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Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has accused Iran of an act of "direct military aggression" by supplying missiles to rebels in Yemen. This "may be considered an act of war", state media quoted the prince as telling UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in a telephone conversation. On Saturday, a ballistic missile was intercepted near the Saudi capital. Iran has denied arming the Houthi movement, which is fighting a Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen's government. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday that Saudi Arabia's "wars of aggression" and "regional bullying" were threatening the Middle East.

BEIRUT - Saudi Arabia accused Lebanon on Monday of declaring war against it because of aggression by the Iran-backed Lebanese Shi‘ite group Hezbollah, a dramatic escalation of a crisis threatening to destabilize the tiny Arab country. Lebanon has been thrust to the center of regional rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran since the Saudi-allied Lebanese politician Saad al-Hariri quit as prime minister on Saturday, blaming Iran and Hezbollah in his resignation speech. Faulting the Hariri-led administration for failing to take action against Hezbollah during a year in office, Sabhan said “there are those who will stop (Hezbollah) and make it...

An informal Weibo survey shows very few Chinese want door open to people fleeing chaos in region, amid rumours Beijing will change its policy Some 97 per cent of respondents in an informal online poll ­involving 150,000 Chinese said “no” to refugees, as rumours spread that Beijing would open the country’s door to displaced people from the Middle East. An internet user started the survey on Weibo by using its social media polling functions on Wednesday. Within a day, 150,000 respondents had voted and only 3,798 had said “yes” to receiving Middle Eastern refugees. The rumours about China taking in...

China's construction of military base in the strategic location of Djibouti is just the first of what will likely be an ongoing expansion in friendly foreign ports around the world, says a Pentagon report. IMAGE: The Gwadar port that Pakistan is developing with Chinese help. China is likely to establish additional military bases in Pakistan and other countries with which it has longstanding friendly ties and similar strategic interests, a new Pentagon report said on Wednesday as the world's largest army increasingly flexed its muscles. In its annual report to the Congress on China's military build-up, the United States Department...

American commentators object to Trump’s visiting countries that haven’t yet adopted the egalitarian mores of a liberal-arts college. The president will soon be returning from his first foreign trip, in which he gave a speech about Islam in Saudi Arabia, had a short meet and greet with the Supreme Pontiff in Rome, and lectured the leaders of our NATO allies. And the commentariat has noticed something about the cultures of the world now that the cultures of the world have become a backdrop to photos of the American president they dislike. The commentators have noticed that the world is problematic....

Mideast: President Trump's Mideast trip was derided by the media and opposition Democrats as simply a chance for him to skip town to avoid the ongoing "scandals" of his administration. As usual, they grossly underestimate this president, and completely misunderstand the importance of his historic trip. Trump's trip to Saudi Arabia and Israel has put the region on notice: The U.S. intends once again to pursue its interests and those of its allies in the region. The U.S. is ready to reward friends and punish enemies, and we will name names. This is a radical reversal of President Obama's policy...

President Donald Trump vowed on Wednesday to work to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians as he hosted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House but offered no clues about how he could break the deadlock and revive long-stalled negotiations. In their first face-to-face meeting, Trump pressed Palestinian leaders to “speak in a unified voice against incitement” to violence against Israelis but he stopped short of explicitly recommitting his administration to a two-state solution to the decades-old conflict, a longstanding bedrock of U.S. policy. "We will get this done,” Trump told Abbas during a joint appearance at the...

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will visit Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, Qatar and Djibouti starting on Tuesday, the Pentagon said in a statement on Friday. It said Mattis would "reaffirm key U.S. military alliances," and "discuss cooperative effort to counter destabilizing activities and defeat extremist terror organizations."

The risk of mass starvation in four countries - northeast Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen - is rising rapidly due to drought and conflict, the U.N. refugee agency said on Tuesday. About 20 million people live in hard-hit areas where harvests have failed and acute malnutrition rates are increasing, particularly among children, it said. In South Sudan, where the United Nations declared famine in some areas in February, "a further 1 million people are now on the brink of famine", UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said. "We are raising our alarm level further by today warning that the risk of...

Saudi Arabia hailed a "historical turning point" in U.S.- Saudi relations after a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman highlighted the two leaders' shared view that Iran posed a regional security threat. The meeting on Tuesday appeared to signal a meeting of the minds on many issues between Trump and Prince Mohammed, in a marked difference from Riyadh's often fraught relationship with the Obama administration, especially in the wake of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. "This meeting is considered a historical turning point in relations between both countries and which had passed through...

Military airport near Damascus bombed. Suspected holding ammunition depots for Hezbollah. Developing, see the feed. Syrian media attributing to Israel. In before Drudge.

There’s a visible twisting of history taking place that’s increasingly obvious within the last few days.  Against all intellectual honesty, an entirely different version of historical reality is being seeded by the media.  Here’s the basic outline: In general terms it goes like this – Vladimir Putin, the global villain and Machiavellian nemesis of freedom, wanted to undermine NATO and find a way to take control of the world, starting with Europe.  As such he schemed to seed the origin of ISIS in Syria so that he could begin killing them and driving a mass exodus of Syrian Muslims into...

The missile attack, if confirmed, would mark the third time the USS Mason was fired upon in international waters in the past week from territory in Yemen controlled by Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels.

Austria outlined plans Wednesday to erect a fence at a border crossing with Italy that is a vital link between northern and southern Europe, escalating a stand-off over how to handle a migration crisis. Migrants are crossing the Mediterranean Sea from Africa to Italy in growing numbers, and Austria has said Rome must stop them from traveling onward toward northern Europe or it will have to introduce border controls at the Brenner Pass in the Alps. But with Austrian preparations for controls already under way, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said Austria's move was "shamelessly against European rules, as well...

American and Turkish-backed forces have launched an offensive in the Turkish-Syrian border region. However, ISIS is fighting back. Aggressively. The Western-allied forces are being pushed back, and many refugee camps are in danger of being conquered by ISIS.The Wall Street Journal: Islamic State militants have responded with a fierce counteroffensive that has repelled the U.S.-backed fighters from key towns and triggered an exodus of families from camps temporarily seized by the extremist group. One worker in the region told the The Wall Street Journal that the "entire Syrian-Turkish border region is on fire now." And that's not an exaggeration. From...

They don’t hate ‘our freedoms.’ They hate that we’ve betrayed our ideals in their own countries — for oil.

The White House said it pulled back on levying sanctions against Iran for ballistic missile violations because they're just trying to determine when they'd have "maximum impact."A couple dozen Senate Democrats have been heaping pressure on the Obama administration to do something in response to the October and November launches, which run afoul of UN Security Council Resolution 1929.Last week, Iran President Hassan Rouhani ordered his defense department to step up the Islamic Republic's ballistic missile program in response to a report that the Treasury Department was preparing sanctions in response to two illegal missile tests.The Wall Street Journal reported...

The United States should formally recognize that a genocide of Christians in the Middle East is taking place, and take steps to protect the vulnerable population.That is the consensus of several witnesses who testified Wednesday before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations.The subcommittee, chaired by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), held the hearing to bring attention to the plight of Christians in the region and grow congressional support possibly for a resolution calling the persecution of Christians genocide at the hands of the Islamic State group.Several witnesses alluded to a...

As the United States debates how to properly vet 10,000 Syrian refugees expected to resettle here, employees with Samaritan’s Purse are stationed on the frontlines in Greece, working to be a “face of compassion” for refugees fleeing war and terror. Ken Isaacs, vice president of programs and government relations for Samaritan’s Purse, spent a week in Greece, where the Christian organization has deployed employees and contractors to the region to assist scores of refugees flowing into the country, with hopes of continuing deeper into Europe. There, the group’s workers meet refugees arriving by rubber rafts on Greek islands and provide...

Regarding the Middle East and its oil, the late Sheikh Rashid Bin Saed Al Maktoum, longtime Emir of Dubai and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, once famously remarked: “My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover, his son will drive a Land Rover, but his son will ride a camel.” It’s an apt reminder of the finite nature of oil resources, and, of course, the wealth it brings. But, and this is what the Sheikh was getting at, it’s also a call for prudence and thoughtful...