This is Beirut

Rubio Sees More Arab States Normalizing with Israel this Year

This is Beirut, 21/05 20:40 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Marco Rubio United States Israel Abraham Accords U.S. State Department

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested Wednesday that more Arab nations could forge ties with Israel this year, as Washington presses hard for relations to normalize with Saudi Arabia. President Donald Trump, near the end of his first term, led the so-called Abraham Accords in which the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco became the ...

American and Israeli Messages to Lebanon

Bassam Abou Zeid, 21/05 19:00 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Donald Trump Hezbollah Israel Joseph Aoun Saudi Arabia

According to information from Washington, the Americans have informed the Lebanese government that the Israelis will not withdraw from the positions they occupy in southern Lebanon unless the Lebanese side takes serious and successive steps toward disarming Hezbollah. They emphasized that Israel has no territorial ambitions in Lebanon and that ...

Pope Calls for 'Sufficient Humanitarian Aid' into Gaza

This is Beirut, 21/05 12:25 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Hamas Israel Pope Leo XIV Gaza

Pope Leo XIV called Wednesday for sufficient humanitarian aid to be allowed into war-ravaged Gaza, where humanitarian agencies say a total blockade has sparked critical food and medicine shortages. "The situation in the Gaza Strip is worrying and painful," the pope said during his first weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square. "I renew my ...

Cannes 2025: ‘Mama’ Shines a Light on Migrant Maids

This is Beirut, 21/05 12:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Cannes 2025 ‘Mama’ Maids Israel France Cuture

Director Or Sinai didn't have to go far to find the subject of her acclaimed debut film about the secret lives of the millions of women who support their families back home by being domestic workers abroad. She was chatting to the "wonderful Ukrainian woman" who looks at her mother, who has Parkinson's Disease, when the housekeeper started ...

Three Killed in Israeli Strikes on Southern Lebanon

This is Beirut, 21/05 10:25 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Hezbollah Israel Lebanon drone strike Tyre

An Israeli drone strike in the southern Lebanese town of Aitaroun on Wednesday targeted a motorcycle, killing one person, in what marks the third fatality from Israeli attacks in the region that day. The Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television reported that the victim was a member of Hezbollah. Shortly afterwards, the Public Health ministry announced ...

Oil Prices Jump on Report of Israel Prepping Iran Strike

This is Beirut, 21/05 10:20 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Israel Oil Prices Stocks

Crude prices surged Wednesday following a report that US intelligence suggested Israel was planning a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, which would send geopolitical tensions into overdrive and fuel regional conflict fears. While safe haven gold pushed almost two percent higher, the news from CNN appeared to be having little detrimental ...

Iran says Executed Man Convicted of 2023 Azerbaijan Embassy Attack

This is Beirut, 21/05 09:55 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Israel Tehran Iran

Iran said Wednesday it executed a man convicted of a deadly January 2023 attack on the Azerbaijani embassy, which sparked a sharp downturn in relations between the neighbouring countries. "The law of retribution was implemented this morning against the attacker of the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran," the judiciary said. An Azerbaijani diplomat ...

UAE says Reached Deal with Israel to Allow Aid Delivery to Gaza

This is Beirut, 21/05 09:50 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

United Arab Emirates Israel Humanitarian

The United Arab Emirates have reached an agreement with Israel to allow the delivery of "urgent humanitarian aid" to Gaza, according to a statement released Wednesday on Emirati state media. Israel has come under massive international pressure to allow aid into Gaza, where humanitarian agencies say a total blockade imposed on March 2 has sparked ...

Israel Recalls Senior Gaza Hostage Negotiators and Leaves Team in Doha

This is Beirut, 20/05 22:46 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Israel Benjamin Netanyahu Hamas Qatar

Israel said Tuesday that it was recalling its senior Gaza hostage negotiators from Doha "for consultation", days after launching an intensified campaign in the Palestinian territory. The indirect talks in Qatar, which has played a mediating role throughout the war, began over the weekend, just as Israel's new offensive was getting ...

EU to Review Cooperation Deal with Israel over Gaza

This is Beirut, 20/05 20:56 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

European Union Kaja Kallas Israel Gaza

The European Union on Tuesday agreed to review its cooperation deal with Israel over alleged human rights abuses in Gaza, the bloc's top diplomat Kaja Kallas said. Kallas said Brussels was acting after "a strong majority" of its 27 member states backed the move in a meeting of EU foreign ministers in a bid to pressure ...

Israel Arrests Two Accused of Spying on Defense Minister for Iran

This is Beirut, 20/05 19:21 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Israel Iran

Israeli authorities said Tuesday that they had arrested two citizens suspected of carrying out "intelligence-gathering missions" at Iran's behest near the defense minister's home. The arrests are the latest in a spate of cases in which Israel has charged its own citizens with spying for the country's arch-foe since the start of the war in Gaza in ...

Lebanon Should Take a Cue from al-Sharaa - and Talk to Israel

Hussain Abdul-Hussain, 20/05 16:48 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Lebanon Israel Syria United States Donald Trump

A joke has it that Syria’s self-proclaimed president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, offered to build a Trump Tower in Damascus to make up for the two New York towers that Al-Qaeda, al-Sharaa former organization, destroyed on 9/11, killing 2,753 Americans. Times are changing. Since October 7, Iran has been begging America for a nuclear deal that ...

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