( Al-Bab.com ) – After months of apparent deadlock, the last few days have brought tentative signs of a shift in Yemen’s seven-year conflict. On Friday Hans Grundberg, the UN’s special envoy, announced that the protagonists had agreed to a two-month ceasefire. The truce, which came into force on Saturday, was the first since 2016 […]
Covid-19 infections soar to record 570,000 new cases in Middle East in past Week
( Al-Bab.com ) – Record numbers of Covid-19 infections have been reported in the Middle East and North Africa this week. Official figures show more than 570,000 new cases during the last seven days – indicating that the Omicron variant is now spreading rapidly in the region. Among the 20 countries monitored, nine show week-on-week […]
Yemeni journalist accused of spreading atheism is jailed for 15 years in Saudi Arabia
( Al-Bab.com) – A Yemeni journalist has become the latest victim of Saudi Arabia’s laws against religious disbelief. Thirty-year-old Ali Muhsin Abu Lahoum worked in Sana’a for the Yemen Times before moving to Saudi Arabia in 2015 and taking up a job with a TV station. More recently he is said to have been working […]
Is the Pandemic finally Subsiding in the Middle East? New Infections at Lowest Level for More than a Year
( Al-Bab.com) – New Covid-19 cases recorded in the Middle East and North Africa averaged 19,075 a day last week. This is the first time since September last year that the daily average among the 20 countries monitored has dropped below 20,000. TRT World: “Schools in Iran reopen under COVID-19 restrictions” New infections peaked in […]
Climate change: Saudi Arabia and OPEC resisting action on fossil fuels
( al-Bab.com) – Leaked documents show that Saudi Arabia and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have been lobbying to water down a crucial scientific report on climate change. News of the lobbying comes just days before the start of the COP26 conference on international action to slow down global warming. Ahead of the […]
Facebook cracks down on propaganda campaign in Jordan
( Al-Bab.com) – Facebook reported this week that it removed 2,784 accounts in June for “coordinated inauthentic behaviour”. Among those, 947 related to countries in the Middle East and North Africa region: Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Algeria and Sudan. Facebook treats online campaigns as “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” if they seek “to mislead people about who they […]
Yemen: a war with no military solution … and perhaps no political solution either
( Al-Bab.com) – The Yemeni city of Marib lies 120 km to the east of the capital, Sana’a, with mountainous territory in between. It was from Marib, in the early stages of the six-year war, that pro-government forces hoped to launch an assault against the Houthi rebels who had seized Sana’a. Since then, though, the […]
Biden seeks peace in Yemen, but will the warring factions come on board?
( Al-Bab.com) – The US State Department confirmed on Friday that it is revoking a last-minute decision by the Trump administration to designate Yemen’s Houthi movement as a terrorist organisation. The issue is not whether the Houthis deserve to be designated – their atrocities are well known – but Trump’s action, just days before leaving […]
Ending the crisis in Yemen is a priority for Biden administration
( Al-Bab.com) – Secretary of State Blinken: “It’s vitally important that we do everything we can to get humanitarian assistance to the people of Yemen.” Photo: State Dept When Antony Blinken, the newly-appointed US Secretary of State, gave his first press briefing last Wednesday the first topic to come up was the war in Yemen. […]
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