Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad challenged the United States and France on Monday to produce proof that his regime attacked civilians with poison gas, warning in an interview that any military strikes against Syria would risk triggering a regional war. "The Middle East is a powder keg, and today the flame is coming very near.
A report Monday said that the reason U.S. President Barack H. Obama effectively delayed the threatened American response to the recent chemical attack by Bashar al-Assad's forces was to give the diplomatic process a chance – and to bring Russia on board with the efforts to force Assad to give up his chemical weapons.
Egyptian forces on Saturday arrested the commander of an Al-Qaeda-linked group in the Sinai peninsula, officials told the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency. A senior Egyptian official said that Muhammad Ibrahim, 40, was appointed as the leader of Al-Qaeda in Sinai after escaping from prison following the 2011 Egyptian revolution. Ibrahim, also known as
The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and other ships in its strike group are heading toward the Red Sea to help support a limited U.S. strike on Syria if needed, defense officials told the Reuters news agency on Sunday. The officials emphasized that the Nimitz carrier strike group, which includes four destroyers and a cruiser,
Egypt's state prosecutor said on Sunday he has referred ousted President Mohammed Morsi for trial on charges of inciting the murder of protesters, the BBC reported. The accusations relate to violence outside the presidential palace in Cairo last December when seven people were killed in clashes. Fourteen other members of Morsi’s Muslim
Egypt’s State Commissioners Authority, which advises the government on legal matters, has called for the dissolution of the Muslim Brotherhood movement. The legal body also recommended the closure of the Islamist movement’s headquarters in Cairo. The non-binding recommendation was based on a 2002 law that prohibits organizations and groups from forming armed
Inspired by Egypt’s “Tamarod” (rebellion) campaign, a Tunisian petition has so far collected around 1.7 million signatures in a move to oust the current Islamist government, the group’s founder said in an interview with the pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat newspaper published on Monday. The founder Mohamed Bennour said the group is determined to
Egyptian Islamists backing ousted President Mohamed Mursi have called for demonstrations across the country on Tuesday, two months since he was toppled by the military. The call comes a day after Egypt's interim president Adly Mansour announced a panel to draw up a revised constitution but without the inclusion of Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood which
An improvised bomb exploded at a police station in downtown Cairo on Monday, wounding two workers, the state news agency said. MENA said three people on a motorcycle hurled what it called a homemade hand grenade at the police station. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Egypt has been gripped by political
The Palestinian Authority (PA) blamed the United States Sunday for the killing in Syria, reports Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). The PA's official daily wrote that “Events of mass killings do not upset [America] because they themselves have used killing as a means and a strategy to attain global domination." PMW's Itamar Marcus and Nan
