continue in Vienna. A Portrait of the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini hangs in background.(AP Photo/Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader)

Energy and Environment

Iran official concerned for nuclear power plant

ALI AKBAR DAREINI · April 14, 2014 9:16 am

Jewish settler listen to a gesturing Palestinian woman as Jewish settler families move belongings into a contested house, seen behind, in the volatile city of Hebron after a protracted legal battle, in the West Bank city of Hebron, Sunday, April 13, 2014. Settlers first moved into the building in 2007, but were evicted by the army amid legal issues over how they obtained the property, but they are now re-occupying the property after a court recently found the purchase of the home to be legitimate.(AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)

Israeli coalition shows signs of growing tensions

Josef Federman · April 13, 2014 8:49 pm

In this Friday, April 11, 2014 image made from amateur video provided by the Shams News Network, a loosely organized anti-Assad group based in and out of Syria that claim not to have any connection to Syrian opposition parties or any other states, and which is consistent with independent AP reporting, a man lies on the floor with an oxygen mask at a hospital room in Kfar Zeita, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Damascus, Syria. Syrian government media and rebel forces said Saturday, April 12, 2014 that poison gas had been used in the village, on Friday injuring scores of people, while blaming each other for the attack. (AP Photo/Shams News Network)

National Security

Official: US looking into Syria toxic gas reports

ALBERT AJIBARBARA SURK · April 13, 2014 6:02 pm

In this Thursday, Feb. 6, 2014 photo provided by the office of the Iranian President, Hamid Aboutalebi, an Iranian diplomat, who was recently named as Iran's ambassador at the United Nations, speaks at his office in Tehran, Iran. Iran has no plans to name a new diplomat to the United Nations, its Foreign Ministry said Saturday, after the United States blocked its pick in a rare rebuke that could stir fresh animosity at a time when the two countries have been seeking a thaw in relations. The Obama administration said Friday that the U.S. had informed Iran it would not grant a visa to Hamid Aboutalebi, a member of the group responsible for the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. While U.S. officials had been trying to persuade Iran to simply withdraw Aboutalebi's name, the announcement amounted to an acknowledgement that those efforts had not been successful. (AP Photo/Iranian Presidency Office, Mohammad Berno)

National Security

US ambassador: Talks with Iran continuing

Washington Examiner · April 13, 2014 2:58 pm

In this Friday, April 11, 2014 image made from amateur video provided by the Shams News Network, a loosely organized anti-Assad group based in and out of Syria that claim not to have any connection to Syrian opposition parties or any other states, and which is consistent with independent AP reporting, a man lies on the floor with an oxygen mask at a hospital room in Kfar Zeita, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Damascus, Syria. Syrian government media and rebel forces said Saturday, April 12, 2014 that poison gas had been used in the village, on Friday injuring scores of people, while blaming each other for the attack. (AP Photo/Shams News Network)

Poison gas claims complicate Syrian civil war

Bassem Mroue · April 13, 2014 12:40 am

Syria war deepens fears for Lebanon’s missing

Barbara Surk · April 11, 2014 8:36 pm

An Israeli soldier detains a foreign protester during a demonstration calling for no more Israeli settlements in Hebron in front of a disputed building in the West Bank city of Hebron near the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba, Friday, April 11, 2014. Israeli settlers and Palestinians both claim ownership of the property. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)

Palestinians condemn Israeli sanctions as ‘piracy’

Washington Examiner · April 11, 2014 7:25 pm

Social challenges as Saudis draw throne’s future

Aya Batrawy · April 11, 2014 6:43 pm

A look at the missing in Middle East’s conflicts

The Associated Press · April 11, 2014 6:11 pm

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Flames rise from damaged cars at the site where two car bombs exploded at a commercial street inhabited mostly by members of President Bashar Assad's minority Alawite sect, in Homs province, central Syria, Wednesday April 9, 2014. Two car bombs exploded Wednesday in a government-held district of Syria's battleground city of Homs, killing at least 25 people and wounding more than 100, state media said. (AP Photo/SANA)

Syria death toll from rebel infighting rises to 68

Bassem Mroue · April 11, 2014 2:59 pm