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AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday that his government’s ultimate goal was to restore state authority over Kurdish controlled areas in northeast Syria after an abrupt U.S. troop withdrawal but he expected it to happen gradually. In a state television interview Assad also said that a deal between Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin to drive out the Kurdish-led YPG militia from a 30 km (19 mile) “safe zone” along the border was a “positive” step that would help Damascus achieve its goal. “It might not achieve everything ... it paves the road...

In Iraq, demonstrators are being shot dead in the streets. In Lebanon, protesters have paralysed the country and seem set to bring down the government of Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri. In recent weeks the Egyptian security forces crushed attempts to protest against the police state of President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi... A rough approximation is that 60% of the region's population is under the age of 30. A young population can be a great asset to a country. But only if the economy, the educational system and the institutions of the state are functioning well enough to accommodate their needs, and...

... There will never be peace between the Arabs and Israel. Why not? Because, as noted, the Arabs don't want peace with Israel; they don't want Israel, and will look for any excuse to avoid any kind of peace agreement. As Netanyahu once observed regarding the prospects for peace in the area: "If the Arabs put down their weapons today there would be no more violence; if the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel." Or, as Golda Meir before him observed: "Peace will come when Arabs will love their children more than they hate...

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders said Monday that part of the $3.8 billion in annual US military assistance to Israel should instead go toward humanitarian relief in Gaza. The Vermont senator, speaking at the annual J Street national conference, vowed to use American military aid as leverage to get Israel to roll back its settlement enterprise and enter peace negotiations with the Palestinians, an idea that has gained ground among some Democrats. “I would use the leverage of $3.8 billion,” he told the confab, referring to the US-Israel memorandum of understanding brokered under the Obama administration. “It is a lot...

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the ranking member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, sent a letter to State Department official Philip Reeker asking him to agree to move his deposition on a date when the House is in session. Reeker, the Acting Assistant Secretary of European and Eurasian Affairs, is set to appear on Saturday. In the letter obtained by Townhall, Jordan accused House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) of purposefully moving Reeker's testimony to when some Republicans may not be able to appear to further isolate them from the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. Jordan wrote to...

Amnesty International urges Jordan to stop imprisoning women for defying men, ignores root cause of the problem OCT 25, 2019 2:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER “Under the male ‘guardianship’ system, which Amnesty said is at the centre of a web of discriminatory provisions, men are empowered to control ‘women’s lives and limit their personal freedoms’, while women could be subjected to degrading practices such as ‘virginity tests’, aimed at determining whether they’ve had sex outside marriage.” All right. But where does this male guardianship system come from? From Islamic law: “[A] woman may not leave the city without her husband...

The mysterious flight between the two nations had many asking "Whodunnit?" A privately owned, unidentified Challenger 604 jet departed from Ben-Gurion International Airport, landing first in the Jordanian capital of Amman and then in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh on Tuesday evening, causing many to question which Israeli decided to pay the Saudis a visit. The plane in question departed from Israel and flew to an airport in Amman, where it remained on the ground for about two minutes before taking off again and landing in the Saudi capital. After a little less than an hour, the plane, privately...

President Trump said Monday that Israel and Jordan had asked him to leave a limited number of troops in Syria. He also said he doesn’t believe it will be necessary to leave U.S. troops in Syria except to secure oil fields, describing the region as “very dangerous territory.” "I don't think it's going to be necessary. I don't want to leave any troops there. That's very dangerous territory," Trump told reporters during a cabinet meeting. "I don't think it's necessary other than we secure the oil. It's a little different section, but we need to secure the oil." “The other...

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) has received a lot of criticism for the surpassing crudity of her declaration about the President — “We’re going to impeach the motherf***er”– and in the last few days for offering the phrase for sale on a t-shirt — but less attention has been given to the company she keeps. As far back as her swearing-in, and at a private dinner she held that same day, many unsavory “Palestinian” activists were in attendance. It should be remembered that at her victory party, Tlaib wrapped herself not in the American, but in the “Palestinian” flag, and...

MENU      STAY INFORMED Press ReleasesBlogArticlesReportsSpeeches Pelosi Leads High-Level Bipartisan Delegation to Jordan OCTOBER 19, 2019  PRESS RELEASE Amman, Jordan — Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leading a bipartisan Congressional delegation to Jordan for meetings with King Abdullah II and top U.S. government officials.“This evening, our bipartisan delegation was honored to meet with His Majesty King Abdullah II, Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II, Prince Feisal bin Al Hussein, Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and senior Jordanian officials,” Speaker Pelosi said.  “We expressed our continued appreciation for the strategic partnership between the U.S. and Jordan and engaged in a...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other U.S. lawmakers announced late Saturday U.S. time that they had arrived in Jordan for meetings with King Abdullah II and other officials regarding the situation in Syria. Although touted as a "bipartisan" delegation, the group includes just one Republican -- Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas, ranking member of the House Armed Services Commitee. Thornberry is among a group of Texas Republicans who've announced they won't seek reelection in 2020. REP. PAUL GOSAR: TRUMP WAS RIGHT TO WITHDRAW TROOPS FROM SYRIA -- WE SHOULD PROTECT US BORDERS INSTEAD “Our bipartisan delegation is visiting Jordan at...

Pelosi and other senior members of Congress held talks in Jordan on Saturday with King Abdullah II and other top Jordanian officials. The U.S. delegation included the heads of key House committees including .. 'Eliot Engel', 'Bennie Thompson', 'Adam Schiff','Mac Thornberry'. Pelosi said in a statement the visit was at “a critical time for the security and stability of the region… With the deepening crisis in Syria after Turkey’s incursion, our delegation has engaged in vital discussions about the impact to regional stability, increased flow of refugees, and the dangerous opening that has been provided to ISIS, Iran and Russia.”

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner will lead a US delegation to Israel at the end of the month to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz, a senior administration official said on Thursday. Kushner has been leading President Donald Trump's effort to develop a peace plan for Israelis and Palestinians. After proposing a $60 billion aid package for the region last summer, he has yet to unveil a proposed political plan that gets at the thorniest issues in the decades-old conflict, with Netanyahu struggling to form a governing coalition. The official, speaking on condition...

Iran’s army has launched unannounced military drills in the northwest of the country bordering Turkey, Iranian state media reported. The semiofficial ISNA news agency reported on October 9 that the exercises included rapid reaction units, mobile and offense brigades, and helicopters. The maneuvers in Iran’s Western Azerbaijan Province are being overseen by Iran’s army chief, Major General Abdolrahim Musavi, according to state TV. The reports did not mention the number of troops taking part. The announcement of the drills comes as Turkey says it is about to launch an offensive into northern Syria. Tehran, a key ally of President Bashar...

CAIRO (REUTERS) - ARAB League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Saturday led Arab foreign ministers in lambasting Turkey's military operation in northeast Syria as an "invasion of an Arab state's land and an aggression on its sovereignty". Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohamed Ali Alhakim, president of the current Arab League session, also condemned Turkey's offensive into Syria during an emergency meeting of the body, called by Egypt. The offensive "will exacerbate humanitarian crises, increase the suffering of the Syrian people, and strengthen the ability of terrorists to reorganize their remnants," Alhakim said. Alhakim and Lebanon's Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil called...

September 17, 2019 Clip No. 7493 Iraqi Researcher Hashem Al-Kindi: Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades Refrained from Assassinating Obama Because Iraq's President Was Standing Next to Him Hashem Al-Kindi, an Iraqi researcher who works with the Al-Hadaf Research Center, said in a September 17, 2019 interview on Al-Diyar TV (Iraq) that dozens of operations against U.S. targets in Iraq that the Islamic resistance in Iraq had planned to carry out have been canceled because of the presence of Iraqi civilians and "out of respect for Iraq's sovereignty." He claimed that in 2009, the Hezbollah Brigades had even identified U.S. President Barack Obama...

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan said nuclear power should either be free for all states or banned completely. He warned that the “inequality” between states who have nuclear power and who do not undermines global balances. This comes amid global concern following news that Iran has exceeded limits to its uranium stockpile and was enriching the chemical to beyond limitations imposed by the Iran nuclear deal. Earlier this month, Tehran announced it would use advanced centrifuges prohibited under the deal. President Erdogan said: “The position of nuclear power should either be forbidden for all or permissible for everyone.” …

The IJF said that the Iran Judo Federation was suspended from “all competitions, administrative and social activities organized or authorized” by the IJF. The International Judo Federation (IJF) on Wednesday announced it had officially suspended Iran over its directive to its Judoka Saeid Mollaei to withdraw from a recent competition to avoid a contest against Israel’s Sagi Muki. The IJF said that the Iran Judo Federation was suspended from “all competitions, administrative and social activities organized or authorized” by the IJF. During the 2019 World Championships in Tokyo in August, Mollaei lost to Belgian judoka Matthias Casse on purpose to...

After ousting other leaders over anti-Semitism, the Women’s March selected another individual who had to be quickly removed when her hateful anti-Israel tweets were exposed. By United With Israel Staff Lawyer Zhara Billoo, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), was set to fill an empty seat on the board of the Women’s March group following the resignation of its previous leaders who faced persistent accusations of anti-Semitism. After her appointment, Billoo’s history of vehemently anti-Israel remarks, including several that many viewed as crossing the line into anti-Semitism, was revealed. She...

he biblical kingdom of Edom has always been a significant puzzle for biblical archaeology. Although evidence is supplied in the Bible, the archaeological record has always had trouble interpreting the text, which said that it existed as a kingdom long before the kings of Israel. But research has uncovered the untold story of a thriving and wealthy society in the Arava Desert – in parts of Israel and Jordan – that existed during the 12th-11th centuries BCE.  Collecting slag and charcoal samples from “Slaves’ Hill”, Timna Valley, Israel. The fine layers of technological waste – well-dated by radiocarbon – provide...