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Middle East

The latest news, analysis and opinion on Middle East. In-depth analysis, industry insights and expert opinion.

Customs officers arrest one of the suspects involved in the “ghost trading” racket. Photo: Jelly Tse

Crime in Hong Kong

Hong Kong customs arrests 5 in suspected HK$8.9 billion ‘phantom trading’ racket

Suspects laundered crime proceeds over four-year period in first ‘phantom trading’ fraud involving fake shipping websites uncovered by authorities.

23 Dec 2025 - 9:14PM

Benjamin Netanyahu

Iran and Gaza plan to top agenda for Netanyahu-Trump meeting

23 Dec 2025 - 1:18PM

Hong Kong stock market

Hong Kong world’s No 1 IPO venue as fundraising crosses US$35 billion: HKEX

22 Dec 2025 - 7:15PM

Australian PM Albanese booed as Bondi Beach attack victims honoured

Tens of thousands attended Sunday’s memorial. The Sydney event was heavily guarded by police, including snipers on rooftops and police boats.

22 Dec 2025 - 12:25PMvideocam

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his wife are booed as they arrive at the Light Over Darkness vigil in Sydney, Australia on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

Jews worldwide urged to ‘come home’ to Israel after Bondi massacre

Gideon Saar says ‘Jews are being hunted across the world’ following the December 14 Isis-inspired shooting at a Hanukkah event in Australia.

22 Dec 2025 - 10:40AM

Macron announces new aircraft carrier for France

Replacing the Charles de Gaulle by 2038, the nuclear-powered vessel will be far larger than the current flagship.

22 Dec 2025 - 1:44PMvideocam

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Why India to Europe trade corridor is stalling even as talks continue

A key hurdle hampering the progress of the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor is the lingering uncertainty over Gaza.

21 Dec 2025 - 5:00PM

Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi (left) and then US President Joe Biden attend the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment and India-Europe-Middle East Corridor meeting on September 9, 2023.
Photo: Indian Press Information Bureau/EPA-EFE

Israel-Gaza war

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices in Bethlehem as peace returns to Gaza

Palestinians are flocking again to Manger Square, bringing much-needed revenue to the city after two years of fighting.

20 Dec 2025 - 3:33PMvideocam

Israel-Iran conflict

Man executed in Iran for spying for Israel tortured to confess: rights group

The 27-year-old, arrested while taking pictures of a military headquarters, was accused of executing over 200 similar assignments for Mossad.

20 Dec 2025 - 2:57PM

US strikes at Isis fighters in Syria after 3 Americans killed

At least five Isis members were killed in a ‘large-scale’ strike hitting 70 Isis targets across central Syria.

20 Dec 2025 - 6:46PM

US President Donald Trump salutes as a US Army carry team moves a flagged-draped transfer case containing the remains of Ayad Mansoor Sakat, a US civilian working as an interpreter, at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Wednesday. Photo: AFP

US-China relations

Rubio swaps hawk for diplomat in year-end pivot on China

Top US envoy eschews ‘pacing threat’ label, stressing cooperation and Western hemisphere priorities for 2026.

20 Dec 2025 - 6:53AMvideocam

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio during his end-of-year press conference at the State Department on Friday. Photo: Reuters

Israel-Gaza war

UN declares Gaza famine over, but ‘situation remains critical’

Meanwhile, Oxfam says hunger in Gaza remains ‘appalling and preventable’, accusing Israel of blocking aid from humanitarian agencies.

19 Dec 2025 - 10:36PM

See dreamlike dunes and meet modern nomads in world’s biggest sand desert

In the Omani part of Rub’ al Khali, tourists can explore a constantly changing landscape with all the comforts of the present.

19 Dec 2025 - 7:15PM

War and conflict

War-torn Sudan tops global humanitarian crisis watch list for third year

International Rescue Committee highlights a stark concentration of human suffering in a small number of countries in latest rankings.

17 Dec 2025 - 1:42PM

A Sudanese refugee girl who fled from El-Fashir city, Sudan, at a transit camp in eastern Chad. Photo: Reuters

Opinion | As Doha Forum made clear, Europe is losing its seat at the table

Consumed by Ukraine, the EU has effectively retreated from global engagement. An urgent foreign policy recalibration is needed.

17 Dec 2025 - 5:30AM

Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani speaks on the first day of the 23rd edition of the annual Doha Forum in Qatar on December 6. Photo: Reuters

Style Edit: Audemars Piguet’s innovation at Dubai Watch Week

The luxury Swiss horology brand has been creating coveted perpetual calendars since 1948 – and just launched a new technology.

16 Dec 2025 - 10:00AM

Isis-inspired Bondi gunmen visited Philippines before shooting: police

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Sajid Akram and his son Naveed had been radicalised by an ‘ideology of hate’.

16 Dec 2025 - 2:30PMvideocam

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How Saudi Arabia’s mountains offer authentic delights rarely found elsewhere

Far from Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 development projects, the hills of Asir province and its capital Abha offer a place to ‘clear the mind’.

15 Dec 2025 - 12:15PM

A view of Rijal Almaa village, located west of Abha in Saudi Arabia’s Asir province. This part of the country offers an arguably more authentic experience – and certainly a cooler one – than in the kingdom’s desert areas, where many of its elaborate Vision 2023 projects aim to draw tourists. Photo: Xinhua via Zum Wire/TNS

No contact with Iran Nobel winner laureate arrest, supporters say

Narges Mohammadi, the 2023 Peace Prize laureate, was detained on Friday alongside dozens of activists and may face national security charges.

15 Dec 2025 - 10:06AM

World leaders express horror at Bondi Beach attack as vigils held for victims

Israel’s Herzog condemned the ‘cruel attack on Jews’ by ‘terrorists’; Trump branded the shooting that killed 15 people ‘purely antisemitic’.

15 Dec 2025 - 6:28AM

Benjamin Netanyahu

Netanyahu accuses Australia’s PM of inaction in tackling antisemitism

After the Bondi Beach shooting, the Israeli PM said he warned Albanese months ago that Australia’s policy was ‘encouraging antisemitism’.

15 Dec 2025 - 2:41AM

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Photo: Reuters

Israel-Gaza war

Israel says it killed Hamas weapons chief in Gaza

PM Netanyahu said arms production head Raad Saad was ‘one of the architects’ of the October 7 attack that sparked the war.

14 Dec 2025 - 11:03AM

A car destroyed in an Israeli strike is seen on Saturday near the Nablusi junction in the Gaza City area. Photo: EPA

Trump vows retaliation after 2 US troops and a civilian killed in Syria ambush

This is the first attack on American service members to inflict casualties since the fall of Assad a year ago.

14 Dec 2025 - 3:41AMvideocam

Iran seizes foreign oil tanker suspected of smuggling fuel

Semi-official media cited few details but the news comes days after the US intercepted a tanker off Venezuela allegedly linked to Tehran.

13 Dec 2025 - 9:03PMvideocam

Syria’s year of ‘epic’ transformation earns it Trump’s protection

Washington is lifting sanctions and has rebuked Israel for its attacks, as the US throws its weight behind Ahmed al-Sharaa’s administration.

13 Dec 2025 - 4:00PMvideocam

US President Donald Trump (left) shakes hands with Syria’s President Ahmad al-Sharaa at the White House in Washington last month. Photo: AP

Israel-Gaza war

‘My future is paralysed’: Gaza amputees desperate to walk again

The World Health Organization estimates there are some 5,000 to 6,000 amputees from the Israel-Gaza war, 25 per cent of them children.

13 Dec 2025 - 3:08PMvideocam

Haneen al-Mabhouh, who lost her leg in an Israeli strike on her home, sits in a wheelchair in her family home in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, on November 6. Photo: AP

Iran detains Nobel Prize winner Narges Mohammadi in ‘brutal’ arrest

The activist’s brother says she was beaten on the legs, held by her hair and ‘dragged down’ by security forces personnel.

13 Dec 2025 - 4:18AM

SCMP Highlights

Japan, US defence chiefs discuss China; Mexico’s tariffs: SCMP daily highlights

From Trump and Modi’s phone call to scientists addressing implant rejection with a soft brain chip, here’s a round-up from today’s coverage.

12 Dec 2025 - 9:15PM

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