Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

‘Betrayal’: critics condemn Biden’s plan to visit Saudi Arabia

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Trip comes after Biden labeled the kingdom a ‘pariah’, as questions also emerge over president’s trip to Israel

Joe Biden will visit Israel, the occupied West Bank and Saudi Arabia next month, the White House said on Tuesday. The announcement immediately put the administration on the defensive, given the president’s previous stance that the Saudi regime was a “pariah” because of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and other human rights abuses.

One Saudi human rights campaigner called Biden’s decision to meet the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, a “betrayal”.

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Palestinian reporter’s death highlights weakness of Israeli army investigations

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Fatal shooting of Shireen Abu Aqleh in May raises fresh concerns over military inquiries into deaths of Palestinians

In August 2020, 23-year-old Dalia Samoudi was killed when a bullet came through the window of her home in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, during an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) raid on a nearby house.

Al Jazeera reported on the incident, in which witnesses said she had been killed by an IDF soldier firing in the direction of Palestinians throwing stones. Two years later, the television network would report on the death of its longtime correspondent, Shireen Abu Aqleh, in nearly the same spot.

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UN appeals to public for $20m to stop feared catastrophic oil spill from tanker

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Vessel off Yemen with more than 1m barrels of oil aboard has been stranded for six years and is close to breaking up

A rare UN appeal to the public to raise $20m is to be launched on Tuesday in an attempt to prevent an environmental catastrophe caused by the potential break-up of an oil tanker off the coast of Yemen.

The money is needed to offload more than 1.14m barrels of oil that have been sitting in the decrepit cargo ship, Safer, for more than six years because of an impasse between Houthi groups and the Saudi-backed government over ownership and responsibility.

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Saudi Arabia bans Pixar’s Lightyear over same-sex kiss

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The Hollywood film has been banned in a number of countries in the Middle East because of a kiss between space ranger Alisha and her partner

Toy Story spin-off Lightyear will not be released in Saudi Arabia due to the inclusion of a same-sex kiss, the latest in a string of Hollywood films that have been banned in the Middle East over LGBTQ+ content.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the scene in question involved a space ranger called Alisha (voiced by Uzo Aduba) and her partner who greet each other with a kiss on the lips. Variety reports that Lightyear was not submitted to censors in Saudi Arabia, as it was anticipated it would not pass due to the country’s total prohibition of same-sex relationships. However, the Pixar film was submitted to censors in the comparatively more liberal United Arab Emirates, but the film’s licence was revoked after complaints on social media.

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A year after ousting, Israel’s Netanyahu gets ready for a comeback

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Analysis: the ex-prime minister is eager to exploit the weakness in the fraying coalition that replaced him

On 13 June 2021, Benjamin Netanyahu made his final address to the Knesset as prime minister. In a proud and bitter half-hour speech, he recounted his successes during 12 years in power and warned of existential threats facing Israel under the incoming coalition government. He also stressed that his conservative Likud party would be back in office soon.

“I will lead you in a daily battle against this bad, dangerous, leftwing government to topple it,” Netanyahu cried, amid heckling and jeers from the plenum. “With God’s help, that will happen much sooner than you think.”

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More than 15,000 sheep drown after live export ship sinks in Sudan

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Ship Badr 1 sank in Red Sea port of Suakin early on Sunday, prompting environmental concerns

A ship crammed with thousands of sheep sank on Sunday in Sudan’s Red Sea port of Suakin, drowning most animals onboard but with all crew surviving, officials said.

The livestock vessel was exporting the animals from Sudan to Saudi Arabia when it sank. “The ship, Badr 1, sank during the early hours of Sunday morning,” a senior Sudanese port official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It was carrying 15,800 sheep.”

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Blacklist Dubai over failure to crack down on Russian oligarchs, say campaigners

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UAE has become haven for superyachts, private jets and ‘dirty money’ since invasion of Ukraine, but has taken no action

Campaigners and politicians are calling for the United Arab Emirates to be blacklisted over its failures to combat the flow of “dirty money” and to enforce sanctions imposed on Russian oligarchs.

The Gulf state has emerged as a key refuge for the Russian super-rich fleeing the impact of global sanctions, with private jets and superyachts linked to oligarchs heading to the UAE after the invasion of Ukraine.

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US Palestinian mission renamed and now reports directly to Washington

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Move comes after former president Donald Trump outraged Palestinians by closing consulate in 2018

The US diplomatic mission to the Palestinians in Jerusalem has been redesignated and will report directly to Washington “on substantive matters”, indicating an upgrade in ties before a planned visit by the US president, Joe Biden.

What had been called the Palestinian Affairs Unit (PAU) was renamed the US Office of Palestinian Affairs (OPA) under the move. Before becoming the PAU, it had been the US consulate in Jerusalem and a focus of Palestinian statehood goals in the city.

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Rape used ‘systematically’ during Lebanon’s civil war, report finds

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Levels of torture and sexual violence used by combatants against women and girls during the 15-year conflict shocked investigators

The full scale of the rape, torture and killing of women and girls during Lebanon’s civil war has been revealed after survivors were interviewed about their experiences for the first time in over 30 years.

Testimonies gathered by the human rights organisation Legal Action Worldwide (LAW), documented in a new report, provide evidence of systematic violence against Lebanese and Palestinian women and girls by government forces and militias during the 15-year war, which began in 1975. The conflict saw more than 100,000 people killed and 1 million displaced.

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West to rebuke Iran over lack of cooperation with nuclear watchdog

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Move at IAEA board meeting may deepen impasse over talks to bring US back into 2015 nuclear deal

Europe and the US will rebuke Iran this week for failing to cooperate with the UN nuclear inspectorate, a move that has angered Iran’s leadership and may deepen the impasse over talks to bring the US back into the 2015 nuclear agreement, and the lifting of sanctions on Tehran.

The rebuke, in the form of a motion to be voted on at a board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, will not lead to Iran’s non-compliance being referred to the UN security council, nor to an extension of sanctions on Iran.

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Israel’s coalition on brink of collapse after losing settler law vote

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Nationalist party New Hope threatens to exit arrangement after vote on West Bank settlers

Israel’s coalition government is teetering on the brink of collapse after a dramatic Knesset showdown over legislation to extend legal protections for settlers in the occupied West Bank.

In what was variously described by Israeli media as “one of the most surreal votes in Israeli history” and “political suicide”, the first reading of a bill renewing civilian legal rights for Jewish settlers in the West Bank failed to pass on Monday night.

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South Africa seeking to extradite Gupta brothers after arrest in Dubai

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Police begin process to transport Indian-born pair wanted on criminal and money-laundering charges

Police in Dubai are coordinating with their South African counterparts to secure the extradition of two wealthy Indian-born brothers wanted by South African authorities on criminal and money-laundering charges who were arrested in the emirate on Monday.

Atul and Rajesh Gupta are accused of paying bribes in exchange for lucrative state contracts and influence over ministerial appointments during the chaotic nine-year presidency of Jacob Zuma, which ended amid allegations of systematic corruption in 2018. The brothers fled to Dubai shortly after Zuma’s fall from power.

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Israeli coalition dealt a blow with loss of West Bank settler law vote

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Two members of government vote against extending emergency regulations, which give 475,000 Jewish settlers the same rights as citizens in Israel

Israel’s government suffered a defeat at the hands of the opposition on Monday when it voted down a push to uphold Israeli law in settlements on the occupied West Bank, posing a challenge for the ruling coalition.

In force since Israel’s 1967 occupation of the West Bank, the law, giving settlers there the same rights as citizens in Israel, is automatically ratified by parliament every five years. But two members of the broad coalition, a member of the Arab Ra’am party and a member of the leftist Meretz party, voted at first reading against the bill.

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Briton given 15 years in Iraqi jail for smuggling antiquities to appeal verdict

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Jim Fitton, 66, hoped for short suspended sentence after collecting fragments during archaeology tour

Lawyers for a British geologist handed a 15-year sentence by an Iraqi judge after being convicted of smuggling antiquities will immediately appeal against the shock verdict, which has left his family “stunned”.

Jim Fitton, 66, arrived at court in Baghdad hoping for a short suspended sentence after being charged with collecting fragments from a site in southern Iraq during an organised archaeology tour. Instead, he was found guilty under a Saddam-era law that legal experts should not have applied to the case.

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Britain must end its silence on Egyptian hunger striker Alaa Abd El Fattah, family demand

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‘Time is running out’ for blogger and activist who was given UK citizenship last year

Inside Alaa Abd El Fattah’s cell in the Wadi al-Natrun prison complex – once nicknamed “the valley of hell” for its location in the middle of the desert – fluorescent lights stay on 24 hours a day, along with CCTV to monitor his every move. Now 65 days into a hunger strike, the blogger and activist has become a symbol of resistance against Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi’s regime.

But despite becoming a British citizen last year, he is no closer to being released. His family fear that foreign secretary Liz Truss is failing to do enough to free him. “You would think that the moment he became a British citizen, something would change, not just because of the leverage of another citizenship but also the good relations between Egypt and the UK,” said activist Mona Seif, Abd El Fattah’s sister, who also acquired British citizenship last year.

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Iran’s enemies are to blame for protests over collapsed building, says leader

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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei uses televised speech to condemn ‘psychological war’ waged on country

Iran’s supreme leader, ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has blamed recent protests in Iran on foreign “enemies” seeking to overthrow the government in the Islamic republic.

He said enemies were waging a “psychological war” against Iran by accusing it of piracy for seizing two Greek ships after the US confiscated Iranian oil from a tanker.

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Trove of ancient Egyptian coffins and statues found at cemetery near Cairo

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Painted wooden coffins and bronze statues of deities dating to 500BC found by archaeologists in Saqqara

Archaeologists working near Cairo have uncovered hundreds of ancient Egyptian coffins and bronze statues of deities.

The discovery at a cemetery in Saqqara contained statues of the gods Anubis, Amun, Min, Osiris, Isis, Nefertum, Bastet and Hathor along with a headless statue of the architect Imhotep, who built the Saqqara pyramid, according to Egypt’s ministry of tourism and antiquities.

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Home Office cancels flight to deport Kurdish asylum seekers to Iraq

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Campaigners against flight say Kurdish Iraqis had endured ‘unnecessary torture in pursuit of headlines’

The Home Office has cancelled a chartered deportation flight to Iraq that was due to depart from the UK on Tuesday evening.

Up to 30 Kurdish asylum seekers were facing deportation to northern Iraq in the first flight of its kind for a decade.

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UK about to deport up to 30 Kurdish asylum seekers to Iraq despite dangers

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Foreign Office warns against all travel to the country where Islamic State is still a threat

Up to 30 Kurdish asylum seekers are facing deportation to Iraq in the first Home Office flight of its kind for a decade.

Iraq is deemed to be so dangerous that the Foreign Office warns against all travel there, warning of “a high threat of kidnapping throughout the country including from both Daesh [Islamic State] and other terrorist and militia groups”.

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Impact of Israeli strike in Gaza akin to chemical weapons, NGO report finds

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Shells fired at agrochemical warehouse created toxic plume that has left residents with health problems

An Israeli airstrike on an agrochemical warehouse during last year’s war in Gaza amounted to the “indirect deploying of chemical weapons”, according to a report analysing the attack and its impact.

Incendiary artillery shells fired by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) hit the large Khudair Pharmaceutical and Agricultural Tools warehouse in the north of the Gaza Strip on 15 May last year, setting fire to hundreds of tonnes of pesticides, fertilisers, plastics and nylons. The strike created a toxic plume, which engulfed an area of 5.7 sq km and has left local residents struggling with health issues, including two reports of miscarriages, and indications of environmental damage.

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