The Kurdish administration in northeastern Syria called up civilians on Wednesday to defend the region against a feared Turkish assault, believed to be imminent. "We announce three days of general mobilisation in northern and eastern Syria," it said in a statement, urging all civilians to "head to the border with Turkey... to resist during this delicate historical moment". It also called on Kurds in Syria and abroad to protest against Ankara s planned offensive. Ankara said on Tuesday it would "shortly" begin an offensive into northern Syria, as it sent more armoured vehicles to the border. Turkey s communications director, Fahrettin Altun, wrote in the Washington Post that Kurdish forces can either "defect" or Turkey will "have no choice but to stop them from disrupting our counter-Islamic State efforts". US President Donald Trump has blown hot and cold since a surprise announcement on Sunday that Washington was pulling back 50 to 100 "special operators" from Syria s border with Turkey. After appearing to give a green light to the Turkish invasion, he later threatened to "obliterate" Turkey s economy if it went too far. He also insisted the United States had not abandoned its Kurdish allies by pulling forces out of the area. On Wednesday, the Kurdish administration said it would hold its US ally and the whole international community responsible for any "humanitarian catastrophe" that unfolds in the territory under its control. Kurdish forces took heavy losses in the US-backed campaign against the Islamic State group in Syria which they spearheaded. In March, they declared the territorial defeat of IS after overrunning the jihadists last redoubt in the village of Baghouz in eastern Syria. Ankara strongly opposed Washington s support for Kurdish forces in Syria citing their links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has fought a deadly insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984. Turkey has already carried out two cross-border offensives into Syria, including one in 2018 that saw it and allied Syria rebels overrun the majority-Kurdish Afrin enclave in the northwest.

Turkey s preparations for an offensive in northern Syria have been "completed", the defence ministry said Tuesday, after confusing signals from the US over whether it would allow an operation. US President Donald Trump ordered the withdrawal of US troops from Turkey s border with Syria on Sunday after a phone call with his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Turkish president has repeatedly threatened to attack Kurdish militants in northern Syria due to their ties with separatists in his own country. "All of the preparations for an operation have been completed," the Turkish defence ministry tweeted, hours after US forces withdrew from the border area. Erdogan had earlier said the operation could come at any moment "without warning". Trump s move was seen by critics as an abandonment of Kurdish forces which had been the key US ally in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group. But there was confusion later on Monday when Trump tweeted that he would "obliterate" Turkey s economy if it went too far. Turkish Vice-President Fuat Oktay responded to Trump s threat on Tuesday, warning that "Turkey is not a country that will act according to threats". "As our president always stresses, Turkey will always set its own path and will take matters into its own hands," Oktay said in a speech in Ankara. Turkey says it wants a "safe zone" along northern Syria to act as a buffer against Kurdish forces and also allow the return home of up to two million Syrian refugees. It has previously launched two cross-border offensives against IS in 2016 and the YPG in 2018, with the support of Syrian rebels.

The United States said it was pulling troops from northeast Syria, in a major shift which clears the way for a Turkish military offensive against Kurdish-led forces and hands Turkey responsibility for thousands of Islamic State captives. A U.S. official said American troops had withdrawn from two observation posts on the border, at Tel Abyad and Ras al-Ain, and had told the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces that the United States would not defend the SDF from an imminent Turkish offensive. "Turkey will soon be moving forward with its long-planned operation into Northern Syria," the White House said after President Donald Trump spoke to Turkey s President Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday. "The United States Armed Forces will not support or be involved in the operation, and United States forces, having defeated the ISIS territorial "Caliphate", will no longer be in the immediate area," it added in a statement. Turkey has long argued for the establishment of a 20-mile (32 km) "safe zone" along the border, under Turkish control, driving back the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia - which is the dominant force in the SDF alliance and which Ankara considers a terrorist organisation and a threat to its national security. The United States helped the YPG defeat Islamic State militants in Syria, and had been seeking a joint security mechanism with Turkey along the border to meet Turkey s security needs without threatening the SDF. The SDF accused Washington on Monday of reneging on an ally which spearheaded the fight against Islamic State in Syria, and warned that it would have a "great negative" impact on the war against the jihadists. "The American forces did not fulfill their commitments and withdrew their forces from the border areas with Turkey, and Turkey is now preparing for an invasion operation of northern and eastern Syria," it said in a statement. SDF official Mustafa Bali said U.S. forces were "leaving leaving the areas to turn into a war zone". Islamic State captives The White House statement appeared to hand over to Turkey responsibility for captured Islamic State jihadists who are currently held in SDF facilities to the south of Turkey s initially proposed safe zone. "Turkey will now be responsible for all ISIS fighters in the area captured over the past two years," it said. The statement also made pointed reference to Washington s European allies, saying many of the captured IS fighters came from those countries, which had resisted U.S. calls to take them back. "The United States will not hold them for what could be many years and great cost to the United States taxpayer," the White House said. In the first Turkish comment following the statement, Erdogan s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Turkey s "safe zone" plan was within the framework of Syria s territorial integrity. "The safe zone has two aims: to secure our borders by clearing away terrorist elements and to achieve the return of refugees in a safe way," Kalin wrote on Twitter. "Turkey is powerful and determined," he added. Turkey says it wants to settle up to 2 million Syrian refugees in the zone. It currently hosts 3.6 million Syrians sheltering from the more than eight-year-old conflict in their homeland. After the statements, Turkey s lira was trading weaker at 5.7150 against the U.S. dollar, compared with a close of 5.70 on Friday. After the Erdogan-Trump phone call, the Turkish presidency said the two leaders had agreed to meet in Washington next month. It said that during the call Erdogan had expressed his frustration with the failure of U.S. military and security officials to implement the agreement between the two countries. The NATO allies agreed in August to establish a zone in northeast Syria along the border with Turkey. Turkey says the United States moved too slowly to set up the zone. It has repeatedly warned of launching an offensive on its own into northeast Syria. Ties between the allies have also been pressured over Turkey s purchase of Russian S-400 defence missiles and the trial of local U.S. consulate employees in Turkey.

Tunisians began voting on Sunday for a parliament that must address chronic economic problems at a moment when political newcomers are mounting a challenge to the established parties. Voters queued outside polling stations in the capital Tunis, only eight years after a popular uprising that inspired the "Arab Spring". But the failure of repeated coalition governments that grouped the old secular elite and the long-banned moderate Islamist Ennahda party to address a weak economy and declining public services has disillusioned many voters. Sunday s vote for parliament is sandwiched between two rounds of a presidential election in which turnout has been low and which advanced two political newcomers to the runoff at the expense of major-party candidates. It is not clear what that may mean for Sunday s election, in which Ennahda is one of several parties hoping to emerge with most votes, including the Heart of Tunisia party of media mogul Nabil Karoui. While the president directly controls foreign and defence policy, the largest party in parliament nominates the prime minister, who forms a government focused on most domestic policy. *This story was edited by Ahram Online.

Iraqi security forces imposed a round-the-clock curfew in Baghdad and fired live rounds and tear gas on Thursday to disperse anti-government protests that have gripped the country since earlier this week, killing 21 people so far. In a desperate attempt to quell the demonstrations, which were spontaneous and mostly spurred by woes over deteriorating economy and lack of jobs and services, authorities have cut internet access across much of Iraq.

Talks to form a national unity government in Israel hit a further snag on Tuesday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu s centrist election rival called off a meeting with the embattled leader. Netanyahu said on Sunday he would make a final effort this week to reach an agreement and would likely meet with his challenger Benny Gantz on Wednesday after further negotiations between their parties. On Sunday, Blue and White said it would "hold any meeting and spare no effort" to form a broad unity government. But on Tuesday the party said conditions were not ripe yet to hold effective negotiations between the parties and their leaders. An inconclusive ballot on Sept. 17, the second this year, has created a political deadlock and left Israel s longest-serving prime minister weakened. Netanyahu, facing a looming indictment on corruption allegations he denies, has failed to secure a clear election victory twice in six months. His right-wing Likud party came second with 32 seats in the 120-member parliament, against 33 for former military chief Gantz s centrist Blue and White party. The parties negotiators had met on Sunday without success, with each side blaming the other for the stalemate. With neither party leader appearing able to put together a coalition with a ruling majority on his own, Israel s president last week tasked Netanyahu with forming the next government in the hope of securing a power-sharing deal between the Blue and White party and Likud. If Netanyahu fails to clinch a deal, President Reuven Rivlin is then likely to ask Gantz to try to form a government, though he, like Netanyahu, also has no clear path to power. Gantz has pledged not to serve in a government under a premier facing criminal charges. His party has accused Likud of stalling in the talks in the hope of triggering yet another election. Israel’s attorney-general is due to hold a pre-trial hearing this week on his announced intention to indict Netanyahu on fraud and bribery charges in three corruption cases. Netanyahu, who says he is a victim of a political witchhunt, can argue at the session against prosecution. A final decision by the attorney-general on an indictment is expected by the end of 2019.

Trucks carrying weapons including a nuclear missile designed to evade U.S. defenses rumbled through Beijing on Tuesday as the Communist Party celebrated its 70th anniversary in power with a military parade that showcased its emergence as an increasingly ambitious global power. The military showed off China s most advanced weapons, some being shown for the first time, as rows of soldiers marched in lockstep past President Xi Jinping and other leaders in Tiananmen Square, the country s symbolic political heart. Thousands of spectators waved Chinese flags and fighter jets flew low overhead. "No force can shake the status of our great motherland, and no force can stop the progress of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation, Xi, wearing a gray Mao jacket, said in a nationally televised speech. As he spoke, anti-government protesters in Hong Kong gathered for the latest in a series of demonstrations that have challenged Beijing ahead of this year s highest-profile political event. The largest group took over a broad thoroughfare in central Hong Kong and chanted slogans against the Communist Party. Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam attended the Beijing parade, accompanied by dozens of Hong Kong officials and dignitaries in a show of unity with the ruling party. Xi was joined on the Tiananmen rostrum by Premier Li Keqiang, former Presidents Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin and other leaders. The event commemorates the anniversary of the Oct. 1, 1949, founding of the People s Republic of China by then-leader Mao Zedong following a civil war. Invoking Mao s memory, Xi made his speech Tuesday on the same spot as the former leader s 1949 declaration. Xi rode in an open-topped limousine past dozens of rows of truck-mounted missiles, armored personnel carriers and other military gear. Soldiers in helmets and combat gear shouted, "Hello, leader! and "Serve the people! Xi replied, "Hello, comrades. A formation of fighter jets trailing colored smoke and led by a plane with a radar dish flew low over the capital as Xi waved to the pilots from the ground. The event highlighted rapidly developing Chinese weapons technology, paid for by a three-decade old economic boom that supported a 400% increase in military spending over the past decade. Foreign analysts say it is close to matching the United States, Russia and Europe in missiles, drones and some other fields. The People s Liberation Army, the world s biggest military with 2 million men and women in uniform, also is working on fighter planes, the first Chinese-built aircraft carrier and a new generation of nuclear-powered submarines. Tuesday s parade "aims to show the outside world China s confidence and ability to protect its "overseas interests, said Yue Gang, a retired army colonel and military commentator. "Although China has made great improvements in its military equipment, China should not relax vigilance and needs to continue to make efforts, Yue said. One closely-watched weapon unveiled Tuesday was the Dongfeng-17, a glider capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. Foreign analysts say is designed to maneuver at high speed to evade anti-missile defenses. Another missile displayed, the Dongfeng-41, is believed to have a range of up to 15,000 kilometers (9,400 miles), which would make it world s longest-range military missile. Analysts say it may be able to carry as many as 10 warheads to hit separate targets. The party s emphasis on missiles and other long-range weapons reflects Beijing s desire to displace the United States as the region s dominant force and enforce claims to Taiwan, the South China Sea and other disputed territories. The PLA had the world s second-highest military spending at an estimated $250 billion last year, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The United States, with a force of 1.3 million people, led in spending at $650 billion, or more than 2{ times China s level. China has about 280 nuclear warheads, compared with 6,450 for the United States and 6,850 for Russia, according to SIPRI. Beijing says it wants a "minimum credible nuclear deterrent but won t be the first to use atomic weapons in a conflict. China can "reach potential adversaries across the globe, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency said in a report in January. Tuesday s celebration comes as Xi s government faces economic and political challenges, but the ruling party s hold on power appears to be secure three decades after it crushed pro-democracy protests centered on Tiananmen Square. Beijing is trying to shore up cooling economic growth and prevent politically dangerous job losses amid a tariff war with Washington over trade and technology, a dispute that has battered Chinese exporters. Xi promised in a speech Monday to stick to official commitments to let Hong Kong manage its own affairs despite the unrest in the territory. Paramilitary policy maintained a strong presence Tuesday in Shenzhen, the mainland city that abuts Hong Kong. Dozens of armored personnel carriers and other vehicles of the People s Armed Police were parked outside a stadium as authorities prepared for an evening fireworks display. Also Tuesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un praised his country s decades-long ties with Beijing in a congratulatory message to Xi and said Pyongyang would stand by China in "defending and glorifying socialism, according to the North s official news agency. The two leaders have met five times amid pressure on Pyongyang to renounced nuclear weapons development. Xi, the son of a commander in Mao s guerrilla army, has emerged as China s most powerful leader in decades after using a marathon anti-corruption drive to neutralize potential rivals. The party removed presidential term limits last year, rolling back efforts to create a consensus-based system and prevent autocratic one-man rule. In his speech Monday, Xi reminded Taiwan, the self-ruled island Beijing claims as its own territory, of the ruling party s pledge to unite it with the mainland, by force if necessary. Beijing is using China s status as the world s second-biggest economy as leverage to isolate Taiwan politically. China has pressured foreign retailers, airlines and other companies to identify the island and the mainland as one country on their websites. In its latest diplomatic coup, Beijing persuaded the Solomon Islands last month to break diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Taiwan s unification with the mainland is "an inevitable trend and "no force can ever stop it, Xi said.

Former French President Jacques Chirac was given full military honors on Monday as past and current world leaders gathered in Paris to attend his final service. On a mild, sunny morning, French President Emmanuel Macron cut a solemn figure as he presided over the ceremony near the site of Napoleon s tomb in the courtyard of Les Invalides. A military band played the national anthem, "La Marseillaise, before Macron inspected the troops. Chirac s casket, covered with a Tricolor flag, was then carried to the center of the courtyard. Macron, who did not speak, will also attend a memorial service at the Church of Saint-Sulpice in downtown Paris alongside dozens of French politicians and foreign officials, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder and Jordan s King Abdallah II. A private funeral will take place later at the Montparnasse cemetery. A private family church service for Chirac was celebrated prior to the military tribute and a minute of silence was being held in schools and public buildings across the country Monday on France s national day of mourning for its former leader. A mainstay of French politics over four decades, Chirac served as Paris mayor, a lawmaker, prime minister and France s president from 1995 to 2007. The last French head of state to complete two terms in office, Chirac died Thursday at age 86. Known for championing the nation s sense of its own grandeur, Chirac is being remembered fondly despite political failures and a 2011 corruption conviction from actions during his nearly two decades as mayor of Paris. As president from 1995-2007, he was a consummate global diplomat but failed to reform the French economy or defuse tensions between police and minority youths that exploded into riots across France in 2005. Once nicknamed "Super Liar, his popularity soared after he left office. Thousands of mourners paid him tribute Sunday at Les Invalides, where his body lay in state on the eve of the memorial service. Mourners also gathered early outside the Church of Saint-Sulpice ahead of Chirac s final service. "He was a great man who had an absolute fantastic class in all circumstances, said one member of the public, Nadine Prevost. "He knew how to speak to everyone with a simplicity and a grandeur and that s what made for the richness of his contact.

Austrians vote on Sunday in a snap parliamentary election that conservative leader Sebastian Kurz looks set to win, but he will still need a coalition partner to secure a majority and it remains unclear whom he will pick. The election follows the collapse in May of Kurz’s coalition with the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) after a video sting scandal that forced FPO Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache to step down. Kurz, 33, has emerged largely unscathed from the scandal, even gaining voters from the FPO as its support has slipped to roughly a fifth of the electorate from just over a quarter in the last vote in 2017. On the left, there has been some shift in support from the Social Democrats to the resurgent Greens. But the overall picture since the scandal’s immediate aftermath has been remarkably stable. Opinion polls have generally shown Kurz’s People’s Party (OVP) far ahead on roughly a third of the vote, the Social Democrats slightly ahead of the FPO and the Greens a distant fourth. “Lots of agitation, but not much movement,” national broadcaster ORF said on Saturday, summarizing a campaign with many debates between party leaders that failed to make a serious mark on the opinion polls. Kurz has said he will talk to all parties after the election if he wins. His two most likely options are either to ally with the FPO again or with the Greens and liberal Neos. A centrist coalition with the Social Democrats is possible but unlikely under their current leadership. Lengthy Talks Surveys suggest the environment is voters’ top concern, which has helped the Greens surge from less than 4% in the last election in 2017, when they crashed out of parliament, to around 13% now. While they might be able to give Kurz and his party a narrow majority in parliament, he is unlikely to want to be at the mercy of a small number of its left-wing lawmakers, meaning that if he chooses to ally with the Greens he will probably seek a three-way tie-up including the pro-business Neos. As the campaign wound up last week, the FPO sought to focus voters’ attention on its core issue of migration, railing against immigrants in general and Muslims in particular, rather than addressing recent scandals that have eroded its support.

Former French president Jacques Chirac, who led France from 1995 to 2007, died on Thursday morning at the age of 86, his son-in-law told Reuters. "He passed away peacefully this morning surrounded by his loved ones," his son-in-law Frederic Salat-Baroux said. The head of the lower house of the French parliament interrupted a sitting of the chamber to hold a minute s silence. Chirac, France s second-longest serving president dominated French politics for decades. Following in the footsteps of previous French leader Charles de Gaulle, Chirac tried to elevate France s status as a player on the world stage. He stirred national pride with his opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. After leaving public office, he suffered from neurological problems, and was rarely seen in public at the end of his life.

As dozens of heads of state convene for the annual U.N. General Assembly in New York this week, the lingering conflict in Syria is taking a back seat while tensions in the Gulf and global trade wars take center stage. Now in its ninth year, many Syrians fear the unresolved war has become a footnote in a long list of world crises, with weary leaders resigned to live with President Bashar Assad ruling over a wrecked and divided country for the foreseeable future. On the eve of the global gathering in New York, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced that a long-awaited committee that would draft a new Syrian constitution has been finalized - a step the U.N. hopes will put the war-ravaged country on track for a political solution. But few see any real chance that the committee can make significant progress toward that end. "The world has forgotten about us _ not that anyone cared about Syria to begin with, said Hussein Ali, a 35-year-old internally displaced father of two. He now lives with his family in one rented room in the opposition-controlled northern town of Azaz, near the Turkish border. "The rise of Daesh made the West care momentarily, but not anymore, he said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group. A FROZEN CONFLICT Most of Syria has returned to government control after eight years of war. The exceptions are the opposition-held bastion of Idlib in the northwest, where rebels, Islamic militants and their families from all over the country have been cornered, and the oil-rich northeast, held by U.S.-backed Kurdish groups. The violence has largely tapered off in most of the country, but few among the nearly 6 million refugees scattered across the globe have returned. Many fear detention if they come home _ or they simply have no homes to return to. Entire towns and villages are in ruins. The West will not contribute to reconstruction plans as long as Assad is in power and other countries are unwilling to invest without there first being a political settlement. In Idlib, a Russia-backed government offensive to recapture the province continues to claim lives. Hundreds have been killed and more than 400,000 displaced in the past four months under Syrian and Russian airstrikes. But the bloodshed hardly makes a dent in global news. "The world apparently has long since tired of the war, and resigned itself to frozen conflict, with a nationwide cease-fire as the best possible scenario, said Heiko Wimmen, project director for Iraq, Syria and Lebanon at International Crisis Group. Syria s conflict was a domino effect of the so-called Arab Spring uprisings that began in late 2010, toppling dictators in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. What started in March 2011 as largely peaceful demonstrations against the Assad family rule turned into an armed insurgency following a brutal government crackdown. The conflict eventually became a proxy war pitting the U.S., Turkey and Gulf countries who supported the rebels, against Russia, Iran and Hezbollah who fought alongside the government. In the chaos, extremists such as the Islamic State group flourished, seizing a third of Syria and Iraq. Nearly half a million people have been killed and half of Syria s prewar population displaced. The opposition has been crushed for the most part, and Assad is widely considered to have prevailed militarily. IS militants who dominated the news for years have been defeated, although the group continues to stage sporadic insurgent attacks. A tentative cease-fire has been in place in Idlib since the end of August, but there is no suggestion it will be anything other than a pause before government troops and their allies regroup and relaunch their campaign. "The Syrian regime appears determined to clench back every last bit of territory, without the tiniest bit of compromise, Wimmen said. "As long as Damascus persists in its attitude, and is enabled by its foreign backers, the war will continue. DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS While the world remains deadlocked over Syria, there is no initiative on the horizon to help resolve it. The U.N. s current Syria envoy Geir Pedersen is the fourth to hold the post after the previous three resigned following years of mediating peace talks that led nowhere. The constitutional committee announced Monday is made up of 150 members divided equally among government, opposition and civil society members. It is tasked with drafting a new Syrian constitution in talks facilitated by the U.N. in Geneva. Desperate for a breakthrough, Guterres touted it as "the beginning of the political path out of the tragedy toward a solution. Syria is scheduled to hold presidential elections in 2021, and the U.N. hopes the talks can help create a climate and mechanism for holding a neutral and fair vote. But with a clear military upper hand, Assad s government is unlikely to offer any concessions, and Syrian officials have suggested he will run again. A Western diplomat called it an "important step in the sense that talks overseen by the U.N. would provide some form of international scrutiny over the balloting. "It will not be a solution for the war but rather a method to get a Syria platform going and try to be more inclusive than the two-side indirect talks, the diplomat said, referring to several rounds of talks between the government and the opposition in Geneva overseen by the U.N. envoy. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues. Underlining the distrust, Syrian lawmaker Safwan Qurabi said the committee is "sensitive and is also dangerous. "What is planned through this committee is to steal Syria s political decision, which they couldn t do through destructive military action, Qurabi said, referring to the opposition and their foreign supporters. FAR FROM OVER While the violence may have diminished, analysts say the war is likely to continue for a long time. At its height, the conflict unleashed a global migrant crisis that continues to reshape Europe and neighboring countries that once opened their borders to millions fleeing war. That reception has chilled over the past year. Suffering an economic downturn and rising unemployment, the mood in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan has soured, and calls for the refugees to return home are growing. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country can no longer shoulder the burden of 3.6 million refugees it hosts, and earlier this month, he threatened to "open the gates and allow a flood of Syrian refugees to leave Turkey for Western countries unless a so-called "safe zone is established in Syria soon in negotiations with the U.S. The rising resentment against Syrians seems to be behind a new wave of migrants sailing from Turkey to the Greek island of Lesbos every day. Erdogan used his speech at the U.N. on Tuesday to highlight the humanitarian cost of the war by holding up a photo of Aylan Kurdi, a 3-year-old boy whose lifeless body was found on a Turkish beach in 2015 and drew the world s attention to the plight of refugees. Erdogan said the world must "never forget the world s "baby Aylans. An all-out Syrian government offensive to recapture Idlib, which seems inevitable, will likely have disastrous consequences, pushing hundreds of thousands of people toward the Turkish border. "Assad won t go away, since pushing him out is no longer an option, but neither is rehabilitating him, or rebuilding the country in his presence, Wimmen said. "The status quo of misery will likely persist.

"Collaborators not welcome" reads a roadside placard in southern Lebanon, where debate has flared once again over the return of thousands who collaborated with Israel s 22-year occupation. The warning stood next to the road leading to Qlayaa, a village nestled among lush, green fields and flowing olive groves. It was once a bastion of the South Lebanon Army, a Christian-led militia allied to Israel and opposed to the now-dominant Shiite Hezbollah movement. When the Israeli army withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000, thousands of SLA members and their families chose to cross the border too and settle in Israel or elsewhere. In Qlayaa, those residents who remain don t like to talk to journalists, and many homes are abandoned. "There s more than 100 of them that are shuttered up," says one man, refusing to give his name. "Entire families left and we haven t heard from them since." When they die, "only a few bodies get repatriated to be buried in the village," he says. For some, including Hezbollah supporters, SLA members are traitors. Others, mostly from Christian parties, say they are exiles who should be allowed to return.

The United States aims to avoid war with Iran and the additional troops ordered to be deployed in the Gulf region are for “deterrence and defense,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday. Speaking to Fox News Sunday, Pompeo added that he was confident U.S. President Donald Trump would take action if such deterrence measures fail and that this was well understood by the Iranian leadership. “Our mission set is to avoid war,” Pompeo said. “You saw what Secretary Esper announced on Friday, we are putting additional forces in the region for the purpose of deterrence and defense,” he said. Pompeo said Washington was taking measures to deter Tehran, but he added that Trump would take necessary action if Tehran failed to change its behavior. “If that deterrence should continue to fail, I am also confident that President Trump would continue to take the actions that are necessary,” he said. Tensions between Washington and Tehran have further escalated after an attack last weekend on Saudi oil facilities that initially disrupted half of the oil production from the kingdom, the world’s largest oil exporter, and was blamed on Tehran by the United States and Saudi Arabia. U.S. has slapped more sanctions on Iran, penalizing the Iranian Central Bank while the Pentagon said it was sending U.S. troops to bolster Saudi Arabia’s air and missile defenses after the largest-ever attack on the kingdom’s oil facilities. Iran denied involvement in the attack. Yemen’s Houthi movement, an Iran-aligned group fighting a Saudi-led alliance in Yemen’s civil war, has claimed responsibility. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, speaking to CNN, said the attack on Saudi oil facilities was an attack on the world economic system. He said the United States expects that any country attached to the U.S. dollar system will abide by the sanctions on Iran. Trump pulled the United States out of a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran last year and ramped up sanctions to strangle its oil exports, a mainstay of the Iranian economy. The move dismantled part of former U.S. President Barack Obama’s legacy and upset U.S. allies who were party to the agreement, which was designed to restrict Tehran’s pathway to a nuclear bomb in exchange for sanctions relief. In recent weeks, Trump had weighed the possibility of easing sanctions on Iran and suggested he could meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who is due to attend the U.N. General Assembly in New York this week. Rouhani has said that Iran, which denies seeking nuclear weapons, would not talk to the United States until Washington lifted sanctions. Jean-Yves Le Drian, France’s foreign minister, said on Sunday that his country’s main aim at the General Assembly meeting is to de-escalate tensions between the United States and Iran, and that a meeting between Trump and Rouhani was not the top priority. “The meeting between President Trump and President Rouhani is not the No.1 subject. The priority subject is whether we can restart a de-escalation path with the different actors,” Le Drian told reporters. France has led a European effort to try and defuse tensions between Washington and Tehran but those efforts have stalled, with Iran reducing its commitments to a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and the United States refusing to ease sanctions that have strangled Iran’s economy.

Iran s president said Sunday his country should lead regional security in the strategic Persian Gulf and criticized the presence of foreign forces, as the country s nuclear deal with world powers collapses and the U.S. deployed more troops to boost security for its Arab allies. The U.S. has said Iran is behind a series of attacks on the region s energy infrastructure, including a major drone-and-missile hit on Saudi Arabia s oil industry that shook global energy markets. Iran has denied the allegations and said any retaliatory strikes from the U.S. or Saudi Arabia will lead to ``all-out war. Speaking during a military parade, President Hassan Rouhani warned that the presence of foreign forces in the Gulf could cause problems for the world s ``energy security. He said that Iran extends its ``hand of friendship and brotherhood toward regional nations for overseeing security in the Persian Gulf and its narrowest point, the Strait of Hormuz, where one-fifth of global oil exports passes. Along with boosting troop and equipment levels in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the U.S. is leading a maritime coalition, which includes the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Britain and Australia, to secure the area s waterways and vital oil trade routes. In Tehran, the military parade marked the 39th anniversary of the eight-year war with Iraq that began when Saddam Hussein invaded Iran in 1980. Similar parades were held in many major cities and towns across the country including the port city of Bandar Abbas near the Strait of Hormuz. State TV showed scores of Iranian fast attack boats, as well as air defense and other military equipment. It also carried images of Iranian Revolutionary Guard naval forces rappelling down the side of a sailing ship. The U.S. navy has often complained about Guard fast boats and naval forces harassing shipping in the Gulf. The chief of the powerful Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami, threatened the ``destruction of any aggressor against Iran the day before. Iran has long sought the evacuation of Western and U.S. forces from Arab Gulf countries, seeing it as a potential threat to the Persian nation. Rouhani added that he will offer a regional peace plan during his visit to the U.N. this week. Fears of a wider regional conflagration have grown, as tensions between Iran and the U.S. remain high over Tehran s failing 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Recently, Iran has broken the deal s limits on enrichment, uranium stockpiles and the use of advanced centrifuges, as it seeks to pressure Europe to offer it a way to sell its crude oil on the international market despite U.S. sanctions. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the deal over a year ago, and re-imposed crippling sanctions on Iran.

The United Arab Emirates says it has joined a U.S.-led coalition to protect waterways across the Mideast after an attack on Saudi Arabia s Aramco oil installations earlier in the week heightened tensions in the area. The state-run WAM news agency announced the UAE s decision in a statement Thursday. It quoted Salem al-Zaabi of the Emirati Foreign Ministry as saying the UAE joined the coalition to ``ensure global energy security and the continued flow of energy supplies to the global economy. Saudi Arabia joined the coalition on Wednesday. Australia, Bahrain and the United Kingdom also are taking part. The U.S. formed the coalition after attacks on oil tankers that American officials blame on Iran, as well as Iran s seizure of tankers in the region. Iran denies being behind the tanker explosions.

Iran s President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday Yemenis targeted Saudi oil facilities as a "warning" about a possible wider war in response to the kingdom s US-backed intervention in their conflict-ravaged country. "The Yemenis... haven t hit a hospital, they haven t hit a school, they haven t hit Sanaa bazaar. They just hit an industrial centre... to warn you," Rouhani said after a cabinet meeting. "Learn lessons from this warning and consider that there could be a war in the region," he said, in a likely address to the rulers of Saudi Arabia which has spent billions of dollars on US weapons. Yemen s Iran-aligned Huthi rebels claimed responsibility for the strikes but a US official said Tuesday that the administration of President Donald Trump concluded the attacks involved cruise missiles from Iran. Saudi Arabia, which has been bogged down in a five-year war in Yemen, has said the weapons used in the attacks were Iranian-made but has not directly blamed its regional arch-rival. Tehran has repeatedly denied accusations from Washington and Riyadh that it arms the Huthis. Saturday s attacks on Saudi energy giant Aramco s Abqaiq processing plant and Khurais oil field halved the kingdom s oil output.

The leader of the main Arab faction in Israel s parliament says his constituents ``must be first-class voters on the way to becoming first-class citizens. Ayman Odeh cast his ballot on Tuesday in the northern city of Haifa and urged his fellow Arab citizens to vote in large numbers. He called Benjamin Netanyahu "an obsessive prime minister who is inciting against us. Netanyahu has alleged fraud in Arab voting areas and unsuccessfully pushed for legislation to place cameras in polling stations on election day. He also has accused his opponents of conspiring with Arab politicians to "steal the election. Turnout in the minority Arab sector was just below 50% in April. Many Arab voters boycotted the vote. Odeh has banded the various Arab parties together in a bid to boost turnout. ___ 12:45 p.m. Israel s central election committee says early turnout for the repeat election has been slightly higher than the previous round. It says that as of 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, some 15% of Israelis had already cast their ballots. It marked more than a 2% increase over the figure at the same time in April. Voter turnout has emerged as a key element of this election. Election day is a national holiday, a measure aimed at encouraging participation. In April s election, turnout was about 69%, slightly below the 72% figure in the previous election in 2015. But turnout in the minority Arab sector was just below 50% and many Arab voters boycotted the election. The various Arab leaders have handed together on a joint list for this election, hoping to boost turnout. ___ 10:30 a.m. The chief challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel s election says the vote is about hope and change. Retired military chief Benny Gantz cast his ballot on Tuesday alongside his wife near his home in the central Israeli city of Rosh Haayin. Gantz s centrist Blue and White party is running even with Netanyahu s Likud. Both parties could struggle to form a majority coalition with smaller allies, though, forcing them into a potential unity government. Outside his polling station, Gantz says "we will bring hope, we will be bring change, without corruption, without extremism. The decorated ex-general is campaigning on unity and egalitarianism, offering himself as a calming influence and honest alternative to the scandal-plagued Netanyahu. It s the second election this year, after Netanyahu failed to build a coalition following April s vote and dissolved parliament ___ 10:00 a.m. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his country s election is going to be "very close. Netanyahu cast his vote on Tuesday in Jerusalem alongside his wife. He is seeking a fifth term against the prospect of a likely indictment on corruption charges. He faces a stiff challenge from retired military chief Benny Gantz, whose centrist Blue and White party is running even with Netanyahu s Likud. Both parties could struggle to form a majority coalition with smaller allies, though, forcing them into a potential unity government. Netanyahu urged all citizens to cast their ballots and said of the election that "I can confirm to you this morning that they are very close. It s the second election this year, after Netanyahu failed to build a coalition following April s vote and dissolved parliament. ___ 9:00 a.m. The potential kingmaker of the Israeli election says he will insist upon a unity government between the two largest factions. Avigdor Lieberman cast his vote early on Tuesday in his settlement of Nokdim. Lieberman, a former defense minister and one-time protege of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, forced Israel s unprecedented second election of the year when he refused to join Netanyahu s coalition government after the previous election in April. Polls suggest Netanyahu won t be able to form another coalition without Lieberman s support. Lieberman says there won t be a third round of elections and the parties will have to deal with the "constellation that emerges from this vote. He says he will only sit in a wide government that includes Netanyahu s Likud and its main challenger, the centrist Blue and White party. ___ 7:00 a.m. Israelis have begun voting in an unprecedented repeat election that will decide whether longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stays in power. Against the prospect of a likely indictment on corruption charges, Netanyahu is seeking a fifth term. He faces a stiff challenge from retired military chief Benny Gantz, whose centrist Blue and White party is running even with Netanyahu s Likud. Both parties could struggle to form a majority coalition with smaller allies, though, forcing them into a potential unity government. It s the second election this year, after Netanyahu failed to build a coalition following April s vote and dissolved parliament. Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday with exit polls expected at the end of the voting day at 10 p.m. Official results are projected to come in overnight.

Oil prices saw a record surge Monday after attacks on two Saudi facilities slashed output in the world s top exporter by half, fuelling fresh geopolitical fears as Donald Trump blamed Iran and raised the possibility of a military strike on the country. Brent futures surged $12 in the first few minutes of business -- the most in dollar terms since they were launched in 1988 and representing a jump of nearly 20 percent -- while WTI jumped more than $8, or 15 percent. Both contracts pared the gains as the day wore on but were still up around 10 percent. The attack -- claimed by Tehran-backed Houthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is bogged down in a five-year war -- hit two sites owned by state-run giant Aramco and effectively shut down six percent of the global oil supply. Trump said Sunday the US was "locked and loaded" to respond to the attack, but was in talks with Riyadh. And Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: "The United States will work with our partners and allies to ensure that energy markets remain well supplied and Iran is held accountable for its aggression." Tehran denies the accusations but the news revived fears of a conflict in the tinderbox Middle East after a series of attacks on oil tankers earlier this year that were also blamed on Iran. But The New York Times reported that US officials had satellite images showing the attacks -- possibly with drones and cruise missiles -- had come from the north or northwest. That indicated they were sourced in the northern Persian Gulf, Iran or Iraq, rather than Yemen. "Tensions in the Middle East are rising quickly, meaning this story will continue to reverberate this week even after the knee-jerk panic in oil markets this morning," said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at OANDA. Trump authorised the release of US supplies from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve, while Aramco said more than half of the five million barrels of production lost will be restored by tomorrow. But the strikes raise concerns about the security of supplies from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. "The implications of these attacks are far-reaching and lasting, going well beyond the immediate disruption to albeit a very large portion of global output," said Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com." It is a material escalation in the risks to supply and, in short, traders now worry that Saudi Arabian oil production can be swiftly and easily knocked out." Energy firms surge Oil prices had dropped last week after news that Trump had fired his anti-Iran hawkish national security adviser John Bolton, which was seen as paving the way for an easing of tensions in the region. "One thing we can say with confidence is that if part of the reason for last week s fall in oil and improvement in geopolitical risk sentiment was the news of John Bolton s sacking... and thought this was a precursor to some form of rapprochement between Trump and Iran, then it is no longer valid," said Ray Attrill at National Australia Bank. The surge in crude lit a fire under energy firms, with Hong Kong-listed CNOOC up more than seven percent and PetroChina four percent higher. Woodside Petroleum rallied more than four percent in Sydney.

Tunisians began casting votes in an unpredictable presidential election on Sunday where there is no overwhelming front-runner, with the young democracy s economic ills dominating the agenda. Polling stations opened at 8am (0700 GMT) from the capital Tunis on the Mediterranean coastline to the cork forests of the northwest, the mining towns of the interior and sand-swept Saharan villages in the south. Tunisia threw off autocratic rule eight years ago in a revolution that inspired "Arab Spring" revolts in Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya and Syria. While foreign attention, especially in Arab countries, is focused on the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, many Tunisians are watching the fate of media mogul Nabil Karoui, running from behind bars on suspicion of money laundering and tax evasion, which he denies. A court on Friday ruled he must stay behind bars after his arrest last month, leading his supporters to claim he has been silenced. Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, as well as two former prime ministers, a former president and the defence minister are also among the 26 candidates hoping to win outright or, if none of them win more than 50%, to advance to a second round run-off. Tunisia s president has direct control over foreign and defence policy while most other portfolios are handled by a prime minister chosen by parliament. Elections for the parliament will be held on October 6. *This story was edited by Ahram Online.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that continued rocket fire from Gaza is making another war against militants in the coastal strip inevitable, his latest headline-grabbing announcement just days before Israel heads to parliamentary elections. Netanyahu divulged that advanced plans were in place to strike Gaza and said he would decide the optimal timing of the offensive, given the Gaza Hamas rulers unwillingness or inability to stop the daily barrages. The Israeli leader has been criticized for failing to respond harshly to the rockets, which have been frequently sending residents of southern Israel scurrying for cover. Netanyahu himself was whisked away by bodyguards from a campaign event on Tuesday when Palestinian militants fired rockets toward the area where he was. Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and Hamas militants overtook the territory by force two years later. Israel and Hamas have fought three wars and engaged in several other rounds of violence over the past decade. ``I do not wage war unless it is a last resort and I don t risk the lives of our soldiers and citizens just to get applause, Netanyahu said in an interview with Kan Reshet Bet Radio. ``We will probably have no choice but to set out on a big campaign, a war against the terror forces in Gaza. ``I won t start it one minute before we are ready, and we are preparing for a `different war , he added, shortly before flying to Russia for a lightning meeting with President Vladimir Putin. It was Netanyahu s first major interview to a mainstream media outlet in a frenetic campaign in which he has been dictating the agenda with a dizzying array of maneuvers. Just this week, he has alleged fraud in Arab voting areas and has pushed for legislation to place cameras in polling stations on election day. He also claimed to have located a previously unknown Iranian nuclear weapons facility and vowed to annex the heart of the West Bank if he wins re-election. His pledge to extend Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley sparked international condemnation. A spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general said that if it were carried through it would be a ``serious violation of international law. The U.N. statement comes after Saudi Arabia, a regional power that has grown closer to Israel in recent years, condemned the move, along with several others who warned it could inflame the Middle East and eliminate any remaining Palestinian hope of establishing a separate state. Netanyahu said it was important to act now as President Donald Trump prepares to unveil his Mideast peace plan after the elections next Tuesday in Israel. The move was widely viewed in Israel as Netanyahu s latest stunt to draw in right-wing voters in a hard-fought campaign.

Arab League and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas strongly condemned Tuesday Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu s stated intent to annex land from the occupied West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu had announced earlier Tuesday that he would annex the Jordan Valley, the northern Dead Sea and a number of Jewish settlements in the West Bank if he wins the upcoming Israeli elections. President Abbas stressed that all agreements signed with Israel and their resulting obligations would end if the Israeli side annexes any part of "our occupied land". He added: “We have the right to defend our rights and achieve our goals by all available means, regardless of the consequences, as Netanyahu s decisions contradict with United Nations resolutions and international law." Arab foreign ministers, ending an emergency meeting at the Arab League in Cairo, deemed Netanyahu’s declaration as a new Israeli aggression in flagrant violation of international law, the UN Charter and resolutions of the United Nations, stressing that such statements undermine the foundations of the peace process. In a statement, Arab ministers said they will follow up these new statements, noting that they would prepare to take all legal and political actions to deal with Israel s unilateral decisions which fuel conflict and violence in the region and the world. The ministers held Israel responsible for the consequences Netanyahu s statements, expressing adherence to supporting the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the borders of 4 June 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital. The statement urged the international community, in particular the UN Security Council, to shoulder its responsibilities by confronting these Israeli violations of international law and UN resolutions. Meanwhile, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi on Twitter called Netanyahu’s plan a "serious escalation". Hanan Ashrawi, a senior official in the Palestine Liberation Organization, also wrote on Twitter that the Israeli leader was out to impose a "greater Israel on all of historical Palestine and (carry) out an ethnic cleansing agenda". Around 65,000 Palestinians and 11,000 Israeli settlers live in the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea area, according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. The main Palestinian city is Jericho, with around 28 villages and smaller Bedouin communities.