Archives for August, 2024

Mohammad Javad Zarif, the former Iranian Foreign Minister, flashes victory sign during an election rally in support of Iranian presidential election candidate Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran, Iran, on June 24, 2024. Iran is holding snap presidential elections to choose the next president after the death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash. After the election with a historically low turnout on Friday, Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran's presidential election candidate and former reformist member of the Iranian parliam

Analysis

What’s behind Javad Zarif's resignation from Iran’s new government?

Zarif's sudden resignation came in response to apparent interference by the powerful hard-liners and stirred debate on the deadlock for meaningful reform within the existing frameworks of the Islamic Republic.

A correspondent in Tehran

By A correspondent in Tehran

In Tehran, reporting on politics

This handout picture provided by the Iranian army office on Dec. 24, 2023, shows equipment on display.

US says Iran’s attack on Israel 'could be this week'

With the timing of Iran's attack unclear, the White House says it's preparing for a "significant set of attacks."

GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images

Oil markets take wait-and-see approach amid Israel-Iran tensions

Despite fears of regional conflict upending oil markets, some experts say that Gulf oil facilities or crude oil tankers would have to be hit directly for any major upheaval to the market in the near term.

Sebastian Castelier

By Sebastian Castelier

In Dubai, reporting on regional business

Turkish animal rights activists pet a dog during a demonstration to protect stray dogs and cats in Istanbul on July 30, 2024.

Turkey’s stray dogs killed in droves after passage of Erdogan-backed law

The legislation was rammed through parliament last month by AKP lawmakers and their nationalist allies in the face of nationwide protests.

US President Joe Biden walks from Marine One to the West Wing of the White House August 12, 2024

Iran could make 'significant' attack on Israel this week: White House

Agence France-Presse

US President Joe Biden took office in 2021 pledging a new approach to Saudi Arabia that emphasized human rights

US lifts restrictions on Saudi weapons with eye on resolving Gaza

Agence France-Presse

A man walks out of Bank Station, in The City financial district, in central London, on June 12, 2024. (Photo by BENJAMIN CREMEL / AFP) (Photo by BENJAMIN CREMEL/AFP via Getty Images)

Interview

Nomo Bank sees increasing appetite for Islamic investments, ETFs

Paul Szumilewicz, chief revenue officer at UK-based Nomo Bank, said there is a growing demand from the bank’s clients to invest in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) — a pre-defined group of bonds, stocks or commodities poured into a fund and listed on the stock exchange.

Paul Szumilewicz

Paul Szumilewicz

Nomo Bank Chief Revenue Officer

Imane Khelif

Culture

Middle East athletes rack up 44 medals at Paris Olympics

Ten Middle Eastern countries won medals at this year's Paris games.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant leaves the State Department after meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the US State Department in Washington, DC, on March 25, 2024. The White House said Monday it was "perplexed" and "disappointed" by the cancelation of an Israeli delegation's planned visit to discuss US concerns over a possible offensive in southern Gaza. Israel scrapped the visit after the United States abstained from a UN Security Council vote demanding an "immediate ceasefire" in Ga

Gallant clashes with Netanyahu, cautions against Israeli war in Lebanon

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the military is ready for possible attacks by Iran and Hezbollah, but he does not support a preemptive operation in Lebanon.

Palestinians mourn over the body of a relative killed in an Israeli strike, in southern Gaza's Khan Yunis

West tells Iran to 'stand down' Israel attack threats

Agence France-Presse

Palestinian children passing by on the street look at the makeshift gravesite of Khaled Abu Obeid at his family's home in Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood on August 7, 2024. Khaled was feeding pigeons on their rooftop when he was killed by a sniper on December 21 amid an Israeli siege of the area, forcing the family and neighbours to dig his grave at home, where it remains, the family said. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP) (Photo by OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images)

UK, France, Germany leaders urge restart of Gaza cease-fire talks as Hamas reconsiders

European leaders, including UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called on Monday for the truce talks to resume, after the mediators did last week.

In this handout photo provided by the US Navy, the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (L), the Royal Navy air defense destroyer HMS Defender and the guided-missile destroyer USS Farragut transit the Strait of Hormuz, Nov. 19, 2019.

Pentagon hastens naval deployment to head off Iran attack on Israel

The deployment of an Ohio-class guided missile submarine and hastening of the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln's transit comes as Iran has refused to back down on retaliating for Israel's assassination of Hamas' top political leader in Tehran.

Jared Szuba

In Washington, DC, reporting on defense, national security, military

Hussein Jamil is one of dozens of Palestinian farmers who have set up greenhouses in the West Bank after they lost permission to work in Israel in the wake of the Gaza war

As war halts Israel permits, Palestinians return to farming

Agence France-Presse

Boys cool off with water from a mobile tanker as summer temperatures soar in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region

In Iraq's summer, residents of Kurdistan's Arbil ache for water

Agence France-Presse

Many Gazans have been displaced multiple times during the war, triggered by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel

Hamas demands Biden truce plan implemented as Gazans flee Israeli advance

Agence France-Presse

Palestinians families flee the Hamas neighbourhood in Khan Yunis following a new Israeli evacuation order

Gazans flee as Israel army pushes into Khan Yunis

Agence France-Presse