Gulf states are again slamming Hezbollah over the Iran-backed terror group’s role in bolstering the regime of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad: In a meeting held in Manama over the weekend, ministers said Hezbollah’s continued involvement in Syria hindered holding another conference to restore peace. The attendees called for putting an...

Sectarian tensions spilling across the border into Lebanon are threatening to undermine the country’s fragile institutions, with a top Sunni cleric this week accusing the country’s military of collaborating with the Iran-backed Shiite terror group Hezbollah against Lebanese Sunnis. “The Iranian scheme aims at sliding us into a confrontation with...

Scores of people were killed in the latest wave of attacks across Iraq Tuesday, raising concerns that a full-blown sectarian war may break out in the country. Iraq is weathering its deadliest outburst of violence since 2008, with more than 2,000 people killed since the start of April. The bloodshed...

The Egyptian army has reportedly relieved Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi of his authority, informing the Muslim Brotherhood-linked official at 7pm Egyptian time that he was no longer president. At a press conference called shortly afterward, Abdul Fatah Khalil Al-Sisi outlined a roadmap that that involves provisionally suspending the Egyptian constitution,...

“There was no other way but for the army to intervene,” says Danny Yatom a former general in Israel Defense Forces who headed the Mossad, Israel’s foreign espionage agency, in the late 1990’s. “Egypt was and still is on the verge of a civil war and bloodshed. Only the army...

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood-linked government has formally accused the country’s military of staging a “military coup.” The full statement was posted mid-morning Eastern time on the organizational Facebook page of Essam al-Haddad, the Assistant to the President on Foreign Relations. Haddad is a British-educated senior Brotherhood official who was head of...

Pro-Morsi protesters at Cairo University – which was the scene of bloody clashes overnight – were heard chanting an anti-Semitic slogan threatening massacres against Jews: Pro-Morsy protesters at Cairo University chant the anti-Jewish slogan: “Khaybar, Khayber, O Jews, the army of Mohamed will return.” — Egypt Independent (@EgyIndependent) July 3,...

Rival demonstrations are primed to confront each other in Cairo as a 48-hour ultimatum issued by the Egyptian military – during which the political echelon was ordered to resolve the crisis behind mass anti-government protests – is set to expire: Tens of thousands of rival Egyptians poured onto the streets...

The toll in pro- and anti-government gun battles at Cairo University has risen to 18 dead and 367 injured, Egyptian security sources said today. The bloodshed began in the lead-up to televised address yesterday by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, in which the Muslim Brotherhood-linked president refused calls from both the...

Iran has arrested nine people, eight of them Slovaks, on charges of espionage. The charges, announced earlier this week, include accusations that members of hte group flew over restricted areas on handgliders and photographed them. It is unlikely that Western powers – which for decades have subjected Iran to intense...