Hamas leader Ahmad Yousef has stated that there are ongoing indirect “chats” with Israel but a deal could also be reached if Israel is committed to earlier agreements and releases all those who were re-arrested after the abduction of three Israeli settlers last year which eventually led to the war in the summer. Prime Minster […]
Features
Togo: the Stakes of the Presidential Elections
Togolese voters are going to the polls this Saturday to re-elect incumbent President Faure Gnassingbé, who is seeking a third term, or elect a new president among the four other candidates, including the main challenger, opposition leader Jean-Pierre Fabre of the National Alliance for Change, who was defeated in the 2010 elections. The majority of […]
Lebanon: Hezbollah Has Built Airstrip in Bekaa Valley for Iranian Drones?
Lebanese Islamist group of Hezbollah, supported by Iran, has built a remote airstrip in the northern Bekaa Valley, says IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly in its latest release. The airstrip around 10 miles west of the Syrian border was discovered through some satellite images. According to some defence experts, the single unpaved strip is unlikely to […]
Syria: Jordanian businesses begin to feel collateral damage
Syrian rebels’ seizure of the main frontier crossing with Jordan has begun to have an impact on the government in Damascus and regional countries that are engaged in trans-frontal trade. The Nasib crossing point fell to the rebels at the beginning of the month and some Jordanian businessmen have already started calling for the Assad […]
Lebanon: World Bank official urges for reforms in Lebanon
Eric Le Borgne, lead economist at the World Bank, has urged Lebanese policy makers to focus on the country’s longstanding and worsening structural challenges because they are becoming more binding if the international ranking among key investment climate assessments is taking into consideration. Regional conflicts and the influx of refugees increased pressure on the country’s […]
Egypt: “We have committed a mistake,” Muslim Brotherhood leader
The newly appointed head of the recently formed Muslim Brotherhood Bureau in Exile, Ahmed Abdul-Rahman, has acknowledged that the Muslim Brotherhood committed errors and a “radical review” of the group’s charter has begun. In the same vein, he apologized to Egypt and her people for the “mistake” that the Brotherhood committed even though he didn’t […]
UN Expert Urge Rich Countries to Act to Halt Boat Deaths offshore Libya
A UN expert has called on rich Western countries to take in some thousands of the Syrian and sub-Saharan migrants to end the tragedies of boat disasters occurring in the Mediterranean Sea. The call was made as the EU leaders are convening an emergency summit in Brussels to discuss the migration crisis and consider all […]
Iraq: Abu Alaa Afri, ISIS new leader
After several media outlets reported that the caliph of the Islamic State Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was injured in a coalition airstrike in western Iraq last month, Iraqi government adviser Dr Hisham al Hashimi confirmed that the caliph has temporarily handed over power to Abu Alaa Afri due to the injuries he sustained from the bombings. […]
Egypt: Elections only after Ramadan, Minister
Parliamentary election will not be held until after July if the comments of Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ibrahim El-Heneidy are anything to go by. The Minister also heads the government-appointed drafting committee tasked with reviewing the electoral law after the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) ruled that some articles were unconstitutional. The news could come as a […]
UAE: $25 billion investment to reach 3.5m bpd by 2017-2018
Qasem Al-Kayoumi, manager of ADNOC’s offshore division of the exploration and production directorate has revealed that Abu Dhabi has a $25 billion investment plan for the next five years in order to boost the oil production capacity of its offshore fields. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) produces around 2.8 million barrels of crude oil per […]









