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Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the head of the jihadist terrorist organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), praised President Donald Trump in an address on Wednesday for taking the “courageous and historic” step of lifting sanctions on his country. Sharaa delivered a speech to the Syrian people following an in-person meeting with President Trump in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where President Trump concluded the first of three stops in a Middle East tour on Wednesday. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who first met Sharaa shortly after HTS toppled the half-century-old Assad family regime in Damascus, arranged and presided over the meeting. The...

There’s more to Donald Trump’s Middle East trip than billion-dollar contracts, parades of camels and a storm back home over Qatar’s offer to give the president a new Air Force One. A tour narrowly billed by the White House as a chance for Trump to show he’s a master dealmaker is jumbling the region’s geopolitical jigsaw puzzle.Wherever he goes, Trump’s brings disruption that can forge possibilities. And he takes risks – for instance, his decision on this trip to lift sanctions on Syria to give a war-ravaged nation a second chance.But the move revives a perennial question about Trump’s entire...

Donald Trump has said his administration is now exploring the possibility of normalising relations with Syria - his comments coming shortly after he met Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose forces ended the decades-long dictatorship of the Assad family. The extraordinary encounter, unthinkable just months ago, was short but significant. "I think he has got the potential," Trump remarked after his meeting in Riyadh, 37 minutes long, with the former Syrian fighter formerly linked to Al-Qaeda. The $10m US bounty on his head was only lifted in December. Video footage of their conversation in a lavish Saudi royal palace showed...

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday had tea with a former jihadist who until recently had a $10 million US bounty on his head. Interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, once known by his militant nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, met Trump in Riyadh six months after leading a swift campaign that toppled the half-a-century-old Assad regime, ejecting Iran-backed armed groups and declaring himself leader of the country. Al Sharaa was placed on the US Specially Designated Global Terrorist list in 2013 for heading al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, known as Al Nusra Front, and allegedly orchestrating suicide bombings across...

SUMMARY Donald Trump has met the Syrian interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in Saudi Arabia this morning The brief meeting came after the US lifted sanctions on Syria - Trump said the move is designed to "give them a chance at greatness" Until December, the US offered a $10m reward for al-Sharaa's arrest, our correspondent Lina Sinjab writes from Damascus Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attended the US-Syria meeting, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined remotely Trump then addressed a Gulf leaders' summit - saying again he wanted a deal with Iran, but they must stop "sponsoring terror" After...

Radical Islam in Latin America By Chris Zambelis In the wake of the September 11 attacks, the possibility of al-Qaeda infiltrating Latin America became a priority for U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials. However, the most publicized incidents of radical Islamist activity in Latin America have not been linked to al-Qaeda but instead to the Lebanese Shi’ite Hezbollah, which is ideologically and politically close to Iran. These include the March 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina and the July 1994 attack against the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (AIMA), also in the Argentine capital, allegedly in retaliation for...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — President Trump urged Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to sign the Abraham Accords in a previously unplanned meeting on Wednesday, one day after lifting all sanctions on the Middle Eastern country. The two leaders met on the sidelines of a Gulf Cooperation Council gathering in Riyadh, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan phoning into the conversation. Syria currently doesn’t recognize Israel’s statehood, and the Abraham Accords were just one of Trump’s requests to Syria in an effort to normalize relations. Trump also told the Syrian leader to make all foreign terrorists leave Syria, deport Palestinian terrorists, help...

During the fighting in the Gaza Strip, Israel managed to capture a local Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) agent, who admitted during his interrogation that he had been operating as a double agent. The agent revealed that his role was to lull Israel’s defense establishment into a false sense of security on the eve of Hamas’s deadly terrorist attack on October 7, 2023. According to a report published on Channel 12 News on Tuesday evening, the agent lied to Shin Bet officials in a conversation held just hours before the attack. In that conversation, he stated, “There is no preparation...

Key names, entities: François Genoud, Shukeiri, Fatah, PLO, PFLP, Yasser Arafat, George Habash [Habbache], Karl van de Put, Johan Schuller, Herald Angelke, [Udo] Otto Albrecht, Karl-Heinz Hoffmann, Gundolf Keller [Köhler], Willi Voss [Pohl], L'oeuvre Francaise, Jean Tireault, Jean Robert Debbaudt, Manfred Roeder [Röder], Volker Heidel. AHMAD SHUKEIRI [SHUKAIRY / SHUQAIRY] AND TACUARA (1962) (his promoting of neo-Nazis at UN, while quoting NYT, which in fact details its Nazism) Recall of Arab Delegate from U.N. is Sought; ‘saluted’ Tacuara December 3, 1962 [PDF] A move for the recall by Saudi Arabia of its permanent representative to the United Nations, Ahmad Shukairy,...

Reza Pahlavi, the son and would-be heir to the dictator who was deposed in Iran’s 1979 revolution, has openly tethered his political fortunes to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. (IRGC). As such, Pahlavi is most certainly an individual that the U.S. should not support. Flawed logic says that Pahlavi, the son of the Shah, is the ideal replacement, based on the premise that the people now killing Iranian civilians in defense of the “Islamic revolution” might one day help to overturn the very regime that defines itself by that revolution.

Joe Biden’s floating aid pier in Gaza, which was only operational for 20 days in the summer of 2024, was a much bigger failure than initially reported, according to a new Pentagon Inspector General report. More than 60 service members were injured and one died during non-combat duties on the mission, according to the Pentagon IG, although the manner of the injuries was not clear. “Based on the information provided, we were not able to determine which of these 62 injuries occurred during the performance of duties or resulted off duty or from pre-existing medical conditions,” the report said. Army...

Of all the Middle East peace plans that’ve been proposed since 1948, President Trump’s was the first one that featured bearded dancers and casinos. His video representation of “Trump Gaza” (that he posted online) speaks for itself:CLICK ABOVE ARTICLE LINK FOR THE VIDEO One of the PR benefits of adopting an over-the-top persona is, you can’t ridicule what’s already ridiculous. The Economist dubbed the “Trump Gaza” A.I. video “a weird new genre of political communication,” where policy proposals are insulated from controversy under the pretext of absurdism.It’s also funny. And those cocktails look yummy:Donald Trump shares wild AI video clip...

Massive airstrikes targeting Houthi-held Sana'a International Airport and al-Dailami airbase in Sana'a Over 15 strikes so far This after the IDF ordered an evacuation of the airport earlier

Houthi terrorists got a lucky shot at Israel on Sunday with a missile strike near Ben Gurion Airport, wounding four — and the IDF wasted no time in striking back at prime Houthi-held real estate in Yemen. Details are still a bit thin, but the videos are... explosive. Reports vary — between 30 IAF jets and up to 50 in a joint operation with the U.S. — but either way, it was big. Sorting out the discrepancy during a breaking story isn’t easy, and not even the official statements are much help. A just-released statement from Israeli Prime Minister Bibi...

Pro-Palestinian students at the University of Washington occupied the Interdisciplinary Engineering Building Monday evening, renaming it the Shaban al-Dalou Building, in protest against the university's ties to Boeing. A separate group dressed in all black stacked furniture to create a blockade in front of the building before toppling dumpsters to block off nearby Jefferson Road, then confronted a security officer until he drove away.

Iran unveiled a new solid-fueled ballistic missile and claims it has stationed similar systems nationwide, according to state-run TV, which cited military officials promising the ability to strike U.S. bases and interests “wherever they are” if war breaks out. On Sunday, Iranian state media broadcast images of the new “Qassem Basir” missile during a televised appearance by Defense Minister Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh, amid rising tensions with Washington over Tehran’s growing missile capabilities and nuclear enrichment program. The missile reportedly boasts a 745-mile range, precision strike capacity without GPS, and improved defense-evading agility. According to Nasirzadeh, the system was last tested...

Iran asserts it has stationed missiles nationwide capable of dodging American defense systems. As reported by Iran International, the country this week unveiled a new ballistic missile named Qasem Basir, with a range of 1,200 kilometers, and warned that American military bases across the Middle East fall within its scope. According to the publication, that was reported in Globes, Iran’s Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh stated the upgraded missile, powered by solid fuel, was engineered to circumvent modern air defense systems—particularly the American THAAD system, which was recently installed in Israel. Nasirzadeh declared on Iranian state TV that the missile’s improved...

Dozens of Israeli warplanes have carried out airstrikes on targets in Yemen as the Arab nation’s military forces escalate operations in response to foreign aggression and Israeli atrocities.

Iran is on fire — literally, again — and nobody knows why. A massive power plant and a "cardboard factory" caught fire bigly in Iran over the weekend. But there is impressive new video of Iran's port explosion from last week. Iran International reported that a "series of incidents unfolded in Alborz Province, west of Tehran, on Saturday evening, including two fires, reports of an explosion, and a magnitude 4.0 earthquake, according to official statements and eyewitness accounts." Israeli action? Typical authoritarian regime attention to maintenance issues? God just doesn't like the mullahs' regime? Who knows. For reasons yet unknown,...

Troops located weapon stockpiles approximately 80 meters from a building that previously served as a school and approximately 100 meters from a building that previously served as a hospital in Rafah.