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Why is Iran working on Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles? There is no possible peaceful purpose for ballistic missiles. Iran may claim that their nuclear program is peaceful, but they cannot possibly make that claim when it comes to ballistic missiles. The only reason to have ballistic missiles is to target enemies with high explosives and WMD. Iran’s Shehab-3 Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles have sufficient range to hit Israel, Saudi Arabia and US bases in Afghanistan, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait and Turkey. Why are the Iranians working with the North Koreans on multi-stage Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs)? Who might the Iranians be...

Failure to reach a deal between Iran and world powers over Tehran’s nuclear program could lead to a war in the Middle East, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said Wednesday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is doing everything he can to make the Iranian nuclear negotiations [in Geneva] with the P5+1 countries fail,” Nasrallah accused Wednesday. In a rare public appearance in south Beirut on the eve of the Ashoura holiday, commemorated by Shiite Muslims as a day of mourning for the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, the terror chief said the Israeli prime minister was “furious [at the prospect of an...

Saudi Arabia, in an unprecedented show of anger at the failure of the international community to end the war in Syria and act on other Middle East issues, said on Friday it would not take up its seat on the United Nations Security Council. The kingdom condemned what it called international double standards on the Middle East and demanded reforms in the Security Council. Riyadh's frustration is mostly directed at Washington, its oldest international ally, which has pursued policies since the Arab Spring that Saudi rulers have bitterly opposed and which have severely damaged relations with the United States, Saudi...

Israel, alarmed at the prospect of a U.S.-Iranian rapprochement, is reported to be discussing the possibility of an anti-Iran alliance with longtime Arab adversaries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a project that could have immense ramifications in the Middle East. If talks are under way, they're in large part the result of many secret meetings between Israeli and Arab intelligence chiefs and other senior officials that have been held over several years, often in the Jordanian capital Amman. Senior Israelis have held meetings with prominent figures from a number of Persian Gulf and other Arab states in...

LONG BEACH (CBSLA.com) — Protesters Wednesday voiced their concerns to California State University (CSU) officials about the alleged misuse of public university property to support a boycott of Israel. Members of the nonprofit AMCHA Initiative have issued a letter to the CSU Board of Trustees about CSU Northridge Mathematics Professor David Klein and the alleged use of his official CSUN email account to promote the Campaign To End Israel Apartheid and a U.S. Congressional candidate who supports it. AMCHA co-founder Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, who described the group as a grassroots effort to raise awareness about anti-Semitism on U.S. college campuses, was...

WASHINGTON - Saudi Arabia's surprising decision to support Egypt's military leaders in their bloody crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood has split the Arab world in two. The unequivocal Saudi move to back Egypt's secular military rulers, who toppled the Muslim government in a coup, left the Obama administration without a clear policy in the Middle East war that threatens our long alliance with the Saudi kingdom. From the beginning of an Egyptian crisis fast turning into a religious civil war, the Obama administration has been caught flat footed and confused in its response, taking contradictory positions throughout the course of...

“If the U.S. is taking a position that undermines the Egyptian government and empowers the Brotherhood, a lot of us will say: ‘Good luck, you’re on your own,’ ” said a senior Arab official involved in talks with the U.S. “There will be a wide regional fallout.” Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Jordan and Kuwait—all U.S. allies—have supported the Egyptian military’s overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi last month and its crackdown on the Islamist protesters supporting him, which has left more than 1,000 people dead. These countries are lobbying the U.S. to continue providing $1.3 billion in annual military assistance to...

...In the meantime, long standing US allies in the region have announced that they are supporting Egypt in its struggle against Morsi’s violent Muslim Brotherhood. Israel, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia have pledged support against the violence against the temporary administration in Egypt, even as the United States withdraws support under direction of the Obama Administration, and Senate Democrats....

On the same day that the U.S. Department of State issued a global terrorism warning, a message suspected to be from al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was posted on multiple jihadist web forums on Friday. In the 14-minute audio message, the 62-year-old al-Zawahiri criticizes the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood-backed former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy, blaming the military coup that resulted in his removal on Americans and 'Zionists.' The crusaders, the seculars, the Americanized army, (former Egyptian President Hosni) Mubarak's thugs and some members of Islamic parties with the support of Gulf money and American plotting, all agreed to topple Mohamed...

Iran’s outgoing president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said 5,000 new centrifuges are ready to start operating at the country’s nuclear facilities. These are in addition to the 12,000 centrifuges already in operation. “12,000 centrifuge machines are now running in our nuclear sites and 5,000 new centrifuges are ready to start operation,” the hardline president told the country’s IRIB1 TV. … The West fears Iran is making steady progress towards nuclear weapons while the country insists its uranium enrichment was only for peaceful purposes. Meanwhile, a US think tank has noted that Iran may be able to achieve weapons-grade uranium by mid-2014....

U.S. embassies in a slew of Muslim countries will close on Sunday due to a credible and serious security threat. The embassies will close in response to "a specific threat against a U.S. embassy or consulate," according to a senior U.S. official, who called it a "concerted effort" to target an embassy or consulate in a Muslim country. "We just don't know which one," the official told ABC News. "There could be other targets, not just embassies," another U.S. official said. The threat is considered to be throughout the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. Some of the biggest...

Three of the Persian Gulf’s richest monarchies have pledged $12 billion in cash and loans to Egypt, a decision aimed not only at shoring up a shaky transitional government, but also at undermining their Islamist rivals and strengthening their allies across a newly turbulent Middle East. The robust financial aid packages of $8 billion announced Tuesday by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and $4 billion announced on Wednesday by Kuwait, followed the Egyptian military’s killing on Monday of dozens of Muslim Brotherhood members and sympathizers protesting last week’s military ouster of Egypt’s Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi. The aid...

In a dazzling display of monetary muscle, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates poured $8 billion in a single day into the coffers of Egypt’s army rulers in cash, grants, loans without interest and gifts of gas, a dizzying life-saving infusion into its tottering economy. Forking out sums on this scale in a single day – or even month - is beyond the capacity of almost every world power – even the US and Russia - in this age of economic distress. The Arab oil colossuses managed to dwarf Iran’s pretensions to the standing of regional power. Tuesday, July...

John Kerry speaks on his latest trip to Israel. Photo: Israel Hayom video.This week the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister blamed mass protests in his country on the ‘Jewish Diaspora.’ Millions of Egyptians took to the streets demanding the ousting of President Morsi who was subsequently removed from power by the Egyptian military. Jordan blocked 254 news websites and Iran was discovered to be importing missile-grade ore from Germany and France. The world was also reminded of the savagery that is Syria’s civil war when a video of rebels decapitating a Catholic priest with a kitchen knife went viral.And John...

At least 100 American citizens trapped for months on two U.S. bases inside Kuwait are now free to leave their posts without the threat of being detained and jailed by local police, a source on one of the bases told FoxNews.com. Kuwaiti authorities unjustly issued warrants for the arrest of the Americans, who worked as Arabic translators for U.S. Defense contractor, Global Linguist Solutions, after their employer ended a lucrative deal with its sponsoring Kuwaiti subcontractor, Al Shora International General Trading & Contracting, and signed on with another company. When the contract ended Feb. 17, Al Shora refused to transfer...

BEIRUT — Syrian rebels said Friday that newly arrived shipments of heavy weaponry could swing the momentum on the battlefield in their favor, after a shift in U.S. policy opened the door for others to send them arms. Weapons from the United States have not materialized since the White House announced last week it had authorized direct military support for the opposition, but the U.S. decision appears to have prompted other nations to increase assistance, with new deliveries including highly prized antitank and antiaircraft weaponry, according to Khalid Saleh, a spokesman for the main Syrian Opposition Coalition. Saleh declined to...

(Reuters) - Malaysia's Islamic finance university and the research arm of Kuwait Finance House will develop training and internship programmes to address growing demand for professionals in the business, officials said on Tuesday. Despite rapid growth over the last several years, the Islamic finance industry lacks a large pool of professionals with both academic and practical knowledge, a problem which the tie-up aims to tackle. "Academia has its own processes and metrics but it can be quite technical. This is bridging the gap between academia and the industry," said Daud Vicary Abdullah, president and chief executive of the International Centre...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Syrian tanks were closing in on the rebel-held town of Qusair last month when a Kuwaiti sheik named Hajjaj al-Ajmi and his money machine roared into action. In a series of urgent messages on his Twitter account, Ajmi appealed for cash to help save the town’s defenders. “I hope that we can be a means for helping them and relieving them,” the young cleric wrote to his 250,000 Twitter followers on May 25. He gave a phone number for making donations and asked readers to “kindly spread it.” The appeal came too late for the...

Sunday, June 02, 2013 Islam is the Problem Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog On a mild London afternoon, two Muslims rammed a car into a British soldier returning to the barracks after working at the Tower of London. They shouted Allah Akbar and hacked and slashed at his body in an attempt to behead him. By the time they were done, his body could only be identified through dental records. Shortly afterward, British Prime Minister David Cameron said that “there is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act”. London Mayor Boris Johnson added, “It...

Washington D.C., May 30, 2013 / 04:05 am (CNA).- As he oversees the missionary territory of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, apostolic vicar Camillo Ballin outlined Catholics' need for religious toleration as well as a physical home for ministry. A native of Italy, Bishop Ballin set out to study Arabic and Islam in order “to discover another world” after his ordination as a priest of the Comboni Missionaries. In a May 29 interview with CNA, he noted that his travels have taken him to Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Sudan, and eventually to his 2005 appointment as apostolic vicar of Kuwait....