middle-east - INTERNATIONAL AGENCY FOR JOURNALISM AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

Syria regime destroys graves, digs up bodies of opposition fighters

Militias loyal to the Syrian regime of President Bashar Al-Assad have been filmed desecrating the graves and exhuming the bodies of opposition fighters and those affiliated with them, in a series of clips circulated on social media over the weekend. ...

Thailand shooting: Soldier who killed 26 in Korat shot dead

A soldier who killed 26 people in a gun rampage in the Thai city of Nakhon Ratchasima has been shot dead by the security forces, Thai police say. ...

Lebanon’s Aoun: Foreign states, especially France, want to help Lebanon

Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun said on Saturday that foreign states, particularly France, had expressed a desire to help his country emerge from a severe economic crisis, Reuters reports. ...

Syria: Assad regime captures 18 more settlements

Ignoring the Astana and Sochi agreements, Iran-backed forces of Syria’s Bashar Al-Assad regime kept moving in rural areas of Idlib and Aleppo. ...

Tunisia fires UN envoy over draft response to US peace plan

Tunisia fired his ambassador to the United Nations after accusing him of not consulting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on key issues, which diplomatic sources said included the controversial Middle East peace plan of US President Donal Trump. ...

Syria: 90,000 civilians flee Idlib over last 4 days

Around 90,000 more civilians have left their homes in Idlib de-escalation zone in northwestern Syria over the last four days due to attacks by regime forces and their allies. ...

Iraq: Al-Sadr supporters shoot fire to disperse Karbala protesters

Eyewitnesses stated that the supporters of the Sadrist movement’s leader, Muqtada Al-Sadr, fired live bullets on Thursday to disperse protesters in the city of Karbala in southern Iraq. ...

Lebanon president to force displaced persons to return home

Lebanon’s new government today “unanimously” approved a new Policy Statement which is set to include a clause demanding displaced persons leave the country. ...

Resolving Israel-Palestinian conflict, ‘key to sustainable peace’ in the Middle East: Guterres

António Guterres told the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, meeting in New York, that the Organization supports an end to the decades-long conflict on the basis of numerous “resolutions, international law and bilateral agreements” that have been made, with “recognized borders on the basis of the pre-1967 lines”. ...

Britain and the US condemn regime attack in Idlib

The British and US governments have condemned the Assad regime’s attack on Idlib, a de-escalation zone in Syria. ...

Japan destroyer heads to Middle East as Iran-US tension lingers

Japan sent a naval destroyer to the Middle East on Sunday for a rare overseas mission to ensure the safety of its ships amid lingering tension between Iran and the US. ...

Iraq: Populist cleric Sadr tells followers to clear sit-ins after PM appointed

Populist Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr urged his followers on Sunday to help security forces clear roads blocked during months of sit-in protests, calling for “day-to-day life” to resume following the appointment of a new prime minister, reported Reuters. ...

UN agency fears 'escalation in clashes' after Trump plan

Palestinians are in a "state of shock" over a US Middle East peace plan, the head of the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees said Friday, voicing fears of a surge in violence. ...

Iraq: attempts of assassination and kidnapping against activists

Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights revealed, on Wednesday, 121 cases and attempts of assassinations and kidnapping against the activists from the popular movement, since the start of the anti-government and political elite protests in early October 2019. ...

Human rights NGO slams Trump plan: ‘Control over movement means control over life’

Israeli human rights organisation Gisha described the newly-published US “peace plan” as “a plan for ongoing conflict”, in a press release issued yesterday. ...

The Elders warn that new US ‘peace’ plan for the Middle East is unworkable

The Elders warned today that the new US proposals announced by President Donald Trump cannot provide a workable solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. If implemented by Israel, they would make the two-state solution impossible, entrenching deep inequality along ethnic lines and moving the decades-old conflict into a new phase. ...