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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)

An Iranian employee of the anti-drug police walk past 50 tons of drugs seized in recent months burning in eastern Tehran on June 26, 2014 to mark the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. The Iranian security forces seized some 575 tons of drugs between March 2013 and March 2014, the Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said. AFP PHOTO/ATTA KENARE (Photo credit should read ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images)

Iranian minister slammed for warning of 'dirty money' in politics

Iran's Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli has been forced to walk back his claims that money from illegal drug smuggling has entered politics.

Women walk past a mosque in Ankara April 22, 2007. The women at a protest in Istanbul's old quarter want to wear their headscarves in school, university and parliament, but Muslim Turkey's secular system forbids that, with laws pious Muslims see as a breach of their personal and religious freedom. The Islamist-rooted ruling AK Party says it wants to lift the ban, a key demand of its grass-root supporters, but has faced fierce opposition from Turkey's powerful secular elite. Picture taken on April 22, 2007.

Islamic feminist challenges orthodoxy from within

Turkish academic Hidayet Tuksal has made a reputation as an Islamist feminist, studying religious texts and challenging Islamist notions that marginalize women.

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal (L) meets with Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara March 17, 2011. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS ROYALS) - RTR2K0M9

Are Turkey, Saudi Arabia working together against Iran?

Analysts fear that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is being dragged into Saudi Arabia's anti-Iran Sunni bloc.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora (L), Sunni Muslim politician Saad al-Hariri (C), leader of the anti-Syrian alliance, and Education Minister Bahia al-Hariri greet supporters during a parliamentary election campaign at al-Hariri's house in Beirut May 21, 2009. Lebanon's parliamentary election on June 7 is expected to be a tight contest in which Hezbollah and its allies are hoping to reverse the slim majority held by an anti-Syrian coalition that enjoys U.S. and Saudi backing. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi (LEBAN

Parliamentary presence sticking point for Lebanon's women

Although Lebanon is considered a pioneer country in terms of female empowerment, women are still timidly represented in politics, as these usually access parliament following the death of their relatives.

EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on leaving the office to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.

Former Iranian Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi smiles as he sits at his home in Tehran, after he was released from jail November 22, 2009. Abtahi, accused of fomenting street unrest after Iran's June election, was released on bail of about $700,000 (424, 062 pounds) on Sunday, the judiciary said, after reports he had been sentenced to six years in jail. REU

Former Iran VP speaks on interreligious outreach

In an interview with Al-Monitor, former Iranian Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi talks about the challenges of his work in interreligious outreach.

Activists hold up their red-inked thumbs and carry banners as they pose for the media during a sit-in near the parliament and in front of the U.N. headquarters in Beirut April 1, 2014. The activists held the rally on Tuesday to demand politicians approve Lebanon's first law of protecting women from domestic violence. REUTERS/Sharif Karim (LEBANON - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST SOCIETY) - RTR3JG2D

Will Nadine Moussa be Lebanon's next president?

Lawyer and activist Nadine Moussa, the first woman in Lebanon to submit her candidacy for the presidential elections, tells Al-Monitor that women are still struggling to break the political traditions of a patriarchal country.

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) arrives for a vote on whether to overturn a presidential veto of the Keystone XL pipeline, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, March 4, 2015. The U.S. Senate failed on Wednesday to overturn Obama's veto of legislation approving the Keystone XL oil pipeline, leaving the contentious project to await an administration decision on whether to allow it. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS ENERGY ENVIRONMENT) - RTR4S47R

Democrats slam brakes on Iran action

Forget about voting on anything before March 24 deadline, House and Senate Democrats warn.

Retired Israeli general combats stereotypes

In an interview with Al-Monitor, retired Brig. Gen. Israela Oron emphasizes that contrary to traditional Israeli perception, men have no superiority over women in matters of security.

A Turkish riot policeman uses tear gas as people protest against the destruction of trees in a park brought about by a pedestrian project, in Taksim Square in central Istanbul in this May 28, 2013 file photo.

Osman Orsal: I was covering protests in Istanbul which began as a demonstration against government plans to demolish a small park in central Taksim square but evolved into one the biggest anti-government protests in over a decade.

I was standing between the protesters and the police as the police b

Amberin Zaman on why she writes

Al-Monitor columnist Amberin Zaman shares her thoughts on journalism.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress in the House Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 3, 2015. REUTERS/Gary Cameron (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR4RWHO

Rafsanjani: Iran’s hard-liners 'in harmony with Netanyahu'

Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani has said that Iran's hard-liners are in line with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in opposing a nuclear deal with the West, drawing the ire of one of Iran's most conservative newspapers.

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 03: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) is greeted by members of Congress as he arrives to speak during a joint meeting of the United States Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol March 3, 2015 in Washington, DC. At the risk of further straining the relationship between Israel and the Obama Administration, Netanyahu warned members of Congress against what he considers an ill-advised nuclear deal with Iran. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Will Bibi's speech to Congress help his campaign?

The Likud Party hopes that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech before the US Congress will stop the past few days' trend in polls of losing votes, just in time for Election Day.

Protesters hold up Iraqi flags and pictures of their relatives who were killed during the Saddam era in a rally against the return of Saddam Hussein's Baath party, in Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad February 10, 2010. REUTERS/Mushtaq Muhammed (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS) - RTR2A18M

Iraqi provinces take ex-Baathists to court

Iraq's de-Baathification law has been a matter of controversy since its adoption in 2003, as some argue that the firm measures against former Baathists led to terrorism.