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Lawmakers: Is US Doing Enough to Deter Iran, Houthi Attacks in Red Sea?
The commander overseeing U.S. military operations in the Middle East is warning that deterrence of Iranian proxies is temporary and that Iran is not paying the price for its role in violence across the Middle East. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has details.
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UN: Iran Responsible for 'Physical Violence' That Killed Mahsa Amini
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran is responsible for the “physical violence” that led to the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022 and sparked nationwide protests of the country's mandatory headscarf, or hijab, laws and its ruling theocracy, a United Nations fact-finding mission said Friday.
The stark pronouncement came in a wide-ranging initial report submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council by the Fact-Finding Mission on Iran that concluded Tehran committed “crimes against...
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US Treasury Official Pushes Lebanon to Halt the Flow of Funding to Hamas
BEIRUT — A top U.S. Treasury official visiting Beirut this week pressed Lebanese authorities to prevent funds from being funneled to Hamas by way of Lebanon, officials said.
Jesse Baker, deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury for Asia and the Middle East, met with Lebanese politicians and officials from the financial sector Thursday and Friday.
His visit came as negotiations for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip appear to have stalled. Should the war continue...
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VOA Immigration Weekly Recap, March 3-8, 2024
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Aid Ship Set to Sail from Cyprus to Gaza on New Corridor, Charity Says
Nicosia, Cyprus — A U.S. charity said it was loading aid for Gaza onto a boat in Cyprus, the first shipment to the war-ravaged territory along a maritime corridor the EU Commission hopes will open this weekend.
The Spanish-flagged vessel Open Arms docked three weeks ago in the port of Larnaca in Cyprus, the closest European Union country to the Gaza Strip.
"World Central Kitchen teams are in Cyprus loading pallets of humanitarian aid onto a boat headed to northern Gaza," the...
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US-Led Coalition Shoots Down 15 Yemen Rebel Drones, CENTCOM Says
Dubai, UAE — U.S. and allied forces shot down 15 one-way attack drones fired by Iran-backed Yemeni rebels into the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden on Saturday, the U.S. military said.
Shortly afterwards, the rebels claimed the attack, saying they had fired missiles at an "American" commercial ship and launched drones at U.S. warships in "the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden."
It was one of the Houthi’s largest attacks since November, when they began a campaign of drone and missile...
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EU Pushes to Open Maritime Aid Corridor to Gaza
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UN Mission: Iran Protests Crackdown Sparked 'Crimes Against Humanity'
Geneva — Tehran's violent crackdown on peaceful protests and discrimination against women and girls triggered serious rights violations, many amounting to crimes against humanity, a U.N. fact-finding mission concluded Friday.
Iran was rocked by widespread demonstrations sparked by the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who had been arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress rule for women based on Islamic law.
Anger over her death rapidly expanded...
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Blinken Says Cease-Fire in Gaza Depends on Hamas
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Israel Welcomes Biden Plan to Increase Gaza Aid
Jerusalem — President Joe Biden announced the U.S. military will establish a temporary pier on the Gaza coast to deliver aid. Biden also pushed Israel to do more to help the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
President Joe Biden says the U.S. has plans to help solve the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The president said he is directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large ships carrying food,...
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US: Stopping Iran’s Resupply of Houthis ‘Most Important’ to Secure Red Sea
Pentagon — As attacks by Iran-backed Houthis continue in the Red Sea, the commander in charge of U.S. military operations in the Middle East says the U.S. needs to stop Iran from providing the militants with weapons.
"The most important thing is to deny their ability to resupply from Iran. The Houthis are not building. They're putting it all together and assembling, but they don't create inertial navigation systems. They don't create medium-range ballistic missile...
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Protests Grow Against Powerful Jihadist Group in Syria Enclave
washington — Protests have continued in a northwestern Syrian enclave, a sign seen by analysts as a rare sign of defiance of a powerful jihadist group.
For several days, hundreds of people have protested in Idlib province where Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is considered the most powerful group.
HTS, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, controls most of Idlib and small parts of neighboring provinces. The enclave is one of the few areas outside the control of Syrian government forces.
A local...
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US Threatens Action Against Iran at Nuclear Agency Over 'Stonewalling'
VIENNA — The United States on Thursday threatened future action against Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency if Tehran keeps "stonewalling" the U.N. nuclear watchdog by denying it the cooperation and answers it seeks on issues that include long-unexplained uranium traces.
At a quarterly meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors, Washington again told Iran to cooperate with IAEA inspectors who for years have been seeking explanations from Tehran on the origin of...
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Iran’s Claimed 41% Election Turnout ‘Golden’ for Authoritarian Uncompetitive Votes
WASHINGTON — Iran’s claimed 41% turnout for its March 1 elections, while a record low, is typical of figures used by authoritarian regimes to legitimize uncompetitive votes, the head of a European nonprofit group that researches the Iranian public’s attitudes told VOA this week.
In a televised Monday press briefing, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said 25 million of 61 million eligible voters cast ballots in the elections for the parliament and the Assembly of Experts, which chooses Iran’s...
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Biden Ordering US Military to Build Port in Gaza to Facilitate Aid
Washington — President Joe Biden will use his State of the Union address late Thursday to announce that he has directed the U.S. military to build a port in Gaza to facilitate delivery of critically needed aid for Palestinians displaced and suffering amid Israeli’s military campaign against Hamas.
The main feature of this port is a temporary pier which will provide capacity for hundreds of additional truckloads of assistance each day, with initial shipments coming via Cyprus with support of...
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Explainer: What Is Ramadan?
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US Muslims to Begin Ramadan Observance as War Rages in Gaza
WASHINGTON — The Islamic month of Ramadan is being observed this year as the Israel-Hamas war surges in Gaza, where the United Nations is warning of a growing humanitarian crisis.
Imam Talib Shareef of Masjid Muhammad, the Nation’s Mosque, in Washington said there will be differences in how Muslims observe this year because of the conflict.
Other than organizing prayers for the community, the mosque is "more engaged in service and feeding; we actually feed at the masjid and [also at]...
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