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Politics

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After Jordan, Emirates also furious with Netanyahu

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not only managed to get into a diplomatic row with Jordan, he also succeeded in angering the Emiratis.

A cameraman arrives at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),prior to a press conference at the agency's headquarters in Vienna on March 4, 2021. - European nations will not go ahead with a planned resolution criticising Iran at this week's meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog, diplomatic sources said on March 4, 2021. (Photo by ALEX HALADA / AFP) (Photo by ALEX HALADA/AFP via Getty Images)

Iran operating new advanced centrifuges, nuclear watchdog finds

According to an International Atomic Energy Agency report, Iran is now using IR-4 centrifuges to enrich uranium in violation of the nuclear accord.

Turkish member of Parliament for the left wing political party Peoples' Democratic Party Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu (C) reacts as he is surrounded by MPs applauding and brandishing placards after he was dismissed following a vote at the Turkish Parliament in Ankara, on March 17, 2021. (Photo by Adem ALTAN / AFP) (Photo by ADEM ALTAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Lawsuit filed to close pro-Kurdish party after lawmaker stripped of parliamentary seat

Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu, a pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party deputy known to focus on human rights abuses, was stripped of his parliament seat and a lawsuit was filed to close the party March 17.

Netanyahu courts Arab voters as 'Abu Yair'

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has adopted a new strategy for the Arab public: cynically rebranding himself as "Abu Yair."

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Iran’s supreme leader authorized infowar campaign during US election

Rights group criticizes Jordan over debt imprisonment

Jordanian detainees look on through the window of a rehabilitation centre in Zarqa, 30 kilometres east of Amman, on July 11, 2018. (Photo by Khalil MAZRAAWI / AFP) (Photo credit should read KHALIL MAZRAAWI/AFP via Getty Images)

Lapid’s discrete campaign for premiership gains momentum

A man walks past election billboards of the Israeli Likud party (R to L) showing the face of Prime Minister and Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu with the tagline "leader", and another showing Netanyahu with political opponent Yair Lapid with text in Hebrew reading "the next prime minister: Lapid or Netanyahu", in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba on March 15, 2021, ahead of the election due later in the month. (Photo by HAZEM BADER / AFP) (Photo by HAZEM BADER/AFP via Getty Images)

COVID accelerates evolution of Gulf economies

Saudi female employees work at the customers service desk at a hypermarket, newly launched by the operator LuLu and run by a team of women, in the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah, on February 21, 2021. (Photo by Amer HILABI / AFP) (Photo by AMER HILABI/AFP via Getty Images)

Relatives of detained military officers hold a portrait of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, and shout slogans in front of a courthouse in Ankara October 9, 2013. Turkey's appeals court upheld convictions on Wednesday of top retired military officers for leading a plot to overthrow Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government a decade ago in a case underlining civilian dominance over a once all-powerful army. The court overturned convictions of dozens of less prominent defendants among more th

Turkish justice 'sledgehammered'

The Sledgehammer coup case, which has ended with the acquittal of all defendants, inflicted enormous damage on Turkey’s justice system, judiciary and military, while failing to eliminate the danger of military coups.

A Saudi man explores a website on his laptop in Riyadh February 11, 2014. Syria's civil war has led to a new, greater threat of Islamist radicalism in Saudi Arabia that requires a more aggressive "war of ideology" on the Internet, says the man responsible for online monitoring in the kingdom. Remarks by the head of the Saudi Ideological Security Directorate (ISD) suggest that the unit, known for keeping tabs on liberal activists and women drivers as well as Islamist extremists, is turning its focus increasi

Saudi Arabia embraces high-tech lobbying

Saudi Arabia is tapping politically connected digital image-makers amid escalating tensions with Iran.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius chairs a United Nations Security Council meeting on the crisis in the Middle East in France's role as the current President of Council at U.N headquarters in New York, March 27, 2015. At left is U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. REUTERS/Mike Segar - RTR4V5PR

After Iran milestone, France nudges US on Palestinian UN bid

The French are working on a Security Council resolution to support a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, hoping the Americans will be more favorable to UN mediation on the heels of a framework agreement for an Iran deal.

S-300 air defence mobile missile systems drive through Ukraine's Independence Day military parade in the centre of Kiev August 24, 2014. Armoured vehicles and soldiers, some of them hardened in battle, paraded on Kiev's main square on Sunday to mark Independence Day in a defiant show of the military force Ukraine's government hopes will defeat pro-Russian separatists in the east. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich (UKRAINE - Tags: POLITICS ANNIVERSARY MILITARY) - RTR43I1W

Russia eyes Iranian arms deal after Lausanne

Russian officials are promoting the prospect of major arms sales to Iran after the Lausanne agreement, but any such deals appear to be an impossibility in the near term.

(L-R) Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Wu Hailong, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, European Union High Representative Federica Mogherini and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarifat arrive to deliver statements following nuclear talks at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne) April 2, 2015. Iran and world powers reached a framework on curbing Iran's nuclear programme at marathon talks in Switzerland on Thursday that will allow further n

Is Netanyahu responsible for Iran deal?

Instead of objecting to progress toward an Iranian nuclear deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should claim partial responsibility for removing or at least postponing the threat to Israel's security.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (L), U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz (2nd L), the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi (2nd R) and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif (R) wait with others for a meeting at the Beau Rivage Palace Hotel March 28, 2015, in Lausanne. Iran and major powers are close to agreement on a 2- or 3-page accord with specific numbers that would form the basis of a long-term settlement aimed at ending a 12-year standoff over Tehran's nuclear ambitions,

Iran framework agreement should boost regional diplomacy

The P5+1 and Iran agree on "detailed political agreement" for nuclear deal; Saudi Arabia, Iran hasten Yemen’s collapse; Netanyahu, Erdogan weigh in on Yemen.

Shi'ite Houthi rebels drive a patrol truck past a Ansar al-Sharia flag painted on the side of a hill, along a road in Almnash, the main stronghold of Ansar al-Sharia, in Rada November 22, 2014. Shi'ite Houthi fighters recently managed to enter the area, which had long been the main stronghold of Ansar al-Sharia, the local wing of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Picture taken November 22, 2014. REUTERS/Mohamed al-Sayaghi (YEMEN - Tags: CIVIL UNREST TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY CONFLICT) - RTR4F880

Al-Qaeda gains ground in Yemen war

The Yemen war has profound implications for the stability of the Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia and the broader region as al-Qaeda recruits and trains in the chaos.

Major-General Amos Yadlin, Israel's chief of military intelligence, speaks at the annual Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) conference in Tel Aviv December 15, 2009. Israel is parlaying civilian technological advances into a cyberwarfare capability against its enemies, Yadlin, a senior Israeli general, said on Tuesday in a rare public disclosure about the secret programme. REUTERS/Gil Cohen Magen (ISRAEL - Tags: MILITARY POLITICS SCI TECH) - RTXRVGO

Yadlin says Iran deal‎ isn't a bad agreement

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Maj. Gen. (Res.) Amos Yadlin claims that Israel should not panic when faced with the Iranian agreement, but focus on clarifying several of its clauses and rehabilitating ties with the United States.

BERLIN, GERMANY - JULY 03: Roderich Kiesewetter, member of the parliamentary investigation committee into the activities of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) in Germany, gives a statement to the media during a meeting of the commission, on July 3, 2014 in Berlin, Germany. The commission convened following revelations last year that the NSA had for years eavesdropped on the mobile phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leading German and European politicians. Recent documents released by fo

Germans deny signing GOP letter on Iran

Two German lawmakers tell Al-Monitor they never even saw the joint letter circulated by hawkish House members.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (3rd R) arrives at the Beau Rivage Palace Hotel during an extended round of talks on Iran's nuclear programme, April 2, 2015, in Lausanne. REUTERS/Brendan Smialowski/Pool - RTR4VVCY

Breaking: Zarif, Rouhani announce preliminary Iran nuclear deal

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki (C) leaves the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague August 5, 2014. Al-Malki said on Tuesday after meeting prosecutors at the International Criminal Court that there was "clear evidence" that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza. The visit took place shortly after Israeli and the Islamist Hamas movement entered a 72-hour truce mediated by Egypt in an effort to pave the way for an extended ceasefire. Israel and the Palestinians have traded allegations of w

Palestinians join ICC, but will they file complaints?

While joining the International Criminal Court is indeed a diplomatic achievement for the Palestinians, filing complaints against Israel could bring them countercomplaints and other punitive measures.

Palestinian protesters run from tear gas canisters launched by Israeli troops during clashes following a protest marking the Land Day, in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh near Ramallah March 28, 2015. Palestinians marks Land Day on March 30, the annual commemoration of protests in 1976 against Israel's appropriation of Arab-owned land in the Galilee. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTR4V9NG

PA official: Problem isn't Netanyahu, it's Israel

With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's electoral win, the Palestinians fear that they have no option left but a nonviolent intifada under the theme of liberating East Jerusalem.