Following the recent severing of relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia over the execution of Shiite cleric Sheikh al-Nimr by Riyadh and the torching of the Saudi embassy in Tehran, some in the Iraqi government fear it will exacerbate Sunni-Shiite tensions at a critical juncture.

This comes as Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq have spearheaded fragile cooperative efforts to tackle the threat posed by the Islamic State (ISIS). Now the fear is that such cooperation could be compromised as a result of the recent tensions and war of words between Riyadh and Tehran.

A group of distinguished Islamic experts and jurists have launched the International Observatory for Documenting and Prosecuting the Crimes of Iran. Algerian Dr.Anwar Malek was appointed as the new Paris-based organisation's president, with another prominent Algerian official, Dr. Ismail Khalaf Allah, appointed as its legal director.

By AlBassel Tadros

When the protests started in Syria, the Palestinians watched on silently. Their silence soon turned into a rage as they watched the regime shell and besiege all places which stood in opposition to its tyranny, even Palestinian refugee camps. It was as if they were thrown back in time over six decades, faced again with displacement and the death boats toward Europe, this time with the Syrians.

The Kurdish alliance stresses that its main goal is to fight ISIS, while its second, more vague, objective is to build a “democratic Syria.” So far, it has made no mention of fighting Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

The Syrian regime has lost control of the Idlib province following swift rebel advances, making it the second province to fall out of the regime’s hands.

Late Thursday, the Army of Conquest coalition of rebels stormed into Ariha, the last sizeable town in the northwest region, sending regime troops fleeing in the direction of the Al-Ghab Plain that straddles the Latakia province to the south.

A military chief of the Revolutionary Command Council of Syria has blamed the plight of people on the intervention of the Iranian regime's paramilitary forces in the war-torn country.

Brigadier General Mithghal al-Batish said Iran's aim was to 'annihilate or displace' the Syrian people, but that the regime would fail and 'victory is near'.