Abdiwahab Ahmed

Iran has delivered its answer to a US-backed proposal designed to end a war now stretching beyond two months, according to Iran's state-run IRNA news agency. IRNA said the proposal, relayed through mediator Pakistan, is for now centred on one immediate goal: stopping the fighting. People familiar with thinking on both sides have said the latest diplomatic push seeks a temporary memorandum of understanding that would pause the war and reopen traffic through the Strait of Hormuz while negotiators work toward a broader…

Remarks by Moez Doraid, UN Women Regional Director for Arab States – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva Beirut/Geneva – Standing in Lebanon, I have seen firsthand how women and girls are being killed and displaced even as a fragile ceasefire holds, a pattern that violates the most basic civilian protections under international law. Although a ceasefire took effect on 17 April, reports show that 25 women have been killed and 109…

Live Cruise ship begins evacuating its first passengers after virus outbreak World

The Federal Government of Somalia says it supports citizens’ constitutional rights to peaceful assembly, free expression, and political participation — but warns that planned actions in Mogadishu threaten to cross that line. Peaceful protest, the government insists, is a legitimate democratic tool and will be permitted when conducted lawfully and orderly. To enable demonstrations while protecting public safety and the capital’s normal functions, authorities designated Engineer Yarisow Koonis Stadium as the appropriate…

Out of the wreckage of the US-Israel-Iran war, one issue is almost certain to dominate whatever settlement follows: Iran’s nuclear programme. And if a deal does emerge, it is likely to bear a striking resemblance to the accord President Trump abandoned in 2018 — the awkwardly titled Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. Signed in 2015, the agreement is widely seen as the defining foreign policy achievement of Barack Obama’s second term. It was also detested by Donald Trump, much of the Republican Party and Israeli…

Fresh tension in the Gulf has cast new doubt over US-Iran diplomacy, with Tehran openly questioning Washington’s credibility even as the White House awaits an answer to its latest proposal. US President Donald Trump said yesterday he expected Iran to respond to Washington’s most recent offer for an agreement aimed at prolonging a fragile truce and opening the door to peace talks — “supposedly tonight”. Yet if Pakistani mediators did receive an Iranian reply, no public indication of it emerged. In a call with his Turkish…

Russia’s campaign to tighten its grip on the internet took a sharper turn last month, as the Kremlin moved closer to a long-standing objective: cutting off access to online information beyond the state’s control. Authorities gradually blocked the country’s most widely used messenger app, Telegram, which had previously been used by more than 100 million Russians, after banning WhatsApp in February. Russia had already outlawed many Western websites and news services after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in…

With the war in Ukraine still grinding on, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he believed the conflict was nearing its conclusion, a striking comment delivered only hours after he had promised victory at Moscow's most subdued Victory Day parade in years. "I think that the matter is coming to an end," Mr Putin told reporters, referring to the Russia-Ukraine war, the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two. He also said he was open to discussing a new European security framework, adding that his preferred…

Under the shadow of possible Ukrainian strikes, Russia staged its most stripped-down Victory Day parade in years, a stark departure from the grand military spectacles that once defined 9 May as Moscow still struggles to secure the triumph it promised in the deadliest war in Europe since World War II. The parade on Red Square marks Russia’s most important national holiday, commemorating the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany and honoring the 27 million Soviet citizens who died in the war, including many from Ukraine. Long…

On the frontlines of a deepening humanitarian emergency, the South Sudan Red Cross (SSRC) and its more than 19,000 volunteers continue to deliver life-saving aid across the country — a relentless effort that the Red Cross and Red Crescent (RCRC) Movement is marking today by honoring the volunteers and staff who show up for people in crisis. "South Sudanese people continue to face severe humanitarian consequences, driven by relentless conflict and violence, climate shocks, disease outbreaks and a struggling economy in a…