Iraqi soldiers have raised their country’s flags over key buildings in Kirkuk, and Baghdad has declared the Kurdish city be under government control. The Kurdish Peshmerga forces called the takeover “a flagrant declaration of war” and vowed that Iraq will pay a “heavy price.” The Iraqi government forces have taken full control of Kirkuk, Al…
Eleven-day border closure hits some four million Palestinians as week-long Jewish holiday commences. Israeli authorities have sealed off the occupied West Bank and the already besieged Gaza Strip for 11 days, as Jewish celebrations for the Sukkot holiday commence. At midnight on Tuesday, all crossings to the West Bank and Gaza Strip were closed off…
Some 91.83 percent of voters in Iraqi Kurdistan supported the idea of independence from Baghdad, as 3.4 million ballots were counted, the referendum commission said on Tuesday. It was earlier reported that a total of 3.4 million people voted in the referendum that was held on Monday. The commission noted that highest level of “yes” answers was recorded…
The UN Secretary-General has called on Israel to end its 10-year blockade of Gaza, calling it one of the worst humanitarian crises he’d ever seen. Speaking from Gaza Wednesday, Antonio Guterres says he hasn’t seen a humanitarian crisis like the one in Gaza for years. “Yesterday I was in Ramallah. Today I am in Gaza,…
How Israel excludes those ‘not Jewish enough’: Meet the ‘second-class’ Jews whose plight is sparking an uprising against Israel’s supreme religious authority. Many are children of Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers, largely Russian-speaking immigrants. Some are Jews of choice whose conversions are unrecognized by Israel’s supreme religious authority because the rabbis who signed their certificates…
A “highly classified” press release by the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was published by WikiLeaks, reveals the level of rapprochement between Riyadh and Tel Aviv. Saudi Arabia initiated discussions on the issue of normalization with Israel and the 2002 Saudi peace initiative that was adopted by the Arab League at the Beirut Summit…
