Middle East

Inside Middle East

Israel battles massive blaze in the north

Thursday, 2 December 2010

Israeli firefighters say a massive blaze in the country's north has caused the evacuation of hundreds of residents and a prison.

Iran points finger at West again as murdered scientist is laid to rest

Thursday, 2 December 2010

Iran has said that it will increase security for its nuclear experts after the funeral yesterday of a scientist killed in an assassination that the government blamed on the Mossad and the CIA.

Iran executes footballer's mistress

Wednesday, 1 December 2010

A former footballer's mistress was hanged in Iran today after being convicted of murdering the player's wife.

Iranian public holidays to reduce pollution

Wednesday, 1 December 2010

The authorities have declared a two-day public holiday in Tehran and other cities in an attempt to reduce dangerous levels of air pollution.

Iran 'missile boost' from North Korea

Tuesday, 30 November 2010

US intelligence concludes Iran has received North Korean missiles capable of targeting European capitals.

Iran bomb blast blamed on Israel and US

Tuesday, 30 November 2010

Catrina Stewart: Furore in Tehran after co-ordinated bomb attacks kill nuclear scientist.

Yossi Melman: Mossad, MI6, the CIA and the case of the assassinated scientist

Tuesday, 30 November 2010

Three events – not seemingly related – took place yesterday. The leaking of State Department documents, many of which deal with the world's concerns about Iran's nuclear programme; the mysterious assassination in Tehran of a top Iranian nuclear scientist and the wounding of another, and the appointment of Tamir Pardo as the new head of Mossad, Israel's foreign espionage agency.

Mossad keeps Iran as Israel's 'number one priority'

Tuesday, 30 November 2010

The Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, has a long history of using targeted killings to attack the enemies of the Jewish state. For example in the 1970s and 1980s the Mossad tracked down and killed many Palestinian terrorists like Ali Hassan Salamah involved in the planning of attacks like the Munich Olympics massacre and other terror operations.

Landslide vote was a fraud, say Egyptian opposition

Tuesday, 30 November 2010

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said yesterday a "rigged election" had all but wiped out its presence in parliament, virtually eliminating opposition to President Hosni Mubarak's ruling party before next year's presidential vote.

Iranian nuclear scientist killed in bomb attack

Monday, 29 November 2010

Motorbike-riding bombers killed a leading Iranian nuclear scientist and wounded another by planting explosives on their cars as they drove to work today.

Israel tries to clean up its image abroad

Monday, 29 November 2010

Israel's ultra-nationalist Foreign Minister is proposing a major new public relations drive in Europe aimed at bolstering Israel's flagging image.

Egypt's election magic turns the opposition almost invisible

Monday, 29 November 2010

Mubarak's campaign workers hand out meat and beatings, reports Robert Fisk

Israel to build giant detention camp for migrants

Monday, 29 November 2010

Israel's cabinet voted yesterday to erect a massive detention facility to hold thousands of Africans who have slipped illegally through the porous southern border with Egypt, heating up debate over how to handle their rising numbers.

Yemen's tragic tide of trafficked humanity

Sunday, 28 November 2010

Maryrose Fison: The poorest Arab state is the target of criminal people-smuggling.

The enemy within: life under Hamas

Sunday, 28 November 2010

A Palestinian insurgent tells Donald Macintyre how the internal security force in Gaza is posing more of a threat than the Israeli army.

Iraqi PM Maliki 'to form government by mid-December'

Saturday, 27 November 2010

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said today he would form a government by mid-December that would incorporate all political factions, including rival Iyad Allawi's Iraqiya bloc.

Israeli ex-PM insists that settlements be suspended

Friday, 26 November 2010

Donald Macintyre: Olmert urges Netanyahu to agree further halt to Jewish settlement building despite 'wasted' 18 months spent on 'marginal' issue of whether construction should be frozen.

Iraqi PM begins forming new government

Friday, 26 November 2010

The Prime Minister has appealed to the country's political factions for unity after formally accepting a request by the President to form the next government, part of a deal to end an eight-month deadlock over who would lead the country over the next four years.

Gaza: A love that knows no boundaries

Tuesday, 23 November 2010

The marriage between a Palestinian and an Israeli has survived war, poverty and family ostracism. Donald Macintyre reports

US families call for release of Iran 'spies'

Tuesday, 23 November 2010

Family members of three Americans facing espionage charges in Iran say news of a trial date on 6 February is yet another delay in a case which has taken too long to resolve.

Work begins on Egypt barrier

Tuesday, 23 November 2010

Israeli bulldozers began laying the groundwork yesterday for construction of a barrier to seal off part of the Jewish state's border with Egypt, the Defence Ministry said.

The best age to marry – according to Ahmadinejad

Monday, 22 November 2010

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has said that the best age for girls to marry is between 16 and 18, rather than at the younger ages allowed by law.

Soldiers who made boy search 'bomb' bags freed

Monday, 22 November 2010

Two soldiers convicted for ordering a nine-year-old Palestinian boy in Gaza to search bags that might have contained explosives avoided jail yesterday when they were demoted and given suspended prison sentences.

Saudi king will travel to US for treatment

Monday, 22 November 2010

Saudi Arabia's elderly King Abdullah flies to the US today for checks for a back ailment, and Crown Prince Sultan is returning from holiday. Political stability in the monarchy is of global concern. The Gulf Arab state controls more than a fifth of the world's crude reserves, is a vital US ally in the region, a major holder of dollar assets and home to the biggest Arab bourse.