Habib Siddiqui

  Gaza requires urgent international attention. What is happening in the besieged and devastated Strip at the moment by far exceeds an unfolding humanitarian disaster; it is a calculated geopolitical reshaping. Israel is actively executing a plan to permanently occupy the vast majority of Gaza, with consequences that require little elaboration considering what we already know about the ongoing genocide. Currently, much of the international debate centers on a single official: Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov . The former United Nations Special Coordinator has been designated by the United States as the Executive Director of the Trump administration’s newly established ‘Board of Peace’—an international council founded to oversee the implementation of Washington’s 20-point Gaza roadmap. The issue, however, is much bigger than a single Washington-backed bureaucrat. A growing number of Palestinians and political analysts accuse Mladenov of manufacturing the very conditions that co...

  When Congress wants to do something that the American public would object to, it buries it. That is exactly what it did with Section 224 of the House Armed Services Committee’s draft Fiscal Year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act. A sinister, Israel-first, and AIPAC insertion to merge American military industries with the military of a country, Israel, that has been caught spying and stealing American technology. The proposed section is hidden inside a $1.15 trillion defense bill, advanced with virtually no public debate. The provision, titled the “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative,” goes far beyond traditional military aid. It authorizes joint weapons co-production, bilateral research and development, technology licensing , and deep integration across artificial intelligence, cyberwarfare, autonomous systems, and biotech. Most extraordinarily, it would create a permanent Pentagon executive agent dedicated exclusively to coordinating military...

  Pakistan has warned India that any attempt to block water flowing to Pakistan would be treated with utmost seriousness and could amount to an act of war. The Foreign Office also rejected Indian remarks on Azad Jammu and Kashmir and commented on the latest SIPRI report. ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday warned India against any attempt to stop water flowing to the country, with the Foreign Office saying such a move would be treated with the utmost seriousness and could amount to an act of war. The warning came a day after Indian Water Minister CR Patil said New Delhi was working to ensure that not a single drop of water reaches Pakistan. Responding at the weekly media briefing, Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said any effort to block Pakistan’s water would be a highly irresponsible step that runs contrary to international obligations and the Indus Waters Treaty. Andrabi said Pakistan would act to protect its economy, key national interests and the lives of its 250 million ...

  Conflict has disrupted energy exports, trade routes and investment across economies worth almost $4 trillion, Asharq Business with Bloomberg analysis shows Report suggests that recovery hinges on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and preventing a return to regional conflict RIYADH: The Iran war has delivered the broadest economic shock to the Middle East and North Africa in at least half a century of regional upheaval, according to an analysis produced by Asharq Business with Bloomberg. Its report, based on analyzing International Monetary Fund data dating back to 1980, compared the conflict with the onset of major geopolitical crises, including the Iran-Iraq war, Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, the 2011 Arab protests and the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. The current crisis is hitting a much larger economic bloc than previous shocks in the sample.  The combined nominal gross domestic product of the 10 directly affected economies — includin...

IDF claims operational control of Wadi Saluki, the northernmost point they’ve reached by Jason Ditz | June 11, 2026 at 1:04 pm ET | Hezbollah , Israel , Lebanon Israel maintains that they’re exclusively attacking Hezbollah in their invasion of Lebanon, and that they take extraordinary measures to avoid hitting civilians. The sheer number of times they’ve attacked hospitals, however, especially in the city of Tyre, challenges those claims. Once again Thursday, Israeli forces struck the area near the Hiram Hospital in Tyre, killing one and wounding 17 , including a number of nurses and other hospital employees and damaging the hospital. This is the second time this month that specific hospital was hit, and the fifth time in June that a hospital in Tyre was hit. Eight were reported killed in Tayr Dibba and four more were reported killed in Deir Qanoun. Between those, Tyre, and a strike on Sidon, at least 13 people were killed and more than 25 others wounded across Lebanon in the past ...

  by Christopher Bancroft | Jun 12, 2026 | 1 Comment Starting from the modern-day West Bank, Jesus rode his donkey westward around the Mount of Olives toward Jerusalem for what would be his Last Supper. As he passed through the ancient olive groves that blanketed the hillsides, he would have been surrounded by the rich natural life of the Levant. Nestled between the Eastern Mediterranean and the Arabian Desert, the Levant encompasses modern-day Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Israel, and Cyprus. For thousands of years, this fertile region has teemed with life, offering its inhabitants a generous bounty from both land and sea. The clear Mediterranean waters provided a menu of fish such as tuna, seabream, grouper, and mackerel, while inland, a vibrant array of plants and animals – known collectively as the Levantine fauna – flourished among the groves, fields, and hills. Yet today, amid the chaos of modern conflict, these once-generous lands are being scarred and tormented, most...