http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/?service=Rss http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/remains-found-in-hunt-for-missing-journalist-1823411.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/remains-found-in-hunt-for-missing-journalist-1823411.html <p> A forensics team searching for the body of a British journalist kidnapped by Palestinian militants more than 20 years ago recovered human remains in Lebanon, the Foreign Office said today. </p> Middle East Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:29:41 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/vicepresidents-veto-darkens-iraq-election-1823226.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/vicepresidents-veto-darkens-iraq-election-1823226.html ]]> <p>Iraq's Sunni Arab Vice-President yesterday vetoed an election law over the number of parliamentary seats for refugees, prompting poll workers to halt preparations and casting fresh doubt on whether the vote can be held in January. </p> Middle East Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-drops-in-corruption-list-amid-calls-for-new-urgency-in-the-west-1822418.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-drops-in-corruption-list-amid-calls-for-new-urgency-in-the-west-1822418.html <p>The new edition of a global "corruption index" has seen Iran fall into the bottom 10, ranking it one of the world's most crookedly run countries.</p> Middle East Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israeli-minister-plans-to-send-troops-into-schools-to-boost-conscription-1822419.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israeli-minister-plans-to-send-troops-into-schools-to-boost-conscription-1822419.html <p>The Israeli education minister has unveiled plans to take teams of senior army officers to high schools across the country to help teachers "foster the motivation" of pupils to serve in combat units following a decline in conscription rates.</p> Middle East Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/donald-macintyre-palestinians-throw-down--challenge-to-obama-and-un-1821751.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/donald-macintyre-palestinians-throw-down--challenge-to-obama-and-un-1821751.html <p>As so often in the Middle East, we have been here before. The latest suggestion – that a frustrated Palestinian leadership would unilaterally declare a state and invite international recognition for it – is not new. It was made a decade ago by Yasser Arafat when Benjamin Netanyahu, then as now, was Prime Minister. It was made again after the collapse of the Camp David talks a year later, when then Prime Minister Ehud Barak, like some of Mr Netanyahu's more hawkish ministers now, threatened to annex the most populous settlements in the West Bank in retaliation. And as the second intifada – and Israel's determined military response to it – gathered momentum, nothing came of it. </p> Middle East Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraqi-was-beaten-and-sexually-abused-1821253.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraqi-was-beaten-and-sexually-abused-1821253.html <p>British soldiers forced an Iraqi detainee to wear an orange jump suit and told him that he was to be executed at Guantanamo Bay, according to new torture allegations being investigated by the Ministry of Defence.</p> Middle East Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/palestinian-push-for-an-independent-state-causes-israeli-alarm-1821261.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/palestinian-push-for-an-independent-state-causes-israeli-alarm-1821261.html ]]> <p>Palestinian leaders from President Mahmoud Abbas down have alarmed Israeli ministers by swinging their weight behind a planned effort to secure UN backing for a unilaterally declared independent state in the West Bank and Gaza. </p> Middle East Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/toxic-munitions-may-be-cause-of-baby-deaths-and-deformities-in-fallujah-1820971.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/toxic-munitions-may-be-cause-of-baby-deaths-and-deformities-in-fallujah-1820971.html ]]> <p>Evidence was growing this weekend that babies born in the Iraqi city of Fallujah – scene in 2004 of one of the few set-piece battles of the invasion – are exhibiting high rates of mortality and birth defects. </p> Middle East Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/british-soldiers-sexually-abused-us-claim-iraqis-1820973.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/british-soldiers-sexually-abused-us-claim-iraqis-1820973.html ]]> <p>Disturbing graphic allegations of sexual and physical abuse of Iraqi civilians by British soldiers are among 33 new torture cases being investigated by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).</p> Home News Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/ultraorthodox-jews-protest-intel-sabbath-work-1820710.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/ultraorthodox-jews-protest-intel-sabbath-work-1820710.html <p> More than a thousand devout Jews are protesting in Jerusalem against plans by computer chip maker Intel to operate on Saturdays. </p> Middle East Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:41:09 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-creates-new-spy-agency-to-fight-protests-1819935.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-creates-new-spy-agency-to-fight-protests-1819935.html <p>Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has created a powerful new intelligence organisation to try to quell any further public unrest in the wake of June's disputed election, an exiled Iranian opposition group said yesterday. </p> Middle East Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/new-law-defuses-iraqi-ballot-row-1817275.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/new-law-defuses-iraqi-ballot-row-1817275.html <p>Iraq's parliament yesterday passed a long-delayed election law paving the way for a national vote in January after overcoming a potentially explosive row over the disputed city of Kirkuk, lawmakers said. </p> Middle East Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/world-focus-without-abbas-does-doomsday-loom-1816579.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/world-focus-without-abbas-does-doomsday-loom-1816579.html <p>When Western diplomats considered Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's announcement that he did not want to stand for re-election yesterday, they must have asked themselves the famous question attributed to Metternich about the death of a rival, "What did he mean by that?" </p> Middle East Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/un-chief-sending-gaza-war-crimes-report-to-security-council-1816704.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/un-chief-sending-gaza-war-crimes-report-to-security-council-1816704.html <p> Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said yesterday he will send a report calling for Israel and the Palestinians to investigate alleged war crimes during last winter's conflict in Gaza to the UN Security Council "as soon as possible." </p> Middle East Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/abbas-makes-shock-decision-not-stand-in-palestinian-poll-1815753.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/abbas-makes-shock-decision-not-stand-in-palestinian-poll-1815753.html <p>The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, last night chided the US and announced that he did not want to stand for another term in elections officially scheduled for January.</p> Middle East Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-seizes-cache-of-arms-lsquobound-for-lebanonrsquo-1815107.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-seizes-cache-of-arms-lsquobound-for-lebanonrsquo-1815107.html <p> The Israeli navy yesterday seized a ship carrying what defence officials said was five hundred tons of Iranian-supplied weapons bound for Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, including Katyusha rockets that could be used in the event of renewed Israel-Hizbollah hostilities. </p> Middle East Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:00:47 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/irans-reformists-use-key-anniversary-to-defy-regime-1814795.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/irans-reformists-use-key-anniversary-to-defy-regime-1814795.html ]]> <p> It was meant to be a highlight of the Iranian revolutionary calendar, a day of mass rallies sponsored by the government to showcase contempt for America and the West. </p> Middle East Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/paedophile-rapist-to-be-beheaded-and-crucified-in-saudi-arabia-1814475.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/paedophile-rapist-to-be-beheaded-and-crucified-in-saudi-arabia-1814475.html <p> A man who kidnapped and raped five children, one of whom was left in the desert to die, has been sentenced to be beheaded and his body publicly crucified. </p> Middle East Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:44:12 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/settlement-by-stealth-belies-promises-of-restraint-1814198.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/settlement-by-stealth-belies-promises-of-restraint-1814198.html ]]> <p>Maysaa Al-Kurd has lived all her life in the home her family moved into in 1956. The pomegranate tree standing in the garden was planted by her father when she was still an infant nearly half a century ago. But that hardly reassured her yesterday when she heard the Jewish settlers break into the next-door extension building her brother Nabil built to house his family in 2001. </p> Middle East Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/clinton-backtracks-on-israeli-settlements-after-arab-anger-1813641.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/clinton-backtracks-on-israeli-settlements-after-arab-anger-1813641.html <p>Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, was forced into an awkward diplomatic pirouette yesterday, insisting to Arab foreign ministers that Washington had not capitulated to Israel's continuing hunger for new Jewish settlements even if statements she had made 24 hours earlier seemed to imply exactly that.</p> Middle East Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-calls-for-talks-over-un-nuclear-deal-1813642.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-calls-for-talks-over-un-nuclear-deal-1813642.html <p>Iran wants more talks on a UN-drafted nuclear deal and prefers to import atomic fuel rather than send its own uranium abroad for processing, a senior official said yesterday, suggesting terms that world powers are likely to rebuff. </p> Middle East Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/clinton-backs-israel-on-settlements-stance-1813190.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/clinton-backs-israel-on-settlements-stance-1813190.html ]]> <p>Palestinian leaders angrily accused Hillary Clinton of undercutting Middle East peace prospects yesterday after she endorsed Israel's plans to continue expanding West Bank settlements.</p> Middle East Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/jewish-extremist-held-for-hate-crimes-1813192.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/jewish-extremist-held-for-hate-crimes-1813192.html <p>Israelis targeted by a suspected extremist Jewish settler called for harsh penalties if the man, accused of a series of murders and attempted murders, is found guilty. </p> Middle East Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraq-bicycle-bomb-kills-five-1813197.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraq-bicycle-bomb-kills-five-1813197.html <p>A bomb attached to a bicycle killed five people in southern Iraq yesterday, and at least five others were killed in violence across the country, police said. </p> Middle East Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iranian-politicians-reject-undrafted-uranium-plan-1812517.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iranian-politicians-reject-undrafted-uranium-plan-1812517.html <p> Iran's senior politicians have rejected a UN-backed plan to ship much of the country's uranium abroad for further enrichment. </p> Middle East Sat, 31 Oct 2009 09:32:45 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/politicians-in-libya-for-terror-redress-talks-1812507.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/politicians-in-libya-for-terror-redress-talks-1812507.html <p> A delegation of politicians from Northern Ireland were heading to Libya today for talks about compensation for victims of IRA violence. </p> Middle East Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:41:57 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/student-expelled-to-gaza-strip-by-force-1811730.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/student-expelled-to-gaza-strip-by-force-1811730.html ]]> <p>A Palestinian student has been handcuffed, blindfolded and forcibly expelled to the Gaza Strip by Israeli troops just two months before she was due to graduate from university.</p> Middle East Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-heads-for-nuclear-row-1811734.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-heads-for-nuclear-row-1811734.html <p>Iran yesterday proposed changes to a UN-drafted nuclear fuel deal, making demands that appeared to challenge the basis of the agreement with the United States, France and Russia, Iranian media said. </p> Middle East Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/kate-allen-swimming-the-israeli-settlements-1810230.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/kate-allen-swimming-the-israeli-settlements-1810230.html <p> In the 1968 film “The Swimmer”, starring Burt Lancaster, the hero hits on the idea of getting home by swimming the length of various pools owned by his rich friends in a leafy north-eastern US state. </p> Commentators Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:52:55 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-accused-of-denying-palestinians-access-to-water-1809948.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-accused-of-denying-palestinians-access-to-water-1809948.html ]]> <p>Israel is accused today of denying the West Bank and Gaza access to adequate water through a "total" and "discriminatory" control that enables its own people to consume four times as much as the Palestinians. </p> Middle East Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-king-scraps-flogging-for-sex-talk-show-woman-1809775.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-king-scraps-flogging-for-sex-talk-show-woman-1809775.html <p> Saudi Arabia's king waived a flogging sentence on a female journalist charged for involvement in a risque TV show, the second such pardoning of such a high profile case by the monarch in recent years. </p> Middle East Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:59:42 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/carnage-in-baghdad-as-twin-blasts-strike-city-1809433.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/carnage-in-baghdad-as-twin-blasts-strike-city-1809433.html ]]> <p> Devastating twin car bombings wreaked carnage in the heart of Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 147 people and injuring 520 others in the deadliest attack in the country in two years. </p> Middle East Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/first-inspectors-visit-irans-secret-nuclear-plant-as-talks-hit-deadlock-1809435.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/first-inspectors-visit-irans-secret-nuclear-plant-as-talks-hit-deadlock-1809435.html ]]> <p>UN inspectors yesterday got their first look inside a once-secret Iranian uranium enrichment plant that raised western suspicions about Tehran's nuclear programme.</p> Middle East Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/poll-date-pushes-palestinian-rivals-even-further-apart-1809355.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/poll-date-pushes-palestinian-rivals-even-further-apart-1809355.html ]]> <p> Hamas, the militant Palestinian movement that rules the Gaza Strip is accusing Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate president in the West Bank, of deepening internal Palestinian divisions by unilaterally setting January elections. </p> Middle East Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:19:06 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/un-makes-a-drama-out-of-gaza-crisis-1809354.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/un-makes-a-drama-out-of-gaza-crisis-1809354.html ]]> <p> Her face larger than life on the big screen at the back of the stage, Jodie Clarke explains just what was happening at her workplace on 15 January 2009, and how the military she was constantly in touch with were insisting it was not. “My dear, I am standing in my building,” she says she told the person at the other end of the phone. “It is collapsing around me. There is a huge fire. You are hitting the UN compound.” </p> Middle East Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:17:12 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/two-car-bombs-kill-at-least-136-in-central-baghdad-1809257.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/two-car-bombs-kill-at-least-136-in-central-baghdad-1809257.html ]]> <p> Two powerful suicide car bombs blew up outside the Justice Ministry and city government offices in downtown Baghdad today, killing at least 136 people in the worst attack in more than two years. Iraqi leaders said the attacks aimed to disrupt political progress in the months leading up to January's crucial elections. </p> Middle East Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:01:43 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-arrests-12-accused-of-promoting-satanism-1809271.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-arrests-12-accused-of-promoting-satanism-1809271.html <p> Twelve people accused of promoting satanism have been arrested in northwest Iran, a newspaper reported today. </p> Middle East Sun, 25 Oct 2009 10:30:39 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/un-nuclear-inspectors-in-iran-to-visit-site-1809261.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/un-nuclear-inspectors-in-iran-to-visit-site-1809261.html <p> A team of UN inspectors arrived today in Iran to visit a recently revealed, though still unfinished, uranium enrichment facility near the holy city of Qom to verify it is for peaceful purposes. </p> Middle East Sun, 25 Oct 2009 09:07:23 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/sixty-lashes-for-journalist-over-saudi-sex-show-1809142.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/sixty-lashes-for-journalist-over-saudi-sex-show-1809142.html <p>A woman journalist has been sentenced to 60 lashes by a Saudi Arabian court after a man appearing on the television chat show she worked on described his sex life. </p> Middle East Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-ignores-deadline-and-takes-nuclear-talks-to-brink-1808408.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-ignores-deadline-and-takes-nuclear-talks-to-brink-1808408.html <p> Iran has ignored a deadline to respond to a proposed deal from the UN nuclear watchdog, saying it would give its verdict next week. Tehran's playing for time, coupled with reports of a counter-proposal that would keep its enriched uranium in-country, cast fresh doubts on the success of the diplomatic channel and raised the prospect of further sanctions against the Islamic Republic. </p> Middle East Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/sworn-enemies-across-the-disarmament-table-1807652.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/sworn-enemies-across-the-disarmament-table-1807652.html ]]> <p>Bitter enemies Iran and Israel, whose normal discourse is that of threat and counter-threat, engaged in a rare face-to-face exchange of views at a nuclear disarmament conference in Cairo, Israeli media reported yesterday.</p> Middle East Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/163120k-to-save-young-on-death-row-in-iran-1807655.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/163120k-to-save-young-on-death-row-in-iran-1807655.html ]]> <p>An Iranian lawyer has made a desperate appeal for four juvenile offenders on death row, asking for donations towards the £120,000 in blood money that could save their lives.</p> Middle East Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100