Special to WorldTribune.com By Norman Bailey The already extremely complex Middle East may be on the verge of becoming even more so. At this point, the Sh’ia northern arc of Iran, Iraq, Assad and Hizbullah is in confrontation with the southern Sunni arc of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States (with the partial […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Israeli security officials confirmed heightened tension on the Golan Heights border following Arab media reports of Israeli airstrikes that destroyed Hizbullah rocket launchers on April 26 in the Syrian mountains near Lebanon. Earlier reports said Israeli strikes targeted an attempted weapons shipment and a Scud missile site last week, also in the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Following are excerpts from an April 21, 2015 statement by the Washington-based Endowment for Middle East Truth. Today, the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET) condemned Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s column featured Monday in The New York Times and the newspaper’s willingness to publish Iranian propaganda intended to boost the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com WASHINGTON — Israel and Hizbullah could be drawn into a regional war, despite efforts calm tensions, a report said. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy asserted that the current tit-for-tat attacks along Israel’s northern border could result in a fullscale war, Middle East Newsline said. In a report for the institute, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com NICOSIA — Islamic State of Iraq and Levant has targeted a key route to Lebanon. Officials said ISIL has recruited hundreds of fighters to control a key route from Syria to Lebanon. They said the effort included ISIL assaults on several Lebanese towns along the Syrian border. A key ISIL target was […]
Special to WorldTribune.com WASHINGTON — Congress has become highly skeptical of any U.S.-backed solution to stabilize Iraq and Syria. A leading House member has dismissed a plan by President Barack Obama to fight Islamic State of Iraq and Levant. House Armed Services Committee chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry disputed Obama’s assertions of gains in the U.S.-led […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Yossef Bodansky, Senior Editor, Global Information System / Defense & Foreign Affairs The modern Arab State is gone, rejected by the vast majority of the populace. Libya, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon are no more, and Jordan and Yemen are not far behind. In their place there have emerged entities based on […]
Special to WorldTribune.com LONDON — Syria was said to have renewed efforts to produce nuclear weapons and maintains a secret facility near Lebanon. The German weekly Der Spiegel reported that President Bashar Assad has rebuilt Syria’s nuclear weapons infrastructure with help from Iran and North Korea. Der Spiegel, citing Western intelligence assessments, said the Assad […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler Bennington, VT — It’s time once again to peer into the crystal snow-globe to try to decipher and predict what we may expect ahead in 2015. After a dangerously tumultuous past year, the dust has yet to settle on a score of crises ranging from the man made […]
Special to WorldTribune.com NICOSIA — Lebanon’s leader has voiced concerns about the threat from Islamic State of Iraq and Levant and the timing of a $3 billion military aid project facilitated by France and Saudi Arabia. “ISIL is present in the region of Arsal, on the Lebanese-Syrian border,” Lebanese Prime Minister Tamam Salam said. “If […]