Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Israel’s choice: Netanyahu remaining in power or a Palestinian-backed coalition

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Incumbent could turn defeat into another term in office as rival parties erect confected barrier to unseating him

Hours before the final results from Israel’s elections were in, several things were clear. Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition had lost its mandate, and the opposition had a firm majority.

But most of Israel’s Jewish opposition ruled out governing with Palestinian-led parties, in the course of a racist election campaign in which Netanyahu painted Palestinian citizens as an enemy inside the state.

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Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi given new prison sentence

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Charges against him are unclear after return to Iran despite being sentenced last year for ‘propaganda activities’

An Iranian court has handed the award-winning film director Jafar Panahi a new prison sentence of five years and one month and ordered the seizure of all his assets.

The 66-year-old, who won the Palme d’Or at Cannes last year for It Was Just an Accident, was sentenced in absentia, his lawyer, Mostafa Nili, told the Iranian news outlet Emtedad. The court also imposed a two-year travel ban and barred him from using social media for two years, Nili said.

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Egypt fines prominent editor Lina Attalah and shuts independent news outlet Mada Masr

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Warnings of escalating clampdown on press freedom come after Cairo court convicts Attalah of managing an unlicensed website

Lina Attalah, a prominent Egyptian journalist and the editor-in-chief of the news outlet Mada Masr, has been released from detention by Egypt’s authorities and had her website ordered to be shut down by a court amid an intensifying crackdown on independent media in the country.

Attalah was taken briefly into custody after a Cairo court convicted her of managing an unlicensed website, prompting fresh international concerns over press freedom in Egypt.

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Coalition talks loom in Israel as Netanyahu and Eisenkot blocs set to fall short of majority

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Projections show votes for Palestinian parties surged in a tight contest that drew highest turnout in decades

Israel’s future hung in the balance on Wednesday as it became clear that Benjamin Netanyahu had lost his governing majority. His political fate now depends on whether opposition Jewish parties are prepared to forge a common front with Palestinian parties, whose support surged in Tuesday’s elections.

The leader of the Jewish opposition bloc, the retired general Gadi Eisenkot, appeared to rule out such a broad coalition in a premature declaration of victory overnight for what he called a “Zionist majority”.

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Gulf states working on multipart peace deal to avert renewal of US-Iran war

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Talks are aimed at reopening strait of Hormuz and lifting sanctions on Iran, and for Houthis to withdraw in Yemen

A multipronged peace deal to reopen the strait of Hormuz within four days of sanctions being lifted and for the Houthis to withdraw substantial forces inside Yemen are at the heart of Gulf states’ plans to avert what they regard as a disastrous renewal of war between Iran and the US.

The US is aware of the talks’ progress but is holding out for a concession that European powers suggest could involve Iran allowing UN weapons inspectors back into the country.

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Fears grow for Iranian athletes on death row as mountaineer latest to be hanged

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Two sportspeople have been executed in the past month and at least six more face the same fate, says activist group

Fears are growing for more Iranian athletes facing execution after mountain climber Ali-Sina Mostafavi became the latest in a string to be killed by the regime.

Mostafavi – who documented his ascents of some of the world’s highest peaks, including Mount Everest – was executed on 14 October having been arrested in April after the anti-government protests a few months earlier. His death followed the killing of Siavash Jamshidi Kheirabadi, a taekwondo athlete, at the start of October, and the mixed martial arts fighter Gholamreza Khani Shakarab, who was hanged in May.

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Israel election live: polls open in most consequential vote in country’s history

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Most polling shows prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition will lose its majority, with Gadi Eisenkot the leading opposition contender

In Jerusalem

Israel is holding its first election since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks, the deadliest day in the country’s history, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,200 people, the majority of them civilians.

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Jordan attacks militants in Syria in retaliation for last week’s church attack

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Jordanian air force says it carried out strikes against ‘terrorist groups’ tied to killing of nine in Karak

Jordan has carried out airstrikes against armed groups in Syria in retaliation for Friday’s attack on a Greek Orthodox church in the southern Jordanian city of Karak that killed nine people, the Jordanian air force has said in a statement.

It said the operation “resulted in the killing and wounding of many members of these terrorist groups and the destruction of a number of their vehicles”. It did not specify who the groups were or the precise location of the strikes.

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Middle East peace held back by US insistence that Iran is a threat, Oman’s foreign minister says

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Badr Albusaidi calls for security pact involving Gulf states, Iraq and Iran with US no longer primary provider of security

The Middle East’s ability to solve its problems has been held back by America’s 50-year insistence that the Gulf states should view Iran as a security threat, Oman’s foreign minister said on Monday in a significant speech designed to break the deadlock over the region’s future.

Badr Albusaidi called for a non-aggression security pact involving all six Gulf states as well as Iran and Iraq. The US would in future no longer be the primary provider of security, he said.

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UK sanctions Sudanese military leaders implicated in El Fasher ‘campaign of rape’

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Commanders suspected of sexual violence during the largest and fastest slaughter of civilians in more than 30 years have been subjected to travel ban and asset freeze

Senior Sudanese commanders implicated in a “campaign of rape” have been targeted by the UK on the first anniversary of a mass atrocity that saw tens of thousands of civilians killed over several days.

A year after the fall of El Fasher, the British government said it had sanctioned military leaders from both sides in the country’s ongoing conflict whom it suspected of sexual violence during the siege of the city.

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Sudan paramilitary drone strikes cause mass power cuts in eastern states

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Rapid Support Forces strike five power stations in three states controlled by Sudanese army

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have launched a coordinated drone attack against five power stations, causing mass power outages across the country’s east, a government official said.

The drones hit two power stations each in the states of Al-Jazira and Gedaref and one in White Nile state, “resulting in power outages across large parts of these three states”, the official said on condition of anonymity.

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Emirati diplomat who helped deliver aid to Gaza enters UN secretary general race

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Lana Nusseibeh has Palestine’s endorsement but faces criticism over UAE’s record on human rights and Sudan

An Emirati diplomat who as UAE ambassador to the UN helped secure the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza has entered the race as a late contender to succeed António Guterres as the world body’s secretary general.

Lana Nusseibeh, who is of Palestinian heritage, is widely noted for her advocacy of the Palestinian cause and the two-state solution and has won the endorsement of the state of Palestine.

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‘That’s the way the city works’: how the UAE changed the face of Andy Burnham’s Manchester

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The story of the emirates’ presence in Manchester winds from the Arab Spring to some of the most deprived places in England – with complicated results

When Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s long-ruling dictator, was toppled from power in the Arab spring protests of 2011, his downfall sent shock waves across the Middle East. It also helped change the face of modern Manchester.

Mubarak’s successor, the Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi, was a sworn enemy of the United Arab Emirates, whose rulers feared the advance of Morsi’s Islamism.

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Israeli soldiers raze neighbourhood in Hebron, driving families from homes

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PM Benjamin Netanyahu vows ‘to destroy this place’ in retaliation for militant attack on army checkpoint

Israeli troops have levelled a neighbourhood in Hebron, driving out hundreds of families in collective punishment for a militant attack on an army checkpoint outside the West Bank city, local Palestinian authorities said.

The Hebron municipality estimated that 35 hectares (86 acres) had been destroyed or marked for destruction and about 1,500 people had been evicted from their homes by Saturday afternoon in the district of Ein Deir Baha. The whole city of 250,000 people was sealed off by checkpoints on every point of entry.

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No unions, low taxes: why some of Britain’s top chefs are opening outposts in Gulf states

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Leading restaurateur says Gulf countries actively help businesses set up, while east Asia has a better work ethic

Some of London’s top restaurants are opening branches in Dubai because of a “tax tsunami” in the UK and better work ethic abroad, according to a leading restaurateur.

James Robson, a co-owner of Fallow in St James’s Market, regarded as the capital’s hottest restaurant, serving 1,000 people a day, has just signed a deal to open an outpost in the Gulf.

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US and Israel are warned against launching fresh strikes on Iran

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Multinational ‘anti-war bloc’ uses Istanbul summit to call for a diplomatic solution to Middle East crisis

Foreign ministers at a summit of eight European and Middle Eastern countries have urged the US and Israel not to renews their attacks on Iran, warning a fresh outbreak of fighting would spread conflict and push oil prices even higher.

The development of a new multinational “anti-war bloc” represents a challenge to the increasingly open plans by the US and Israel to relaunch strikes on Iran while talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme remain deadlocked.

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Revealed: billionaire Reform donor was in business with foundation linked to Iranian regime

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Exclusive: Sasan Ghandehari’s partnership with religious foundation raises questions about past dealings with republic criticised by Nigel Farage

Nigel Farage’s newest billionaire donor was in business with a powerful Iranian religious foundation under the authority of the country’s supreme leader, raising questions about his past dealings with the hardline republic.

Hossein Ghandehari, also called Sasan, was little known in the UK until he pledged to give millions to Reform UK this summer and donated £50,000 to Farage to cover the cost of two passes for the Davos World Economic Forum.

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Some US diplomats told to leave Saudi Arabia amid Houthi attacks

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Similar withdrawals from UAE, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain reported as concerns grow about restart of war on Iran after US midterm elections

The US state department has ordered some diplomats and the families of US government employees to leave Saudi Arabia as the gulf kingdom faces a barrage of near-daily attacks, with at least three people killed at an airport and oilfield.

Attacks on “civilian airports and other critical infrastructure” by the Iranian-supported Houthis in Yemen were highlighted as the reason for the drawdown. The state department spokesperson, Tommy Pigott, said: “The safety and security of department personnel and their families remain our highest priority.”

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Besieged Yemeni city on verge of ‘unmanageable’ crisis, aid workers warn

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Water and fresh food running out in Taiz as fighting intensifies and Houthi advance cuts off most supply routes

The humanitarian crisis in the besieged Yemeni city of Taiz is becoming unmanageable as the city runs out of water, fuel and fresh food, Oxfam aid workers in the country have warned.

Iran-allied Houthi forces have largely encircled the city of more than 900,000 people, cutting it off from most supply routes. This week, heavy fighting has raged around the city’s old airport, causing extensive damage in a densely populated residential area.

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Israeli military detain US and UK volunteers in West Bank including Democratic NY politician Brad Lander

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About 80 US, Israeli and British volunteers held near Nahalin in West Bank and taken to police station

The Israeli military has detained about 80 US, Israeli and British volunteers helping Palestinians harvest olives near Bethlehem, including the New York Democratic congressional nominee Brad Lander, several rabbis and Israel’s former deputy attorney general.

“I’ve been detained by the IDF, along with a group of rabbis and volunteers,” Lander posted from a bus taking him to a police station. “We were simply harvesting olives in a grove near Nahalin in the West Bank. The occupation is a crime under international law. Harvesting olives isn’t a crime under any law I know.”

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