Tag: Mideast

Climate change a double blow for oil-rich Mideast: experts

by Frank ZELLER Agence France-Presse PAPHOS, Cyprus (AFP) – The climate crisis threatens a double blow for the Middle East, experts say, by destroying its oil income as the world shifts to renewables and by raising temperatures to unliveable extremes. Little has been done to address the challenge in a region long plagued by civil strife, war and refugee flows, even as global warming looks likely to accelerate these trends, a conference heard last week. […]

US, China dominated arms market in 2019: report

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AFP) — US and Chinese companies dominated the global arms market in 2019, while the Middle East made its first appearance among the 25 biggest weapons manufacturers, a report by the SIPRI research institute said Monday. The US arms industry accounted for 61 percent of sales by the world’s “Top 25” manufacturers last year, ahead of China’s 15.7 percent, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Total sales by the “Top 25” […]

WHO says Mideast at ‘critical threshold’ in virus numbers

  CAIRO, Egypt (AFP) — The World Health Organization warned Wednesday the Middle East was at a decisive moment in the fight against the novel coronavirus, with cases surging as countries ease lockdown measures. “We are at a critical threshold in our region,” the WHO’s Middle East head, Ahmed al-Mandhari, said in an online press conference. According to figures published by the global health body on Wednesday, the 22 countries from Morocco to Pakistan had […]

Duterte: PHL won’t deploy troops to Middle East unless national interest requires so

(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte will not deploy Philippine troops to the Middle East unless the national interest requires it. This is according to President Duterte himself, who spoke to reporters on Tuesday, Jan. 7. “(It’s) out of the question. Unless the national interest would demand it and it will be decided not by me but me and Congress,” Duterte said. According to the President, the Philippines would honor its Mutual Defense Treaty with […]

Israel warns Iran that its missiles can travel ‘very far’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran Tuesday that Israeli missiles can travel “very far”, on the eve of a conference in Poland about peace and security in the Middle East. Speaking during a visit to a naval base in the northern port of Haifa, Netanyahu said: “The missiles you see behind me can go very far, against any enemy, including Iran’s proxies in our region” — an apparent reference to Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement. “We […]