Egypt’s opposition is calling for protests and declaring that a weekend referendum on Egypt’s new constitution was marred by irregularities. The draft constitution was hastily passed weeks ago by Egypt’s Islamist-dominated constitutional assembly, as the country was in the midst of a political legitimacy crisis triggered by a power grab...

Sunni-backed opposition forces battling to overthrow the regime of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad will soon try to eradicate Israel, according to statements made by Abed Shihadeh, a top Jordanian Salafist figure. Shihadeh, who was speaking at the funeral of a suicide bomber, went on to label the United States “the...

Iranian Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi declared on Saturday that the presence of NATO anti-missile assets in Turkey was “very dangerous for the future of mankind,” particularly singling out Europe as threatened. A planned visit to Turkey by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was subsequently canceled, and increasingly pitched...

Washington, December 15 — Iranian and Western officials are striking pessimistic notes regarding the prospects for a breakthrough in broad talks aimed at decreasing opacity around Iran’s atomic program. Meanwhile Tehran may be dragging out more limited negotiations over granting United Nations inspectors access to a key military facility where...

The resignation of Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, which comes in the wake of a decision yesterday by Israel’s attorney general to indict Lieberman on corruption charges, has analysts and pundits scrambling to reevaluate electoral scenarios as Israelis prepare to go to the polls on January 22. Lieberman has been...

An Egyptian court has sentenced a 27 year old Copt, computer science graduate Alber Saber, to three years of prison for insulting Islam. Saber’s trial and conviction, which revolved around accusations that he uploaded sections of the anti-Mohamed film “Innocence of Muslims” to the Internet, have deepened concerns over the...

A top Iranian nuclear negotiator is minimizing prospects for a breakthrough in talks between Tehran and the P5+1 aimed at decreasing opacity around Iran’s atomic program. Mostafa Dolatyar, who heads the Iranian foreign ministry’s think tank, blasted the approach of the P5+1 – the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia,...

Thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank flocked on Friday to a Hamas rally in Hebron, the first such rally that Hamas’s rival Fatah faction, which controls the West Bank, had permitted in years. Waving Hamas banners and carrying fake missiles on their shoulders, the demonstrators subsequently marched toward an...

Egyptians will go to the polls this weekend to vote on a new draft constitution, controversy over which has triggered violence throughout Egypt and raised concerns about Cairo’s uneven transition to democracy. Decisions by Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and rulings by Egyptian courts have deepened fears that the post-Arab Spring...

Turkey’s Minister of Economy Mehmet Zafer Caglayan has issued defiant statement, conveyed by Iranian mediato the effect that his country will continue trading with Iran despite international efforts to isolate the regime. Turkey’s economy is increasingly reliant on trading gold for Iranian energy, both to ensure growth and for balancing...