MidEast Biography Archives - Latest Political News

Qaboos bin Said Al Said Biography and Profile

The US Embassy in the capital of Muscat said: “We have lost one of the world’s great leaders — a visionary responsible for Oman’s prosperity and progress for the last half century,” the embassy’s tweet read. “His steadfast leadership embodied his sincerity, his generosity, his tolerance, and his deep love for his country. His Majesty Sultan Qaboos will be missed not only by the people of Oman, but also by his friends and admirers the world over, including in the United States.”Continue reading

Esmail Ghaani Biography and Profile

Esmail Ghaani was born August 8, 1957 in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad. He grew up during the last decade of monarchy. He joined the Guard a year after the 1979 revolution. Like Qassem Soleimani, he first deployed to put down the Kurdish uprising in Iran that followed the shah’s downfall. Who is Esmail Ghaani? Esmail Ghaani Biography and Profile.Continue reading

Qasem Soleimani Biography and Profile

Qasem Soleimani, born 11 March 1957. He bears resemblance to Sean Connery. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, once called him a “living martyr of the revolution.” For Iranians whose icons since the Islamic Revolution have been stern-faced clergy, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani widely represented a figure of national resilience in the face of four decades of U.S. pressure. Who is Qasem Soleimani? Here’s Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani Biography and Profile.Continue reading

Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani Biography and Profile

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani’s prime influence comes from his status as Shi’ism’s leading marjah al-taqlid. Born in Mashad, Iran, the young Ali began studying the Koran as a youthful prodigy at the age of five. Sistani was said to be of the “quietist” school of Islamic tradition. The Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani is undoubtedly now the most powerful man in Iraq. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani Biography and Profile.Continue reading

Hassan Nasrallah Biography and Profile

Hassan Nasrallah (Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah) of Hezbollah (Hizbullah) was born August 31, 1960 al-Bazroieh – Tyre District, married to Fatima Mustafa Yassin, with whom he has five children, including: martyr Mohammed Hadi, Mohammed Jawad, Zeinab, Muhammad Ali, and Muhammad Mahdi. His Eminence, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s birth and residence was in “Karantina” neighborhood, one of the most impoverished and underprivileged neighborhoods in the eastern suburbs of Beirut, he was the oldest of three brothers and five sisters.

There he received his elementary education in the private “Kifah” School, and continued his secondary education at the “Educational Secondary” High School, in Sin El-Feel suburb.Continue reading

Marzieh Hashemi Biography and Profile

Marzieh Hashemi (Melanie Franklin), a natural-born citizen of the United States and a naturalized citizen of the Islamic Republic of Iran was born on 21 December 1959 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Marzieh Hashemi, an American-Iranian journalist and television presenter, is a prominent anchor for Iranian state-funded Press TV and serves as the editor-in-chief of Mahjubah magazine.

Marzieh Hashemi born into a Christian African-American family, later converted to Islam and moved to Iran after being inspired by the Iranian revolution. She lives in Tehran and comes back to the US about once a year to see her family, usually scheduling documentary work in the US, her son said.Continue reading

Hafez al-Assad Biography and Profile

Born in the village of Qardaha in Syria on October 6, 1930, Hafez al-Assad became Syrian president of the country in 1971, after taking part in multiple coups. Though widely criticized for brutal tactics (most notably the 1982 Hama massacre), he is also praised for bringing stability to Syria, and for improving relations between Syria and Western powers by supporting America in the Persian Gulf War. He served as president of Syria until his death on June 10, 2000.

Of the five members of the Ba’ath Party’s Military Committee who seized power in Syria in 1963, Hafez Al-Assad went the furthest. Of the other four, one took the blame for Syria’s loss of the Golan Heights during the Six Day War and was pushed out of politics; one committed suicide; a third was assassinated; the other died in prison after 25 years.Continue reading

Bashar al-Assad Biography and Profile

Bashar al-Assad inherited power in July 2000, a month after his father, military strongman Hafez al-Assad died. But since March 2011, his rule over Syria has been under threat, with the country beset by violence that has killed an estimated 465,000 people and embroiled regional and world powers in the never-ending horror.

Despite Western and Arab countries backing the opposition, Assad has survived seven years of war and refuses to step aside.Continue reading

Osama bin Laden Biography and Profile

Osama bin Laden (Osama bin Laden – Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 10 March 1957. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, bin Laden joined the Afghan resistance. After the Soviet withdrawal, bin Laden formed the al-Qaeda network which carried out global strikes against Western interests, culminating in the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. On May 2, 2011, President Barack Obama announced that bin Laden had been killed in a terrorist compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Osama bin Laden was born Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden on March 10, 1957, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to construction billionaire Mohammed Awad bin Laden and Mohammed’s 10th wife, Syrian-born Alia Ghanem. Osama was the seventh of 50 children born to Muhammad bin Laden, but the only child from his father’s marriage to Alia Ghanem.Continue reading

Benjamin Benny Gantz Biography and Profile

Benjamin (Benny) Gantz was born June 9, 1959 and recruited to the IDF in 1977 when he joined the Paratroopers Brigade. Lt. Gen. Ret. Benjamin Gantz, also known as Benny, serves as the Chief Executive Officer of B.G. Prime Ltd. Lt. Gen. Ret. Gantz serves as Chairman of the Board at Fifth Dimension Holdings Ltd. He has been an External Director of Elron Electronic Industries Ltd. since October 9, 2017. Lt. Gen. Ret. Gantz has been an Independent Director of Amot Investments Ltd. since November 22, 2015. He serves as a Member of the Board of Directors of B.G. Prime Ltd. He was the 20th Chief of General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces in the years 2011-2015.

During his military career, he served in a number of roles including Commander of the IDF Northern Command, Commander of the IDF Ground Forces Command and IDF Military Attaché in the United States. In 2009, Lt. Gen. Gantz was requested by the Minister of Defense and the Chief of the General staff to serves as the Deputy IDF Chief of General Staff, a position he filled until November 2010. Continue reading

Saddam Hussein Biography and Profile

Saddam Hussein was born on April 28, 1937, in Tikrit, Iraq. His father, who was a shepherd, disappeared several months before Saddam was born. A few months later, Saddam’s older brother died of cancer. When Saddam was born, his mother, severely depressed by her oldest son’s death and the disappearance of her husband, was unable to effectively care for Saddam, and at age 3 he was sent to Baghdad to live with his uncle, Khairallah Talfah. Years later, Saddam would return to Al-Awja to live with his mother, but after suffering abuse at the hand of his stepfather, he fled to Baghdad to again live with Talfah, a devout Sunni Muslim and ardent Arab nationalist whose politics would have a profound influence on the young Saddam.

After attending the nationalistic al-Karh Secondary School in Baghdad, in 1957, at age 20, Saddam joined the Ba’ath Party, whose ultimate ideological aim was the unity of Arab states in the Middle East. On October 7, 1959, Saddam and other members of the Ba-ath Party attempted to assassinate Iraq’s then-president, Abd al-Karim Qasim, whose resistance to joining the nascent United Arab Republic and alliance with Iraq’s communist party had put him at odds with the Ba’athists. During the assassination attempt, Qasim’s chauffeur was killed, and Qasim was shot several times, but survived. Saddam was shot in the leg. Several of the would-be assassins were caught, tried and executed, but Saddam and several others managed to escape to Syria, where Saddam stayed briefly before fleeing to Egypt, where he attended law school.Continue reading

Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud Biography and Profile

Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, 31st youngest son of King Abdulaziz and Hassa bint Ahmed Al Sudairi was born in 1942 in Riyadh Province of Saudi Arabia. Ahmed is also the youngest member of Sudairi brothers. The young Prince was raised by his mother and brothers following King Abdulaziz’s death when he was eleven years old in 1953. Ahmed’s eldest brother became the prince father figure.

Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud attained primary and second education from Princes School and attended Anjal Institute in Riyadh, secondary school up to 1961. The Prince studied English and Science subjects in the University of Southern California (USC) and graduated with Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1968.Continue reading

Jamal Khashoggi Biography And Profile

Jamal Khashoggi was born on 13 October 1958 in Saudi Arabia in 1958. He obtained a BA from Indiana State University. In his journey into journalism, he worked as a correspondent for the Saudi Gazette and other Arab newspapers from 1987 to 1999.

Jamal Khashoggi covered major events such as the Afghan war, the democratic transformation in Algeria and the war in Kuwait. He has been recognised for his work on Islamist movements and has published works on Sudan, Turkey, Yemen, Egypt and Jordan.

In 1999 he was appointed deputy editor of the Arab News, and in 2003 he took over the editorship of the newspaper Al Watan before being appointed media advisor to the Saudi ambassador Prince Turki Al Faisal in London and then Washington.Continue reading

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