Middle East diplomacy - Page 7

ZARQA, Jordan — The United States delivered another two Blackhawk helicopters to key Arab ally Jordan on Sunday to help protect the kingdom’s borders and counter the threat from jihadists.

TEL AVIV — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday urged world leaders to fix the Iran deal and said that Israel would do everything to prevent Tehran from establishing military bases in Syria.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday evening thanked the US administration for its tough stance on Iran, saying Washington stands on “the right side of history” for rejecting the nuclear deal and supporting Iranian protesters’ recent demonstrations against the regime.

BRUSSELS – Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas will seek EU support in Brussels on Monday amid bitter acrimony with the United States, but he looks unlikely to get much the in way of concrete commitments.

Israel is bracing for US Vice President Mike Pence’s two-day visit, with thousands of police officers taking part in special security operations and residents preparing for wide-scale traffic disruptions, particularly in Jerusalem where his visit will focus.

CAIRO — US Vice President Mike Pence met Saturday with Egyptian leader Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and sought to reassure him that the US would support a two-state solution and was still committed to working toward Israeli-Palestinian peace despite anger in the Arab world over US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

A Jordanian government spokesperson said Thursday evening that he had received from Israel an “official memorandum” apologizing for the deaths of two Jordanians in a shooting incident at the Israeli Embassy in Amman in July, and the killing of a Jordanian judge in a separate incident in 2014.

While President Donald Trump has been accused of using a derogatory term to describe African countries, the news media remained largely silent while President Barack Obama for eight years treated Israel “like it was a shithole,” Breitbart Jerusalem Bureau Chief Aaron Klein charged.

The Palestinian Authority has retained some contact with the Trump administration, despite vowing to cut off all ties to the US leadership in protest of its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat reported Saturday.

ANKARA – Turkey has warned its citizens against travel to the United States, saying Turks face the risk of arbitrary arrest and should take precautions if they do decide to travel, the latest tit-for-tat volley in a diplomatic feud between the NATO allies.

TEL AVIV — Egyptian authorities are concerned that Turkey will try to sabotage the presidential elections scheduled for March to harm the position of incumbent Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, an Arab diplomatic source has told Breitbart Jerusalem.

Israel has reportedly lodged a formal complaint with Egypt for regularly excluding it from diplomatic events and briefings.

A powerful UK parliamentary committee is ready to launch an inquiry into the misuse of foreign aid funds that end up supporting Palestinian terrorists and their families.

Iran lashed out at the US House of Representatives on Wednesday after lawmakers adopted a resolution supporting recent anti-government protests in the Islamic republic.

WASHINGTON — Reza Pahlavi concentrates intently on the little cellphone in his hand, scrolling through clips of chanting Iranians and explaining why the protests unsettling his homeland are different this time. Even as the latest reports suggest the unrest may be ebbing, the scion of Persia’s 2,500-year-old monarchy believes Iran’s people are writing a new future for themselves, and perhaps for their exiled son.

Sweden, a big donor country that has recognized Palestine as a state, warned Tuesday that any US decision to withdraw funds to the UN agency for Palestinians would be destabilising for the Middle East.

Iran’s foreign minister on Monday warned neighboring countries against fomenting unrest after anti-government protests roiled the country over the past two weeks.

WASHINGTON, DC — The head of the CIA on Sunday denied his agency had any role in fomenting the recent anti-government protests in Iran but predicted the violent unrest “is not behind us.”

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says the nation and its security forces have ended the wave of unrest linked to anti-government protests that erupted last month.

Saudi Arabia’s attorney general on Sunday confirmed 11 princes had been arrested after protesting the kingdom’s austerity measures and would face trial after “disrupting public peace and order”.

WASHINGTON — The White House is examining possible aid cuts to the Palestinian Authority, a senior administration official said Thursday, days after US President Donald Trump threatened to slash funding over Ramallah’s refusal to work with Washington on peace talks.

Iranian Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi urged the United States and international community to support nationwide protests in Iran with political sanctions and not economic measures that could hit the general population.

The Treasury Department on Thursday sanctioned five Iranian entities linked to the country’s ballistic missile program. The action comes amid anti-government protests in Iran, which have received vocal support from the White House.

UNITED NATIONS — Iran on Wednesday angrily accused the United States at the United Nations of meddling in its domestic affairs after President Donald Trump backed anti-government protests.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief announced the “end of the sedition” Wednesday as tens of thousands rallied in a show of strength for the country’s Islamic rulers after days of deadly unrest.

The head of Lebanon’s powerful Tehran-backed Hezbollah terror group said Wednesday he was confident protests in Iran would be brought under control and leave US President Donald Trump disappointed.

An Israeli politician who served as ambassador to the U.S. during the Obama administration said that former president Barack Obama chose not to support the 2009 protests in Iran because he was hoping to reach the deal with Iran on its nuclear weapons that was eventually signed six years later.

Israel’s Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz on Monday expressed his support for anti-government Iranian protestors, but said that Israel had a policy of not interfering in Tehran’s affairs.

TEL AVIV — It is “pretty rich” and “funny” for Iran to claim a foreign conspiracy is behind the anti-government protests rocking the country while Tehran “has openly been engaged” in attempts to “take over multiple countries,” contended Breitbart Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein.

TEL AVIV — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement plans to turn events surrounding the organization’s current 53th anniversary celebrations into “angry protests” against President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Fatah leadership member Samir Burdeini told Breitbart Jerusalem.

US Vice President Mike Pence’s office on Monday denied reports that a planned trip to Israel had been delayed indefinitely beyond January.

Protesters have been increasingly met with state-sponsored violence in Iran as they take to the streets to voice their opposition to the country’s hard-line Islamic government and its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Dismissing the notion of any Israeli connection to the ongoing protests in Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the “heroic” demonstrators protesting against the “cruel regime” in a YouTube video published Monday.

TEL AVIV — The riots in the streets of Iran have excited social media networks in the Sunni Arab world ever since they first broke out, with many expressing their hope that the confrontations would harm the extremist Iranian regime, which is trying to exert its influence over Arab states.

Palestine recalled its envoy to the United States after President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The Palestinians should cut all ties with the United States because of “racist” and “ignorant” comments US Ambassador David Friedman made to The Jerusalem Post last week, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said on Saturday.