Iran has virtually completed a ‘Shiite Crescent’ of influence across the heart of the Middle East, using a string of battlefield successes to link a network of allies and proxy forces now spanning from nation’s border with Iraq all the way to Lebanon.
Saudi Arabia has ordered its citizens to leave Lebanon immediately, escalating a regional standoff with Iran centred on the fragile state, which it claims is being run by Tehran’s proxy, Hezbollah.
Even for a country often used as a battleground by regional powers and their proxies, the sudden resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri has opened a new period of political uncertainty and fear in Lebanon.
Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s abrupt resignation over the weekend was bizarre even by the often twisted standards of Lebanese politics: He made the surprise announcement from the Saudi capital in a pre-recorded message on a Saudi-owned TV station.
Iran’s top religious and political leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urged all Muslims to engage in ‘different methods’ of fighting against Israel.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the Iran nuclear program, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.
Israel’s defense minister said on Tuesday President Bashar al-Assad was winning Syria’s civil war and urged the United States to weigh in as Damascus’s Iranian and Hezbollah allies gain ground.
As President Trump’s staunchest backers wonder why he has suddenly dropped ‘Islamic’ from two important war speeches, the mystery in the latter instance can be traced to the Pentagon, says an administration source.
Hezbollah said its forces seized a strategic valley from Sunni Muslim militants on Monday, the latest advance in an offensive to oust jihadists from their last foothold along the Syria-Lebanon border.
The Shiite-Sunni sectarian war breaking out in Iraq is threatening a widespread regional war. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) is on the move as it threatens to cut off ‘supply routes to Baghdad.’ ISIS forces are within miles of the Haditha Dam, Iraq’s second largest dam, located on the Euphrates River. Meanwhile, Syria bombed ISIS targets inside of Iraq. The NY Times reported Iran is sending military aid including drones to Iraq. Those are just a few of the headlines we cover in today’s Full Coverage Report.
Iran has deployed two Revolutionary Guards units to Iraq to protect Baghdad, and the holy Shi’ite cities of Karbala and Najaf, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Shi’te Muslim Iran is so alarmed by Sunni insurgent gains in Iraq that it may be willing to cooperate with Washington in helping Baghdad fight back, a senior Iranian official told Reuters.
A blasphemy allegation may have led to an arson attack on an historic library owned by a church leader in Lebanon this month, according to Barnabas Aid.
For nearly nine months, an Algerian Christian convert from Islam still waits for a ruling on his appeal to the severe sentence handed him for allegedly proselytizing and defaming Islam and its prophet, according to Morning Star News.
According to the Assyrian International News Agency, Assyrian Christians who have fled from an area of Syria called al-Thawrah (also known as al-Tabqah), have been told by rebels, “If you want to come back, convert to Islam, or you will be killed.”
Eritrean authorities are punishing 39 Christian high school students by subjecting them to beatings and hard labor, according to Open Doors.
Religious persecution in Eritrea is at its highest ever and getting even worse, according to World Watch Monitor, the news outlet of Open Doors, a Christian charity that ranked Eritrea 10th on its World Watch List.
A Muslim mob attacked a Christian neighborhood in eastern Pakistan torching up to 100 homes and injuring dozens, after hearing reports that a Christian man committed blasphemy against Islam.
In their battle to topple the Assad regime, rebel jihadists of the Free Syrian Army have also looted religious sites in Northern Syria, according to Human Rights Watch.
An oppressive religious law adopted by Kazakhstan last year has reduced the number of officially recognized religions from 46 to 17, according to Eurasianet.