Middle East Events

Ahmed Shah Durrani, the founder of the Durrani Empire and the modern state of Afghanistan, established his rule in 1747 at Kandahar. Ahmad Shah, a Pashtun from the Abdali clan, was electe...

The Balfour Declaration of 1917 (dated 2 November 1917) was a formal statement of policy by the British government stating that "His Majesty's government view with favour the establishmen...

The Armistice of Moudros (Turkish: Mondros Ateşkes Anlaşması) ended the hostilities in the Middle Eastern theatre between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies of World War I. It was signed b...

The Occupation of Constantinople (present day Istanbul) was the occupation of the capital of the Ottoman Empire, following the Armistice of Mudros by the Triple Entente of World War I. Th...

Shortly after a rebellion by Pashtun tribesmen and forces of Habibullah Kalakani began against the monarchy, Mohammad Nadir was exiled due to disagreements with King Amanullah. After the ...

The Passfield White Paper, issued by the colonel secretary Lord Passfield (Sidney Webb), was a formal statement of British policy in Palestine made in the aftermath of the 1929 riots. The...

Iraq was granted official independence in 1932 in accordance with an agreement signed by the United Kingdom in 1930, whereby the United Kingdom would end its official mandate on the condi...

The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine or United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 (II) Future Government of Palestine was a plan adopted by a decision of the General Assem...

For his sudden rise in popularity inside and outside of Iran, his defiance of the British, and his fight for democracy, Mosaddeq was named as Time Magazine's 1951 Man of the Year. Other n...

The Invasion of Kuwait, also known as the Iraq-Kuwait War, was a major conflict between the Republic of Iraq and the State of Kuwait which resulted in the seven-month long Iraqi occupatio...

United Nations Security Council Resolution 660 was adopted by the UN Security Council on 2 August 1990. The resolution condemned the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and demanded a withdrawal of ...

Acting on the policy of the Carter Doctrine, and out of fear the Iraqi army could launch an invasion of Saudi Arabia, U.S. President George H. W. Bush quickly announced that the U.S. woul...

On 23 August 1990 President Hussein appeared on state television with Western hostages to whom he had refused exit visas. They were seen as human shields, though Saddam Hussein denied the...

A long series of UN Security Council resolutions and Arab League resolutions were passed regarding the invasion. One of the most important was Resolution 678, passed on 29 November 1990 g...

On 12 January 1991 the United States Congress authorized the use of military force to drive Iraq out of Kuwait. The votes were 52-47 in the US Senate and 250-183 in the US House of Repres...

If Iraq was to be forced to obey UN resolutions, the Iraqi government made it no secret that it would respond by attacking Israel, a state that was allowed to ignore them without any acti...

On January 21, 1991, Iraqi forces opened valves at the Sea Island oil terminal and dumped oil from several tankers into the Persian Gulf. The apparent strategic goal was to foil a potenti...

On January 29, Iraq attacked and occupied the lightly defended Saudi city of Khafji with tanks and infantry. However, the Battle of Khafji ended when Iraqis were driven back by Saudi and ...

The Amiriyah shelter massacre was the killing of more than 408 civilians on February 13, 1991 during the Gulf War, when an air-raid shelter ("Public Shelter No. 25") in the Amiriyah neigh...

On February 22, 1991, Iraq agreed to a Soviet-proposed cease-fire agreement. The agreement called for Iraq to withdraw troops to pre-invasion positions within six weeks following a total ...

Shortly after the SCUD attack which killed 28 US troops in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, the U.S. VII Corps assembled in full strength and, spearheaded by the 3rd Squadron of the 2nd Armored Cav...

On the evening of February 25, 1991, an Iraqi scud missile plunged into a barracks/warehouse used to house U.S. Army soldiers assigned to the 475th Quartermaster Group in Dhahran, Saudi A...

The Coalition advance was much swifter than US generals had expected. On February 26, Iraqi troops began retreating from Kuwait, setting fire to Kuwaiti oil fields as they left. A long co...

Exactly 100 hours after to ground campaign began, Iraq retreated from Kuwait City, and US President George H.W. Bush declared an end to offensive combat operations in the Gulf.

In 2001, President George W. Bush signed an executive order that stipulated that US military could indefinitely detain any non-citizen who he believed was involved in international terror...

In answer the Supreme Court rejected the proposition "that the Fifth Amendment confers rights upon all persons, whatever their nationality, wherever they are located and whatever their of...

The 2003 invasion of Iraq, from March 20 to May 1, 2003, was spearheaded by the United States, backed by British forces and smaller contingents from Australia, Spain, Poland and Denmark. ...

"He was with a (U.S.) military unit in the field and the commander felt that he had compromised operational information by reporting the position and movements of troops." —Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman

The special trials established to determine the guilt or innocence of prisoners at the U.S. military prison in Cuba are unlawful and cannot continue in their current form, a federal judge...

CAIRO, May 28 -- Muslims in several countries demonstrated Friday in resurgent anti-American anger over reported desecration of the Islamic holy book, the Koran, and some protesters calle...

The Supreme Court yesterday struck down the military commissions President Bush established to try suspected members of al-Qaeda, emphatically rejecting a signature Bush anti-terrorism me...

The Defense Department today presented to Congress its manual outlining rules for military commissions as they will be conducted under the Military Commissions Act of 2006. The manual in...

Torture and CIA "ghost" prisons will be no more. Guantanamo Bay will be closed. Lo and behold, the leader of communist Cuba has called the 44th President of the United States "an honest m...

Obama to Depart on Trip to Middle East, Europe By VOA News 02 June 2009 U.S. President Barack Obama leaves Washington Tuesday on a five-day trip - where he will reach out to the Mus...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Opening a mission to write a new chapter on Islam and the West, President Barack Obama consulted Wednesday with the Saudi king "in the place where Islam began,...

It started with “assalaamu alaykum” and ended with “may God’s peace be upon you.” Inbetween, President Barack Obama dotted his speech to the Muslim world with Islamic terms and reference...

An American-backed alliance appeared to retain control of the Lebanese Parliament on Sunday in a hotly contested election that had been billed as a showdown between Tehran and Washington ...

The 2009 Iranian presidential election was held on 12 June 2009 in Iran, the tenth presidential election to be held in the country.The President of Iran is the highest official elected by...

Clashes broke out between police and groups protesting the election results from early morning on Saturday onward. The protests were initially mostly peaceful but became increasingly viol...

Protests were organized outside the United Nations in New York City; in front of the Iranian embassies in Paris, Berlin, London, and Iranian consulate in Sydney; and in a public square in...

Defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi is not optimistic about his appeal to a legislative body for the cancellation of last week's election result, his website said o...

[Iran's leaders] received a resounding refusal [of an offer to conduct a partial recount] — first from reformist politicians who said they would accept only a new election and then on the...

A sit-in by students from the Tehran University in protest to the brutal suppression of fellow students, in particular during the recent dormitory raid, continues in the university mosque...

A peaceful, nearly silent rally by supporters of failed presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi has begun at Tehran's Hafte Tir Square. Protesters were heading toward the University...

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sternly cut off any compromise over the nation’s disputed elections on Friday. In a long and hard-line sermon, he declared the elections val...

Mousavi spokesman Mohsen Makhmalbaf said "Mousavi's headquarters was wrecked by plainclothes police officers" with many staffers arrested, and Mousavi himself ordered by the Revolutionary...

I have just seen a very heartbreaking video footage of an Iranian girl after she was shot during a protest in Iran. Iran is in turmoil now and people would like to change the system. The ...

A backstage struggle among Iran's ruling clerics burst into the open Sunday when the government said it had arrested the daughter and other relatives of an ayatollah who is one of the cou...

Iran's Guardian Council has suggested that the number of votes collected in 50 cities surpass the number of people eligible to cast ballot in those areas. The council's Spokesman Abbas...

On Sunday morning in Tehran, Newsweek's Maziar Bahari was detained without charge by Iranian authorities and has not been heard from since. Mr. Bahari is a Canadian citizen and a renowned...