Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

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Iraqi Christians attend Sunday mass at the Virgin Mary Chaldean church (Church of Our Lady of Sacred Heart) in the Karrada neighborhood of the capital Baghdad on July 20, 2014. (AFP/Sabah Arar)

Mosul’s Christian refugees pledge never to return

by Dalshad Abdullah | Jul 25, 2014 | Middle East

Erbil, Asharq Al-Awsat—Following reports that no Christians remain in Iraq’s second city after the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) gave Mosul’s Christian community a deadline to either leave or face execution, Iraqi Christian refugees have said they were...

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Fuad Masoum, Iraq’s newly elected president, speaks during a news conference in Baghdad, on July 24, 2014. (Reuters/Ahmed Saad)

Iraq picks president, but no movement on prime minister

by Hamza Mustafa | Jul 25, 2014 | Middle East

Baghdad, Asharq Al-Awsat—It was one step forward and two steps back for Iraq on Thursday as parliament successfully elected a new president, but appeared no closer to choosing a prime minister or forming a new government. Lawmakers elected veteran Kurdish politician...

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Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk addresses the parliament in Kiev, Ukraine, 24 July 2014. (EPA)

Stalled Ukraine parliament says yet to receive PM’s resignation

by Asharq Al-Awsat | Jul 25, 2014 | World

Kiev, Reuters—Ukraine’s parliament said on Friday it had yet to receive a resignation letter from Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk so could not vote on whether to accept it, stalling work at the heart of government. Yatseniuk, a key interlocutor of the West...

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Israeli soldiers walk near a Merkava tank at an army deployment near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip on July 24, 2014. US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke today to his counterparts in Qatar and Turkey, which support the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, as he pressed for a Gaza ceasefire. AFP PHOTO/JACK GUEZ

Opinion: Gaza and the Curse of Half-Finished Wars

by Amir Taheri | Jul 25, 2014 | Opinion

It took the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon two weeks to come out with a call for a ceasefire in Gaza. A diplomatic gesture of the lowest order, the Secretary-General’s meek move reflected the unwillingness, not to say inability, of the international...