Arab world

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invited Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to come “speak to the Israeli people at the Knesset in Jerusalem,” during his speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday, In return, he offered to “gladly come to speak peace with the Palestinian parliament in Ramallah.” “The road to peace runs through Jerusalem and Ramallah, not New York,” Netanyahu said. In reiterating his persistent call for direct negotiations with the Palestinians, Netanyahu rejected any possible United Nations plan to unilaterally impose a solution to the conflict. “We will not accept any attempt by the UN to dictate terms to Israel,” Netanyahu said. “I call on President Abbas: you have a choice to make. You can continue to stoke hatred ...

  Simon Collis and his wife Huda in front of the British consulate in Mecca Britain’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia has been inundated with congratulations from across the Islamic world after it emerged that he converted to Islam and carried out the first Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca ever performed by a senior UK diplomat. The conversion of Simon Collis, the UK envoy to Riyadh, became public after pictures posted on Twitter showed him and his wife Huda wearing the traditional white garments of Muslim pilgrims in front of the British consulate in Mecca. The 60-year-old diplomat, who speaks fluent Arabic, confirmed the news in response to messages on Twitter. “God bless you. In brief: I converted to Islam after 30 years of living in Muslim societies and before marrying Huda,” he wrote. The n...

    The UN said aid would not go through today as planned, even as trucks packed with food sat at the Turkish border ready to cross into Syria, and residents of the besieged city of Aleppo awaited the badly-needed supplies. The UN had planned for 20 trucks with aid to enter East Aleppo today, the second day the U.S.-Russia brokered ceasefire largely held, but some armed groups are opposing that plan and the UN is still waiting for all security requirements to be in place, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. We have to get everyone in agreement to make this action happen, David Swanson, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told ABC News Some parties to the conflict are not fully on board. Swanson did not ...

    The Kaaba, House of Allah, was dressed in its new Kiswa (the cloth that covers the Kaaba) after Fajr prayer on Sunday by as many as 86 technicians and weavers. The Kaaba is dressed in its new Kiswa on Dhul Hijjah 9, the Day of Arafat, every year. On this day the Grand Mosque is usually empty because all the pilgrims are gathered in Arafat. The Makkawis, especially women, avail this opportunity to spend the entire day in the Grand Mosque praying and doing tawaf (circumambulation) around the Kaaba. The Kiswa is made of pure silk with gold threads at the cost of more than SR22 million. It is manufactured in a special factory in Makkah which is manned by 240 technicians, weavers and administrators. The Kiswa is 95 centimeters wide and nine meters high. It is made upon 47 piece...

    Isis will flourish and survive even if it is defeated in the present battle for Syria and Iraq an Isis militant has told The Independent. In an exclusive interview, Faraj, a 30-year-old veteran fighter from north east Syria, says that when we say that the Islamic State Isis is everlasting and expanding, it is not a mere poetic or propaganda phrase. He says the group intends to rebuild its strength in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, adding that Isis has sleeper agents all over the world and their numbers are increasing. In his account of his life in Isis, Faraj makes plain that only a year after the caliphate was declared in the wake of the capture of Mosul in 2014, its leaders could foresee that it might be overrun militarily. He reveals hitherto unknown details of...

    Iran began building its second nuclear power plant with Russian help on Saturday, the first such project since last year's landmark nuclear deal with world powers, state TV reported. The project will eventually include two power plants expected to go online in 10 years. Construction on the second plant is set to begin in 2018. The project will cost more than $8.5 billion and produce 1,057 megawatts of electricity. Construction of the power plant is a symbol of Iran enjoying the results of the nuclear deal, Senior Vice-President Ishaq Jahangiri said at a ceremony marking the start of the project. We will continue working with Russia as a strategic partner and friend, he added. The ceremony was held in the southern port city of Bushehr, where Iran's sole operational nuclear ...

    Turkey's minister of European Union affairs dismisses claims that a cease-fire has been reached with Kurdish rebels in northern Syria. In comments made to the state-run Anadolu news agency on Wednesday, EU Minister Omer Celik says, "Turkey is a sovereign state, it is a legitimate state. To suggest it is on a par with a terrorist organization and suggest there are talks between them, that a deal has been reached between them, this is unacceptable." Turkey's incursion into Syria helped rebels take the border town of Jarablus from the Islamic State group last week, but clashes have since broken out between Turkish and Kurdish forces in the area. The Kurdish-backed Jarablus Military Council said in a statement Tuesday it had agreed to a cease-fire following consultations with ...

    A year ago this week a little boy was washed up dead on a Turkish beach and became a symbol of the refugee crisis caused predominantly by conflict in Syria and Iraq. Pictures of Aylan Kurdi appeared to show not only how bleak was the predicament facing many in war-torn regions, but also how Europe – with its comparative peace and prosperity – had failed to work out a cogent or unified response. As it happened, Aylan Kurdi’s death coincided very nearly with the anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War. The Independent’s editorial of 2 September, which called on the British government to take a fair share of refugees, noted that the time had come for European countries to work together and to demonstrate how far the continent had come since the dark days of World ...

    Mother-of-three Rachel Miller sells her jewellery and takes out loans to end the horrors suffered by women and girls at the hands of ISIS terrorists. She pays brokers up to £7,500 a time to free the sex slaves, travelling with her driver to parts of southern Turkey the Foreign Office has declared no go zones. The first Yazidi girl she helped was just six years old. She had seen her mum raped and murdered and her dad beheaded by ISIS terrorists , who took her captive and repeatedly raped her for months on end. Many of the victims are too traumatised to speak. Rachel, of Nottingham, said: “One girl squeezed my hand, not just a hello...but a squeeze that said a thousand things. “Touch from those who have been raped and taken into slavery is so significant. "They shy away from...

    Iraqi forces celebrate as they hold an Islamic State flag they captured in Ramadi, Iraq. In this Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016 file photo, Iraqi security forces celebrate as they hold a flag of the Islamic State group they captured in Ramadi, 70 miles (115… A new video from the so-called Islamic State (IS) shows a child purportedly British appearing to execute a prisoner. Five boys stand in front of five men in orange jumpsuits in the video. The boy captioned as Abu Abdullah al-Britani (the Briton) is white. A child captioned Abu al-Bara al-Tunisi (the Tunisian) addresses the men apparently Kurdish fighters promising more violence, according to the BBC. The other children are said to be Abu Ishaq al-Masri (the Egyptian), Abu Fu’ad al-Kurdi (the Kurd) and Yusuf al-Uzbaki (the Uzbe...