عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Trump Says ‘We Will Get It Done’ in the Middle East

US President Donald Trump speaks to the media, after the US Supreme Court dealt a blow to the power of federal judges by restricting their ability to grant broad legal relief in cases as the justices acted in a legal fight over President Donald Trump's bid to limit birthright citizenship, in the Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington DC, June 27, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump speaks to the media, after the US Supreme Court dealt a blow to the power of federal judges by restricting their ability to grant broad legal relief in cases as the justices acted in a legal fight over President Donald Trump's bid to limit birthright citizenship, in the Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington DC, June 27, 2025. (Reuters)
TT
TT

Trump Says ‘We Will Get It Done’ in the Middle East

US President Donald Trump speaks to the media, after the US Supreme Court dealt a blow to the power of federal judges by restricting their ability to grant broad legal relief in cases as the justices acted in a legal fight over President Donald Trump's bid to limit birthright citizenship, in the Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington DC, June 27, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump speaks to the media, after the US Supreme Court dealt a blow to the power of federal judges by restricting their ability to grant broad legal relief in cases as the justices acted in a legal fight over President Donald Trump's bid to limit birthright citizenship, in the Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington DC, June 27, 2025. (Reuters)

US President Donald Trump expressed optimism on Sunday about reaching a deal to end the war in Gaza, saying there is “a real chance for greatness in the Middle East,” ahead of talks on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Trump did not provide specific details of a prospective ceasefire-for-hostages agreement in Gaza, but Vice President JD Vance told “Fox News Sunday” that top US officials are immersed in "very complicated" negotiations with Israeli and Arab leaders. 

"We have a real chance for Greatness in the Middle East. All are on board for something special, first time ever. We will get it done," Trump said in a Truth Social post that was issued as he rode in his motorcade to his suburban Virginia golf club. 

Trump will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday at the White House with the aim of reaching a framework for a deal, according to administration officials. 

Trump said on Friday talks on Gaza with Middle Eastern nations were intense and that Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group were aware of the discussions, which he said would continue as long as required. 

Vance described himself as “cautiously hopeful” about reaching a deal. 

"I feel more optimistic about where we are right now than where we have been at any point in the last few months, but let's be realistic, these things can get derailed at the very last minute," he said. 

He said the plan has three main components: Returning all hostages, ending the Hamas threat to Israel, and escalating humanitarian aid in Gaza. 

"So I think we're close to accomplishing all three of those objectives," Vance said. 

When international leaders gathered at the United Nations in New York this week, the US unveiled a 21-point Middle East peace plan to end the nearly two-year-long war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. 

That plan calls for the return of all hostages, living and dead, no further Israeli attacks on Qatar and a new dialogue between Israel and Palestinians for “peaceful coexistence,” a White House official said. 

Israel angered Qataris by launching an airstrike against Hamas targets in their capital Doha on September 9. A Hamas representative said on Saturday that the group had not seen the US plan. 

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

Slain Son of Former Libya Ruler Gaddafi to Be Buried South of Capital

FILED - 11 February 2008, Berlin: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of then Libya's leader Muammar el Gadafi, arrives at the charity gala "Cinema for Peace" at the Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt. Photo: Peer Grimm/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
FILED - 11 February 2008, Berlin: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of then Libya's leader Muammar el Gadafi, arrives at the charity gala "Cinema for Peace" at the Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt. Photo: Peer Grimm/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
TT
TT

Slain Son of Former Libya Ruler Gaddafi to Be Buried South of Capital

FILED - 11 February 2008, Berlin: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of then Libya's leader Muammar el Gadafi, arrives at the charity gala "Cinema for Peace" at the Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt. Photo: Peer Grimm/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
FILED - 11 February 2008, Berlin: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of then Libya's leader Muammar el Gadafi, arrives at the charity gala "Cinema for Peace" at the Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt. Photo: Peer Grimm/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa

The slain son of former Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi will be buried in a town south of the capital that remains loyal to the family, relatives said Thursday.

Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, once seen by some as Libya's heir apparent, was shot dead in his home in the northwestern city of Zintan on Tuesday.

His family said the burial will be held on Friday in the town of Bani Walid, some 175 kilometers (110 miles) south of Tripoli.

Half-brother Mohamed Gaddafi said on Facebook the plan reflected "our respect" for the town, which has remained loyal to the elder Gaddafi years after he was toppled and killed in Libya's 2011 Arab Spring uprising.

Libya has struggled to recover from chaos that erupted after the uprising.

It remains split between Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah's UN-backed government based in Tripoli and an eastern administration backed by Khalifa Haftar.

Dbeibah condemned the killing in a statement Thursday: "Assassinations never provided stability... but rather deepen division."

"The Libya we are working towards is a state of law and institutions, where disputes are managed through dialogue and by resorting to the will of the people, not through violence or by reproducing the tragedies of the past," he added.

Interior Minister Imad Trabelsi said local Bani Walid authorities will "ensure the security of the funeral".

Each year, the town of 100,000 people celebrates the anniversary of a 1969 coup that brought Muammar to power, parading through the streets with portraits of the ex-leader and Libya's all-green flag from before the Arab Spring.

Saadi Gaddafi, a younger brother, said his dead sibling will be "buried among the Werfalla", an influential local tribe, in a grave "next to his brother Khamis Gaddafi", who died during the 2011 unrest.

Marcel Ceccaldi, a French lawyer who had been representing Seif al-Islam, told AFP a "four-man commando" killed him. Authorities said they were probing his death as the assailants remain on the run.

Under the elder Gaddafi's 40-year rule, he was described as the de facto prime minister, cultivating an image of moderation and reform despite holding no official position.

 

Arab World

Morocco Says Evacuated 140,000 People Due to Severe Weather

Civil protection personnel are evacuating residents from their homes after floods swept through Ksar El Kebir, Morocco, 01 February 2026, amid ongoing heavy rainfall and rising water levels in the Loukkos River, which have reached record highs. EPA/JALAL MORCHIDI
Civil protection personnel are evacuating residents from their homes after floods swept through Ksar El Kebir, Morocco, 01 February 2026, amid ongoing heavy rainfall and rising water levels in the Loukkos River, which have reached record highs. EPA/JALAL MORCHIDI
TT
TT

Morocco Says Evacuated 140,000 People Due to Severe Weather

Civil protection personnel are evacuating residents from their homes after floods swept through Ksar El Kebir, Morocco, 01 February 2026, amid ongoing heavy rainfall and rising water levels in the Loukkos River, which have reached record highs. EPA/JALAL MORCHIDI
Civil protection personnel are evacuating residents from their homes after floods swept through Ksar El Kebir, Morocco, 01 February 2026, amid ongoing heavy rainfall and rising water levels in the Loukkos River, which have reached record highs. EPA/JALAL MORCHIDI

Authorities have evacuated more than 140,000 people from their homes since heavy rainfall flooded several provinces in northern Morocco last week, the interior ministry said Thursday.

Authorities have not announced any casualties, and the national weather service forecast heavy rains and strong winds to continue on Thursday and Friday across the north.

The severe weather came after Morocco struggled with seven consecutive years of drought, said AFP.

The evacuations began last Friday and mainly concerned Larache province, where the city of Ksar El Kebir -- about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Tangier -- has seen significant flooding.

Some residents including children and elderly people were stranded on rooftops before being rescued, at times in small boats.

In Sidi Kacem province, around 120 kilometers south of Ksar El Kebir, more than 10,000 people were rescued, some by helicopter, as floodwaters inundated roads and farmland.

AFP images showed Sidi Kacem residents struggling to move through muddy floodwaters, sometimes using partly submerged tractors or motorbikes.

Other people were evacuated in areas near Oued Loukos, a major river flowing into the Atlantic Ocean.

In December, 37 people were killed in sudden floods in Safi, in Morocco's deadliest weather-related disaster in the past decade.

In recent weeks, severe weather and flooding in neighboring Algeria killed two people, including a child.

In Tunisia, at least five people died, with others still missing, after the country saw its heaviest rainfall in over 70 years last month.

Arab World

Top US Military Officer Met with Lebanese Counterpart

Lebanese army chief General Rodolphe Haykal. Photo: Army command
Lebanese army chief General Rodolphe Haykal. Photo: Army command
TT
TT

Top US Military Officer Met with Lebanese Counterpart

Lebanese army chief General Rodolphe Haykal. Photo: Army command
Lebanese army chief General Rodolphe Haykal. Photo: Army command

Top US military officer General Dan Caine met with Rodolphe Haykal this week, a spokesman said Thursday, after a previously planned visit by the Lebanese army commander to Washington was scrapped.

Caine held talks with Haykal on Tuesday and Qatar's defense chief the day before, "reaffirming the importance of the United States' enduring defense relationships in the Middle East," US Joint Staff spokesman Joseph Holstead said in a statement, without providing further details.

Haykal was scheduled to visit Washington in November 2025, but the trip was called off after US political and military officials canceled their meetings with him just hours before he was scheduled to depart, a military source told AFP at the time.

Those who canceled included influential Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who at the time slammed what he said was Haykal's "almost non-existent effort to disarm Hezbollah."

On Thursday, Graham said on X he had abruptly cut their meeting short after asking Haykal whether the Lebanese military considered Hezbollah to be "a terrorist organization."

Graham said that Haykal replied, "No, not in the context of Lebanon."

The Lebanese military announced last month that it had completed the first phase of its plan to disarm the militant group, covering the area between the Israeli border and the Litani River.

Under a November 2024 truce that sought to end more than a year of hostilities, Iran-backed Hezbollah must withdraw its forces north of the Litani and have its military infrastructure dismantled in the evacuated areas, while Israeli forces must exit Lebanon.

But Hezbollah has rejected calls to surrender its weapons, and Israel has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon while maintaining troops in five areas near the border that it deems strategic.