• Natasha Bertrand

Saudi Arabia cut off all diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday, after Iranian protesters ransacked and set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran amid a row over the kingdom’s execution of a prominent Shi’ite cleric.  The US State Department on Saturday criticized Saudi Arabia’s execution of Nimr al-Nimr.

It issued a statement expressing concern that Riyadh’s actions were “exacerbating sectarian tensions." On Monday, State Department spokesman John Kirby noted that Iran had arrested some protesters who ransacked the embassy, undercutting the Saudi claim that Iran’s government had an implicit hand in the embassy attack.

This comment, and the administration’s overall response to the spat, has led some experts to wonder whose side the White House is really on.

By Matt Hadro

Washington D.C., Jan 5, 2016 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As the number of displaced persons is at its highest worldwide, Catholics must remember that “extremely vulnerable” refugees often flee circumstances where their very lives are at risk, a bishop has said.

“People often forget that the Holy Family themselves were refugees fleeing into Egypt,” Bishop Eusebio Elizondo Almaguer, auxiliary bishop of Seattle, said in a Dec. 30 statement in advance of National Migration Week, which is observed Jan. 3-9.

“Likewise, refugees around the world, all of whom are extremely vulnerable, are fleeing for their lives,” added the chair of the U.S. bishops’ committee on migration. “As Catholics, we are called to welcome and support these families who also need our help.”

Natasha Bertrand

Saudi Arabia’s growing international isolation and Iran’s rising regional influence have led the kingdom to "double down" on protecting its interests, according to a new analysis of the world’s top 2016 risks by Eurasia Group, the world’s largest political-risk consultancy.

That at least partly explains the kingdom’s decision to sever diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday, after Iranian protesters ransacked and set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran over Saudi Arabia’s execution of prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.

On Monday, Saudi Arabia moved to cut off all commercial ties with Iran, according to Reuters, and bar its citizens from traveling there.

"Saudi Arabia is in serious trouble, and they know it," Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group, told Business Insider on Sunday.

 By John Davison and Suleiman Al-Khalidi

Hezbollah set off a bomb targeting Israeli forces at the Lebanese border on Monday in an apparent response to the killing in Syria last month of a prominent commander, triggering Israeli shelling of southern Lebanon.

Israel has struck its Iran-backed Shi’ite enemy Hezbollah in Syria several times, killing a number of fighters and destroying weapons it believes were destined for the group, whose support for President Bashar al-Assad has been crucial in the country’s civil war.

Israel’s army said Monday’s blast, targeting military vehicles in the Shebaa farms area, prompted Israeli forces to respond with artillery fire. It made no mention of casualties.

by Joseph A. Kechichian

Beirut: Fouad Boutros, a leading civil servant who served Lebanon under presidents Fouad Shehab, Charles Helou and Elias Sarkis, and who filled the critical foreign policy portfolio at the height of the Civil War between 1976 and 1982, died at the age of 98.

Born on November 5, 1917, the highly respected attorney was one of Shehab’s proteges, which is why he was known as a ‘Shehabist’. As such, he worked tirelessly to forge a unique Lebanese identity in a country where sectarianism ruled.

Elected deputy in 1960 to one of the Greek Orthodox posts for Beirut, he served in parliament for a single four-year term. Boutros, the scion of a leading Beiruti family, was appointed deputy prime minister in 1966, and again in 1968 as well as 1976-1982, and held a variety of ministerial posts, most notably as Minister of Planning (1959-1960); Education (1959-1960); Tourism (1968); Defence (1966-1976, 1978); and Foreign Affairs (1968, 1976-1982).

Natasha Bertrand

Russia’s pattern of airstrikes in Syria indicate that it is preparing a "plan B" should the regime fail to restore a central Syrian state and be forced to retreat to a fragment of government-held territory along the Mediterranean.

"A second option [for Russia] is to fall back to the defensible parts of useful Syria after guaranteeing the safety of the Alawi canton," Joseph Bahout, a visiting scholar in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote of Russia in Carnegie’s "Syria in Crisis" blog.

"This is perhaps already a consideration, as the majority of Russian airstrikes concentrate on the contours of this area."

Since intervening on behalf of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in late September, Russia has used airstrikes to create a buffer zone between rebel-held territory in the southern Idlib province and the traditional homeland of the Assads’ Alawite sect in the Latakia governorate.

The airstrikes have also targeted rebel-controlled territory just north of Homs that borders this so-called Alawi canton. 

Natasha Bertrand

Saudi Arabia will cut all diplomatic ties with Iran, the Saudi foreign ministry said on Sunday.

Saudi officials said that Iranian diplomats have 48 hours to leave the country, according to CNN.

Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told a news conference that "Riyadh would not allow the Islamic Republic to undermine the Sunni kingdom’s security," according to Reuters.

He added: "The Iranian regime has a long record of violating foreign diplomatic missions."

The move comes after Iranian protesters attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran, ransacking and setting fire to the building in retaliation for Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric and 46 others on Saturday.

Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, an outspoken critic of Saudi Arabia’s treatment of its Shiite Muslim minority, was executed on charges of inciting domestic terrorism and plotting to overthrow the Saudi government.

by hoteliermiddleeast.com

Hotels in Beirut were incapable of achieving full occupancy for New Year, despite experiencing a relatively stable security situation.

“Occupancy in Beirut hotels stands at around 70% for the New Year while it reaches 70% to 80% in areas outside the capital,” Federation of Touristic Syndicates head Jean Beyrouthy said to local media. “However, mountain hotels saw a drop in business due to the absence of snow,” he added.

Beyrouthy claimed that Lebanon could have attracted a greater number of tourists this year because of the relatively stable security situation it has experienced compared to others in the region. He added that only a few hotels managed to reach full occupancy this year, attributing success to their own exisiting clients or because of their special locations within the city.

Josh Wood