Myanmar’s junta chief departed Monday for talks with President Vladimir Putin in Russia, a key ally and arms supplier for the isolated state struggling to quell violent opposition to military rule. Min Aung Hlaing, who seized power in a 2021 coup, left the capital Naypyidaw with a retinue of high-ranking officials, according the junta’s information…
Israeli fire killed at least two people in Rafah and injured three others in Khan Younis in the south of Gaza, raising fear among Palestinians that the ceasefire could collapse altogether after Israel imposed a total blockade on the shattered enclave. A first phase of a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas that began in…
Iran’s former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who negotiated the landmark 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, has resigned as vice president, state media said Monday. “Zarif’s resignation letter was received by President Masoud Pezeshkian, who has not yet responded,” the official IRNA news agency reported, without giving further details. In a Monday post on…
A clash between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House was a “manufactured escalation,” Germany’s likely next chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday. “It was not a spontaneous reaction to interventions by Zelenskyy, but obviously a manufactured escalation in this meeting in the Oval Office,” Merz told a news conference in…
Palestinian militant group Hamas said on Monday that Israel is trying to push things back to square one by asking to extend the first phase of their Gaza ceasefire agreement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Sunday it had adopted a proposal by US President Donald Trump’s envoy for a temporary ceasefire in…
France and Britain have not agreed on a partial truce plan for Ukraine, a UK minister said on Monday, after French President Emmanuel Macron said it had been proposed by the two nations. Macron told France’s Le Figaro newspaper on Sunday that London and Paris are proposing a one-month truce in Ukraine “in the air, at…
Arab foreign ministers met behind closed doors in Cairo on Monday ahead of an extraordinary Arab League summit focused on a plan to counter US President Donald Trump’s proposal to take over Gaza and expel its residents. The ministers held a “preparatory and consultative” session centered on an Arab plan to reconstruct the war-battered enclave without…
A plan for Gaza drawn up by Egypt as a counter to US President Donald Trump’s ambition for a Middle East Riviera would sideline Hamas and replace it with interim bodies controlled by Arab, Muslim and Western states, according to a draft seen by Reuters. The Egyptian vision for Gaza, which is due to be presented at…
Joseph Aoun said he looked forward to meeting with MBS Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun said he was looking forward to reviving bilateral ties between Beirut and Riyadh as he landed in Saudi Arabia on Monday for his first official visit abroad since being elected in January. “I look forward with great hope to talks I…
The statement by Russia’s top diplomat is part of Moscow’s longstanding attempt to paint Ukraine as a “neo-Nazi” state to justify its invasion. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – who is of Jewish descent – a “pure Nazi” and “traitor to the Jewish people.” Lavrov made the comment during…
LONDON — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told leaders gathered Sunday for a summit on the war in Ukraine that they need to step up and continue to support Kyiv and meet a “once in a generation moment” for the security of Europe. “Even while Russia talks about peace, they are continuing their relentless aggression,”…
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday he had signed a declaration to expedite delivery of approximately $4 billion in military assistance to Israel. The Trump administration, which took office on January 20, has approved nearly $12 billion in major foreign military sales to Israel, Rubio said in a statement, adding that it…
Israel said Sunday it is stopping the entry of all goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip. The prime minister’s office did not elaborate on the decision but warned of “additional consequences” if Hamas does not accept what Israel says is a US proposal for an extension of the ceasefire. It was not immediately clear…
Russian shelling overnight killed one person and injured two more in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk and Russian forces attacked Ukraine with 79 drones, Ukraine’s authorities said on Sunday. “Kramatorsk was subjected to hostile shelling – residential district,” city Mayor Oleksandr Goncharenko wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “A boy born in 2006 was…
Clashes between forces affiliated with Syria’s new rulers and local gunmen from the minority Druze community killed one person and wounded nine near Damascus on Saturday, a monitor said. Since an offensive led by armed opposition forces in December overthrew longtime repressive ruler Bashar al-Assad, clashes and shootings have occurred in several areas, with security…
