MIDDLE EAST

Qatar says Saudi blocks official from Gulf virus summit

12:56 am February 21, 2020

Doha: Qatar accused Saudi Arabia on Thursday of barring its health minister from a summit of Gulf countries gathering to discuss the regional response to the new coronavirus epidemic. Qatar and Saudi are at loggerheads over Riyadh’s nearly three-year-long embargo of its small but rich Gulf neighbour, which it accuses of backing radical Islamists and […]

Internet disruption reported in southeast Iran amid unrest

Iran says satellite ‘successfully’ launched without reaching orbit

11:42 pm February 9, 2020

Tehran: Iran “successfully” launched a satellite into space on Sunday but it fell short of reaching orbit, state television quoted a defence ministry spokesman as saying. “The Simorgh (rocket) successfully propelled the Zafar satellite into space but the carrier did not reach the required speed to put the satellite into the intended orbit,” Ahmad Hosseini […]

Iran unveils ballistic missile, ‘new generation’ engines

8:04 pm February 9, 2020

Tehran: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards unveiled Sunday a short-range ballistic missile that they said can be powered by a “new generation” of engines designed to put satellites into orbit. The Guards’ Sepahnews website said the Raad-500 missile was equipped with new Zoheir engines made of composite materials lighter than on earlier steel models. It also unveiled […]

Khamenei: Mass Ramadan events in Iran may stop over virus

Khamenei says Iran must become strong to end ‘enemy threat’

7:40 pm February 8, 2020

Tehran: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday that the Islamic republic must become strong enough to ward off the “enemy’s threats” and prevent a war. Khamenei also said Iran had a strong air force despite decades of US pressure and sanctions on the country since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. “We must become strong […]

US kills top al-Qaeda leader Qasim al-Rimi in Yemen: Trump

2:22 pm February 7, 2020

Washington: President Donald Trump has confirmed that in a major counterterrorism operation in Yemen the US forces have killed Qasim al-Rimi, a founder and leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the jihadist group that claimed responsibility for a mass shooting at an American naval base. Rimi, 46, a deputy to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, […]