Fighting in Yemen has intensified in recent days, threatening to unspool a stalled peace process and deepen what aid groups call the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe. Clashes have escalated around the port city of Hodeidah, where the Saudi-backed government and Iran-supported Houthi rebels struck a cease-fire deal in late 2018 that was meant to pave … Read more
Two British Islamic State fighters accused in the torture and killing of Western hostages were brought to the U.S. to face criminal charges in Virginia, U.S. authorities said Wednesday, after more than two years of legal limbo after their capture in Syria. The men, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey, who had allegedly supervised Islamic … Read more
Iran reported its highest daily Covid-19 death toll and its largest single-day rise in infections on Monday, as the country imposed a second lockdown of its capital to contain a resurgent outbreak. The government over the weekend ordered a shutdown of schools, movie theaters, beauty salons, coffee shops, mosques and other businesses and institutions in … Read more
DUBAI—Emirates Airline powered Dubai’s rise from desert backwater to teeming Mideast metropolis, making the city one of the world’s biggest intercontinental hubs and generating a yearslong economic boom. But now, the coronavirus pandemic and the economic devastation it has wrought have forced the first major downsizing for an airline that has weathered Middle East conflicts … Read more
TEL AVIV—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday accused Hezbollah of improperly storing weapons in a civilian area near Lebanon’s capital that could explode soon, adding pressure on the Iran-allied group as it faces blowback over August’s deadly blast in Beirut. Mr. Netanyahu showed satellite photos of what he said was a missile factory located … Read more
The United Arab Emirates ramped up deliveries of military supplies to Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar this year, according to a confidential United Nations report, flouting an arms embargo as the Gulf state tried to salvage the leader’s military campaign and check the influence of regional rival Turkey. The U.A.E.’s military flights surged as Mr. Haftar fought to prevent … Read more
For decades, Kuwait has charted a neutral course in many of the Middle East’s intractable conflicts. But the death of its longtime ruler leaves his successor with a dilemma: whether or not to normalize ties with Israel without statehood for the Palestinians. Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, who died Tuesday, was a veteran diplomat who … Read more
TEL AVIV—After she was accepted to Yale University, Tess Levy was excited at the prospect of leaving home in Los Angeles for the first time and joining the freshman class this fall on the leafy Ivy League college campus. Instead, the 18-year-old is now ensconced in one of Tel Aviv’s hippest neighborhoods, Florentin, known for … Read more
BEIRUT—Lebanon’s prime minister-designate abandoned his efforts to form a government, thwarting a French-led initiative that sought to end a political impasse and unlock international aid after a massive explosion destroyed nearly half the capital last month. Prime Minister-Designate Mustapha Adib on Saturday said his resignation came after the collapse of a consensus among Lebanon’s political … Read more
Saudi Arabia plans to reopen the two holiest sites in Islam to pilgrims in October, seven months after it suspended visits to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, as it attempts to revive its floundering economy. The kingdom curtailed visits to the main mosques in Mecca and Medina in March after religious gatherings emerged as … Read more