Politics - AL-Monitor: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012

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)

Salam Fayyad’s return to Palestine politics

Former Palestinian prime minister plans to participate in the upcoming Palestinian legislative elections. What does his entry into the election campaign mean?

A Israeli police car is park in front of the Egyptian Embassy in the city of Tel Aviv on September 11, 2011, two days after Egyptian demonstrators went on the rampage in Cairo, breaking into the Israeli embassy and forcing the personnel to be evacuated. The trouble followed several weeks of protests outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo after 5 Egyptian border police were shot dead last month by the Israeli military during a search operation for militants who shot at an Israeli bus in Israel, close to their

Israel-Egypt relations advance in baby steps

Cario's openness to warming bilateral ties with Jerusalem has been limited, but recent progress might signal that even Cairo understands that times have changed.

ERBIL, IRAQ - MARCH 07: A nun waves a flag as Pope Francis arrives to conduct a mass at the Franso Hariri Stadium on March 07, 2021 in Erbil, Iraq. PPope Francis arrived in Erbil, the final stop of his historic four-day visit, the first-ever papal visit to Iraq. In his first foreign trip since the start of the pandemic, Pope Francis visited Baghdad, Najaf, Erbil, and the cities of Qaraqosh and Mosul, which were heavily destroyed by ISIS. Although the trip is seen as an act of solidarity, the Vatican has bee

Kurdish stamp commemorating pope's visit to Erbil fans Turkish conspiracy fears

Ankara is furious over a commemorative stamp design featuring a map of Iraqi Kurdistan that includes chunks of Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast provinces.

A Bahraini boy carries his national flag during the funeral of Ali Abdulghani, 17, whose family says died of injuries suffered in a police chase, in the Shiite village of Shahrakkan, south of Manama on April 5, 2016. / AFP / MOHAMMED AL-SHAIKH (Photo credit should read MOHAMMED AL-SHAIKH/AFP via Getty Images)

Rights groups say Bahrain police beat, threatened children

A report from the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy and Human Rights Watch accused police in Bahrain of rounding up and mistreating children as young as 11.

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Netanyahu to visit Abu Dhabi, meet crown prince

After the trip was delayed three times, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly set to spend a few hours in Abu Dhabi tomorrow.

United Arab Emirates

Israeli Arab voters desperate over rising crime, police attitudes

Can Arab politician Mansour Abbas harness public anger against crime to the extent that his Raam party can pass the Knesset threshold and win four seats?

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - OCTOBER 30: A man walks from the studio during a live broadcast of a news show at Belqees TV of Yemen on October 30, 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey. Started by Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkol Karman of Yemen, Belqees TV opened in Istanbul in 2014 after their studio in Sana was seized by members of the Houthis. The station employs some one hundred and thirty five people from various nationalities many whom have been forced to flee their countries due to war or the political situation. The sta

Turkish journalist attacked after criticizing nationalist figure

Turkish journalist Levent Gultekin was attacked by two dozen assailants outside his workplace Monday evening in the latest act of violence against critics of Turkey’s nationalist party.

Grapfics and numbers of trade markets are screened on the floor of the Borsa Istanbul on May 22, 2018 in Istanbul. - Turkey's embattled currency, the Lira, on May 22 hit new historic lows against the US dollar after Fitch ratings agency expressed concerns over the central bank's independence in the wake of comments by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (Photo by OZAN KOSE / AFP) (Photo credit should read OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images)

Former Halkbank executive resigns as head of Istanbul stock exchange

Borsa Istanbul CEO Mehmet Hakan Atilla stepped down Monday in a move possibly linked with the impending US trial of Turkey’s Halkbank, where he was convicted of helping Iran skirt US sanctions.

LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 28: The husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Richard Ratcliffe, poses for a picture as he continues his hunger strike outside the Iranian Embassy on June 28, 2019 in London, England. Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British citizen continues her detention in Iran where she has been for three years, on charges of plotting against the Iranian government. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

British-Iranian aid worker released from house arrest in Iran, faces new trial

Following the completion of her five-year prison sentence, Iranian authorities have charged Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with "spreading propaganda."

Smoke billows following a reported airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, on March 7, 2021. - The Saudi-led military coalition mounted air strikes on Yemen's Huthi-controlled capital after it intercepted 10 drones launched by the Iran-backed rebels, state media reported. "The military operation targets Huthi military capabilities in Sanaa and a number of other provinces", the coalition was quoted as saying by the official Saudi Press Agency. (Photo by MOHAMMED HUWAIS / AFP) (Photo

Saudi renews bombing of Yemen's capital following Houthi attacks

The Biden administration's push to end the war has been stalled by a recent escalation.

Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry attends the first joint European Union and Arab League summit at the International Congress Centre in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, on February 24, 2019. (Photo by MOHAMED EL-SHAHED / AFP) (Photo credit should read MOHAMED EL-SHAHED/AFP via Getty Images)

Egypt, Qatar move closer to reconciliation

The foreign ministers of Egypt and Qatar met in Cairo for the first time since 2017 to discuss implementation of a reconciliation agreement amid a wider Gulf conflict.

Pope's pilgrimage to Iraq and land of Abraham begins

The first-ever papal visit to Iraq starts as Pope Francis lands in Baghdad.