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  Three Al-Qaeda suspects were killed in a suspected US ( United States ) drone strike in northeastern Yemen, according to local government officials. The US drone strike took place in Marib province in Yemen. The attack was carried out on a car, the officials said. A government official told AFP that the drone strike was believed to be American. The suspected Al-Qaeda militants were in a car in Wadi Obeida when they were targeted by the suspected US strike. A government official from Marib confirmed the strike on suspected Al-Qaeda militants. Washington has not yet commented on the recent incident. The US reportedly considers Al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch - Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) - as one of the most dangerous branches of the global jihadist network. AQAP is a militant Sunni Islamist terrorist group loyal to Daesh. The US has targeted the leaders of the group for over two decades. According to Arab News, AQAP has carried out operations against the Houthi militi...

  Tunisia’s president on Monday blamed ultra-low turnout for parliamentary elections on hatred among voters of the parliament, not to a decline in his own popularity . The electoral commission announced that only 11.4 percent of the electorate had voted on Sunday in parliamentary runoffs. Critics of President Kais Saied said the empty polling stations were evidence of public disdain for his agenda and seizure of powers. Opposition parties called Saied to resign after what they called a “huge failure,” saying early parliamentary and presidential elections were the only route out of the crisis. Saied rejected accusations, calling his critics “traitors.” “90 percent did not vote. ... This confirms that Tunisians no longer trust this institution. ... During the past decade, Parliament has been an institution of absurdity and a state within the state.,” Saied said. “Our popularity is greater than theirs,” he added during a meeting with prime minister Najla Bouden. Saied closed parliame...

  Drones attacked a convoy of trucks in eastern Syria Sunday night shortly after it crossed into the country from Iraq, Syrian opposition activists and a pro-government radio station said. There was no immediate word on casualties. The strike comes amid heightening tension between Iran and its rivals in the region.  It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack on the convoy in the Syrian border region of Boukamal, which is a stronghold of Iran-backed militias.  It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack on the convoy in the Syrian border region of Boukamal, which is a stronghold of Iran-backed militias.  The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the drones appear to have been from the U.S.-led coalition, adding that they targeted six refrigerated trucks. The group said there were casualties and ambulances rushed to the area. Another activist said the strike hit a convoy of trucks of Iran-backed milit...

  The final piece of President Kais Saied's reform of Tunisian politics is the re-election of a parliament with no legislative authority on Sunday. Due to Saied's activities in July 2021, Tunisia is currently experiencing a severe economic crisis and significant political conflicts. Just 34 of the 262 candidates standing for 131 seats are women, and just 11.2% of registered voters participated in the first round of voting last month. Since the 2011 uprising that ousted Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, that was the lowest voter turnout in a national election. The last round occurs 18 months after Saied ousted the government and suspended the legislature. He then moved to control the courts and enacted a constitution in July that handed his office nearly limitless executive authority. Tunisians, according to Youssef Cherif, director of Columbia Global Centers in Tunis, "lack interest" in politics. According to the 2022 constitution, which gives the president absolute...

   A  young Kurdish Iranian woman named Mahsa Amini died after being arrested by Iran’s morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab incorrectly. Protests have rocked the country ever since. Initially centered on demands to abolish the compulsory hijab and disband the   morality police , the popular movement has in recent months broadened its scope to seek minority rights and, in some cases, independent states for Kurdish, Baloch, Azeri, and Arab groups in Iran. Amini’s death gave a common platform to these minorities’ long-festering grievances and led some Iranian opposition groups to call for regime change that could give way to a post-Islamic Republic Iran. In heavily Kurdish regions of Iran, there have been  armed confrontations  between Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Kurdish separatist groups. Tehran has  targeted Kurdish separatist bases  in neighboring Iraq and accused these groups of seeking to secede from Iran. Th...

  China reopened its doors after three years of self-i mposed exile more than a month after abandoning its zero-COVID policy. Many Chinese people think the worst of the pandemic is behind them despite the fact that it is infecting millions and spreading like a wave over the nation. The economic landscape reflects this upbeat view. China's GDP grew by about 3% last year, which was the worst rate in four decades. However, the government anticipates that once firms recover, overseas trade will dramatically rise and growth will resume. Significant repercussions of China's economic growth can be felt throughout the rest of the world, particularly in the Middle East. The demand from the Chinese market will increase first and foremost, assuaging those analysts worried about a worldwide slump. More than 40% more energy resources, such as coal, natural gas, and crude oil, were imported into China last year, making up about 18% of all imports. The demand for energy products will o...

  Israel’s defense minister signaled Friday that the military would stop its airstrikes if Palestinian militant groups halted rocket attacks, a day after the deadliest Israeli raid in decades raised the prospect of a major flare-up in fighting. After a limited exchange of Palestinian rockets and Israeli airstrikes on Gaza overnight, residents of Jerusalem were on edge Friday morning as they waited to see what comes next. Israel’s defense minister instructed the military to prepare for new strikes in the Gaza Strip “if necessary.” The bombardments followed an Israeli raid in the flashpoint Jenin refugee camp, which turned into a gun battle that killed at least seven militants and a 61-year-old woman. The raid sparked clashes elsewhere during which Israeli forces killed a 22-year-old in al-Ram, a Palestinian town north of Jerusalem. At the funeral in al-Ram, crowds of Palestinians carried the young man’s body aloft and waved the flags of both Fatah, the party that controls the Pales...

  Noted climate activist and former Vice President Al Gore, who made headlines this week after he claimed   global warming was "boiling the oceans,"   has a history of making climate-related proclamations later proven to be false. During remarks made Wednesday at the  World Economic Forum summit  in Davos, Switzerland, Gore warned that continued carbon emissions into the atmosphere would destroy the planet and lead to widespread calamities. "We’re still putting 162 million tons [of greenhouse gas] into it every single day and the accumulated amount is now trapping as much extra heat as would be released by 600,000 Hiroshima-class atomic bombs exploding every single day on the earth," Gore said. "That’s what’s boiling the oceans, creating these atmospheric rivers, and the rain bombs, and sucking the moisture out of the land, and creating the droughts, and melting the ice and raising the sea level, and causing these waves of climate refugees." Gore then not...

  The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) continues aid efforts in Lebanon, Yemen and Ethiopia. Recently, KSRelief distributed winter clothes to Syrian and Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. According to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the aid benefited 2,052 families in Lebanon. The assistant supervisor general for operations and programs of KSRelief, Ahmed bin Ali Al-Beez, also met with the Director of the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Regional Bureau in Beirut, Costanza Farina, to talk about educational projects. Farina praised Saudi Arabia’s efforts in supporting the educational sector in order to help affected communities worldwide. The Saudi relief agency also renovated the Ibn Al-Hijlah primary school and Sumaya secondary school in Yemen to help school-going children. KSRelief distributed school bags and uniforms to 917 students. Reportedly, KSRelief also seeks to help ...

  Iran imposed sanctions Wednesday on 34 individuals and entities from the European Union and Britain in reaction to similar measures they have taken over Tehran's response to months-long protests. Tehran's move comes two days after the EU and Britain placed another round of sanctions on the Islamic republic, which has been rocked by protests since the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini. Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, died in police custody after being arrested for allegedly breaching the country's strict dress code for women. The sanctions imposed by Tehran include the blocking of accounts and transactions in Iran's banks and the "prohibition of visa issuance and entry" to Iran, the foreign ministry said. Iran accuses the people and organizations of "supporting terrorism and terrorist groups, instigating and encouragement to terrorist acts and violence against Iranian people." It also accuses them of "interference in the domestic affairs of ...

  According to the US ambassador, the US is redirecting $72 million of its aid to Lebanon in order to assist the country's cash-strapped government in raising the wages of its police and military personnel. Washington has contributed more than $3 billion in military funding to the Lebanese Army and its 80,000 soldiers since 2006. The US allocated money for security personnel's salaries in Lebanon for the first time in an announcement on Wednesday. The World Bank claims that Lebanon is currently experiencing one of the biggest global economic crises since the 1850s. While nearly 90% of the value of the Lebanese pound has been lost versus the dollar, three-quarters of the population still lives in poverty. Lebanese politicians have failed to enact economic changes to restore the country's viability because they are mired in a political impasse. Lebanese police and soldiers, who have been rare unifiers in a nation sharply split by sectarian politics, have become impover...

  Ali Moezi, a 70-year-old political prisoner, who was arrested on October 1 st   by the Ministry of Intelligence in a raid on his home, is critically ill and needs urgent medical attention. He had undergone surgery shortly before his arrest and is suffering from its aftermath. Mr. Moezi, who is held in Ward 4 of Evin prison, deprived of minimum medical care and medicine, had been jailed three times in the past four decades for supporting the People’s  Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK)  and has spent a total of 14 years in prison. On the other hand, Hassan Firouzi, arrested during the uprising in Tehran on November 26, was brutally tortured for forced confessions. He has lost one of his kidneys due to the severity of the tortures he had been subjected to. He was taken to the hospital for treatment on December 14, and despite the doctor’s advice to remain in the hospital and undergo surgery, he was taken to a solitary cell in Evin. He has gone into a coma due...

  Many reports are saying that the  Iranian government records and institutes were targeted by the Chinese advance persistent between July and December in the last year of 2022. Many reports are indicating that Chinese NICKEL, APT15, KeChang, Backdoor Diplomacy, and Vixen Panda are suspected. Their act was like hacking and seems like malware infrastructure associated with the APT group. In a blog, Palo Alto Networks said about the Chinese activity that they always continue to do such a strategy and its tooling with another nation. Recently it has become clear that cyber-espionage operation was earlier done by China and they did it successfully. The Turian backdoor and new C2 infrastructure show that these actors continue to be successful. The cyber security firm also stated in their statement that analysis of malicious infrastructure samples and connections shows that Iranian government networks are likely to be compromised. The report does not stop just by warning the Irish ...

Thousands of people took to the streets of Brussels on Sunday to protest against the detention in Iran of Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele, who was  sentenced to 40 years in prison  on charges including spying. The Belgian government has said the charges are fake. "His life is in danger, contribute to his freedom," "#Free Olivier Vandecasteele," read banners held by protesters who included Vandecasteele's family, friends and colleagues.    After Vandecasteele was sentenced last month, Belgium's justice minister   said   the Belgian had been imprisoned "for a fabricated series of crimes" and had been sentenced as retribution for a 20-year jail term Belgian courts imposed on an Iranian diplomat in 2021. Belgium's constitutional court will next month hold a hearing on the legality of a Belgian prisoner exchange treaty with Iran. Belgian media has suggested this could lead to a prisoner swap between the two countries involving the Iranian ...

  The ongoing  protests against the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran  have also been heard in Krakow, where Iran is taking part in the 2023 World Handball Championship, being hosted by Poland and Sweden.  Even though the event is being held thousands of kilometers beyond Iran's borders, the Iranian regime is doing everything it can to discourage – or even physically stop – any form of protest. Among the members of the Iranian handball delegation for the tournament are so-called "morality guardians" who answer directly to the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Information.   Officially, they are accredited as team supervisors, but their actual work has nothing to do with supporting the players on the court. The morality guardians not only monitor the behavior of the national team players, but they also closely observe their surroundings, particularly the spectators.  One incident during Iran's 34-31 loss to Montenegro showed just how far these moralit...

   Saudi Arabia will continue to work with Russia to maintain stable oil prices. This was confirmed by Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud who is the  Foreign Minister of Saudi.  Saudi is saying in their statements that Russia has an important place to stabilize the condition of the oil market in the world, and in the OPEC too. So, we looking forward to maintaining this relationship with this country Russia. The diplomat of Saudi Arabia said that because of Russia’s presence in the market of crude oil, they all have experienced relative stability and significant price changes in the world in typical situations. In the past years, the prices of Liquefied natural gas shrank down as Europe cut away from Russia and looked for other suppliers in the market which is already facing hard. Asian LNG spot prices are down about 67% from record highs this summer, but it is still more than double from 2021 levels. Brent crude prices shot above around $130 a barrel last year after t...

  Former under secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Robert Joseph said that "the events in Iran are part of a revolution , the end of the   Islamic Regime   is nigh" during an interview with the Unity Foundation on Thursday. Joseph said this in relation to the "hijab protests" that broke out across the country as a result of the death of  Mahsa Amini .  The protests have been ongoing for months, and many protestors have been killed in demonstrations while at least three people have been executed.  Joseph explained that he is optimistic about the future of Iran. According to him, "In university, I read about Iranians' desire for the 1905 revolution (constitutional revolution) and during my 40-year career, I have witnessed the rise of Iranians against the Shah's dictatorship and religious autocracy, which has been ruling Iran for 40 years. "I believe that during decades of violent and repressive government during the era of ...