Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spent Tuesday in Qatar after holding meetings in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to resolve the Gulf diplomatic crisis. As of yet, there has been little sign of progress from Tillerson’s extended mission to the Middle East, although the Saudi royal family thanked him for his efforts.
Contents: Saudi Arabia extends sanctions deadline for two days; Saudi Arabia and UAE threaten Qatar with additional sanctions; North Korea launches another ballistic missile
The nonprofit Counter Extremism Project (CEP) is calling on international companies and U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to repudiate any business dealings with the Qatari government, arguing that the Gulf country willingly shelters Islamic terrorists and funds jihadist organizations.
TEL AVIV — Hamas politburo member Khali Elhayeh has requested that Arab countries not confuse terrorism with “resistance” in a sermon for al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the month of Ramadan.
London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan has been slammed by members of the capital’s Jewish community over his refusal to ban Sunday’s anti-Israel al-Quds Day march and its traditional display of flags supporting the Hezbollah terrorist organization.
The Sunni Arab states aligned against their old Gulf Cooperation Council partner Qatar stepped up their boycott a notch on Friday by putting together an actual blacklist of alleged terrorism financiers linked to the Qatari government.
Bahrain became the latest Arab state to ban its people from expressing support of Qatar, warning in a statement Thursday that anyone doing so could be jailed for up to five years and be fined.
Contents: Iran says Tehran terror attack was by Iranian nationals in ISIS; Turkey approves troop deployment to Qatar after split with Saudi Arabia
Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir called on Qatar to end its support for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood amid a deepening rift between the Arab Gulf states.
TEL AVIV — In wake of the decision of a number of Arab states to sever ties with Qatar and in light of a significant social media campaign against the small kingdom, Qatar’s supporters have decided to take up the fight online. Among other things, the nation’s supporters are accusing those against Qatar of supporting Israel.
Contents: Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations cut ties with Qatar in new Mideast crisis; Arab nations’ split caused by Qatar’s relations with Muslim Brotherhood and Iran
Contents: Trump’s Mideast visit triggers renewal of sharp split between Saudi Arabia and Qatar; Qatar claims that it was cyber-attacked after media reports supporting Iran; Vitriolic Saudi-Qatari fault line reopened this week by Trump’s visit; Some useful information that’s good to know
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, a key player in Iran’s nuclear deal with the Obama administration, accused President Donald Trump of responsibility for the deaths of five Shiite demonstrators in a raid conducted by Bahraini police on Tuesday.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Bahrain detained three activists over protests targeting the nation’s king during a royal horse show in the United Kingdom, a fellow campaigner said Saturday. Sayed Ahmed AlWadaei, the director of advocacy at the Bahrain
Murtada al-Sanadi is a cleric exiled from his homeland of Bahrain who is now living in Iran where he oversaw earlier this year a wake for a young militant killed by Bahrain’s security forces.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte told leaders in Qatar and Bahrain during a regional visit this weekend that he would deploy Philippine troops to the region if necessary, promising that his soldiers are “very disciplined.”
The men who built the secret bomb factory had been clever — suspiciously so, Bahraini investigators thought, for a gang known mostly for lobbing molotov cocktails at police.
The government of Bahrain announced Sunday that it had arrested over a dozen individuals believed to have planted a bomb on a police bus and received training from Hezbollah and the government of Iran.
Contents: Bahrain postpones trial of Shia cleric after threats from Iran; Iran – Saudi Arabia relations continue to deteriorate
Kuwait hanged seven prisoners on Wednesday, among them Sheikh Faisal Abdullah al-Jaber al-Sabah, believed to be the first member of a Gulf oil monarchy to face execution.
British Prime Minister Theresa May is to join Gulf Arab leaders gathered for a summit in Bahrain on Tuesday for talks on trade after Britain’s exit from the European Union.
The democratic election of Republican Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency has trigged a bizarre backlash against America’s free and fair election in the radical leftist communities native to the country’s big cities.
TEL AVIV – More and more Arabic-language newspapers are publishing articles urging Arab nations to appoint women as heads of state, claiming that while the West has understood the power of female leaders, the Arab world continues to marginalize women.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen launched an airstrike against an aid ship owned by a company from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a member of the largely Sunni Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and part of the Saudi-led Arab alliance fighting the Shiite rebels, according to the state-controlled Emirates News Agency (WAM).
WASHINGTON D.C. — Congressional leaders from both parties expressed buyer’s remorse soon after the House and Senate overwhelmingly voted to overturn President Barack Obama’s veto of a contentious new law that allows the families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia in U.S. courts for any role it may have played in the 2001 attacks.
Bahrain’s foreign minister paid tribute to Israel’s former president Shimon Peres on Thursday, in a surprise statement that drew strong Arab criticism on social media.
TEL AVIV – A columnist for a Bahraini daily said she was shocked to discover than many young Arabs idolize Adolf Hitler.
WASHINGTON — The US is set to approve long-pending fighter jet sales to Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait now that a landmark aid deal with Israel has gone through, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Wednesday.
One of the more eyebrow-raising stories from the Clinton Foundation “pay to play” scandal is Crown Prince Salman of Bahrain – whose kingdom donated up to $150,000 directly to the Foundation, plus another $32 million to the Clinton Global Initiative
TEL AVIV – The Islamic State plans to attack U.S. bases in Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, an Israeli cyberintelligence company that claimed to have hacked the terror group’s organization’s communications warned on Wednesday.
Bahrain’s top Shiite cleric went on trial Wednesday on charges of illegal fund raising and money laundering, judicial sources said, just weeks after the Sunni-ruled kingdom revoked his citizenship.
Contents: Turkey’s Erdogan gives four-finger ‘R4BIA’ salute, in signal to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood; Bahrain tensions rise as Sunni government cracks down on Shias; Bahrain accuses another top Shia cleric for money laundering
A government crackdown against Shiite dissenters accused of being affiliated with Iran has sparked more unrest in Sunni-led Bahrain.
Iran’s terrorist mastermind Qassem Soleimani, head of the Revolutionary Guard’s “Quds Force” dirty-tricks squad, vowed that Bahrain’s “bloodthirsty regime” would be “toppled” over its decision to strip the Sunni Muslim country’s top Shiite cleric of his citizenship.
Contents: Iran threatens coup, after Bahrain revokes citizenship of Shia cleric; Iran reacts to a series of repeated anti-Shia moves by Bahrain and Saudi Arabia
TEL AVIV – The Bahraini daily Al-Watan published a column condemning the “despicable” stabbing attacks on unarmed Israelis by Palestinians, saying they only fuel hatred toward Muslims and Arabs.
Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, who has formed a Super PAC to support candidates committed to American economic and national security, joined SiriusXM host and Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon Breitbart News Daily.
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members and the United States have reached an agreement to prevent the shipment of Iranian weapons to Yemen, according to Abdullatif al-Zayani, the alliance’s secretary general.
TEL AVIV – In the wake of the Brussels attacks, the Arab press has been awash with explosive articles acknowledging the Muslim world’s responsibility for global terror. The views expressed by writers from Kuwait to Jordan to Saudi Arabia represent a brutal reckoning
Contents: India about to deploy its first nuclear-armed submarine, in challenge to China; China’s military takes control of another Philippines fishing ground; Mideast Sunni-Shia split grows as GCC says Hezbollah is terrorist organization
