Middle East

A picture taken on April 4 shows destruction at a hospital room in Khan Sheikhun, a rebel-held town in the northwestern Syrian Idlib province, following a chemical weapons attack.

White House Suspects Syria Is Preparing For Another Chemical Attack

12:49am June 27, 2017

by Barbara Campbell

A statement says the observed "activities" recall those before an April 4 strike that killed civilians, including children. It warns the Assad government that it would "pay a heavy price."

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Turkish Police Crack Down On Istanbul Pride Events

5:55pm June 26, 2017

Turkish police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at dozens of LGBT activists, who had gathered to hold a gay pride parade in defiance of an official ban from local authorities. This is the third year in a row that gay pride events were banned. NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Laura Ozlen, one of the organizers of the march in Istanbul.

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A Yemeni child suspected of having cholera sits outside a makeshift hospital in the capital, Sanaa, earlier this month. World health authorities say that of the more than 1,300 people who have died of the disease, a quarter have been children.

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Yemen Now Faces 'The Worst Cholera Outbreak In The World,' U.N. Says

6:30pm June 24, 2017

by Colin Dwyer

World health authorities say the war-torn nation now has upwards of 200,000 suspected cases, and that number is increasing at an average of 5,000 a day. A quarter of those who have died are children.

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Saudi Arabia And Neighboring Arab Nations Present Demands To Qatar

4:38pm June 23, 2017

NPR's Kelly McEvers speaks with Bernard Haykel, professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, about the conditions laid out for Qatar by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf neighbors for normalizing relations.

Qatar's neighbors have told it to shut down its Doha-based news network Al-Jazeera and affiliates, one of 13 demands made Friday.

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Neighboring Arab Nations Slap Qatar With 13-Point List Of Demands

1:33pm June 23, 2017

by Colin Dwyer

If Qatar wants to end a recent diplomatic standoff, Saudi Arabia and three other Arab states say the country has 10 days to comply with a steep list of demands, including shutting down Al-Jazeera.

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Diplomatic Row Between Qatar And Neighbors Escalates

7:48am June 23, 2017

by Peter Kenyon

Qatar is facing renewed isolation from its neighbors in the Middle East. A group of countries led by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait want Qatar to shut down Al-Jazeera and cut diplomatic ties to Iran.

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An Israeli court has ruled that asking women to change seats because of their gender is discriminatory. It has ordered the airline El Al to instruct its staff in writing that such requests are illegal and train workers in the new rule within six months.

Israeli Judge Says Airlines Can't Reseat Women At Request Of Men

8:19pm June 22, 2017

by Laurel Wamsley

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men sometimes refuse to sit next to women — including on planes. Now an Israeli court says airlines cannot ask a person to change seats based on gender.

A scene from Bentiu, the largest refugee camp in South Sudan.

Humanitarian Aid Is 'Broken,' Says Former U.N. Official

11:28am June 22, 2017

by Malaka Gharib

The way we offer assistance to people fleeing conflict no longer works, says Paul Spiegel, a former director of program management at the U.N. refugee agency. He has a few ideas about how to fix it.

The Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul, with its tall, leaning al-Hadba minaret, was where ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the group's "caliphate" in Iraq and Syria in July 2014.

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ISIS Destroys Historic Mosque In Mosul As Iraqi Forces Close In

10:54am June 22, 2017

by James Doubek

Iraq's military said ISIS destroyed the 12th century al-Nuri mosque in Mosul's Old City, where ISIS fighters remain. Iraq's prime minister called it "a formal declaration of their defeat."

Iraqis and supporters rallied outside a Detroit courthouse Wednesday as a hearing began on a lawsuit that seeks to stop the government from deporting more than 100 Iraqi nationals who were recently rounded up.

Trump Administration Faces Pressure To Not Deport Detained Iraqi Christians

8:27am June 22, 2017

Many of the nearly 200 Iraqis currently under detention are from the minority Chaldean Christian community, which faces severe persecution in Iraq.