November 5th, 20200Where is the hope for the Middle East? No matter how hard we try, it is hard to find grounds for optimism about the future of this troubled region.
The Middle East has been a focus of American foreign policy for decades. The time, talent and resources that the United States has spent on challenges in the Middle East are staggering,...
February 25th, 20200CAIRO - Egypt’s state-run television announced on Tuesday that the country’s former leader and autocrat Hosni Mubarak died at the age of 91. After a presidency that spanned three decades, long-time U.S. ally Mubarak was ousted by mass popular protests as part of the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011.
Egypt’s State TV said Mubarak...
June 18th, 20190
CAIRO - Egypt's former civilian president, Mohamed Morsi, ousted by the military in 2013 after one year in office, collapsed in a courtroom and died on Monday, June 17.
A leader in the now-banned Islamist movement Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi had just spoken from a cage at a hearing on charges of espionage. State TV said the cause of...
May 6th, 20190GAZA — An Egyptian-mediated ceasefire agreement was reached with Israel on Monday to end a weekend of violence in the Gaza Strip and Israel, a report from Reuters said.
“The ceasefire understanding will begin Monday 04:30 (01:30 GMT)” a Palestinian official familiar with the agreement said to the news agency.
The fighting was...
April 30th, 20190WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Trump is working to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a foreign terrorist organization, the White House said on Tuesday, which would bring sanctions against Egypt’s oldest Islamist movement.
“The president has consulted with his national security team and leaders in the region who share his concern...
April 25th, 20190CAIRO — Nearly 90 percent of referendum voters approved constitutional amendments that could keep the president in power until 2030.
Egyptian voters have overwhelmingly backed constitutional changes allowing President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to remain in power until 2030, the election commission has said.
"These are effective from...
April 18th, 20190CAIRO - Egypt’s election commission said on Wednesday that a referendum potentially allowing President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to stay in office until 2030 will take place on April 20-22.
The ballot, featuring several constitutional amendments, was given final approval in parliament on Tuesday.
The changes, if approved, would extend...
April 12th, 20190RIYADH/WASHINGTON, DC — Egypt has pulled out of the U.S. effort to forge an “Arab NATO” with key Arab allies, according to four sources familiar with the decision, in a blow to the Trump administration’s strategy to contain Iranian power.
Egypt conveyed its decision to the United States and other participants in the proposed...
October 16th, 20180Shirin Neshat’s “Looking for Oum Kulthum” tells of an Iranian artist’s effort at making a film on the life and career of the late Egyptian legendary singer. Though the project was made with pure intentions, it has been met with distaste and skepticism from the Arab world.
A main criticism of the film is Neshat’s role as...
July 1st, 20180AMMAN/WASHINGTON — Four Arab states have backed the U.S. plan for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, regardless of the position of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, an Israeli newspaper reports.
The Israel Hayom daily interviewed officials from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan who...
June 14th, 20180CAIRO/YEKATERINBURG ― Egypt coach Hector Cuper said Mohamed Salah had a “great chance” of playing against Uruguay but no decision would be taken until Thursday’s training session as the Pharoahs flew into Yekaterinburg for the start of their World Cup campaign.
“I am optimistic that he will be with us, I think he has a great...
May 30th, 20180Egyptian soccer star Mohamed Salah’s shoulder injury will keep him out of action for three to four weeks, Liverpool’s club physio has said, meaning he could miss the World Cup group stage.
The 25-year-old is desperate to play for Egypt in only their third World Cup and their first for 28 years but faces a race against time to be...
May 4th, 20180CAIRO - Sending Arab troops to Syria is a possibility that is being discussed by officials from various countries, Egypt’s foreign minister was quoted as saying in a state newspaper on Friday.
“In regards to the situation in Syria, Shoukry said that the idea of replacing forces with another that may be Arab is a possibility,”...
April 13th, 20180CAIRO – Four Arab states who cut relations with Qatar over its close ties with Iran and Turkey are sticking to an ultimatum they issued the Gulf state last year, Egypt’s MENA news agency said on Thursday, despite U.S. pressure for a swift end to the dispute.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates sent Doha a...
April 2nd, 20180CAIRO – Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has been re-elected with 97 percent of votes, the same proportion that the former military commander secured four years ago for his first term but with a lower turnout, official results showed on Monday.
Turnout was 41 percent, despite efforts to get as many Egyptians as possible to...
March 30th, 20180CAIRO — President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi cruised toward a landslide election victory against no real opposition but early results showed a lower turnout than the vote that brought him to power in 2014, despite efforts to get more Egyptians to the polls.
The vote this week had long been set to hand Sisi a second term after a crackdown...
February 5th, 20180JERUSALEM — Israel has started handing out notices to 20,000 male African migrants giving them two months to leave the country or risk being thrown in jail.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is offering the migrants, most of whom are from Sudan and Eritrea, $3,500 and a plane ticket to what it says is a safe...
February 2nd, 20180The real danger of seeing the world through a narrow ideological lens is that while the lens may be your own, the world being viewed through it is not yours to control.
By Dr. James J. Zogby
Vice President Pence's recent foray into Middle East politics has been nothing short of a disaster. Because he sees the world through the lens...
January 12th, 20180CAIRO — Former armed forces chief of staff General Sami Anan is to run in Egypt's presidential election in March, the party he leads said on Thursday.
An election commission said on Monday Egypt would hold the vote on March 26-28, with a run-off on April 24-26. Candidates must register between Jan 20 and 29.
"The party leaders...
January 5th, 20180TEL AVIV — Israel said on Wednesday it would pay thousands of African migrants living illegally in the country to leave, threatening them with jail if they are caught after the end of March.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in public remarks at a cabinet meeting on the payment program, said a barrier Israel completed in 2013 along...
December 26th, 20170CAIRO — Amro Hamroush, head of the Egyptian parliament’s committee on religion, said he was drafting a bill that plans to make atheism a crime in Egypt to fall under the category of ‘contempt of religion’.
Hamroush said that the“phenomenon” -referring to atheism- is widely spreading among youth claiming that it falls under...
December 24th, 20170GAZA —Hamas’ leader in Gaza said on Thursday a reconciliation deal with President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction was collapsing, just 10 weeks after the agreement was reached.
The rivals signed a deal brokered by Cairo on Oct. 12 after Hamas agreed to hand over administrative control of the Gaza Strip, including its border...
December 2nd, 20171CAIRO — On Wednesday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered his military command to use all force necessary to secure the Sinai peninsula within the next three months, following a militant attack on a mosque that killed more than 300 people.
No group has claimed responsibility for Friday's attack in which authorities say...
November 26th, 20170CAIRO - The death toll in a devastating terrorist attack on a mosque on Friday in Egypt’s North Sinai has risen to 305 killed, including 27 children, and 128 more people were wounded, MENA state news agency said on Saturday.
The gunmen were carrying an ISIS flag and were between 25 to 30 in number, the public prosecutor’s office...
November 24th, 20170CAIRO - A terrorist attack killed 230 people at a mosque in Egypt’s north Sinai region on Friday, detonating a bomb and shooting at fleeing worshippers and ambulances, state media and witnesses said.
It was one of the deadliest attacks in the region. No group claimed immediate responsibility, but since 2014 Egyptian security forces...
November 20th, 20170BEIRUT — Saad al-Hariri, who announced his resignation as Lebanese prime minister in a televised broadcast from Saudi Arabia on Nov. 4, will visit Egypt on Tuesday to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Hariri’s office said on Sunday.
Hariri has since Saturday been in Paris, where he met French President Emmanuel Macron,...
September 29th, 20170CAIRO ― An Egyptian court sentenced top Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie to another life term in prison on Thursday in the latest example of a crackdown against Islamists since the army overthrew President Mohamed Mursi.
The sentence relates to violence that broke out in 2013 after the army toppled Mursi in the wake of mass...
September 8th, 20170CAIRO — Egypt's armed forces said on Tuesday that joint U.S.-Egyptian military exercises will resume this month for the first time since 2009, after U.S. officials canceled them in 2013 following an Egyptian army crackdown on protests.
The joint training is usually held every two years but was also canceled in 2011 after the "Arab...