Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

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The front pages of the Sunday edition of Iranian newspapers, published with pictures of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a hopeful for the upcoming presidential election, are seen on Sunday, May 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Publisher who defied Khomeini remembered in London

by Amir Taheri | Feb 22, 2015 | Media

London, Asharq Al-Awsat—The sudden death of Parviz Isfahani, an Iranian publisher and editor, brought together more than 300 Iranian “cultural workers” in exile for a memorial service in London with speeches denouncing the current wave of repression in Iran. Isfahani...

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Turkish tanks return to Turkey from the tomb of Suleyman Shah, Kobani, Syria, on February 21, 2015. (EPA/Mursel Coban/Depo Photos)

Turkish military enters Syria to evacuate soldiers, relocate tomb

by Asharq Al-Awsat | Feb 22, 2015 | Middle East

Ankara, Reuters—Turkish forces swept into Syria overnight to rescue about 40 soldiers who had been surrounded for months by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants while guarding the tomb of a revered Turkish figure. The operation, which involved tanks,...

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Iyad Allawi (L), Iraq’s vice president and head of the secular Iraqiya coalition, speaks during a joint news conference with Shi’ite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr in Najaf, Iraq, on March 3, 2011. (Reuters/Ali Abu Shish)

Iraq: Allawi, Sadr to form “non-sectarian” parliamentary bloc

by Manaf Al-Obaidi | Feb 22, 2015 | Middle East

Baghdad, Asharq Al-Awsat—Iraqi Vice-President Iyad Allawi has unveiled a deal with senior Shi’ite leader Moqtada Al-Sadr to form a “supra-sectarian and ethnic” bloc in the Iraqi parliament, one week after the killing of a prominent Sunni sheikh threatened to...

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Fighters with the separatist self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic army walk by a destroyed Ukrainian armored personnel carrier at a checkpoint on the road from the town of Vuhlehirsk to Debaltseve, on February 20, 2015. (Reuters/Baz Ratner)

Pro-Russian rebels say agree to withdraw weapons in east Ukraine

by Asharq Al-Awsat | Feb 22, 2015 | World

Nizhnyaya Krynka, Reuters—A senior pro-Russian rebel commander said separatist forces were due to begin withdrawing heavy weapons from the front line in east Ukraine on Sunday, a sign rebels may be prepared to halt their advance as part of an internationally brokered...

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File photo of Saudi Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Al-Sheikh. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Opinion: Religion and politics are an explosive mixture

by Abdulrahman Al-Rashed | Feb 22, 2015 | Opinion

Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Abdulaziz Al Al-Sheikh recently advised a group of preachers he met at the Ministry of Islamic Affairs to keep away from politics and dedicate their time to religious preaching. It is perhaps one of the few times in which a prominent...