A military strike against Iran by the United States or Saudi Arabia would result in “an all-out war,” Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said on Thursday, repeating his government’s denial of responsibility for an attack last week that damaged Saudi oil facilities. The Houthi rebel faction in Yemen — supported by Iran in its […]
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Robert Gates, the former defense secretary, once scoffed that Saudi Arabia “wants to fight the Iranians to the last American.” The danger is that we slip toward that nightmare. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says that Iran has committed an “act of war” by attacking Saudi oil processing centers. Influential hawks like Senator Lindsey Graham […]
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It seems like the opening of a techno-thriller novel or (spoiler alert!) a scene from the latest Gerard Butler movie: In the dead of night, a swarm of robotic planes sneaks past a billion-dollar defense system and then takes out one of the world’s most valuable targets in a fiery blast. But it is no […]
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For a president with a loose relationship with the facts and poisonous relationships with allies, the attack on the Saudi oil fields poses a challenge: how to prove the administration’s case that Iran was behind the strike and rally the world to respond. President Trump must now confront that problem as he struggles with one […]
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GENEVA — Myanmar’s civilian leader, a Nobel laureate once extolled as a champion of democracy, could face prosecution for crimes against humanity because of the military’s attacks on Rohingya Muslims and other minority groups, United Nations investigators said on Tuesday. Their statement was a new sign of how far the leader, Daw Aung San Suu […]
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President Trump appeared to be softening toward Iran. He had broken with his administration’s leading advocate of confrontation, signaled a willingness to meet personally with his Iranian counterpart, and reportedly considered relaxing some sanctions. But Iran, American officials say, responded with violence. The officials have accused Iran of orchestrating or even launching a major attack […]
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Listen and subscribe to our podcast from your mobile device: Via Apple Podcasts | Via RadioPublic | Via Stitcher President Trump is saying that Iran appears to be responsible for the weekend attacks on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia. We look at where things are likely to go from here. [For an exclusive look at […]
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Whether conducted by Houthi rebels in Yemen, Shiite rebels in Iraq or by Iran itself, the drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities early Saturday amount to a sharp provocation against the United States. And at this dangerous moment, President Trump has few options, few allies, a depleted national security team and little credibility. It remained […]
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Yemen’s war has to end. And the secret is that the way it ends is no secret at all. On Sept. 14, a drone attack on Aramco facilities in Saudi Arabia destroyed approximately half of Saudi crude oil production. The Houthi militia in Yemen claimed responsibility for the attack; Saudi Arabia and the United States, […]
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SOPORE, Kashmir — Four men carrying pistols and wearing black masks knocked a week ago on the Hamidullah family’s gate. Furious that the wealthy apple traders had violated their ban on doing business, the militants announced that there was a price to pay. They took three men into a sitting room in this Kashmiri town […]
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CHICAGO — America’s next fight with China is unfolding at a glistening new factory in Chicago, which stands empty except for the shells of two subway cars and space for future business that is unlikely to come. A Chinese state-owned company called CRRC Corporation, the world’s largest train maker, completed the $100 million facility this […]
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The war that has devastated Yemen reached into Saudi Arabia early Saturday, with drone strikes on two major Saudi oil refineries, and a claim of responsibility from Yemen’s Houthi rebel faction. There were no reports of casualties and the extent of the damage was unclear, but the attacks struck deep within Saudi territory, at the […]
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WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is preparing to send about 150 troops to northeastern Syria to conduct ground patrols with Turkish forces, reversing at least temporarily a withdrawal from Syria that President Trump ordered last December. The new troop deployment, which has not been previously reported, is part of an expanding series of military and diplomatic […]
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MOSCOW — He drank too much, abandoned his sick, aged mother and — in Russia’s own account of the man portrayed in the United States as a highly valued spy burrowed deep into the Kremlin — he had no contact whatsoever with President Vladimir V. Putin. Just hours after The New York Times and other […]
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WASHINGTON — President Trump’s abrupt ouster of John Bolton, his hawkish national security adviser, has reignited concerns among some Republicans in Congress about the White House’s waning interest in projecting American military power around the world, a doctrine that was once the subject of a powerful consensus in their party. It is the latest sign […]
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DHAKA, Bangladesh — More than 1.9 million people living in Assam, a state of about 33 million in northeastern India, effectively became stateless recently. Many have never lived anywhere but in India, and yet late last month, the government, claiming to crack down on illegal immigration, announced that it was removing them from the National […]
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WASHINGTON — President Trump on Tuesday fired his third national security adviser, John R. Bolton, as their positions on major foreign policy issues clashed, most recently on pursuing a peace plan with the Taliban. The two men have regularly been at odds over how to take on major foreign policy challenges facing the United States. […]
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BRUSSELS — A major leap in the European Union’s digital policy and a new defense department will be two of the bloc’s top priorities for the next five years, as the new leadership and organization of its 32,000-strong executive arm was unveiled on Tuesday. The incoming president of that executive arm, the European Commission, is […]
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SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea launched two short-range projectiles on Tuesday, hours after proposing to reopen denuclearization talks with the United States this month. The two projectiles were launched from Kaechon, north of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, toward the sea off the North’s east coast, flying up to 205 miles, the South Korean […]
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BEIRUT, Lebanon — An Iranian oil tanker caught in the escalating feud between Iran, the United States and other Western nations has anchored off the coast of Syria, according to images released by space technology companies. The tanker, Adrian Darya 1, is carrying crude oil from Iran that Western nations suspected was bound for Syria […]
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