Middle East politics - Page 3

Damascus — Syria’s government has agreed to allow planes from regional aviation giant Qatar Airways to fly over the country after eight years of conflict kept its planes at bay.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani used an address at an Army Day parade in Tehran on Thursday to call on “righteous” Muslim countries across the Middle East to unite against Israel and the United States.

TEL AVIV – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he did not believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s talk of annexing West Bank settlements would hurt President Donald Trump’s long-awaited peace plan.

CAIRO — After years of anxiously waiting in cramped prison cells, appointments with the noose can come fast to the many on Egypt’s death row.

Iraq has offered to put on trial hundreds of accused foreign jihadists in Baghdad in exchange for millions of dollars, potentially solving a legal conundrum for Western governments but sparking rights concerns.

TEL AVIV – After almost all the votes had been tallied Wednesday, a clear picture of a country divided along partisan lines emerged, with Likud and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu representing one half of the map and Blue and White- and the dream of changing the “old guard” that its leader Benny Gantz symbolized for so many – standing in for the other. 

It seems everyone has caught the same bug. In the past hour, the left-wing Labor party, the Haredi United Torah Judaism party and the far-right Union of Right-Wing Party have all repeated their claims that they’re headed for “collapse” at the polls.

Iranian lawmakers opened a new session of the country’s Parliament on Tuesday with chants of “Death to America.” The taunt was meant as a response to the White House’s designation of Iran’s elite paramilitary Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) a foreign terrorist organization.

TEL AVIV – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed over the weekend to annex West Bank settlements if he is reelected in Tuesday’s elections. The incumbent prime minister also said he had told President Donald Trump that would not evacuate “a single person” from the 400,000 or so Jews residing in the West Bank. 

Iran’s leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged Iraq on Saturday to demand U.S. troops leave its soil “as soon as possible.” The call came after a visit by Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi intended to enhance Tehran’s influence with its neighboring Arab country.

TEL AVIV – The leader of the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror group said Tuesday that three rockets fired from the Gaza Strip into central Israel were a “mistake,” but added that they demonstrated what Hamas would do intentionally in a future conflict.

ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared victory in municipal elections but the opposition’s success in key cities dealt a significant blow to his party’s dominance. The ruling party lost the capital, Ankara, and the race for Istanbul mayor was still too close to call early Monday.

TEL AVIV – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro professed his love for Israel in Hebrew as he was greeted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, at Ben-Gurion airport Sunday after landing in the country for a two day visit. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published an election campaign video Thursday showing a contentious meeting he had with former US president Barack Obama and touted his defiance versus the American leader.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II cancelled a visit Monday to Romania after its prime minister vowed to move her country’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, his office said.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday urged Lebanon to pick a side as he visited the country on a regional tour to build a united front against Iran.

Five Democratic presidential candidates said they would re-enter the Iran nuclear deal that US President Donald Trump abandoned last year.

Israel’s leaders on Thursday welcomed US President Donald Trump’s announcement that the time had come for the United States to “fully recognize” Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, while the Palestinians warned the move would further destabilize the region and lead to bloodshed.

The IDF and the US European Command (USEUCOM) held a joint exercise, codenamed Juniper Falcon, that concluded Thursday. The two militaries examined a scenario in which an attack by Israel on Iranian interests in Syria or Lebanon elicits an Iranian retaliatory missile strike with the US coming to Israel’s’ aid.

TEL AVIV – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday charged Israel and the U.S. of being behind a suicide bombing that killed 27 people in southeastern Iran, and vowed revenge against Jaish al-Adl, the “mercenary group” that committed it on their behalf. 

WARSAW, Poland — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Omani Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah Wednesday on the sidelines of Warsaw’s Middle East conference, telling him that the recent rapprochement between the two countries was “changing the world.”

The popular Iranian chant of “Death to America” is directed at President Donald Trump and U.S. political leaders, not the American people, Iran’s supreme leader said Friday.

TEL AVIV – Iran has mounted precision-guided warheads on its most advanced, longest-range missiles, the regime-affiliated Fars news agency reported Sunday.

TEHRAN — Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported Sunday that a court has handed down prison sentences for 13 protesters arrested during the August 2017 demonstrations over economic hardships.

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its Islamic Revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed shah, overturned 2,500 years of monarchical rule and brought hard-line Shiite clerics to power.

Israel Hayom has learned that alongside Jerusalem’s decision to postpone the transfer of Qatari funds to Hamas following the escalation on Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, Egypt has issued the terrorist organization’s political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh an ultimatum.

TEL AVIV – Iran’s air force commander on Monday warned that his country ready to fight a war that would end in “Israel’s disappearance.”

Palestine TV, the Palestinian Authority’s official channel, has broadcast an image that equates shopping at a new mall in East Jerusalem, built by Israeli supermarket king Rami Levy, with treason.

Chaperoned by men, thousands of women thronged a Saudi stadium Wednesday for the Italian Supercup final between Juventus and AC Milan, in a match Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini described as “disgusting.”

TEL AVIV – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received approval from President Donald Trump before a massive intelligence mission last year in which some 100,000 documents on Iran’s nuclear program were smuggled out of a warehouse near Tehran by Mossad agents, Israeli television reported Tuesday.

TEL AVIV – A senior American official said Monday during a visit to Lebanon that the U.S. will ramp up efforts to counter Iran’s “dangerous” activities in the region and that the presence of Iranian terror proxy Hezbollah was “unacceptable.”

Iran’s foreign ministry summoned a senior Polish diplomat on Sunday in protest at Poland’s jointly hosting a global summit with the U.S. focused Iran and the Middle East.

The US military has removed some equipment from Syria, a defense official confirmed Thursday, following a report that the pullout ordered by President Donald Trump is now underway.

Iranian television has published new footage of the arrest of British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe at Tehran airport in 2016, before she was sentenced to five years in prison.

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran confirmed it is holding U.S. Navy veteran Michael R. White at a prison in the country, making him the first American known to be detained under President Donald Trump’s administration.

US Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Tom Cotton of Arkansas on Sunday again called on the United States to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights.