http://www.voanews.com/archive/middle-east/latest/594/598.html middle-east http://www.voanews.com/img/voa/rssLogo_VOA.gif http://www.voanews.com/archive/middle-east/latest/594/598.html en-US 2012 - VOA 60 Fri, 24 May 2013 02:33:08 -0400 Pangea CMS – VOA Ominous ties are emerging between skyrocketing sectarian violence in Iraq and Syria's civil war. Analysts say al-Qaida-linked militants are flowing back and forth from both countries and are seeking to use religious differences to bring down the government, not only in Damascus, but also in Baghdad. Iraqis are witnessing the worst violence to rock their country in five years. Bombings and other attacks against Sunni Muslim and Shi’ite targets are stoking sectarian tensions. One major ... http://www.voanews.com/content/syria-iraq-sectarian-violence/1667233.html http://www.voanews.com/content/syria-iraq-sectarian-violence/1667233.html Thu, 23 May 2013 16:56:05 -0400 Middle East Meredith Buel France said on Thursday it hoped an initiative could be agreed upon by the end of June to put the armed wing of Hezbollah on the EU's list of terrorist organizations on grounds the group is importing Syria's war into Lebanon. Paris has traditionally been cautious about backing steps to sanction Hezbollah, fearing it could destabilize Lebanon and put U.N. peacekeepers at risk, but in recent weeks has said it would consider all options. Britain said this week it wants the EU to add ... http://www.voanews.com/content/france-wants-hezbollah-armed-wing-on-eu-terror-list-soon/1666977.html http://www.voanews.com/content/france-wants-hezbollah-armed-wing-on-eu-terror-list-soon/1666977.html Thu, 23 May 2013 12:02:46 -0400 Europe Reuters Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has accused Iran's leadership of incompetence and ignorance just days after he was barred from standing in an election next month, the opposition Kaleme website reported on Thursday.   Rafsanjani's comments appeared to add to the political conflict between those loyal to the leadership and opposition groups who have been marginalized since post-election unrest in 2009.   “I don't think the country could have been run worse, even ... http://www.voanews.com/content/rafsanjani-calls-iran-leaders-ignorant/1666889.html http://www.voanews.com/content/rafsanjani-calls-iran-leaders-ignorant/1666889.html Thu, 23 May 2013 11:18:36 -0400 Middle East Reuters http://www.voanews.com/content/rafsanjani-calls-iran-leaders-ignorant/1666889.html#relatedInfoContainer The constant flow of refugees from Syria into Jordan has slowed to a near halt in recent days, raising concerns of a yet another humanitarian crisis in the two-year conflict. The war in Syria has turned a dusty, desolate patch of land just south of the border into what is now Jordan's fifth largest city. An average of 2,500 Syrians fled here every day, in the last few months. But, since Sunday, according to those registering new refugees at the camp, not a single one has come. ... http://www.voanews.com/content/whats-behind-the-drop-in-syrian-refugees-to-jordan/1666819.html http://www.voanews.com/content/whats-behind-the-drop-in-syrian-refugees-to-jordan/1666819.html Thu, 23 May 2013 09:51:51 -0400 Middle East Elizabeth Arrott Moore, Oklahoma, the tiny suburb of Oklahoma City, is starting the difficult task of recovery following the powerful tornado that swept through on May 20, 2013. http://www.voanews.com/media/photogallery/1666354.html http://www.voanews.com/media/photogallery/1666354.html Thu, 23 May 2013 09:42:00 -0400 USA U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is holding another round of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders aimed at getting the two sides to restart their stalled peace negotiations. http://www.voanews.com/media/photogallery/1666781.html http://www.voanews.com/media/photogallery/1666781.html Thu, 23 May 2013 09:25:00 -0400 USA A prominent Syrian opposition figure has proposed a transition plan for the war-torn country, requiring President Bashar al-Assad to hand power to a senior aide and leave the country with 500 supporters. The outgoing head of the main opposition Syrian National Coalition, Moaz al-Khatib, published the plan on his Facebook page on Thursday as he met with other coalition members in the Turkish city of Istanbul. The SNC was considering whether to support a U.S.-Russian initiative calling for ... http://www.voanews.com/content/syrian-opposition-meets-to-weigh-proposed-peace-talks/1666655.html http://www.voanews.com/content/syrian-opposition-meets-to-weigh-proposed-peace-talks/1666655.html Thu, 23 May 2013 05:42:55 -0400 Middle East VOA News U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met separately Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as part of Obama administration efforts to jump-start peace talks.  Netanyahu commended U.S. Congressional moves to upgrade sanctions against Tehran and recommit the United States to standing with Israel against the threat of Iran's nuclear program. "But above all," he said, "what we want to do is to restart ... http://www.voanews.com/content/kerry-continues-israelipalestinian-peace-push/1666638.html http://www.voanews.com/content/kerry-continues-israelipalestinian-peace-push/1666638.html Thu, 23 May 2013 03:45:14 -0400 Middle East Scott Stearns http://www.voanews.com/content/kerry-continues-israelipalestinian-peace-push/1666638.html#relatedInfoContainer The International Atomic Energy Agency says Iran has taken a significant step toward building a reactor that Western experts say could provide a second path to producing material for a nuclear bomb. In a quarterly report obtained by Western news agencies Wednesday, the U.N. nuclear agency said Iran has delivered the reactor vessel to the heavy water plant near the western city of Arak. It said the component has not yet been installed. Western powers fear the Arak facility could provide Iran ... http://www.voanews.com/content/un-nuclear-agency-says-iran-expanded-nuclear-activity/1666619.html http://www.voanews.com/content/un-nuclear-agency-says-iran-expanded-nuclear-activity/1666619.html Thu, 23 May 2013 00:47:47 -0400 Middle East VOA News The U.S. Senate has unanimously approved a resolution affirming America's firm opposition to Iran's nuclear ambitions, and pledging full support for Israel in the event of an Israeli military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. The chance to slam Iran’s government and speak up for Israel brought a rare moment of complete bipartisan unity to the Senate. Republican Lindsey Graham was a lead sponsor of the resolution. “If that day ever comes where Israel has to take military ... http://www.voanews.com/content/u-congress-resolution-israel-iran-nuclear/1666558.html http://www.voanews.com/content/u-congress-resolution-israel-iran-nuclear/1666558.html Wed, 22 May 2013 20:09:57 -0400 Middle East Michael Bowman http://www.voanews.com/content/u-congress-resolution-israel-iran-nuclear/1666558.html#relatedInfoContainer The annual report by Amnesty International cites the increasing number of refugees around the world, and the lack of support for them, as the key human rights issue for the past year.  The London-based group also calls the Internet an important tool in fighting human rights abuses, and calls on governments to increase access to it.  Amnesty International reports that the number of refugees worldwide grew to 15 million last year, with millions more in displaced persons camps in their ... http://www.voanews.com/content/amnesty-report-highlights-refugee-plight/1666536.html http://www.voanews.com/content/amnesty-report-highlights-refugee-plight/1666536.html Wed, 22 May 2013 19:00:54 -0400 Middle East Al Pessin Iraqi police say gunmen killed at least seven women and five men at a brothel in eastern Baghdad. The news came as the government released new details of a military shakeup aimed at curbing a weeks-long spike in sectarian violence. Police say Wednesday's attack occurred in a wealthy residential area of the Zayouna district, where gunmen last week shot dead at least 10 merchants selling alcohol. Both prostitution and alcohol are prohibited by Islam, and authorities say both Sunni and ... http://www.voanews.com/content/iraqi-police--gunmen-kill-at-least-12-in-baghdad-brothel/1666455.html http://www.voanews.com/content/iraqi-police--gunmen-kill-at-least-12-in-baghdad-brothel/1666455.html Wed, 22 May 2013 16:42:03 -0400 Middle East VOA News When Arab Spring revolutionaries took to the streets more than two years ago, they might not have had issues like reparations, truth-seeking or accountability on their minds, but among the ideals that motivated many of them was a hunger for justice.   Legal experts often call the process transitional justice and define it as the redress citizens seek for injustice or human rights abuses they or others sustained at the hands of a former repressive regime or as a result of conflict. By ... http://www.voanews.com/content/arab-spring-transitional-justice/1666424.html http://www.voanews.com/content/arab-spring-transitional-justice/1666424.html Wed, 22 May 2013 15:57:25 -0400 Middle East Mohamed Elshinnawi Syria's opposition coalition is to convene in Istanbul Thursday to decide whether to participate in talks next month on resolving the Syrian conflict that are being organized by Washington and Moscow. But the opposition has reservations about the role of the Syrian government in the planned talks. The Syrian National Coalition is due to meet over three days in Istanbul.  The deliberations will include whether to attend a meeting - brokered by Moscow and Washington - to end the Syrian ... http://www.voanews.com/content/syria-opposition-talks/1666420.html http://www.voanews.com/content/syria-opposition-talks/1666420.html Wed, 22 May 2013 15:49:46 -0400 Middle East Dorian Jones The civil war in Syria is taking a new, and possibly ominous turn, in the battle for Qusair, a small but strategic town near the frontier with Lebanon.   For the first time, the mainly Sunni Muslim rebels seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have been fighting Syrian troops backed by a large contingent of battle-hardened guerrillas from Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese Shia movement.  Assad is a member of the Alawi Muslim sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam.   Some of ... http://www.voanews.com/content/hezbollah-syria/1666343.html http://www.voanews.com/content/hezbollah-syria/1666343.html Wed, 22 May 2013 14:49:09 -0400 Middle East Jamie Dettmer A senior European Union official is calling for more humanitarian aid in Syria. EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid, Kristalina Georgieva, says there has been a rapid deterioration of the humanitarian crisis in Syria and neighboring countries since her last visit to the region in December. Speaking Wednesday on her return from the region, she says there now are more than 1.5 million refugees. She says about one-third of Syria’s population of 22 million, including some five million ... http://www.voanews.com/content/eu-official-calls-for-more-syria-aid/1666187.html http://www.voanews.com/content/eu-official-calls-for-more-syria-aid/1666187.html Wed, 22 May 2013 12:15:34 -0400 Middle East Lisa Bryant Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi welcomed seven young soldiers and policemen at a military airport in Cairo after militants in the Sinai released them early Wednesday. The men were seized while traveling in northern Sinai on May 16. The release around dawn Wednesday came after hours of intense negotiations between Egyptian intelligence officials and tribal leaders in the Sinai. Morsi called on the people of Sinai to "give up their arms" and hand over their weapons and pursue their ... http://www.voanews.com/content/seven-egyptian-hostages-freed-in-sinai/1666108.html http://www.voanews.com/content/seven-egyptian-hostages-freed-in-sinai/1666108.html Wed, 22 May 2013 11:04:16 -0400 Middle East Edward Yeranian The battle between Syrian government forces, supported by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, and Syrian rebels in Qusair north of Damascus is sending waves of traumatized refugees into neighboring Lebanon. At a refugee camp in Aarsal, a small Lebanese town lying just across the mountains from Syria, most of the people who have arrived in recent days came from Qusair. They were driven from their homes by heavy fighting between Syrian rebels and government troops reinforced by Lebanese Hezbollah ... http://www.voanews.com/content/qusair_fighting_drives_more_syrians_into_lebanon/1666065.html http://www.voanews.com/content/qusair_fighting_drives_more_syrians_into_lebanon/1666065.html Wed, 22 May 2013 10:27:09 -0400 Middle East Scott Bobb http://www.voanews.com/content/qusair_fighting_drives_more_syrians_into_lebanon/1666065.html#relatedInfoContainer The Obama administration is asking Congress for more than $450 million to maintain and upgrade the Guantanamo Bay terrorist prison even as the president is searching for ways to close the 11-year-old facility on a U.S. Navy base in Cuba.   Barack Obama first promised to shut down the Guantanamo detention center when he was running for the presidency in 2008. He and other administration officials have blamed members of Congress for preventing him from carrying through with the ... http://www.voanews.com/content/experts-weigh-in-on-challenges-of-closing-guantanamo-prison/1666037.html http://www.voanews.com/content/experts-weigh-in-on-challenges-of-closing-guantanamo-prison/1666037.html Wed, 22 May 2013 10:22:43 -0400 USA Cecily Hilleary http://www.voanews.com/content/experts-weigh-in-on-challenges-of-closing-guantanamo-prison/1666037.html#relatedInfoContainer China's prime minister has arrived in Pakistan where he is seeking to strengthen cooperative ties between the two countries. Trade between China and Pakistan hit $12 billion last year and both sides want to raise that to $15 billion in the next two to three years. http://www.voanews.com/media/photogallery/1665972.html http://www.voanews.com/media/photogallery/1665972.html Wed, 22 May 2013 09:22:00 -0400 USA