Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

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France’s far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen (L) casts her ballot as she votes in Henin-Beaumont, northern France, on March 22, 2015. France goes to the polls in a two-round departmental election for local officials on March 22 and March 29. (Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes)

France goes to polls with National Front in ascendancy

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

Paris, Reuters—Voting began on Sunday in the first round of French local elections where the anti-immigration National Front (FN) hopes to come top and consolidate leader Marine Le Pen’s bid for the presidency in 2017. Opinion polls suggest voters are unexcited...

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Head of the Iraqi Shi’ite militia the Badr Organization Hadi Al-Ameri (R) meets with military commanders near Samarra in northern Iraq, on March 4, 2015. (EPA/Ali Mohammed)

Opinion: Iran’s Creeping Conquest of Iraq

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

The battle to rid Tikrit of the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has revealed the depth of the Iranian military’s role in Iraq, as well as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) leaders’ authority over what have been dubbed the Popular...

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Yemeni armed men inspect the damage following a bomb explosion at the Badr mosque in southern Sana’a on March 20, 2015. (AFP/Mohammed Huwais)

Regional, international condemnation of Sana’a suicide attacks

by Arafat Madabish | Mar 21, 2015 | Middle East

Sana’a, Asharq Al-Awsat—There has been strong regional and international condemnation of one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Yemen’s history that resulted in the deaths of at least 137 people in Sana’a on Friday. A Yemeni branch of the Islamic State of Iraq and...

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A Turkish Kurdish woman with a child sits next to a Kurdistan Workers’ Party flag with a picture of the imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan in Silopi, Turkey, on March 2, 2015. (Reuters/Kadir Baris)

Kurdish militant leader urges congress on peace with Turkey

by Asharq Al-Awsat | Mar 21, 2015 | World

Diyarbakir, Turkey, Reuters—Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan called on Saturday for his militant group to hold a congress on ending a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state but stopped short of declaring an immediate halt to its armed struggle....

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Marathon talks toward an Iran nuclear deal picked up pace as US President Barack Obama appealed to Tehran to seize an “historic” opportunity. (AFP Photo/Pool/Brian Snyder)

Iranian President Rouhani: Final nuclear deal possible

by Asharq Al-Awsat | Mar 21, 2015 | Middle East

Tehran, AP—Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday painted an optimistic picture of ongoing negotiations with world powers over his country’s nuclear program, saying there has been progress in the talks and that a final accord is possible. “At this...